President Roosevelt set up the War Resources Board (WRB) to study mobilization of American industry for war. FDR recognized that, should war come, production of arms and munitions by private firms for supply to fighting men would be every bit as important as military strategy and tactics. It followed logically that industrialists and manufacturers, as well as generals and admirals, needed to be consulted about contingency planning. Roosevelt responded to bureaucratic incapacity—more precisely, a lack of governmental knowledge about intricate, hands-on production matters—by drafting business experts who could be expected to fill this void. The loyalty and availability of the corporate liberals, who had been with FDR from the start of his first term, went without question. Although Roosevelt positively wished to avoid war, he had to be prepared for any eventuality, and WRB's corporate liberals would help him.

The War Resources Board was the emergency-preparedness agency that corporate liberals such as Walter Gifford had awaited for so long. WRB's presence provoked an important debate about the proper way to organize the preparedness campaign. Corporate liberals had urged that mobilization functions be vested in temporary, emergency agencies. They favored the use of ad hoc emergency powers. Because corporate liberals rejected any permanent accretions to federal bureaucracy, their thinking about preparedness state building was in some sense antibureaucratic. Their distrust of state bureaucracies and state management led them in this direction, as did the realization that business might more readily shape public policy through this type of framework than an expansion of the New Deal state. This approach clashed with that of ardent New Dealers, who thought a more powerful New Deal state should be constructed to discharge extraordinary defenserelated responsibilities and safeguard earlier liberal reforms. By allying itself with the military and interested segments of the business community, corporate liberals put forward a formidable claim for preference from Roosevelt.

Corporate liberals dominated the War Resources Board. Aware that American industry was the most productive in the world, they also knew that U.S. manufacturers were not used to making weapons. To combat this lack of familiarity,WRB's corporate liberals emphasized the need for the military to place “educational orders” with business concerns. Where necessary, conversion of existing private plant to defense production was recommended, and other, more far-reaching steps might be taken as European and Asian circumstances dictated.