OUR ALARMING MANPOWER MUDDLE
Our Alarming Manpower Muddle By OSWALD GARRISON VILLARD = THE DISCUSSION of the drafting of pre-Pearl Harbor fathers has been a debate on a phase of the whole manpower problem. But there is even...
...Was it Mr...
...When Mr...
...Roosevelt, or Gen...
...Now by all the American traditions, this is a highly unsatisfactory, even an alarming, condition, contrary to every precedent in our history...
...There are many places now, as in the Caribbean and South America, where American troops are no longer needed—no naval attack is now possible—and can be withdrawn...
...Marshall's wishes if he came asking for 15,000,000 men, Mr...
...Baruch replied that he would not follow him "to the the point of absurdity...
...Roosevelt, Gen...
...Roosevelt has ended the constitutional freedom of the Cabinet to function as his consultants and advisors—the Cabinet practically does not exist any longer...
...It is not voicing distrust of Gen...
...He admitted to the Senate Committee that he had once cut his manpower demand by about three-quarters of a million...
...Wilson made war in 1919.upon Russia, at Archangel and in Siberia, Congress never took any action...
...Bernard Bar-uch made perhaps the most effective appeal for the drafting of the fathers, but, when his argument is analyzed, it is simply that Gen...
...If the men he wants cannot be had by combing the government departments for available young men, in preference to disrupting family life and the war effort by calling out more fathers, then he can surely readjust his strategy again, or tell us exactly why not...
...The Congress should insist upon delving further and further into the whole manpower problem...
...Burton K. Wheeler whether he would yield to Gen...
...Yet the dangers of it are far more serious than the people realize...
...We are certainly far enough along in this war to make any such secrecy unnecessary now—I am not asking for the revelation of plans for separate attacks...
...No one knows in America outside of the inmost group...
...President Roosevelt heads a strong school, which says that the generals should have full say...
...But we know nothing else except that the Congress, too, has abandoned its historic functions and has not insisted upon being consulted as to policies...
...On its face this seems sound and there can be no doubt that a majority of the public today probably favors that policy...
...That, it will be said, is an extreme case, and the Congress would have to be called in to declare war upon China...
...That is a strange statement in view of the millions By OSWALD GARRISON VILLARD we already have under arms—that the loss of a mere fraction of the total would throw our whole warring into confusion...
...Marshall, and Admiral King have the right to decide that America should go to war with .China ? They have the power to do it and they are uncontrolled...
...Why should we still have troops in South Africa...
...Marshall and Admiral King, or an all-powerful planning group within the General Staff, whose members are unknown to the American public, or was it Winston Churchill in consultation with Franklin D. Roosevelt...
...Again, the question of those 446,000 pre-Pearl Harbor fathers ought to be considered in the light of the whole manpower problem...
...that whatever they declare to be necessary in men or materials, they should have and that the reason why this is the best army we have ever raised is that there has been less interference in military affairs by civilians than in any other war in our history...
...But that leaves open the whole question as to how complete the power of the military men should be...
...We know that today it is not the Cabinet and the President, for Mr...
...But that is dictatorship and not democracy, for even in wartime, it must be repeated, the elected representatives of the people should be in control, as well as the elected President—this was one of the reasons why the power to make war was placed by the Constitution in the hands of Congress and not of the Executive, and the power to declare war carries with it the power to wage war, especially as all funds come from the Congress...
...Marshall is a fine man, whom he has known for many years, and that Admiral King, too, is a very good officer, and therefore they should have whatever they want...
...When asked by Sen...
...There is only a limited pool of American men available and they must be spread over the whole war effort...
...Dictatorship, Not Democracy Supposing, as is quite possible, China should drop out of this war and make an alliance with Japan...
...The question which has been presented in the Senate hearings is primarily whether the Army shall have carte blanche, shall, in the vernacular, be allowed to "write its own ticket...
...But there is even more involved than that...
...Congress Should Insist So, the two Houses should insist upon their right to the fullest knowledge of the broad strategic policies and plans, the hiding of which cannot be justly defended on the ground that they must be suppressed for military reasons...
...But if that is defensible, the question arises as to who decided that we should fight or be ready to fight in more than a hundred places over the globe...
...Marshall to demand of him proof that those 446,000 men are essential in the light of all the other needs of the war effort...
...So the simple fact is by withholding the exact strategic plans from us Mr...
...But our history is full of cases where the executive has made war and Congress has merely ratified it, as in the case of Mexico...
...Should Mr...
...But in the East, too, in the great manufacturing centers, production is slowing down at points because of the lack of men and women...
...The fact is that the manpower situation as a whole is positively alarming, especially on the West Coast, so great is the shortage...
...For the fundamental American principle has been that in every case civilians should dominate the military and, secondly, the publ.'c should know exactly who is responsible for the development of our war policies...
...Marshall, or Gen...
...Roosevelt and the military place themselves in a position to say: "You must give us the men we want,because we alone know what we are planning as to this war and you don't...
...Yet that utterly unjustifiable invasion of their country has never been forgotten or forgiven by the Russians, which is one important reason why they are so suspicious of us today and refuse to put their cards on the table...
...Marshall put his plea for the 446,000 additional- men this year on the ground that we are engaged in war all over the world and that the whole strategic plan would be thrown out of gear if the army were deprived of those 446,000 men...
Vol. 7 • October 1943 • No. 41
