Evening star., 1943-10-01

has, ns, been 3ss rat;ss m,ss T~
needs a national David Lawrence.
service law to control jobs and en-
ployment generally. But the pas
sage OF such law would be q
grave mistake unless the present Sc
lective Service System were first
overhauled and proper administra-
tive measures introduced to give it
efficiency.
The Selective Service System was
created by Congress not Just to find
manpower for the Army but to make
sure that civilian production on the
home front was not impaired To-
day production schedules are not
being met, and Americas future IN
the air war depends on maintenance
OF engineering employees essential to
aircraft development. One estimate
made is that if the draft is not re-
arranged to allow for proper Sc
lection, as much as 40 per cent OF
the engineering stats of certain i'm
portant aircraft companies will be
taken away from their very essential
work.
Real Issue Stressed.
The cry that the drafting of
fathers was necessary so as to per-
suade persons not engaged in essen
tlal work to get work in essential
industries is related to only a small
segment of the problem. The real
Issue is how to maintain in industry
certain essential employees needed to
keep up and improve upon America S
existing schedules.
Senator Byrd charges that man.
power is being boarded py the Gov
ernment itself. There are many
agencies of Government which, like
industry, should not be deprived of
valuable and irreplaceable workers,
but the Virginia Senator says an in
vestigation Of the personnel of the
Federal Government has convinced
hlm that there are at least 100000
noncssential employees. He points
out that their dismissal was recon-
mended on June l8 last, bv the
Joint Committee on Reduction of
Nonessential Federal Expenditures.
The manpoTer officials of tie
Federal Government have a respon-
slbility to sift carefully the en-
ployes OF the Government and ascer-
tain whether many of them, espe-
cially those of draft age. should be
ordered from the payroll Govern
ment agencies have been slow to
respond to this need and some dras-
tic action may become necessary
by Congress to achieve the result,
incidentally. there is much criti-
oism on Capitol Hill of the medical
standards. Two points of view pre-
Vall-those who think the AT cate
cory could be combed for non COM
batant or limited service men and
those who think the so-called stand
ards are very lax anyhow. On the
latter side, this correspondent has
received an interesting letter from
an eminent physician in a large
city who has been serving on a local
draft board He writes:
I'VE used to have thorough med
ical examination by competent
medical men in this community.
men recognized as certified special
lists in their lines, but this was taken
away from us and turned over to
the Army induction stations. If a
man is definitely At we can hold
him back, Otherwise, he must be
sent to Army induction stations for
decision by men already over
worked who have no time to go into
the case thoroughly, One ear. nose
and throat specialist, formerly re-
tired from practice, over 70 years
old, told me he was examining over
$50 cases day and thought he was
doing a thorough job which, of
course, is ridiculous.
The doctors on my board have
served two years now and know the
ketup well. Many refuse to appear
on examination nights because they
feel there is nothing for them really
to do. Unless man is completely
deaf in both ears, or has complete
atresia of the canals or unsightly
deformity, he is passed on his ears.
even though he has a chronic run
ming ear or mastoiditis. He must
be blind in both eyes before the eve
specialist can take any part. In
other words, intelligent, qualified.
certified medical men are asked to
serve on these boards but are def
nitely blocked from giving them
this benefit unless the man Is so
definitely disabled that a schoolbov
could rate him. Is this what Con-
grcss intended in the Selectiye
Service Act?
We see case after case that we