The Comité des Forges was attacked by the Left, which threatened nationalization, and failed to get political support for a policy to promote national industrial development, reduce regulation and resist socialist demands for labor laws that would drive up costs. World War I During World War I (1914–18) the common interests of the armaments industry were represented by the Comité des Forges and the Chambre syndicale des fabrications de matériel de guerre, both dominated by heavy industry. Charles François Laurent succeeded Florent Guillain (1844–1915) as president of the Comité des forges. Robert Pinot continued to serve as secretary general of the CFF under Laurent, as he did under Laurent's successor Gabriel Cordier. Léon Alphonse Lévy (1851–1925), director of the Société des forges de Châtillon-Commentry-Neuves-Maisons, was a vice-president of the Comité des Forges and president of the Chambre syndicale. The war economy was organized as a cartel of the great armament firms, coordinated by the Comité des Forges. The Committee was responsible for buying coal in London and supervising sales of steel abroad. In May 1916 the Comité des forges obtained a monopoly over import of pig iron from Great Britain. The state sometimes saw the war industry as a partner, sometimes as a competitor for power, and at times tried to deal directly with individual industrialists and bypass the Comité des Forges. The industry profited from the lack of social rights of mobilized workers, who had been called up for the army and then assigned to industry, and paid wages below pre-war levels despite the boom in business and the rising prices. In 1915 it demanded compulsory assignment of civilian workers to prevent them leaving their jobs to accept better pay elsewhere. The Comité des Forges proposed to compensate for low wages by a generous distribution of medals (the Médaille du Travail) for particularly conscientious workers. The government rejected compulsory assignment for all workers, but maintained the special status of mobilized workers. This was important for firms like Le Creusot, where 55% of the 20,000 workers were mobilized workers in June 1917. Towards the end of the war, study groups under Humbert de Wendel, brother of François de Wendel, requested a postwar settlement in which the Saar would be ceded, Alsace-Lorraine returned to France and Luxembourg transferred from the German customs union to a new union with Belgium. The Comité des Forges wanted to keep German steel producers out of