Raid and Rally

The swank Wolhurst Saddle Club, play-spot of Colorado's mining and cattle men, was raided last week. The invaders were a squad from the War Manpower Commission, who lined up all the employes for questioning, then ordered five--a cook, a watchman, and three attendants--to report to jobs in man-hungry war factories.

What happened in Denver might soon be happening in manpower-tight areas the U.S. over. In Washington, the "get-tough-with-civilians" band had regained ascendancy (TIME, Jan. 1). Manpower officials, who had used the word "critical" so often in recent months that it had lost all meaning, still talked of a need for 300,000 new war workers. But while they busily tried to shoo more men into factories, the Army upped its January and February draft quotas one-third. In New York, where war plants were short 73,000 workers, WMC's pert, tough Anna Rosenberg sent draft boards the names of 1,200 men who had been deferred as shipyard workers and had since left their war jobs.

Soldiers for Looms. The shortage was not of workers, but of workers in the right places. First to suffer would be the $149 million worth of civilian production authorized during the optimistic autumn. Less than half of this reconversion program will be permitted, because of shortages of materials and manpower, WPB officials now said. Last week WPB's Chairman Julius A. ("Cap") Krug halted the production of cotton yarn for civilian needs. Manufacture of upholstery and drapery material, chenille bedspreads and dishmops, would make way for an Army rush order of eight million pounds of cotton duck a month, to meet a shortage of Army tents. The Fourth Service Command in Atlanta furloughed 1,000 former textile workers now in uniform to return to the looms and turn out cotton duck. They will receive factory wages, in addition to regular Army pay.

In Jersey City, Mayor Frank Hague met the manpower shortage in typical fashion. Learning that his area needed 8.000 workers, Hague assembled his political machine for a rally. Instead of "Get Out the Vote," the rally cry was "Get Out the War Workers." Then he turned his henchmen loose. By week's end Hague's men had delivered 3,472 workers to war plants.

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