Machinery (except electrical).

Iron and steel products..

Trucking, warehousing.

Other industries 2.

1 Includes only nonseasonal establishments.

Includes those industries of which there is only 1 of an industry group in the labor area.

Source: War Manpower Commission, Region XII, Division of Program Analysis and Review, San Francisco, Calif.

THE POST-WAR MANPOWER PROBLEM

While there is at present a shortage of labor in the Pacific Coast States, there will be a surplus of labor immediatley after the defeat of Germany.

It is safe to say that the only real problem after the war will be the reemployment of workers released by the aircraft and shipbuilding industries and those establishments which manufacture parts for ships and planes.

If the aircraft and shipbuilding industries were to shut down immediately after the war, it would probably result in the dislocation of some 800,000 workers. A great many of these would either return to their former homes or find employment in other industries on the west coast. The marginal workers now employed in less essential activities would probably be released from their present employment and the younger and more efficient workers in the aircraft and shipbuilding industries would be employed in expanding civilian requirements industries. The lumber industry would probably absorb more workers after the war and the same may be true of construction, transportation, trade, and services, and some of the smaller industries on the west coast.

On the other hand, there are some 16,000 war workers employed in aluminum plants in California, Oregon, and Washington, and there are more than 100,000 war workers in Government establishments in these States. A great many of these workers will probably be on the labor market looking for other employment soon after the war.

An indeterminate number of workers will return to their former homes, but there will also be tens of thousands of war veterans who will be returning to the West Coast States who will need jobs.

West-coast industries cannot be counted upon to absorb within a reasonable time all those who will be looking for jobs right after the war. The solution would seem to lie in the introduction of new industries in place of the war industries. Some means must be found to put to use the plants which will become idle Es a result of cessation of hostilities. It would certainly help solve our post-war employment problems if it were possible to continue operating the aluminum and magnesium plants on the west coast, in addition to the aircraft and shipbuilding establishments.

Greater employment facilities would also be afforded by the utilization of our expanded port facilities through the promotion of foreign trade and the promotion of intercoastal water-borne commerce.

The expansion of small business would, of course, also result in employment opportunities for displaced war workers and returning veterans.

In conclusion, we wish to say that in our judgment there will be a serious postwar manpower surplus and it is most fortunate that your committee is studying this problem and giving special attention to the West Coast States.

EXHIBIT II

Hon. JAMES E. MURRAY,

Chairman, Senate Special Committee

STAYNER CORPORATION, Berkeley, Calif., July 31, 1944.

on Problems of Small Business, San Francisco, Calif.

DEAR SENATOR MURRAY: I wish to thank you again for the courtesies and cooperation you and Senator Wherry extended me yesterday. I thoroughly enjoyed the pleasure of meeting you and the opportunity to discuss some of our particular problems as well as many confronting every small businessman.

It is encouraging to learn that your committee are taking aggressive action to correct and alleviate some of the problems and burdens that is rapidly causing the small businessman to become an extinct specie in our economy.

I am enclosing a copy of my letter of July 7, 1944, which accompanied our application for a base allotment of 2,000 pounds of sugar monthly. On checking the status of this application with the district office of the Office of Price Administration by telephone this morning I was advised that it was favorably recommended to Washington but they had no advice from them as yet. Therefore, I believe your telegram to Mr. Chester Bowles will be most timely and helpful. Thank you again for your consideration.

Very truly yours,

RALPH R. PLETCHER, President, Stayner Corporation.

OFFICE OF PRICE ADMINISTRATION,

San Francisco District Office, San Francisco, Calif.

JULY 7, 1944.

(Attention: Mr. Charles Williams, Food Rationing Division.) GENTLEMEN: We are again applying for a sugar allotment for use in the manufacture of pharmaceutical products. Our previous applications were denied because we were not an industrial user in 1941. The products we were manufacturing in 1941 did not require the use of sugar. However, additional formulas were developed by our research department in 1940 and 1941 and equipment was ordered but it was not delivered until the later part of 1941, consequently until this equipment was installed we had no use for sugar.

In excess of $100,000 has been invested in this business since our incorporation in May 1938, and most of it prior to the rationing of sugar. Thousands of dollars have been spent in research and equipment, but production has been completely stymied on many of these formulas as no substitute for cane sugar could be developed. It has been a severe handicap and hardship on this business to be denied a sugar allotment.

