Evening star., 1943-09-12
BY Marquis ". Childs.

The new system for the West Coast
grew out Of an urgent plea which Gen.
H. H. Arnold, chief OF the Air Corps,
carried to James F. Byrnes, head Of
the ONCE Of War Mobilization. Arnold
was afraid he would not get the planes
necessary to step up the attack on Eu-
rope and in the Far East He had be-
come alarmed over reports of declining
production.
Byrnes promptly turned to his unpaid
assistant, Bernard M. Baruch, who a
year ago unscrambled the rubber mess
in fortnight report that cut through
the underbrush of controversy to get
down to basic facts. He asked Baruch
to analyze the problem Of manpower
scarcity in airplane plants on the West
Coast. With another unpaid assistant,
John M. Hancock banker and indus
trialist, and the small staff these two
men have recruited at their own ex-
pense for their own use, Baruch got
down to the job.
Within surprisingly short time
Baruch and Hancock had completed a.
concise outline OF the problem which
included recommended solution.
Byrnes was urged to form community
committees around local leaders who
would, first, have the respect and con-
fdence OF the community and, second,
knowledge of local conditions that an
outsider could never have. These local
committees would exercise priority con-
troll within their areas.
The report stressed the Importance Of
the proper distribution OF workers as
between airplane centers. It also urged
extreme care in considering any further
expansion OF West Coast war production
and suggested the need to curtail in
dustry there. Equally important, the re-
port explored the human phases of the
problem, making it quite clear that
workers could not be expected to stay on
the job without housing which provided
minimum Of decency and without some
recreation and relaxation. Particularly
In this section, dealing with what Ameri-
can workers need and desire, the report
showed Baruch's broad understanding
and demonstrated why his advice has
been so valuable in the war crisis.
Real Objectives Blurred.
After studying it himself, Byrnes sub
mitted the report to the War Mobiliza-
ton Committee. With some modifica-
tions it was adopted. Unfortunately, the
notifications tend to blur the real OBJ
jective-control in the local communities
and leave the way open for further
disputes among the claimants for man.
power.
Instead Of one committee in each Of
five West Coast war centers, the plan
as modified calls for two committees.
No. will be a Manpower Priorities Com
mittee. This will be set up by the War
Manpower Commission which will select
as local chairman man outstanding in
the community. On this committee will
be representatives of the various pro-
curement agencies-War Production
Board, Army, Navy, the Aircraft Re-
sources Control Office and Manpower
Commission.
These same local representatives will
also serve on another committee-an
Area Production Urgency Committee
with another chairman. This commit
tee will consider the whole area from the
viewpoint of production urgency and will
make recommendations to the commits
tees functioning locally.
There were strong arguments for COM
bining both functions in a single group
but this was overruled by the procure
Nf he al
will depend on how much authority
Army, Navy and WPB grant to their
local representatives so that the two
groups can operate without constant in
terfercence from Washington. Sponsors
OF the plan are confident, however that
1t will bring about a marked improve
ment although there are likely to be de-
grees of success as between one city and
another.
No one can doubt the need for drastic
new action. Byrnes in announcing the
plan said that schedules for important
war items were behind as a result of
manpower shortages. The war work
scheduled for the coast this fall and
winter, according to Byrnes, would re-
| quire 100000 persons in shipbuilding and
ship repair and 100000 more in aircraft
| production.
1T is obvious" said Byrnes, that the
production program scheduled for both
war materials and civilian supplies must
be carefully re-examined to make cer-
tain that the production most urgently
needed is not held back by efforts to
meet production less urgently needed and
that, whenever feasible, work that can
be done elsewhere is shifted to areas
where labor shortages are les sacute
"Manpower and production cannot be
dealt with separately, for they are in
separable parts of a single but compli-
Gated problem. The West Coast war
manpower program calls for the closest
cooperation between VINO, the WPB
and the various procurement agencies
on national, regional and an area
basis.
THE program adopted 10 not . pro-
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