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NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
HEARINGS
BEFORE THE
SELECT COMMITTEE INVESTIGATING
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGKATION
HOUSE OF EEPKESENTATIVES
SEVENTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
PURSUANT TO
H. Res. 113
A RESOLUTION TO INQUIRE FURTHER INTO THE INTERSTATE
MIGRATION OF CITIZENS, EMPHASIZING THE PRESENT
AND POTENTIAL CONSEQUENCES OF THE MIGRA-
TION CAUSED BY THE NATIONAL
DEFENSE PROGRAM -, , , ,
PART 18 /^ * .
DETROIT HEARINGS
(Industrial Section)
SEPTEMBER 23, 24, 25, 1941
Printed for the use of the Select Committee Investigating
National Defense Migration
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
HEARINGS
BEFORE THE
SELECT COMMITTEE INVESTIGATING
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
HOUSE OF EEPRESENTATIVES
SEVENTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
PURSUANT TO
H. Res. 113
A RESOLUTION TO INQUIRE FURTHER INTO THE INTERSTATE
MIGRATION OF CITIZENS, EMPHASIZING THE PRESENT
AND POTENTIAL CONSEQUENCES OF THE MIGRA-
TION CAUSED BY THE NATIONAL
DEFENSE PROGRAM
PART 18
DETROIT HEARINGS
(Industrial Section)
SEPTEMBER 23, 24, 25, 1941
Printed for the use of the Select Committee Investigating
National Defense Migration
UNITED STATES
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
WASHINGTON : 1941
SELECT COMMITTEE INVESTIGATING NATIONAL DEFENSE
MIGRATION
JOHN H. TOLAN, California, Chairman
LAURENCE F. ARNOLD, Elinois CARL T. CURTIS, Nebraska
JOHN J. SPARKMAN, Alabama FRANK C. OSMERS, Jr., New Jersey
Robert K. Lamb, Sstaff Director
II
CONTENTS
Pag«
List of witnesses vii
List of authors ix
Tuesday, September 23, 1941, morning session 7169
Testimony of Hon. Murray D. Van Wagoner 7069-7077
Statement by Hon. Murray D. Van Wagoner 7070
Testimony of Lloyd B. Reid and Fred C. Taylor 7092-7106
Statement by G. Donald Kennedy 7029
Testimony of Mrs. Maynard Decent 7109
Testimony of Albert Peppin 7115
Testimony of John Lovett, Willis Hall, and Chester A. Cahn 7119
Statement by John Lovett 7120
Testimony of John Lovett (resumed) 7138
Testimony of Willis Hall 7151
Statement by Willis Hall 7152-7156
Testimony of Chester A. Cahn 7159-7160
Statement by Chester A. Cahn 7159
Tuesday, September 23, 1941, afternoon session 7169
Testimony of Paul L. Stanchfield 7169-7197
Statement by Paul L. Stanchfield 7169
Testimony of Lt. Col. Harold A. Furlong 7213-7224-7231
Statement by Lt. Col. Harold A. Furlong 7213
Testimonj' of Raymond Foley 7231
Testimony of Maj. Ross L. Gardner 7233-7234
Statement by Maj. Ross L. Gardner 7233^
Testimony o'f George Edwards 7239-7249'
Statement by George Edwards 7240
Wednesday, Sept. 24, 1941, morning session 7259
Testimony of R. J. Thomas, James Wishart, George Addes, Victor
Reuther, Richard Deverall, and Richard Reisinger 7259
Statement by R. J. Thomas 7260
Testimony of R. J. Thomas 726S
Testimony of Lt. Comdr. Walter F. Bade 7294-7296
Statement by Lt. Comdr. Walter F. Eade 7294
Testimony of E. B. Hill. (See Pt. 19.)
Wednesday, Sept. 24, 1941, afternoon session 7305
Testimony of Ear! E. Raymond 7305-7307
Statement by Earl E. Raymond 7305
Testimony of Michigan Automobile Manufacturers (panel) _ 7309-7356-7358
Statement by C. C. Carlton 7310
Statement by Robert W. Conder 7322
Statement by R. I. Roberge .. 7329
Statement by H. W. Anderson 7336
Statement by L. Clayton Hill 7350
Statement by C. E. Weiss 7351
Statement by Robert Waldron 7352
Thursday, Sept. 25, 1941, morning session 7389
Testimony of Abner E. Larned 7389-7414-7422
Statement by Abner E. Larned 7389
Testimony of Allen Selwin 7422'
Testimonj' of Joseph L. Weiner 7424
Statement by Leon Henderson 7453
Thursday, September 25, 1941, afternoon session 7463
Testimony of William Haber 7463-
Testimony of Harvey Campbell 7485.
Testimony of Eric Nicol, Edward L. Keenan, and Col. Frank J.
McSherry 7487-751.>
in
IV CONTENTS
Thursday, September 25, 1941, afternoon session— Continued. Page
Statement bv Eric Nicol 7488
Testimony of John Reid 7519-7521
Statement bv John Reid 7519
Testimony of Dr. Grover C. Dillman 7524-7540
Statement by Dr. Grover C. Dilhuan 7524
Introduction of exhibits 7544
Exhibit 1. Revenues and Expenditures, State of Michigan, report by
Vernon J. Brown, auditor general, Lansing, Mich 7545
Exhibit 2. Health Problems Created by Defense Migration in
Michigan; report by H. Allen Moyer, M. D., commissioner, depart-
ment of health, Lansing, Mich 7552
Exhibit 3. Michigan's Direct Relief Problem; report by John D.
O'Connell, director. State department of social welfare, Lansing,
Mich -^-w--- '^^^^
Exhibit 4. Categorical Assistance in Michigan; report by F. F. Faun,
supervisor. State bureau of social security, Lansing, Mich 7565
Exhibit 5. Defense Housing in Michigan; report by Division of De-
fense Housing Coordination, Executive Office of the President,
Washington, D. C 7568
Exhibit 6. Problem of School Housing in Michigan; report by Eugene
B. Elliott, superintendent. State of Michigan Department of Public
Instruction, Lansing, Mich ,-"",,",:"" ^^'^^
Exhibit 7. Training Within Industry in Michigan; report by Milton
M. Olander, district representative; O. F. Carpenter, associate dis-
trict representative; Carl D. Wheaton, assistant district representa-
tive, district No. 13, Michigan, and Lucas County, Ohio; Office of
Production Management, Training Within Industry Branch, Labor
Division -- - ' ^ ' "
Exhibit 8. Program of Vocational Training for Defense Workers in
Michigan; report by George H. Fern, director, Michigan State
Board of Control for Vocational Education, Lansing, Mich 7575
Exhibit 9. Priorities Unemplovment and Need in Michigan; report by
Labor Division, Work Projects Administration, Federal Works
Agency, Washington, D. C -,- ; - t"
Exhibit 10. In-Migrant Applicants for Michigan Automobile Licenses;
report bv Michigan historical records survey project. Work Projects
Administration, Federal Works Agency, Detroit, Mich -- 7587
Exhibit 11. Health Problems Created by Defense Migration in De-
troit; report bv Bruce H. Douglas, M. D., commissioner, depart-
ment of health; Detroit, Mich r'-r^W '
Exhibit 12. Migration and Public Welfare in Detroit; report by G. K.
Harris, general superintendent, department of public welfare,
Detroit. Mich 1:'-;,-;^^^^- ^^^
Exhibit 13. Survev on Migration to Detroit, September 3-lb, 1941;
report by John F. Ballenger, manager. Bureau of Old-age As.sistance,
Social Security Board, Federal Security Agency, Detroit, Mic^i 7b6b
Exhibit 14 Purpose and Activities of the Homes Registration Office,
Detroit, Mich.; report bv Stuart E. Walker, supervisor homes
registration, office of the housing commission, Detroit, Mich__---- 7b6b
Exhibit 15. Detroit School Needs Created by Defense Migration;
report bv Dr. Frank Codv, superintendent of public schools, board
of education, Detroit, Mich V"- Vt':-"""'i
Exhibit 16. Detroit's Vocational Education Program for National
Defense; report by Warren E. Bow, deputy superintendent of public
schools, board of education, Detroit, Mich ;,----.- :v-
Exhibit 17 Priorities Unemplovment and Need in Detroit; report by
Labor Division, Work Projects Administration, Federal Works
Agency, Washington, D. C ^-- -_
Exhibit 18. Automobile Manufacture and the Defense Program; re-
port by William J. Cronin, secretary, manufacturers committee,
Automobile Manufacturers Association, Detroit, Mich 'ooo
Exhibit 19. Employment in Airplane Parts Division of Automobile
Parts Factory; report by H.J. Roesch, director of industrial rela-
tions, Briggs"Manufacturing Co., Detroit, Mich 'ooo
CONTENTS V
Introduction of exhibits — Continued. Pag*
Exhibit 20. Defense Employment in Automotive and Refrigerator
Plants; report by Lewis D. Burch, director cf industrial relations,
Nash-Kelvinator Corporation, Detroit, Mich 7667
Exhibit 21. Denial cf Employment to Aliens; report by Florence G.
Cassidy, secretary, nationality committee, Council of Social Agen-
cies of Metropolitan Detroit 7670
Exhibit 22. Effect of National Defense on Negro Employment in
Detroit; report by Gloster B. Current, executive secretary, Detroit
branch, National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People, Detroit, Mich 7670
Exhibit 23. Advertising in Detroit to Fill California Jobs; paid notice
in Detroit News, September 9, 1941, by Michigan State Employ-
ment Service 7673
Exhibit 24. National Defense in Plymouth, Mich.; report by C. H.
Elliott, city manager, Plymouth, Mich 7674
Exhibit 25. Social Welfare in Wayne County; report by Walter J.
Dunne, director, department of social welfare, Wavne County,
Mich ; 7678
Exhibit 26. Effect of Defense Migration on Community Facilities of
Macomb County, Mich.; report by Charles N. McNaughton,
chairman; Leo R. Jean, vice chairman; and Isaac Hartung, secretary,
Macomb County Board of Social Welfare, Mount Clemens, Mich'- 7688
Exhibit 27. Unsanitary Conditions Caused by Migration of Workers
into Royal Oak Township, Mich.; report by George H. Briggs, chair-
man, and E. G. Phipps, secretary, John R Council; Improvement
Associations Committee, Royal Oak Township, Mich 7693
Exhibit 28. Need of Defense Housing in Pontiac, Mich.; report by
Roy E. Reuther, international representative, United Automobile,
Aircraft, and Agricultural Implement Workers, Congress of Indus-
trial Organizations, Pontiac, Mich 7695
Exhibit 29. Need for Federal Assistance to Enlarge Hospital Facilities
in Bay City, Mich.; report by J. Harry Nelson, city manager, city
of Bay City, Mich 7696
Exhibit 30. National Defense Contracts in Bay City, Mich.; report
by A. J. Maxwell, Bay City Chamber of Commerce, Bay City
Mich . 7697
Exhibit 31. National Defense Training in Bay City Public Schools;
report bv Benjamin Klager, superintendent of schools. Bay City,
Mich 7698
Exhibit 32. National Defense Migration Since June 1940 and School
Statistics 1937-41, for Midland, Mich.; report by J. J. Shafer,
superintendent of schools, Midland, Mich 7701
Exhibit 33. Defense Migration in Midland, Mich.; report by R. S.
Philip, acting secretary, Midland Chamber of Commerce, Midland,
Mich 7702
Exhibit 34. Defense Industry and Hospital Facilities in Saginaw,
Mich.; report by Frank N. Andersen, chairman, building committee,
Saginaw General Hospital, Saginaw, Mich 7703
Exhibit 35. Community Facilities Needed in Saginaw, Mich.; report
by Carl H. Peterson, city manager, Saginaw, Mich 7704
Exhibit 36. School Needs in Saginaw, Mich.; report by Chester F.
Miller, superintendent of schools, Saginaw, Mich 7706
Exhibit 37. Defense Migration in Battle Creek, Mich.; report by
Floyd H. Barry, mayor, city of Battle Creek, Mich 7712
Exhibit 38. Effect of Defense Migration on Public Schools of Battle
Creek, Mich.; report by Eldon C. Geyer, superintendent of schools.
Battle Creek, Mich 7714
Exhibit 39. Defense Industry and Migration in Muskegon, Mich.; re-
port by John C. Beukema, secretary-manager. Greater Muskegon
Chamber of Commerce, Muskegon, Mich 7715
Exhibit 40. Overload of Hackley Hospital, Muskegon, Mich.; report
by Amy Beers, R. N., superintendent of Hackley Hospital, Muske-
gon, Mich 772 1
yi CONTENTS
Introduction of exhibits— Continued. _. . c^ ^"^
Exhibit 41. Defense Housing in Muskegon, Mich.; report by *^ugene
A Krauss, housing manager, Defense Housing Division of Federal
Works Agency, Muskegon, Mich -,-\^-^ ;^""V"
I^xhibit 42 Housing Data and School Census of Muskegon County,
Mich.; report by James Ten Brink, superintendent of Muskegon
County public schools, Muskegon, Mich - - - - =- - - - ------ '733
Exhibit 43 Defense Employment in Kalamazoo, Mich.; letter from
Kalamazoo Chamber of Commerce, Kalamazoo, Mich 7734
Exhibit 44 Nondefense Industrial Problem in Muncie, Ind.; report by
Lester C. Bush, manager, Muncie Chamber of Commerce, Muncie,
T J / I oO
Exhibit 45." Airplane Engine and Cargo Truck Manufacture; report by
the Studebaker Corporation, South Bend, Ind - - - - - - - - - - - 774 J
Exhibit 46. Effect of Cut in Automotive Output on Glass Indiistry
(A)- report by H. H. Baker, vice president, Libbey-Owens-Ford
Glass Co., Toledo, Ohio p^---YW'V'
Exhibit 47. Effect of Cut in Automotive Output on Glass Industry
(B)- report by Leland Hazard, general counsel, Pittsburgh Plate
Glass Co., Pittsburgh, Pa ''^^
LIST OF WITNESSES
Detroit Hearings, September 23, 24, 25, 1941
Pag«
Addes, George, international secretary-treasurer. United Automobile,
Aircraft, and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, Congress of
Industrial Organizations, Detroit, Mich 7259
Cahn, Chester A., secretary, Automobile Tool & Die Manufacturers Asso-
ciation, Detroit, Mich 7119
Campbell, Harvey, executive vice president, Detroit Board of Commerce,
Detroit, Mich 7485
Carlton, C. C, president, Automotive Parts & Equipment Manufac-
turers, Inc., Detroit, Mich 7358
Conder, Robert W., Chrysler Corporation, 341 Massachusetts, Detroit,
Mich 7356
Decent, Mrs. Maynard, 622 Sanford Street, Muskegon Heights, Muske-
gon, Mich 7109
Deverall, Richard, educational department. United Automobile, Aircraft,
and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, Congress of Indus-
trial Organizations, Detroit, Mich 7259
Dillman, Dr. Grover C, president, Michigan College of Mining and Tech-
nology, Houghton, Mich 7524
Eade, Lt. Comdr. Walter F., United States Naval Reserve, inspector of
naval aircraft, United States Navy, Detroit, Mich 7292
Edwards, George, director-secretary, Detroit Housing Commission,
Detroit, Mich 7239
Furlong, Lt. Col. Harold A., administrator, Michigan Council of Defense,
Lansing, Mich 7213
Gardner, Maj.-Ross L., Automotive I^iaison Section, Central Procurement
District, United States Army Air Corps, Detroit, Mich 7233
Haber, William, professor of economics. University of Michigan, Ann
Arbor, Mich 7463
Hall, Willis H., manager, industrial department, Detroit Board of Com-
merce, Detroit, Mich 7119
Hill, L. Clavton, Murrav Corporation of America, 7700 Russell Street,
Detroit, Mich '. 7357
Keenan, Edward L., acting chairman. Regional Labor Supply Committee,
Office of Production Management, Cleveland, Ohio., 7487
Larned, Abner E., State administrator. Work Projects Administration,
Federal Works Agency, Lansing, Mich 7389
Lovett, John, general manager, Michigan Manufacturers Association, 1001
National Bank Building, 'Detroit, Mich 7119
McSherry, Col. Frank J., director, defense training. Office of Production
Management, Cleveland, Ohio 7487
Nicol, Eric, acting chief. Labor Supply Branch, Office of Production
Management, Washington, D. C 7487
Peppin, Albert, 1900 Commerce Street, Muskegon, Mich 7115
Ravmond, Earl, president. Trailer Coach Manufacturers Association,
Saginaw, Mich - - 7305
Reid, John, secretary, Michigan State Federation of Labor, Detroit,
Mich . 7519
Reid, Lloyd B., deputy commissioner. State highway department, Lan-
sing, Mich 7092
Reismger, Richard, international board member, United Automobile,
Aircraft, and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, Congress of
Industrial Organizations, Detroit, Mich 7259
Reuther, Victor, assistant secretarj^-treasurer. United Automobile, Air-
craft, and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, Congress of
Industrial Organizations, Detroit, Mich 7259
vn
VIII CONTENTS
Page
Roberge, R. I., office of Edsel Ford, Ford Motor Co., 15000 Woodward Ave-
nue, Detroit, Mich 7356
Selwin, Allen, district employment officer, Work Projects Administration,
Detroit, Mich 7422
Stanchfield, Paul L., chief of research, statistics and planning section,
Michigan Unemployment Compensation Commission, Detroit, Mich — 7169
Taylor, Fred C., planning engineer. State highway department, Lansing,
Mich 7092
Thomas, R. J., international president. United Automobile, Aircraft, and
Agricultural Implement Workers of America, Congress of Industrial Or-
ganizations, Detroit, Mich 7259
Van Wagoner, Murray D., Governor of the State of Michigan, Lansing,
Mich 7069
Waldron, Robert, Hudson Motor Car Co., 12601 East Jefferson Avenue,
Detroit, Mich 7357
Weiner, Joseph L., Civilian Supplv Division, Office of Production Manage-
ment, Washington, D. C 7424
Weiss, C. E., personnel director, Packard Motor Car Co., East Grand
Boulevard, Detroit, Mich 7359
Wilson, C. E., president. General Motors Corporation, Detroit, Mich 7356
Wlshart, James, research department, United Automobile, Aircraft, and
Agricultural Implement Workers of America, Congress of Industrial Or-
ganizations, Detroit, Mich 7259
LIST OF AUTHORS
Of Prepared Statements and Exhibits
Andersen, Frank N., chairman, building committee, Saginaw General Page
Hospital, Saginaw, Mich 7703
Anderson, H. W., General Motors Corporation, Detroit, Mich 7336
Baker, H. H., vice president, Libbey-Owens-Ford Glass Co., Toledo,
Ohio 7744
Ballanger, John F., manager, Bureau of Old-Age Assistance, Social Security
Board, Federal Security Agency, Detroit, Mich 7635
Barry, Floyd H., mayor, city of Battle Creek, Mich 7712
Beers, Amy, R. N., superintendent of Hackley Hospital, Muskegon,
Mich___J 7721
Beukema, John C, secretary-manager. Greater Muskegon Chamber of
Commerce, Muskegon Chamber of Commerce, Muskegon, Mich 7715
Bow, Warren E., deputy superintendent of public schools, board of educa-
tion, Detroit, Mich 7652
Briggs, George H., chairman. Improvement Associations Committee,
Royal Oak Township, Mich 7693
Brown, Vernon J., auditor general, Lansing, Mich 7545
Burch, Lewis D., director of industrial relations, Nash-Kelvinator Cor-
poration, Detroit, Mich 7667
Bush, Lester C, manager, Muncie Chamber of Commerce, Muncie, Ind-_ 7735
Cahn, Chester A., secretary. Automotive Tool & Die Manufacturers
Association, Detroit, Mich 7159
Carlton, C. C., Motor Wheel Corporation, and president. Automotive
Parts & Ecjuipment Manufacturers, Inc., Detroit, Mich 7310
Carpenter, O. F., associate district representative, district No. 13, Michi-
gan, and Lucas County, Ohio, Training Within Industry Branch, Labor
Division, Office of Production Management 7570
Cassidy, Florence G., secretary, nationality committee, Council of Social
Agencies of Metropolitan Detroit 7670
Cody, Dr. Frank, superintendent of public schools, board of education,
Detroit, Mich 7643
Conder, director of labor relations, Chrysler Corporation, Detroit, Mich-. 7322
Cronin, William J., secretary, manufacturers' committee. Automobile
Manufacturers Association, Detroit, Mich _ 7665
Current, Gloster B.. executive secretary, Detroit branch, National Asso-
ciation for the Advancement of Colored People, Detroit, Mich 7670
Dillman, Dr. Grover C, president, Michigan College of Mining and
Technology, Houghton, Mich 7525
Division of Civilian Supply, Office of Production Management, Washing-
ton, D. C 7453
Division of Defense Housing Coordination, Executive Office of the Presi-
dent, Washington, D. C 7568
Douglas, Bruce H., M. D., commissioner, department of health, Detroit,
Mich 7603
Dunne, Walter J., director, department of social welfare, Wayne County,
Mich 7678
Fade, Lt. Comdr. Walter F., United States Naval Reserve, inspector of
naval aircraft. United States Navy, Detroit, Mich 7294
Edwards, George, director-secretary, Detroit Housing Commission,
Detroit, Mich 7240
Elliott, C. H., city manager, Plymouth, Mich 7674
Elliott, Eugene B., superintendent. State of Michigan Department of
