The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-10-11
By JAMES TIIRAsHER CNEA stan Correspondent)

NEA Bt8M CokEe1p pOmueMV
 One of the minor mysteries of che moment is what became of the nationwide m Anpower inventory that selective Service was to make between Sept. lb and oct. l. A preliminary announcement stated that all classiflcations and reclassification of registrantS was to cease while draft boards checked the status of every registrant and accur- ately sorted the contents of the manpower barrel.
 Game Oct. 1, and no announce nent of the results. A telephone call to Selective Service headquar- ters brought forth the opinion that the inquirer must be referring to the 'comblng and recombing of the files" that goes on all the time, but that 1t just wouldn't be good sense to cease classification of registrants entirely, etc, etc.
 There was still the Manpower Utilization division of the War Man. power Committee. Surely they would know, and surely they'd be interest," ed. But Dr. Frank Sparks, head of the division, said he had never heard of the survey. And he had just come hack from the Selective Serv- ice offices.
 But 1t developed that, survey or no survey, Manpower Utilization is beginning to function. After spend- ing a good bit of time in surveys of its own, this correlating agency is directing tangible program toward one of the chief headaches of the war production set-up.
 That headache is foundry produc- ton. The utilization division, Dr. Sparks said, has already reviewed 60 foundries, and Is putting into effect c preferred list of these plants. The preference Is based upon the ''criti- calness" of their end products.
 SELECT 60
 Both WIPE and WING are center ing attention upon the 60 foundries to see that their supply of materials and men is adequate. If any wage disputes, actual or potential, are dis covered, the two agencies pass along their joint recommendation in the matter to the War Labor Board. Selective Service, meanwhile, directs its efforts toward assuring defer ments to the extent that the plants efficient operation will not be im- paired.
 pr. Sparks feels that this concert ed action will get results, and that 1t probably will be the pattern for fu- tyre action in obtaining maximum efficiency from available manpower.
 Good utilization is nothing but good management is good supeTvi- sion throughout the whole operation. But, he adds, good supervision Is increasingly hard to get as the armed forces take more men from industry. Factories are beginning to run out of good candidates for jobs, and of good teachers to train them.
 The old bugabooS of turnover and ahsenteelsm are still the chief ob- stacles to efficient use of manpower, the utilization director says. Sched- uling of material IS much better, however, and labor management re. latlons are showing an encouraging improvement as the need of inter- plant cooperation becomes more widely recognized.
 PASS THE INFORMATION
 The Manpower Utilization set.up can't and doesn't want to supplant private enterprise, pr. Sparks ex- plains. But 1t can pass along to private enterprise information that would otherwise be unobtainable. And It's field men have accumulated a lot of practical knowledge, in go- ing from one plant to another, that occasionally offers Q factory a quick solution to an emergency problem.
 pr. Sparks, incidentally, is prob- ably the most unusual professor" in our entire bureaucratic structure. It's doubtful that even the most ra- bid Republican bureauphobe in Con. gresS would object to his record.
 Frank Sparks is Q Hoosier who started work when he got out of high school and, some 10 years la- ter, became co-founder and treas llrer of Nohlitt- Sparks Industries, a firm making automobile accessories. Through this, and other business in- terests, he waxed so prosperous that he was able to retire at 40-and start to college.
 He was graduated from Butler University in Indianapolis in 1885, and went from there to the Univer- sity of Southern California, where he lectured on economies and ac- quired a masters and doctors de- gree. In lo4l he was made president Of Wabash College.