"Crisis" Again

On July 1 the entire U.S. will go under job control advertised as the most drastic in its history. This edict came from Manpower Commissioner Paul Vories McNutt, who three weeks ago blithely assured newsmen: "We're pretty well on top of tho whole problem. . . . Oh, there are a few critical spots, but. . ." (TIME, May 29).

The stiff ruling against job-skipping that previously applied only to 19 isolated "trouble spots" will thereafter bind all the U.S. But in practice, WMC promised to allow plenty of local leeway, and claimed that the program was "voluntary." But WMC hinted at its power to punish any employer who disobeyed: WPB could deny him materials; OPA could limit his gasoline rations; other federal agencies could prevent him from negotiating war contracts. WMC also could give his employes automatic "certificates of availability" so that they would be free to quit (this threat has already been invoked twice in New York).

To citizens who asked why these sudden sweeping restrictions when war production is over the top and cutbacks already at hand, Paul McNutt had a ready explanation. Said he: the U.S. is suffering from "overoptimism [about] an early ending of the war. . . . This sentiment is positively dangerous" because workers are leaving essential industries for jobs with a peacetime future. An additional 350,000 male workers are still needed in crucial industries (foundries, rubber, ship repair, landing-craft production). McNutt's new pronouncement thus explained everything except his own previous optimism.

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