OCR Text |
Show Washington, D. C. COMPLAINTS OF 'WASTED MANPOWER' The fathers' draft has brought on a new series of complaints about "wasted manpower" in the armed services stationed in the U. S. A. Pending a call to action, a feeling of idleness and waste becomes a demoralizing factor. The men on the home front generally suffer most from the age-old service disease of "just waiting around." The type of thing that happens in the waiting period is illustrated in a confidential survey made at the naval dirigible station at Lakehurst, N. J., which brought forth the following fol-lowing facts. 1. The navy uses 100 to 115 men to handle a blimp when it lands, whereas Goodyear handles the same blimp with 15 civiUans. 2. As at many shore stations, duty usually consists of 24 hours on, then 24 hours stand-by (which means waiting around to see if anything happens), then 24 hours liberty. Then this is repeated. Many men complain that the 24 hours of loafing ' at stand-by could be used for some constructive type of work. 3. More than 1,000 civilians are employed to recondition ships at high rates of pay, while enlisted men who could do the job and need the training lie around idle. 4. A high wire fence, guarded by armed sailors, surrounds Lakehurst. Then, inside the fence, a marine guards the outside of each hangar. Then, inside the hangar, two civilians civil-ians also stand guard. 5. The Lakehurst commissary, which handles about 100 customers per day, is staffed to handle about 1,000. It has 10 clerks, 2 commissioned commis-sioned officers and 1 cashier. Any civilian groceryman plus an assistant assist-ant could easily handle the whole business. Multiply Lakehurst's wasted manpower man-power by the navy's many other shore stations and it runs into thousands thou-sands of men. Note: The men themselves are not to blame. Most of them chafe at inactivity, want to see action. Effect on the Men. One significant indication of how glutted the navy is with manpower is in the boot-training camps, designed de-signed to transform a civilian into a sailor. This training used to last three weeks. Now it has been running run-ning four months or more. And after aft-er finishing this boot-training, thousands thou-sands of men lie around for months in OGU's (outgoing units) awaiting assignment to a school or other activity. ac-tivity. In the past year, also, many enlisted en-listed men come to the conclusion that navy schools are being maintained main-tained mainly for the purpose of keeping them occupied. Slump in Draft Quotas. Most significant fact about the manpower situation is that, all last summer, the 'army and navy were getting less than the quota of men they requested from the draft boards, but did not complain. Few people outside the government realized real-ized it, but even at the time the fathers' draft was under vigorous discussion on Capitol HilL the army and navy were not complaining about the failure of draft boards to fill the quotas. During the first months of 1943, draft boards overfilled their quotas. But in April, they began to slump off. In that month, the army-navy asked for 334,000 men but actually got only 299,000. This would not have been significant if it had occurred in one month only. But in May, the services asked Selective Service for 303,000 men, got only 264,000. However, How-ever, there was no complaint from either the army or navy. Again, in June, the services asked for 320,000 men, but got only 288,000. In July, they asked for 355,000 but got only 289,000, only slightly more than the June figure despite the fact that the quota requested by the army and navy had been increased. In August, the army-navy request dropped to 299,000, and the draft boards supplied only 221,000 men, a scant 75 per cent of the number asked for. In September, the army-navy army-navy quota was 313,000 men, but they got only 214,000 or 70 per cent of what they asked for. However, nt no time did the armed services make any protest. They seemed content to coast along with what the draft boards were giving giv-ing them. This was nil during the period when the father-draft was under serious discussion and when the administration ad-ministration was taking a vigorous stand that fathers had to be drafted. What the answer is, no one quite knows. Highup army-navy officers probably know but won't talk. However, How-ever, the Truman committee may ask some potent questions. Mi:i!KY-(!0-UOUNn I, Now Democratic National Chairman Chair-man Hob Haont'can Is boosting Dan Nee, Internal Kevenuo collector at Kansas City, to be his successor as Commissioner of Internal Kevcnue. Tims the comniissioncrsliip would be merely shifted from one end of Missouri, St. l.ouis. home town of llanncpau. to the other end of Mis-soni-i, Kansas City, homo town of Nee t, Tom Corcoran, the rs Hi'i'n truster, trust-er, has had a shot In his arm pic-pnrnlory pic-pnrnlory to uoinc to China. |