Victory worker. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1942-1943, 1943-01-01
Axis Wrings Labor

maximum utilization Of her man
power. and Japan has faced a Ia
Dor shortage for two years, the
United States has great unused re-
sources after spending the first
/ two years of this country's war
/ production program in taking up
the slack in its labor force, the
Office of War Information report
ed today.
During that period, planning al
ready was under way in anticipa-
ton of the time when demands for
men to meet American military
and industrial needs would require
a comprehensive manpower policy.
The present debate over what that
policy is to be has brought the
word "manpower" into the public
limelight.
The United States today stands
at about the same spot where Ger
many with respect to training, job
placement, and other specific man
power problems stood five years
ago. She faces the problem of
training more men and women in
needed skills and of seeing that
her men and women reach the jobs
where they make the best contri-
button to the war effort.
While Germany has exhausted
her own labor force and is desper-
ately draining men from the coun-
tries she has subjugated the Uni
ted States is only beginning to dip
into its supply of potential labor
reserve in the American popula-
ton. One fact makes apparent
the difference between their prob
Inns. When Germany built up an
army of 9 million, she left only 9
million men between the ages of
Is and As to man the home front
If the United States armed forces
should reach a 8 million figure,
there will still be almost 20 million
men between Is and 40 in civilian
life.
Germany today already has
wrung all she can out of every
worker, while the United States
has been making beginnings to-
ward fullest use of all her labor.
The War Manpower Commission.
the governmental agency charged
with the responsibility of effective
ly Harvesting American manpower
to the war, is in its infant stages.
1t has taken definite steps TO meet
critical labor shortages that have
appeared in one or two industries
and in a number of localities, and
it is now forming a policy to be
followed in the future as the indus
trial power of America increases.
The very policy-forming process
of the Commission provides
sharp contrast with the method used
in dictator nations. Commission
policies are referred to its national
management labor policy commit
tee for consideration. This COM
mittee is composed of an equal
number of representatives from
labor and management. Its voice
is a potent factor in developing
policies in the democratic, Ameri-
can way.
In each of the Commissions re-
gions and industrial areas, similar
committees of management and la
Dor representatives are. provided
for. The Nations manpower
problem is really a network of To-
Called manpower problems, and
each locality will have its own
manpower regional or area COM
mittee to help solve its own prob
lem with democratic methods.
Between June, 1910, and J9ne.
1912, the number of persons in CT
william employment and the armed
forces increased from 4s.1 millions
to 81 millions. Of these SIS mil
lions came from the ranks of the
unemployed and most of the re-
mainder represented the natural
increase in the working force. To-
day the United States faces the
need of supplying a working and
fighting force of 62.5 millions by
December, 1913.
To get the additional ga million
the nation must dip into its po-
tential labor reserve of 31.9 mil
lions-the million farm operat-
ors working sub-marginal land and
producing only 8 per cent of the
commercial farm crop, the "A mil
lion non-farm housewives under as
with no children under 16, the OIL
million non-farm housewives with
children, the 9.5 million non-farm
housewives over IS and the 90
million students between the ages