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Show War Man Power Problem Is Still Far From Solution National Service Act Held Back; McNutt-Hershey McNutt-Hershey Conflict Complicates Situation; Competition Keen as Ever. U 1 By BAUKHAGE News Analyst and Commentator, WNU Service, 1343 H Street, N-W, Washington, D. C. "Sorry, sir," said the waiter on the dining car, "we can only serve you one cup of coffee." "Sorry, sir," said a somewhat weary voice of the hotel room service, serv-ice, "we can't serve you ham with your eggs, this is a meatless day." And so a simple, wandering Wash-tngtonian, Wash-tngtonian, who had stepped outside of the capital for a brief interlude, found out there was a war going on. Back in the shadow of the Capitol dome, I began to wonder whether, before 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 aren't furnishing food any more." When that happens, perhaps we'll get that national service act Behind the delay in settling the farm-labor problem and the other problems which have arisen because the government hasn't had the nerve to tell anybody but the soldiers where to go, what to do and when to do it, is a lot of honest uncertainty, some inter-departmental friction but chiefly plain fear of stepping on the public's toes. Many believed that the public aren't afraid of their toes and are only waiting to be told what to do and the real solution may be the one offered by Wendell Willkie when he said 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 must do to win the war. When I reported last on the man-rjower problem I felt ens to interfere with our eating, farm labor. The plan would: 1. Tell the farmer boys their patriotic pa-triotic duty is on the farm, that they must stay there. If they leave they would immediately be drafted. 2. Stop all voluntary recruiting. That, according to General Her- shey, 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 non-essential jobs were joining up. According to the Selective Service Serv-ice 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 di-rected at General Hershey. But his aides point out that Selective Service Serv-ice has taken far less men from the farms than the other two sirens that lure the men away from their prosaic pro-saic jobs: One is the recruiting sergeant ser-geant and the other is industry. The recruiting sergeant offers adventure with a patriotic background. Industry Indus-try offers big pay and bright lights. And to show how the competition for manpower still goes on among government agencies itself. Selective Selec-tive Service officials charge that the United States Employment service, which recruits men and women 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 Man-Power Commissioner Mc-Nutt Mc-Nutt and Selective Service Director Hershey both testified that there was no immediate need for a man-power bill they were probably glad that they could do so which meant that it had probably been strongly indicated indi-cated from higher up that they had better do so. For neither gentleman gentle-man would care to make a blanket recommendation for a measure which might give the other the real sure that by this time a national service act would be before congress. con-gress. Congress has drawn up several sev-eral of these acts but administration administra-tion spokesmen have told them "not yet"; meanwhile piecemeal measures meas-ures are offered. The story behind the conflict between be-tween Paul McNutt's Man-Power commission and General Hershey's Selective Service system is an example ex-ample of how sand gets into the gear-box when the President doesn't clamp down the lid and give orders. Some of the New Dealers began to worry about the danger that Mc-Nutt Mc-Nutt might grow too big politically and it might be a harder job to sidetrack side-track him at the 1944 Democratic national convention than it was last time. And goodness knows it was a painful process then. So they contrived con-trived to hand him the hottest potato, po-tato, the job that would make more enemies than any other, head of the Man-Pmupr commission. The nre- authority in administering. The measure will probably remain something to do tomono'st.jmtU it ' becomes clear that tomorrows ham and eggs may depend on aition today. to-day. OWI Proves Boon To Capital Writers A stranger coming to Washington and watching the men and women filing into the White House executive execu-tive offices for the 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 breaking break-ing when the press and radio galleries gal-leries above the respective rostrums are filled, would think that Washington Washing-ton is pretty well covered for news. There are more than 600 members mem-bers of the press and radio galleries. gal-leries. There are many, many more reporters and broadcasters whose sumption, according to these not altogether al-together nonpartisan friends of Mc-Nutt, Mc-Nutt, was that he would either fall down on the job or do it so well nobody no-body would like him. Meanwhile the theory was that he was bound to come into conflict with General Hershey. One or the other had to select the men for service: either McNutt would be given the power to tell Hershey whom he couldn't take for the army or Hershey Her-shey 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, mili-tary, 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 Man-Power commission's door. The commission is supposed to advise Selective Service but for many months it refused to say aye, yes or no. According to Selective Service officials of-ficials the moment they had the opportunity op-portunity they submitted a plan to take care of the one sore thumb of the man-power problem that threat- 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, 4,000 people who are spending between be-tween a million and two million dollars dol-lars a month are hired by the government gov-ernment to disseminate information. The Office of War Information has 3,500 employees. There are some 200 persons in the army public relations bureau and a hundred or so in the navy public relations. The Office of the Coordinator Co-ordinator of Inter-American Affairs, Nelson Rockefeller, has more than a hundred members in its public relations rela-tions department. The persons doing similar work for the War Production board and the Office of Price Administration Ad-ministration have a hundred and fifty more. Of course, the old line agencies have their public relations staffs but we are just talking about the war news agencies. As far as my own contact with the Office of War Information goes I must say its members have been a great help to me. If I run into a snarl of official dispatches, questionable question-able rumors, I do what other news men do, call up the OWI and I usually get a very straight and satisfactory sat-isfactory story. But nursing us newsmen along is only half their job the rest is disseminating dis-seminating information abroad where it will do the most good and don't ask who and when and where that's not for publication. |