Fathers Next

General George Marshall buttoned himself into his four-starred overcoat and went to Capitol Hill. He had to go and explain the Army's plan to expand to 8,200,000 officers and men by 1943's end. Honest, persuasive George Marshall, who enjoys as much Congressional confidence as any other U.S. military figure, apparently made a good job of it. After a two-hour secret session, members of the Senate and House Military Affairs Committees told newsmen that many a doubter of the Army's program was now a convert.

George Marshall's testimony was deeply secret. Perhaps his program was in preparation for military reverses which laymen cannot foresee. Perhaps it was insurance against the possibility that a victorious Russia might dominate the entire continent of Europe. Perhaps the expansion, unquestionably approved by Franklin Roosevelt, might have been planned to make U.S. weight felt at the peace table.

Hidden Cause, Open Effect. For the real reasons, the U.S. public might have to wait months. But to learn its effects on the U.S. home, it had to wait only one day. Next afternoon Major General Lewis B. Hershey laid it on the table before the House Committee:

Most of the men inducted into the armed forces in the next two or three months, said Draft Director Hershey, will be married men with children. Reason: "There will be nobody left to induct."

Bottom of the Barrel. The U.S. was finally scraping the bottom of its manpower barrel. Planning to induct about 400,000 men a month, it has already found that the leavings are thin indeed. General Hershey reported that rejections (mainly for physical and occupational reasons) already run from 35 to 40%, are expected to increase. By the end of the year only 3,000,000 fit men in the 18-37 age bracket will be left in civilian life.

To stay a civilian, a man will have to justify his status by holding a job essential to the prosecution of the war. The draft director laid down the principle that will govern from now on: "I believe it will be the inevitable tendency of manpower procurement ... to give more weight to what a man is doing than to dependency."

Already the U.S. had tasted, if only lightly, the blood, sweat, toil and tears of war. But the taste would become sharper as the manpower program forced men to work or fight, regardless of family ties.

Already, the New York Herald Tribune found, four New York City draft boards had all but exhausted their supply of childless married men. Seven boards had just begun to draft the married. Nineteen expected to begin late this month or in March. Soon, throughout the nation, the fathers of children would be taken from their jobs and sent to war.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.