Salt Lake Telegram | 1939-02-16 | Page 1 | Labor Shortage Handicaps Germany's Arms Campaign

LABOR SHORTAGE HANDICAPS GERMANY'S ARMS CAMPAIGN BERLIN, Feb. IS (UP) Nasi Germany, mobilising all Its economic eco-nomic resources and man power for vast self-sufficiency and armaments drives, found Itself confronted today to-day with a shortage of labor almost unparalleled In modern times. Almost every other great power was struggling to find work for millions mil-lions of Jobless people. But Germany Ger-many was unable to find sufficient men to carry out the work to be done. Today S.SO0.000 more Germans Ger-mans were at work than in 129, and men la th TO's ware coming out, of retirement to return to their old Jobs. Th labor situation wsa mirrored vividly in two decrees Issued this week by Field Marshal Hermann Goering, dictator of tha four-year plan to make Germany economically self-sufficient and able to resist an economic siege in event of another war. On decree empowered the ministry min-istry of labor to make all questions of employment and dismissal of labor la-bor subject to the control of the government labor office. The other I will compel all Germans, if called upon by the labor exchange, to quit their present employment and work on Jobs regarded as important to the state. The result of theee decrees wss to give the elate almost complete control and direction of man power and woman power in th country. For lnstanc, If a German under the age of 23 years decides to be a barber he must get permission from ths labor office, which may decide thst Germany does not need sny more barbers and that he had better bet-ter learn welding. Employes must have permission to quit their Jobs. Workers In th metal Industry, building trades and agriculture, as well as domeatle servants, know that, owing to th acuta shortage, they will not obtain such permission. permis-sion. In thousands of stores todsy ons clerk now does the work of two. One 23-year-old engineer told the United Press that in th last few years he had had more than 100 offers of-fers ot jobs. At present he does two Johs, one in the dsytims and the other at night. Actually, before Goerlng's recent decrees, th shortage of man power in tha machine and armaments industries in-dustries was so sever that key men were unable to quit their Job without with-out their employers' consent, and sometimes bad to have the consent of the labor office. Goerlng's new decrees legslised this position and made It efective In all Jobs throughout through-out the country. Reasons for th acuta labor short-sge short-sge are: 1. Compulsory military am. sml-militsry sml-militsry conscription, under whirh . mors than 1.000.000 mrn each yeerj are withheld from the Isbor market. J. Th furious rearmament drive. V The grandiose public works echeme. 4. Ceaseless work on ths westsrn fortifications.' . The drive of the four-yesr plan for economic self-sufficiency. In actual figures, th present picture pic-ture Is as follows: In 1937 there were 1S.K82.000 persons per-sons employed In the reich. Todiy thrre ere over 20.00fi.000 employed, or nearly 7.000.000 mora than In 192H at th depth of th economic crisis.