Imperial Valley press., 1942-01-06
CAPITAL TALKS
Peter
Edison
WASHINGTON, Jan. 6 - If the

WASHINGTON, Jan. - If the
system worked right. these things
should happen when a small busl-
ness faces q shutdown because II
can not obtain materials to con-
tinue making things for civilian
consumption:
The employer, foreseeinC iaeyit-
able shutdown. should call in USES.
the United States Employment
Service. There are 1900 branch Of
fices of this service scattered about
the country. so there is one near
every town of any Importance AT
all. Now that this service has been
federalized and taken out OF the
presidential order. these 1900 offices
hands of the state governments by
should be expected to function with
more of a look at the national point
of view.
Once the USES boys are on the
lob. they are supposed to give the
plant good look, classifying the
employees by skills, trades, and
numbers.
At the same time USES is called
in, the OPM'S CDD-the Contract
Distribution Division-should be
called in. CDD hasn't as many Of
fices as USES. but USES men
should know where the closest CDD
branch hangs out. The function OF
CDD in this case would be TO Send
in an engineer for a plant survey
checking on the machines and
equipment, what it has been max
ing for war use
EXPLAINS ALL
The buck is then passed to Army
and Navy contract divisions. Here
is plant A, with a factory of so
many square feet floor space, so
many machines of such and such
type, so many employees of such and
such skills. and whatdoyougot for
EN- to do?
Under ideal conditions. the Army
or Navy would say dandy! Plant
A has Just what it takes for what
we want and let 'em bid on
piece of this. Emeployer A gets con-
tract workers keep on working. and
everybody is happy and get lousy
prosperous on war orders.
But too often these Ideal cOndI-
tons don't exist. The plant is TOO
small, or it can't quite convert.
or the USES and the CDD and
the Army and Navy don't CO.
operate. Nothing happens after
the surveys are made and employ
er A, sore and discouraged, shuts
up the plant and starts looking
for a job right along with his EN-
ployes.
It is to overcome these difficult
ties that CDD and USES are bend
ing their best efforts now. CDD
was late getting reorganized under
Floyd w. Odlum to meet its prob
lem after a false and somewhat in
effective start. 1t will be heard from
more and more during 1912. USES,
Just federalized into a more CO.
hesive unit and with a young new
director in the person of John j.
Corson, has yet to make its mark.
But if there is any one agency
which has the primary job OF mo-
bilizing the nations manpoWer for
maximum war production, it IS this
United States Employment Service
OPM's labor division calls for ship
yard or aircraft workers by the
thousand. USES tries to find them
SERIOUS UNEMPLOYMENT
In spite of all the demand there
is for manpower today the biggest
problem is still unemployment. Ar
my and Navy may pick off from
seven to 10 million of the best men
Government civil service will take
its million more. In the highly
skilled trades, employers bid against
each other Specialized training
groups like the merchant marine or
the aircraft factories call for their
quotas. Farm labor may run short
next year. New powder and shell
loading plants in remote non-in-
dustrial sections drain their areas
of the available labor surplus
In spite of this, there are still
some five million unemployed. and
the estimates of additional work.
ers who will lose their jobs, as
plants making goods for normal
civilian consumption are forced
to shut down through inability to
get metals and raw materials,
run as high as two and half
million. 1t is paradOxical situation
If there ever was one, to find the
country i'm war boom with po-
tential unemployed force of seven
million or so.
The temper of the times, says
Corson, is to let the little fellow
go. Instead of helping the small
manufacturer or dealer find war
jobs and keep going, the tendency
has been to sacrifice this produc-
tive capacity if it can't readily be
converted TO war work. When that
happens, the problem is to find
jobs in war industries for the dis
placed workers.
In some cases it's easy Shutting
down of an automobile assembly
plant at Norfolk, Va, simply meant
that the auto mechanics went TO
work in the shipyards. Or displaced
tire workers at Akron drove over
10 the powder plant at RaYenna, O.
But most of the time it iSut 50
easy