"There Ought to be a Law . . ."

Between a speech at Omaha and a speech to the American Legion convention at Kansas City, Paul Vories McNutt returned to Washington to keep another speaking engagement with the House Committee on Defense Migration. Said Man-powerman McNutt to the committee: "It is my considered judgment, based on the best available knowledge of the manpower situation, that some type of national-service legislation is inevitable."

Thus the Administration last week began to give signs of willingness to face the nation's acute manpower problem. Other signs of the same disposition:

> The U.S. Employment Service, National Youth Administration, Apprenticeship Training Service and Training Within Industry Service were put under WMC jurisdiction.

> The Civil Service Commission was authorized to transfer Federal employes from any agency to any other without the consent of either the agencies or the workers.

> The Navy, which has consistently sabotaged manpower conservation by insisting on its right to enlist any man regardless of his draft status or importance in the civilian war effort, turned over a new leaf. It promised to stop taking workers in industries important to health, safety or public interest (2-As), men engaged in war production (2-Bs), men in essential industry who have dependents (3-Bs).

These glimmerings did not mean that the Government had adopted a consistent policy. The day before Paul McNutt asked for a national manpower law, Secretary of Labor Perkins, attending a Plumbers & Steam Fitters meeting in Cleveland, told reporters sharply: "I disagree that it is inevitable that Congress must enact legislation which will enable the War Manpower Commission to regulate the movement and assignment of workers in war industry."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.