Evening star., 1943-05-02

BY their decision not to finance
Civilian War Services, the Commits
sioners have placed Washington
the Capital, in the position of lag
ging behind the rest of the country
in setting up a civilian defense
organization.
When the National Office OF
Civilian Defense was established, il
divided its work into two parts
The people had to be protected
against air raids. That was the
protective" side.
The protective" side grew
out of the Governments request for
people to buy War bonds, dig VIC
tory gardens, obey point rationing
go into war plants, contribute their
scrap metal.
Civilian mobilization-more re-
Gently called Civilian War Services
was to be the method of bringing
together all the existing agencies
and those that had sprung up be-
cause of the war to solve commu-
nifty problems and taking the Gov
ernment's own problems to the
people.
No Director Since January.
Since Its beginning in November
1941, Washington's civilian mobili-
zation program has followed a
rocky road Half a dozen times
funds have been given it by the
city and removed a week to month
later. 1t has been in and out of
the city government. Appointment
of the director of public welfare
as its chief gave it a social service
aspect that has clung to it ever
since Since January, it has had
no director, and has had to operate
under an Executive Committee.
National OCD has charged that
Washington's program is leaderless
disorganized and without focus. Or
the other hand, the national office
cited nearby Baltimore as an ex-
ample OF what can and should be
done through civilian mobilization.
A Star reporter last week visited
Baltimore to see what it had done
with civilian mobilization.
Instead of social worker. bank
president. Robert o. Bonnell, is the
Baltimore chairman of civilian mobi-
lization. When the program started
last August Mr.. Bonnell went over
the demands Government was max
ing Of its people and the problems
Baltimore had to face and set up
eight sections. He chose as his
chairmen men and women who
already were involved in the jobs
to be done.
Section Heads Are Experts.
A landscape architect heads his
Victory gardens section. The presi-
dent OF a large manufacturing con-
Germ is chairman of the section on
industrial production, in charge OF
dealing with manpower, woman
power, transportation and housing
problems. The chairman of Balti-
more's USO council is his chairman
of the hospitality and entertainment
section. The head of the city's
Salvage Committee is in charge of
his salvage section.
In abandoning the Washington
program. the Commissioners said
the units proposed program would
substantially encroach" on existing
agencies and cited all the agencies
charged with doing similar jobs.
From the start the Baltimore pro-
gram was designed to make full war
time use of the resources already in
the city. Instead of operating them
selves, the civilian war service sec
tions decide how problems should be
solved, call in the interested agen-
cies, assign the jobs and see that
they get done.
For instance, the aircraft fac
tories in Baltimore were calling for
more women workers. The local
War Manpower Commission office
went to the Civilian Mobilization
Committee, which, in turn, called
in leaders of Baltimore industry
No agency, it was decided, could
reach all the women. This had
to be house-to-house canvass.
Plan of Procedure.
The industrial production section.
working with the War Manpower
Commission, drew up a question:
naire. The Civilian Mobilization
Committees education division went
over it. The questions had to be
clear, Some. were eliminated, others
were added In its final form, the
QUESTIONABLE gave an exact pic
ture of what the women of Balti-
more were doing, showed their
training, where children kept them
from working. whether they were
willing to do volunteer work, wheth-
er they would be willing to take
care of the children of working
mothers
Then the committee called upon
its block brigade, principal operat-
ing arm of the committee. The
women were brought together. A
War Manpower Commission expert
told them why industry had to have
more women workers. A movie
showed women at work.
Finally the War Manpower Com
mission had to- agree on two, prin-
ciples. 1t had to follow up the ques-
tionnaires promptly before those
who indicated they were willing to
take jobs changed their minds and
it had to do all the mailing to the
thousands of block captains. That
is fund-saving device Of the Civil
ian Mobilization Committee.
The Block Brigade covered the
city Thousands of women workers
were found for industry. The ques-
tiornaires are now being used by
civilian mobilization's volunteer Of
fee to recruit volunteers for ex-