Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1944-04-02
Crisis Inlpends
AS DeferIrlent
|ParIeyConapses
First lnterugency
Session Fails; McNutt
May Scrap Committee
BY JAMES Y. NEWTON.


BY JAMES Y. NEWTON.
In a stormy session, the special
Interagency Industrial Defer
ment Committee threw out re-
quests for draft deferment for
men under 26 in several inn
portant industries, including
food, communications and log
|ging, and threatened to ignore
appeals of coal mining interests
that the Nation will face a fuel
disaster unless about 10000
young miners are kept on the
job.
All of this and more occurred at
sessions of the new committee FRI
day, when, as one official put it, the
members acted more like school,
boys than responsible men," The
meeting, it was learned, was fea-
tured by name-calling, bitter word
exchanges and little positive action
in the way of selecting the few "irre-
placeable" young men who must be
retained in industry for efficient
prosecution of the war. The COM
mittee finally adjourned to meet
again tomorrow and resume the
tug
McNutt May Scrap Committee.
~
Last night it appeared impossible
to tell just what committee actions
we're final and there were indica-
tions that Chairman Paul ". Nc
Mutt Of the, War Manpower Com
mission, who also heads the Inter-
agency Committee, might have to
scrap the committee as unavoidable.
In that event, Mr.. McNutt and
VINO would handle the whole job
of naming the industries and men
for whom deferment requests will
be made. The manpower chief told
congressional committee last week
he would have "the final say In
the matter of deferment recom-
mendations:
The Friday meeting was just q
preliminary one in which the COM
mittee members were supposed to
select the critical industries, or ac-
tivities, for which special Selective
Service consideration would be ask
ed in. the matter of deferments for
registrants under rs. The group
failed to clear even that early
hurdle, however, and seemed long
Iway from completing the job of Sc
Ilecting first the plants, then the
actual men in the plants who must
he retained.
Draft machinery throughout the
country, meanwhile, under orders to
call up Immediately for physical
examinations all of the occupation
Ially deferred men under rs, was re-
ported to have moved a large NUM-
Der OF the men close to actual in
duction. Draft boards in the indus
trial State of Michigan alone were
said to have called 1900 young
deferred men by mid-March and
many of these now are regarded
as virtually in the armed forces. In
other States the draft also appeared
to be beating the deferment COM
mittee to the essential workers.
Pee Votes as Unit.
The War Production Boards Pro.
duction Executive Committee, man.
power claimant on the interagency
committee for war manufacturing
industries, was said generally to
have taken the position at Fridays
meeting that only the young men in
the must" manufacturing programs
should be considered for deferment.
The PEG, heavy with Army and
Navy representation, opposed in
clusion on the preferred" list of
such industries as food processing,
coal mining, logging, communities
lions, commercial fishing and trans
portation.
With the big Pee voting nearly
as one man, the demands of the
War Food Administration and Fed
eral Communications Commission
for deferments in the food and COM
municationS industries were over
ridden. Logging also was dropped
of the list. A decidedly unfavor-
able attitude was shown toward the
deferment requests of the Office of
Defense Transportation, though the
meeting broke up before final con-
s1deration was given the vast trans
portation industry. ODT had asked
deferment for 900 railway conduc-
tors, most of them in freight work,
and other committee members
laughted at the request.
Most of the heat in the meeting
was generated over the issue of
deferment for coal miners. The
Solid Fuels Administration placed
requests for some $4,000 miners in
the % to rs age group, abandoning
about $4,000 miners under %.
Several times the committee voted
the miners out completely, but gave
approval over objections of Army
and Navy officials when STA
scaled down requests to cover only
miners from % to &c with at least
three years experience.
May Drop Miners.
When the committee approved the
STA final request. Pee members
threatened to bring in a greatly ex-
banded list of war manufacturing
industries for consideration at to-
morrows session. If this threat is
followed through, it is believed the
miners may be dropped.
Rear Admiral Howard L. Vickery,
vice chairman of the Maritime Com
mission. was said to- have used
sharp words when the committee
voted down one of his requests. On
that occasion, tie-vote was broken
when Mr. McNutt ruled against
Admiral Vickery.
In one of the few positive acts of
the meeting, the committee ap-
proved the request of the Petroleum
Administration for War for defer
ment of several hundred chennistS