THE WEEK IN REVIEW
THE WEEK IN REVIEW THE nation's manpower muddle was back in the news during the past week, and with it came, in lieu of a clear-cut Administration policy, the usual bewildering assortment of...
...Under one proposal, the men who have been exempt on physical grounds would be taken directly in the Army and be assigned work in labor battalions, but would be denied regular soldier rights to retirement benefits or pensions...
...President Roosevelt appeared to favor such a step...
...Mr...
...Anyone using the words 'activation' or 'implementation' will be shot" * * * Fourth Term...
...McNutt asserted that "it would be tragic to throw away" voluntary methods which have proved so successful "and set up a plan of manpower mobilization which puts the emphasis on direct control and compulsion rather than cooperation...
...Contradicting the alarmist statements of "brass hat" officials, McNutt declared the "manpower situation is relatively good and labor shortages are causing less damage to production now than at any time since the early months of 1943...
...vlj _ Army Rule Ended...
...George Bernard Shaw, celebrated Irish author, made news twice last week, once in discussing Eire's policy of neutrality and then by asserting that he was willing to bequeath his entire fortune to establish a new 42-letter English alphabet which would represent all speech sounds in the language...
...In Washington, Rep...
...Roosevelt's first really stupid mistake...
...From London, Geoffrey Parsons, Jr., correspondent for the New York Herald-Tribune, which has been a warm supporter of Roosevelt interventionism, cabled that American silence on foreign policy has created an acutely serious situation with overtones of explosive possibilities...
...Roosevelt urged Congress to amend the legislation to permit soldiers to vote for Federal office regardless of whether they have applied for state ballots or whether the governors of their states have certified that the Federal ballot is acceptable under state law...
...Decisions...
...The Vermont Republican contended that there should have been "a complete investigation of the Commission a long time ago," and charged that "mismanagement and wastefulness existed in the Maritime Commission long before the war began...
...Manpower mobilization has been a success...
...Congressional coolness toward enforced labor was intensified last week, however, when McNutt, who once favored such a proposal, said he was not in favor of it now and indicated he thought the real need was over...
...Labor turnover has been materially reduced...
...Names And Notes In The News Shavian Shots...
...Most Unpopular Country' The Roosevelt Administration's policy of drift in the field of foreign "relations continued unchanged during the past week, resulting in a mounting wave of criticism in quarters usually friendly to the White House...
...Trend Checked...
...Federal Judge D. E. Metzger, holding that Hawaii is not in "imminent danger of invasion," ruled last week that martial law is no longer necessary...
...Administration Senators promptly introduced the new legislation, but Washington correspondents did not think it had much chance of passage...
...Former Undersecretary of State Sumner Welles, for instance, asserted in his syndicated column that the major members of the United Nations have not yet achieved unity on the political front, that the consula-tive machinery set up at the Moscow Conference last Fall "has proved completely ineffective," that there is a dangerous gap between our official pronouncement of worthy aims and our actual deeds, and that all this has created a perilous situation whose "seriousness cannot be exaggerated...
...If they don't, he added, the soul-searching should be done for them in public...
...The last decision represented a major triumph for miners who automatically qualify for wage increases despite the "Little Steel" formula restrictions...
...A New Soldier Vote Law One of the bitterest political battles of the year came to an end last week when President Roosevelt allowed the soldier vote bill to become law without his signature...
...Both sides had made a major effort to win and had agreed that the contest was a test of Administration popularity...
...Aiken also accused the Commission of making payments "for almost worthless vessels at IS to 16 times their legal valuation...
...George Aiken, Vermont Republican, charged in the Senate last week that the Maritime Commission had allowed "unconscionable profits" to shipping companies and that some sunken ships carried insurance 64 times their legal valuation...
...The American Labor Party, which has often held the balance of power in New York politics, was split down the middle last week when a coalition of CIO leaders, leftists, and Communists captured control of the party's machinery...
...Thad F. Wasielewski, Wisconsin Democrat who has been an apologist for the Roosevelt foreign policy, asserted on the floor of the House that the United States "is undoubtedly the most unpopular nation in Europe today" because the Administration's "lack of action on foreign policy...
...Moreover, it has been done in a thoroughly democratic manner, with an unprecedented degree of participation by labor, management, and local communities...
...THE WEEK IN REVIEW THE nation's manpower muddle was back in the news during the past week, and with it came, in lieu of a clear-cut Administration policy, the usual bewildering assortment of contradictory statements by high Government officials...
...Many an observer was convinced that the Administration would fail to get authority to draft 4-F's for forced labor, and the whole epidemic of statements was widely interpreted as another move in the strategy to break down legislative resistance to a National Service Act...
...Undersecretary of War Robert P. Patterson asserted that 4-F's, men of draft age deferred for physical ailments, should be drafted if they refused to take jobs in essential war industries, but his superior, Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, announced he was opposed to this policy of drafting by "indirection...
...Another move being considered would be a policy of "shaming" 4-F's into taking war jobs by publishing their names in the press if they failed...
