The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1940-09-12
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DRAFT MUST BE CLEAN

| especially when you were very
young, you are likely to take your
self too seriously. Maybe I am do
ing that about selective service.
But on that subject feel sometimes
the agony that David Warfeld made
so clear to everybody In ''The Re-
turn of Peter Grimm"
You remember that the gentle old
florist had left some advice and di-
rections to his children before he
passed into the realms of infinite
knowledge.
There he learned the tragic error
of those requests. In the effort OF
/ his disembodied spirit to come back
and avert disaster he suffered be-
cause, although he could mingle I'm
seen with his beloved, he couldn't
get his message to their ears. ]
think two of the most poignant
words I have ever heard on our
stage are his unnoted cry of an
guish, Hear mel"
I feel a little that way about the
Burke Wadsworth selective service
bill. As have written before, it
makes the classification, selection
and deferment of men a matter of
personalized executive discretion.
There is something of technical
ity here, but it is not an unimpor-
tant one. It is at the very heart
of the democracy and public con-
fidence and success in this effort.
The bill as written, and even as
amended by the senate, does not
repose in the exclusive and uncon-
trolled jurisdiction of the selective
service boards the absolute and
final decisions as to which men shall
be taken for military service and
which shall be selected for civilian
service. That could convert the
whole effort from a perfect use of
our democratic institution of local
sef-government to possible hog
pen of favoritism, influence and per-
haps of political patronage and pres
sure.
Now I know that this is the wish
of neither the President, nor Mr..
Willkie, nor any member of con-
greSS or politician with influence In
this effort. One of the most inspir-
ing things about this legislation
is the effort on all sides to take il
out of politics. I know that Mr..
Roosevelt wants to keep it clean.
I know that, apart from the un-
doubted patriotism of this wish, il
could ruin any administration or any
politician not to keep it clean. This
legislation will, sooner or later, Saf-
feet, directly or indirectly, and,
much or little, every home and fam
| lily in this country in the most sacred
of relations. It can't have even the
color of unfairness or favor.
This understandable oversight is a
simple result of the slap-dash fash
ion in which this bill was put to-
gether. There are other errors
clearly revealed by experience,
They can be corrected later without
great harm. This one can't.
I called this fatal oversight to the
attention of some senators who
seemed to sense its importance
without argument. An amendment
reported in the press from the house
committee, at least as reported,
does not cure the fault.
If, in the present rush for passage,
nobody else gives attention to this
| grave error, I hope the President
himself will do so. I sometimes sus-
pect that he does not altogether en-
Enthusiastically approve of some OF
the issues In this column. On this
particular subject, however, I am
sure that he comedies its informa-
ton, experience and his intense
common purpose with even this col
unnist, no matter how far he
speaks, de profundis, from the Of
| fetal dog house. It is an essential
matter of national defense.
PRODUCTION PROBLEM
NEW YORK.-The delay about
getting the armament program go
ing and this dangerous talk about in
dustrialists hanging back on ac-
cepting contracts because they
want exorbitant profits is almost
wholly due to bad planning of the
effort in the beginning and bad or
ganization and direction of it now.
This business of contracting to
make an absolutely new unlike a
tanks a fearful and intricate
thing. Laying out production plan
for a standard type of automobile,
for example, is duck soup in COM
parison.
In the latter case you can figure
very closely on the cost of those
parts of the final assembly that you
will not make yourself, but buy from
perhaps as many as 200 suppliers.
You can figure that because those
parts are near enough to standard
for the manufacturer of them to
know and tell you to the fraction OF
cent the price you must figure in
your cost.
Much of this war production
misses that whole pattern entirely.
The designs are new and highly
specialized. While the quantities
seem huge-like $4,000 airplanes-
they are chicken feed compared to
a years production in single fac
tory of, say, automobiles.
Furthermore, $50, 900 airplanes''
is very misleading term. It IN
cludes everything from cheap light
training planes to giant bombers-
items so different that it is like
saying $780, vehicles when you
mean everything from a stream
lined train to kiddie car.
In such mess every manufac-
turer is UP against it-and so are
the 20 to 200 suppliers and sub-con-