The Daily Alaska empire., 1941-08-05

outstrip anything that any other part of the world can offer. But to mobilize American industry and coordinate it into efficient unit for the produc- tion of defense materials, much organzational effort on the part of government agencies must be first accomplished.
 The United States News blamed conflicting gov- ernment agencies, dealing with phases of defense production instead of viewing the vast American production machine whole to be geared to de- fense production.
 One bottleneck, labor, mentioned by pass ing reference defense industry strikes, costing millions of man days of work.
 The second article, written by Ludwig Ham, burger former mechanic in German factory, authority labor legislation and member of the staff of Brookings Institution, dealt with labor ditions in Naz Germany
 Comparing the position of the German worker with the condition of feuda serf in the Middle Ages, Hamburger finds that in many instances the serfs had real edge over the German laborers so far as personal freedom was concerned.
 Control of German workmen started in 1884, flying fields and factories offered better pay Hamburger related when construction of new high checks for farm hands. resulting in shortage of farm labor just present defense program is
  day for work in the factory cities. To counteract this in Nazidom however Hitler decreed that 1t was illegal for farm workers to take non-agricultural jobs.
 In 1897 in Germany, tens of thousands of young clerks were shifted from their white collar positions behind office desks into manual labor on farms, roads and buildings. In 1888 general labor con- scription law gave Nazi employment agencies power to draft all men and women not holding paid jobs and further to call regular employees from their positions and assign them to whatever work locality and employer the government deemed necessary. Hundreds of thousands have thus been moved from one job to another
 The Nazis first compelled itnerant salesmen to work farms and in factories. Then, in 1888 and 1939 they picked the shops of artisans and skilled craftsmen. plan promulgated forcing owners of 500000 shops to close their places of bus- and join the rank and file of the industrial working class" Thousands of retail tradesmen found themselves suddenly the property of the Nazi state.
 Another move was compulsory juvenile labor. In March of 1888 all German parents were ordered to report to employment offices, the names of all children leaving primary and secondary schools. Practically the entire youth of the country was placed in trades and industries which most needed young, unskied help. The vast majority of these children only IA years old
 As countries have been conquered by the Hitler army, more slaves" in the form of Czechs, Danes, Poles, Dutchmen and others have been sent into Germany to join with the Nazi slaves" in the manufacture of materials for the Nazi army.
 Tn ancient times the master had the right to kill his save,' Hamburger points out. Under Nazi rule the worker carries labor passport recording all the details of his training abilities and tional career To employ a man who has such work book is illegal Thus employment authorities, by withdrawing workers pass book, can at any time condemn him to starvation"
 Reading the two articles, not help but put them together in our minds Of course this working man. has made it possible for Hitler to pro- duce the huge volume of ships, planes and arma- ments his European factories and shipyards are turning out Is it necessary then, for this country to go to the extreme in conscrpting labor in our defense centers?
 Of necessity the answer is NO" unless we are to sink to the same level of dictatorship which we profess to condemn under Hitler.
 Certainly, not put American citizens under that sort of inhuman control and still call ourselves a democracy
 Yet there is huge job to be done Official figures still say have 10 times as much work to do and 10 times many weapons of warfare or defense to turn out during the coming year we turned out in the year which ended the first of July, if we wish to catch up to the sweat-shop out put of the state controlled industries under Hitler
 Certainly, it is time for strikes in factories, jursdictional disputes between rival labor groups bickerings between federal state ter ritorial and municipal offices.
 It is time to roll up our sleeves and pitch in.