The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-06-23

l., wanam ana pleasant
 and his title now is director of minority groups section in the Labor Division of the once of Production Management,
 If that title doesn't mean much to you, consider e few of pr. Alex AnderS pet problems: ss.@ {,
 In northeastern United States are thousands of second and third gen. eration Italians, native-born citl- Eens whose parents or grandparents came from Italy. For some reason, defense industries have been Q lite tic skittish on hiring people of ltal- ian descent, though Germans are generally accepted without question,
 The Los Angeles area, which car- ried the heaviest relief load In the country during the depression, Is bringing In thousands Of youngsters from the plains states, yet 1t still has l60,000 unemployed Negroes. American. .born mechanics of Jap. anese ancestry, idle because the west coast fishing fleet has been irnmo- bili4ed can't get jobs In defense in- dustrieS though bearded Russian ship filters are considered highly valuable In the shipyards. Four million aliens, including more than 100000 refugees from ter. ritory Hitler has occupied, many of them highly skilled, find 1t hard to get jobs because they're foreign born.
 And so on. We'll, you say, what of lt2 Let the furriners 60 jobless or 90 back where they came froml PREJUDICE A
 BoTTLENECK
 But It isn't as easy as that, At least four million new workers have to be At Into defense production in the next IS months, Most of them must have skilled trades, To keep men with special skills idle Is just aS silly as keeping machines Idle, Hence tho special assignment given the minority groups section to sec there Is no manpower going to waste,
 Tied up with thls minority labor problem Is the problem of defense industry migration of labor, keeping men on the job near home, and this migration problem has almost eclipsed the ininorlties' issue,
 Take the case Of northern con- tractor building Camp Lee, near Petersburg, Va, He raided the labor markets aS far north As New Jersey, even though there were many un- employed Negro carpenters in tho southern states. Virginia newspapers and the state chamber of commerce got after thatlone and fixed 1t quickly,
 West coast aircraft plants have come into Philadelphia and from Q hotel room employment offiee taken out many skilled laborers though Philadelphia Is going to need TO- 900 skilled workers.
 Sixty-five per cent of the relief load In Connecticut has been tho Americans of Italian descent refer red to above, yet Connecticut has an immigration of labor, some of 1t none too skilled, looking for jobs in the aircraft and machine industries.
 Tenant farmers from all over are leaving the land In what is termed a "perceptible drift" to seek the my thical five-dollar- .day Jobs In town creating a housing shortage, add ing to teh relief load, contributing to their own unrest,
 BIC
 arNxywAyS, NAv
 Best estimates now Hre that some 360,000 workers with special skills will have to be moved, in spite of all the sub-contracting that can be done. California industrial areas will need 30,000. Detroit motors area may need from 60,000 to e0,000. New Jer- sey So,oo0. Fort Worth-Dalias IT, 900.
 United States Employment Serv- Ice and the state employment agen. cies are trying to keep track of all labor demands and the sources of labor supply. With six million un- employed workers, registered, USES is trying to get employers to anti- cipate their demands for labor by six months.
 Shortages of skilled labor are what have set teh labor division of OPM combing these minoritieS groups for men with any of 70 or 30 of the rarer skills. Age and sex are no longer bars. Eraslng the race and color line bars Is pr, Alexander's job now. WASHINGTON PULSE BEATS
 One distraught Washington visitor who couldn't find a hotel room fln- ally took the taxi drivers advice and spent the night in 8 Turkish bath :. The new priorities critical list now numbers 300 items including, Drawers: woolen, half-wool, half cotton" and "Meta-para B. P. 200- 2l0C. and less than per cent ortha cresylic acid" Or, if you can't help them out there. how about some mattresses, all types" or ''Hexamethylene tetramite"!
 Almost 300 miles of l0-foot, non- climable fence will be erected to surround the critical areas at 95 military posts Army Air Corps will stick to "B-l0" as the designa- ton of its new super-fiying fortress plane and won't try to think up any fancy name But army slogan eers are at work trying to substitute Keep Elm Flying" for Here's Howl Congressmen who battled un- successfully for legislation to pre- vent a second A. E. F. overlooked the fact that there's limited ban against sending draftees abroad in the selective service act WPA has mosquito control projects near Army camps in 10 states and Puerto Rico.
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