adding users through a script

[Wyatt]

I want to add users through a shell script and have it set the password. I may be way off on this but it seems that useradd will not add a password for the user. You have to run passwd and get prompted to enter the password twice. This won't work if the user is supposed to be added through a shell script. I am used to running mkpwent which takes the password as an option (for user bob with password junk: mkpwent bob junk ....) Is there a way to do this on red hat? Do I need to install third party software or NIS?   thank you, Wyatt