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Show News fix BEfflNM By BULMaLLON J5' Released by Western Newspaper Union. MILITARY AND LABOR DRAFT SITUATION WASHINGTON. What is behind this fantastic draft foolishness is being be-ing explained by all the interested government bureaus in their own conflicting ways. You can get nearly any story you want, that is, any except the right one. Bureaucratic muddling is me commonest explanation in congress, but even this falls short of accounting account-ing fully for the depths of public confusion in which men are called, quit their jobs, are sent back, called again under orders from Washington. Washing-ton. You would have to devote yourself your-self seriously to muddling for a long while to get that bad. Then there is a loud official whis per dealing with the grand assault on Europe and reserves in the Pacific Pacif-ic and Atlantic area. Frankly, it does not explain anything and, therefore, is not worth repeating even if it could pass the censor, and it would not. Those most intimate with the inner in-ner situation absolve Draft Director Hershey of major responsibility for the orders he has been issuing and attribute the mess to a struggle between be-tween Manpowerer Paul McNutt and the armed services. Mr. McNutt, Mc-Nutt, apparently now, is the man who is making the manpower decisions, de-cisions, or thinks he is. Mr. Roosevelt Roose-velt had the problem in his own lap for some months, but is supposed now to have passed control back to McNutt. McNUTT IS OPPOSED Now McNutt is personally opposed to the proposed industrial draft act (the national service bill), although Mr. Roosevelt presumably still wants it and the army and navy are now building up toward another campaign to Justify its passage by congress. McNutt takes the position that such a draft of labor opposed by labor, management and most of the politicians, as well is not needed, or at least no need has been shown for it. The draft policies of the army and navy frequently appear to be adopted, with a thought of 'not discouraging dis-couraging a need for it. The plain evidence indicates clearly McNutt is right. The Cleveland Cleve-land economist, Col. Leonard Ayres, who set up the war department economic bureau at the outset of the war, says in his current Cleveland Trust company bulletin: "This latest manpower crisis is largely verbal, and almost surely less serious than it is claimed to be." He says the peak of our war production pro-duction probably was passed last October, and industrial manpower requirements have declined since then. He is such an impartial recognized recog-nized authority that his evidence seems almost to close the argument. argu-ment. Nevertheless, you still have McNutt and the armed services issuing is-suing conflicting or contrary directives direc-tives to the bewildered General Hershey. Her-shey. The only way the confusion will ever be cleared for certain is to put one man fully in control, although al-though it might help if the armed services lost interest in the labor draft act. INNER UNSETTLEMENT At the moment, there seems no likelihood that either of these hopes can be accomplished. As a revealing sidelight on the inner unsettlement, congress recently started stampeding stamped-ing toward the idea of drafting the 4-Fs into labor battalions or putting them to work in industry. The army seemed to side in with the notion as a substitute for its labor draft act, but the house military mili-tary affairs committee hearings have discouraged action. It became clear the 4-Fs would rather go into the army than into labor battalions and also the complexities com-plexities offered by their various physical defects cast some doubt upon the effectiveness of such a move. The theory of drafting physical physi-cal defectives for labor furthermore gathered ' some repugnance. The army thus is falling back on the labor draft act Above all, there seems to be a total lack of excitement about the whole manpower matter on every hand, except that of the army and navy. Thus, it seems likely that the existing situation will continue to drift on its present level, inducting men, under 26 for battle quotas, and xneD older if the changing quotas cannot be filled otherwise but with no labor draft of any kind. $ g HULL'S DECLARATION The Hull major declaration of for eign policy sounded on the radio like merely a temperate, hopeful, persistence for the announced American Amer-ican position. Those who know him were able to interpret the generalized phrases more specifically. Mr. -Hull said he wants "an international inter-national organization." By that, be means a continuation of the cooperative coopera-tive arrangement of the big four and other nations, not a league oi natinns set up as some suppose. -. |