Evening star., 1938-06-26
COnscriptiOn of Labor.

Because Of certain nationally urgent
tasks" temporarily undisclosed, Germany
has introduced universal conscription for
short-term labor service on q scale that
is truly sensational. AS commissioner for
the four-year plan, Field Marshal Goer-
ing has promulgated decree requiring
all state members" irrespective Of race,
creed, sex or present activity, to be avail
able for such work as the government on
July may order them to perform.
For a limited period thereafter men
and women must tackle any Job assigned
them or undergo any course of instruc-
tion to which they are commanded. Thus
will be applied to the entire adult civil
population compulsory duty as drastic
and inescapable as the military service
hitherto demanded only of able-bodied
males. Pending revelation of the gov
ernment's motive in regimenting the
nation on a scale utterly without prece-
dent, only the vaguest guesses are pos
sible. 1t is denied that the decree is
either a war measure or one of war pre-
paredness.
More plausible seems the theory that
the Hitler regime has grappled so effec-
lively with the unemployment problem
that Germany today requires heroic
measures to end labor shortage The
figures which substantiate this astound-
ing situation attest that the 100000
jobless whom the Nazis found In 1888
have been entirely absorbed. The total
of employed persons, it is claimed, has
risen from 12,300,O 900 to 20,5O0 900. OF the
remaining $4,000 jobless, only $1,000 are
described as fully employable. Evidently
this small reservoir of potential workers
is so far below the requirements imposed
by nationally urgent tasks" that the
free labor market must be augmented by
conscription. To it will be subject all
and sundry, regardless of class status or
current occupation Whether of hign or
low degree, workers and ONCE employees,
employers, industrialists and independent
tradesmen, state officials, members of the
learned professions and public organiza-
tions, or persons without regular voca-
tions Of any kind-all these, without
exception, a week hence may be drafted
to the labor colors.
Outside the Reich 1t has been supposed
that the Nazis banished unemployment
only by adoption and execution of
tremendous armament program, which
has kept Krupp's and other heavy in
dustries" on 24-hour shifts ever since
Germany repudiated the Versailles pro-
visions prohibiting her rearmament.
Latterly Hitlers grandiose schemes for
reconstructing Berlin, Munich, Hamburg
and other cities on monumental lines
have given work to hundreds of thou
sands. Der Fuehrer's plan to create q
Volksauto "a cheap, serviceable automo-
bile) also provided large numbers Of jobs
in the motor industry.
1t is an interesting circumstance that
even the enforced influx of Austrian
labor, following Anschluss three months
ago, appears not to have eased Ger
many's labor needs to any appreciable
extent. AS Jews, being still state men,
bers,' though not citizens, come within
the scope of the labor CONSUMPTION ukase,
snrne of tho opproSSnd coy,o p,,,p;f,, elroo IL,
see themselves working on Hitler's roads
and skyscrapers in much the same fash
ion as their forbears worked on the
Pharaohs' pyramids.