"Yet powerful as it may become, subject only to the jurisdiction of the President, it is well to remember that in a comprehensive national war plan it cannot stand alone. Its policies must be subject to the administration's general strategy in the war--for instance, to the amount of munitions in comparison with the number of men or the amount of food that it wishes to send abroad at any given time. The munitions program and the conversion of industry to war purposes must be governed by the ultimate end in view. In addition, one of the great factors in production--the labor factor--is being administered by another government agency, and it is obvious that priority in the labor supply must go hand in hand with priority in materials." WORK OR FIGHT Military men were as keen as business men in realizing the industrial factor as a powerful contributory cause in winning the war. General Crowder's famous "work or fight" alternative was a sufficient witness of this fact. He said: "Every man, in the draft age at least, must work or fight. "This is not alone a war of military maneuvers. It is a deadly contest of industries and mechanics. Germany must not be thought of as merely possessing an army; we must think of her as _being_ an army--an army in which every factory and loom in the Empire is a recognized part in a complete machine running night and day at terrific speed. We must make ourselves the same sort of effective machine. "We must make vast withdrawals for the Army and immediately close up the ranks of industry behind the gap with an accelerating production of every useful thing in necessary measure. How is this to be done? The answer is plain. The first step toward the solution of the difficulty is to prohibit engagement by able-bodied men in the field of hurtful employment, idleness, or ineffectual employment, and thus induce and persuade the vast wasted excess into useful fields. "One of the unanswerable criticisms of the draft has been that it takes men from the farms and from all useful employments and marches them past crowds of idlers and loafers away to the Army. The remedy is simple--to couple the industrial basis with other grounds for exemption and to require that any man pleading exemption on any ground shall show that he is contributing effectively to the industrial welfare of the nation." [Illustration: Building Howitzers A nine-mile howitzer nearly ready for transportation. Beyond are seen heavy armorplate turrets in the making. The small and large manufacturers were given equal opportunity to obtain war business.]