KAISER, HENRY

Henry John Kaiser (May 9, 1882–August 24, 1967) became a national figure through involvement in New Deal public-works projects and wartime defense contracts. Initially a salesman in New York and Spokane, Washington, Kaiser was a small-scale contractor on highway projects in western Canada and then California during the 1920s. Kaiser's business was transformed by major public-works contracts, beginning with the Six Companies consortium of western construction firms that won the Hoover (Boulder) Dam contract in 1931. The immense project required effective coordination of a large workforce in hazardous conditions, major investments in raw material supplies, and the construction of Boulder City. Kaiser was the consortium's key link to politicians, officials, and insiders in Washington, D.C., during the bidding phase, and he later maintained support and confidence during the lengthy construction phase. Kaiser was a prime example of a "government entrepreneur" and a model for positive working relationships between business and the government during the New Deal era. Further public-works contracts followed the Hoover Dam. When unsuccessful in bidding for the prime contract for the Shasta Dam in northern California in 1938, Kaiser won contracts to supply cement for the project, establishing Permanente Cement.

During World War II, Kaiser's contacts and ambition resulted in spectacular diversification into shipbuilding, steel manufacturing, and the production of magnesium and aluminium. All were major elements in western economic development, in which federal support and contacts, including Reconstruction Finance Corporation loans, were fundamental. Kaiser's public profile attained great heights, aided by his own attention to public relations and by regular and favorable coverage in Henry Luce's Time/Life media during the 1940s. In 1944 Roosevelt even considered Kaiser as a potential vice-presidential running mate. Kaiser's construction companies maintained a tough relationship with workers and unions, but beginning with the Grand Coulee contract in 1938 Kaiser adopted more liberal views on collective bargaining. The Grand Coulee project included a medical-care plan, and similar provisions were made for Kaiser's shipyard workers during the war. After 1945 the healthcare plan developed into the Kaiser Permanente Medical Care Program, which proved his most durable business. By contrast, a postwar venture into car manufacturing via the Kaiser-Frazer company was short-lived.

Kaiser's achievements depended on effective networking to negotiate the complex but lucrative challenges of federal contracting. Moreover, his greatest achievements were in projects that fulfilled the goals of key New Deal policymakers, whether in public works, defence contracts, or efforts to increase competition in monopolistic industries.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Adams, Stephen B. Mr. Kaiser Goes to Washington: The Rise of a Government Entrepreneur. 1997.

Foster, Mark S. "Giant of the West: Henry J. Kaiser and Regional Industrialization, 1930–1950." Business History Review 59 (1985): 1–23.

Foster, Mark S. "Prosperity's Prophet: Henry J. Kaiser and the Consumer/Suburban Culture, 1930–1950." Western Historical Quarterly 17 (1986): 165–184.

Foster, Mark S. Henry J. Kaiser: Builder in the Modern American West. 1989.

Kaiser, Henry J. Papers. Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.