The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-03-26

the war effort. Conflicting state and municipal laws which restrict labor and services, agriculture And marketing, construction and trans- portatlon comprise the principal obstacles to war production, and at the present time there is apparently only one possible source of relief. The president does have the power to designate any area Q combat zone in which martial law may 90 declared and local laws suspended,
 That is Q pretty drastic remedy, and 1t Is therefore unlikely that it would be applied in any general way to relieve tho situation, It has been used on the Pacific coast to facilitate the control and movement of enemy aliens from defense areas, and in that application there has been no objection. But if this fed- erl suspension of non federal laws were to become general, it ls cer. tain that it would raise e trs- mendous howl from oil the adVo. eateS of states rights and local Self- government.
 BUILDING CODE BUGABo0
 To get some conception of how these local restrictions hamper the defense effort, consider the field of construction. Every state and nnu. niclpality has It's building code, and these codes vary widely. The weights of steel girders, the plumb Ing codes, the electrical codes, the prohibitions against pre-fabricated housing-all these differ in prae- tleally oil communities. Today, the supply of mary building. materials Is SO limited that construction for other than defense purposes iS prac- tieally prohibited where the codes inflaXibly require the use of critical materials, even though technically approved substitute materials are available in ample quantity.
 If decision is made to locate c war production plant and It's aeconi. panying housing projects In some given area, consideration must Do given to the local building code. If requirements there are 50 high that they call for the use of more critical building materials than in some other state, the chances are that the project may have to Do given to the second location, even though 1t Is less desirable from the point of view of proximity to source of Sup- plies, transportation facilities, and 60 on.
 The only alternative B to have the first community change .ts building code to permit, say, the use of pre-fabrieated building units. All too often focal politics and pros- sure from supply, contractor or labor lobby groups make this i'm. possible. The result Is that the war production effort H impeded.
 State and local restrictions on labor and services form another oD. stscle. If the Army and Navy will ultimately require 10 million men and If 1t takes eight industrial workers for every man at the front, that means 90 million workers will be needed to man the machines. ANTI.MIGRANT LAWS
 IMPEDE DEFENSE
 Twenty -seven states now have anti-mlgratory labor laws, reStrict- ing workers of other states from moving in to take jobs. Neverthe- less, some labor surveys have eStiEli- ated that four million or more workers will have to Dc moved from their pFe-war homes to man war production factories in other coyn- munIties. The states which have anti-migratory labor laws are simply blocking the free movement of workers to areas where their services might Do more effective.
 Tn meeting tho labor supply short- ages, it has become increasingly Np" parent that women and children from i7 to 2i must replace rnan- power. Twenty-two states now have legiSlatIon restricting the employ ment of women and children in the iH to 2i age limit. MaSsachusettB has already suspended one such laW to permit women to work in textile mills after Q D. m. other states may have to take similar action on their restrictive regulations Of this character.
 All states have licenslng laws which curtail the supply Of qualified doctors, nurses, engineers, contrac- tors, and in some states plumbers, electricians and even beauticians. With shortages developing in the professions and skilled trades, some Of these restrictions, too, may have | to Do lowered for the war. New York l haa aiRAaAu VaAAiAad fla fftIFaiFg