Central Management and Organization of Output. In peace- time the production of munitions was under the different departments of the War Office. To supervise the construction and guarantee the specified quality an " ArliUerieprufungskom- mission" (A.P.K.) was attached to the Prussian War Office and the "Technische Militdrkomitee" (T.M.K.) to the Austrian War Office, as supplementary departments. These institu- tions provided the technical-scientific service. The T.M.K in Vienna was, even more than the A.P.K. in Berlin, a link between the technical science and the army administration, since the manufacture of munitions was under this office itself. The supervision of the military industries, which even in peace-time represented very considerable establishments, was in Germany under the Ordnance Department (Feldzeugmeisterei) and in Austria-Hungary under the Inspector of Technical Artillery, who in the period just before the war was also respon- sible for keeping the principal war industries up to standard.
In Germany, at the beginning of the war, this organization was unchanged. The armament industry procured all its necessary raw materials itself. Industries which had no contracts to produce war material marked time. Their output was at a standstill. The most skilled portion of their workmen and officials hurried to the colours. In order to establish uniform policy and procedure German industry founded the "War Committee of German Industry." Very soon the leading in- ; dustrial circles recognized the necessity of making a survey of the most important raw materials, and during the first months of the war the " Raw Materials of War Department " was established. Out of the original department composed of three collaborators a huge organization developed. Its activities consisted in regulating and supervising the economic use of raw materials necessary for the army's needs in which shortage was threatened, and it finally embraced almost all the departments of the State industry. With the long duration of the war more and more raw materials were absorbed, its sphere of activity increased, and at the end of 1917 this department, which in 1916 was attached to the War Office, employed over 2,000 people, and Hs subordinate " War Associations " (Kriegsgesellschaften) a further 5;ooo employees. Of these " Raw Materials of War Associations" the first founded was "The War Metal Co." which was mainly occupied with the function of purchasing throughout the whole country all metals obtained by requisition, such as copper, zinc, etc. This was done in order to protect the small proprietors from the loss which they suffered through
the lying-idle of their requisitioned goods, for which the Govern- ment did not pay until it actually used them. Subsequently the company also undertook the distribution of the metals to industry. The " Raw Materials Associations " were public
utility organizations which did not work for profit. Ensuing profits were handed over to the Treasury. On the other hand losses, which were bound to occur on account of the tight hand kept on maximum prices, were met by the State. The great increase of outlay this occasioned for the State was amply compensated by the influence over prices of war munitions which it thus obtained. These companies were distinguished
"from other limited companies in that they were under the surveillance of departmental commissaries with a right of veto, and under the control of the War Department for raw materials. At the outset of hostilities the War Ministries of the German States at once handed over control of the most important elements of war supply to the Prussian War Office, which transacted the business through its respective departments. The growing scale of these transactions and the recognized necessity of uniting more closely all the industrial organizations which had come into being, led in Nov. 1016 to the establishment of the " War Office " (Kriegsaml) within the Prussian War Ministry, to which all the departments concerned were sub- ordinated and all the organizations and new offices extending throughout the whole German industry were attached. The establishment of the " War Office " marked the creation of a central direction whose task it was to focus all Germany's economic activity, so as both to pool and to allocate raw mate-
rials and labour resources. As this Office was required to act in the economic, technical, and social fields alike, it could not, naturally, be constituted on a purely military basis. Suitable representation in it was given to the technicians, the com- mercial world, and to the labour organizations. Naturally military control dominated, since provision for the army was the chief consideration; but along with this, the " War Office " had to take over provision for the civil population.
The War Office Departments (Kriegsamtslellen) distributed throughout the army corps districts and the different States, and the liaison organs between all departments of war industry were subordinated to the military and technical staffs at the War Office. These departments, etc., in their more limited spheres, had the same duties as, and were the representatives of, the offices affiliated to the War Office.
A very great proportion of the organizations that were, littl by little, grouped round the War Office were concerned with the production of munitions. The most important ministry in this province was the " Arms and Munition Production Ministry " (Waffen- und Munitionsbeschaffungsamt" Wumba"). Next in point of size to the Raw Materials of War Department, it was responsible for the production of the whole army's requirements in arms and munitions. It was created in 1916 out of the departments concerned which were already in existence. Its activities comprised both the equalizing of the existing machinery and adjustment of labour in the metal industry factories. In the already mentioned Kriegsamtstellen and its own Maschi- nenausgleichslellen the department had its organs distributed over the country. It was the duty of the Wumba to supervise the fixing of prices in its own province. It worked in touch with the Artilierieprufungskommission (Inspection Department).
To obtain the greatest possible standardization in manufacture, simplification of types, fixing of tolerances, definiteness in acceptance conditions and determination by the Taylor method of the working movements which gave maximal output, the Fabrikationsbiiro (Fabo) was set up in Spandau and subordinated to Wumba. The Standards Committee of German Industry (Normenausschuss deutscher Industrie [Nad i] ) instituted by the Union of German Engineers also helped towards securing standardization and economy of labour in the construction of machine parts and tools.
Next in importance to Wumba in the creation of raw materials and munitions was the above-mentioned " Raw Materials of War Department." It was organized in five branches dealing with the various main groups of raw materials and these were subdivided into sections. The branches most important for the activities of Wumba included the Chemical Section with the attached Raw Materials of War Co., War Chemicals Co. and War Phosphate Co., the Metal Sections and the Metal Statistics Section, with the Metal Allocation Office, the Metal Mobilization Office (to which the War Metal Co. mentioned earlier was attached) and lastly the Iron Section, with its attached Central Iron Co., and the Manganese Co., and the Raw Steel Allocation Office. Among the other subdivisions may here be mentioned the Coal and Mineral Oil Section.
On account of' the great importance of the coal and nitrogen production the management of these departments was at an early date combined by means of the Imperial Coal Commission and the Imperial Nitrogen Commission. In 1917 these two departments were also subordinated to the War Office.
As in the beginning the needs of the army and the war industry were supplied by the various departments of the War Office, so the care of the people, at this time not an important task, devolved upon the various civil departments. With the creation of the War Department and its branches, however, active contact was naturally maintained between these depart- ments, the ministries concerned and all authorities. The occupied territories also came under the jurisdiction of the Central Administration, but only in so far as they had to con- tribute to the supplies of raw material for the Hinterland.
With the building-up of this comprehensive organization Germany amply satisfied the need for an all-inclusive Central
