Imperial Valley press., 1942-08-05
A TIGHT SPOT FOR
THE POLITICIANS

Biggest obstacle to an immediate ma
tionwide draft of labor similar to the
military draft is an unsettled question
which has the New Deal politicians doing
mental tailspins. 1t is+
If the government drafts labor into
war plants, is it going to be able to get
away with forcing the labor draftees to
join labor union in order to hold the
Job they've been ordered to take?
The other day in Los Angeles, Regional
Director William X. Hopkins of the War
Manpower commission said:
Large numbers of individuals now en-
gagged in non-essential industries will
find themselves either in military service
or actively engaged in war production
He said the Labor draft" may come very
soon. Then he added that 1t is not the
intent of the government to draft any
laborer against his will-but it will be
necessary to make heavy drafts.
What does it all add up to? We do
not know how authoritative Mr. Hopkins
may be- nor how nearly he speaks for the
national administration. But, for the sake
of argument, let us suppose that his state
ment is fairly official and representative
of government sentiment. If that Is true,
then the tentative program seems to break
down into these divisions:
First: An effort to induce more work
ers to enter war industries by telling them
that, if they do not, they will be drafted.
IF they do this government officials auto
matically can deny that they have forced
the workers into union, since the latter
went to work voluntarily" in closed shop
often than not is required by his agree
ment with the government to employ only
union labOr.)
Second If voluntary shifts are not
sufficient to meet war production needs,
operation of a draft" in which the
"draftee' is told to go into war produc-
ton, with the postscript added that he
doesn't have to unless he wants to- (Ihls,
too, would give government officials
fine out, since they could argue that it is
after ALL a voluntary draft, in which the
worker voluntarily joins labor union in
order to help speed up war production.)
Third: If this second form of pressure
fails notification of the worker that he
will be drafted for military service unless
he accepts the voluntary labor draft
assignment. This still keeps the labor
draft voluntary" and still gives the
politicians their allbl
If this is the program that is shaping
up, it will boil down to this: the govern
ment will be telling American workers
that they've either got to join labor un-
ion or be drafted into military service.
WHY NOT MEET THE
ISSUE HEAD-ON
All this indirection about a labor draft
is caused by one thing alone-the New
Deal policy of requiring war contractors
TO hire only union labor. 1t is a policy
which has already denied many skilled
workmen the right to aid in war produc-
ton, simply because they do not hold
union card
The New Deal knows that it cannot get
by with an outright draft of labor in
which those who are drafted are forced
to join a labor union. 1t would be like
drafting a man into military service and
telling him that, before he could fight, he
had to join the American Legion. Yet
the New Deal is reluctant to abandon its
closed shop policy in war production, in
spite of the harm it has already done.
1t seems to US that we've got to do one
of two things: forget about the labor
draft or the closed shop one or the other