place from one type of industry to another and from one locality to another. High wages are paid and there is an abundance of work for all. Our great American industry-a colossus in the world even before the outbreak of this war has been geared to the gigantic struggle in which we are now engaged and runs full ahead gaining momentum in its progress. What were blueprints but a year or two ago are now thunderous factories employing millions of men.

We have no admirals, we have no Army officers, we have no laymen, and we have no seers among us who can tell us when this war will endor how abruptly. But any man of common sense among us will recognize the absolute necessity of preparedness to meet any eventuality in this respect. The peace that is rightly longed for in the hearts of the mothers and fathers of America when the victory is won, can only turn into the deserved fruition of security and happiness if we can successfully meet the dislocation that the peace will entail as well as we have met the onslaught of our enemies. That this Congress is aware of that fact is evidenced by the many measures proposed or agreed to by the Congress looking to post-war social and economic problems.

The functions of the Retraining and Reemployment Administration are defined and described in the Executive order establishing it as follows:

With the assistance of the Retraining and Reemployment Policy Board, composed of a representative from the Department of Labor, Federal Security Agency, War Manpower Commission, and the Selective Service System, the Veterans' Administration, the Civil Service Commission, the War Department, the Navy Department, and the War Production Board, it is the function of the Administration:

(a) To have general supervision and direction of the activities of all Government agencies relating to the retraining and reemployment of persons released from the armed services or other war work, including all work directly affected by the cessation of hostilities and the reduction of the war program and to advise with the appropriate committees of Congress as to the steps taken or to be taken with respect thereto.

* * *

(b) In consultation with the Government agencies concerned to develop programs for the orderly absorption into other employment of persons discharged or released from the armed forces or other war work, including adequate provision for vocational training, the finding of jobs for persons so discharged or released, or assisting those persons and their families pending their absorption into employment, and for dealing with the problems connected with the release of workers from the industries not readily convertible to peacetime use. * * *

(c) In consultation with the Government agencies concerned to develop programs for the adequate care of persons discharged or returned from the armed services, including physical and occupational therapy for the wounded and the disabled and the resumption of education interrupted by the war.

Under the foregoing as Retraining and Reemployment Administrator, I fully understand and realize that my duties cover a very wide field in demobilization, rehabilitation, retraining, and relocation. In unity with the Congress, Government agencies, industry, and organizations of labor, I conceive it to be my task to chart, in the matter of manpower, the road back when the peace comes. It is not an easy task. The problems of demobilization are no less, and in many respects far greater, than the problems of mobilization. As in peace we must be prepared for war, so in war we must be prepared for peace. The war effort and measures to insure the peace are interlocked; where the military leave off in the forward prosecution of the war, civil authority must carry on the great war-making

machine in reverse. In the security of the Nation the latter is no less important than the former.

Among the problems confronting the Retraining and Reemployment Administration are the following: Jobs for all who can and want to work; vocational training for all who need it; resumption of highschool and college educations interrupted by the war; special care and consideration for disabled veterans, including physical and social rehabilitation; special employment problems of the great war industries; timing of release of workers from industry; rate and method of demobilizing the armed forces; problems of the geographical dislocation of labor; adjustment of labor laws to changing manpower needs; adequacy of unemployment insurance; distribution of information on occupational trends; advice and guidance in respect to employment; consultation with Congress on the above problems.

One of the cardinal principles of the Administration will be emphasis on the human factors involved. Never shall I lose sight of the fact I am dealing with souls-individual human beings with rightful individual characteristics and desires. The American way of government and of life shall be maintained in our work as against any Fascist rule that glibly obliterates the individual for advantage to the state. At the entrance to the National Archives Building, where rest the permanent records of this Republic, there are inscribed in the marble at either side the two inscriptions: "Study the past" and "What is past is prologue." I intend, gentlemen, in the administration of retraining and reemployment to recognize those inscriptions, particularly in the light of the history of our country in the wake of the last war. As to the millions of servicemen who will return to civil life, I set my goal that not a soul among them will become a mendicantexcept at his own choosing. To do this the help and full cooperation of the Congress, of Government agencies, of labor, and of business are essential.

A multitude of facts and figures will enter into the work of the Retraining and Reemployment Administration. I shall not burden you with any detailed recitation of these. A few passing references may be of interest. According to the estimate of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, immediately after the war, manufacturing industries will face the largest total decline from a war peak of around 17,000,000 to perhaps 12,000,000, with tremendous cuts in manpower in such industries as aircraft, shipbuilding, and machinery. Total Government employment will take a cut-back from approximately 6,000,000 to 4,000,000. The same Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates shifts in industry as follows: The manufacturing industries in which there will be a post-war reduction in labor force are iron and steel, about one-half million; machinery, 1,000,000; aircraft, over a million; shipbuilding, over a million; chemical and petroleum products, onethird million; automobile concerns, about a quarter million; and food, one-quarter million.

