DEPARTMENT OF WATER AND POWER, Congressman JERRY VOORHIS, House Office Building, Washington, D. C. DEAR CONGRESSMAN VOORHIS: The directives of the War Production Board (a) prohibiting letting of contracts in A-1 labor areas; and (b) prohibiting production of civilian goods other than those formerly produced by any industrial plant, both require careful study and administration by the boards responsible in any area or region; need to be made more flexible in order that discretion may be used by such responsible boards; and there is need that such responsible boards are instructed to make such studies in order that the directives may be intelligently and advantageously administered. The Los Angeles area, declared an A-1 area, is far-flung in extent and covers a wide variation of conditions. In some sections like the harbor district, where shipbuilding is going on, there is great difficulty in getting sufficient employees due primarily to the lack of adequate housing and of transportation facilities. Transportation is a poor solution because the distances are so great, but is helpful. There are other areas, covering a large part of the city or metropolitan area within and without the city, where applications are made for employment. This is true with respect to the greater part of our 3,500 small war plants, onehalf within the city and one-half in the area about the city. Clearly there is need for increased subcontracting with respect to shipbuilding and it is just possible that a change-over to two 10-hour shifts, thus decreasing housing demands by 20 to 25 percent, coupled with even greater subcontracting, would keep the small war plants busy and at the same time avoid slowing down shipbuilding, or even boost it. This leads to the particular occasion of our efforts in favor of our small war plants in Los Angeles. There are many of them, and increasing rapidly, beginning to suffer, some of them seriously, for want of work because of the directive prohibiting contracts being let. This directive seems to result in some of the procurement agents not attempting to let contracts there, though others do. The area production urgency committee, from which procurement agents must secure an O. K. before letting a contract in such areas, as above stated, should both have authority and be instructed to make studies of the conditions throughout such areas and of individual plants with a view to permitting, and in fact encouraging, direct contracts or subcontracts which will keep those plants reasonably busy, in order to preserve their productiveness available for war production and for utilization of what will be otherwise idle labor during the readjustment period. The attached 2%-page statement handed me by an engineer of our business agent's division, Mr. Buck, sets out respects in which these two directives may be more objectionable than beneficial, if not properly administered, and makes suggestions as to possible modifications in the directives and procedure. I feel that it would be very desirable if you would call this matter, as I have endeavored to present it to you, together with the statement by Mr. Buck, to the attention of Senator Murray's committee, which it is our understanding is holding hearings in the interest of small industry. Also it would be greatly helpful to the Los Angeles area if you, together with Congressman Ford and Congressman Sheppard, could together plan procedure which might lead to the War Production Board altering the two directives, as may be necessary, that there may be greater flexibility and more effective administration of them. With respect to the directive relating to civilian production, it may be pointed out that in the Los Angeles area, within and without the city, there are many of the small war plants which are new and, therefore, produced nothing previously there are many changes in the economies affecting production of civilian goods on account of the recently appearing competition of the Northwest and the East, which would make it necessary to shift to other lines of production in order to carry on successfully; and lastly, there will be demands for durable goods which have never been manufactured before which may be successfully manufactured in Los Angeles. The net result is that with such a directive the possibilities of civilian production now or during the readjustment period would be reduced to perhaps something of the magnitude of one-half of what might otherwise be realized. Yours very sincerely, E. F. SCATTERGOOD, MEMORANDUM TO E. F. SCATTERGOOD Advisory Engineer. (From O. K. Buck, April 27, 1944) With the cut-backs in contracts for the production of war materials due to a shift in emphasis of the war activity, and the completion by production plants of present orders on hand, a situation has developed which is causing distress among war plants in the Los Angeles area and one which very obviously is becoming more intensely acute each day. This situation has been brought to a critical point by the following official actions: 1. Limitation of the use of materials for the production of civilian goods. 