The Wilmington morning star., 1945-02-03
National Service Bill
WOODROW

Thousands of words have been written, pro
and con, about the needs for National Service
legislation. Less emphasis has been placed
on Just what is in the bill and what It means
to the individual in it's general purpose OF
forcing more workers into war jobs.
Remember it's still only bill. 1t cannot
become law until the Senate passes it and the
President signs it.
Its principal provisions, as outlined by
James Marrow of the Assoc ated Press, are:
The bills big club is welded by the local
draft boards.
The bill covers men Is to As. Draft boards
can ask then-and then order them to
change from their pres ent job to job where
the board says they're needed
If they don't comply-or leave job to
which the board directs them-they can be
drafted into the army or fined $4,000 and
sentenced to years in jail
But-a board must give man reasonable
choice of jobs if it orders him to quit the
one he's in.
And-the man can appeal TO the draft ap
peals board, just as man could if his draft
board changed his draft deferment classical
ton and ordered him to report for a physical
examination.
And - a man may refuse to fellow the
boards order. If he does, he may have to
prove to his board a court that he has
good reason for refusing.
Boards are instructed in the bill to consider
the effect on a mans family before ordering
him to change jobs, and the effect On him.
Suppose job is away from home A man
who took such job voluntarily, OF at draft
boards orders, would receive travel pay to
the job and, when the need for him there
ended, travel pay home again.
There is no provision for moving his family
But he gets the same benefits as servicemen
under the soldiers and sailors civil relief act.
This act would protect him in various ways
from civil law suits for failure to pay what he
owes on life insurance, rent mortgages
leases, real estate taxes.
And, just as veterans are, such a man
would be entitled to his old job back with
his seniority protected, if he applied for it
again within 80 days after finishing up at the
job where the draft board sent him.
Farmers are practically exempt from this
bill. If their draft boards, which originally de-
ferred them as essential, still think they're
essential on their farm they stay there.
But a man who is working in war plant
can, under the bill, be ordered to work in
some other job which his draft board saws
needs him more, such as farm
The big boss of all this would be war mobi1
izer Byrnes. Government agencies. like the
War Manpower Commission or War Produc-
ton Board or army or navy would tell him
where workers are needed most
Efforts would be made to get men for thu
jobs on a voluntary basis.
VINO and its U. S. Employment Service un-
doubtedly would do the recruiting, as they
have right along.
The draft boards in the area needing the
men for certain plants would be told of the
problem.
They'd look over their lists of men 10 to
IS and set them up in categories
If a certain plant needed certain type of
skilled worker, the draft board could look
through it's lists, find the man, and ashland
finally order-him to change.
The first efforts would be made, so the
bill says, to get the men for war or war-sup
porting jobs who now are not in them.
And one more thing which is very impor
tant for everyone 18 to As:
This bill would impose a real job freeze
on everyone for no one, whether he's Workin.
for himself or someone else, could change Il
another job without the draft board approval