Public Instruction, Lansing, Mich 7570
Fauri, F. F., supervisor. State bureau of social security, Lansing, Mich 7565
Fern, George H., director. Michigan State Board of Control for Vocational
Education, Lansing, Mich 7575
IX
X CONTENTS
Page
Furlong, Lt. Col. Harold A., administrator, Michigan Council of Defense,
Lansing, Mich 72 13
Gardner, Maj. Ross L., automotive liaison section, central procurement
district, United States Army Air Corps 7233
Geyer, Eldon C, superintendent of schools, Battle Creek, Mich 7714
Hall, Willis L., manager industrial department, Detroit Board of Com-
merce, Detroit, Mich 7152
Harris, G. R., general superintendent, department of public welfare,
Detroit, Mich 7608
Hartung, Isaac, secretary, Macomb County Board of Social Welfare,
Mount Clemens, Mich 7688
Hazard, Leland, general counsel, Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co., Pittsburgh,
Pa 7745
Hill, L. Clayton, general manager, Murray Corporation of America 7350
John R. Council, of Improvement Associations Committee, Royal Oak
Township, Mich 7693
Kalamazoo Chamber of Commerce, Kalamazoo, Mich 7734
Kennedv, G. Donald, Michigan State highway commissioner, Lansing, ^fi
Mich: 7092
Klager, Benjamin, superintendent of schools. Bay City, Mich 7698
Krauss, Eugene A., housing manager, Defense Housing Division of Federal
Works Agency, Muskegon, Mich 7726
Labor Division, Work Projects Administration, Federal Works Agency,
Washington, D. C 7585
Lamed, Abner E., Michigan State administrator. Work Projects Adminis-
tration, Federal Works Agency, Lansing, Mich 7389
Lovett, John L., general manager, Michigan Manufacturers Association,
Detroit, Mich 7120
Maxwell, A. J., Bay City Chamber of Commerce, Bay City, Mich 7697
McNaughton, Charles N., chairman, Macomb County Board of Social Wei-
faro, Mount Clemens, Mich 7688
Michigan historical records survey project. Work Projects Administration,
Federal Works Agency, Detroit, Mich 7587
Michigan State Employment Service 7673
Miller, Chester F., superintendent of schools, Saginaw, Mich 7706
Moyer, H. Allen, M. D., commissioner, department of health, Lansing,
Mich 7552
Nelson, J. Harry, city manager, city of Bay City, Mich 7696
Nicol, Eric A., acting chief, Labor Supply Branch, Labor Division, OflSce
of Production Management, Washington, D. C 7488
O'Connell, John D., director, State department of social welfare, Lansing,
Mich 7556
Olander, Milton M., district representative, district No. 13, Michigan, and
Lucas County, Ohio, Training Within Industry Bmnch, Labor Division,
Office of Production Management 7570
Patton, Prof. Harold S., Michigan State College, East Lansihg, Mich 7213
Peterson, Carl H., city manager, Saginaw, Mich
Philip, R. S., acting secretary. Midland Chamber of Commerce, Midland,
Mich 7702
Phipps, E. G., secretary. Improvement Associations Committee, Royal Oak
Township, Mich 7693
Raymond, Earl E., president, Trailer Coach Manufacturers Association,
Saginaw, Mich 7305
Reid, John, secretary, Michigan State Federation of Labor, Lansing,
Mich 7519
Reuther, Roy E., international representative, United Automobile, Air-
craft, and Agricultural Implement Workers, Congress of Industrial
Organizations, Pontiac, Mich 7695-
Roberge, R. I., of the office of Edsel Ford, Ford Motor Co., Dearborn,
Mich 7329
Roesch, H. J., director of industrial relations, Briggs Manufacturing Co.,
Detroit, Mich 7666
CX)NTENTS XI
Page
Shafer, J. J., superintendent of schools, Midland, Mich 7701
Stanchfield, Paul L., chief of research, statistics and planning section,
Michigan Unemployment Compensation Commission, Lansing, Mich.. 7169
Studebaker Corporation, South Bend, Ind 7742
Ten Brink, James, superintendent of Muskegon County public schools,
Muskegon, Mich 7733
Thomas, R. J., international president, United Automobile, Aircraft, and
Agricultural Implement Workers, Congress of Industrial Organizations,
Detroit, Mich 7260
Training Within Industry' Branch, Labor Division, Office of Production
Management 1 7570
Van Wagoner, Hon. Murray D., Governor of Michigan, Lansing, Mich 7070
Waldron, Robert, personnel director, Hudson Motor Car Co., Detroit,
Mich 7352
Walker, Stuart E., supervisor, homes registration, office of the housing
commission, Detroit, Mich 7635
Weiss, C. E., personnel director, Packard Motor Car Co., Detroit, Mich-_ 7351
Wheaton, Carl D., assistant district representative, district No. 13,
Michigan, and Lucas County, Ohio, Training Within Industry Branch,
Labor Division, Office of Production Management 7570
For greater convenience the Detroit hearings are pubhshed in two
volumes. This vohime, under the title, "Part 18. Detroit Hearings
(Industrial Section)," includes the testimony of all witnesses except
Prof. E. B. Hill, of the farm-management department of Micliigan
State College, who appeared before the committee to discuss agricul-
tural migration and related subjects exclusively. Dr. Hill's testi-
mony, together with his prepared statement and other papers dealing
with various phases of Micliigan agricultural migration, appears in
the second volume of these hearings, under the title, "Part 19. Detroit
Hearings (Agricultural Section)."
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGEATION
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1941
House of Representatives,
Select Committee Investigating
National Defense Migration,
Washington, D. C.
morning session
The committee met at 9:30 a. m., in the Federal Building,
Detroit, Mich., pursuant to notice. Representative John H. Tolan
(chairman) presiding.
Present were: Representatives John H. Tolan (chairman), of
California; Laurence F. Arnold, of lUinois; Frank C. Osmers, Jr., of
New Jersey; Carl T. Curtis, of Nebraska, all as members of the com-
mittee; and, as guest of the committee. Representative Fred L.
Craw^ford, of Michigan.
Also present: Dr. Robert K. Lamb, staff director; John W. Abbott,
chief field investigator; Francis X. Riley and Jack B. Burke, field
investigators; and Ruth B. Abrams, field secretary.
The t^HAiRMAN. The committee will please come to order. I wish
to announce for the record that Mayor Edward J. Jeffries is absent
from the city of Detroit. His secretary, Mr. Alfred S. Colmski, has
extended to us every courtesy.
Governor Van Wagoner, you wUl be our first witness.
TESTIMONY OF HON. MURRAY VAN WAGONER, GOVERNOR OF
THE STATE OF MICHIGAN
The Chairman. Governor Van Wagoner, I would like to say to you
at the beginning of this hearing that your prepared statement has been
gone over carefully, and I think it is a very valuable contribution to
the record of this committee.
I might explain briefly, Governor, that this committee was origi-
nally known as the Select Committee to Investigate the Interstate
Migration of Destitute Citizens.
We started our hearings in New York, knowing that it was not just
Cahfornia which had that problem to face, and we heard Mayor
LaGuardia inform us that the State of New York had spent millions
of dollars for the care of nonsettled citizens, and that hundreds^of
such citizens had been transported to their homes.
From New York we went to Montgomery, Ala.; Lincoln, Nebr.;
Chicago ; Oklahoma City ; San Francisco, and Los Angeles. We found
that there were about 4,000,000 people on the road, traveling between
States.
7069
7070 DETROIT HEARINGS
We are not interested in the perennial tramp or the hobo, but we
are interested in these people who take to the road on account of cir-
cumstances over which they have no control. You know as well as
we do that those citizens lose their residence status in the States from
which they have come, and do not gain residence ui another State
for years. Millions of our people are thus made Stateless, homeless,
and voteless.
It is intercstuig to note. Governor, that there are 28 States in the
Union which make it a crime to transport a poor or indigent person
across State lines.
We have reported to Congress on the problems arising from that
situation. The committee was continued this session to investigate
and report on the migration of workers as a result of the national-
defense program. And that is why we are in Detroit. In this latter
phase of our inquiry, we have held similar hearings in San Diego,
Hartford, Trenton and Baltimore, and in Washington. We are
trying to pin down the factors of danger and risk to both your own
community and the national welfare, as they are uncovered in our
investigation of national-defense migration. One thought I wish to
convey at the outset is that we have come here to Detroit not to
''show up" Michigan, or Detroit, but simply, in a cooperative way,
to get the facts. We have never issued a subpena. We have never
attempted to cross-examine anyone. In other words, Governor, we
are in Detroit for these purposes: First, to find out the character and
extent of this shift from nondefensc to defense areas as it affects the
State of Michigan; and second, to see if we cannot in some way bring
out a plan to cushion the shock when the national-defense program is
completed.
To my right is Congressman Arnold of Uluiois, and to my left is
Congressman Osmers of New Jersey. Congressman Curtis will be
here shortly.
Governor V.\n Wagoner. Mr. Chairman and members of the
conmnittee. I would like to put in the record, if I may. the fact that
I think your committee is moving on very sound ground in gomg
about from State to State and getting the facts in regard to this
problem, rather than requiring the people of tlie States to go to
Washington to give their testimony, as is so often done. I am sure
that the MTtnesses feel more at liberty to say what they want to
say. And then there is also, of course, the cost. It involves a con-
siderable expenditure of money and time in requiring people from
the various States to travel great distances in order to cover this
problem.
This is my first experience in testifying before a congressional
committee in the State of Michigan, and I want to comphment you
and the members of your committee for taking this broad-minded
stand and going about the country to seek this information.
(The statement submitted by Governor Van Wagoner is as follows:).
STATEMENT BY HON. MITRRAY D. VAN WAGONER, GOVERNOR OF
THE STATE OF MICHIGAN
As tiie first wituess at the Michigan hearing, I understaud my benL service tt»
this important iiKjuiry will be in presenting an over-all account of how the defense
program in all its ramifications is affecting the normal economy of Michigan.
During the past year there has been an almost uninterrupted rise in employ-
ment and prnduction in Michigan's factories. Thousands of workers have been
NATIONAL. DEFENSE MIGRATION 7071
absorbed in defense work, as Michigan plants took part in the expanding produc-
tion of tanks, planes, and other defense materials. At the same time a rising
national income has raised our production of automobiles and consumers goods to
boom-time levels.
With thousands of new jobs created by these two forces, Michigan's factories
have served as magnets for the migration of thousands of workers from rural
Michigan and other States. Many of these migrants have been unsuccessful in
the search for work, since our employers have given preference to local workers in
filling new jobs. In some cases, where the local labor supply was insufficient,
migrants did find work and settled near the new defense plants, creating serious
problems of overcrowding, and pressure on inadequate facilities for sanitation,
schools, roads and other public services.
A new type of migration will be our principal problem in the immediate future.
Production quotas for the automobile industry, which will reduce the output of
automobiles by 48 percent in December and perhaps as much as 75 percent by
next spring, will ehminate at least 150,000 or 200,000 jobs in nondefense produc-
tion. Shortages of critical materials must be expected to cause serious lay-ofls
also in nonautomotive industries.
Increases in defense employment during the next few months will fall far short
of offsetting the displacement of workers from civilian production. Without addi-
tional contracts, close to 100,000 may be unemployed in January. This disloca-
tion will create a very real danger of outward migration, as industrial workers
move back to their former homes or travel to other areas in search of work. One
of our main problems will be to prevent this out-migration from having undesirable
results and in leaving a shortage of workers when our defense production reaches
its peak in 1942.
The shift from civilian to defense production will also cause major problems in
this State by cutting into expected revenues from the sales tax and other sources;
by greatly expanding the cost of relief and Work Projects Administration employ-
ment; and by endangering the small nondefense industries which furnish the life-
blood of the smaller towns and cities throughout the Statt. I think that these
problems can be solved, but the solution will require the whole-hearted coopera-
tion of Government, industry, and labor.
MIGRATION AND GROWTH OF POPULATION
Migration has played a vital part in Michigan's growth from a population of
2,420,982 in 1900, to 5,256,106 at the time of the 1940 Federal census. From
1900 to 1930, the rise of large-scale industry and the decline of agriculture, lumber-
ing, and mining caused not only a vast influx of labor from outside the State,
but also caused migration of rural Michigan residents to the industrial areas of
southern Michigan. In that period, Michigan changed from a rural people to
one 66 percent urban.
The depression years from 1930 to 1935 reversed this trend to the cities and
reduced tlie urban population to 65.7 percent of the total. Since 1935 the resump-
tion of industrial expansion again has reversed the trend, so that today nearly
75 percent of Michigan's population is concentrated in cities of 2,500 or more.
Nearly half of Michigan's present population today is in the five contiguous
counties of the Detroit metropolitan area in the southeastern corner of the State.
This industrial empire has two- thirds of the State's 6,000 factories, two-thirds of
the State's 900,000 workers engaged in manufacture, and two-thirds of the State's
225,000 industrial defense workers.
The importance of automotive manufacture, Michigan's leading industry, is
best shown by industrial distribution of Michigan's pay-roll totals for 1940. Of
the $1,908,000,000 total of all State pay rolls covered by the Unemployment Com-
pensation Act for 1940, $1,200,000,000', or 63 percent.'was in wages in the auto-
motive industry and those steel ana machinery plants which depend almost
exclusively on the auto industry for markets.
INDUSTRIAL EMPLOYMENT IN MICHIGAN
Three-quarters of all industrial employment in Michigan is either in the auto-
mobile industry or in groups directly dependent on automobile manufacturing.
If industrial transition unemployment Is large, or of long duration, at least 40
nonmanufacturing jobs are wiped out for each 100 factory jobs which are elim-
inated.
Outside of the five-county southeastern industrial area, other major defense
and manufacturing centers are in Flint, Saginaw, .Jackson, Kalamazoo, Bay City,
7072 DETROIT HEARINGS
Lansing, Grand Rapids, and Muskegon — all in the southern half of the Lower
Peninsula.
This lower section of Michigan, containing the bulk of population and manu-
facture, also has the larger share of the State's 225,000 farm families.
North of the Bay City-Muskegon line, and including all of the Upper Peninsula,
about half of the total acreage has reverted to the State through property-tax
delinquency. This is the cut-over timberland. In the last decade, it has shown
a general revival of growth because of new agricultural activities and increasing
tourist and resort trade.
Northern Michigan's chief industry — which now has become second only to
automobile manufacture as a source of income to the State's residents — is this
tourist and resort trade. The recent season was the best in history, with twice
as many tourists motoring to Michigan each year as come to Arkansas, the
second largest mecca of motoring vacationists. Fully 80 percent of our population
in the northern part of the State depends on tourist business to sustain itself.
For many years certain Upper Peninsula counties have had a widespread
unemployment problem because copper mining had reached unworkable levels
for the price of the production. Because of the importance of copper to the
defense program, Michigan recently has received promises of a price differential
which will permit reopening of the mines, and employment of the workers. There
is need for quick action here, because wholesale and undesirable emigration from
the copper area will result otherwise, to the detriment of the defense program
needs.
STATE TAX REVENUES AND DISTRIBUTION
Two financial trends in Government highlighted the last decade.
First was the demand for more social assistance, which increased expenditures
by Federal, State, and local Governments in Michigan $200,000,000 a year, so
that bv 1940 the combined governmental expenditures for all purposes topped
$550,000,000.
Second was the ineflt'ective public demand for economies, which resulted only
in the shifting of financial burdens from local government to State and Federal
agencies.
By 1934, the break-down of the general property tax resulted in Michigan
becoming one of 13 States which now leave this source of taxation entirely to
local governments. Whereas school property taxes previously had been as high
as 22 mills, today the average is about 7 mills. Whereas total property tax
formerly reached up to 40 mills, today, b}- State constitutional amendment, 15
mills is the limit to which the real property tax can rise.
Ten years ago. State contributions to local government were $33,000,000 a year.
For the last fiscal year, ending June 30, 1941, State aid to local units of govern-
ment totaled over $121,000,000 and represented 60 percent of all State operating
costs. Federal grants represented nearly $15,000,000 of this State-aid total and
does not include other Federal expenditures for such enterprises as Work Projects
Administration, Public Works Administration, and Civilian Conservation Corps.
The State deficit amounted to nearly $30,000,000 on last January 1, and today
has been reduced to about $12,000,000, chielly because of a spurt in sales-tax col-
lections.
Michigan's State tax sources are the most sensitive to economic conditions of
any State, because we are unique in depending on the sales tax for 69 percent of
general fund revenues.
Automobile license fees and gasoline taxes are reserved by constitutional amend-
ment exclusively for road building and maintenance, and cannot be used for gen-
eral governmental purposes.
Four functions account for 87 percent of State expenditures — education, social
aid, highways, and institutions such as hospitals and jails.
State governmental administration costs have increased only 1 percent in the
last decade. Ilie remainder of the 100-percent increase in State expenditures
in the last decade was taken up 75 percent by aid to local governments and 24'
percent by State purchasing and new revolving funds, the principal one being for
the Liquor Control Commission.
