A full-dress study of the Defense Plant Corporation

The Defense Plant Corporation was a significant innovative agency of the emergency government during World War II. DPC was a subsidiary of the depression-created Reconstruction Finance Corporation, which, in turn, had its origins in the War Finance Corporation of World War I. Despite its importance, DPC’s role until the present has been little studied. It invested nearly $7 billion, mainly in commercial-type, government titled industrial facilities to speed the flow of war goods. During the defense period, it was the subject of much controversy both within and outside government, but after Pearl Harbor its value was fully recognized. The bulk of its investment was in the aircraft and closely related indus­tries. Large investments were also made in the steel and chemical indus­tries and in pipeline transportation. A new industry, synthetic rubber, was brought from infancy to maturity. DPC brought government capital and private initiative into fruitful union, eliminating risk to the contractor with respect to the cost of the facilities and providing the contractor with the necessary production capacity to fulfill its supply contracts.
 

“This compact monograph [is] a timely book on an important public policy issue. When markets are deemed incapable of producing certain outcomes desired by society, how may governments induce them? White has given us the story of a successful government effort to induce an outcome outside the market system--the Defense Plant Corporation (DFC) of World War II, which added a crucial 30 percent to America's defense production capacity in the emergency of 1941-1945. The story is absorbing.”
—American Historical Review
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