In Restraint of Trade
Description:... Shaffer offers an entirely different interpretation of the period. In the years preceding World War I, American industries had experienced intense and troublesome competition. During the war years, however, much of the American business system was brought under the control of the War Industries Board, a governmental agency that was under the effective control of business leaders. This board had the power to direct production, pricing, allocation of resources and finished products, and other basic decisions within the business sector. Such wartime experiences with government regulation of practices that were normally left to the informal disciplines of the marketplace inspired many business leaders to look for an effective way to restrain and regularize the intensely competitive trade practices prevailing within their industries.
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