Evening star., 1941-05-11
House Group States
Hearings on Defense
Labor Shortage
Committee Report Cites
CompuIsion Used Abroad
To Obtain Workers

CompuIsion Used Abroad
To Obtain Workers
The special House Committee
on Interstate Migration yesterday
turned its attention to the growing
problem of an adequate labor sup
ply to operate industries essential
for the Nations defense effort and
for satisfaction of the 1ease-lend
program.
The committee announced 1t
would resume its field hearings on
migrancy next month in three
eastern cities. Hartford. June "a
and 25; Trenton, June q and %,
and Baltimore, July l and 2.
Chairman Tolan said these areas
were selected because they are es-
pecially propitious for an examina-
tior of the problems of industrial
and farm labor shortages. This
new interest on the part of the COM
mittee is a striking example of how
the Nations economy has changed
during a year of defense prepara-
ton. A year ago the chief concern
of the committee was the joblessness
of migrants.
In special study the committee
has pointed out that contraction of
the labor supply in relation to the
labor market is a social economic
! phenomenon which all the coun-
/ al
and which the United States ex-
perienced in the World War days.
Now, the committee reports, the
United States has special problems
OF its own combining the questions
of labor shortages and aimless mi
grancy.
Creating Serious Problems.
AN examination of the American
experience in the World War" the
special report stated "as we'll as
other relevant European experience
does not furnish basis for expec.
tation" that the expansion of de-
fense industries would put halt
to migrancy or automatically solve
the employment problem of mi
grants" The report added:
The current defense migration
in the United States is creating
serious problems for each defense
community. in addition to disturb
ing the labor markets in the COM
munities from which workers are
moving to defense industries"
Great Britain, Germany and ia
pan have all resorted to compulsion
to freeze employment in essential
industries and have encouraged,
even require, workers to quit their
peace-time work and to labor at
war work the report says. The COM
mittee offers these examples in
order to throw light on the Amer
ican aspect of the problem. 1t saws
of England:
The National Labor Supplv
Board has the power of redirectine
labor to provide an adequate supply
Tor the essential industries. When
any industry or even individual
plant is declared to be controlled"
then the board can order the num-
per and kind of persons to be en-
ployed.
British Method Cited.
whenever workers are redirected
from the non-essential to the es-5
sentlal Industries, lodging and
travelling allowances are authorized
from Government funds By a
system OF priorities of supply, the
BRUSH Government has sharply de-
creased production in all of the
consumer goods industries, whose
workers have been forthwith trans
1erred to those industries producing
war equipment.
The indirect devices such as re-
strlctlon of consumer goods indus
trles narrow the workers choice of
alternatives. In England any device
which leaves the worker an alter
native is technically labelled .yolun.
tary.' In this way, the British Ia
oor-supply policies have been volun-
1ary' although by indirect control
OF wages, of hours, of hiring and
1lrlng, OF raw materials and of nro-
ouctlon Itself, the alternatives Of
Tered the workers steadily mar
rowed. -i'i
Direct compulsory control of bir-
ing and dismissal by EMPLOYERS is
oelng instituted. Workers will not
De able to leave their Jobs without
government permission. Transfer of
workers from nonessential to essen
tlal industries will be compulsorv
V2r2finne Ahol;~L
Emclent use OF the labor supply
is as Imperative as the continuity Of
It's employment. Various emergency
measures have been introduced IN
maintain the maximum productivity
of labor. ''
Holidays and vacation have heen
abolished, the 7-day week has been
introduced in certain industries ey-
tenslve overtime is being worked
the various restrictions on hours of
work IN collective-bargaining agree
menus nave been suspended. The
carrier lntensiflcation of labor ef-
1orts has begun to have adverse Of.
iectS on the health and efficiency of
labor, and partial return tn Ger
tain peacetime restrictions has been
urged" 0'1
Inc German method of dealing
with the problem of labor supply are
lar more stringent and have an Older
history than the British, which in
large part have been developed dur
Ing the past IL months. The Nazi
war economy dates from 1896. with
the birth of the four-year plan
quickly labor shortage came into
existence, both in factories and on
the farms. Farm workers moved tn
the city, and many city workers were
conscrlpted into the army.
German Women in Factories
The Nazis met the shortage bv
forcing women into factory work. by
conscripting the labor of the very
young and the very old, by redirect
ing free artisans and retail mer-
chants into war industries, and bv
other methods:
The school system was converted
into an extension of the emplov-
-