EFFECTS OF DEFENSE PROGRAM ON STATE FINANCES
Since Michigan depends so heavily on the 3-percent sales tax, and since this
tax cannot be collected on defense items or even on federally sponsored defense
plant construction materials, Michigan's financial stability depends on whether
our citizens are permitted to continue spending a reasonable percentage of their
wages on nondefense items.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7073
Food sales today bring in 29 percent of the sales-tax revenue; automobiles and
accessories, 21 percent; building materials, 6 percent; wearing apparel, 6 percent;
furniture and household appliances, nearly 4 percent; general merchandise, 14
percent, and miscellaneous items, 20 percent.
Durable goods thus constitute roughly 40 percent of the total sales-tax source.
Any drastic curtailment of such production will directly and most adversely
affect the main source of State revenue, unless a reasonable buying shift results
to nondurable goods.
The sales-tax picture has been blight this year. For the 1942-43 period, the
outlook is dehnitely dangerous for Michigan finances. Our budget requires an
annual sales-tax revenue of nearly $70,000,000.
Because of Michigan's dependence on tourist income as its second largest in-
dustry, and because highway travel is the main method of generating this tourist
business, severe rationing of gasoline or complete shut-down of the production
of new cars, would have critical reactions on the State welfare picture.
Welfare appropriations, paid jointly by the State and counties, will be adequate
for the expected hardships of the 56-percent automobile production cut in De-
cember, which we estimate will add 25,000 families temporarily to the relief rolls.
But if defense employment does not absorb the slack in a reasonably short time,
supplemental welfare appropriations will be necessary. Relief rolls are at a
10-year low today, although that is partly due to the shift to categorical relief and
Work Projects Administration.
There is no gasoline shortage apparent for Michigan or the Midwest. Our own
oil fields are expanding production. We look for a good tourist year in 1942, but
if adverse conditions develop, our welfare and unemployment load will rise
tremendously.
Higher wages and rising costs of living due to defense influences are creating
strain on State pay rolls and social programs. Recently our State civil-service
commission found it necessary to adjust upward to a $100 minimum increase, all
lower-bracket State salaries.
We are surveving all State departments in an eflfort to reduce personnel to offset
these salary increases, and I am confident that some success will be had in this
effort. However, understaffed and underbudgeted State institutions will require
supplemental appropriations in the near future, and total State operating costs
are bound to rise if we are to meet our responsibilities fully.
In the State-Federal fields of categorical assistance, rising costs of living are
creating a real injustice to 30,000 children outside of the Detroit area, on the
aid-to-dependent-children rolls. Federal grants do not match the State grants,
and should be adjusted immediately to follow the old-age assistance pattern of
equal contributions by State and Federal agencies.
The plight of a mother trying to provide for her child on an inadequate allow-
ance, at a time when the child needs the moral and physical strength of good food
and decent clothing and housing, is to me the most pitiful plight that can exist in
our social-security program. In Michigan, the deficiency is entirely a Federal
one. Adjustments should be made at once.
The old-age assistance program now presents a State financial problem. Michi-
gan this year has wiped out almost its entire old-age waiting list of 25,000 persons.
Our efforts to stabilize the program at around 100,000 persons now are endangered
by rising costs of housing and' food. If present trends continue, we will have to
allocate an additional $1,000,000 a year to this program or revert to the waiting-
list plan. Food costs have risen 14 percent and our program now does not provide
a minimum adequate food budget for old-age pensioners,
EFFECTS OF DEFENSE PROGRAM ON ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL STRUCTURE OF MICHIGAN
By the end of November, it is estimated that at least 33,000 automobile workers
will be unemployed in Detroit because of the automobile-production quotas.
By January 1, it is estimated that this total will reach 45,000.
These estimates are based on present indications. The picture was darker 2
months ago, but has been improved by additional defense contracts and by speed-
up of the rate of induction of workers into defense plants.
We hope the hardships now looming can be further alleviated. The problem is
being tackled intelligently today by Federal and State agencies and by employers
and labor unions. A 32-hour week woidd prevent any unemployment until
December, and would cut the unemplovment total to 16,000.
The city of Flint faces a greater relative defense unemployment than any other
in America, unless given additional defense contracts quickly. By November
Fhnt faces an employment decline of 8,100 on a 40-hour week, or no decline on a
60396— 41— pt 18 2
7074 DETROIT HEARINGS
32-hour week. By January the totals will be 16,800 or II, 700. Entirely an auto-
motive town, Flint has 45,000 industrial workers and only 2,000 on defense
assignments.
Other IMichigaii industrial centers can transfer to defense jobs with leas diffi-
culty, but still need added contracts to absorb enough employees.
CONTRACTS AND SUBCONTRACTS
The mo.st threatening social and economic problem in Michigan today is the
fate of the 2,000 small- and medium-sized factories scattered throughout every
citv in the State.
Subcontracting was widely practiced by the automobile industry during all the
years of its civilian growth. Michigan's manufacturing empire cannot be looked
upon as confined to one area of the State. The variety and intensity of industrial
activity made possil^le the existence and self-sufficiency of hundreds of couununi-
ties, scattered throughout the Lower and Upper Peninsula. If they were not di-
rectly allied with larger manufacturing plants through subcontracts, at lea,st
they existed through the trade, the accessories, the markets created by automobile
manufacture.
Today production quotas and defense priorities over essential materials threaten,
within 3 months, to wipe out many small businessmen and industrialists of
Michigan and of the Nation.
Michigan ranks fifth among the States in total prime defense contracts, and
first in the Nation in total ordnance contracts and subcontracts. Prime contracts
total $1,500,000,000, and subcontracts bring the total to well over $4,000,000,000.
Much of this work extends over a 2-year period. The total is exceeded only by
coastal shipbuilding States. .
And yet Michigan could produce 50 percent more for defense if the energies of
our small industries were tapped. And unless the priorities starvation now facing
our small industries in rural Michigan is relieved, Michigan faces a welfare and
economic problem of serious consequences.
DEPRESSIONS START IN SMALL TOWNS
The problem is national and results from overlooking a fundamental economic
truth— no American community can exist without a trading area equal vn popula-
tion to the community itself. 'The big city needs small towns. The small town
needs a local rural trade. . . , * • i i t
Depressions start in small towns, because small towns exist on the trickle of
cash from one main industry. When that trickle of cash stops, the town has
nothing to fall back on. ...
The town's life-giving income stops when, for some reason, the main business
loses its customarv business orders from the larger cities. In the present instance,
defense priorities," ignoring small towns, stops the flow of orders from the city.
As a result, the residents of the small community cannot continue to buy
products from the larger manufacturing areas. Its markets declining, the larger
producing area must curtail other manufacturing, which again strikes a blow at
the small town. . , , , , .
Although small towns have not the industrial resourcefulness of larger com-
munities and thus create depressions when business stops, the small-town resident
personally is more resourceful than the city worker. Lower costs of living and
ability to turn to "depression farm.ing" keeps the small-town resident going
without the tremendous and immediate need for welfare assistance that character-
izes our city populations. , ,. .. j t i *i, ^^
I am not an alarmist. I know the problem is complicated. I know that
national defense deserves the right-of-way. I know that the larger plants are
l)etter eciuipped To speed defense production, and that subcontracting of defense
work is not possible or practical in everv instance. I know that the problem is
receiving sym]iathetic and intelligent attention today from both governmental
and private sources. I think the threat to our entire national economy will be
licked. . .,. 5 • T J. • 1
But I know also that unless civilian lal)or priorities and civilian materials
priorities are not granted auicklv to those areas which cannot participate in na-
tional-defense business, Michigan and the Nation will see severe economic dis-
location within 3 months. . , . , i i j i,- -^ ♦
If we are to pav the new Federal taxes, and avoid widespread hardships amidst
boom, our defense economv iT>iist be adiustcd quickly to .save those who either
cannot, <'T as vet have not, participated in defense work.
NATIONAL, DEFENSE MIGRATION 7075
Michigan farmers have beeu assigned added responsibilities in the expanding
food program. They mnst be protected by priorities for needed farm machinery
to offset tlie already serious emigration of farm labor to defense areas. They still
have a must insecure footing on the land, and deserve reasonable profits for their
produce. They are diversifying their crops and cooperating fully with production
quotas. Despite labor shortages which may l)ecome critical, they appear to be
reaching an income position where thej- can pay their debts, gain economic
security, and end any furtiier need for farm-subsidy payments.
Other witnesses will discuss in detail the localized community jiroblems of
defense migration, relative to housing, sanitation, education, and transportation.
I call particular attention to the sound program of the >State highway department
for building expresswajs to Ypsilanti and other defense centers, which will permit
the cheaper and more efficient stress of commuting to work from present popula-
tion centers, rather than creating new communities during the emergency period.
MEASURES TO PREVENT DISLOCATION OF LABOR
The State and Federal Govertanent face three major tasks in developing policies
and taking positive action during the next feM^ months to ease the damaging effects
of the industrial transition from civilian to defense production.
Michigan will bear the unemployment hardship with pride, knowing it is neces-
sary to the defense of the Nation. We f^e the certainty that many other civilian
industries will have production curtailed because of inability to olJtain materials.
Our job now is to ease as much as possible the shock of transition, by these steps:
1. Protect the economic security of workers who are temporarily displaced,
and furnish them with some source of income until defense jobs open.
2. By wholehearted cooperation of Government, labor, and industry proceed
energetically with a variety of measures to speed up expansion of defense jobs.
3. Discourage and prevent further migration of workers into Michigan indus-
trial centers until, by up-grading and training, all Michigan workers are utilized.
Further migration will only multiply our present problems.
UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION
Most of our displaced workers will be eligible for unemployment compensation
for 18 weeks at $16 a week. I sought vainly this year to obtain a higher grant
from the legislature, since this $16 is less than half the usual wage of industrial
workers.
The 2-weok waiting period, and the $16 rate, may not be sufficient to hold
workers in the cities where they will be needed later. The 32-hour week pro-
vides Mider, larger income, but cannot always be ajjplied.
Under the present compensation law, there is another serious limitation on
the adequacy of benefits. Unemployed workers cannot receive benefits in any
year amounting to more than 25 percent of their earnuigs in the preceding base
year (for low-pf,id workers, 30 percent). Workers wlio have had steady em-
ployment in the base year may draw a maximum of 18 weeks of benefits, but
those who have had irregular employment — and are therefore in most need of
]>rotection— qualify for a shorter duration which may be as little as 8 or 10 weeks.
Workers with high sem'ority will probably be r.bsorbcd quite rapidly in defense
production, under agreements recently reached between labor ard inanagement
in the automobile industry. Workers with low seniority, who are most likely
to qualify for only a few weeks of benefits, are the ones who are most likely to
need a longer period.
When we realize that nearly 70 i)ercent of the workers who drew benefits in
1938-39 had a period of unemployment which was longer than tlieir maximum
benefit period, it seems clear that we should consider the possibility of extending
the duration of benefits ard increasing the size of the w>ekly payment, as one
niethod of preventing our labor force from scattering to othei- ".States in the
interval before they can be put back to work here.
IN( REASED BENEFITS FOB DEFENSE TBAINEEB
There is one interesting feature of the present unemplovment compensation
law which deserves further study. This is the provision which permits an increase
in the duration of benefits for workers who are taking vocational training to fit
them for new jobs. However, the present law permits only a)i increase of a few-
weeks, (never beyond a total of 16 weeks) and makes no pn. vision for increasing
the weekly amount i)aid to men who are undergoing training. Thus, the present
7076
DETROIT HEARINGS
provisions provide little incentive to keep displaced workers from moving to
other areas.
We might consider the possibility of expanding this general principle to meet
our present proV:)lems. Manv of the displaced workers will require special training
to fit them for defense jobs. We might use the unemployment compensation
system as a wav of supplementing their income while they receive this training.
This might mean that it would be desirable to extend the maximum benefit period
for men and women who are being trained for defense jobs to as much as 20 or 26
weeks. Also, we might increase the weekly benefit rate for trainees to some more
adequate amount, such as a flat $20 per week, instead of the lower rate which they
otherwise receive. , , . , x- tTri. xi_ xu-
Such a program would, of course, require new legislation. Whether this
particular step should be taken will depend on our success in developing other
possible measures for bridging the gap between civilian and defense jobs.
SUGGESTIONS FOR ENLARGING EMPLOYMENT
Unemplovment compensation, even if it is greatly liberalized, provides at best
a partial aiiswer to the problems of the next few months. Relief and Work
Projects Administration efforts, though these may help to sui)plement compen-
sation, will i^rovide little incentive to prevent undesirable migration from our
industrial cities. The basic solution of the problem must be found in creating
additional jobs as soon as possible, and in an equitable distribution of the work
that is available.
Here are suggestions: , t, , ..
1. Through the Defense Contract Service of the Office of Production Manage-
ment, special arrangements are being made to allot further defense contracts to
communities in which serious unemployment is expected. The immediate need
is not for long-range projects, which cannot employ large numbers of workers until
new construction is completed, but for contracts involving production which can
be handled with existing equipment, or with only minor retooling.
2. The expansion of defense employment can be speeded up to some extent by
accelerating the production of machines and machine tools which are needed to
equip new defense factories. The tooling-up process might be accelerated by
pooling of existing resources for tool and die manufacture. At present, some of
these facilities are unused, at the same time that the lack of necessary equipment
prevents expansion of defense employment.
3 Arrangements which are alreadv being worked out between management and
organized labor will give assurance that workers with seniority in nondefense em-
ployment will receive preference in new defense jobs as these become available.
The automobile industrv has already accepted this principle for its own plants.
Possibly some further steps toward the adoption of community-wide seniority
might be helpful in preventing migration. .. • -.4.
4 Where it is impossible to m.ake jobs available on actual production, it might
be possible to increase the training programs of plants which will eventually need
men on new types of work (such as aircraft production) with workers receiving
pav while they are being trained. Some companies have already developed plans
of "this type, thus providing income for workers who will eventually be needed in
5 At present nsany defense plants are operating only for a 5-day week. If we
can' work out arrangements for operating these plants 7 days a week there is a
possible gain of about one-third in the number of defense jobs that can be pro-
vided \ similar problem exists in some plants which now ojjerate with only
two shifts and might be able to handle a third shift, with many additional workers
emploved. , , ^ , , ,^ i- • i-
6 the growth of defense emplovment can be accelerated bv extending existing
contracts, and advancing delivery dates for defense products, in such a way as
to encourage industrv to accelerate the tempo of production. , t. , ,
7 Although the facilities of many plants have been surveyed by the l^ederal
Government to determine their availability for defense production, there is prob-
ably a great deal that might bo done in the way of thorough engineering surveys
which will permit unused productive equipment to be brought into action sooner.
Such surveys— in which the State as well as Federal agencies might participate—
may reveaf situations in which special arrangements for making equipment avail-
able to nondefense plants would permit them to undertake defense production.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7077
POST-WAR PROBLEMS
Just because ue are united today for defense of our way of life, and just be-
cause the unemployment and insecurity problems are in the background today
because of defense spending, we cannot say we have solved the unemployment
problem, or that we are satisfied with our way of life.
It is time to drop the old arguments over who is to blame for unemployment
and deficits and social insecurity, and unite behind a positive program to return
the Nation to a self-sufficient economy that will recognize all social obligations,
all lights of private enterprise, and all rights of labor.
Michigan has joined the national program calUng for 6-ycar reserve of post-
war projects and will stress such positive programs as highways, city planning,
health service, nutrition and education.
Following the sound lead of the National Resources Planning Board, our State
planning commission is drafting a State program to coordinate all elements of our
economy — agriculture, labor, industry, finance — in a voluntary undertaking which
recognizes the mutual interests of all areas in steady employment and steady
income.
Today the Nation's crying need is for price control to prevent inflation. After
the war, united cooperation can bring fair prices, fair wages and fair income for all
groups and all sections. Government must remain the servant of the whole
economy, and a complete program must be worked out which will merit the ap-
proval of all elements of that economy, without any resort to socialism or
totalitarianism.
Home ownership, a steady job, insurance against the hazards of disability and
old age — these are the goals of any sound society. A migratory people are not
interested in economical government. It is important today to plan for the post-
war period, not alone because we must be ready for the problems of the period,
but because our people will unite more heartily behind the defense of a nation which
is moving toward a definite goal, along a clear-cut course.
The most encouraging aspect of these troubled times is the good sense of our
people in surmounting the handicaps facing every step of the defense program,
and their faith in the future of America. In Michigan, the greatest possible
e.xpression of that faith is under way today. Our people are buying rural land to
a greater extent than they have in decades. They have grown wiser in the depres-
sion years, and are buying personal security for the future.
TESTIMONY OF HON. MURRAY D. VAN WAGONER— Resumed
The Chairman. We have prepared some questions which I think
will bring out the points that we seek to establish by your testimony.
Now, Governor, what is your estimate of the over-all reduction
in ernployment in Michigan that will result from the announced
curtailment of automobile production and from such shutdowns as
may occur due to shortage of essential materials?
Governor Van Wagoner. We estimate that the curtailment of 24
percent in production which is taking place at the present time has
caused an unemployment of about 25,000.
ANTICIPATES 100,000 WILL BE UNEMPLOYED
The new curtailment which is expected to go into effect — I believe
it is in December — would at least double this number and perhaps
force it as high as 100,000, because there are a lot of related indus-
tries, and once the automobile production is cut down, people in these
other industries are also forced out of employment.
The Chairman. Governor, what are the prospects for reemploy-
ment of these workers in the defense activities now undertaken in
the city of Detroit?
Governor Van Wagoner. The prospects of reemploying these
people are not so good right at the moment. Wliat I mean by that
IS, until the people who have the prime contracts in our State of
7078 DETROIT HEAKINGS
Michigan have enough prime contracts so that they are required to
farm out more of this work, reemployment in defense mdustries will
not offset the loss of jobs in motor-car manufacturing.
The Chairman. In dollars and cents, what do the prime contracts
amount to, Governor?
AMOUNT OF PRIME DEFENSE CONTRACTS
Governor Van Wagoner. About a billion and a half dollars, but
the work that is being done on defense contracts is moving, in my
opinion, too slowly to absorb the people who are gouig to be laid off
by this changeover.
Personally, I am sure that in the end — say a year from now— a
majority of these people will bo reemployed in defense work and, of
course, that is what we are really after. W(^ believe this can be done,
and the one thmg we are very much concerned about is that the de-
fense work is not moving fast enough to balance the serious nondefense
unemployment at the present time.
It seems to me if more prime contracts could be let, and if the com-
pletion date could be speeded up, two thhigs would be accomplished.
In the first place I thuik there would be an incentive on the part of
the prime contractors to subcontract this work, as thc}^ do in the
normal automobile busmess; and, second, the morale of the workmen
themselves would be maintained. I think this is veiy important hi
this critical period.
The Chairman. Governor, you have some of your aides here with
you, do you not?
Governor Van Wagoner. Yes, sir; I have. I have more than that.
I have quite a battery here.
The Chairman. I would like to get the names of these gentlemen
for the record.
Governor Van Wagoner (indicating). Mr. C. W. Lucas, press
secretary; Mr, V. B. Steinbaugh, who is our liaison man working with
the O. P. M. in Washington at the request of the O. P. M.; Mr.
Wendell Lund is head of the unemployment compensation commission
in the State; Mr. Louis M. Nims is managing director of the State tax
administration in the State of Michigan, and Mr. Leo J. Nowicki is
the budget director of the State of Michigan.
The Chairman. Governor Van Wagoner, what are the State
agencies, such as unemployment compensation, W. P. A., State and
county reliefs, which are equipped to deal with the hardships caused
by unemployment in Michigan?
UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION
Governor Van Wagoner. Well, the uncmploj^ment compensation
commission is organized and capable of dealing with this problem,
insofar as it is able to do so by law. However, we have in the State
of Michigan a limit of 18 weeks for aid to the unemployed, and that
only pays $16 per week.
In my inaugural message in January I advocated increasing the
period to 20 weeks, and it was changed to 18 from 16 weeks. I
also advocated raising the amount per week from $16 to $20^ but that
was not done.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7079
Insofar as it is able, with the limitations placed upon it, the unem-
ployment compensation commission can do this job. However, in
view of the fact that the period of payments is so short, and the
fact that the amount of money is so small, it seems to me that that
agency's activity will not be sufficient to handle the emergency relief
program required if, as estimated, it is going to take us at least a year
to get these people employed on defense work.
W. p. A. CURTAILMENTS
As far as the W. P. A. is concerned, as you know there was a cur-
taihnent of some 40 or 50 percent in the rolls, which has caused real
hardship among certain people who were not even employed in the
automobile business. It is hard for those people to exist at this
time.
I do not beheve W. P. A. can be of any service in this particular
function unless the money that was taken from it is restored; and
even that amount would be insufficient to solve this problem.
You mention another agency. State and county relief.
RELIEF PAYMENTS LOWEST SINCE DEPRESSION
We now have the lowest relief since the depression. However, that
relief is paid jointly by the State and by the county. It is figured out
on a very close basis. If we are going to have more unemployment,
it will mean calling the legislature back into session and appropriating
further sums for this purpose.
The State of Michigan last January had a deficit of $28,000,000.
That has been reduced now to about $12,000,000. But if we are to
call back the legislature, to appropriate more money, mstead of wiping
out that deficit we are gomg back in the other direction, and accumulat-
ing further deficits.
The Chairman. What will be the effect. Governor, of the cut in
automobile production on State revenues?
Governor Van Wagoner. In Michigan our State reHef receives
about two-thirds of its funds from the sales tax.
SALES TAX
The Chairman. How long have you had the sales tax?
Governor Van Wagoner. Since 1933. And in Michigan, perhaps
more than in any other State, we are dependent for the operation of
our State government on that tax. Any decrease in car production
or in employment in any way naturally will decrease that sales tax,
and almost in the proportion that that employment is done away with.
State revenues will be cut down. But the effect on revenues will be
magnified if we have a curtailment in the things that the workers may
want to buy, such as automobiles, refrigerators, and stable goods.
Mr. OsMERS. Governor, does your sales tax apply to all merchandise
made m the State or just that sold within the State?
Governor Van Wagoner. It applies to all merchandise that is sold
in the State.
Mr. OsMERs. Wholesale and retail?
Governor Van Wagoner. It is a sales tax on everything that is
sold in the State of Michi2:an.
7080 DETROIT HEARINGS
Mr. OsMERs. Am I correct in inferring that if an automobile is
sold by a manufacturer to a dealer and by a dealer to the individual,
there are two sales taxes paid on it?
Governor Van Wagoner. No, I don't think there are two. Maybe
Mr. Ninis would like to answer that. He is the head of the sales
tax administration.
TESTIMONY OF LOUIS M. NIMS, MANAGING DIRECTOR, STATE
TAX ADMINISTRATION, LANSING, MICH.
Mr. NiMs. That would be a resale, which is exempted under our
law. Ours is a direct, final sales tax. It is the last tax in a series of
transactions.
Mr. OsMERS. How does an automobile come under that law if it is
sold for resale in another State?
Mr. NiMs. Quite a high percentage of them are sold in Michigan
to Michigan people, and if production is dropped, Michigan naturally
would take a loss.
Mr. OsMERs. You would only lose the sales tax on automobiles that
were sold and used within the State of Michigan?
Mr. NiMS. That is right. That is the direct sales tax; but of
course any curtailment that you make in the production of automo-
biles means that people employed in that production are not going to
have money to spend.
Mr. OsMERS. It lowers the purchasing power.
Mr. NiMS. That is correct.
TESTIMONY OF GOV. MURRAY D. VAN WAGONER— Resumed
Mr. Arnold. Is that a 3 percent sales tax?
Governor Van Wagoner. Yes, sir.
Mr. OsMERs. How much money does that bring in, in the course of
a year, at the present time?
Mr. NiMS. Around $70,000,000.
TOURIST TRADE REVENUES
The Chairman. Governor Van Wagoner, I was very much inter-
ested, and more or less startled, to learn the amount that the State of
Michigan receives from your tourist trade.
Governor Van Wagoner. $400,000,000.
The Chairman. The highest in the Nation.
Governor Van W^agoner. Yes; I believe that is correct, according
to the figures of the chamber of commerce.
The Chairman. Now, what effect do you think automobile curtail-
ment and gasoline shortage will have on that trade?
Governor Van Wagoner. Any curtailment in the sale of cars will
naturally curtail our tourist and resort business, and the same is true
of the restrictions on the use of gasoline.
It is not the fellow who trades his car in every year and gets a new
car. He is not the man we are talking about. But if the man at
the top cannot get his new car, then he in turn can't trade his car in
to take care of the man in the lower status, and from there on down
the same thing is true, to the men who have the last bracket of cars.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7081
The car that is forced off the road is the one I am talking about — the
car that will no longer run. Its owner is the man who is going to be
out of a car, and who is also gomg to be seriously affected by a reduc-
tion of gasoline, if that is reflected in a rise in price.
The Chairman. Governor, what attracts tourists to Michigan is
the huntmg and fishing and other sports, I presume.
Governor Van Wagoner. It is hunting and fishing, but the
Almighty God was very gracious to the State of Michigan when He
created this universe. As you know, we have more shore line than
any other State in the Union. We have an area that is covered with
trees, pretty nearly anywhere you want to go. Our State is covered
with trees and vegetation, and that in turn protects our fishing and
our hunting. The weather is very favorable in this part of the
country, especially in the summertime, and it has become a regular
haven for people from States with less pleasant climates. They
come here once and go back and then come back again and again.
STATE DEVELOPMENTS
We have tried to develop our highway system so that people can
see what we have to offer here in the State of Michigan. We are
building shore-line highways, roadside parks with picnic tables, and
we are making some places that are very beautiful in the State of
Michigan accessible to the tourists. I believe they appreciate that,
and in turn they will tell then friends, and more people will come
back year after year.
The Chairman. Governor, if I were not sure that you are the
Governor of Michigan, I would say you are from California. That is
California talk.
Governor Van Wagoner. Well, we don't guarantee the weather
here.
The Chairman. We can guarantee it out there — except, of course,
when it is "unusual."
industrial OUT-MIGRATION
The Chairman. Governor, do you anticipate any large-scale out-
migration of workers as a result of industrial shut-downs in this area?
Governor Van Wagoner. The thing that I am very much concerned
about there is the fact that in our mass-production automobile plants
we have built up a group of skilled mechanics — tool and die makers
and people of that category — who may have 10 or 15 men of ordinary
mechanical skill working under them. If we have a shut-down, and
if we lose these key men to other parts of the country where they
could secure work, then when we get our material in, when we get
our defense orders and we are all ready to go, we may find ourselves
in a condition of being unable to make the machinery to put out
these defense articles.
Now, that wasn't true in the depression, because then you had a
depression all over the country, and things were just as good here as
they were anywhere else. But if we were to lose these keymen now,
I feel that we would lose part of the essential skill of our great produc-
tion center here in Michigan, and I think it is very vital that some
7082 DETROIT HEARINGS
effort be made to see to it that we do not lose these men or the work-
ing orc^anization which has been set up, with these keymen at the top
and the 10 or 12 workers under each one's supervision.
Mr. OsMERS. Have you lost many so far, Governor?
Governor Van Wagoner. I do not believe we have, up until now,
because the plants themselves are not going to release these men
until they absolutely have to. Even if it costs them more money, I
know they will keep them as long as they can. It is to their interest
to keep them. But, of course, if you shut this whole car industry off
100 percent, as has been talked in some places, a point would be reached
where these men would be forced to go to other places to secure em-
ployment, and you couldn't blame them if they did.
Mr. OsMERS. I know they are needed in other parts of the country.
Governor Van Wagoner. That is just the point. They need
those people in other parts of the country, and if wo should lose them
here, then when the day comes when we have all of the material on
our front doorstep and are ready to say, "Go to work," we would sud-
denly find out we didn't have the manpower and skills to do so.
It'seems to me that one thing we ought to consider before we go into
too much reduction of output, is a reduction of the hours of work in
the automobile industry, say from 40 to 32 hours a week, if necessary
in this interim and in the shift-over period, so as to hold this organiza-
tion together. Then when the time does arrive, we are going to have
this unit force that is used in mass production, and is trained in turn-
ing things out in a hurry. It will be all set and steamed up to do this
job which the country is looking to us to do.
Mr. OsMERS. I was wondering if you had been investigating the
possibility of spreading the work.
Governor Van Wagoner. I think that would be much better.
Mr. OsMERS. During this time.
Governor Van Wagoner. I think it would be much better than
laying off a great number of men, or looking to the Unemployment
Compensation, or to W.P.A., or to some subsidy, because when you do
that, after all you do lose the morale of these men, which is important
in these times.
Mr. OsMERS. Then the follow-up of that would be a general rest-
lessness on the part of 3^0 ur industrial worker population, and they
would start to move all over the country, wouldn't they?
Governor Van Wagoner. Yes, sir; and when you want them, they
are not going to be here.
Mr. Arnold. Let me ask the Governor at this point, do you think
it is because your prime contractors haven't enough contracts that
they don't subcontract, or is it an unwillingness on their part to sub-
contract?
larger volume of prime contracts needed
Governor Van Wagoner. I think the manufacturers would sub-
contract if they had enough prime contracts so they knew they could
take care of their own men. But to date they haven't even enough to
reemploy their own men in changing over to defense. Therefore,
there is no incentive on their part to subcontract this work.
Mr. Arnold. In other words, there is not enough push. You have
to get the contracts coming in rapidly in order to nuike them sub-
contract all over Michigan and in parts of northern Ohio and the sur-
rounding territory?
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7083
Governor Van Wagoner. Yes. Then there would be a real in-
centive to subcontract the work, to get the thing out on time.
Another thing we haven't mentioned, which is very serious, is the
small town that has maybe just 1 plant in it and employs maybe 100
or 200 men.
Mr. OsMERS. What would the peacetime product of such a plant
be?
Governor Van Wagoner. It might be nluminum goods, or a casting
or something like that for a bigger automobile plant. Now, if this
particular plant doesn't get at least one subcontract, you can see that
in that town there will be a very serious problem.
IMPORTANCE OP SUBCONTRACTING DIVISION
I was very happy to see the office of O. P. M. set up a separate divi-
sion for subcontracting for just this sort of thing. In other words, I
believe Washington recognizes this problem. Furthermore, I was
very happy to see that they put a man like Mr. Odium at the head of
it. In my opinion, he is a very capable man.
Mr. OsMERS. Have you seen any evidence in the State of Michigan
that this subcontractmg division of the O. P. M. is workmg? I feel
as you do that it was a fine thing to see it set up, and that the director
of it is a capable man; but have you seen any evidence that it is
working?
Governor Van Wagoner. I am sure that it is working, but it isn't
working well enough or fast enough to put every plant that we have
in the State of Michigan to work in getting out this defense stuff the
way the Nation expects us to get it out.
Mr. OsMERS. Governor, is there anything that you, as a member
of State government, can suggest to ourselves, as members of the
Federal Government, that would straighten out or help the organiza-
tion of defense in Washington with respect to all of these problems?
EMPLOYMENT SURVEYS
Governor Van Wagoner. One of the things they are doing now,
which I think is good, is following the unemployment records. They
know, for instance, how many people in a town are working on auto-
mobile production, and they know if that is cut off, there is going to
be an unemployment problem there.
Mr. Osmers. Did the Federal Government make that survey?
Governor Van Wagoner. I guess they are working jointly with
the Unemployment Compensation Commissions,
Air. Lund. That is correct. Governor.
Governor Van Wagoner. In other words, they are working closely
to foresee reactions, and then deciding whether or not to place a
contract in a particular field. Some contracts, however, must be
awarded to the low bidder. In such a case you can't guarantee that
this man in the town with the one plant is going to be the low bidder
on that job. It might be necessary, and even advisable, that this
man be given at least a trial order.
Mr. Osmers. On a cost-plus plan, or something like that?
Governor Van Wagoner. Yes, sir; a cost-plus plan.
7084 DETROIT HEARINGS
Mr. OsMERS. Has the State of Michigan had any difficulty in its
dealings with the Federal Government in this emergency, in the
matter of getting answers to questions, in getting accurate informa-
tion, and in solving some of these problems, in many cases not only
affecting States but manufacturers and others? People have com-
plained bitterly about the confusion and the apparent lack of organi-
zation in our Washington defense set-up.
LIAISON BETWEEN STATE AND OFFICE OF PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT
Governor Van Wagoner. Of course there is a lot of work for
everybody to do, and there are a lot of things that can't click just over
night; but as far as I am concerned, all of the letters I have addressed
to the O. P. M. were properly referred to the individual whom it con-
cerned. Only one was unanswered, and even in that instance I got a
telephone call, and they said they would prefer to have me come down
there and get the answer direct, which after all is all I could ask for.
As a result of that Mr. Steinbaugh was made liaison officer between
the Federal Government and the State, at the request of the O. P. M.,
and since he has been down there, I am sure they know what our
problem is, and we in turn are finding out some of their problems.
Mr. OsMERS. We are not having much difficulty in finding out
what the problems are; we are having difficulty in solving them. I
was wondering whether any of these problems are being solved.
I realize that the act of setting up a board or bureau or appointing a
commissioner or something like that is a recognition that the problem
exists, but the problem isn't solved unless and until the commission
or board or bureau does something.
Governor Van Wagoner. That is correct. Well, as I say, this new
department on subcontracting has been formed, and I think you have
a very capable man at the head of it. I am very optimistic about the
prospect of his getting something done about this problem. He has
quite a reputation for benig able to get things done, and if he takes
hold of this the same way he has other things, I am sure it will be done.
Mr. OsMERS. With all due deference to Mr. Odium, I hope they
get it done before the war is over.
Governor Van Wagoner. I am very much encouraged. We
haven't even seen results yet, because it is too early, but at least I
know a place where I can refer the letters that come in day after day-^
where this small plant is going to be out of material, and that one is
going to have so many people unemployed.
POOLING FOR defense CONTRACTS
Mr. Arnold. I realize Michigan is in a somewhat different position
from that of Illinois. In my State we have certain cities, as for
instance the city of Decatur, 111., a community of, I suppose 70,000
people, which does not have a great enough diversification of industry
to take a prime defense contract by itself. But there are other
manufacturers, and together they can take contracts.
Governor Van Wagoner. Pool their interests.
Mr. Arnold. Exactly. One firm takes the contract, with the
imderstanding they will all come in.
Quincy, 111., is a town almost as large, and it is being surveyed for
the same purpose. Do you have that situation in Michigan?
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7085
Governor Van Wagoner. I think we have some towns hke that.
Perhaps St. Joseph, Mich., would be hke that. There they have a lot
of small manufacturing plants. One plant wouldn't be large enough
to handle a prime contract, but together they might be able to do so.
Mr. Arnold. Is any effort being made to utilize those plants?
Governor Van Wagoner. There hasn't been much done in regard
to that here in Michigan. We have had complaints from St. Joe.
We have been asked, " Wliat is this plant going to do when its material
is shut off?"
Mr. Arnold. The reason this committee is interested in that is
that such pooling of interests will prevent interstate migration of
workers.
IN-TRAINING SUBSISTENCE WAGES
Governor Van Wagoner. I think it has possibilities.
The Chairman. Governor, what is your reaction to the proposal
that displaced workers be paid a subsistence wage while in training for
future defense employment?
Governor Van Wagoner. I believe that w^ould be all right as a
last resort. Of course, we are more concerned about speedmg up this
program, moving the completion date ahead and putting our whole
people on a speed-up basis, to the point where they can get these
ordei-s out faster. We are also very much concerned about anything
that you do along the way of a subsistence plan that is going to
destroy the morale of the workmen themselves.
But as a last resort, 1 thmk that would be much better than just
leavmg this man on relief or trying to handle his situation from an
unemployment problem standpoint. Wliat I would rather see, of
course, is more contracts let, so that a solution will develop in its
normal way.
The Chairman. In San Diego, Governor, the committee's attention
was called to what is known as a dismissal fee.^ Under this plan,
when a company secures a Government contract, it would add an
amount in, don't you see — say 2 percent, or 5 percent — looking to
the time when the plant wOl probably be shut down. This money
would then provide a cushion for the discharged workers after the
whole thing is over, and the plant has been shut down. Has that ever
been called to your attention?
Governor Van Wagoner. No; it has not.
The Chairman. After making several trips throughout the country
last year, the committee has come to the conclusion that there were
too many American citizens on the road. Stateless and homeless and
voteless. We realize at the same time that the States can carry only
a limited financial load, and that they cannot take care of all of these
"nonresidents." There is no question about that. There comes a
saturation point. We therefore recommended to Congress an addi-
tional appropriation whereby the Federal Government would take care
of these nonsettled persons. Have you given any thought to that?
federal responsibility for nonsettled people
Govenior Van Wagoner. We have given that a good deal ot
thought, not just froin the angle of Federal relief; we are continually
having people come in here during good times, and then they are
' See San Diego hearings, p. 4959.
7086 DETROIT HEAKIKGS
located here, as you migrht aay, as a State responsibility afterwards.
As far as the State of Alichigan is concerned, we do not want any
people to come into our State — into this picture at all — until the people
we have here now are fully employed on this defense work.
Now, if for any reason whatsoever the Federal Government finds
it necessary to bring workers uito this State to do a certain job, then
I most certainl}^ thmk that after this effort is over, the Federal
Government should make some provision for their welfare, and not
let them become State charges.
The Chairm.\n. I think you are correct, Governor. I think the
State of ^Michigan's effoit sliould be to hire local people.
Governor Van "Wagoner. That is right.
The Chairman, And that is a question hi which our committee is
deeply interested. We have great numbers of people now who have
left their home States and gone to these defense centers. Well, it
doesn't take much of an imagination to realize what a whirlpool can
be created by a situation like this, after the war is over. So the fewer
who leave their home States, the better for the Nation as a whole.
Governor Van Wagoner. That is right, absolutely.
The Chairman. Governor, have you any idea what part the
W. P. A. should play in alleviating effects of the curtailment in
automobile production?
Governor Van Wagoner. The W. P. A. can't play any important
part until the amount that has been cut off is restored, and until
more money is appropriated, above that, to take care of the additional
workers wllo will be laid oft' due to this curtailment. However, I feel
the same way about that as I do these other problems. What I think
we ought to do is concentrate on output, and on the goal of keeping
our people all employed and up to a pitch where they can do the job
that we are called upon to do.
The Chairman. Governor, we have had before our committee
governors, mayors, and high departmental officials, State and Federal;
and in addition, over 200 migrants. We have been all over the United
States, and everjnvhere we have found unanimous agreement that it is
a Federal problem, the problem of taking care of these nonsettled
persons coming in from the other States.
