One Out of Every Three

Determined on total war, the U.S. had scarcely begun to use its greatest resource: manpower.

Estimates of the country's potentially effective labor force reached 71,700,000--except for Russia, the greatest pool of industrial manpower in the world. But to win its war the U.S. must shake society to its depths. How deep is still guesswork. The Wall Street Journal judicially and shockingly guessed:

"Before this year closes, one out of every three men and women between 18 and 64 will be mustered into war service--to fight, to arm the fighters or to feed the nation, its armies and its allies."

To understand what that means, U.S. businessmen had only to look about their offices, housewives had only to look up & down their neighborhood blocks. Already, said the Journal, one out of every ten men of military age (20-44) wears a uniform. Their prediction: by year's end the ratio will be one to six. What will be the score after 1942? Top estimates, according to the Journal: 10,000,000 men in the armed forces; 20-25,000,000 war-industry workers; 8,000,000 farmers.

The people, with a sense of frustration, waited. They were willing--but they needed to be told what to do. How to mobilize them so that chaos would not result was the job confronting Washington. There were many plans, but no final plan.

The McNutt manpower-mobilization plan was dead, buried in the graveyard file on Mr. Roosevelt's desk. Both Security Administrator Paul V. McNutt and WPB's Sidney Hillman had wanted to be the head man. Logical person to mobilize the country's labor force was the Labor Secretary: Madam Perkins was obviously unsuited. President Roosevelt could have replaced her--but labor leaders, after hours of haggling over who should be her successor, failed to agree; neither A.F. of L. nor C.I.O. chiefs would take a man from the other side. Indications were that no agency would be set up at all.

The Selective Service Board took the first step last week, by sending to local boards questionnaires to be filled in by men in the third registration (20-21, 37-44), to locate men skilled in "critical or essential occupations." All registrants will get the same questionnaire. Draft registrants will be reclassified. Only those men in essential jobs (also reclassified) will be kept in Class 3-A.

The move, Washington piously hoped, would send half a million men into war-production work. This was only a bucketful before the flood.

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