Evening star., 1939-09-03

Full Regeneration
OF U. 5. Population
Due if War Comes
Men, Women. Children
Will All PIoy Parts
Army, Navy Dictates
By JOHN LEAR,


Army, Navy Dictates
BY JOHN LEAR.
NEW YORK, Sept. 2 (P.-f the
people of the United States 60 into
another war, they must expect to live
under a form of regimentation un-
paralleled in the history of the coun-
try, if present plans are carried out.
That was made plain today with
the first disclosure of details for
mobilization of American men, mu-
nitions and supplies in wartime.
Under these plans-drawn up by
the Army and the Navy during the
last 20 years and now published in
book form by Leo M. Cherne, secre-
tary of the Tax Research Institute
of America, Inc, with sanction
ing foreword by Assistant Secretary
of War Louis Johnson-control Of
civilian life will be far more strin-
gent than that adopted during the
World War.
No time will be wasted, as in 1917,
in seeing whether appeals to pa
triotism will raise an Army suffi-
GENTLY large to carry on the con-
flict.
Travel to Be Restricted.
Voluntary enlistments will be well
coined, but they will come only dur
ing the few months required to set
up machinery for a selective draft.
From then on, men will be told if
and when they are to fight.
Those who do not fight will be told
to find essential work. Their wages
may be regulated.
They will not be permitted to go
from one place to another-as they
did in the last war--to get higher
wages, unless the Government con-
siders such movement beneficial
from the military sense.
Women and children will be put
to work in the places left by fight
ing men, so that industries essen
tial to warfare may not suffer. Laws
fixing maximum working hours and
minimum pay of women and chill
dren will be brushed aside where
Government considers that neces-
sary.
Prices will be set within certain
specific limits.
This may cover prices of all
goods, or it may cover only living
essentials such as food, clothing
and shelter, This point is now being
debated in Washington by the War
Resources Board.
Even Rents Will Be Fixed.
The average man will find all his
private financial transactions under
constant scrutiny. The Government
will stop any of his deals which ii
considers inimical to the national
defense.
The amount of the rent he pays
for his apartment or house will be
fixed. If he owns house the rental
value OF that may be fixed, too
II he does not own house but de-
cides to build one because his wages
are good and are coming in regu-
larly due to wartime employment
he may have to ask the Govern
ment's permission. He will not gel
that permission if the Government
decides that construction of other
buildings, maybe Army barracks
are more important in the conduct
of the war and require all the labor
that is available.
His supply of electricity for light
and heat in his home may be inter.
rupted, rationed, or cut off at any
time. The Government may need
the power for defense purposes, and
the war comes first.
His trips on railroad trains, buses
and airplanes will be subject to
cancellation by the Government
depending on the demand for facili-
ties to transport men and materials
for the battlefield.
Duplex Mobilization Plan.
The specifications for these sweep
ing controls of everyday life are
laid down in two broad plans; one
covering mobilization of industrial
resources, the other mobilization of
manpower. Today these are only
plans. They cannot go into opera
ton until Congress passes enabling
legislation or the President pro-
claims them in effect under the
war powers" the Constitution gives
him. But they have been worked
out gradually by the Army and Navy
Departments ever since the World
War ended. And Mr. Cherne OBJ
serves in his book: Adjusting your
business to war" that war presents
little time for parliamentary quib-
bling" and there is little doubt that
shortly after M-Day mobilization
day. they Ohe plans here discussed)
will be effectuated almost in exact
detail"
In justification of such dictator
like plans for a democratic country
Assistant Secretary of War johnson
says in his foreWord to the Cherne
volume:
Modern war has become not only
conflict of soldiers, but of economic
systems, and other things being
equal the timely and effective mobil-
ization of industry and control of
economic resources will determine
the final outcome"
Where II Draft Failed.
Agreeing heartily with this thesis,
the Cherne study pictures the Army
Navy plans in two principal aspects:
Cd AS a means of conducting war
most efficiently and coming to vic
tory most quickly.
Cd AS means Of doing that with
the least disturbance to Americas s
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