William Hammatt Davis was the Chairman of the War Labor Board (WLB) in the administration of President Franklin Roosevelt, where his job was keeping industrial peace between management and labor. He was also appointed US Economic Stabilizer in the last months of World War II, though Roosevelt's successor, Harry S. Truman, soon eliminated this potentially powerful position. Davis also helped draft the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, which gave labor unions the right to organize.
William Hammatt Davis (right)
National War Labor Board (1942–1945)
The National War Labor Board, commonly the War Labor Board, was an independent agency of the United States government, established January 12, 1942, by an executive order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the purpose of which was to mediate labor disputes as part of the American home front during World War II.
Poster put out by the War Production Board, emphasizing the need for labor and industry to cooperate during the war
The members of the War Labor Board, as photographed before their initial meeting on January 16, 1942; Chairman Davis is front row center
Scene from the "Little Steel" hearing held by the National War Labor Board at the Hotel Washington in Washington, D.C., on July 1, 1942
War Labor Board anthracite hearing in Washington, D.C., in January 1943: labor members, seated at the left of conference table, and employer members, seated at the right, hear testimony of striking coal miners
