Show mounting battle tempo calls for more material I 1 big problem Is to route manpower into j critical work labor needs vary throughout different areas by news analyst and commentator service union trust building lV washington ashington D 0 what Is wrong with the american war eff effort 0 rt on the home front why a au 11 this excitement over a new dr draft a ft of manpower war byrnes say bay that our war production almost equalled equal led the production ot of the entire world these questions are being asked in many minds I 1 have asked them ot of the men whose lob job it is to get things done in washington and I 1 want to try to put their answers before you let me quote one sentence spoken by war byrnes himself critical production no longer feeds pipelines pipe lines or goes into strategic reserves it is going right into batt battle I 1 e if we compare critical production with fighting units perhaps the recent german counteroffensive counter offensive will help us see the th e picture when von R 1 drive urt started men and tanks anks and guns and trucks critical production in other words au all had to be poured into actual battle the result was that there were just not enough of t them h em in the right place at the right time and our line crumbled there were no immediate reserves to throw in and bolster the defense later on when the veterans from the third army and the first army and the british troops arrived the tide was turned they represented the reserves of critical production w which aich should have been there all the time for many months on that particular front only the men in the front lines were needed there were enough men there to take care of the normal enemy opposing them it was a minimum force without enough reserve to take care of maximum need and they were thrown back that is the situation in war production today certain critical sup plies airplanes tanks other vehicles and their accessories certain types of ordnance certain types of ammunition are being used so fast in battle that if an extra strain developed at a certain point there would not be any reserve to call upon changing conditions alter planning why are these things lacking why we pile them up as we ao 30 other things until we had enough to take care of an emergence emergency chiefly because their greatest need developed after we started our war programs reserves tor for the future can only be based on present information or estimates based on previous knowledge or lucky guessing when the war began nobody not even the japs who used amphibious warfare in the early stages to the best advantage had any idea of the type and number of landing craft to say nothing of the technique of operating them which are used in the latest allied operations the contrast between the japanese landing in lingayen bay and the american landing three years later in the same am place is astounding byrnes used as examples of other inventions and improvements over old mod models els jet planes new types of radar and the like today 55 per cent of our war production does not need to rise some of it is properly declining but there are other parts of the program m which are lagging that should rn bolint nt because they are critical I 1 production of course some plants making such goods are temporarily closed while re tooling tor for new models others are under construction but many plants lack nothing except manpower those for or example making certain types of planes and tanks and r ships hips tires are be being ground to pieces by shell splinters in the mud of luxembourg and belgium tanks are rolling from new guinea to the philippines to the rhine and bigger and better ones are demanded there is a constant need tor for all kinds of ammunition but there is critical need for certain types of ammunition both heavy and light and so we come to the main problem rob which is really the only problem today manpower we have the raw material and will have the manufacturing facilities in time undersecretary of war patterson told the house military affairs coi committee m that in the arst six months month of 0 1845 1945 men would be needed for war production and industry necessary to the war effort I 1 have talked with the war manpower commission experts and they break down those figures something like this one hundred and fifty thousand men needed immediately lor for critical war production one hundred and fifty thousand more for other war production to take care of 0 the normal turnover turn over expected i replacements etc the rema remaining inin g must be retained in civilian production and services which have to be continued in order to maintain the total war effort the situation Is summed up in general terms this way the manpower mobilization problem is not as large as it was in 1042 1942 and 1943 but it Is more acute in certain lines two things contribute to making it more acute one is the fact that we the pool of either civilian production or the unemployed from which to draw as we bad at the start second because the needs are critical battle needs they must be satisfied immediately or the actual front line activities may be immediately affected one thing which must be considered is the geographical shift of the american labor force a point w which aich affects the general situation for it involves moving a worker from place to place and in the present need although the west coast where labor is concentrated is still the most critical area the building of new factories to meet new needs and the change in the type of needs from one established factory in one place to one in another place involves the question of suasion or force on the worker for instance there is a great need in utah and wyoming for workers in cal mines the scattered foundry sections from michigan and ohio through pennsylvania and new york to new england are critical areas even plane production concentrated in the west has its problems for or although some airplane factories on the pacific coast have closed down many of the new factories tor for the flying fortresses and other new models are in areas other than the west coast we have the man and woman power in the nation to take care ol at the need it is a question ot of getting the right roan man in the right place Over optimism causes letdown there are several reasons why the right man and woman Is not in the right place now one Is due to an error in judgment which may or may not be blameworthy ger banys comeback come back power tor for which I 1 attempted to set forth certain reasons in two preceding columns was underestimated this caused a shortage in certain types ot of weapons superabundance in others the latter put men out of work and caused caused them to seek non war jobs we had counted on a more mobile type of warfare we did not think we needed the heavy artillery to blast germany out ol of powerful defenses we counted too heavily on enemy vulnerability vu Iner ability to the bombing of german cities the that I 1 was both a psychological and error underestimating the length of the european war also had bad a bad badr psychological ch effect it caused many workers to quit war work tor for what they thought would be more permanent employment it caused great pressure on washington to begin as war byrnes admits was wrong he said we could not do two things at once could not pursue an all out war production effort while simultaneously releasing materials facilities and manpower tor for civilian production the man and his job were separated too by the improvement of 0 models and nd creation of new equipment no one can be blamed tor for this but frequently as I 1 have shown it tended to place the job and the man miles apart |