...What form the legislation would finally take was not clear, but informed observers felt that an attempt would be made to draft 4-F's for assignment to labor battalions...
...The vote was 26 to 22, with two uncertain...
...McNutt declared that he would have "welcomed something like" a National Service Act 18 months ago, "but the job has now been done on a voluntary basis...
...The President's message to Congress showed that he did not want to risk another head-on clash with Congress of the type which resulted when he sent a sharp message with his veto of the tax bill...
...The vast majority of war plants," the WMC chief pointed out, "have been supplied with the manpower they needed...
...For the Lord's sake, be short and say what you're talking about...
...A long chain of Republican victories in Congressional by-elections was broken last week when the 2nd Oklahoma district elected W. G. Stigler, over E. C. Clark, his GOP foe...
...He said at a press conference last week that a lot of persons who are not in essential work should do a little soul-searching and ask themselves if they are doing all they can for the war program...
...After spending several hours trying to decipher a report, he threw it into the wastebasket, and dictated a memo in which he said: "Stay off the bobbkedygook language...
...Meanwhile, Postmaster General Frank Walker announced that he doubted the ability of the Postoffice Department to deliver ballots to service men overseas for November voting...
...Lewis B. Hershey, called for drafting of 4-F's for war work...
...Then, too, you will find a lack of interest among many of our fighting men, for it is difficult here at home to persuade citizens to register and vote...
...He pointed out that the profits on 90 voyages by 81 vessels amounted to $26,874,176, "or about three times the value of the vessels themselves...
...A small majority of 50 Washington correspondents polled by Newsweek expressed the belief that a Roosevelt-Wallace ticket will defeat a Dewey-Warren slate in November...
...Avoids Head-On Clash In a special message to Congress announcing his decision to allow the modified and greatly watered-down Federal ballot bill to become law, President Roosevelt called the measure "wholly inadequate...
...Some of the mail undoubtedly will have to go by sea, such as the registration of some of the voters in their home counties, and I doubt if this will be completed in time in many instances...
...4-F's May Be Posted Meanwhile, other Federal officials, like Undersecretary Patterson, and Selective Service Director Gen...
...In a series of far-reaching decisions, the U. S. Supreme Court last week upheld constitutionality of price and rent control legislation and sustained the principle of "portal to portal" pay under which workers are compensated for "travel time" while in the service of their employers...
...From London also, Edgar Ansel Mowrer cabled in his column that our Government must act soon if anything is to be saved from "the worldwide wreck of American prestige and leadership...
...Shaw said the United States' efforts to influence Irish policy constituted "Mr...
...Why undo it...
...F.D.R...
...Maury Maverick, hearty head of the Smaller War Plants Corporation, blew up last week at the strange language bureaucrats use in their reports...
...Mail planes are overloaded now," he said...
...Endorsing basic English, Shaw said he had used the alphabet — which he had devised himself — for years to save time in his own writing...
...He predicted Prime Minister De Valera, with all Ireland behind him, "will tell the President in fact to go to hell, and he will get away with it again...
...Both ALP wings, right and left, are pro-Roosevelt...
...Voluntary Methods Work This modified' form of the Administration plan to conscript labor appeared to represent the most the President and his military aides could expect from a Congress which has shown little enthusiasm for a compulsory draft of labor...
...Of Irish neutrality he wrote: "That powerless little cabbage garden called Eire" has won through against the great powers with a neutrality policy which once seemed "crack-brained...
...Roosevelt's soldier vote message gave his position and stated his case for new legislation forcefully but without impugning motives or disparaging Congress as a whole...
...Threat...
...If only the British Government were as intelligent as I am," he jibed...
...The new law provides that men and women in the armed services overseas may vote in the Fall elections by means of a Federal ballot provided: (1) that they applied for but did not receive absentee ballots from their own states, and (2) that the state governors certify that the Federal ballot will be acceptable...
...It only fouls people up...
...court...
...Meanwhile, Aubrey Williams, organizing director of the National Farmers' Union and frequent White House dinner guest, said he left the President a few nights before "with the distinct impression that he wouldn't run again...
...Let's stop 'pointing up' programs, 'finalizing' contracts that 'stem from district, regional, or Washington levels.' There are no 'levels'—local government is as high as Washington government...
...Right wing leaders, including Alex Rose, David Dubinsky, and George Counts, announced they are withdrawing from the ALP and leaving the "Hillman-Browder" forces in sole possession...
...He issued a writ of habeas corpus releasing a prisoner held under a ruling of the Army...
...Split...
...While the country tried to make sense out of these contradictions, Congressional committees began to draft legislation which will be submitted to both houses when the Easter recess ends Apr...
...Shipping Profits...
...Paul V. McNutt, chairman of the War Manpower Commission, flatly announced that a National Service Act, which would give the Government authority to draft men and women for private industry, was no longer necessary, but his superior, President Roosevelt, said later the same day that it was necessary...
Vol. 8 • April 1944 • No. 15
