Evening star., 1944-07-09
The VINO Con Cite
Impressive Results
Despite "Manpower Middle" a
Colossal Job Was Done
By ". II. Harrison

By ". II. Harrison
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Scores Of examples Of this sort can be
cited by the War Manpower Commission
not only to justify its recent Nation
wide extension Of the priority referral
plan, but also to support the thesis that
the commissions record has been too
little appreciated and that criticism of
1t has been monumentally ill-informed.
Ever since it came into being, the agency
has been kind Of whipping boy whose
hide has been tanned periodically by
politicians, editors, cartoonists, the
heads OF wOmens clubs and the average
man in the street, but its own view is
that 1t has done good job, and it has
considerable reason for feeling that way.
When 1t was created on April 1s. 1912
with the confusion of Pearl Harbor
still only four months old-the VINO had
to base its operations on several primary
facts. These included, first, that the
total labor force of the United States
numbered in the neighborhood OF
60,00O,00O Americans, including the mill
tary and men and women both employed
and unemployed; second, that out of
this force, within the following two
years, something like 5000, 900 active and
potential civilian workers would have to
be drafted to build the personnel of the
Army and Navy up to 100000; third,
that If arms production were to be
maintained, the enormous amount of
manpower thus siphoned away by selec-
tive service would somehow have to be
replaced: fourth, that millions of citi-
zens Of both sexes, including those who
would normally not be employed. would
have to accept training in new skills and
enter war work. or transfer from nom
essential jobs to essential ones, or be
prevailed upon to pull up their roots and
move to cities where their help was
needed; and. fifth, that all this would
have to be done without compulsory
legislation, through moral suasion and
appeals to patriotism.
Perhaps II there had been a national
service act subjecting every one to COM
pulsion, the manpower situation would
have been handled more smoothly. But
that speculation is beside the point now.
The fact is that no such law was passed
and that the WINGS record cannot be
assayed fairly without keeping that in
mind. To be kept in mind, too. is the
human factor, the simple reality that
men and women cannot be treated like
Jumps Of coal or bars of steel, to be
moved here and there at will or utilized
as II they were automatons instead of
being what they are-personalities sep
arate and distinct from one another,
and not at all amenable to rigid blue
printing. And equally important is the
factor Of the nature Of war. War is flux.
Inherent in 1t are uncertainty and con-
fusion. guess and gamble. with the man.
power requirements of the armed forces
changing daily and with the character
and volume Of military production
undergoing constant revision, upward or
downward, in line with battle experience.
1t is against such background as this
"a vast complex of intricate and unpre-
dictable variables-that the War Man.
power Commission must be judged if it
is to be judged justly. 1t is against this
background-greatly oversimplified here
that Americans must measure the
charges of incompetence, bungling and
muddleheadedness which have been
hurled, like robot bombs, indiscrimi-
nately at the VINO. And one other
point in the picture demands consider
ation-the fact that although close to
II, ,000, 900 Americans have been drawn
into the armed forces, enough labor has
been kept svailable in this country not
merely to maintain war production
which is running toward 100 billion
dollars this year (as against less than
2 billions in 1880. but also to maintain
as we'll, production of civilian goods
valued at nearly 80 billion dollars. or
only about or billions under the total
OF four years ago.
To the extent that Its responsibility Is
to see that sufficient manpower is on
hand "at the proper places at the proper
time and in proper quantity the VINO
cannot be blamed if it feels that it
deserves more credit than it has received
for the part 1t has played in making this
great achievement possible. Through its
joint committees representing manage
ment, labor, agriculture and Govern
ment, and operating with thousands of
volunteers on the principle of highly
decentralized regional or local admins
tration, 1t has largely mastered the
colossal problem handed over to it in
1912. This it has done in a flexible
manner, with a minimum of mandatory
powers, through a variety of devices,
such as its priority referral plan. With
arms contracts being Cancelled and with
large numbers of workers tending to
leave their essential jobs to find perma-
nent peacetime positions in nonessential
industries, its task may be more difficult
than ever in the months Immediately
ahead. But it is sure of being able to
cone with the situation not least of oil