Now, to provide us with infoi-mation hi the record, are you willing
to go this far: If unemployment increases here in Michigan as a result
of this shift from defense to nondefense industries, would you say
that there should be an increased appropriation for the W. P. A.?
COPPER PRODrCTION SUBSIDIES
Governor Van Wagoner. Our prune purpose is to have the people
employed. If they are employed in defense, that is fine, and the
sooner they get from car production hi to defense production the
better. We have certain numbers of people on W. P. A. You want
to increase that, but after all, that is Avhat we will call a subsidy of
some sort from the Federal Government. If we are going to have a
subsidy of some sort from the Federal Gov(irimient, why not have a
subsidy as we did in the copper range, where we asked for an incre-
ment of 8 cents for the copper produced in the Upper Peninsula so
they could put those people to work doing the work that they are
used to doing, and at the same time increasing the supply of copper
natioj^m. defense migration 7087
which can be used for the defense effort, which is one of the basic
materials that wo are short of at the present time.
The Chairman. What is the status of the copper industry in the
State of Michigan?
Governor Van Wagoner. A price of 12 cents was set, and we took
it up with W^asliington, and they gave us a differential of 1 cent.
That gave us 13 cents, but we have got to get 15 cents before we can
open up our mines in the Upper Peninsula and produce copper
profitably.
But if you are going to have a subsidy like W. P. A., why not
spend it on something like copper, where we will produce more of
these basic materials that the Federal Government is so anxious to
get at this time?
One objection to such a plan, we find, is that one department in
Washington doesn't want to pay one price for copper and have another
depai'tment pay another price without some congressional authority
to do it. You can appreciate that. And I am wondering if that kind
of copper — high-priced copper — couldn't be allocated, perhaps to
nondefense activities, such as the manufacture of products which the
private consumer wants badly enough to pay this additional price for
them. If we did that, we would release the copper requhed in manu-
facture for the defense effort, and not cause embarrassment to any
Federal department for paybig two different prices for copper.
The Chairman. In otlier words. Governor, if this committee goes
back to W'ashmgton and is instrumental in openmg up the Michigan
copper mines, our coming here would be a success?
Governor Van Wagoner. Oh, very much, very much as far as the
Upper Peninsula is concerned. You would be accomplishing three
things. Li the fh'st place, you are going to save money, because you
are gomg to have less of a welfare load. The people up there are not
employed now, and if they are workuig, they will be makmg more
money, and you will wipe out that welfare problem up there if these
mines are opened up. Secondly, you would definitely mcrease their
morale. They have been going along for a long time on a bare exist-
ence, in order to make ends meet. The third thing is that you need
moi-e copper as a basic commodity m these defense efforts, and you
would uicrease slightly the amount of copper produced.
The Chairman. Has any survey been made as to what your pos-
sible production of copper might be?
Governor Van Wagoner. Yes; it was i-ather thoroughly studied
for many years back to see just how much copper could be produced
for 12 cents, for 13, for 14, and for 15. But anytliing short of 15 cents
will not do the job.^
The Chairman. Now, Governor, what proposals for State or Fed-
eral action have you to make for the purpose of, first, providmg
needed defense facihties, and, second, providing for temporary em-
ployment?
Michigan's defense planning
Governor Van Wagoner. The legislature appropriated $292,000 to
rehabilitate our armories in the State of Michigan. We have added
100 State troopers to handle not only the motor patrol, but also any
emergency that might come along in regard to maintaining law and
order in our State.
'See testimony and statement by Dr. Grover C. Dillman, p. 7524 ff.
jQgg DETROIT HEARINGS
Also, the highway department is building a series of defense high-
ways which is going to make it possible to eliminate the moving in of
a town around a defense plant, like the Ford bomber plant, the Chrys-
ler tank plant. Information on that, however, will be given by a
member of the highway department at a later time. I do not want to
infringe on his testimony, except to say that there is only a 20-foot
road running out to this new proposed Ford bomber plant. That
plant is going to hire 60,000 people. That road, you can see, is made-
quate. What are vou going to do? Are you going to budd up a
community around"' that plant, or are you going to budd a series of
highways which will let these people go back and forth to work and
livo in the place where they are living today?
It may cost considerable money to build the highways, but it wdl
be much cheaper than building schools and provide housing and pro-
viding sewers and water systems and police protection and fire protec-
tion and the other things^ that are necessary to accommodate a town
of 60,000 workers. .
The Chairman. Well, Governor, I think you agree with me that
we are up against a critical problem in this shift from nondefense to
defense work.
Governor Van Wagoner. That is right.
The Chairman. There is one more point I wish to raise. In San
Diego we had a witness who was the father of sLx babies. His wife
was'there with hrni. I asked him if he was saving any money, looking
toward the future, don't you see, because after all is said and done.
Governor, as sure as we are in this courtroom today, the time will come
when many defense workers will face lay-offs; and I still think the
cushion is' savings by the employee. I will tell you why. Your
public works program is all very well. The President has authorized
the United States Planning Resources Board to make a survey of the
situation. But the Government may be forced to retrench at the
end of the war. We may not have money to give to Michigan for
public works. So if some plan, some practical solution, can be
(>vo1v(k1 by which wo have voluntary savings, or an increase in the
unemployment compensation, the individual himself will be saving
money to provide his own cushion after this thing is over.
I was trying to develop that thought with this San Diego worker,
and he sai(f that in the first place he could hardly find a place to live in.
It took him days. Because of his six children, houses were repeatedly
refused him.^ ^ ^ -^^ c
I learned that the Federal housing projects contemplated units ot
only two and three rooms and the three-bedroom houses were not
ready for use.^ W(> took that up with Washington and now they are
makincr provision for the construction of some larger houses.
I asked this man if he was saving any money. He said, "How can I
save anv money? I receive $135 a month and I pay $18 a week for
one rooln and a kitchen." That is practically $80 a month for rent.
As a result of that situation, San Diego created a rent-control com-
mittee and went to the landlords, and I think the story probably went
all over the United States.
But Governor, whether it is voluntary savings on tlie part ot the
employee, or an increase in unemployment compensation, or the
1 Sco San Dioeo hoarinps. p. 4839.
-' Ihid.. P.488K.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGKATION 7089
purchase of defense bonds, or the dismissal fee or all of them put
together, it seems to me that living conditions such as I have just
described cannot be eliminated from the picture as a factor affecting
the ability of workers to lay sometliing aside for their own future.
And it also seems to me that this must be done, that it is just as
necessary as planning for public works after it is over.
Governor Van Wagoner. I think you are right.
The Chairman. Governor, what is your comment on the statement
in the press that of 1,047 Michigan firms which had registered for
defense orders, only 82 have received such work?
PRIME CONTRACTS INCENTIVE TO SUBLETTING
Governor Van Wagoner. As I have said, if the large companies
had enough prime contracts so that they could see their way clear
to rehiring and taking care of all of their own employees, then there
would be a real incentive to subcontract this work.
Mr. Arnold. It has been my observation that some small plants
feel that they cannot engage in any of the defense work because bigger
corporations are getting the contracts even when they have to diversify
their operations to do it. For instance, the Sherwin-Williams Paint
Co., of Cleveland, is coming down into southern Illinois and building a
$40,000,000 bomb- and shell-loading plant, and it is going to operate
in that field as well as its own field of paint-making. That is a large
concern, coming into an entirely different line of business. In my
opinion many of these small manufacturers are going to have to begin
to think along that line or they will be out of materials and out of
business.
farming out of defense CONTRACTS ADVOCATED
Governor Van Wagoner. I do think there should be some direction
in the way of awarding contracts. You might say that the parts that
could be easily manufactured would go to small firms, rather than to
the large companies that are able to take on more difficult jobs, instead
of having these big companies take over the manufacture of the easier
parts and letting the small fellows bid on the complicated ones, which
they are in no position to do. There might be some effort toward
allocating those parts to the companies that could do that work. It
would be a matter of seemg that the subcontract is let for a particular
part, which could be done by a particular small firm. After deter-
mining which parts could be made with relative ease, then subcon-
tracts could be let to these smaller firms that we are talking about.
On the other hand, if you let the big manufacturer take the easy
parts to manufacture, and leave only the hard ones for the small
manufacturer, you are going to find the small fellow unable to compete.
Mr. Arnold. It is my opinion that the prime contractor is going to
have to sit across the table from the prospective subcontractor and
have his blueprints there, and talk as businessman to businessman.
In that way the small manufacturer can determine what he can do.
Governor Van Wagoner. That is right.
Mr. Arnold. It would be better for a prime contractor to sit right
down here, as we are, and discuss these problems and give the little
manufacturer the blueprints so he may see what he can do.
60396— 41— pt. 18 3
7090 DETHOIT HEARINGS
Governor Van Wagoner. That is right. To subcontract anything
that this fellow could make would take a lot of cooperation, which
maybe we cannot be too optimistic about. But certainly the smaller
fellows would be able to do some of this work.
Mr. Arnold. That would tend to keep the skilled men within the
State of Michigan, instead of having them go to other States and
create problems there as well as here.
Air. OsMERs. Governor, I was deeply interested in your reference
to the Unemployment Compensation Commission work, and your
own efforts to have the length of payment periods increased.
amendments to social security act discussed
I have prepared and am considering the introduction in Congress
of an amendment to the Social Security Act which will lengthen the
period of compensation to 26 weeks, on a national basis, and make
the payments uniform throughout the United States.
Realizing that is a very complex and technical change in the law,
I wonder whether you would care to express an opinion on the general
merits or demerits of such a change.
Governor Van Wagoner. I think you are certainly moving in the
right direction. Of course, what you have to figure, if an emergency
comes, is whether you have enough money to handle it. You would
certainly have to consider that part of the whole problem.
Mr. Osmers. We are trying to place the plan on an actuarial basis,
so that whatever benefits are paid will be figured in at the time of the
payment.
I have in mind not the present situation, with its temporarj^ unem-
ployment as a result of the defense program, but the long pull, when
there will be not 30 or 40 or 50 billion dollars in Government business
to hand out. "VMien it is all over, we are going to need some cushion
for these workers. I don't think that even 26 weeks is going to be
too long. For example, Mr. Arnold has mentioned a firm going into
southern Illinois and building a shell-loading plant. We know that
an automobile factory may be converted into a defense plant and then
can go back to manufacturing automobiles; but we know that a shell-
loading plant is through when this thing is over. Those men will be
stranded, and it seems to me that Government should give that some
consideration.
Governor Van Wagoner. I think so too.
Mr. Osmers. There is one other question I want to ask, concerning
almost the very last thing you said about this subcontracting proposi-
tion.
I constantly hear the charge from my own constituents — and I
represent a large industrial area — that the big firms, as they call
them, are hogging all of these defense contracts and holding on to
them and not subcontracting as much as they should.
I wonder whether that is true in Alichigan. Have you found any
evidence of that?
WITH MORE orders, PRIME CONTRACTORS WOULD SUBLET
Governor Van Wagoner. I think that goes right back to what I
originally said. There is no incentive. There is no incentive to
subcontract to smaller firms when they haven't enough prime con-
tracts to take care of their own men.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7091
Now, the only way you can do that is to speed up. CongTess has
appropriated enough nioney to do that; but those appropriations have
not been translated into orders, and until those orders are out, I don't
tliink you are going to have that incentive to subcontract.
Mr. OsMERS. You feel that the application of shorter production
schedules would help in that direction?
Governor Van Wagoner. I say move up your completion dates and
make your contract such that you have to deliver your stuff in a
certain length of time.
From the records that we have around here, most of these plants
having contracts are ahead of schedule, but it seems to me that if we
could let enough prime contracts so that these fellows would be anxious
to subcontract and get that help in order to complete their contract
on time, then you would have a real incentive to subcontract.
Now, if we can't change this thing over fast enough, then I think
before we go to W. P. A. or before we go to any kind of relief, we
ought to consider the possibility of cutting the thing down to a 32-
hour week, at least during the time that we change over.
Mr. OsMERS. Is there any possibility of further speed-up in the
four-shift idea?
PLANTS RUNNING MULTIPLE SHIFTS
Governor Van Wagoner. Some of the plants here are running
three shifts and some of them are running four. I looked at a shell
plant in Lansing this week, and they are running four shifts up there.
Mr. OsMERS. Can that idea be carried into other industries to
advantage?
Governor Van Wagoner. I don't know any reason why it couldn't
be worked out, especially if you want to spread the employment.
The more shifts you have, the more you can spread the employment.
We do not want to see one group with good jobs and another out of
work entirely; wdiat we are trying to do is to level it off so that all
people have at least some work to do, up until the time they move
into the defense effort on a 100-percent basis.
The Chairman. Governor, I think you have with you Mr. Lloyd
B. Reid, deputy commissioner. State highway department.
Governor Van Wagoner. Yes; and I want to get in the record
that Mr. Fred C. Taylor, planning engineer, is also here.
The Chairman. And they are going to testify for the highway
department?
Governor Van Wagoner. That is right.
The Chairman. We want to thank you. Governor Van Wagoner,
and your staff, for the splendid conti'ibution you have made to our
record.
Governor Van Wagoner. And I want to thank the committee for
coming out to Michigan, where w^e can bring in all of this help to
testify. If you had this hearing in Washington we probably would
have had one or two people there, but in this way we are able to get
more basic information.
The Chairman. The committee will recess for a few minutes,
(Short recess.)
The Chairman. The committee will please come to order. Mr;
Reid and Mr. Taylor, will you please come forward?
7092 DETROIT HEARINGS
TESTIMONY OF LLOYD B. REID, DEPUTY COMMISSIONER, AND
FRED C. TAYLOR, PLANNING ENGINEER, HIGHWAY DEPART-
MENT, STATE OF MICHIGAN
The Chairman. Mr. Reid, will you state your full name and the
capacity in which you appear before the committee?
Mr. Reid. Lloyd B. Reid, deputy commissioner, State highway
department.
The Chairman. And you are representing Mr. G. Donald Kennedy,
State highway commissioner?
Mr. Reid. Yes.
The Chairman. And Mr. Taylor, will you please state your name
and the capacity in which you appear before the committee?
Mr. Taylor. Fred C. Taylor, planning engineer. State highway
department.
The Chairman. You have filed a report by Commissioner Kennedy,
showing the traffic conditions and the traffic areas m and about Detroit
and the State of Michigan. The statement will be incorporated in the
record.
(The statement referred to above is as foUows:)
STATEMENT BY G. DONALD KENNEDY, STATE HIGHWAY
COMMISSIONER OF MICHIGAN
The Michigan State Highway Department is much interested in the problem of
migration. The expansion of communities or the creation of new communities
vitally alters the department's problem of providing and maintaining arterial
highways and intra- and inter-community connection. The large network of
highways and streets of the State, teeming with millions of vehicle-miles of traffic,
testifies that the growth of the State and of transportation by motor vehicle has
been integrated.
In general this integration has been successful, but for several years past it has
been evident to the department that a serious deficiency in highway facilities was
accumulating on the State trunk-line system at a much faster rate than new con-
struction or reconstruction could be provided.
An example of this accumulation is provided in the department's study of road-
way capacity conducted during the past 5 years. These studies indicate that addi-
tional capacity will be required for 1,271 miles of highway on the trunk-line system
by 1945. The rate at which mileage of roads with insufficient capacity accumu-
lates is as follows:
Miles
Prior to 1936 388
1937 to 1940 489
1940 to 1945 394
Total 1,271
In the past 4 years mileage of rural highways becoming congested has increased
at the rate of 122 miles per year. The department's Federal aid programs of
1940, 1941, and 1942 have included the widening of 17 miles of highway beyond 2
lanes. Thus the annual rate of meeting the need for added roadway capacity by
constructing multilane roads is 5.7 miles per year or only about one-twentieth the
rate at which the need is created.
In 1941 traffic on the State routes is up 50 percent above 1936 conditions.
Estimates of traffic growth made in 1936 did not forecast such an increase until
5 years hence. As a result, the total road mileage which was expected to exceed
its safe and tolerable capacity by 1945, obtains in the present year of 1941. In
other words, the 1,271 miles of State trunk lines now needing to be widened or
otherwise conditioned for capacity for maximum traffic conditions, represent
about double the requirements anticipated for this year.
This picture of inadequacies, from a capacity standpoint, reflects somewhat
the effect of traffic increases on highway facility requirements. The traffic in-
crease is that experienced to date. What the full effect of the defense production
effort will be is conjectural, but worthy of some contemplation.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7093
MICHIGAN INDUSTRY AND DEFENSE PRODUCTION
Michigan is primarilv a manufacturing State measured on a production value
standard. In the maximum production year of 1929 manufactured products
were valued at 4.7 billions of dollars. This is about 7.1 percent of the total
value of manufactured products in the Nation. It is estimated that production
during the present year has exceeded the 1929 record although defense production
is barely getting under way. ,,. , .
The year 1942 is anticipated to record an all-time peak production for Michigan
industry. The enormous plant expansion in the State during 1941 is expected
to reach full production on defense materials in this year. No exact information
Is available, however, on the full extent of defense manufacture in the State as
the amounts involved in subcontracting and unpublicized foreign and Federal
contracts are unknown.
It is estimated that defense production for each of the years of 1942 and 1943
will amount to 3^2 billions of dollars. Assuming a drastic cut of say 40 percent on
normal civil production needs, total manufacture will run about 6 billions of
dollars per year. This is about one-third greater production than the new peak
which will be established in the present year of 1941. These estimates parallel
very closely the estimated increase in national income which is expected to reach
110 billions by 1942-43, provided the transfer from normal to defense production
is effected by that time.
EXPANSION OF BUSINESS AND TRAFFIC
It is difficult to fully realize the tremendously expanded activity in social,
"industrial, and economic spheres that will accompany the expansion of national
income to the figures now estimated. An examination of the activity of the decade
preceding and following World War No. 1 might give a clue to what may lie
ahead. Indexed by manufacturing, this activity can be visualized. In the decade
preceding the last" war, manufacturing for the Nation was valued at approxi-
mately 20 billions annuallv. In the decade following the war, manufacture per-
sisted at a level of over 60 billions, three times the former pace. Everyone knows
of the technological advance which took place during the war and in the following
period, and of the expanded social and economic activity.
Highway transportation was perhaps in the vanguard of this expansion. Out
of the World War expansion grew the necessity for a Nation-wide network of
highways in the form of a Federal-aid system. In Michigan, year around traffic
was ina'ugurated for the first time as a war time necessity. Immediately following
the war, $50,000,000 were provided through a bond issue to build intercity high-
way connections. Truck and passenger registrations and vehicular traffic grew
astonishingly.
HIGHWAY NEEDS AND EXPANDING INDUSTRY
From the events of the past in highway transport development, it appears that
the greatly expanded activity which is now taking place would require some con-
sideration be given to highway transport needs of the immediate future. How-
ever, such is not the case, as highway expenditures for improved facilities are less
than normal. According to the Engineering News, 1941 construction in the
Nation is nearly double last year, largely due to plant expansion for defense.
But highway construction is less by 10 percent than last year's amount, smaller
Federal contributions accounting for some of this drop. To date the Federal
Government has not yet taken full cognizance, in its appropriations, of specialized
highway needs arising out of a tremendously expanded production plant and
national income.
Facts gathered by the Nation-wide highway planning surveys conducted by the
States and the Public Roads Administration have disclosed the tremendous
accumulation of highway inadequacies particularly in the vicinity of metropolitan
areas. In the foregoing some inadequacies applying to the State trunk-line
system were referred to as indexed by the survey's study of roadway capacities.
