g each in the hands of experts specially selected under
appropriate enactments. In large part, these activities are separable
from the general questions considered by the Council of National Defense
and the War Industries Board, but there are necessary relations between
them which it has been found quite simple to arrange by conference and
consultation, and the Council of National Defense, with the Secretary of
the Treasury added as an important councilor, has seemed the natural
center around which to group these agencies so far as any common
activity among them is desirable.

[Sidenote: The War Department indebted to the council.]

[Sidenote: Unremunerated service of able citizens.]

[Sidenote: Business confidence in the Government.]

In the meantime the Advisory Commission of the Council of National
Defense and the council itself have continued to perform the original
advisory functions committed to them by the National Defense Act. The
War Department is glad to acknowledge its debt to the council and the
commission. I refrain from specific enumeration of the services which
the department has received through these agencies only because their
number is infinite and their value obvious. The various supply
committees created by the Supply Commission, the scientific resources
placed at the disposal of the department, the organization of the
medical profession, the cooperation of the transportation interests of
the country, the splendid harmony which has been established in the
field of labor, are all fruits of the actions of these bodies and
notably of the Advisory Commission. It has been especially in connection
with the activities of the council and the commission that we have been
helped by the unremunerated service of citizens who bore no official
relation to the Government but had expert knowledge of and experience
with the industries of the country which it was necessary rapidly to
summon into new uses. Through their influence, the trade rivalries and
commercial competitions, stimulating and helpful in times of peace,
have been subordinated to the paramount purpose of national service and
the common good. They have not only created helpful relations for the
present emergency but have established a new confidence in the
Government on the part of business and perhaps have led to clearer
judgments on the part of the Government in its dealings with the great
organizations, both of labor and of capital, which form th