Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1945-03-13
|McNutt Doubts
Mai Defeat Will
Wipe Out Jobs
House Hats Move
To Put Monpower
Bill in Conference
BY J. A. O'LEARY.


power requirements Of either
the Federal Governments or Of
the Nation generally will follow
the defeat of Germany, if pres
ent estimates of procurement
agencies for the Pacific war
hold, War Manpower Chairman
McNutt told the Joint Congress
sional Economy Committee to-
day.
While Mr.. McNutt was testifying,
efforts to get the controversial man.
power bill into conference we're
blocked on the floor of the House.
paving the way for showdown vote
in that branch tomorrow On the
Senate and House remedies.
Representative Hook, Democrat,
Of Michigan objected to the request.
of Chairman May of the Military
Affairs Committee for unanimous
consent to submit the issue to con-
ferees. This ended the floor dis
cussion for the time being, forcing
Mr.. May to apply to the Rules
Committee for special rule to pro-
coed.
Test on Roll Call.
When this rule is submitted, prob
ably tomorrow, it will give opponents
of the original House work-or-jai
bill, asked for by the administration,
a chance to obtain a new roll-cau
test of House sentiment. If the
opponents beat the rule they then
will be in a parliamentary position
to move to accept the milder Senate
bill without going to conference.
During brief debate with Rep
resentatiye Harness, Republican, of
Indiana, Mr.. May pointed out that
it is customary for the two houses
to work out their differences in
conference, that the House would
have its chance later to vote on any
agreement the conferees reached,
and that if no agreement apparel
likely, he would return to the House
for instructions
Although called by Chairman.
Byrd to discuss the possibility of
tcurtailing Federal employment, Mr..
McNutt discussed the overall out
look
Il do not mean that Federal en-
ployment cannot decline or that
it should not decline after. the col
lapse of Germany" Mr.. McNutt
continued. But there ara a num-
Der of factors which lead me to
think that the decline will be
gradual
Termination Policy Set.
One factor is the established
policy of the Government concern
ing contract termination. Under the
policy, as stated by Justice Byrnes
in his September report to the
President, privately owned plants,
not normally engaged in production
OF military character, will be given
first priority of release from war
production in order to facilitate
their reconversion to civilian pro-
duction. This should mean, gener-
ally, that Government-owned plants
and particularly Governments
owned-and-operated plants - will
be kept in operation until their pro-
duction clearly is no longer re-
CURED
Another factor is the probability
that the close of the first phase of
the war will not bring with it the
almost complete termination of war
time controls which we enormously
expected last fall 1t is more likely
that the national safety will con-
tlnue to require large measure OF
regulation over materials, prices,
wages, manpower and the like. We
all hope that such regulation can
be streamllned in many ways, but
so long as wartime conditions de-
mand wartime regulations the adj
ministering agencies will need per-
sonnet both in Washington and in
the field
Increase Know How"
The wartime Federal agencies
like the great aircraft establish
ments which increased productivity
per man very substantially in the
last several years-have much more
know how today than last year or
the year before. Better perform
ance-more economical and efficient
performance-can be expected OF
them now than in the days of their
extreme youth.
I can assure you that the War
Manpower Commission and the
Civil Service Commission take a
positive approach to the utilization
problem in the Federal agencies,
particularly. the wartime agencies.
We mean to accentuate our efforts
IN this field and to multiply the
kinds OF manpower saving which
have resulted from the installation
OF utilization surveys and improved
utilization methods. Naturally, the
extent to which substantial results