The most serious of these occur in the places of urban concentration and on im-
portant intenirban connections.
This overloading of important roadways is emphasized by the current indus-
trial expansion, as this has occurred in the established industrial centers of the
State. While the effect of expansion will be felt keenly in nearly all sections of
Michigan, by far the most serious impact will be on the highway and street facili-
ties of the Detroit metropolitan district, an area lying within a radius of 40 miles
of the city. Particular reference will be made to this Detroit district situation,
as the problem there transcends in importance anything else in the State.
7094
DETROIT HEARINGS
DEFENSE ACTIVITY IIST THE DETROIT AREA
Defense plant expansion in the State, according to latest Government figures,
amounts to $316,000,000. Of this expansion, 241 millions, or 76 percent, is in the
Detroit district. Plant expansion of one quarter of a billion dollars is a very
considerable item. It is taking place in existing highly crystallized industrial
areas and in new locations lying on the edge of the city and as far as 25 miles out
from the city limits. Swinging these new plants into production, plus sustained
though somewhat lessened normal operations, will severely strain existing facilities
which were believed to be seriously overtaxed several years ago.
The geographical distribution of the expansion is presented in the attached
table. The primary contracts officially published by the Office of Production
Management as of August 9, 1941, are shown in this table. They show accurately
the spread of production expansion, but represent a fraction of the dollar value of
the production planned. As before stated, foreign contracts and undisclosed
Federal contracts and the subcontracting values are not known.
INCREASES AND CHANGES IN INDUSTRIAL EMPLOYMENT
The accompanying employment data for the corresponding district are shown
in the following tabulation." Statistics are compiled from reports of the Unem-
ployment Ck)mpensation Commission.
Employment data, selected plants in defense industries
Area
Employ-
ment May
1941
Anticipated
additional
October 1941
Area
Employ-
ment May
1941
Anticipated ■
additional
October 1941
Eiver Rouge
Milwaukee Junction
162, 688
126, 283
82, 146
34,903
7,900
7,994
21,420
10,319
3,693
13,445
Washtenaw County —
7,078
28,145
61,968
1,577
Total
Other Detroit
449, 143
120,416
Warren township
Source: Research, statistics, and planning section, Michigan Unemployment Compensation Commission.
Dollar value of national defense primary contracts and plant expansion awarded in
Detroit area distributed to important industrial districts
Expenditures for material and plant <
District or place
Material
Plant
Total
Detroit:
A. River Rouge'
B. Milwaukee Junction --
C. Connors Mack
D. Detroit general 2
$147,872,853
85,611,168
33,094,679
42, 645, 067
Percent
22.7
13.2
5.1
6.5
$34, 754, 790
34, 257, 524
7,631,115
28, 557, 745
80, 602, 283
5, 800, 000
Percent
HA
14.4
3.2
11.8
33.3
2.4
$182, 627, 643
119,868,692
40, 730. 794
71,202,812
80, 602, 283
30, 134. 286
485, 979
147, 380, 590
1,, 538, 857
215,118,382
1,829,109
268, 739
Percent
20.5
13.4
4.6
8.0
9.0
Plymouth _
24, 334, 286
485,979
141,680,590
275,513
174,098,360
3.7
.1
21.8
.1
26.8
3.4
.1
5, 700, 666
1,263,344
41,020,022
1,829,109
268, 739
2.4
.5
17.0
.7
.1
16.5
Ferndale and Royal Oak
Warren Township.. -
.2
24.1
Airfields:
Selfridge Field
.2
.1
Total . -
650,098.495
100.0
241,684,671
100.0
891, 783, 166
100.0
1 River Rouge district comprises the southwestern section of Detroit, the eastern section of Dearborn,
the municipalities of River Rouge, Ecorse, Mclvindalc, Allen Park, Lincoln Park, Wyandotte, and Tren-
ton, and Qrosse lie. ^ ,-,^i-x ^ ■ 1 J ^ ■ A-
2 The Detroit general district is comprised of all of the incorporated area of Detroit not mcluded m ais-
tricts A, B, and C. , ,-, ^ -u ^ .n. ■* j
» Ypsilanti includes the city of Ypsilanti and that portion of ■S\ ashtenaw County between the city and
the Wayne County line. , ^, » j v. rvm e t>,„
* Amounts of contracts and awards and permits for plant expansion are those reported by- omce oi I'ro-
duction Management, Bureau of Research and Statistics, to Aug. 9, 1941. These figures do not include
subcontracts or unpublished foreign and TTnited Stales contracts. Therefore, the material figures only
give a picture of the geographical spread of defense activity.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7094-A
XOo2
7094-B
DETROIT HEARINGS
Q^ lis
e^ ill
Sail* i il
liill il
H-
z ^
uj 2
Z z
/- ■
Jl
Zajx
-■*»«'
0 5»
-> >
X<o<
1 '-'^il
! sflf
1 x°
i O*"
! ti^H
1 < ».
1-
t'*- -, . .1 • ■
'aiiiiiip
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7095
Labor to meet the demand of the industrial expansion will be drawn from other
areas of the country and other sections of the State, from the population not now
gainfully employed, and from curtailment of normal civil production. The
department is not in a position to estimate the extent that each of the sources
will contribute to the total need. The experts on labor demand and supply will
probably place that information before the committee.
Of this, however, the department is certain: That community expansion will
take place in the area and that serious commuting problems will take shape that
will affect the volume and character of highway transportation. The demand
for improved facilities will be great.
A large reservoir of labor is contained in the Detroit area. This will be the
principal source of labor supply which must be reoriented to new and expanded
locations. The principal new sites are the Ford Army bomber plant at Ypsilanti;
the Army tank arsenal, and the naval arsenal, both in Warren Township in
south Macomb County, and the somewhat smaller district at Plymouth. The
estabUshment of these new districts is characteristic of the way industrial expan-
sion has taken place in the past in the Detroit area.
THE SPREAD OF INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITY
Industry has expanded laterally and has progressively established itself on the
periphery of the growing city of Detroit. Expansion to the size visualized by
industrial leaders was in many cases impossible because of restrictions imposed
by the development of contiguous area. An example is found in the Ford Motor
Co. It was first established in Highland Park, a city now entirely surrounded by
the city of Detroit. Some 20 years ago the industry was established at the River
Rouge locations, then an open area. The Rouge development is probably the
largest single industrial establishment in the world. But now the Rouge is
considered too crowded and restricted for further expansion. While some
additional defense plant is being built there, the major plant increase is in the
Ypsilanti area, some 20 miles west of the Rouge. Similar examples of expansion
can be cited in other industries.
The total effect of continued industrial expansion has been to spread the city
of Detroit and its metropolitan district over an area of some 2,000 square miles.
This lateral expansion of industry and residential area has been made possible by
the increased use of the automobile as a transportation facility. This use has given
breadth rather than height to the area. Building statistics of Detroit show the
tremendous preference for single-family dwelling units over multiple dwelling
units. In 1940, out of approximately 10,000 permits, only 200 were for multiple
units.
The fact that this type of expansion has given a character of breadth rather
than height to industry and residence in greater Detroit, is perhaps the principal
reason why the mass transportation system as it now exists was not developed
to care for the important working population and why that population uses it so
little.
INDIVIDUAL TRANSPORTATION FOR WORKERS
During an intensive survey of the traffic situation in Detroit made by the
department in 1936, it was determined that only 20 percent of industrial em-
ployees ride streetcars and busses, while about 70 percent of the downtown
workers, office and retail store employees, use these mass transportation facilities.
The reason for this situation is found primarily in the fact that the original system
was laid out to accommodate the business district and was not developed to serve
expanding industry.
The wide dispersion of industrial employees over the Detroit area regardless of
the location of the industrial sector in which they are employed is astonishing
evidence not only of the dependence the workman placed upon individual trans-
portation but of the extent to which Detroit industry itself must depend on
motor transportation for successful operation. The efficiency with which the
enlarged production machine of the area will function will depend on supplying
labor at the factory doors.
7096
DETROIT HEARINGS
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGKATION
7097
7098
DETROIT HEARINGS
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7099
Distances industrial employees travel to work — frequency distribution of lengths of
trips to factory from various parts of the Detroit area
Place of residence
l-way trip length (ranges)
Macomb
County
Oakland
County
Washtenaw
County
Detroit,
Ham-
tramck,
Highland
Park
Dearborn
and miscel-
laneous
All
Per-
cent
Cu-
mu-
lative
Per-
cent
Cu-
mu-
lative
Per-
cent
Cu-
mu-
lative
Per-
cent
Cu-
mu-
lative
Per-
cent
Cu-
mu-
lative
Per-
cent
Cu-
mu-
lative
40 and over
35 to 39
0.0
0
0
2.4
6.0
20.5
30.1
25.3
15.7
0.0
0
0
2.4
8.4
28.9
59.0
84.3
100.0
0.5
.5
1.0
2.1
3.7
9.5
11.6
19.5
51.6
0.5
1.0
2.0
4.1
7.8
17.3
28.9
48.4
100.0
2.4
0
7.3
2.4
4.9
2.4
4.9
9.8
65.9
2.4
2.4
9.7
12.1
17.0
19.4
24.3
34.1
100.0
0.2
.1
.3
.2
.5
2.3
13.8
41.3
41.3
0.2
.3
.6
.8
1.3
3.6
17.4
58.7
100.0
0.0
0
0
1.3
3.2
7.8
9.7
24.5
53.5
0.0
0
0
1.3
4.5
12.3
22.0
46.5
100.0
0.3
.1
.5
.7
1.4
4.2
13.7
36.4
42.7
0.3
.4
30 to 34
25 to 29
20 to 24
15 to 19 -
10 to 14
6 to 9
1.6
3.0
7.2
20.9
57.3
100.0
0to4
Total
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
Distances nonindustrial employees travel to work — frequency distribution of lengths
of trips to place of work from various parts of the Detroit area
Place of residence
l-way trip length (ranges)
Macomb
County
Oakland
County
Washtenaw
County
Detroit,
Ham-
tramck.
Highland
Park
Dearborn
and miscel-
laneous
All
Per-
cent
Cu-
mu-
lative
Per-
cent
Cu-
mu-
lative
Per-
cent
Cu-
mu-
lative
Per-
cent
Cu-
mu-
lative
Per-
cent
Cu-
mu-
lative
Per-
cent
Cu-
mu-
lative
40 and over ._. .
0.0
0
2.6
2.6
2.6
5.2
11.7
10.4
64.9
0.0
0
2.6
5.2
7.8
13.0
24.7
35.1
100.0
0.0
.8
0
0
2.3
3.1
12.3
12.3
69.2
0.0
.8
.8
.8
3.1
6.2
18.5
30.8
100.0
0.0
2.8
0
1.4
0
0
8.5
11.3
76.0
0.0
2.8
2.8
4.2
4.2
4.2
12.7
24.0
100.0
0.1
.3
.3
.5
.3
2.2
10.7
44.8
40.8
0.1
.4
.7
1.2
1.5
3.7
14.4
59.2
100.0
0.0
.9
0
0
.9
7.9
6.1
33.3
50.9
0.0
.9
.9
.9
1.8
9.7
15.8
49.1
100.0
0.1
.4
.3
.6
.6
2.7
10.5
38.2
46.6
0 1
35to39
30 to 34 . .
g
25 to 29
20 to 24
15 to 19
2.0
10 to 14
5to9
0to4
15.2
53.4
100.0
Total
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
7100
DETROIT HEARINGS
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7102 DETROIT HEARINGS
Investigation by the Street Railway Commission of Detroit indicates that about
10 percent of the industrial employees reside in contiguous cities and 10 percent
in the fringe area surrounding the city and 80 percent live within the city. But
work-travel should not be thought of entirely in terms of people living in the
suburbs and coming to jobs in Detroit. Of growing importance is the travel of
Detroit people to employment in industrial locations far outside the city's limits.
The new industrial centers at Plymouth and Ypsilanti are illustrations that the
migration of industry creates transportation problems equally important to those
created by the movement of people to the suburbs.
The reorientation of employees to industry in the accelerated production period
immediately ahead will be accomplished in two ways; by intradistrict migration
and by intradistrict commuting. The possibility of intradistrict migration ap-
pears "to be greater than in previous industrial expansions. Particularly is this
true with reference to the Ford plant at Ypsilanti.
There has been a reluctance on the part of workmen to follow the industry with
residence. Detroit Street Railway officials estimate that only 10 percent of indus-
trial homeowners change residence when the locale of their employment changes.
The worker has regarded individual transportation as preferable to shift of resi-
dence. Perhaps uncertainty of permanent connections with any industry has
forced his preference to transportation.
DISTANCES TRAVELED BY WORKERS
Detroit workmen do travel to their work over considerable distance. The
highway planning survey has cross-sectioned the extent of daily travelling by
automobile by industrial and nonindustrial workers. The results of this investi-
gation are indicated in the table (p. 7099). The median one-way trip to work
for both classes of workers is around 10 miles or about 20 miles of driving per day
to work.
Distance, however, is not so much a factor in "to work" travel by automobile
as time required in transit. During peak hours industrial, office, shopping, and
commercial traffic appear on the streets and highways of the Detroit area simul-
taneously. During these periods due to congestion and delays, speed is reduced
to a crawl and in a great many instances it takes about 1 hour to traverse city
areas a distance of 10 miles. Along the main radiating arteries from the central
business district through the satellite communities located on them it takes
approximately 1}4 to 1}^ hours to arrive at the 15-mile circle. For many workers,
going and returning to work adds from 2 to 3 hours to their working day.
EFFECTS AND COSTS OF CONGESTION
From an economic standpoint this is important. The cost is too high. The
consumption of fuel under conditions of congestion driving is more than double
that of free movement. This penalty falls on the person least able to afford it —
the workingman.
The provision of express-highway facilities, removal of bottlenecks, provision
of grade-separation structures at railroad and other street intersections would be
economically justified for it has been estimated that Detroit motorists paid
$28,000,000 last year for congestion.
The extent of congestion and the dislocation of traffic which it causes is shown
by comparative traffic figures for 1936 and 1941. The department's traffic
studies in Detroit show a traffic increase in the central business district of only
7.6 percent during this time. Two and a half miles out, the increase was 9.9
percent, but in the area between the 2}i mile circle and the city limits, the
over-all increase was 60 percent, and some streets show an increase of 200 percent.
These figures demonstrate the extreme congestion on the streets approaching
the center of the city. They show that traffic is seeking its own relief by avoiding
the central district and utilizing secondary and residential streets in the outlying
area even though that entails considerable inconvenience and greater travel
distance to its destinations. The effects of this mass detour movement on
central district business and values and on the adequacy of existing outlying streets
are already serious.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7103
60396—41 — pt. 18-
7104
DETROIT HEARINGS
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7105
DANGERS AND COSTS OF MIGRATION
It is believed that unless the employees' "time-distance" factor can be reduced
very considerably, migration of people to the new outlying industrial sites is likely
to be greatly accelerated. The extensive and hasty intradistrict migration of
industrial workers to these outlying areas under pressure of the emergency
would result in industrial clogging. This movement should be prevented or at
least deferred so that orderly planning and development of the new cities can take
place.
If it is assumed that a city of 100,000 population will be created near Ypsilanti
by the operation of the Army bomber plant, it may be worth while to ponder the
costs of developing such a city. Based on extensive analysis of governmental
receipts and expenditures by the Michigan Highway Planning Survey, the
capital investment and operating costs are presented for a hypothetical city of
100,000 population.
Public facilities : Schools, governmental buildings, fire stations, water
supply, sewerage and sewage disposal, pavements, sidewalks,
parks, etc $27, 000, 000
Private facilities: Residences, stores, shops, finnacial institutions,
service places, etc. (based on a valuation of $1,500 per capita and
a valuation of 60 percent of market value) 225, 000, 000
Total about 252, 000, 000
This cost does not include the State or Federal costs involved in serving a city
of this size.
Operating costs are estimated to be about $5,000,000 annually.
Perhaps the creation of a city of this size would be economically justified pro-
vided, of course, that permanent industrial operations could be anticipated with
some degree of certainty. But even though justified, the building of such a city
should be deferred for post-defense activity, thus allowing time for orderly and
careful planning.
HIGHWAYS FOR COMMUTINn WORKERS
Much of the cost and waste involved in hurried emergency migration of popula-
tion can be avoided if it is made possible for workers to commute from their
present homes to the new job location. An industrial express highway tapping
the heart of the labor market in the city of Detroit and connecting the principal
industrial districts would accomplish this emergency purpose. At the same time
it would serve the area's continuing highway needs.
The department's plan of motorways for the Detroit area includes such a route.
The industrial exj^ressway known as the McGraw-Harper Crosstown Motorway
was conceived as the axial route of that plan. It would bisect the Detroit labor
reservoir, extending northeasterly beyond the congested fringe to a point north
of Mount Clemens. Its southwesterly extension would be the initial part of the
projected Chicago to Detroit interregional expressway.
Thus, this projected highway is worthy of serious consideration as a vital part
of both the industrial expansion program for defense and the planned long-range
future highway development program which will fit well into the higher national
income level which must inevitably follow the war.
Vital highway connections are as much a part of plant expansion as the assembly
lines themselves and it would be fitting that they be so regarded by those working
for expanded production.
HIGHWAYS FOR THE BOMBER PLANT
In connection with the Ford bomber plant development, the department in
cooperation with the counties involved, the Public Roads Administration, and
Ford Co. officials, laid out a general plan of plant-gate access routes. This plan
provides for no intersections at grade whatever, and for complete separation of
opposing traffic.
The objective was to completely eliminate all friction commonly experienced
when large volumes of traffic are experienced at shift changes. A half-hour delay
getting away from the plant and 20-mile speeds on a journey of 20 to 25 miles
ending in Detroit city traffic would discourage any worker from continuous em-
ployment at the plant. The inevitable large labor turn-over, with the accom-
panying waste and inefficiency in production, cannot be tolerated.
7106 DETROIT HEARINGS
By the design provided in the access-road plan, 50-miles-per-hour speeds are
permitted for the 60,000 workmen who will be employed there. But from one-
half to 2 miles away from the plant, congested roads leading into Detroit will
prevail. With one exception, they are two-lane roads now operating near or in
excess of capacity. The exception is the divided four-lane route of U S 112 lead-
ing to Detroit, via Dearborn, which, because of uncontrolled roadside exploita-
tion, is rapidly assuming characteristics of a city street.
Under these conditions, it appears that immediate consideration must be given
to the construction of the express-way link between Detroit and Ypsilanti. For
the betterment of industrial movement within the city, the cross-town portion of
the route should likewise be started. The extension of the route to Mount
Clemens should also receive consideration.
This is not only a legitimate but a basic industrial defense-production item.
The cost would be about $65,000,000. The priority of its elements should be
determined and there should be immediate Federal action to get them built.
The cost of this logical part of the defense-production program is a small percentage
of the value of the plant and its anticipated production.
BENEFITS OF ADEQUATE HIGHWAYS
It is firmly believed that migration of the damaging kind can be reduced to
orderly proportions by the provision of adequate industrial highway transporta-
tion facilities. The unhealthy migration which occurs in emergency boom con-
ditions is not only a problem of housing but of whole community building. Com-
munities of the kind that follow in the wake of booms are either total losses or
long-continuing public liabilities.
