National War Labor Board

The National War Labor Board was authorized in March 1918 for the purpose of preventing strikes that would disrupt production in war industries. The first appointments were made the next month. Under the direction of former president William Howard Taft and the labor lawyer Frank Walsh, the board persuaded industry to improve working conditions and wages and open themselves to negotiations with their employees for labor contracts. In exchange for not striking, unions were able to add more than a million members in two years.

After the war, the work of the National War Labor Board was praised by progressives. A statement by Catholic Bishops in February 1919 described the board as follows:

Its main guiding principles have been a family living wage for all male adult laborers; recognition of the right of labor to organize and to deal with employers through its chosen representatives; and no coercion of nonunion laborers by members of the union. The War Labor Board ought to be continued in existence by Congress and endowed with all the powers for effective action that it can possess under the federal Constitution.

Nevertheless, the World War I board was terminated in 1919.