Evening star., 1942-09-06
Canada Gathers.in the Women
Dominion Attempts to Get Entire Adult Population
Into War Essential Employment
By B. r. Richardson

OTTAWA, Aug 29-Recognizing that
the only possibility of future increase in
the national labor supply lies in getting
women into industrial work, the Cana
dian government has ordered all women
to register for selective service.
The first class 20 to "a years, both
married and single, must register by
September 49, They will be required,
when notified, to report to government
employment Office for personal inter-
view. In Canada, selective service covers
the entire population, and it operates
through a network of employment Of
fees Little compulsion is likely to be
needed to make women undertake es-
sential work, since thousands are al
ready employed in war industries. The
degree of compulsion is not likely to be
as severe as it is in the case of males.
In-the face of the most critical short
age of manpower in the country's his
tory, the government has called on every
man and woman capable of working to
take an essential war job. The fullest
compulsion may be used, Prime Minister
King warned in broadcast last week,
but added that unnecessary compulslon
was waste of time and Canada would
20 as far as possible by voluntary
methods.
Three Important Jobs Listed.
Every man and woman capable Of
performing some task of war service, !"
said Mr.. King, should undertake the
service for which he or she may be best
qualified and which the demands of
war require"
Eliminating only the very young the
very old and physically disabled persons,
Mr.. King marked out the entire Cana
dian population for three important war
Jobs: The armed forces, munitions pro-
duction or important civilian activity.
direct follow up of the Prime Min
ister's announcement came when Mrs.
Rex Eaton, assistant director of national
selective service, ordered all Canadian
women to register, starting with the
20-24 year classes.
Canadian women will be recruited by
personal interview in order to discover
willingness to go into industry or COM
merce, qualifications for such work and
extent to which training of women
workers will be needed. No woman
already employed will be asked to report
/ for an interview. Those working in non-
essential industries will have the oppor-
| tunity to transfer to war jobs.
A series of government measures,
| gong into effect this fall, are designed
to bring the entire adult population of
Canada within the operations of CEN
tral selective service registry. Machinery
for this super-control of manpower is
being built up rapidly under the national
| director of selective service, Elliott M
Little.
Need to Conserve Manpower.
Although women are already replacing
men, this process can be carried on to
far greater lengths. The street car sys-
TENS of Canadian cities have hardly yei
begun to employ women as conductors
and drivers. All along the line of the
| Canadian war program, women will be
| needed to release men for heavier ane
more hazardous duties. Up to the pres
ent, shutdowns and curtailments in in.
dustry have been either for the purpose
of conserving materials or for obtaining
greater efficiency by removing frills. But
from now on, as Mr.. King said, the rnair