Taking the Profits Out of War: A Program for Industrial Mobilization

26 cm, 150, gilt edges, boards somewhat worn and soiled, pencil erasure on front endpaper. No dust wrapper present. Bernard Mannes Baruch (August 19, 1870 – June 20, 1965) was an American financier and statesman. After amassing a fortune on the New York Stock Exchange, he impressed President Woodrow Wilson by managing the nation's economic mobilization in World War I as chairman of the War Industries Board. He advised Wilson during the Paris Peace Conference. He made another fortune in the postwar bull market, but foresaw the Wall Street crash and sold out well in advance. In World War II, he became a close advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt on the role of industry in war supply, and he was credited with greatly shortening the production time for tanks and aircraft. Later he helped to develop rehabilitation programs for injured servicemen. In 1946, he was the United States representative to the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission, though his Baruch Plan for international control of atomic energy was rejected by the Soviet Union. A focussed compilation of works from 1925 to 1936. This may be one of Baruch's scarcest titles. Foreword by General John J. Pershing. [The February issue of the Atlantic for 1925 carried a paper by Mr. Sisley Huddleston dealing with the general subject of ‘taking the profit out of war,’which Mr. Huddleston called ‘An American Plan for Peace.’ The first-quoted phrase was put into the language by the War Industries Board toward the close of the World War through its efforts to eliminate all war profits. Mr. Huddleston’s article came to the attention of Mr. Bernard M. Baruch, chairman of the War Industries Board and administrator of the non-profit plan, and (as he writes us), since it seemed to indicate a growing interest in the idea, induced him to invoke practical means to bring about a full comprehension of taking the profit out of war in the various great countries of the world. To this end he responded to a suggestion of Mr. Owen D. Young, of the Page School of International Relations at Johns Hopkins University, that he establish a course of lectures there to expound the War Industries Board plan in detail. Later he will proceed to make similar arrangements at leading universities in Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan. Agreeing with Mr. Baruch that the subject calls for public knowledge and discussion, it was natural for the Atlantic to turn to him for the following paper. — THE EDITORS of The Atlantic]. Presumed a first edition with limited distribution.…