Evening star., 1944-12-08

G11C oPOGllSIlI Ill SctClllS VI eAGFculc
| urgency.
Lieutenant General Brehon B.
Somervell, chief of the Army Service
Forces, has repeatedly stressed the
danger of prospective serious war
equipment shortages and has told
the Senate War Investigating Com
mittee, headed by Senator Mead,
that unless the manpower problems
are licked this month" there is
every reason to expect that the
shortages actually will be felt at the
battle fronts. Other reports have
indicated that ammunition short
ages already have been felt at the
fronts, but General Somervell says
that this is not the case, the infer
ence being that past shortages were
due to transportation rather than
production failures. The outlook for
the future is so serious, however,
that General Somervell Endorsed the
bonus for warworkers plan ad-
vanced by Chairman Krug of the
War Production Board, and added
that II the. desired results could not
otherwise be secured the only alter
native would be national service
legislation.
The aspect Of this matter which
has not been adequately developed,
and which seems to defy clarifica-
ton, has to do with the reasons for
the continuing labor shortage, espe-
cially with respect to the part
played by labor turnover.
Months have passed since the War
Manpower Commission promulgated
its new regulations which, it was
said, would prevent essential workers
from moving from job to job, and
which would also supply workers
for labor-shortage areas by "squeez-
ing" them out of labor-surplus
areas. The VINO problem has been
complicated by continued inductions
into military service and by an in
creased demand for workers. It
insists, however, that its program is
working satisfactorily, and that the
turnover rate actually is down
slightly over last year.
Perhaps all this is so, but it is
difficult to reconcile it with Mr..
Krug's statement in support of his
bonus plan. He says that the aver
age rate of turnover among the Ma
tion's 100000 warworkers is 7 per
cent per month. In other words,
100000 workers quit their jobs every
month for one reason or another,
making 1t necessary to find and often
to train replacements. In the vital
shipbuilding industry the rate is in
excess OF 10 per cent a month.
At Chicago plant manufacturing
engines for B-29s, according to Mr..
Krug, $50 new workers are being
trained every week, while 75O ex-
perienced workers quit.
In the face of these statistics, as
suming them to be correct, it seems
self = evident that our manpower
controls are not functioning we'll at
all. Many, if not most, of the 100000
workers who leave their jobs each
month do so to take other Jobs.
How do they slip through the regu-
lations prepared by VINO to prevent
precisely that sort of turnover? Are
the regulations simply not being en-
forced, or are they unenforceable?
If the latter is the explanation,
Mr.. Krug's bonus plan, which seems
to have considerable support, might
be helpful. Under it, an as yet un-
determined sum would be set aside
each month for each warworker. He
would get the accumulated total at
the end of the war or upon being
"honorably discharged" If he
should quit at an earlier time he
would not get it. That might supply
the seemingly necessary inducement
to keep workers on the job. In any
event, it seems more promising than
talk Of national service act at this
late date, or the Legislative penal
ties" to which Mr. Krug alluded yes
terday.
When Senator Mead heard Cen
eral Somervel's suggestion regard
ing a national service law, he pro-
tested that the problem could be
licked without such legislation. "It's
got to be-" he said. "It would
take months to put such a statute
on the books, and we've got to beat
this thing in thirty days." To which
those who have been fruitlessly ad-
vocating national service act for
nearly three years might add: Sad,
but probably true"