{"value"=>"<p>The formation of the Council of National Defense was provided for in the Army Appropriation Bill of 1916. In anticipation of the entry of the United States into the war in Europe, the Council was created to organize a war government, and, in the event of a declaration of war, to mobilize and coordinate for the war effort all the resources of capital and labor. It consisted of the Secretaries of War, the Navy, the Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, and Labor. The Council's Advisory Commission (the civilian equivalent of the Army general staff), was responsible for coordinating overall planning. The Advisory Commission was composed of Newton D. Baker, (Secretary of War, and chairman of the Council of National Defense), Bernard Barite, Howard E. Coffin, Hollis Godfrey, Samuel Gompers, (chairman of both the Advisory Commission and the Committee on Labor), Franklin H. Martin, Julius Rosenwald, and Daniel Willard. Gertrude Beeks Easley was the unpaid Secretary of the Executive Committee of the Committee on Labor, and had a semi-official relationship to the council through Louis Coolidge (chairman of the council's Committee on Welfare and NCF's Welfare Department), Samuel Gompers, Coffin, and Willard, all long standing active members of NCF.</p>"}