Background
He left school at age 12 to work as a stock boy at Sprague Electrical Works, which was acquired by General Electric, taking night classes and working up to president in 1939. During World War II he served on the War Production Board as executive vice-chairman in September 1942, supervising the huge U.S. military production effort before resigning in August, 1944 after a bitter jurisdictional dispute with the military. After returning to General Electric and instituting an anti-union campaign, he served President Truman as the chairman of the blue-ribbon President's Committee on Civil Rights in 1946-1947, which recommended new civil rights legislation to protect "all parts of our population".
Read more about this topic: Charles E. Wilson
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