Evening star., 1943-04-11
America Has Men
@ Enough
By OWen L. Scott.

Inc Dig squeeze on LnS COuntTyS
manpower is just about to be applied.
Out of this squeeze must come an Army
Navy of 10000 900 men. an agriculture
capable Of feeding Americans and their
Allies and an industry productive enough
to arm the American and Allied military
forces.
Official figures offer convincing evi-
dence that there are men enough in the
United States to accomplish these pur-
poses. The figures show that the Army
and Navy can get the men they want
without taking men over 81 years of age
and without taking more than fraction
of fathers in the age group 18 through
81.
At the same time, the Nations farmers
can have deferred from service more
than 5000, 900 men In this same age
group and industry can have deferment
for more than 2.50o,O0O key men, How
ever, there must be careful planning
and wise portioning of men to get
these results. Whether this planning
can be done without National Service
Act, labor draft, is question not yet
answered.
Most national interest centers on the
point of when fathers will have to be
drafted for military service on a big
scale and on the point of whether all
fathers who are physically fit and whose
draft would not cause undue hardship"
to their families will be in service before
the end of this year.
Answers to those and other questions
can be had by glance at the figures.
The Army and Navy had in service
January a total of 6,4OO, 900 men. This
means that 4 400 600 men must be called
up during 1943. Where can these men
be found?
First of all, it turns out that in JAN
uary the draft boards of the country
had on hand more than 1,75OO0O men
who were not even classified When
these men are classified by occupation,
and married men with children are
taken out, and when as many as so per
cent Of those remaining are rejected for
physical reasons there still will be more
than 100000 left for military service
Next, in January there were 100000
lllCll CldoSl41Cu ny vi dlI UCdIuS, UuL Sill
awaiting examination and induction.
Out of this group will come at least
100000 physically fit and otherwise
eligible inductees.
These two groups comprised Americas
hidden reserve Of men. They have rep
resented something like bank account
in the hands of local draft boards, to
be drawn upon gradually.
If selective service requires local
boards to clear up their backlogs of men,
then not far from half of the l943 needs
for men will be met
After that there is a supply of l7-year-
old youths reaching 10 This supply in
1943 will total about 100000 and at
least $4,000 of this number will be
drawn into service by the year end.
That still leaves about 100000 men to
go to reach the goal of 100000
The figures show that there remain
about 125,000 single men with depend
ents who will lose their deferred status
and be drawn into service this year
There also are an estimated 100000
married men with no children who will
not be deferred and who will pass the
physical requirements. That means that
these 100000 will be drawn from the
100000 married men without children
who we're on the books on January l.
When all these sources of men have
been tapped there still will be need to
find about 100000 men. A reservoir of
5765,0O0 married men with children,
not otherwise deferred, was on hand
January l and it is out of this total that
any shortage must be made up How
ever, 1t now is proposed that all bona
flde farmers are to be deferred, so that
100000 farm fathers Immediately will
come out of the 5,765,000 total. That
leases 100000 available fathers to pro-
vide about 1,20000 men for service.
This means that one out of three nom
farm fathers may be taken in 1943. In
asmuch as about half of those called up
Will be rejected on physical grounds it
Is possible that every other physically
MT, non-farm father faces a call
mat Is very pessimistic assumption.
however, for number OF reasons For
one thing it appears doubtful that the
military services will reach the an
nounced manpower goal by the end of
the year. Also, these figures are based
upon rejection of so per cent for
physical reasons when that rate actually
should be nearer 40 per cent. It is
doubtful, too, whether there are 5000 600
remaining farmers in the 10 through 81
age group to defer.
There obviously are men enough To
create the military force asked bv the
Army and Navy When that force is
created, out of %, 1853 900 registered men
In the age groups 18 through "A, there
will remain 16,645,0OO men for industry
and about 100000 for agriculture.
How to apportion these men in order
to make the most of their labor is the
Nations next big problem Other ma
tions in war have solved the problem
by national service act that forces
men into essential work. This country
wants to avoid that type Of labor draft
as long as possible. 1t also is seeking
to delay the draft OF fathers as long as
possible but that delay may not extend