Manpower: Table showing number of workers needed in war plants and reduction in employment, November 1943 to November 1944_ Gallup polls relating to national service legislation... British Information Services, Information Division, Control of Man- power in Britain, revised to March 1944: Title VI, section 3. Inserted material: MOBILIZATION OF CIVILIAN MANPOWER (These hearings were held in closed sessions) TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1945 UNITED STATES SENATE, COMMITTEE ON MILITARY AFFAIRS, Washington, D. C. EXECUTIVE SESSION The committee met, pursuant to call, at 10:30 a. m., in the committee room of the Committee on Military Affairs, United States Capitol, Senator Elbert D. Thomas (chairman) presiding. Present: Senators Thomas of Utah (chairman), Johnson of Colorado, Hill, Chandler, Kilgore, O'Mahoney, Stewart, Maybank, Austin, Gurney, Revercomb, Wilson, and Burton; also Senator Brewster. The CHAIRMAN. I will ask the reporter to merely designate this as "Special Hearings, Committee on Military Affairs" and account for all of those present and those who come in later. This meeting is called at the request of the committee to discuss the manpower bill. (S. 36 is as follows:) IS. 36 79th Cong. 1st sess.] A BILL. To amend section 5 (k) of the Selective Training and Service Act, 1940, as amended Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That section 5 (k) of the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, as amended, is hereby amended by striking out the colon and the remainder of the subsection following the colon and inserting in lieu thereof a period and the following: "Any registrant between the ages of eighteen and forty-five who leaves the farm, plant, or other activity in which he is working and which is engaged in the type of war production or war services designated by the Director of Selective Service, without first obtaining a determination by his selective service local board, subject to appeal in accordance with section 10 (a) (2) of this Act, that it is in the best interest of the war effort for him to do so, shall be classified into a class immediately available for induction into the land or naval forces, unless his local board, subject to appeal in accordance with section 10 (a) (2) of this Act, finds he had a justifiable reason for leaving such farm, plant, or activity without first obtaining such determination. "The Director of War Mobilization and Reconversion shall certify to the Director of Selective Service from time to time the manpower requirements of war or war supporting plants and activities within each industrial area, which (after consultation with the appropriate officials of management, labor, and Government) he determines will not be met by stabilizing manpower in the manner hereinabove provided and by voluntary recruiting by management, labor, and Government. "The Director of Selective Service shall maintain an inventory of all deferred registrants by age groups and by other status within each age group. Upon receiving such a certification for a particular area, the Director of Selective Service shall designate the categories (by age and other status) of deferred registrants between the ages of eighteen and forty-five which he estimates contain sufficient numbers of persons (1) who are capable of performing the work involved, (2) who are not engaged in services designated by the Director of Selective Service as contributing to the war effort or being in support of the war effort, and (3) who are by reason of their status the type of persons he deems can transfer to other work with the least disruption to the civilian economy and to themselves in comparison with persons in other categories. The Director of Selective Service shall call upon such local boards in such area, and outside the area if he deems it advisable in the national interest, to request their registrants within the categories so designated to become employed in such plants or activities within a time specified by him. Any such registrant who fails to become so employed within the specified time, shall be classified into a class immediately available for military service and shall be liable for immediate induction into the land or naval forces, unless such registrant is found by his selective service local board, subject to appeal in accordance with section 10 (a) (2) of this Act, to have had a justifiable reason for not having become so employed. "Any registrant who is classified under this subsection into a class immediately available for military service and who is thereafter inducted may, after such induction, be utilized by the land or naval forces in their discretion for service in regular military units and assignments now or hereafter in existence or for service in a special service unit or units which are hereby authorized to be created within the land or naval forces. During the time such registrants are serving in a special service unit or units, they shall be subject to the same supervision, discipline, obligations, and punishment as other persons inducted into the land or naval forces, but they shall not, while so serving, or thereafter, be entitled, by reason of such service, to the benefits of section 8 of this Act, the Soldiers' and Sailors' Civil Relief Act of 1940, as amended, the Servicemen's Dependents Allowance Act of 1942, as amended, the National Service Life Insurance Act of 1940, as amended, the Mustering-Out Payment Act of 1944, or of any law administered by the Veterans' Administration providing benefits for former members of the armed forces, or their dependents or beneficiaries. The number of persons serving in such special service units under this subsection shall not be considered in computing the authorized net military strength of the armed forces and such persons shall be used for the performance of assignments within activities under the direct jurisdiction of the land or naval forces, and shall not be utilized for work outside of such activities except upon certification by the Director of War Mobilization and Reconversion after consultation with the management, labor, and agriculture advisory board created under section 102 of the War Mobilization and Reconversion Act of 1944. (House bill, as introduced, and as passed by the House, follows:) [H. R. 1752, 79th Cong., 1st sess.] AN ACT To amend