First. Bad planning.
Second. The attempt to do the job
from Washington, and
Third. The failure to enlist the services
of the best men available.
In the first respect the report states:
The second root cause of our manpower
difficulties has been that production has
been planned, new facilities built, and con-
tracts awarded without adequate regard to
the supplies of labor available locally.

This is, in fact, the primary reason
we have critical areas at the present
time. Had production been properly
planned geographically and had orders
not been concentrated in the hands of
the few at the expense of the small busi-
nessmen and other localities, there would
be far fewer critical areas today, and
there would have been much less labor
hoarding of young men in factories, and
we would not have been in the muddle
we are now in.

Mr, President, let me ask, Who is re-
sponsible for this bad planning? Is it
due to the complacency of the people?
Is the Congress responsible? Or are the
Federal bureaus responsible?

As to the second cause of our man-
power difficulties, the attempt to do the
job from Washington, the report states:

If this labor budget plan is to work, there
must be adequate delegation of power from
all Washington agencies to their west coast
representatives, and the communities them-
selves must get on the team. The job can-
not be done from Washington.

This, of course, is the truth and fact
of the matter.

The report states further:

An immediate survey should be made of
the possibilities of subcontracting in nearby
communities.

Had this been done earlier, fewer
small businesses would have had to go
out of business.

Who is responsible for this failure to
decentralize power? Certainly that is
not the fault of the people of the coun-
try; it is not the fault of the Congress;
but again I say the fault rests entirely
upon the Federal bureaus in Washing-
ton.

As to a third cause of our manpower
difficulties, the report states:

Too much emphasis cannot be laid on the
importance of selecting the best man pos-
sible in the community to serve as chairman
of the local priorities committee and the
necessity for giving him the fullest commu-
nity support.

554199—3636

 

The principles there laid down are
unquestionably sound, and they could
and should be applied on a national scale
so that here in Washington we would
find, especially in time of war, the best
men possible heading the departments
and the bureaus, able, public-spirited
citizens, but, as the report states, in-
stead we have heading these agencies
men “spending their energies battling to
build up empires.”

Who is responsible for this? Certain-
ly not the Congress of the United States.
Certainly it is not due to the compla-
cency of the people. Certainly the
responsibility rests nowhere except with
the bureaus in Washington.

At the conclusion of the report, it is
stated:

Our study of this problem also emphasizes
anew the necessity for your constant review
of military and lend-lease requirements to
see that all different parts of the program
are in balance with one another-and» that:
the program as a whole is balanced against
the essential needs of the civilian economy.
We have reached the stage of our war econ-
omy where there is not much to spare.
Something gained in one direction means a
loss in the other direction.

-Whose business is it to do this bal-
ancing? :

This, obviously, is not purely a mili-
tary question. What the military say
they need is one consideration; what
producers say they need is another, and
the need of the civilian population of
the country is another, so that..the
morale of the people, which Mr. Hershey
speaks of, will not break down.

It is the obligation of the Government,
and, Mr. President, the Government of
the United States includes the Congress,
to determine on the evidence submitted
what the true facts are and to act ac-
cordingly. So when Members of the
Senate stand on this floor and say that
they do not want to take the responsi-
bility, in the face of the responsibilities
which are given to them, they are shirk-
ing the responsibility which the Consti-
tution of the United States imposes upon
them.

Mr. President, for Congress simply to
say, “Well, the military men say they
want this; let them have it” is, to state
it plainly, for Congress to shirk its re-
sponsibility. When Members of Con-
gress say that some Government official
or Army official—I care not who he may