To further aggravate the situation future production of many of our present formulas is now jeopardized by the acute shortage of milk sugar (lactose) and corn sugar (dextrose). It is reported that approximately 50 percent of the entire national output of lactose will be allocated to the manufacturers of penicillin during the coming months. Therefore, we cannot depend upon these substitutes and will have to curtail our present operations unless this application is granted.

In November of 1943 the War Production Board and the War Manpower Commission, after analyzing the work we were doing, granted us permission and priorities to make alterations to a new laboratory building. This represents an investment of an additional $25,000 and we moved into our new laboratory in January 1944. The United States Employment Service recently referred an honorably discharged veteran to us who had had 16 years of tablet-coating experience before serving 18 months in the Army Medical Corps.

We have tablet equipment capable of manufacturing over 400,000 tablets every 8 hours. We have the equipment to coat tablets and we have an experienced technical staff but neither the equipment nor the staff can be fully utilized without a supply of sugar for manufacturing.

None of the national pharmaceutical laboratories have any manufacturing facilities located on the west coast. Consequently, the demands made upon us have increased over 300 percent since 1941. A local source of supply will be even more necessary as the war in the Pacific area becomes increasingly active. There are over 1,000 hospitals and institutions and over 5,000 drug stores in the territory we serve and the Government is enlarging their hospital-bed capacity on the west coast.

We believe our case should be reconsidered on the basis of whether or not we are making a contribution to the health and welfare of the thousands of vital war workers llving in the eight Pacific Coast States. We believe that with the increase in population, the overcrowded housing conditions, the shortage of doctors, and the limited manufacturing facilities for pharmaceutical products existing on the west coast, that our application is justified and in the interest of the public. We are enclosing our application for permission to register and receive 2,000 pounds of sugar monthly. We appreciate your cooperation in this matter.

Very truly yours,

STATEMENT OF MRS. GRACE MCDONALD, EXECUTIVE SECRETARY, CALIFORNIA FARM RESEARCH AND LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE, AND MEMBER, CALIFORNIA STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE, IN BEHALF OF THE FARM RESEARCH AND LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE AND THE WESTERN COOPERATIVE DAIRYMEN'S UNION, FRESNO, CALIF.

In behalf of the California Farm Research and Legislative Committee and of the 3,000 members of the Western Cooperative Dairymen's Union, I am authorized to place before your committee for deliberation and recommendation to the appropriate Federal bodies and agencies, a plan for rural reconstruction, housing, installation of modern sanitary facilities, major repairs to farms and farm buildings,

and absorption of utilities and equipment in the hands of the Government as a result of war purchases, and to be disposed of before the end of hostilities, or shortly after the conclusion of the war.

EXTENT OF THE PROBLEM

According to the 1940 Housing Census, there were at that time in California, 192,614 rural farm-dwelling units. Twenty percent of these units were reported in need of major repairs (36,003 dwellings); 85,000 had no bathing facilities; 81,473 had only outside toilets or privies, 3,057 reported no toilets or privies, 35,500 had no electric lighting equipment; 40,904 had no running water whatsoever. There was no means of refrigeration in 56,672 of these farm dwellings; 28,000 used ice or other cooling methods, while 87,170 had electric refrigeration.

During the war years there has, of course, been progressive deterioration in the physical condition of California farmhouses, barns, and agricultural installations. And it may also be assumed that no great improvement has been made in installation of running water, toilets, bathtubs, or electrical facilities. Roads have been allowed to get by with minor patchwork, and, except for some emergency labor housing to meet requirements for obtaining Mexican nationals, rural California has a long way to go to qualify in meeting housing standards of a machine age. During these war years, moreover, tens of thousands of younger sons have come of fighting and marrying age. They need and should have independent homes where family relations may be reestablished and built up if they and their families are to be held in farm communities and not intensify problems of urban unemployment during the post-war transition period.

RURAL JOBS

The war years, and war activities on the Pacific coast, have exerted an uneven pull from rural to urban areas, in most instances. Some rural areas, however, where military concentration has brought men and services necessary for their maintenance, have been overcrowded and overstimulated. Others, have been drained of purchasing power and business has stagnated.