the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, and for other purposes Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That section 5 of the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, as amended, is amended by inserting at the end of such section a new subsection reading as follows: "(n) (1) In addition to the liability for training and service in the land or naval forces, every registrant between the ages of eighteen and forty-five who is not a member of such forces on active duty and is not exempted or deferred from training and service therein by section 5 (c) (1) or (d) shall be liable to perform work in an activity in war production or in support of the national health, safety, or interest, or in an agricultural occupation or endeavor essential to the war effort. For the purposes of this subsection, the Director of War Mobilization and Reconversion, or the agency designated by him, shall from time to time by regulations designate, and certify to the Director of Selective Service, the plants and facilities, and the activities therein, in war production or in support of the national health, safety, or interest, and the farms and agricultural occupations and endeavors essential to the war effort. In making such designations, the Director of War Mobilization and Reconversion may make classifications on the basis of geographical areas, types of activities, types of occupations within activities, and types of plants, facilities, and farms. "(2) A registrant liable to perform such work who is now or hereafter employed by an employer, or now or hereafter self-employed, in an activity or agricultural occupation or endeavor which is so certified shall have a duty not to voluntarily discontinue such employment unless bis selective-service local board (subject to appeal in the same manner as is provided in section 10 (a) (2)) has determined that it is in the best interest of the war effort for him to leave such employment. "(3) The Director of War Mobilization and Reconversion shall from time to time (after consultation with the appropriate representatives of management, labor, agriculture, and Government) certify or cause to be certified to the Director of Selective Service the extent to which, in the various areas, the plants, facilities, and farms described in paragraph (2) are unable, through the operation of paragraph (2) and by voluntary recruiting by management, labor, agriculture, and Government, to meet their manpower requirements in the activities, occupations, and endeavors so described. "(4) Upon receiving such a certification for a particular area, the Director of Selective Service "(A) shall designate the categories (by age and other status) of registrants who are liable to perform work under paragraph (1) and who are not deferred under subsection (k) or by reason of being engaged in an activity in war production or in support of the national health, safety, or interest, from which categories men capable of performing the work involved shall be called before calls are made from other categories. In designating such categories the Director shall first designate categories which include registrants who are, by reason of their age and other status, the type of men he deems can transfer to such work with the least disruption to the civilian economy and to themselves in comparison with men in other categories, and may exclude, or by regulations provide for the exclusion, from any category so designated, of those types of veterans (discharged or released from active duty in the land or naval forces under conditions not dishonorable) whose exclusion from such category the Director deems fair and equitable; "(B) shall direct the local boards in such area, and also local boards outside the area to the extent that he may deem necessary, to request their registrants within the categories so designated to become employed, within a time fixed by the Director, in the activities, occupations, and endeavors covered by the certification; "(C) if the requirements of the certification have not been met under subparagraph (B) within the time fixed, shall direct the local boards in such area, and also local boards outside the area to the extent that he may deem necessary, to order (subject to regulations prescribed by him) registrants within the categories so designated and capable of performing the work involved (in numbers sufficient to meet the requirements of the certification) to make, within such time as he may prescribe, application for employment in the activities, occupations, and endeavors specified in the certification and to enter upon such employment when accepted therefor. Such orders shall be subject to appeal in the same manner as is provided in section 10 (a) (2). It shall be the duty of the registrant to whom such an order is directed to comply therewith, provided the order gives him a reasonable choice of employers for whom to work. "(5) In order to aid the selective-service local boards and the appeal boards in the exercise of the additional duties required of them under this subsection, the Director of War Mobilization and Reconversion may assign to such boards, in an advisory capacity, representatives of such other agencies of the Government as he may deem advisable. "(6) A registrant who is found, in the same manner as is provided in subsection (g), to be conscientiously opposed, by reason of religious training and belief, to participation in war in any form, and whose opposition thereto is found, in such manner, to include opposition to participation in civilian war activities shall, in lieu of being ordered to make application for, and to accept, employment in any such activity, be ordered to make application for, and to accept, employment in another activity in the national interest. "(7) Nothing in this subsection shall affect in any manner any of the provisions of subsection (k). "(8) Nothing in this subsection shall affect the powers under other provisions of this Act with respect to the classification and selection of persons for, or the induction, or deferment from induction, of persons into, the land or naval forces; or preclude the Selective Service System from classifying and selecting for induction any registrant who violates a duty imposed upon him by this subsection or preclude the land or naval forces from inducting such a registrant." |