At the date of October first, 1918, the offices of the National War Labor Board had been invoked in 531 controversies involving the employment of more than 2,000,000 workers, of which 266 were still pending. Awards had been made directly in forty-four cases, others had been referred to other governmental agencies or settled in other ways, and others had been withdrawn or dropped. In only four cases had the members of the Board failed to come to unanimous decision concerning the award and in only three instances had there been refusal to accept its conclusions. In two of these cases the result was the taking over by the Government, in one, of telegraph and telephone lines, and in the other of a munitions plant, while in the third, also a munitions plant, the striking workers decided, upon appeal to their patriotism, to accept the award and to resume work. The work and the decisions of the National War Labor Board had a profoundly beneficent influence upon the war production of the country, reducing to a minimum the deterrent effects of labor troubles. The policies to which it pledged itself and the general confidence in its purpose to deal fairly with both sides greatly decreased the probable number of cases of serious trouble, as in many which otherwise would have grown into strikes or lockouts the opposing parties found they were able to settle their differences between themselves. The work of the Board raised the wages directly of approximately a million workers and of perhaps twice that number indirectly and it strongly influenced for the better the relations between wage earners and employers. The just and scientific management of labor problems in connection with the war resulted in a minimum of labor trouble, an enthusiastic and patriotic response of labor to the needs of the nation and an enormous and very slightly interrupted production of all goods needed for war purposes. CHAPTER XXXI BIG-BROTHERING THE FIGHTING FORCES Never in all the history of wars was an army so big-brothered, its welfare so lovingly and efficiently cared for, as were the fighting forces of the United States in the world war. To the whole nation, from President down to street gamin, they were “our boys,” seldom spoken of by any other term, and whatever the nation thought they wanted and could have it gave with full heart and overflowing hands. At the very beginning of our war effort, the desire of the War Department that the men should be so environed and trained on this side the ocean and so cared for on the other that they should be not only better soldiers but also should return to their homes better men than when they left, with no scars other than the honored ones gained in battle, and its initial undertakings toward that aim won instant and whole-hearted response from end to end of the country.