An Auto . . . "Czar"?

by Liberty and Power

According to the Wall Street Journal today, talks of a Detroit bailout have slowed because of discussions of what the scope of the power and authority of the newly contemplated"auto czar" would be.

The Auto Czar would apparently oversee the restructuring of the entire American automobile industry. Once the current crisis is past, would the Auto Czar then, like Cincinnatus, simply return the reins of power and resume working his farm?

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Robert Higgs - 12/8/2008

Simon may have been the first peacetime czar in this country, but beginning in World War I, a number of czars have been created during wartime.

Bernard Baruch, the head of the War Industries Board, was widely known as an "industrial dictator" or an "economic dictator," though never, to my knowledge, as a czar. Robert Cuff gives a number of citations to this effect in his book The War Industries Board (1973, p. 271). The head of the War Food Administration (Herbert Hoover) and the head of the Fuel Administration (Harry Garfield), also not known as czars, foreshadowed the czars of World War II.

In World War II, the concept was narrowed, and the men were often called "commodity czars" because of their specific responsibility for only a particular commodity. The Bureau of the Budget's official administrative history, The United States at War (1946), has a section on "War Production Czars" (pp. 281-98). The report explains: "These men came to be known as the 'czars.' The best illustrations are the Rubber Director, the Petroleum Administrator, the Solid Fuels Administrator, and the War Food Administrator. At various times czars were suggested also for lumber, steel, aluminum, civilian supplies, and electric power." (p. 281)

The report continues with a discussion that people might well bear in mind at present, as they ponder the creation of a "car czar" in the Obama administration.

"In every case the history was the same: A serious shortage with its attendant confusion would develop; the columnists and the public generally became alarmed; officials with conflicting authorities or ideas each proposed his own solution, or failed to present immediately a clear simple plan of action; Congress often commenced to investigate; and sooner or later someone would come forward with a dramatic plan for solving the particular issue by giving one man all the power necessary to do the job." (pp. 281-82)

And finally it notes: "The author of this plan ignored the existing organization of production and the chaos that dictatorial powers in one field could cause in the whole war economy." (p. 282)

So, in the greater service of the creation of chaos, let us by all means create a car czar. What is history for, if not to be ignored?

David T. Beito - 12/8/2008

Somebody should make a list of "czars" (what an unAmerican concept) who have been appointed since the 1970s usually to fight "wars" (domestic or foreign). The first czar I remember who was William Simon who was energy czar under Ford.