The Effect of Conscription of Industry on Contracts for the Sale of Goods

Abstract

The business-as-usual policy which prevailed prior to the kaleidoscopic series of events that go to make up contemporary times has given way to a realistic all-out defense program. 1 Legislation has been designed to further that program.2 That the war program is fundamentally a matter of government leadership is implicit in its nature.3 Hence the legislation is chiefly intended to enable the government to pursue its policies. One purpose is clear. It is to increase the national output of war materials.4 The economy becomes geared to the war program but the transition from pre-war to war economy is neither instantaneous, nor total, nor permanent. There is still a large sphere of commercial activity which, though aware of the program, is not directly part of it. We may, for want of a better term, designate such non-defense effort as civilian. Actually, commercial activity in both defense and nondefense spheres occurs simultaneously. Whereas defense activities are subjected to large scale governmental regulation, civilian activity is not. But civilian activity is not commercially independent and cannot escape becoming enmeshed in the war effort. The war program assumes that the goods for national defense will be largely produced by private persons. A very large field of