Evening star., 1943-10-26

dlIOWeO 10 Qe1eT any Government
employe on occupational grounds
unless the deferment has been
requested by the employing
agency and has received the ap-
proval of an independent Review
Committee on Deferment of Gov
ernment Employees consisting of
three public officials and organ
lied by executive order.
'Deferment will be approved by
this Review Committee only in
the case Of Government employees
who occupy key positions, or who
are engaged in highly specialized
and essential work or who pos
sess unique fitness and skill which
are difficult to replace. The con-
cept of key position Is narrowly
limited to positions requiring an
unusual degree of responsibility
and specialized skill, and involv-
ing serious difficulty of replace
ment
1t is clear, therefore. that the
standards of deferment of Gov
ernment workers are much
stricter than those governing de-
ferments in private employment.
A worker in private industry,
unlike the Government employe,
may request his own deferment,
even though his employer does
not see fit to do SO. There is no
agency in private industry COM
parable to this Review Commit
tee of the Government, winch
passes upon job classiflcations
and carefully scrutinizes claims
for deferment of workers. Nor,
in private industry, is deferment
limited to employees who hold key
positions. Finally, the fact that
the worker is engaged in any of
the 1000 occupations classified
as essential by the War Man
power Commission may properly
be considered by the local draft
boards in the case of private
workers, but, despite the fact
that Government service has
been classified as an essential ac-
tivity, the local draft boards can
not defer man in Government
service, not on a replacement
schedule, except in accordance
with the foregoing rules. The
Government, moreover, is handi-
capped by the fact that, due to
budgetary limitations, it cannot
always take on and train new
employees to replace men who are
about to be inducted.
Some Local Boards Grant
Deferments to Z. S. Workers.
am informed that some local
boards, on their own initiative,
have granted occupational de-
ferments to some Government
employees without any prior re-
quest of the Government. Many
OF these deferments were OBJ
tanned before the executive or
der establishing the Review Com
mlttee was issued. These defer
ments are now unauthorized. We
are actively searching out such
cases and when they are discov-
cred. appropriate action is be-
ing taken.
The figures compiled by the
Review Committee reflect the
StrictnesS of the Governments
policy on occupational defer
mentS.
The Post Office Department is
the largest employer in the Gov
eminent after the War and Navy
Departments. 1t has 3l5,74l en-
,ployes, of whom 307,8l7 are To-
Gated outside of Washington.
- These are the men who deliver
the mail and operate local post
Offices. No defermentS have been
sought by the postal authorities
for any employees with the single
exception of postal inspectors.
These inspectors are engaged in
highly skilled work requiring
years of experience. They inves-
tieate postal frauds, check the
accounts of the local postmas-
ters and 90 important work for
the Army and Navy. Only 81
men-all of them postal inspec-
torS-have received deferments.
Twelve of these 81 are fathers.
The number deferred is. there
fore, less than one-twentieth of
l per cent OF the total Post Office
personnel.
The Post Office certainly does
not look like a haven for draft
dodgers
OF the remaining Government
employees nearly half are women.
About 1880 are men of draft
age exclusive of a few small
agencies whose reports have not
vet been submitted. Of these
men, 25,537 are single. 26l95 are
married without children. and
67,647 are married with children.
Let's turn first to the 25,537
single men. BY August Is. l943,
1882 had been classified by Sc
lective Service in class ! and were
awaiting induction, ready to 60
into the armed forces; II ,667 men
had been placed in class 4 as
physically unfit for military serv-
ice, and 1902 had been given a
class-3 classification by their
boards because of dependency or
hardship No information was
available as to the classification
of some 2,743 The lack of in
formation with respect to the
classification of these employees
is due, in part, to the failure of
some individual employees to re-
port, promptly to the Govern
ment their induction or any
change in their draft status, and
to the delays involved in COM
piling figures received from the
field. Occupational deferments
had been received by only 6,043.
Deferments Given 6,043
Explained in Detail.
I should like to analyze these
6,043 somewhat more in detail:
A. 1,UfI OF THESE are IN the De-
partment of Commerce.
100 in the Bureau of Standards
are engaged in scientific work of
prime Importance to the war.
139 in the Weather Bureau are
meteorologists or weather OBJ
servers.
178 in the Coast and Geodetic
Survey are engaged in explora-