Show mm suJ Manpower Draft lIs Situation r l Is Nations Nation's Noe No 1 Problem i 4 Political Shadows Darken Vital Issues Con Con- Confronting fronting Every Family National Service Act Subject to Debate By BAUKHAGE News Analyst and Commentator WW wm Service Union Trust Building W Washington ington D C Today a whole year stands be between between tween electIon day and the capital abut but the shadow of coming e cast their shadows before them Like the dark patches on the ground when scudding clouds cross the sun the Washington scene IS flecked With pot pol 1 ides tIcs And there are Issues this time which reach right into every home touch the family where there are men and women of fighting or work working ing age reach into the larder and the Ice box It IS hard for anyone to see these Issues clearly because of the shadow of politics There IS the draft draft the manpower questIon closely interwoven with It there IS food Its production Its dis distribution rationing and prices It takes a keen been eye to see where merit ends and polItIcs begins When Senator Wheeler fathering the deferment of draft for pre Pearl Harbor fathers said the defeat of ii h s measure would be a blow at morale and the nation s children there was no reason to belIeve that he was in n sincere Certainly there was no m in about the army and navy heads who opposed the measure ex C that there were lust Just so many men of fighting age and physique and that a certain job had IP ho be done But to a reporter who ho has been reportIng the doings of mIce and men for more than a quarter of a century I could not help suspecting some of the folk who battled over this legislatIOn What a juicy mor morsel morse sel se it was for the vote getter vote I True the Wheeler bill aimed almed to exempt those who with no foreknowledge of war produced familIes without a thought that babies to quote the ancient wheeze lIke could keep them out of the draft But what about other fathers quite as Pearl m in their pater paternity roty whose hose offspring sprang after the deadlIne supply because tIme or op ty had lIngered PreSIdents PreSIdent's Views There w as no doubt what the Press dent thought when he talked about men With children who were doing no useful thing and who ho mIght If they wished immunity from milItary sen service Ice easily get into a war ar indus industry Industry try They one opponent of the Wheeler bill said were told that they had no responsibility m in the war of ef effort fort at home or at the front Of course thiS argument would not hold If the NatIOnal Service act that nightmare of polIticians were passed The army wants It Sena Senator Senator tor Austin and Representative Wads Wadsworth Wadsworth worth who introduced It it and theIr followers want the It-the WhIte House bas never spoken but of late IS sIlent when It IS said to be willing Now politics long before the diet elec bon tion winds started blowing has dulled men s minds on that subject Manpower Commissioner McNutt has been Willing but not emphatic Perhaps you never read the con contents contents tents of a recent statement Issued through th Office of War Information tion from the Manpower commIS commISsion sion I have treasured It and want to quote its first sentences Better utilization of our work workforce workforce force IS the prImary means of get get- gettIng getting tIng the manpower er needed to supply productIve establIshments of the na nabon nation bon tion You and I can understand that despite the fine four and five syllable Tabor Labor reserves in shortage areas hove been exhausted and the corn com common cornmon mon lack of community services and facilities in such areas usually makes It impossible or undesirable to bring in more workers Also quite understandable on a little thought but would It make you rush out and hunt for a defense Job Where there has been rap d mobilization mo- mo of manpower utilization is not always at its highest level This is not necessarily a reflection on em employers employers When a plant has expand expanded expanded ed its labor force several tImes ex examples ampler amples of ineffective use of man manpower manpower power are certain to follow There is a careful exposItion of a f the athe situation for yoU Now wha what t could the man who wrote that b brunning be e running for when d there were a lot of toes to be stepped steppe d on it would seem for he certain was among the poly syllabics Situation Is s Serious And et the manpower situation is serious It IS w o serious that it has long worried War MobilIzation Di Director Director rector Byrnes Indeed that is why he called on his friend Bernard Baruch the unofficial elder states min of the administration to advise him lum Baruch advIsed him all right not wisely perhaps from a political nt nt and too well for the sensitive sen olfactory nerve of RepublIcan Senator who ho used to tobe tobe be a newspaper man himself The wIly M scented a rodent Had he not you m ne never neer er have heard Baruch s words of wisdom Among other things Mr Baruch commented on hoard ng labor I had heard of that subJect in indignant letters from the wives of workers who ho wrote that theIr husbands were paid to loaf And Senator Wheeler made similar charges and recalled that Senator Truman and his doughty investigators had found alot a alot lot of hoarding of labor With as asI I Wheeler put It it employees falling over over each other and being paid for on the plus cost basIs Testimony before congress had insisted in that there were ere no cost plus contracts under which labor hoard hoarding jog ing would be profitable That was when arose and waved the Baruch report which he had demanded and finally re from l Byrnes Mr read Mr Ba Baruch Baruck ruck ruch s words on the subject of cost plus The government pays all the costs whatever they are Since the government is looting the bill there Is no incentive for the manufacturers ers to economize m in the use of ma materIal material es or labor More workers are hired than needed Workers stand Idle It costs the manufacturer nothing Much labo labo- labors rs IS wasted asted Political Breezes This IS only one Item in the long and document which has had cons city Perhaps It might have been neglected if it had not been blown into the publIc s face by the polItical breezes stirred up by Mr Perhaps Mr might not have gen generated crated those breezes if Mr Baruch had not been pretty critical of goy gov government agencies that competed for power po perhaps Mr Baruch would not have been so frank If he hadnot had hadnot not thought that as he requested the report was not for publIcation Mr Byrnes when he sent the doe doc document to Dear Van at the latter s insistence sa d that It was not m in intended tended for other than prIvate use but that It was a splendid argument argument ment lD in favor of action taken by the War Mob committee m re regard regard gard to the labor situation on the West coast and he requested that It be placed m in the CongresSional Ree Rec end ord which luch It was wasAnd And so there it was for all to see With Mr Baruch presumably still the best of democratic pals but also the severest of critics lambasting jealous government agencies and caning manufacturers manufacturers ers ens and not productive sh ments and apologizing for nobody business men or bureaucrats Thus the polItIcal breezes blow sometimes In one dIrection sometimes some times in another though of course lD in elect on years the tl-e outs usually blow the loudest They are the prosecutIng attorney and the I ins are the defense However there is thiS satisfaction blow where it will it is ar an ill wind that blows nobody good DIary of ofa a Broadcaster The other day at the President s usual press and radio conference I Iwas Iwas was interrupted for Fala the Press Pres I Ident dent s scotty walked out between the forest of legs and made one of the most thorough trouser cull cuff lD in I had ever seen Unfortunately I had on one of those 1 1 berty suits WIth no cuffs so he started to pass me by and I had to engage h m in cons con to get his anent on at alL What he said was not to be at I can only say that I learned from authoritative Scotch circles that the newspaper and radio ty d splayed a lot of scents |