“War is the health of the state,” wrote Randolph Bourne in 1917. The lines of communication linking America's places of work to the command center in Washington became increasingly important after the Great War erupted in Europe, and they assumed decisive importance when the United States officially entered the war. During the public debate over “preparedness” that filled the press in late 1915 and early 1916, Taylor's disciple C. E. Knoeppel redirected his attention from improving the management of foundries to “industrial preparedness.” As usual, Knoeppel's publisher was the influential Engineering Magazine, but his latest contribution to its Industrial Management Library was a volume packed with quotations from prominent politicians, writers, and businessmen, all dealing with the question how Germany had managed to sustain two years of war against an alliance of major European powers and then emerge as military master of the Continent. The answer lay in German efficiency, and the secret of that efficiency was German organization, not simply of the workplace but of the entire society. Government in Germany, wrote Senator Gilbert Hitchcock, was a “working partnership with the people for the promotion of prosperity.”

“That's it,” exclaimed engineer Knoeppel. Such a partnership involved organization and “expert guidance,” “cohesion and unity of purpose,” a “reasonable distribution of wealth,” and proper “direction and encouragement of big business.” Moreover, it required both “freedom from costly industrial disputes” and “elimination of politics from things influencing the welfare of the people.”