In the time permitted by the emergency a desirable community cannot be built.
The skills and materials for building it are required for defense product ion. H igh-
way skills are more readily available and the materials are not necessarily
restricted. The building of better transportation arteries would establish a
pattern for metropolitan growth and save much of the endless expenditure made
necessary by unplanned expansion.
There is pressing need for other links in the network of the metropolitan area
of Detroit. Quick transport by automobile to the recreation areas lying on the
periphery of the metropolitan district is as much a necessity to working people
as quick transport to the places of work. Week-end and holiday congestion on
highways leading into Detroit begins about 35 to 40 miles from the city. It is as
important to relieve this as it is to provide adequate roadways for the traffic
going out of the city on workdays.
POST-DEFENSE PROGRAM
A word might be added in regard to the post-defense situation. Any shrinkpge
of sizable proportions from the $110,000,000,000 national income estimated as the
peak of the defense effort would bring chaos to the country. Past depressions
would seem like eras of prosperity in comparison. To sustain the national
income at high levels, building and proaucing will be imperative. Highways will
be a vital part of the building program and indispensable to efficient production.
The accumulated deficiencies in the State system will be a fruitful source of
projects for the program of public works if needed to absorb the release of defense
workers and soldiers.
The department has been collecting data on the highway situation m Michigan
through its highway planning sureey. With this data a comprehensive plan for
the State trunk-line system is being evolved. From this plan an orderly adequate
program for the post-defense period can be made available. It is believed that
the department will be ready, should public works be determined essential in
shifting defense workers and soldiers back to civil activities.
TESTIMONY OF LLOYD B. REID AND FRED C. TAYLOR— Resumed
The Chairman. If you will outline your report briefly, the members
of the committee may wish to ask some questions afterward.
Mr. Reid. We feel that the new defense industries were located m
this area for possibly two principal reasons: We have skill in the
business of production, and we have skilled management and we have
a reservoir of skilled trades. That is probably the basic reason for
locating these industries in the Detroit area.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7107
PLANS TO FACILITATE TRANSFER OF WORKERS TO NEARBY DEFENSE JOBS
It is our feeling the transfer of men from the job they are now on
to this other job can best be done by minimizing the interruption and
disruption of the shift from peacetime industry to defense industry.
The ideal set-up — and it seems the minimum adjustment to be
made — would have this man stay where he lives, hang up his apron in
one shop today and go to work in another shop on a defense article
tomorrow. We think this can be greatly facilitated by construction
of highways which will reduce to a minimum the traveling time from
his home to the place where he works. That is, the time consumed
and the cost are the two prime factors that determine whether he
wants to move or not. If he can travel from his old home to his new
place of business at a reasonable expense and within a reasonable
length of time, there is no incentive for him to move.
The Chairman. This shift from nondefense to defense industry is
bound to cause great unemployment, isn't it?
Mr. Reid. Yes.
The Chairman. And, therefore, if you had highway construction
going on, it would take up a little of that problem, wouldn't it?
large concentrations of FORD INDUSTRIES
Mr. Reid. That is a consideration. But there are other 'impor-
tant benefits. Let us cite the case of the Ford bomber plant. I
understand that the Ford industries today employ 85,000 men, and
I understand that is the largest industrial concentration in the world.
Now, they are proposing to go out into the open country and set
up an industrial organization that will employ 60,000 men, and I
understand that will be the second largest industrial concentration in
the world.
Mr. OsMERs. Will that be in addition to their 85,000 men?
Mr. Reid. Yes. Entirely separate. If I may step to the map
here, I will show you these squares each of which represents 10,000
employees in the present Ford industrial area [indicating].^ Now,
they are proposing to go out here and set up this new area.
The Chairman. How far away is that?
Mr. Reid. About 15 miles, I guess; and there are no highways,
nothing but local roads to take care of access to that plant. When
it is a good day, you don't need a roof on the building; but every day
you must have some transportation facilities to get men to work.
proposed access highways
Mr. Osmers. Is that black line that you call the "Detroit industrial
expressway" in being today, or is that proposed?
Mr. Reid. That is proposed entirely; it is a proposed limited-access
highway, with divided lanes and separated by grades. That will
take care of this tremendous outpouring of employees when the
whistle blows.
Mr. OsMERs. What is its extent?
Mr. Reid. It extends on up the eastern side and bisects the
residential areas of these people. The thing we have done, as this
map shows, is to prepare for the employees where they live. They
• Reproduced on p. 7094-A
7108 DETROIT HEARINGS
have got to come from where they Hve and they have got to go where
the industrial concentrations are.
Mr. OsMERs. It is not proposed to build housing at this new Ford
plant?
Mr. Reid. You can provide a way for these people to come to work
from where they live now an awful lot easier than you can provide
housing there.
Mr. OsMERS. How far along is this plan for the expressway? Is it a
matter of legislation yet?
Mr. Reid. It is in the planning stage. That was our No. 1 project.
That was to be included in the defense highway scheme.
Mr. Osmers. What is the length of the expressway?
Mr. Reid. Eventually it would extend to Toledo and Chicago.
Mr. Osmers. And the black line on the map represents how many
miles?
Mr. Reid. Twenty-five or thirty. You see, this bisects the entire
present Detroit industrial area. It would serve both as an access
road to the present industrial plants and to the proposed future
industrial plants.
Mr. Osmers. What would the cost of such an expressway be?
Mr. Reid. Well, it will depend on how far you go with it.
Mr. Osmers. In the stage represented on the map.
Mr. Taylor. It is in the report at $65,000,000.
Mr. Osmers. A large proportion will be on land that must be
acquired, I presume?
Mr. Reid. Yes.
Mr. Taylor. It traverses the densely built-up section of the city
of Detroit.
Mr. Arnold. Mr. Reid, if you don't have some new highway
construction, you can visualize such a situation as we found in the
Baltimore area where a worker testified that to travel 15 miles from
his home to his work took 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours in the
afternoon.
Mr. Reid. Exactly. There are two factors, the time consumed and
the cost; and they work together. If a fellow has to stop at traffic
lights and average 5 miles an hour, his gasoline consumption runs
away up, although the distance traveled is only 15 or 20 miles. He
may be as long as 2 hours in doing that , and it may cost him as much
to operate his car as it would to drive 100 miles.
We don't look at this thing as a stopgap construction between the
change in occupation, but as a basic need, a basic part of the defense
industry — just as much so as the roof on the building.
Mr. Osmers. Is there any highway now in existence that approxi-
mates thi;> road? Is there any main road or through highway of any
kind that parallels it or follows its course?
Mr. Reid. U S 112 passes near the plant, and it is a double-lane
highway. We have a plan for a number of roads. We can't solve a
problem like that with one highway. The plant has to be accessible
on all roads.
Mr. Osmers. You have to have feeder roads?
Mr. Reid. Yes, sir. The principal feeder has to be this way, be-
cause this is where the people live, but it extends in each direction, and
it is planned to develop a highway system in all directions.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7109
The Chairman. In other words, Mr. Keid, you would classify that
as really a national-defense project, wouldn't you?
Mr. Reid. Yes; absolutely.
HIGHWAY CONSTRUCTION DEPENDENT UPON FEDERAL AID
Mr. OsMERS. Is it proposed by the State Highway Department of
Michigan to apply to the Federal Government for funds?
Mr. Reid. We had hoped to have it financed out of the defense
highway bill.
Mr. OsMERs. The one that was defeated?
Mr. Reid. Yes, su\ I understand a substitute bill has since been
introduced. I am not sure what progress has been made.
Mr. OsMERS. The substitute may have a better chance if it is
placed on a different basis.
Mr. Reid. The new plant is going to be in production in January,
and we are reaching the time of year when we have to stop our concrete
mLxers on accomit of the weather. That is why the situation is
becoming serious.
EIGHTY-FIVE PERCENT OF MATERIAL TRANSPORTED BY TRUCK
It is proposed to transport not only the men, but 85 percent of the
material commg into this plant by truck. It is a staggering opera-
tion, and we have watched it grow, and I don't believe we have
expended our thinkmg to the size of this thing.
Mr. OsMERS. To an observer just commg in from the outside, in
view of the transportation problem it doesn't seem, on the face of it,
to be a wise location.
Mr. Reid. That particular location, I believe, was selected partly
because the Ford Motor Co. owned the land and partly because it is
ideally located as an airport. It is absolutely flat. It is also close
enough to the Ford concentration there so that their facilities and
their personnel can be available to both plants.
The Chairman. Mr. Reid, we are glad you have called the attention
of this committee to your problem. We thank both of you gentlemen
very much, especially for your report, I know it will be valuable to
to us.
Mr. Reid. We thank you for the privilege of appearmg before the
committee.
The Chairman. Our next witness is Mrs. Decent, who has two of
her children with her here.
TESTIMONY OF MRS. MAYNARD DECENT AND BONNIE JEAN
DECENT, MUSKEGON, MICH.
The Chairman. Mrs. Decent, please have a seat. I hope you and
your children will feel at ease. You will not be cross-examined, or
anything of that kind. We think you are just as important as the
Governor of the State or any other witness who appears before us.
Congressman Arnold will ask you a few questions.
Mr. Arnold. Mrs. Decent, I must confess that I do not know why
you are turned over to me for questioning, because heretofore at all
of the hearings Chairman Tolan has insisted upon questioning those
in whose welfare he is so much interested — that is, those who have
7110 DETROIT HEARINGS
migrated from one part of the State or one part of the comitry to
another.
The committee, Mr. Chairman, is indebted to Mr. Krauss,^ who is
among those present, and to the Federal Works Agency, for as-
sistance in connection with the selection of these defense-migrant
witnesses.
The Chairman. Thank you very much, Mr. Krauss.
Mr. Arnold. Mrs. Decent, will you state your name, age, and
address for the record?
Mrs. Decent. Mrs. Maynard Decent. I am 28 years of age and
I live at 1622 Sanford Street, Muskegon Heights, Muskegon, Mich.
Mr. Arnold. How many children have you?
Mrs. Decent. Five.
Mr. Arnold. What are their ages?
Mrs. Decent. The oldest one is 8, and 6, and 3, and 2, and 5 months.
Mr. Arnold. How long have you been living in Muskegon?
Mrs. Decent. Well, I have only lived there about 6 weeks, but my
husband has been working there longer.
Mr. Arnold. Since the spring?
Mrs. Decent. Yes.
Mr. Arnold. Where did you live before that?
Mrs. Decent. Escanaba.
Mr. Arnold. That is in the northern part of the State?
Mrs. Decent. Yes, sir.
Mr. Arnold. It is quite a distance from Muskegon, isn't it?
Mrs. Decent. Yes, it is.
Mr. Arnold. How many miles?
Mrs. Decent. Oh, it is 450 miles.
Mr. Arnold. Was your husband working in Escanaba?
Mrs. Decent. Well, not at the time he came to Muskegon.
Mr. Arnold. But he had been employed?
Mrs. Decent. He had been employed; yes.
Mr. Arnold. Why did you leave Escanaba?
Mrs. Decent. Well, his work wasn't steady.
Mr. Arnold. Well, why did you come to Muskegon?
Mrs. Decent. Well, he has brothers in Muskegon and they wrote
him and told him that they thought he could find employment in
Muskegon and he came down there.
Mr. Arnold. Because of the defense efforts in Muskegon?
Mrs. Decent. Yes, sir.
Mr. Arnold, There would be job opportunities?
Mrs. Decent. Yes.
Mr. Arnold. When your husband came to Muskegon did you or
any of the children come with him?
Mrs. Decent. No.
Mr. Arnold. He came first and located a job and then sent for his
family?
Mrs. Decent. Yes.
Mr. Arnold. Did he go back for you?
Mrs. Decent. Oh, no, I drove down.
Mr. Arnold. You drove down with the children?
Mrs. Decent. Yes.
' Eugene A. Krauss, housing manager, Defense Housing Division of Federal Works Agency, Muskegon,
Mich.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7lXX
Mr. Arnold. Is the firm your husband is workmg for engaged in
defense work?
Mrs. Decent. Yes.
Mr. Arnold. We are very much interested in housing conditions.
Did you have any trouble finding a place to live?
Mrs. Decent. Yes, sir; we did because we have children and it was
hard to find a place.
Mr, Arnold. You mean that landlords don't care to have children
in their apartments or homes?
Mrs. Decent. Most of them don't.
Mr. Arnold. They don't object to dogs or cats?
Mrs. Decent. No.
Mr. Arnold. But you finally found a place to live. Will you tell
us something about where you are living and what you are paying for
it and what you have for the money you pay out?
Mrs. Decent. Well, we are living in a furnished apartment and we
pay $5.50 a week and we have three rooms.
Mr. Arnold. How large are the rooms?
Mrs. Decent. Well, they are quite large.
Mr. Arnold. Three rooms including a kitchen?
Mrs. Decent. Yes; including kitchen.
Mr. Arnold. Do you have a bath?
Mrs. Decent. Well, just one. There is one bathroom downstairs
and one bathroom upstairs but there is only one bathtub.
Mr. Arnold. Is this a brick building, an apartment house, or a
converted family dwelling?
Mrs. Decent. Well, I think it was an old hospital. It is just a
wood, frame building.
Mr. Arnold. And several other families live there. Do you know
how many people live in the building?
Mrs. Decent. Well, I think there are about 25.
Mr. Arnold. And the 25 includes children?
Mrs. Decent. Yes, sir.
Mr. Arnold. And they use the two bathrooms which are the only
facilities that you have?
Mrs. Decent. Yes, sir.
Mr. Arnold. What part of town is this building in?
Mrs. Decent. Well, it is in the heights.
Mr. Arnold. On a paved street?
Mrs. Decent. Yes, sir.
Mr. Arnold. Is it a nice neighborhood?
Mrs. Decent. Well, yes; it is.
Mrs. Arnold. Are you happy there?
Mrs. Decent. Well, I wouldn't exactly say I am happy there.
Mr, Arnold. Would you rather be back in Escanaba?
Mrs. Decent, No; I would rather not be back in Escanaba, but I
would like to find some place different to live in,
Mr, Arnold. You had better liying conditions in Escanaba?
Mrs. Decent. Yes.
Mr. Arnold. If you could have in Muskegon what you had in
Escanaba you would be extremely happy?
Mrs. Decent. Yes, sir.
7112 DETROIT HEARINGS
Mr. Arnold. You look happy and these children look as if they
arc satisfied and contented. How much does your husband earn?
Mrs. Decent. Now?
Mr. Arnold. Yes.
Mrs. Decent. He makes 50 cents an hour. He works 10 hours a
day.
Mr. Arnold. Is that about $30 a week?
Mrs. Decent. Yes, sir.
Mr. Arnold. $120 a month and you pay $25 or $30 a month rent?
Mrs. Decent. Yes.
Mr. Arnold. What firm does he work for?
Mrs. Decent. He works for the Shaw-Crane Co.
Mr. Arnold. And they are engaged in defense production now?
Mrs. Decent. Yes.
Mr. Arnold. Now, on this $30 a week do you manage to get along
pretty well?
Mrs. Decent. Oh, yes; we get along.
Mr. Arnold. Are you able to save any money?
Mrs. Decent. No; we haven't been.
Mr. Arnold. Do you think you will be after j^ou get adjusted to
your new home?
Mrs. Decent. Well, we hope to.
Mr. Arnold. This committee, as the chairman has said, believes
that one of the "cushions" after the depression overtakes us will be
what the family has been able to accumulate. But with five children
to clothe and feed, isn't it going to be rather difficult in your case?
Mrs. Decent. Yes.
Mr. Arnold. Wouldn't you and your family, since your husband
is working on defense work, be eligible to apply for a defense house
under the defense housing project?
Mrs. Decent. Yes.
Mr. Arnold. Have you applied?
Mrs. Decent. Yes; I have applied.
Mr. Arnold. What stage is that in?
Mrs. Decent. Our application has been accepted but the Shaw-
Crane is on strike right now.
Mr. Arnold. They are on strike?
Mrs. Decent. Yes, sir; so that is why we haven't moved out there.
Mr. Arnold. You mean he isn't working now?
Mrs. Decent. No; they have been on strike for a week now.
Mr. OsMERs. What are they striking for?
Mrs. Decent. Higher wages and a closed shop.
Mr. OsMERs. He is paid 50 cents an hour now?
Mrs. Decent. Yes.
Mr. OsMERS. What are they asking for?
Mrs. Decent. They are asking for 65 cents low.
Mr. OsMERS. Is 50 cents low now?
Mrs. Decent. Yes.
Mr. OsMERS. And they want 65 cents?
Mrs. Decent. Yes, sir.
Mr. OsMERs. Thatis an increase of 30 percent?
Mrs. Decent. Yes.
Mr. Arnold. If they are out on strike very long that is going to
make it a little difficult?
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7113
Mrs. Decent. Yes; it is.
Mr. Arnold. You spoke about your husband having a brother
there. Are his living quarters any different from yours?
Mrs. Decent. Well, he has three brothers there. One is living in
the Government apartments and then he has another one living out
on Henry Street. Yes; they are much better than ours.
Mr. Arnold. The Government apartments are pretty well fitted
up?
Mrs. Decent. Yes.
Mr. Arnold. And do not cost much more in rent than you are
paying?
Mrs. Decent. No.
Mr. Arnold. And that is what you would like to have?
Mrs. Decent. Yes.
Mr. Arnold. WTien this defense program is over do you plan on
returning to Escanaba or on continuing to live in Muskegon?
Mrs. Decent. We are planning on continuing to live in Muskegon.
There isn't anything to return to Escanaba for.
Mr. Arnold. You, like millions of other defense workers who have
migrated, expect to contmue living on where you are, even though
these defense orders will sometime soon after the war is over be
curtailed?
Mrs. Decent. Yes.
Mr. Arnold. You have no other place to go; no plans except
continuing to live at Muskegon?
Mrs. Decent. Yes.
The Chairman. In other words, Mrs. Decent, where your husband
can get employment is where you want to live?
Mrs. Decent. Yes.
The Chairman. How many apartments are there in the building
in which you are living?
Mrs. Decent. Six.
The Chairman. And you are paying about $22 a month for your
apartment?
Mrs. Decent. Yes.
The Chairman. So the landlord is receiving for those six apart-
ments, $125. Do you know what the rent was formerly in that place?
Mrs. Decent. No.
The Chairman. Has it gone up?
Mrs. Decent. Well, I don't know.
The Chairman. You say all these 25 people share the one bathtub.
How do you arrange that? Do you draw straws for turns in the tub?
Mrs. Decent. I wouldn't say. I don't use it.
The Chairman. Do the children use it?
Mrs. Decent. No; we have an old-fashioned tub.
The Chairman. You wheel that out, do you, every Saturday night,
as we used to?
Mrs. Decent. Yes; that is about it.
The Chairman. (To one of Mrs. Decent's two children.) What is
your name?
Bonnie Jean. Bonnie Jean.
The Chairman. How old are you, Bonnie?
Bonnie Jean. Eight.
The Chairman. Do you go to school?
7114 DETROIT HEARINGS
Bonnie Jean. Yes,
The Chairman. How far is the school from where you live?
Bonnie Jean. I don't know.
The Chairman. How many brothers have you?
Bonnie Jean. Two.
The Chairman. There are two girls and two boys in the family?
Mrs. Decent. Three girls and two boys.
The Chairman. And do they all go to school except the baby?