A well-planned rural housing program to include major repairs, demolition, and rebuilding where necessary, installation of electrical and sanitary equipment, running water and refrigeration, repair and resurfacing of supplementary roads, would go a long way to start an immediate balance of normal trade activity in these areas, releasing funds accumulated over the good farm years and distributing purchasing power among a wide group of workers and business establishments. Typical of the employment and business expansion generated by such a program would be plumbing, electricians, roofers, carpenters, road gangs, painters, hardware stores, glaziers, and furniture dealers. With increased rural purchasing power, the food and clothing industries, drug stores, and professional services would expand. Since these would be all-year round workers there would be a stimulus to expanding educational facilities, recreational facilities, church, and community activity.

EMERGENCY HOUSING

The social values resulting from revitalizing rural California with adequate and attractive homes and the self-respect developing from the use of modern plumbing, hot and cold running water, and labor-saving equipment, such as electrical refrigeration, freezing lockers, washing machines, are values not lightly to be discounted in the post-war development of California.

An opportunity and a challenge faces us to make use of as much of the adaptable housing and war material as is possible in this State, including not only demountable housing, but lumber, windows and doors, electric light fixtures, bathtubs and showers, toilets, stoves and refrigerators, in installations which must be pulled down as soon as war concentration of workers ceases.

The use of this housing and related equipment to stimulate rural farm, civic, and community organizations and Government agencies to launch rebuilding projects in rural California may well be the basis of more far-reaching programs guaranteeing jobs in rural California.

These houses and this material have already served the war purposes for which Congress appropriated the funds which created them. The major consideration in their disposal should be the social use to which they will be put, not the extra dollar which the Government might squeeze out of an advantageous sale, and under no consideration, should there be private profiteering in these goods.

While the amount of such housing and equipment concentrated in California would obviously be inadequate to service more than a small part of the State demand, it might well prove the incentive to launch a State program. Com

munities which see ahead and are ready to make use of Government war housing and surplus equipment should be rewarded by allocating this material to them on favorable terms.

Because demountable houses may be quickly and completely moved to new locations, planned grouping of such houses as part of a community project in suitable rural areas would quickly demonstrate the comparative value of these well-equipped, modern homes. They might be used first for returning soldiers as wings for existing farm houses for these boys, their wives, and children.

DISTRIBUTION OF FARM DWELLINGS

The 192,614 rural farm dwellings analyzed as to their need for major repairs and facilities in the 1940 census are distributed among 57 California counties. For the purposes of this report and to show where housing and reconstruction programs might best be attempted, we have divided them into four groups: (1) Counties with. less than 1,000 farm dwellings; (2) counties with over 1,000 but less than 3,000: (3) counties with over 3,000 but under 6,000; and (4) counties with 6,000 or more farm dwellings. This distribution is made in the following table:

Distribution of farm-dwelling units by counties and number, California, 1940

California farmers are confronted with two major tasks in the post-war period. (1) They must find compensatory outlets for Government purchases of products which come from fixed investments such as fruits, nuts, and grapes. Orchards, groves, and vineyards represent long years of invested capital and labor. These specialty crops depend on a national and world market, rather than on local purchasing power. They will face tremendous competition in reestablishing their products at the end of the war. Economies in production, rather than expansion of investment, indicated for such farming communities. Bringing equipment into efficient use is vital for these farm operators.

In this connection it should be borne in mind that California specialty crop production is highly mechanized, requiring pumping installations for irrigation, tractors for cultivation, electric motors, portable gas engines for spray rigs, iron and steel piping, casings, electric wiring and accessories, trucks, pick-ups, tires, and parts. Corrugated-iron roofing has been almost impossible to obtain and is badly needed. Dehydrating and drying equipment needs to be replenished and repaired.

It was the California caterpillar tractor perfected for orchard use which formed the basis of the powerful tank now bringing victory within sight. California orchardists have done without to make every tank count on the war fronts. It would be eminently fitting that the Government assist these farmers in disposing of their world production tonnage of fruits and nuts by maknig available to them, directly, and at an advantageous price, suitable machinery and equipment which has already accomplished its purpose as an accessory to battle, but which would have a vital place in the coming battle for markets facing California and Pacific coast farmers. It is recognized by all agricultural economists and business forecasters that there will be a battle. Price will be a major factor. The Government may be called on to continue its price-support program long enough to ease competitive agriculture over the hump. Provision of tractors, trucks, jeeps, motors, engines, electrical equipment, pumps, piping, roofing, lumber, and other equipment at an attractive price would go a long way toward helping to weather the post-war hazards which our farmers are otherwise bound to buck, in many cases adversely.