Such vast quantities of manufactured products--machines, munitions, clothing, food, supplies of every sort--were consumed in the war and had to be speedily produced for immediate destruction that for the first time in the history of the world the forces of production at home became of as much consequence for the winning of the war as were the fighting forces at the front. This fact, because it was so new a feature of warfare, was not at first recognized by the Entente Allies in its full significance and consequently their efforts lost much in possible effectiveness during the first year or more of the struggle. Nor did the United States at once realize the necessity of mobilizing the productive forces and directing their employment along lines that made for martial efficiency. But the first few months of war effort developed friction between employers and employed, competition in the bidding for labor by the various war agencies of the Government and the private employers engaged in production of war necessities, bungling and waste in the distribution of labor and a tendency to backsliding in labor conditions. The Government had become the greatest employer of labor in the world and it soon became evident that to correlate the activities of all its war making agencies and induce efficient coöperation between them and private employers new machinery would have to be devised for the handling of the forces of production. For this purpose there was created the War Labor Administration, including in its machinery and its duties those of the Department of Labor, but expanding such of them as dealt with labor in its relation to the war and adding others that would meet new needs and aid in the solution of new problems, with the Secretary of Labor as its responsible head. In order to carry out the immensely enlarged program which war emergencies made necessary in a broad, comprehending and coöperative spirit, the Secretary called to his assistance an Advisory Council whose members represented all phases of interest in industrial work. To its preliminary study and careful planning was due in large measure the efficient and harmonious working of the big undertakings of the War Labor Administration. By its advice and as a part of the machinery for the correlation of effort there was devised the War Labor Policies Board on which were represented the War, Navy, Agriculture and Labor Departments, the Fuel, Food and Railroad Administrations, the U. S. Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation and the War Industries Board, and to which were attached advisers representing labor, business management and technical fields. It unified labor policies and harmonized the industrial activities of the different branches of the Government, ensuring more efficient team-work for the prosecution of the war.