Evening star., 1944-03-22
$500 Civilian
Experts Of Navy
Face Draft Call
Higher Authority
Needed to Block
Induction, Boards Say
BY MIRIAM OTTENBERG

BY MIRIAM GUTENBERG.
approximately $500 youthful
experts here, nearly half OF
whom are hand-picked scientific
"geniuses" developing methods
OF improving the efficiency OF
the fleet, face induction in the
near future unless higher au-
thority" steps in to save them, il
was learned today.
A District selective service spokes.
man disclosed that the Navy, which
is the largest employer of these
draft eligibles under 26, will be ad-
vised to take its case to some higher
authority to determine which, il
any, of the men will be saved from
the draft.
Who or what the higher authority
will be is yet to be decided, but II
was indicated that District head
quarters is marking time until pro-
duction and military officials get
together on how far draft boards
should go in pulling skilled men of
essential work.
Roosevelt Promises Aid.
In the meantime, President Roose-
velt, in a letter to DR.. Charles l..
Parsons, secretary of the American
Chemical Society, promised to keep
in mind the latters request that spe-
cial consideration be given to the de-
ferment of scientists under 26 who
are specially skilled in chemistry
chemical engineering, physics or
other sciences useful to war work.
While pointing out that "there
is a great demand for men under
rs for combat duty overseas" the
President said in his letter that
'the special need for such men IN
scientific work in industry will be
kept in mind as we proceed to draw
more and more younger men into
the armed services"
DR.. Parsons said that "this is the
first time we have received any con-
structive help from any high au-
thority," adding that 5000 chem
lists now in the Army and Navy had
been given assignments which did
not utilize their specialized train
ing.
Eager to Dip in Pool.
1t was clear District draft boards
are eager to dip into the new man.
power pool created by raising the
age limit on most industrial defer
ments to 26.
District draft boards have already
Cancelled deferments held by 27O
men in the l8-to-21 age group in
the Navy Yard, all of them ma
chinists and toolmakers building
parts for naval guns. A District
spokesman said the Navy Yard
might be able to absorb this loss,
but he wasn't sure what would hap
pen if 1900 skilled machinists-94O
In one department-were all pulled
out of the Navy Yard at once.
The remainder of the District reg
istrants under 26, all previously de-
ferred, according to the District
spokesman, because Of their critical
skills, include 500 scientists at the
Naval Research Laboratory, or more
than one-fourth Of the laboratory s
total force; about 100 engineers,
chemists, architects and physicists
in Navy Department bureaus; about
20 men at the Naval Observatory
who develop and repair navigational
and Astrological instruments; a SUBJ
stantial number at the Bureau OF
Standards and large group of en-
gineers, metallurgists and physicists
at the Naval Ordnance Laboratory
the Navy's chief ordnance expert
mental plant.
Navy chiefs, the District spokes-
man said, had been willing to GER
tify that the young men at the
Naval Research Laboratory were
genluses and that the efficiency OF
the fleet was largely the result OF
the brains at the laboratory"
Procured From Colleges.
The Navy, he said, had procured
some of the men in, the colleges
by special recruiting missions OF
letters to deans of scientific schools
The only ones accepted, he said he
had been informed. were ''poten-
tlal geniuses," some of whom have
since been credited with important
scientific developments.
Other men at the laboratory. he
said, were radio engineers, who hac
grown up with radio" as radio
hams" and were building their own
transmitters before they were 16.
The District spokesman said il
was apparent these were bona fide
scientists, because they had chosen
to work at the laboratory rather
than accept more lucrative jobs in
| private industry.