Stampede to Arms

MANPOWER

Something very close to disaster hit the great aircraft plants around Los Angeles. Never before had so many of their workers failed to show up on the job--the plants' skilled men had been stampeded by the U.S. Government. A few headlines, such as HALT DEFERMENT OF DEFENSE WORKERS IN DRAFT, MARRIED MEN TO BE INDUCTED, had put a crimp in vital war production.

What is more, the headlines this time were no false alarm. At the recent rate of inductions (a military secret), the U.S. is roaring down the road toward a 10,000,000-man army. Selective Service Headquarters believes that "by this time next year every able-bodied man of draft age, regardless of dependents, will be in either the Army or Navy, or should be prepared to go in soon." Said Draft General Lewis B. Hershey to factory workers with dependent wives: "Begin making arrangements now." California's draft director announced that draft boards should "plan for the withdrawal" of men deferred for occupational reasons. The result was a stampede of young, able-bodied Southern California war-plant workers who, rather than wait to be drafted on $50 pay, besieged recruiting offices to try for higher-paid service jobs as Army or Navy specialists and technicians.

For four days at the Los Angeles Navy recruiting station 500 to 600 men who took draft officials at their word were in line and two extra medical examining rooms were opened to accommodate the crowd. The Marine recruiting office was snowed under. So was the Coast Guard. An office set up by the Army to recruit ground crews was as swamped as the Navy.

But nobody cheered except the recruiting officers. The Los Angeles Daily News called the enlistments a "mass exodus" and manufacturers cited instances. Vultee said "We've never had so many people absent. Our chief engineer was tearing his hair." One company had not only lost many enlistees but had 1,500 applications for releases (from classification as a necessary worker), so that men could enlist. Another company in one day lost three turret-lathe operators out of 30. Another lost four automatic-screw machinists out of 18. A parts plant lost eight out of 16 patternmakers and another which employed eight lost eight (Navy pays up to $138 a month plus allowances for them).

The Aircraft Parts Manufacturers Association wired President Roosevelt: "We respectfully suggest immediate official coordination of policies, regulations and press statements. . . . Please do something."

There is not much the President can do except decide to have a smaller army. Scripps-Howard Reporter Dick Thornburg reports flatly that within a year one out of every three men now in class three will be in military service--which may mean as high as five out of six of those physically fit. This week Selective Service Headquarters ordered local boards to finish classifying all registrants liable to military service by Oct. 16.

The Army will get 3-As beginning in October, and first of all men with collateral dependents--mothers, sisters, etc; by November, when this "grandmother" category is exhausted, will call men with nondependent wives.

By December most draftees are likely to be married men without children and married men with children "who do not maintain a bona fide family relationship." By January, Congress may give permission to draft 18- and 19-year-olds. By next July husbands with children may be on their way.

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