FULL UTILIZATION OF MANPOWER

THURSDAY, APRIL 22, 1943

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, COMMITTEE ON MILITARY AFFAIRS, Washington, D. C.

The committee met, pursuant to adjournment, at 10 a. m., Hon. Andrew J. May (chairman) presiding.

The CHAIRMAN. The committee will please be in order. We will proceed as rapidly as we can, because we are a little late this morning. I do not believe that the first witness is present.

Mr. Bell, perhaps you would like to make a statement, a very brief

statement.

STATEMENT OF ERNEST L. BELL, JR., EXECUTIVE SECRETARY OF THE CITIZENS' COMMITTEE FOR A NATIONAL WAR SERVICE ACT

Mr. BELL. My name is Ernest L. Bell, Jr., and I am executive secretary of the citizens' committee for a National War Service Act.

Mr. Chairman, may I first offer for the record an abstract of the laws of the countries involved in this war, pertaining to national service and mobilization of manpower?

The CHAIRMAN. Does that include the British and the Chinese? Mr. BELL. British, Chinese, Australian, New Zealand, Canada, and South Africa.

The CHAIRMAN. You may put it in the record.

(The matter referred to is as follows:)

Great Britain is now a nation stripped down to bare bone and muscle for a fight to the death.

Out of 33,250,000 men and women between the ages of 14 and 65, fewer than 3,000,000-the adolescents, the sick, crippled, and those infirm with age-are not enlisted in some form of national service.

On the day after the Nazi panzer legions reached the channel at Abbeville, the House of Commons adopted the basic legislation that has made this all-out mobilization possible. It enacted the Second Emergency Powers Act, giving the Government authority to make defense regulations "requiring persons to place themselves, their services, and their property at the disposal of His Majesty." Defense regulation 58A, issued under this act, gives the Minister of Labor and National Service power to direct any person of any age in the United Kingdom to perform any service which that person is capable of performing at the "rate for the job."

This is the sanction behind the compulsory transfers of vast numbers of workers into essential war industries.

At the outbreak of the war the British Government did not immediately face a manpower shortage. There was a reservoir of nearly 1,500,000 unemployed on which to draw. Nevertheless, from its experience in 1914-18, the Government was aware of the danger of stripping the war industries of skilled workers. A long, detailed schedule of reserved occupations was issued, giving the age at which the person so employed was "reserved" from liability for military service.

Through 1939 and 1940 the transfer of workers into war industries proceeded almost entirely on a voluntary basis, although the Government encouraged it by a system of transfer allowances, under which the Government paid such expenses as fare to the place of employment if it was beyond daily commuting distance, moving expenses for the family and household effects of the worker, and a weekly lodging allowance for workers whose families remained in their former homes.

Then, little by little, the voluntary transfer system was put on a compulsory basis, beginning with the dock industry. A restriction on engagement order was put into effect, giving the employment exchanges of the Ministry of Labor full control over the hiring of workers for most war industries. At the same time, employers were forbidden to hire workers who were normally engaged in agriculture or coal mining.

With the total of unemployed rapidly dwindling in the spring of 1941, the Government began issuing a series of essential-work orders for various industries, under which workers in these industries cannot leave their jobs or be dismissed without the permission of a national service officer.

Ernest Bevin, Minister of Labor, told the House of Commons on July 29, 1941, that this step had been made necessary to eliminate the tremendous labor turn-over.

"Its main purpose was to tie people to their jobs, and put transfer on an orderly basis," he said, adding that the policy was working "extremely well." Under the National Service Acts Great Britain has registered all men between the ages of 18 and 40 for service with the armed forces, and has registered men up to the age of 50 for industry. In addition, under the registration for employment order of March 15, 1941, all women between the ages of 18 and 45 have been required to register at the local offices of the Ministry of Labor.

Except for women already engaged in vital war work or with children of their own under 14 living with them, the women who registered were called for selection interviews, at which appropriate work was indicated to them and every effort was made to persuade them to accept it voluntarily. In most cases this has proved sufficient, although the Government has the legal power, thus far used sparingly, to direct women to accept the jobs offered them. It is the official policy, however, to leave the individual freedom of choice as to what job shall be taken, so far as compatible with the national interest.

