Show MJ Mii 4 de st war man power problem 1 Is still far from solution 2 national service act held back mcnutt hershey conflict complicates situation competition keen as ever by BAUKHAGE news analyst and commentator service 1343 11 street NW N wo W washington 0 C sorry sir said the waiter on the dining car we can only serve you one cup ot of coffee sorry sir said a somewhat wea weary ry voice of 0 the hotel zoom loom service we cant serve you ham with your eggs this is a meatless day A and nd so a simple wandi wandering ning wash ing ington conlan lan who had stepped outside ot of the capital for a brief interlude found out there was a war going on ba back ck in the shadow ot of the capitol dome comei I 1 began to wonder whether bea before 0 re long when uncle sam passed his plate for a second helping the farmer would say sorry sir this is helpless day on the farm we arent furnishing food any more when that happens perhaps well get that national service act behind the delay in settling the f farm a rm labor problem and the other problems which have arisen because the government had the nerve or to tell anybody but the soldiers rs where to go what to do and when to do it Is a lot of honest uncertainty some interdepartmental departmental inter friction but chiefly plain fear of stepping on the bubli publics cs toes many believed that the public arent afraid of their toes and are only waiting to be told what to do end and the real solution may be the one offered by wendell willkie when he sa said d in his report to the nation that it is up to us to make our leaders give us more to do distribution problem we have plenty of people to do but we are not distributing them properly not giving the right people the right jobs we are still letting people decide themselves what they are going to do not telling them what is the thing they m must us t do to win the war when I 1 reported last on the manpower man power problem I 1 felt sure that by this time a national service act would be before congress congress has drawn up several of these acts but administration spokesmen have told them not yet meanwhile piecemeal measures measure s are offered the story behind the conflict between paul McNut ts manpower man power co commission and general Her selective service system is an all example of how sand gets into the gearbox gear box when the president clamp down the lid and give orders some of the new dealers began to worry about the danger that mcnutt might grow too big politically and it might be a harder job to sidetrack him at the 1944 democratic national convention than it was last time and goodness knows it was a painful process then so they contrived to hand him the hottest potato the job that would make more enemies than any other head of the manpower man power commission the presumption according to these not altogether nonpartisan friends ol of mcnutt was that he would either tall fall down on the job or do it so well nobody would like him meanwhile the theory was that he was bound to come into conflict with G general H hershey er one or the other had to select the men for service either mcnutt would be given the power to tell hershey whom he take for the army or hershey would be given power to tell his draft boards whom they could take so the battle was on no separate systems since then mcnutt has come out and stated that he did not believe it was necessary to set up a separate system of selection one for military which already exists in the draft boards and another to classify civilian service but under white house orders he made it plain that he had no bill to submit to congress his labor management committee submitted its report directly to the president while all this has been going on the selective service system has been pacing the floor outside the manpower man power commissions door the commission Is supposed to advise selective service but tor for many months it refused to say aye yes or n no 0 according to selective suii r ice officials fil Is the moment they had the opportunity port unity they submitted a plan to take care of the one sore thumb ol of the manpower man power problem that threat ens to interfere with our eating farm labor the plan would 1 tell the farmer boys their patriotic duty is on the farm that they must stay there it if they leave they would immediately be drafted 2 stop all voluntary recruiting that according to general hershey would at least stop the drain of farm labor and save the boys from the stigma of remaining in civilian clothes when other boys in nonessential non essential jobs were joining up according to the Se selective lectie service officials that proposal was sat on for six months while the cries of the farmer rose higher and higher complaints to hershey most of the complaints were directed at general hershey but his aides point out that selective service has taken far less men from the farms than the other two sirens that lure the men away from their prosaic r jobs one is the recruiting sergeant and the other is industry the recruiting sergeant offers adae adventure n ture with a patriotic background indus try offers big pay and bright lights and to show how the competition tor for manpower still goes on among government agencies itself selective service officials charge that the united states employment service which recruits men and women tor for industry has been just as energetic as those handsome army navy and marine sergeants in recruiting the boys on the farm when just before the elections both manpower man power commissioner me nutt and selective service director hershey both testified that there was no immediate need tor for a manpower man power bill they were probably glad that they could do so which meant that it had probably been strongly andl bated from higher up that they had better do so for neither gentle man would care to make a blanket recommendation for a measure which might give the other the real authority in administering the measure will probably remain something to do tomorrow until tt it becomes clear that tomorrows tomorrow s ham and eggs may depend on action today owl proves boon to capital writers A stranger coming to washington and watching the men abd women filing into the white house execl tive offices for the semiweekly semi weekly press and radio conference with the president or visiting the senate or the house of representatives on a day when important news is break ing when the press and radio gal ceries above the respective ro strums are filled would think that washing ton is pretty well covered tor for news there are more than members of the press and radio gal ceries there are many many more reporters and broadcasters whose duties do not make them eligible for these groups but in addition to these men and women whose job it is to write about what is happening in your capital 4 people who are spending between a million and two million dollars I rs a month are hired by the government ern ent to disseminate information the office of war information has 3 employees there are some persons in the army public relations bureau and a hundred or so to in the navy public relations the office of the coordinator of inter american affairs nelson rockefeller has more than a hundred members in its public relations department the persons doing similar work for the war production prod u tion board and the office of price administration m InI have a hundred an and futy fifty more of course the old line agencies have their public relations elat lons staffs but we are just talking about the war mar news agencies As far as my own contact with the office of war information goes I 1 must say its members have been a great help to me it if I 1 run into a snarl of official dispatches questionable rumors I 1 do what other news men do call up the and I 1 usually get a very straight and satisfactory is story but nursing us newsmen along Is only half their job the rest Is disseminating semina ting information abroad where it will do the most good and dont don t ask who and when and where that s not for publication BRIEFS B R I 1 E F S by baukhage more fires in iii homes come from defective flues and stovepipe connections than from any other single cause buy wat bonds some neighborly nebraska farmers pin a note on the gate post listing the things they want from town the first neighbor driving to town picks up the note and brings back the items listed through the tenant purchase program of 0 the department of agriculture during the past five years small farmers have been able to buy and improve farms big enough to support their families ten million surgical dressings are on their way to the defenders ot of stalingrad Stal ingrad according to the american red cross |