Urgent laea

OPM's Sidney Hillman announced last week a plan to end weekend "blackouts" in the defense industry, which President Roosevelt recently deplored. The Hillman plan was to put some industries on a four-shift, 160-hour week, rotating shifts and letting all share Saturday and Sunday overtime pay. The remaining eight hours of the week would be used for overhauling and repairing machines.

"Some industries" were those making machine tools, explosives, electrical equipment, engines, aircraft, ships. Other industries would be included as the need arose. One immediate question was, where would industry get the extra men that this plan would require? One source was an estimated 3,000,000 still unemployed. But it was doubtful whether that source was good for much of the skilled labor required.

Mr. Hillman's office admitted that it did not yet know the answer to that question or a lot of others involved, declared that it was in the midst of a survey. With urgency for more production some such measure was badly needed, but it appeared that distracted Mr. Hillman had let out his bright idea before he had figured out how it could be made to work.

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