All boys and girls of 16 and 17 have been registered and interviewed by a Youth Service Committee of the Education Authorities, which seeks to enlist those not already fully occupied in some form of pre-service training. This has proved so successful that it has been officially stated that 77 percent of all boys between the ages of 14 and 17 are now employed in some form of national work.

By January 1942 the final stage of Britain's manpower mobilization was reached. The system of reserved occupations, by which skilled workers were released from military liability, was replaced by one of personal deferment. All workers for whom deferment is sought, either by his employer, himself, or his trade-union, must appear before one of 44 district manpower boards to prove his case.

Deferment is granted only if it is proved that the job is of urgent national importance and that the worker cannot be replaced by an older worker, or a woman, or through reorganization of the job. If deferment for the particular job is not granted, the worker may be transferred to an urgent industrial job elsewhere instead of being inducted into the armed forces.

In comparatively rare cases where there has been especial need for men with special qualifications in industry, men have been released from the armed forces, but this step is taken only when the need is urgent. By February 1942, 58,000 men had been released from the Army for "work of national importance." Subsequently the great need for coal miners led to a decision to release miners where they could be spared by the armed forces, and 7,000 were withdrawn from the Army and 1,000 more from the Royal Air Force.

College students are considered on the basis of the courses they are taking. Medical and dental students are reserved, subject to periodical certificates of satisfactory progress. Scientific and technical students may be deferred for 1 year, after which their case is reviewed, to decide if they should receive further deferment. Students of other subjects are enlisted normally, but may be al lowed to continue their studies for 1 year, during which they receive part time military training as members of the Reserve.

Great Britain has mobilized 70 plus percent of her entire population, “from the cradle to the grave," to meet the needs of total war. The United States, by unofficial estimates, has mobilized 44.2 percent.

Article 12 of the Constitution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, which was adopted December 5, 1936, provides that "in the U. S. S. R. work is the obligation and honorable duty of every able-bodied citizen, in accordance with the principle, 'he who does not work, neither shall he eat.'"

Under this provision most adult Russians were already under Government control to an extent unknown in the United States even before Hitler attacked the Soviet Union. But in the face of the emergency that has existed since then the Soviet Government has exercised extraordinary powers to make the fullest possible use of every citizen.

The mobilization of the entire able-bodied urban population for work in industry and construction for the duration of the war was directed in a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics published in Moscow on February 14. 1942.

All men between the ages of 16 and 55 and women between the ages of 16 and 45 who were not already engaged in state enterprises were liable for service under this decree. Tass, the official Soviet news agency, reported at the time that most of these newly recruited workers would go into the aircraft, tank, munitions, steel, chemical, and gasoline industries.

As for agriculture, the mobilization of all able-bodied persons not engaged in industry and transport was announced in a decree dated April 17, 1942, which provided that even school children and students should report for work in the fields during especially busy agricultural seasons.

Except for the extent of these measures, they were not new for the Soviet Union. As early as October 19, 1940, when the Russians were working feverishly to build up their heavy industries and munition plants in the area of the Urals, another decree had provided for the compulsory transfer of engineers, technicians, foremen, salaried employees, and skilled workers wherever they might be needed. The Government undertook to defray the traveling expenses of the workers involved and their families, and the cost of moving their household effects.

When the Germans threatened Moscow in the autumn of 1941 and most departments of the Government fled to Kuibyshev, labor battalions of the city's population-typists, clerks, teachers, housewives, elderly men-marched outside the city with picks and shovels and worked endless hours digging trenches, filling sand bags, preparing emplacements, camouflaging tank traps.

In Stalingrad, even when the Nazi onslaught was at its height last October, other Soviet workers remained undaunted at their posts in the great factories. Sometimes, it was reported, they repaired tanks in shops so close to the firing line that the monster war machines rumbled into action almost as soon as they left the factory doors.

Canada, with more than 550,000 men in the armed services and about 915,000 in war production by the summer of 1942, had almost completely exhausted her readily available manpower supply. Since the outbreak of the war in September 1939 she had expanded the total number of persons at work or in the armed forces by 1,200,000, from 4,300,000 to 5,500,000.

