Evening star., 1945-07-31

accompanying WTb SH0HHson
J. A. Krug. This is the third OF
series OF articles based on ,D'tnt
he Saw and heard OF problems
of reconUerSion in the areas.
Conclusions draWn are the
tDriter'S, made independently OF
Mr.. Krug.)
BY JAMES Y. NEWTON.
The great aircraft plants OF
Southern California-in the Los
Angeles-San Diego areas-are en-
countering their greatest manpoWeI
difficulties of the war, threatening
to delay reconversion in a part OF
the Nation which, probably more
than any other, from the standpoint
of it's future well-being, needs an
early start to peacetime production
A better way to express 1t, per-
haps, is that the acute manpoWer
shortage in the plane plants Is a
serious threat to manufacture oil
the planes the Army and Navy say
they need to finish the Japs. They
Will not allow this to develop. The
military services only recourse is
to apply pressure that would put a
clamp on civilian manufacture.
That is a bad situation. Nearly
all of the State and community
leaders fear that, at best. Califor-
mia, and particularly the southern
part, where more than half the
population and war industry are
located, will encounter great unem-
ployment when the big VI day
war production cutbacks come.
There are number of other in.
dustrial areas of the country, &C.
cording to WPB, in the same pre-
dicament. Railroading and Goa
mining are two industries that cut
across geographical lines which are
encountering manpower crises. AL
of these tend to slow the start Of
the wheels of peacetime industry
that must be in motion when thai
gigantic public works program
war manufacturers cut of.
The fact that workers are reluc-
tant to apply for aircraft jobs il
more understandable than the mys-
terry of the disappearance of the la
Dor force. In the first place. workers
feel that a plane plant job will be
very temporary. Manufacturers
freely admit that workers are justi-
fed in placing little stock in their
cries for help because their produc-
ton schedules have been cut and
changed so many times in the past
after similarly frantic appeals.
But employment in Southern
California aircraft plants (the ma =
jor ones-there are countless small
ones making parts has dropped
from 209, ,470 to l38,895 since July l,
1914. Employment in California
shipyards has fallen from a peak of
282 900 to less than $1,000. Other
war factory work forces have been
reduced.
Women Leaving War Jobs.
Manpower-hungry service trades
have absorbed some, and there is
evidence that women, in rather SUBJ
stantial numbers, are going back to
keeping house. For example, the
percentage of women employed in
aircraft work has dropped in the
past year from AZ to 1858. But very
little reconversion or return to
peacetime manufacture could be
found. One plant was about to fin
ish 10000 table radio sets, and there
were a few similar examples about
All of the big name" manufac-
turerS in the area were reported
critically short of workers by the
Aircraft War Production Council
Douglas, Lockheed, North Ameri-
can, Northrop and Consolidated
Generally the workers needed were
for key positions, and the most
pronounced shortages were at Lock-
heed. manufacturer of the jet-pro-
PEELED P-80 fighter. and at the
Douglas plant at Santa Monica.
where the giant C-54 transport, all
important for the Pacific war, are
made.
Although recruiting drives were in
full force, many of the plants re-
ported actual manpower losses in
recent weeks.
Some of the manufacturers them
selves probably put the finger on
their manpower troubles when they
expressed doubt that Army Air
Forces production schedules were
realistic" They pointed to the
low rate OF plane attrition in the
Pacific and suspected that a new
cut in orders might be near.
Seek Postwar Schedules.
All asked that they be allowed to
begin work on orders for postwar
commercial plane manufacture as a
means of holding workers on the
job by showing them beyond ques-
ton that there would be work in
the plants after the war.
The fear of all centers OF great
war activity that they would lose
their most highly skilled workers,
particularly those who came during
the war, to more permanent peace
time jobs elsewhere, and be left with
the support of what they describe
as the "WPA type" was more pro-
nounced in California than any
where else.
Gov. Earl Warren expressed that
fear, and Mayor Fletcher Bowron
of Los Angeles echoed it. The
Mayor said he was afraid other
industrial cities will get the jump
on us in reconversion and will draw
away the skilled workers, leaving
us the undesirables."
Mayor Bowron whose worries
seemed similar to those of boom city
fathers the country over, said the
Federal Government by recruitment
had brought in people from all over
the country and it was up to the
Government to develop a plan to
get them back home, that Los