276, enacted August 10, 1917, also called the Lever Act or the Lever Food Act was a World War I era US law that among other things created the United States Food Administration and the United States Fuel Administration, as well as the Price Fixing Committee of the War Industries Board.

"[2] Wilson also had to fight off the proposal of Massachusetts Republican Senator John W. Weeks to establish instead a Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War.

[4] In 1918, faced with complaints from farmers that the Food Administration created under the Act had set the minimum price of wheat too low, Congress passed an amendment increasing that level from $2.20 to $2.40 per bushel.

The President's veto out of concerns about inflation and the impact on the British, is credited with producing disastrous results for Democrats in the 1918 elections in the states of the grain belt.

[5] On August 18, 1919, after the end of hostilities, President Wilson asked Congress to extend the life of the Act to allow his administration to address widespread and dramatic increases in the prices of commodities.

Opponents delayed passage for months while berating the administration for its failure to control prices and then granted the authority the President requested in October.

In the House of Representatives, the President's chief critic complained of the administration's priorities: "Where there is one man in a thousand who cares a rap about the League of Nations, there are nine hundred and ninety-nine who are vitally and distressingly concerned about the high cost of living."

Hoover's call for the conservation of the nation's produce emphasized voluntary compliance:[7] The effectiveness of these rules is dependent solely upon the goodwill of, and the willingness to sacrifice by, the American people.

We have but one police force – the American woman – and we depend upon her to organize in co-operation with our State and local Food Administrators to see that these rules are obeyed by that small minority who may fail.

Our experience hitherto has shown a willingness of the vast majority of consumers, and a full co-operation of the trades, to undergo the self-sacrifice necessary to render such measures effective.

The small minority who refuse to cooperate should not be allowed to defeat the nation's necessities.Children were organized into the "United States School Garden Army."

Nonessential factories were closed, and the Federal government had complete control over all aspects of the coal industry including production, pricing, sale, shipment, and distribution.

Copying the methods of the Food Administration, citizens were encouraged to save fuel with "gasless Sundays," "heatless Mondays," and "lightless nights."

That infuriated Secretary of Labor Wilson who had opposed Palmer's plan and supported Gompers' view of the President's promises when the Act was under consideration.