Executive Order 9638—Creating the Civilian Production Administration and Terminating the War Production Board

By virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and Statutes, including Title I of the First War Powers Act, 1941, and as President of the United States, it is ordered as follows:

1. All functions and powers of the War Production Board, established by Executive Order No. 9024 of January 16, 1942, and all agencies, officers (other than the Chairman and the other members of the War Production Board), employees, records, property, and funds of the Board are transferred to a Civilian Production Administration which is hereby established in the Office for Emergency Management of the Executive Office of the President. The War Production Board is hereby terminated.

2. At the head of the Civilian Production Administration (hereinafter referred to as the Administration) there shall be a Civilian Production Administrator (hereinafter referred to as the Administrator) who shall be appointed by the President and receive a salary of $12,000 per annum unless the Congress shall otherwise provide, together with actual and necessary transportation, subsistence, and other expenses incidental to the performance of his duties. All the functions and powers vested in the Chairman of the War Production Board on the effective date of this order are transferred to the Civilian Production Administrator and may be performed by him through such officials, persons, or agencies as he shall determine. The administrator shall exercise his functions and powers in accordance with the general policies established by the Director of War Mobilization and Reconversion.

3. The functions and powers transferred by this order shall, to the extent authorized by law, be utilized to further a swift and orderly transition from wartime production to a maximum peacetime production in industry free from wartime Government controls, with due regard for the stability of prices and costs; and to that end shall be utilized to: (a) expand the production of materials which are in short supply, (b) limit the manufacture of products for which materials or facilities are insufficient, (c) control the accumulation of inventories so as to avoid speculative hoarding and unbalanced distribution which would curtail total production, (d) grant priority assistance to break bottlenecks which would impede the reconversion process, (e) facilitate the fulfillment of relief and other essential export programs, and (f) allocate scarce materials and facilities necessary for the production of low-priced items essential to the continued success of the stabilization program of the Federal Government.

4. The Administrator may, to the extent authorized by law, terminate any function vested in the Administration by this order when he shall deem such action to be in the national interest. The Administrator shall be responsible for the orderly liquidation of all affairs relating to any function so terminated and shall also from time to time take all appropriate steps looking toward the liquidation of the Administration.

5. Such further measures and dispositions as may be determined by the Director of the Bureau of the Budget to be necessary to effectuate the transfers and terminations provided for in this order shall be carried out in such manner as the Director may direct and by such agencies as be may designate.

6. All prior regulations, orders, rulings, directives and other actions relating to any function transferred by this order shall remain in effect except insofar as they are in conflict with this order or are hereafter amended under proper authority.

7. All provisions of prior Executive Orders which are in conflict with this order are amended accordingly.

8. This order shall be effective as of the close of business on the third day of November, 1945.

HARRY S. TRUMAN

THE WHITE HOUSE,

October 4, 1945