Evening star., 1940-07-31
Labor Also Expected
To Be Put Under
Defense Controls
World War Program
To Meet Special
Demands Cited
BY GEORGE T. HUGHES.
Special Dispatch to The Star.

BY GEORGE T. HUGHES.
Special Dispatch to The Star.
NEW YORK, July 31.-Labor, as
we'll as capital, must expect to lose
some of its peacetime freedom of
action in wartime-or even under
the emergencies of an eleventh-hour
defense program. It Is conceivable
that the situation in Europe may
become sufficiently alarming to
make it necessary to impose war
time controls in country which is
not actually fighting. but is merely
in the throes of hurried prepara-
ton.
In Germany, according to a study
in the conference board economic
record of July "a, by DR.. Hans
Staudinger and DR.. Fritz Lehman,
labor and management. finance,
foreign trade and the Reich's re-
sources of raw materials were all
eventually brought under control for
purposes of rearmament.
During our participation in the
World War. % years ago, control
was exercised over labor as we'll as
over industry. A Brookings Institu-
ton survey of World War controls
in the United States says that there
was such demand for workers
that the Government took action to
restrict movement of workers from
one job to another. Working condi-
tions were standardized, and en-
ployers were urged not to advertise
for labor. but to turn instead to the
United States Employment Service.
Although workers were not actually
forced to remain on their jobs, this
method of indirect control served
to allocate labor to activities deemed
essential.
Federal Labor Used.
When the II. w. VISOR "Wab-
blies," as they came to be called
stirred up trouble in the lumber
camps, the Government became an
employer of its own labor to cut
timber for airplane manufacture. In
other instances, also, the Govern
ment became a direct employer of
labor, producing ships, toxic gases
and some of its own munitions. At
certain stages the Army controlled
production of wool clothing, requisi-
tlonlng and rationing the total sup
ply of raw wool. When the Gov
ernment took over the railroads. all
railroad workers, in effect. became
employees of the. Government.
In Nazi Germany labor is con-
trolled through the employer, but
the control is nonetheless rigid.
Writing in the Iron Age, Felix Beyer
German economist who came to this
country soon after the start of the
war, says that German business
man Cannot hire or fire a worker
without permission of the local gov
ernment agency, the district labor
governor, the labor front or the
army"
The Nazis eventually extended
their controls to production costs.
In the building industry alone"
says Mr.. Boyer, there have been
introduced 400 official time studies
for tilelayers. 80 for plasterers and
ITO for concrete workers"
While in the United States for a
number of years the emphasis has
been placed upon production of
consumers goods, through various
"pump-priming' expedients pri-
marily conceived to increase the
purchasing power of the public, in
Germany the concentration upon
rearmament necessarily produced
the greatest stimulus in capital, or
producers goods.
Striking Gains Shown.
The study in the conference
board economic record brings out
the striking gains made in heavy
industry in Germany. Taking 1928
as equal to 100, the following tabu-
lation shows, in index numbers, the
production gains made over pe-
riod of five years:
1898. 1898.
Iron 80 Isl
Electricity " 100 2O6
Producers goods - As 1876
The number of employed indus
trial workers rose from 3,7l1, 900 in
1882 to 1926 900 in 1898, while the
average working day was extended
nearly ap hour.
In modern, mechanical warfare,
force is measured not SO much in
man power as in the aggregate
power of factory made mechanical
tions of warfare. The conclusion
drawn by the conference board study
is that the Nazi military successes
have not been due to any startling
new strategic methods or to new
secret weapons, but rather to the
Reich's total mobilization of eco
nomic resources for war between
1888 and 1899.
The Nazis started out with a pref
erence for bullets over butter"
They knew what they wanted, and
they got it. The irony of the situa-
ton may yet be that lack of but
ter"-famine-will prove their un-
doing.