The Army Appropriations Act of 1916 authorized money for the larger troop

Troop

A troop is a military unit, originally a small force of cavalry, subordinate to a squadron and headed by the troop leader. In many armies a troop is the equivalent unit to the infantry section or platoon...

 strength, and created the Council of National Defense

Council of National Defense

The Council of National Defense was a United States organization formed during World War I to coordinate resources and industry in support of the war effort, including the coordination of transportation, industrial and farm production, financial support for the war, and public...

 (CND) which established communications and information sharing between military and industrial leaders. The CND was a Cabinet committee

Cabinet committee

The Cabinet committee is a set of Committees in the Canadian Federal Government that are responsible for enacting the operations of the Government's agenda.-List of cabinet committees:...

 with an Advisory Commission of prominent citizens working without pay. It was initially made up of 1) Walter S. Gifford, its Chairman, and a statistician

Statistician

A statistician is someone who works with theoretical or applied statistics. The profession exists in both the private and public sectors. The core of that work is to measure, interpret, and describe the world and human activity patterns within it...

 with American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T), 2) Howard E. Coffin

Howard E. Coffin

Howard Earle Coffin was an American engineer and industrialist. He was one of the founders of the Hudson Motor Car Company with Roy D. Chapin...

, the Vice-President of the Hudson Motor Car Company

Hudson Motor Car Company

The Hudson Motor Car Company made Hudson and other brand automobiles in Detroit, Michigan, from 1909 to 1954. In 1954, Hudson merged with Nash-Kelvinator Corporation to form American Motors. The Hudson name was continued through the 1957 model year, after which it was dropped.- Company strategy...

, 3) Bernard Baruch

Bernard Baruch

Bernard Mannes Baruch was an American financier, stock-market speculator, statesman, and political consultant. After his success in business, he devoted his time toward advising U.S. Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt on economic matters and became a philanthropist.-Early life...

, Wall Street

Wall Street

Wall Street refers to the financial district of New York City, named after and centered on the eight-block-long street running from Broadway to South Street on the East River in Lower Manhattan. Over time, the term has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, or...

 financier, 4) Hollis Godfrey

Hollis Godfrey

Hollis Godfrey was an author, teacher, engineering consultant, and president of the Drexel Institute of Art, Science and Industry.-Early life:...

, the President of the Drexel Institute of Philadelphia

Drexel University

Drexel University is a private research university with the main campus located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. It was founded in 1891 by Anthony J. Drexel, a noted financier and philanthropist. Drexel offers 70 full-time undergraduate programs and accelerated degrees...

, 5) Daniel Willard

Daniel Willard

Daniel Willard was a railroad executive best known as the president of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad from 1910 to 1941. He served on or headed several government railroad commissions in World War I and appeared on the cover of Time magazine in 1932 due to his part in negotiating wage cuts in the...

, the President of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad (B&O), 6) Julius Rosenwald

Julius Rosenwald

Julius Rosenwald was a U.S. clothier, manufacturer, business executive, and philanthropist. He is best known as a part-owner and leader of Sears, Roebuck and Company, and for the Rosenwald Fund which donated millions to support the education of African American children in the rural South, as well...

, the President of Sears, Roebuck and Company

Sears, Roebuck and Company

Sears, officially named Sears, Roebuck and Co., is an American chain of department stores which was founded by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck in the late 19th century...

, 6) Samuel Gompers

Samuel Gompers

Samuel Gompers was an English-born American cigar maker who became a labor union leader and a key figure in American labor history. Gompers founded the American Federation of Labor , and served as that organization's president from 1886 to 1894 and from 1895 until his death in 1924...

, the President of the American Federation of Labor

American Federation of Labor

The American Federation of Labor was one of the first federations of labor unions in the United States. It was founded in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions disaffected from the Knights of Labor, a national labor association. Samuel Gompers was elected president of the Federation at its...

 (AFL), and 7) Dr. Franklin H. Martin, the Secretary-General of the American College of Surgeons

American College of Surgeons

The American College of Surgeons is an educational association of surgeons created in 1913 to improve the quality of care for the surgical patient by setting high standards for surgical education and practice.-Membership:...

. It was the 1st peacetime collusion of military and industrial leaders, laying the initial groundwork for the modern U.S. military-industrial complex.