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Defense Plant Corporation

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Defense Plant Corporation
Company typeState-owned enterprise
IndustryFinancial services
Founded1940 (1940)
FounderGovernment of the United States
Defunct1945 (1945)
FateClosed as no longer needed after the end of World War II
Headquarters
Washington, DC
,
United States of America
Area served
United States
ProductsWar production loans
ParentReconstruction Finance Corporation

The Defense Plant Corporation (DPC), was an American subsidiary of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, a government corporation run by the United States federal government between 1940 and 1945. To win World War II the United States and its Allied Nations needed massive war production. Many private companies did not have the capital funds to meet the wartime demand for buildings and equipment.

Defense Plant Corporation provided financial support to state and local governments.[1] Defense Plant Corporation also made loans to banks, railroads, mortgage associations, and other businesses supporting the war efforts.[2]

History

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The Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) was founded in 1932 by Herbert Hoover to help with the Great Depression, with the outbreak of World War II, it became a war department. Fund requests usually started with the United States Navy, United States Army, War Shipping Administration, Office of Production Management, the War Production Board, Maritime Commission or other war departments. The Reconstruction Finance Corporation had eight subsidiaries. Most requests for new factories and new mills were given to the Defense Plant Corporation.[3] The head of the Defense Plant Corporation was Jesse H. Jones, with Emil Schram and Sam Husbands. It would also offer oversight that factories were constructed, equipped, and operated. By the time it closed in 1945 it had funded over $9 billion into the wartime factories. The funds went to over 2,300 projects in 46 US states and in foreign countries. In most projects, the government owned factories and leased them to private companies. Major factories built were aircraft manufacturing (50% of funds), tanks plants, nonferrous metals, machine tools, synthetic rubber, shipyards and boat yards. The largest project was $176 million for Dodge's Chicago aircraft engine plant. The Dodge Chicago Plant manufactured engines for the Boeing B-29 Superfortress and Consolidated B-32 Dominator. The Dodge Chicago 1,545 acres with a steel forge and aluminum foundry. With the end of the war, the DPC ceased operations on July 1, 1945.[2]

Funded

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Defense Plant Corporation motor nameplate

Some companies funded:

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Vossmeyer, Angela (May 2014). "Treatment Effects and Informative Missingness with an Application to Bank Recapitalization Programs". The American Economic Review. 104 (5): 212–217. doi:10.1257/aer.104.5.212.
  2. ^ a b Olson, James S. (2017) [1988]. Saving Capitalism: The Reconstruction Finance Corporation and the New Deal, 1933–1940. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-62952-0.
  3. ^ Sprinkel, Beryl Wayne (October 1952). "Economic Consequences of the Operations of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation". The Journal of Business of the University of Chicago. 25 (4): 211–224. doi:10.1086/233060. JSTOR 2350206.
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