War and the Working Class

The faster the armies drove through Germany the happier grew the U.S. Senate. By the time Jimmy Byrnes had quit his job as War Mobilizer, after explaining that V-E day was now in sight (see below), Senators in both parties were beaming. Now was the time to face the politically troublesome manpower issue. The Senate faced it by defeating the compromise manpower bill, 46 to 29.

The watered-down bill would have frozen workers in essential jobs in areas where labor is short, would have fixed employment ceilings to prevent labor hoarding, would have made employers and employes alike liable to penalties. No labor draft, it was as far as Congress got in the face of pressure from all segments of organized labor, the N.A.M. and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The vote came six days after Franklin Roosevelt had declared that defeat of the measure would make "the successful conduct of the war even more difficult."

The Senate appointed a conference committee to work out something else with the House, but it was like appointing so many pallbearers. Congressional leaders admitted that manpower legislation was dead. The U.S. had to face the rest of the war with what flimsy controls it already had.

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