Imperial Valley press., 1943-10-04
CONGRESS TALKS WHILE
FATHERS GO TO WAR


While Congress argues about the neces-
sity and feasibility of drafting fathers
selective service officials in all but eight
states are calling up such heads of fam
lilies.
Whether or not men who had estab
lished family connections, including chii-
dren, prior to the Pearl Harbor attack
must be called upon to shoulder gun
should depend upon two things:
|. The actual military manpower needs
of the Allies to bring this war to speedy
and successful conclusion.
g The most economical use of man.
power available both in the armed forces
and in the war plants
General George Marshall, army chief
of staff, and his supporting military
chieftains have declared that 1t will be
necessary to take several hundred thous-
and of the formerly ga classification
men or to change the strategy of the
army.
While one senator, Sheridan Downey
of California, has gone so tar as to Sug-
gest that the overall strategy be changed
by greater use of air bombing, 1t Is agreed
that the testimony of our top military ex-
perts should have great weight in lnflu-
encing any act of Congress to stay the
father draft.
The other point which should be con-
sidered in the problem which directly
affects thousands of American homes,
is one which is great deal more contro-
verSial.
Unfortunately there is no accurate way
of determining exactly how many men
NAV be idle great deal of the time in
the war plants or how many servicemen
are being kept in training camps without
much chance of ever seeing active SER
vice.
The war plant owners and the army
officials don't like inquiring newsmen
or other investigators prying around.
About the only persons allowed to even
visit such establishments are small par
ties of high government officials.
Unfortunately there are many ways IN
which small groups of relatively un-
trained observers may be "misled.'
There are many thousands of young
men now exempt from military service
because they hold jobs in war plants If
it can be proved that two men could do
the work that now takes three, the third
man would have to be released from the
plants and his deferment taken from him.
There are also thousands of government
employees also holding such deferments.
But while Congress does not act to
to make the most economical use OF other
available manpower, draft boards must
send fathers to fill army quotas assigned
to them.
One board head, Ray A. McKinnie,
head of the Maricopa, Arizona, panel,
had quite bit to say about the problem.
It makes good sense to US. We shall
quote him in part:
'1t is my opinion, substantiated by the
reports of dozens of men and women ac-
tually engaged in the aviation industry,
that the waste of manpower, effort, time
and money in this industry is appalling
and shameful. Deliberately planned
slowdowns strangling work-rules and
regulations which permit worker to do
one one small detail regardless of his
actual capabilities-these are things
which are causing many an able, quail
fled workman to quit in disgust-and the
employment records and turnover of the
plants reflect this fact.
"The answer to the manpower problem
in war industry definitely doesn't lie with
the father group-but within the indus
tries themselves, and their desire to hire
only what they actually need.a
Before we Jump into this one indis-
criminately, and start calling according
to order number and regardless of the
number of dependents, let's take look
at the setup and see how 1T can be done
in the most satisfactory way for the mill
tary, with the least disruption of family