2. Placing Los Angeles in a No. 1 critical labor area. 3. The restrictions with respect to procurement as outlined in the War Production Board letter of October 5, directed to all procurement officers. The purpose, of course, of the last two actions is to bring into balance labor and production. If carried beyond the necessary point or if improperly administered, however, the results may be contrary to the purpose. The following effects have already been noticeable and will become a serious problem to remedy: (a) Slow down of employees because of fear of losing their jobs. (b) Loss of use of production facilities. (c) Disintegration of production organizations and facilities. (d) Loss of technical staffs. (e) Unemployment among those unsuited for heavy industry labor. (f) Shift of labor to other areas. (9) Economic distress of firms and consequent removal from availability for war production uses, and from war readjustments. The statements enclosed herewith were requested in written form for the purpose of demonstrating specific instances of derangement in full utilization of our industrial processes. For your consideration we are placing before you definite recommendations which would tend toward more harmonious balance of labor production and national need: I. Relaxing materials restrictions to permit use for limited civilian production, giving consideration to the market needs of the local area, the need to keep production organizations alive, the utilization of vital production facilities, and the saving on transportation demands. It is my understanding that much consideration has already been given to this point and according to newspaper reports an order has already been issued and withdrawn. It is my impression that the time is rapidly nearing when such steps should be taken in order to insure more effective conversion to peacetime production at the close of hostilities. II. Specific classification by the War Manpower Commission of the type of labor which is needed in critical areas. In the Los Angeles area the heaviest demand is for shipyard workers. The type of labor employed in most of the smaller plants in Los Aangeles, wherein are used the physically handicapped, older men and women, is not suitable for employment on ship construction. Curtailment of orders in these plants, therefore, does little good toward easing the labor market for the shipyards, and for the further reason that housing conditions in the harbor area make the retention of labor difficult. III. Modification of or official interpretation of the October 5 procurement letter so that consideration can be given those factors outlined under recommendation I, as well as giving consideration to delivery schedules. The interpretation which most procurement officers have placed on the policy outlined in that letter of October 5 is that if contracts can be let in other areas that this must be done, even though many individual plants in other areas, where the overall labor situation may be less critical, cannot meet delivery schedules and much cross hauling by means of our already overloaded transportation system is necessitated. The procedure followed by many procurement officers to determine whether the orders can be filled in other labor areas is to avoid inviting bids from plants within the areas. This in effect places a quarantine on the critical labor area. IV. Encouragement of more extensive subcontracting in the local area and the awarding of contracts direct to smaller firms. The need for labor in Los Angeles is more extensive in the larger plants, particularly in shipbuilding, as previously noted, and the smaller plants, because of better control, supervision, and direction of their manpower, have had little labor difficulty. V. Reconsideration of the policy established by the War Production Board that aid cannot be given those plants engaging in the manufacture of a product which is other than that manufactured before the war. The influx of workers into the Los Angeles area, principally because of the shipbuilding and aircraft plants located there, has been considerable, particularly in view of the fact that Los Angeles was not a heavy industrial area. The increased population must be taken care of post-war in the smaller plants which constitute the most or our industrial activity. Many new smaller plants were established as feeder plants to the larger industries. These have been equipped with machine tools and other production facilities which will enable them to produce civilian products much needed in the west-coast market. If the population is to be kept employed, it is definitely necessary that these smaller plants in that area be given all the encouragement which our Federal agencies are able to provide. If this is not done, then a serious unemployment and economic distress situation will result. (Earlier hearings are contained in Parts 10 to 16 of hearings HEARINGS BEFORE A SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE U.S. Congress. Senate COMMITTEE ON MILITARY AFFAIRS, UNITED STATES SENATE SEVENTY-EIGHTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION ON S. 1730 A BILL TO CREATE AN OFFICE OF DEMOBILIZATION, ESTABLISH S. 1823 A BILL TO ESTABLISH AN OFFICE OF WAR MOBILIZATION AND ADJUSTMENT 98534 PART 5 Printed for the use of the Committee on Military Affairs UNITED STATES WASHINGTON: 1944 |