Evening star., 1941-01-07

Defense Powers Act last May %
to order any man to leave the job
he is doing if it is considered nom
take one that is essential. Mr.
Churchill never has used this power
partly because it is loaded with
political dynamite.
Neutral observers say British labor
already is restive. Labor Minister
Ernest Bevin declares use of this
measure would heighten that feeling
and in the long run would bring no
worthwhile speedup in production.
The veteran union boss who walks
like a heavyweight wrestler and
talks like stevedore presents this
argument on behalf of 100000 un-
ion members:
Give labor what it wants and it
will work its head off, but force labor
and it will be sure to slow down"
Many Workers in Army.
Yet the growing pile of untitled
munitions orders beside the numer-
GUS factories that are working below
capacity has posed grave problem
Labor CONSUMPTION in the opinion
Of certain military men and indus
trialists is the only answer.
One recognized reason why there
is a shortage of skilled labor is that
some of it has been absorbed into
the army.
The logical thing to do, in the
opinion of one group of experts.
would be to release these men to
return to their old jobs. Indeed,
they would go much further-they
would release thousands of unskilled
laborers as we'll to be trained for
technical factory jobs. They argue
the army is unnecessarily large for
its present responsibilities that it is
needlessly immobilizing a reservoir
of man power.
Their proposition, however, is con-
sidered by the powers -that-be as
"too advanced and too experimental"
to be considered seriously. To date
the only action in this direction has
been the freeing of several thousand
uIlllJy WOl W llClp lSpdl bollAD
damage and of Is 900 unskilled labor
ers to clear away bomb debris from
London streets.
Unemployment Still Exists.
A question American reporters
often ask is: "If there is labor
shortage. why are there still thou
sands of unemployed?"
We are told by the government
that the "hard core" of unemploy-
ment has been reduced now to about
$4,000. Certainly a great reduction
has been made in the unemployed
total which was set at 766845 last
July, but some impartial observers
reply that hard core" does not tell
the whole story, and raise further
questions.
Why, for instance, are the jobless
miners of South Wales not brought
up to London to dig air raid tunnels?
Why are skilled war workmen whose
factories have been bombed not
moved to other areas at once instead
of being kept on the dole in their
OWIl IlclSllUOl llOOu C1ioA IliC 1oSVOi iSo
can be put into running order again?
These were two of the questions
being asked in the opposition press
as 1 left England three weeks ago.
The transfer of bombed-out workers
was carried out to certain extent
in the case of Bristol But the
newspapers declared that generally,
however, red tape and muddling
seem to have blocked any thorough
absorption of the unemployed.
Workers Complain Of Checks.
Another factor-moSt British fac
tories began the war on an 8-hour
production day and even now there
are many which do not work the
clock around. In some cases where
the men themselves want to defy
night raiders, the employers refuse
to take the risk even though the
government says it will be re-
sponsible.
One grievance of the British work.
man today is his weekly pay check.
The last official survey made last
July showed that the war had
hoosted the ayera oe weekly wage of