Evening star., 1942-10-15

the distribution -
OF A merica's David Lawrence.
manpower has been woefully lacking.
Efforts will be made to prove that
Congress was to blame in failing to
pass laws permitting the 18 to 20
year old boys to be drafted. Efforts
will be made also to prove that the
Selective Service Boards acting in
good faith and with all sorts of
instructions from the selective
service headquarters drafted older
men into the service because the
manpower situation demanded it.
Considerable talk has been heard
Tor several weeks that a draft pool
Of 10000, 900 to $4,000 900 men would
be needed out of which to build an
Army. When statisticians have en-
deavored to show that the Army
could have no intention of building
10000, ,000-man Army the analyses
have been brushed aside by apolo-
gists for the selective service bu-
reaucracy as inaccurate.
100000 Goal by 1914.
But now the official figure of
100000 as the size of the Army bv
the end Of the year 1s43 is given out
as the real goal by Secretary Stim-
son. This settles once and for all
the debates about the size of the
Army which have led to indiscrim-
nate drafting of men in all age
groups up to the limit.
The testimony of Gen. Marshall
and Secretary Stimson to the effect
that the older men do not make good
soldiers Is no surprise. The Secre-
tary shid that the men coming from
the induction centers into the Army
are too old. He declared that there
Is too large percentage of men
over 49," and that men over 40
ought not to go into the kind of
fighting the American armies must
do now"
Gen. Marshall told of a recent
visit he made to a 3,500-bed Army
hospital and was shocked" at what
he saw.
There were old men," he said.
some of them in the Army only a
few days. Taking men like that is
not increasing the Army. It is re-
ducing the Army"
Boards Acted Under Orders,
The chief OF staff told of men
with various ailments, and said that
taking men Of that sort would re-
quire increasing the hospital facili-
ties even before the troops got into
action.
But who sent those men into serv-
Ice? The local boards acting under
regulations made by the selective
service headquarters in Washington.
The boards are not to blame for
the failure of the draft headouar-
ters to classify registrants by ages
and defer those in the group above
40 until all other classes had been
exhausted. No additional legisla-
ton was needed for that purpose.
The broad power is in the selective
service statute itself.
Most everybody who is familiar
with the draft problem knows that
IN many instances physical exami-
nations have been of the most cur
sorry sort. All this was believed to
be necessary because the word was
sent out that the demand for man.
power was such that even partially
disabled men had to be taken into
the service. If there are physically
weak individuals In large numbers
IN the Army or persons beyond the
nghting age, whose fault is it?
Mystery on Superior.
Recently a congressional COM
mittee tried to find out to whom
the director Of the national selective
service law reported-to the War
Department, or the manpower COM
mission, or to the President.
TO whom is the selective service
administration answerable?" asked
Representative Bender. ITO the
Army or to the manpower COM
mission?"
Il think we are on something that
has not been entirely figured out"
replied Maj. Gen. Hershey,
Here Is the head of the selective
service machinery who doesn't know
the source OF his authority to make
policies. Such a conflict can be re-
solved only by the President, who
has not yet clarified the matter
Meanwhile, 1t is fact that workers
in some instances already are being
called back from the Army to fill
critical jobs and there is now a plan
afoot to get them back to the farms
on furloughs to help harvest crops.
All this means that with the ex-
perience of this country in World
War and with the experience of
Britain with CONSUMPTION before we
entered the war, the manpower
problem in America has not been
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