Evening star., 1943-09-21
Truman Voices Doubt
Army Needs $4,000
More Men This Year
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have 100000 men left in this coun-
try" Senator Truman declared.
Senator Truman also supported
Senator Wheeler's charge that war
industries have surplus manpower,
when he said:
Huge blocks OF manpower are
still being boarded or wasted by the
continuance of practices which
management and labor have a clear
duty to end"
Nearly a year ago, Senator Tru-'
man said, his committee pointed
to number of simple and prac-
tical ways Of achieving efficient util-
ization Of manpower. While some
progress has been made, he said,
Il am sorry to say that it has been
much less than we had q right to
expect from industry and labor in
war effort"
Opposes Overall Service Act.
He turned thumbs down on q. ma
tionai service act, saying 1t Is "effi-
cheney we must seek and not more
complex and unworkable controls"
Discussing the size of the Army,
Senator Truman said:
'The fact is that the number of
men who have been in the Army for
IL months or more and are still in
the United States has been steadily
increasing until today we have
many hundreds of thousands of men
in the Army who are impatient to
be sent abroad or home. The other
members of the committee, of which
I am chairman, and myself have tn
spected a large number of Army
camps and have had the privilege OF
talking with hundreds of the men
In the ranks about their work.
"Over and over again we have
been told that the soldier is doing
now the same thing he was doing
six months or a year or even. two
years ago and that he is learning
nothing new. The boys themselves
and their relatives and friends are
fully aware of this situation, and
they properly resent it,"
Taft to Offer Amendment.
Senator Taft, Republican, Of
Ohio served notice in the Senate to-
day he will offer his amendment to
the Wheeler bill to require the call
ing first Of fathers under 30. His
amendment would apply only to
fathers who were married before
December 8, 1941, who have children
under 18.
Senator Ferguson, Republican, of
Michigan offered a new approach
this afternoon to avoid drafting of
fathers. Believing that cost-plus-
flxed-fee contracts encourage waste
OF labor in war factories, Senator
Ferguson introduced a resolution to
curtail such contracts and predict
ed that If the Manpower Commits
sion will revise its usage of man.
power under fixed-price contracts
it may avoid and is likely to avoid
the drafting of fathers"
His resolution would do two
things:
l. Prohibit any new cost-plus-
fixed-fee contracts, except in ordi-
nary cases where an actual con-
tract price cannot be estimated.
2. Call for the renegotiation of
existing cost-plus contracts.
In his recent report, Mr.. Baruch
recommended a plan, now being
tried on the West Coast, for pooling
priorities to meet the needs Of war
plants in vital areas. At the same
time, the Baruch report deplored
failures of Government agencies to
work as a team in handling the
manpower problem.
Senator Austin, Republican, of
Vermont said yesterdays testimony
by the military chiefs convinced him
the ban on drafting fathers should
not pass.
Although Mr.. Baruch made some
criticism of boarding labor, he also
said it would be unwise to exempt
fathers in nonessential jobs If 1t
meant taking skilled men from war
work.
Meanwhile, Senator Thomas, Dem
ocrat, OF Oklahoma came back to
Washington announcing he would
vote against drafting prewar fathers,
because everywhere I 60 the place
is alive with soldiers" Contendine
this country cannot properly SUP
ply more than 100000 men over
seas, he said it would be better for
the United States to furnish equip
ment for fighting men of the other
Allied nations.
Throughout the Senate hearings,
Senator Wheeler, Democrat, of Mon
tana, has sought to show that
some war plants are boarding
workers and that the drafting
OF fathers would be unneces-
sary If this condition was solved.
1t is expected he will seek to draw
out Mr.. Baruch's views on this con-
tention
To the specific question of wheth-
er fathers should be drafted. the
military leaders take the position
oAAey iACcu d opcClllcu HUMBER OF men
by December 81 to carry out the
strategic plans for pushing the war
against the Axis on all fronts. How
these men are obtained is problem
for selective service.
Selective service officials have tes-
titled they cannot fill the remaining
quota of 100000 men for 1943, on
the basis of present physical stand
ards, without calling at least 446 900
fathers.
Sir Dudley Pound in Hospital
LONDON, Sept. 81 (P.-Admiral
of the Fleet Sir Dudley Pound, first
British sea lord, who returned from
fln IIxaifaA CT q "a Saas.i1r L.