Those industries in which it is estimated the labor force will remain approximately the same are printing, railway equipment, rubber, stone, clay, and glass; and those wherein there will be increase in labor are lumber, about one-sixth million; textiles, apparel, and leather products, about one-half million. In the nonmanufacturing industries there will be a reduction aside from the Government service of about onefourth million in transportation; and in the nonmanufacturing

industries in which there will be an increase we find construction, estimated at nearly two million increase; trade, three-quarter million; finance and services, one-sixth million.

The people of this country are vitally interested in retraining and reemployment and are fully awake to its importance. Abundant evidence of that fact already has reached me. Business organizations, educational institutions, labor councils alike unmistakably have shown their interest. I have confidence there will be cooperation in our efforts commensurate with that interest. A great part of my job lies in the maintenance of mutual understanding and unified action on the part of industry and labor. I feel hopeful that this working together in this vital question of retraining and reemployment will serve a purpose in the furtherance generally of understanding in all relations between industry and labor.

I do not conceive this retraining and reemployment work as an overnight job. There must be a well-grounded and sustained effort to maintain the structure of Government assistance. This is not a stroke to put the Government further in business. It is the direct opposite. It is an effort, in the words of the Baruch report, to get Government out of busiress and private enterprise into it.

I have given you, gentlemen, with intended helpfulness, a brief general view of the work in hand for the Retraining and Reemployment Administration. In the interest of our boys who now bear the shock of the battle lines on foreign soil, in the interest of the American worker here at home, and for the common good of our beloved country, I will carry on in the confidence that the work in which we are engaged will have your full support.

Mr. Chairman, I would like to place in the record at this point a further statement, which will be distributed to the members of the committee, of the problems as we have sensed them.

(The statement follows:)

OFFICE OF WAR MOBILIZATION

RETRAINING AND REEMPLOYMENT ADMINISTRATION

STATEMENT OF FUNCTIONS AND PROBLEMS

Pursuant to the recommendations of the Baruch-Hancock report the Retraining and Reemployment Administration was set up in the Office of War Mobilization coordinately with the Surplus Property Administration, to guide the processes of demobilization, retraining, and reemployment.

Problem in brief.

The magnitude of the task is indicated by the fact that more than 12,000,000 workers have been added to the pay rolls, that half of the 62,000,000 persons in the labor force are directly in war work and that there has been a dislocation of workers in industries and occupations as well as a geographical dislocation which breaks all migration records. Probably 20,000,000 people will have to change their work at the end of hostilities. Millions of these will have to change their location. In order to make the shift over from war to peace activities many of them will need retraining, interim unemployment compensation, and finally location in peacetime jobs.

History of problem.

In 1918 there were plans for the transition period and legislation had already been introduced into Congress for the institution of a planned scheme to gear demobilization to the economic situation, but so engrossed were our public officials in the prosecution of the war and the preparation of plans for the peace that this legislation died in committee with little or no debate. As a result,

when the armistice came peace caught the country unawares. There was no over-all organization of Government agencies to plan the transition. There was no flexible national program to bridge the gap between war orders and peacetime production. There was no efficient employment policy involving the cooperation of management, labor, and Government to steer the course of demobilization, conversion, retraining, and reemployment. Thus the country faced the post-war period without the guidance of its leaders. There was no time for the selection and training of the administrative force needed for the task. The whole process

of demobilization and reemployment was thrown into confusion. One month after the armistice, while plans for demobilization were still in the formative stage, half a million men were released from the armed forces and unfortunately about one-third of these were demobilized in areas where thousands of workers were being released from war plants. There was little coordination between the cancelation of war contracts, conversion and reemployment. Demoralization resulted. Soldiers returned from Europe and from camps in the United States to cool their heels in employment offices and to walk the streets looking for jobs that did not exist. Finally came the depression of 1920 and the great depression and break-down of 1933.

Our impending dislocations are far greater than they were in the last war; hence the potentialities for economic and social catastrophe are greater. In such a situation over-all guidance becomes absolutely necessary. This Nation cannot fight a war for freedom from fear and freedom from want and run the risk of having its population faced with the fear of depression and want when the war is over. Bills have been introduced by Senator George and Senator Murray, S. 1730, and by Senators O'Mahoney and Kilgore, S. 1823, on this problem. Retraining and Reemployment Administration.

In order that the mistakes of the past might not be repeated and to provide adequately for events to come, the Retraining and Reemployment Administration was set up by Executive Order 9427, under authority of the First War Powers Act of 1941. Its duties are as follows:

Functions.

