The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-08-24

] NH|HaytIt'
 5 of labor, manage
 As,z 1ssA 'SazHGA ment and the gen.
 wd.o- eral public.
 Baltimore gets this dubious honor by reason of be- ing the first city in which the War ManpoWer Commission has set up regional office, with labor-man- agement advisory committee which will try to work out all these com plicated problems of labor pirating, labor hoarding, increased employ ment of women, control of labor mi grafton, increased training of un- skilled and semi-skilled labor, hous- ing, transportation and all such headaches. If Baltimore can solve these problems by voluntary co-op- eration within the community, the voluntary cooperation method might stick for the duration. If it's no go in Baltimore, then look out for increased agitation for law that will draft labor the same way it has drafted men for the Army-a law that will give the government power to say in effect, You, buddy, have the rare talent for pouring sand in a boot, while you sister, are Gods gift to the buttonhole industry. You will therefore immediately repair to St. Louis, Mo, to pour sand and cut out the goods that a buttonhole goes around, for the duration. And you will like it.
 There may have to be a law like that, anyway, no matter how the Baltimore experiment works out. Af ter election, when Congress gets back on the job, the lawmakers may cut loose on the theory that nobody else is better than a soldier and | therefore anybody that doesn't fight will have to do war work.
 STAGE IN TRANSITION
 It is doubtful if law that dras- tic could be forced through Con- gress, but in the same breath it must be admitted that winning a long war with only voluntary reg ulation of labor supply is like going to bat with two strikes already cal led. The War Manpower Commis- sion's stepping into the Baltimore and other critical war production areas calls for big league pinch hit ting. But whether it fans out or knocks a home run, this effort to do the manpower regulation job on a voluntary basis is a necessary play in the transition from a free to g more rigidly controlled war laboD market. It must be proved that the democratic voluntary system won't work before something else is tried.
 The effort to coordinate Balti- more's manpower problems under government supervision is less than month old, so perhaps it is unfair to make any gueSseS as to whether it is going to be successful. But the problems in Baltimore are funda- mentally the same problems that may have to be faced in New Or leans, Los Angeles, Cincinnati or wherever.
 To start the ball rolling, War ManpoWer Commissioner Paul V. McNutt's organization picked one of its bright young men and told him he was to be regional war man. power commissioner for the Baltt- more area. The man picked was A.. A. Liveright of Chicago, who had been on the McNutt Washington staff and knew what the manpower problems were, though he didn't know Baltimore.
 The responsibility falling on tall, dark MT. Liveright was considerable.
 His first job-his first two jobs, really-were to get about dozen federal, state and local government agencies together and get them all shooting at the same target, which was mobilization of manpoWer for increased war production. Included were the U. s. Employment Service, Selective Service administration, Civil Service, the Labor division of the War Production Board, and all the outfits running labor training within industry, vocational educa- tion, apprentice training, and the Army Services of Supply. Principal agreement among all these was to let the U. s. Employment Service be the one agency which would handle hiring.
 A COMMITTEE IS BORN
 Right along with this came the problem of setting up labor-man- agement advisory committee to run the show for the Baltimore area. Getting a good strong committee was important. It was also tough. WINGS original job freezing order had been a bust. Every employer had been a grabbing labor for him. self, looking out for his own inter ests. Management wasn't any too anxious to sit on committee with the unions. But finally a committee of nine was agreed on, four from A. F. of L., c. I. O., Ma chinists and Maritime labor unions, general manager of Bethlehem Steel, a vice president of Koppers company division, vice president of Martin Aircraft and the president of Cross 6 Blackwell, which was picked because it was not an essen- tial war production industry. Young MT T,iverioht was chairman