and knudsen's response is dramatic. now, knudsen is a republican. roosevelt's a democrat.they have sparred, they have been at opposite ends of the political camp for more than a decade. but when he gets that call, the first thing he does is to quit as president of general motors, move to washington and begin the process of figuring out how he's going to get this country up and running. for wartime production. and he, of course, now also realizes that obstacles that he faces in this process, that he's got, first of all, an american industry which has been, fallen into the hard times because of a decade of depression. the steel industry, for example, which is about one-half of the production capacity it had been in 1929. that he's also got the fact that many businessmen that he's dealing with, including his own boss. you see him, there's knudsen standing at the microphone, his own boss standing to knudsen's left, on your right, alfred sloan, tells him you're crazy! you're going to work for roosevelt? he's going to make a monkey out of you. this is not a project you want to g

. >> this is a process that bill knudsen sets in motion. through the, through the top prime contractors down to the subcontractors on through the rest of the american economy and industry that gets underway. by time of pearl harbor it's a wartime which is gone production which is gone from basically a standing start to approaching that of nazi germany. by the end of 9042 when the effort really gets rolling, by the end of 1942 when the effort really gets started with full conversion of the automobile industry, for example, over the wartime production, the united states is out producing all of the axis powers combined, and by the end of 1943, american economy is producing more war material and germany, ma the soviet union and great britain combined. ford motor company alone produces more than mussolini's economy as a whole. and, in fact, we produce enough steel, aluminum and other raw materials to enable british, we are than of what wartime manufacturer of airplanes. we produce enough raw material to enable the british and also the soviets to

, a different knudsen, not my guy. probably the largest construction firm in the world right now. any other company, stone and webster, tennessee eastman became involved in wartime construction. all of these understood in the process of rcl enterprises say he's not to construct docks for pearl harbor, for example and prepare military facilities, but also to build ships. kaisers liberty ships a classic example at a time in which it took to build constantly shrink down to fewer and fewer days until by 1942 they could launch a liberty ship every five days if they had to. in fact, there's a great story about a woman it comes to christen one of the liberty ships at the portland art, kaisers here in portland, oregon and she comes out with a champagne bottle in the ship certicom. it started as launched and is sailing into the south. so he comes back to us it's been a minute, lady. there'll be another one along in a few minutes. and not just ship the thing. -- ship hoping. magnesium is essential for aircraft manufacturing, whi

knudsen was in favor, but he thought fair practices was totally the wrong way to go. he said go factory by factory. these guys can do work. show them examples and do it in a step-by-step contract by contract process, not some point to changes in the rules of who could be hired and who cannot. by a large there was segregation varies from company to company. not even industry to industry. the gm plant, for example that i was talking about earlier was completely integrated. it was a shock to african-american workers coming in from the south to sit down to lunch with white workers in white employees, et cetera. acclaim martin plante were separated. kaisers think completely integrated. you should appear as a pitchman at the end of the war, 70% of the employees on his payroll were women. that's how crucial a role they played fair. and in the south, obviously a lot of work bases were separated and a lot of racial tension says that the detroit case. this hair inched into one segment of the population who are protected under the fair practices act, who receive no federal suppo

, a different knudsen, not my guy. probably the largest construction firm in the world right now. any other company, stone and webster, tennessee eastman became involved in wartime construction. all of these understood in the process of rcl enterprises say he's not to construct docks for pearl harbor, for example and prepare military facilities, but also to build ships. kaisers liberty ships a classic example at a time in which it took to build constantly shrink down to fewer and fewer days until by 1942 they could launch a liberty ship every five days if they had to. in fact, there's a great story about a woman it comes to christen one of the liberty ships at the portland art, kaisers here in portland, oregon and she comes out with a champagne bottle in the ship certicom. it started as launched and is sailing into the south. so he comes back to us it's been a minute, lady. there'll be another one along in a few minutes. and not just ship the thing. -- ship hoping. magnesium is essential for aircraft manufacturing, whi