Confronted with ever-growing demands for more labor, the Canadian Government acted vigorously. It created a Manpower Committee of the Cabinet, with the Minister of Labor as chairman. Under the Minister a Director of National Selective Service has been appointed, charged with coordinating all governmental activities relating to labor supply.

The Minister of Labor through the Director of National Selective Service has responsibility for calling up men for the armed services, and for all other manpower functions as well. By the terms of the National Selective Service regulations passed August 26, 1942, the National Selective Service has wide powers to regulate the available labor supply.

No employee may quit his job without giving his employer 7 days' notice in writing, and no employer may lay-off or discharge any worker without 7 days' notice in writing, except that an employee may be suspended for misconduct without notice. In such a case, however, the worker has the right of appeal to the National Selective Service Officer, usually the head of the local employment office.

An employer may not interview or engage a worker unless the latter has a permit to seek employment. These permits must be obtained from the local employment offices of the National Selective Service. Even the placing of help-wanted advertisements is permitted only with the approval of a National Selective Service Officer.

Any person who has been unemployed for 7 days may be ordered to take any suitable work, and any person who is working part time may be ordered to take any suitable full-time work, by the National Selective Service.

Farmers and farm laborers are forbidden to take employment outside of agricultural work except for temporary jobs for not more than 30 days when such employment will not interfere with farm production. A ban was placed on calling farm workers up for military service, although voluntary enlistments are still permitted for members of this group.

The Director of National Service has legal authority to establish a labor priority schedule indicating the order in which demands for labor are to be filled. This schedule is revised from time to time.

When a worker has to travel to a distant job, the National Selective Service may pay his traveling expenses and the cost of moving his family. It may also pay a supplementary living allowance of not more than $5 a week if the worker is moved away from his family and his earning capacity in his new job is insufficient to offset the increased cost of living resulting from the separation, or if he is transferred to a job that involves a decrease in his weekly earnings.

If a worker changes jobs at the request of the National Selective Service from less to more essential work, he may claim reinstatement in his former job when the more essential task is finished.

A worker, his present or prospective employer, or his union may appeal from any decision of a Selective Service Officer to a National War Service Board.

Out of a total population of 5.000,000 persons between the ages of 14 and 65, Austrialia presently has 3,400.000, or 68 percent engaged in the armed forces, civil defense, or industry. Of the total male population of 2,530,000 between these ages, 635,000 are in the fighting forces, and 975,000 are in direct war work, such as munitions factories, shipbuilding, and the construction of air fields and strategic roads.

Since the start of the war the number working in factories to meet ordinary civilian needs has been reduced from 540,000 to 194,000 in August 1942. In the last year more than 350,000 men and women have been diverted from civil production to direct war work and the fighting forces, and the process is now going on at the rate of 50,000 a month-the equivalent on a population basis of

900,000 Americans.

The legal basis for this transformation is Regulation 77, promulgated on February 19, 1942, under the National Security Act of 1939-40. It gives the Government power to direct any person resident in Australia to perform such services, or duties in relation to his trade, business, or profession as may be specified, and to place his property at the service of the Commonwealth.

Early in the war the Government took over the British policy of restricting the enlistment of men from certain reserved occupations. In July 1940 a Manpower priority Board with advisory functions was established, and in November 1940 a Department of Labor and National Service was instituted.

By December 1942 the Government had approved in principle the compulsory calling up of women for war work and in some localities women had actually been called into service on this basis!

A Minister of Industrial Manpower has been appointed with appropriate powers to transfer labor to war work, to protect the labor supply for primary production, and to draw women into industrial employment in New Zealand. By the end of September 1942 about 7,000 workers had been drafted from nonessential to essential work.

The War Cabinet decided in July 1942 to withdraw men from the Army and to stabilize the existing supply of agricultural labor because of the serious shortage of farm workers. It was announced that all men engaged in farming who were liable for military service would be deferred and that men already in the armed services who had substantial grounds for wishing to return to their work would be authorized to apply for release. In addition, the primary production councils were directed to survey the situation in their districts and advise the manpower committees of cases where men could be returned to the farms from other work.