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NELSON, DONALD 1888-1959

BUSINESS EXECUTIVE AND GOVERNMENT BUREAUCRAT

The War Production Board. During World War II Donald Nelson assumed the responsibility for the entire mobilization effort, making him one of the most powerful men in the country. Many of the nation's leaders, including President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Sen. Harry S Truman, saw a need for a single centralized authority to coordinate economic mobilization. To this end Roosevelt created a variety of agencies but finally vested much of the power over mobilization in the War Production Board (WPB), with Nelson in charge of the agency.

Good Relations

Nelson was a gregarious, likable man, which proved to be both his strength and his weakness as an administrator. During the period that he was in the government, his easygoing nature endeared him to the New Dealers in the Roosevelt administration at a time when many veterans in the administration were suspicious and resentful of dollar-a-year businessmen who had previously been its enemies. His personality and style also made his relations with Congress remarkably good, especially after he personally took up the popular cause of preserving small business in a period dominated by big business. Unfortunately for him, some people took advantage of his good nature. He allowed the army and the navy to control their own procurement and Roosevelt to sidestep his authority. Nelson also experienced difficulty in managing the allocation of natural resources and often tolerated insubordination from people working in the WPB.

Background

Nelson was born in Hannibal, Missouri, and graduated from the University of Missouri in 1911. Looking for money to attend graduate school in chemistry, he took a job in a testing laboratory with Sears, Roebuck and Company. Instead of pursuing his original plan of studying for a doctorate, he stayed with Sears, where he was rapidly promoted. In 1927 he was appointed general merchandising manager of the company, in 1930 vice-president in charge of merchandising, and in 1939 executive vice-president and chairman of the executive committee.

In Charge

Prior to his appointment as head of the WPB, Nelson had worked in the government as a dollar-a-year man in the Treasury Department as the acting director of the procurement division. Then Roosevelt picked him to be the coordinator of national-defense purchasing in cooperation with the advisory commission of the Council of National Defense. In the name of centralization and efficiency the various agencies were reorganized into the Office of Production Management. Again Nelson was appointed executive director of the division on purchasing and thus assumed complete responsibility for buying billions of dollars of material for the defense program. On 13 January 1942 Roosevelt announced that he would create the new War Production Board and appointed Nelson executive director, in charge of converting the nation's industries to war production. Upon his promotion to the directorship of the WPB Nelson resigned his $70,000-a-year position at Sears for a $15,000 salary with the government. Between January and June 1942 he stopped the production of most nonessential civilian goods and worked to facilitate the flow of raw materials to war plants. With the war effort beginning to wind down in 1944, he became involved in a bitter struggle with the War Manpower Commission over his efforts to continue to limit the production of civilian goods. His book The Arsenal of Democracy (1946) tells his side of the story. In August 1944 he resigned from the WPB before Roosevelt sent him to China as his special representative to Chiang Kaishek.

Private Business

After his return from China, Nelson left the government. From 1945 to 1947 he served as the president of the Society of Independent Motion Picture Producers. He also served on the board of directors of several mining and chemical companies throughout the 1950s.