The functions of the Retraining and Reemployment Administration with the advice of a policy board of representatives of nine Government agencies under the supervision of the Director of War Mobilization and in consultation with the Government agencies concerned are:

1. To have general supervision and direction of the activities of all Government agencies relating to the retraining and reemployment of persons discharged from the armed services, persons released from other war work, including all work directly affected by the reduction of the war program.

(a) To issue necessary regulations and directions in connection therewith. (b) To advise with appropriate committees of Congress as to steps taken and to be taken.

2. To develop programs in consultation with the Government agencies concerned for the orderly absorption into other employment of persons discharged or released from the armed services or other war work, including:

(a) Adequate vocational training.

(b) Securing of jobs.

(c) Assistance to discharged persons and families pending reabsorption. (d) Special consideration of the problem of release of workers from nonconvertible war industries.

(e) Integration of the above with wartime manpower controls.

3. To develop programs for the adequate care of persons discharged or released from the armed services, including:

(a) Care of wounded and disabled by physical and occupational therapy and vocational rehabilitation.

(b) Provision for the resumption of education interrupted by the war.

Working principies.

Present viewpoints and assumptions are as follows:

A. The task constitutes a major national problem. The change over from war to peace will affect every part of our economic life. No comparable task has ever existed before. More than $50,000,000,000 worth of annual current production of strictly war goods will be stopped when the war ends. This gap must be

filled in large part by civilian production and civilian services. In solving the problem it will be necessary in the language of the Baruch report-to cure the things that cause us worry; to strengthen the good; to hold to the proven, as well as to test the new.

B. The task which confronts the Retraining and Reemployment Administration involves a partnership of Government, industry, and labor. While the function of the Administration is to secure facts and set up policies and issue regulations and procedures for an over-all guidance of the reconversion processes, as well as to institute programs, it cannot accomplish the purpose without the cooperation of industry. Manufacturers and businessmen through their organizations will need to make plans for peacetime production; including surveys of need, liquid purchasing power, deferred demand for consumers goods, schedule of producing the right amount of goods to meet the demand over a given period of time, and the translation of manufacturing estimates into terms of man-hours and job and labor inventories. Labor, on the other hand, will cooperate in various ways. Thus control will be matched by individual initiative and free enterprise. C. Reemployment is the key to the post-war problem. The solution is full employment in an expanding economy. An economy of scarcity and the cutting down of the labor force are not the solution.

D. The veteran's welfare is closely interwoven with the welfare of all.

E. Production must be maintained as high as good business judgment will dictate. There must be work to do. Without it there can be no jobs. Utilization of the present labor expansion cannot take place in a vacuum. At the war's end there will be a tremendous void to fill which can only be filled by full production of civilian goods and full use of services. Everything that will stimulate business, therefore, is essential to this program. There must be full utilization of new products and new inventions; full utilization of schools with their training faculties; dissemination of research findings on new world needs which can be met by American industry; encouragement of extensive trade with the nations that will need to be rehabilitated and rebuilt; encouragement of investment; adequate wage standards so that the population can purchase what it makes. As a means to this end, industry and business must make plans now. It must estimate consumer demand, lay plans for reconversion of plants and machinery, estimate demand and purchasing power, estimate the product that should be turned out, and the labor components necessary to produce it. Various plans, such as the Gray plan and the Lea plan have been proposed.

F. The full use of cushioning is necessary. The cushioning factors in the situation are as follows: The war will probably end in different places at different times, making a gradual demobilization possible, both of soldiers and war workers. Their absorption by peacetime industry will be aided by several factors-the retirement of many women from the labor force, especially in agriculture; the return of younger workers to school; the resumption of college and professional training which was interrupted by the war, now estimated as a back-log of 1,500,000 man-years of college education; the retraining of both soldiers and war workers to prepare them to take new jobs; the renewal of services and businesses stopped by the war; the starting of new enterprises based on inventions developed during the war; increased production and commerce to meet the needs of rehabilitation and construction in devastated countries; increased travel; reduction of the workweek; increased time for recreation; retirement of the older people, etc.These factors will cushion the transition from war to peace and should be kept in mind as aids in the readjustment program.

INVENTORY OF PROBLEMS IN RETRAINING AND REEMPLOYMENT

The following problems are receiving the attention of, or are closely associated with the task of the Retraining and Reemployment Administration:

Fact finding and information.

1. Information on manpower needs and available labor supply; present and projected inventories.

2. Occupational outlook information; probable war-to-peace shifts in the labor force; amount of increase and decrease in labor demand for each industry and occupation within the industry, by States and regions.

3. Occupational analyses with emphasis upon common factors in related occupations for purpose of transfer of workers from wartime to peacetime jobs and from military to civilian pursuits.

4. Physical demands studies; job studies from the point of view of the requirements of the work for the selective placement of the handicapped.