Evening star., 1943-04-14
lckes Declares Third
Of His Men Employees
Are Now in Uniform
Tells House Group He
Wos Too Stroit-Luced'
In Seeking Deferments
BY JAMES E. CHINN.

Secretary of the Interior IckeS
declared today that 80 per cent
Of the male employees of his de-
partment are already in the
armed forces, while less than 3
per cent have been deferred.
Any further inroads on the de-
partment's manpower will seriously
cripple its wartime services, he told
a House Military Affairs Subcom-
mittee investigating Federal en-
ploye draft deferments.
you see before you today" he
said, ''the head of an old line de-
partment who now believes he has
erred in his administration of de-
ferment policy. Looking backward
and considering the narrow confines
within which I am permitted to de-
termine policy, must confess
have been far too liberal in grant
ing permission to Department of
Interior employees to enlist in the
armed services and far too straight
laced with respect to asking for de-
ferments from military service. In
both respects, I have concluded I
have not served the national in
terest as wisely as I should"
Man of II Employed.
Mr.. Ickes told the subcommittee,
headed by Representative Costello,
Democrat. of California that the
manpower situation in some of the
technical bureaus of the Interior
Department is so acute that young
sters" of 81, g. and even II have
been hired to fill the gaps.
Yesterday, it was reported to me" !"
he said, that the Geological Survey
has a topographic party operating
near Media, Pa. with three rodmen
hired locally. These youngsters are
81, 81 and II years old, respectively
Their average age is 66. That is
unprecedented.
ITO meet the war demands. the
Geological Survey is already recall
ing men to service who are 70 and
73 years old. and holding other men
in service long past the legal retire
ment age.
Thirty three per cent of the
males of the Department of Interior
between the ages OF 18 and 81. many
Of them married, are already in the
armed services Mr.. Ickes contin-
ued "If this trend continues. We
will fail to do that part of our war
job which the Congress and the
President have laid upon our shoul-
ders, There will result a serious
dislocation in that part of the Gov
ernment for which am responsible
and my department can be justly
charged by the armed forces with
having permitted breach in the
home front"
153 Deferred in ID. C.
Figures given the subcommittee by
Mr.. Ickes showed that of the total
personnel of the Interior Department
of 81 ,141 only 901 had been deferred
from the draft-153 in Washington
and the remaining 748 in the field
service.
Mr.. Ickes pointed to the serious
effect the draft is having in draining
from the bureaus under his super
vision the technicians and scientists
in the Geological Survey. the Bureau
of Mines, the Bureau of Reclamation,
the Bituminous Coal Division and
the Bonneville Power Administration
people. he said. who have unique
and specialized abilities fitted into
tasks which are unique and spe-
clallzed' and cannot easily be re-
placed
1T is difficult, and in many in
stances impossible to replace them"
Mr.. ICkes said. But despite this sit
uation. we have so far clung to the
deferment policy originally enun-
ciated in october of 1910 and pos
sibly-even robably-this has not
been wise from the point of view
of winning the war as quickly as
possible and of winning the peace.
Sees Bureaus Hampered.
Now we are reaching the end of
our rope as to manpower. We have
an administrative headache which
may become acute. Some of our
bureaus are seriously hampered in
the discharge of their ms ndatory
war functions because of Substan-
tlal unframed personnel that have
been thrown into unaccustomed
jobs. In others of our bureaus this
pain in the head already has be-
come chronic.
Unfortunately. it is the technical
bureaus on which the greatest load
falls in the form of demands from
the Army and Navy that have had
the greatest loss in personnel to the
Army and the Navy The armed
services not only call upon these
technicians to work for them in the
bureaus of the Department of the
Interior in their hour of need, the
services also take from them the
personnel without which the work
cannot be done quickly and Efficient
ly and put them in uniform TO do
work that others could do equally
we'll.
This process, and I am guilty of
condonlng it, must not be accele-
rated. Government. in time of war,
Is the most important business of
this Nation. and it has leaned so far
backward on deferments that it has
impaired its ability to do, effectively
and efficiently, technical and organi-
rational jobs, lacking the doing of
which neither the war nor the peace
can be won.'
Bureaus Have War Tasks.
Mr.. Ickes explained that as
result of his policy" 4.788 Interior
Department employees were on mill
tary furlough as of February %,
serving in the Army, Navy Or
Marine Corps. Of those deferred.
hn cold ~,