Show GENERAL HUGH so S JOH JOHNSON N SON LIMA F H y washington DL D C G MANPOWER PROBLEM A group of distinguished ed edu cahors clergymen writers and business leaders have just declared against any peacetime conscription they say it is un american totalitarian undemocratic democratic un and that it would disrupt business and industry they say that highly skilled men needed for any new mechanized motorized war can be had by voluntary enlistment under pay schedules sufficiently attractive this protest springs from incomplete understanding der of the principle of selective service there are three steps in the selective process registration classification and induction only the last is in any sense conscription registration is universal enrollment of the manpower of the nation classification sifi cation is an examination of them all to see what are the special education skills and aptitudes of each man and which can be classified for military or other service with the least possible inconvenience to himself the greatest consideration for his own wishes the slightest disturbance tur bance to our economic system industry commerce agriculture education and above all domestic relations and the dependency of others class IA I 1 A at the beginning at least should comprise all men who could serve with none or the very slightest test impairment of any of these standards when that class is determined ter mined the order of their going or induction is determined by a national lottery or drawing already conducted in washington covering all men registered at this point and especially during peace or before the drain of war hasche has created any real manpower problem a provision used during the latter part of the 1917 18 draft preserves all the virtues of the volunteer system with none of its disruptive and sometimes hateful consequences we called it volunteering within call al AI A I l 4 0 class al A l 1 in our present situation would contain many times the number we need it would be made up of the most available men of this nation men who are best fitted for service and who in the balance of responsibilities between national a and nd private obligations have the least of the latter regardless of the ultimate compulsion of their order number those who want togo first should be permitted to volunteer the inducement of topping h high gh current civilian competitive rates of pay for voluntary enlistment wo wont n it work it carries a hint of the stigma of the old mercenary armies which is worse than that of the old press gang conscript armies and it would make defensive costs prohibitive hibi tive major eliote recent suggestion of a few extra dollars added to 21 monthly base pay induce the kind of men we need to quit their jobs A principal deterrent to voluntary enlistment is that the term is long and rigid it should be one year or for duration of th the e emergency few men want to mortgage away three years of their lives in this rapidly changing world on any ground except patriotism we seem tobe tobe galloping in all directions ions on this manpower problem under the federal bureau of education and we have begun training men as mechanics who have assumed no obligation to serve under the volunteer plan we are enlisting men regardless of their mechanical ch anical tr training ft ining the whole effort is hit or of miss and haywire if the true principles of selective service could be expertly applied on the basis of experience we would have the most fair flexible efficient mani power system in the world 0 0 RUBBER AND TIN some of its esteemed contemporaries do not agree with this columns rebuttal of the constant claims that we are dependent on the british and dutch east indies for rubber and tin and that it was ci only n ly the concurrence of england that has enabled us to maintain the monroe doctrine nobody has contested the facts that we could make better rubber than we buy or that by using conservation on substitution and bolivian ian tin we could get by without east indian tin but it is said that it would be inconvenient take a long time and cost too much I 1 challenge all of this As to rubber the fact is that if we who use 55 per cent of all the worlds rubber turned to mass production on that vast tonnage it would cost no more than the present price which is low quite apart from all this long ago it was reported by the presidents own national resources committee that for less than the price of two battleships we could lay in elou enough gh east indian tin and rubber to make us independent of foreign sources for the reasonably expected duration of any war this administration do it it seems to have some strange reluctance to take uncle sams whiskers out of that revolving wringer in the par far east instead of buying vital tin and rubber i it t bought billions ot op dollars worth of useless silver and unnecessary onial |