Evening star., 1943-08-27
Nearing Universal Service

In his National Radio Forum speech
Wednesday evening, Chairman Paul
v. McNutt of the War Manpower
Commission made this significant
statement:
Again, let me say we are fighting
total war-a war in which a man
must accept the assignment given to
him-the spot where he can best serve
the war effort. That spot may be
copper mine, in agriculture, in an
aircraft factory or in the Army. We
are ali in the same boat.
The statement Is significant be-
cause it embodied the whole principle
OF a National Service Act, concerning
which the administration leaders in
Washington have carefully withheld
Endorsement.
They have withheld this indorse-
ment in the hope that the detectives
OF such an act-applying the prin-
ciple OF the selective draft for civilian
as well as military service-can be
reached by the so-called voluntary
methods of the War Manpower Com
mission. But we have not been able
to reach them by such methods.
In this same speech, one of the
.clearest and most convincing presen-
tations of the manpower problem vet
made, Mr.. McNutt described the
situation which faces us now: Plants.
factories and shipyards are falling
behind production schedules; acute
labor shortages are found in the en-
tire West Coast region, the ore regions
OF the Great Lakes, the timber
regions of the Northwest. Plants are
actually shutting down, in some
localities, because the men are not
available to run them.
And what are we going to do about
it9 Try again, with more stringent
restrictions against transfers from
one job to another, to freeze labor
In present employment; try again,
with the threat of military service
as the alternative, to force people
from less or nonessential employ
ment into essential jobs. And to do
all this through directives from
Washington, based on the sometimes
nebulous authority of executive order,
instead OF by specific legislation. It
may work. But there is little in our
experience to date to justify the hope
that it will work.
Congress is coming back to Wash
ington next month with many of it's
members determined to stop the
draft OF fathers, destined To put
nearly half million of them in the
armed services between now and the
f1rst of the year. Legislation arbi-
.trarily banning inductions, such as
proposed by Chairman May of the
House Military Affairs Committee
is IN its way more dangerous even
than the serious manpower shortage
In war industries. Such legislation
would compound, rather than SIM
plify, the problem. For the civilian
problem is not to be solved by cutting
on the supply of manpower for the
armed services. The real problem is
properly to utilize existing manpower
where 1t is most needed. If this can
not be done through the new regu-
lations OF the Manpower Commits
sion, then the solution must be
sought through legislation.
The military authorities will have
to Justify their needs for roore ,,oan
OF course. But before they are
penalized by arbitrary legislation
against the draft of fathers, there
should be definite demonstration
that everything that can be done has
been done to utilize available civilian
manpower. Short of a National
Service Act, everything that can be
done has not yet been done.