The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-05-21

real air strength that troops of comparable strength and under similar circumstances would en- counter in actual battle. Mechani- zation was somewhat sketchy, and on paper.
 All that is changed this year. Every soldier will have every piece of equipment and all the troop units will have all the arms which Army tables of organization call for in full strength operations. There will be nothing phony about this years maneuvers. And some of them will be SO real, so close to rehearsal operations for specific task forces, that they will be absolutely secret.
 
 A LESSON HERE
 The one big lesson to be learned from a hullabaloo over gas ration ing in the east is nothing more nor less than fundamental precept of democracy which everyone should have recognized in the beginning and which should most certainly be remembered while future rationing programs are being planned. It Is simply that any time you attempt to pick out one class of American citizens and give them rights and privileges not enjoyed by the re- mainder of the population, you are running into trouble. There was no squawk on sugar rationing because everyone was equally inconvenience ed. The screams on gasoline ration ing all came from the "I'm-just-as- good as . he -iS.ar1d -1-got- -just-as- much rightsl" element, which Is practically 100 per cent of the Amer ican population.
 All the little girl reporters who go to Mrs. RooSevelt's press confer ences have become case-hardened to anything the First Lady may say or do, but the other day she pulled a new one that caused few sob- sisterly eyebrows to rise above the pencil line. Instead of referring to the President as "Franklin," she called him Frank" It was the first time within memory of even the oldest gal there.
 .
 Paul V. McNutt's new Manpower Commission is still trying to form ulate an overall policy or, in other words, decide what to do. The way this commission was set up offers a perfect example of the way new agency is created and begins to function in government administra- tion. A committee of cabinet and top independent agency officers is created to determine policy. The chairman or director or co-ordinator or whatever he's called names an assistant chairman to shoulder the responsibility. In this case 1t was Arthur V. Altmeyer, who is also chairman of the Social Security Board. Then an executive director is named to do the work, In this case, Fowler Harper, Indiana law professor and longtime McNutt crony.
 When the Manpower Commission gets all organized, it is faced with two related and immediate prob- lems, among dozens of general war production and labor supply prob- lems. First is labor pirating, which is competitive and inflationary hir- ing by employers; second is uncon- trolled labor migration in which employees just pick up and leave whatever jobs they have at the moment because the prospects look better in some other community. Neither pirating nor migration take into consideration the maximum use to which any laborer'S particular skill or experience may best suit him. First step in remedying these situations may have to be a big campaign to persuade every work man to stay at whatever job he now has until someone comes along to tell him he can do his country more good some place else.
 
 NEED NURSES
 There still aren't enough nurses to go around for Army and Navy, so Red Gross will start two weeks recruiting drive on May 25, aimed to sign up 75,00O of the 100000 elig- ible trained nurses who are single, without family responsibilities, and under 40 years of age.