Mrs. Decent. Only two of the children go to school. One little
boy, age 2 years, is in the hospital at Marquette, Mich. He has been
there 1 year.
The Chairman. Well, you certainly have two lovely girls, Mrs.
Decent. So you are satisfied to remain right where you are as long
as your husband can secure employment?
Mrs. Decent. Yes.
The Chairman. Why can't you go into one of these Federal
defense houses?
Mrs. Decent. Well, we are living in a furnished apartment right
now and we haven't got the money right now to have our furniture
shipped from Escanaba or buy new furniture; and, of course, we
don't want to do anything like that until we know how the work is
going to turn out.
Mr. Osmers. In answer to Congressman Arnold's question, Mrs.
Decent, you said you had not been able to save any money on the
job up there; is that right?
Mrs. Decent. Yes.
Mr. Osmers. May I ask you how you make out while the strike
is going on, as to rent and food and other expenses?
Mrs. Decent. Well, we have saved — my husband knew they were
going on strike. He didn't know just when, but he knew they were,
so we have saved what we could out of each week.
Mr. Osmers. How long will that money last?
Mrs. Decent. I don't know how long that will last. I imagine by
the end of next week we will be up against it.
Mr, Osmers. Does it look as if the strike is going to be settled?
Mrs. Decent. Yes; they think it wUl be settled the end of this
week. They have hopes it will be.
Mr. Osmers. Do you think, from your standpoint, that it would
have been better if the men had not gone out on strike and that some
Government mediation agency would have mediated the proposition
while they were still working?
Mrs. Decent. Yes; I think it would have been much better.
Mr. Osmers, Is the matter now before some Government media-
tion body?
Mrs. Decent. Yes; it is.
Mr. Osmers. So, in other words, those men and their families are,
in a way, going to be close to the starvation point, and yet it still
has to be settled by a Government mediation body anyway?
Mrs. Decent. Yes.
Mr. Osmers. But in the meantime you are not receiving any
income?
Mrs. Decent. No.
Mr. Osmers. What was your husband doing in Escanaba?
Mrs. Decent. He was a cement mixer for the Superior Products.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7115
Mr. OsMERS. And what does he do now in Muskegon?
Mrs. Decent. Why, I think he drives rivets or something Hke that.
The Chairman. Thank you very much, Mrs. Decent. We appre-
ciate your coming here. Mr. Peppin is our next witness.
TESTIMONY OF ALBERT PEPPIN, MUSKEGON, MICH.
The Chairman. Mr. Peppin, Congressman Arnold will ask you a
few questions.
Mr. Arnold. Mr. Peppin, will you state your name and address
and age for the committee?
Mr. Peppin. Albert Peppin, 51 next birthday, the 20th of this
month. 1900 Commerce Street, Muskegon.
Mr. Arnold. Where were you born, Mr. Peppin?
Mr. Peppin. Well, in the neighborhood of Ishpeming, Alich., in the
Upper Peninsula of Michigan.
Mr. Arnold. How long did you live there?
Mr. Peppin. Well, until last March. That is when I came down
to Muskegon.
Mr. Arnold. What kind of work were you engaged in?
Mr. Peppin. In the mming industry.
Mr. Arnold. What kind of mines?
Mr. Peppin. Iron-ore mines.
Mr. Arnold. When did you start working there — at what age?
Mr. Peppin. Eighteen years old.
Mr. Arnold. Ever have any other kind of employment?
Mr. Peppin. No. Practically followed the mining game all the
way through except, well, from the u-on ore mines I went to gold
mining for a while on a prospect up there.
Mr. Arnold. Did you have a better job in that mine?
Mr. Peppin. Yes; I did.
Mr. Arnold. What was that job?
Mr. Peppin. I was in charge.
Mr. Arnold. You were the boss?
Mr. Peppin. Yes, sir.
Mr. Arnold. And what salary did you receive?
Mr. Peppin. Well, the salary was kind of up and down at times.
It depends on how the stock situation went, and whether they had
any new prospects. I would say wages were around $40 a week.
Mr. Arnold. When everything was going well you got $40 a week?
Mr. Peppin. Yes.
Mr. ARNaLD. That was better pay than you received in the iron
ore industry?
Mr. Peppin. Well, it was better in one way. I kind of hoped
things would probably turn up to better wages in time, but the war
came around, and the depression, and it hurt the stock and they had
to shut down.
Mr. Arnold. Are you married and do you have children?
Mr. Peppin. Yes, sir; I have six children.
The Chairman. Their ages?
Mr. Peppin. One is 28. He is married and supports himself. One
is 25, I think — something along that, 25 — yes, 25, she is married. I
have one at home, 23, and one 21, and the girl 17, and the small boy
of 9 years.
7116 DETKOIT HEARINGS
Mr. Arnold. How did you happen to come to Muskegon?
Mr. Peppin. Well, where we live up there in the Upper Peninsula,
it seemed there was no future for the young men that came out of liigh
school. I had a boy, one bo}^, Theodore, worked for a dry cleaner. He
has worked there for very small wages, but for a little expense money
is why he worked. The other one couldn't get no work, so the oldest
one came down here to Muskegon and he got work.
At the time he told me if I come down there that there was a pros-
pect to get a job and that the other boy might get in, too, and that is
why we came to Muskegon. The young man has a better chance
for employment.
Mr. OsMERS. Is Muskegon a bigger town than the one you left?
Mr. Peppin. It is about four times as large.
Mr. Arnold. And the son you spoke of, who worked in the dry-
cleaning establislmient, wasn't able because of asthma to work in the
mine, according to the report of our staff.
Mr. Peppin. Yes; that is right.
Mr. Arnold. Has that mine work affected your health?
Mr. Peppin. Not very much.
Mr. Arnold. You could still "take it" as well as you could when
you were 18?
Mr. Peppin. Well, I wouldn't say for so long a period of time — like
in a running race, I wouldn't do that — but I am able to take it for the
age as well as anybody else. Didn't affect my health.
Mr. Arnold. But if your family could have been a little better em-
ployed in Ishpeming you probably w^ouldn't be a resident of Muske-
gon now?
Mr. Peppin. That is right.
Mr. Arnold. When you came to Muskegon did you bring your
family w^ith you?
Mr. Peppin. No; they came in about 2 weeks.
Mr. Arnold. And you had a son already employed there?
Mr. Peppin. I had a son employed and the other one got work 3
days after we got there, and I got work a week after.
Mr. Arnold. You found a job without much trouble?
Mr. Peppin. Yes.
Mr. Arnold. Is it in a defense plant?
Mr. Peppin. Well, it is a paper company there. They are not
directly defense. I think it is indirect some way.
Mr. OsMERS. What are they making, Mr. Peppin?
Mr. Peppin. It is a big paper mill.
Mr. OsMERS. What kincl of paper?
Mr. Peppin. Well, they practically print — make a lot of varieties.
I couldn't say — wrapping paper down to printing paper and such
things as that.
Mr. Arnold. What do you earn?
Mr. Peppin. I am earning around $45 a week now.
Mr. Arnold. Did Francis, your son, find work?
Mr. Peppin. Yes.
Mr. Arnold. Do you know whether the firm he is with is engaged
in a defense effort?
Mr. Peppin. Yes; it is the Fitzjohn Coach Co.
Mr. Arnold. Then your wife and unmarried children are all living
in Muskegon?
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7117
Mr. Peppin. Yes, sir; we are all living m Muskegon.
Mr. Arnold. And the two married children are back in Ishpemmg?
Mr. Peppin. Yes, sir; Francis, he is married now. He has a new
house project — one of the new houses.
Mr. Arnold. He is married and lives in a defense project house at
Muskegon?
Mr. Peppin. Yes.
Mr. Arnold. Just recently married?
Mr. Peppin. Last Satm-day.
Mr. Arnold. So you might not be able to keep your family together
after all?
Mr. Peppin. No; we will try to keep them assembled in the same
to^vn as much as possible.
Mr. Arnold. In Ishpeming did you rent or did you own your own
home?
Mr. Peppin. I owned my home,
Mr. Arnold. Do you still own it?
Mr. Peppin. Yes.
Mr. Arnold. You are renting it now?
Mr. Peppin. Yes.
Mr. Arnold. Do you like living in Muskegon well enough to think
you are going to remain there?
Mr. Peppin. Well, as long as the work is going to keep on going, I
would like to live in Muskegon.
Mr. Arnold. Do you think you like to live there well enough so
that you will give up your home in Ishpeming?
Mr. Peppin. Yes; I figure on selling it.
Mr. Arnold. It is for sale now?
Mr. Peppin. Yes.
Mr. Arnold. How do you like living in Muskegon?
Mr. Peppin. Pretty good — very good.
Mr. Arnold. Are you satisfactorily located in a residence or apart-
ment?
Mr. Peppin. Yes — well, I have — it isn't mine yet, but I have se-
cured a house and paying it on monthly payments at the start.
T\Tien I rented it, I rented it for 3 months and if I want to buy it
I can.
Mr. OsMERS. You have a contract to buy the house?
Mr. Peppin. Yes.
Mr. OsMERS. What is the price of the house?
Mr. Peppin. $3,800.
Mr. Arnold. And is it a modern house?
Mr. Peppin. A very modern house.
Mr. Arnold. W>re you born in this country?
Mr. Peppin. Yes, sir; I was born and raised in this country.
Mr. Arnold. Were your parents born in this comitry?
Mr. Peppin. My dad came from Canada when he was 12 years old
and mother w^as very young. She was a very young girl when she
came across, and always remained. She was raised in Champion,
Mich., and that is just a little ways from Ishpeming and my dad was
raised in Ishpeming.
Mr. Arnold. Have you ever found it necessary during the depres-
sion to ask for public assistance?
Mr. Peppin. No, sir; we managed to wiggle through.
7118 DETKOIT HEARINGS
Mr. Arnold. The going was pretty hard sometimes?
Mr. Peppin. It was kind of tough and that has happened at the
time when the wages didn't come so regular at the gold mines and
made it all the harder, but with the little we had ahead and our home,
we managed to pull through very nicely.
Mr. OsMERS. Mr. Chairman, the committee is greatly concerned
with what is going to happen after this defense program is over.
Now [to Mr. Peppin] you are making about $45 a week?
Mr. Peppin. Yes.
Mr. OsMERs. How does that compare with the wages you have
earned all through your life? Is it higher than any you have ever
earned?
Mr. Peppin. No. The way it is now my wages are a little lower
than what I did have in the Upper Peninsula. The overtime that
I am putting in is bringing me my wages.
Mr. OsMERS. I am sure the committee would be interested in
knowing the answer to this question: If peace came into the world
tomorrow, and defense work stopped shortly thereafter in the United
States, what would you do? Would you stay in Muskegon or would
you go back to Ishpeming?
Mr. Peppin. Well, that would be a question that is kind of hard to
answer. I can't say sure what I would do. If I can get work in one
place I would go back to Ishpeming. If I couldn't get work in
Muskegon I would go back to Ishpeming and secure work probably
from the old company for myself. I don't say the boys could probably
get in.
Mr. OsMERS. It would probably break up the family?
Mr. Peppin. Yes, sir.
Mr. OsMERs. One of the boys might go to Illinois, looking for work,
and you might go back to Ishpeming, and one might stay in Muskegon,
but it would start the family on the move, wouldn't it, because there
wouldn't be enough jobs in Muskegon?
Mr. Peppin. That is right, because the people have been coming to
Muskegon pretty strong, and like you say, if the defense work stops
all at once, it would be pretty crowded with unemployment, so some
of the older hands would stay while some of the new hands would have
to go around to get a job.
Mr. OsMERS. You have mentioned the fact that a lot of people
have come into Muskegon recently during this defense boom. Where
have they come from, in the main? Are they Michigan people or
from out of the State?
Mr. Peppin. Well, I don't know. Not Michigan, altogether.
There are licenses from Illinois and from Indiana, at our plant down
there.
Mr. OsMERS. Do you have any idea what those men were doing
in their home States?
Mr. Peppin. No; I don't.
Mr. OsMERS. They were attracted there just as you were?
Mr. Peppin. Yes, sir.
Mr. OsMERS. You heard there was employment?
Mr. Peppin. Yes, sir. The way I was attracted there most, I had
a friend that has been there 10 years that I lived neighbor to, and he
has made good going of it with the family that he had to put up with,
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7119
and that is why I went there too. It was for the young people to
get jobs.
Mr. Arnold. I take if from your testimony, Mr. Peppin, that no
matter what small wage you make, you try to lay away a little of it?
Mr. Peppin. We do.
Mr. Arnold. And you are planning on doing that now^?
Mr. Peppin. Yes.
Mr. Arnold. And you will do it either in the form of a house that
you are buying, or maybe if you can save up a little over and above
that you will do so?
Mr. Peppin. That is what our plans have always been. We have
been married a long time and we have alwaj^s tried to save a little
money. That is one thing we always did. We always have some-
thing ahead for the next day.
Mr. Arnold. ^Vhat we are concerned about is that so many in
this Nation, no matter what they are making — and that includes
Congressmen as well as anyone else — don't lay up a penny. No
matter what they do, they just don't think of the future. We are glad
to find one witness who is really thinking ahead to the day when this
defense effort may tlirow him out of a job and he will have to read-
just his life to the new" economy.
Mr. Peppin. That is what I have been preaching to lots of them.
I know w^e have been talking about these matters and I have heard
different points of view, and I always said anj^body who is making
fair wages now ought to pin some down because things might come
when it will be necessary to have a little on hand.
The Chairman. Mr. Peppin, have you purchased any bonds, or
do you intend to?
Mr. Peppin. We intend to. Of course, w^e bought a house and we
are trying to do a little bit on that too.
The Chairman. Mr. Peppin, I think you and my colleagues have
covered your situation very w^ell, and we thank you very kindly for
coming here and testifying.
Air. Peppin. Well, you are welcome.
The Chairman. Our next witnessess will be Mr. Lovett, Mr. Hall,
and Mr. Calm.
TESTIMONY OF JOHN LOVETT, GENERAL MANAGER, MICHIGAN
MANUFACTURERS ASSOCIATION; WILLIS HALL, MANAGER, IN-
DUSTRIAL DEPARTMENT, DETROIT BOARD OF COMMERCE;
AND CHESTER A. CAHN, SECRETARY, AUTOMOTIVE TOOL AND
DIE MANUFACTURERS, DETROIT, MICH.
Gentlemen, Congressman Osmers will ask you the questions.
Mr. Osmers. Will you please identify 5'ourselves?
Mr. Lovett. John Lovett, general manager, Michigan Manu-
facturers Association.
Mr. Hall. Willis Hall, head of industrial department, Detroit
Board of Commerce.
Mr. Cahn. Chester A. Calm, secretary, Automotive Tool and Die
Manufacturers.
60396 — 41 — pt. 18 5
7120 DETROIT HEARINGS
COMPOSITION OF MICHIGAN MANUFACTURERS ASSOCIATION
Mr. OsMERS. Mr. Lovett, how many firms does your association
represent?
Mr. Lovett. About 1,600.
Mr. OsMERS. Are they scattered all over the State of Michigan?
Mr. Lovett. All over the State.
Mr. OsMERS. Have you made any charts showing how they are
distributed among the small, medium, and large manufacturers?
Mr. Lovett. No; I haven't.
Mr. OsMERS. Well, let me rephrase that. Is your organization made
up of all sizes of industrial units?
Mr. Lovett. All sizes, from employers of probably 15 on up.
Mr. OsMERS. Employers of about 15. Would that be the mini-
mum?
Mr. Lovett. That is right.
Mr. Osmers. On up to the largest?
Mr, Lovett. Ford Motor Co., and Chrysler, and so forth.
Mr. OsMERS. Mr. Lovett, your paper will be entered as a part of
the record,
(The paper referred to above is as follows:)
STATEMENT BY JOHN L. LOVETT, GENERAL MANAGER, MICHIGAN
MANUFACTURERS ASSOCIATION
Michigan needs primary defense contracts. An increase of 100 percent in the
contracts now let here would still leave some capacity.
Michigan is primarily a subcontracting State. Most all of those producers of
finished products, in one way or another, obtain parts from subcontractors. The
hope of aiding tlie small manufacturer lies in getting the large manufacturer enough
business so that he can subcontract it.
That is also the answer to our labor problems. It appears, from reports received
by the Michigan Manufacturers Association, that early in January Michigan
faces an unemployment of 115,000 workers. This includes automotive and non-
automotive industries.
Priorities still are confusing, slow in coming through and interfering in some
cases, causine lay-offs among manufacturers who have defense contracts. I rec-
ommend that the survey which the Supply Priorities and Allocation Board seems
to have undertaken to find out how much materiel the various defense arms have
on hand, be speeded up, that the ability of American industry to fabricate raw
materials for the next 6 months be arrived at, and that then the producers of
basic materials be allowed to distribute their surplus over defense requirements to
civilian uses.
The migration of labor has not become a problem in Michigan as yet. There
has been some migration from small cities in rural sections to larger industrial
centers. There has been some influx of labor to Detroit and a fcw^ other centers
from southern States but, generally speaking, the migration of labor at the
present time is relatively unimportant.
But what it will be next January, when the full impact of the curtailment of
autom.obile production, and the full impact of priorities upon nonessential industry
takes effect, I cannot sav. It is probable that there will not be great migration
of labor for the reason that the same impact that hits Michigan will hit generally
throughout the industrial States of the Union.
IMPORTANCE OF SPEED IN LETTINH PRIME CONTRACTS
Michigan's lal)or problem., therefore, comes back to my opening statement,
that of prime contracts.
Prime contracts, if thev are to be of value to prevent unemployment and to
prevent the imj^act of priorities on nonessential industries, should be let imme-
diately. It takes time for any manufacturer to tool up to do any kind of defense
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7121
job. Unquestionably, most Michigan industries coukl get read}' to get into pro-
duction on any defense items by the end of January. It has been our experience
that the War Departm.ent is slow in awarding contracts. Billions have been
appropriated which have not yet been contracted for. The Army appears to be
afraid to freeze its designs. It takes too long from the tune a letter of intention
is issued by the Office of Production Management until the manufacturer gets
working blueprints to use his labor and his facilities.
The system of bidding prevailing in the War Departm.ent and the Navy Depart-
ment works a still greater hardship upon States like Michigan which pay high
wages. Obviously, territories which pay lower wages are going to underbid
Michigan manufacturers. We have lost"^ several contracts on that basis. The
Army Ordnance Bureau suggested at one time that the Nation be zoned into areas
of like wages and that bids be taken from these various zones.
I am informed that this proposal was vetoed by the Attorney General who held
that the contracts must go to the lovscst bidders. Many firms in Michigan
have been designated by the Army Ordnance as prime contractors and had been
given educational orders. These firms had tooled up and had the tools on hand to
make the defense product which the Army Ordnance had planned, but when the
bids were taken, it was found that in many cases the contract went to a manu-
facturer in some other State who had not had an educational order, who had no
knowledge and no tools, but whose wage rates were from 30 to 40 cents an hour
lower than those of the Michigan manufacturers.
Obviously, it was necessary for this uneducated manufacturer to tool up his
shop and get the experience which had already been gained by the Michigan
manufacturer through the educational order. Undoubtedly, this procedure ha&
delayed the production of defense material throughout the whole program.
UNUSED PRODUCTION FACILITIES IN MICHIGAN
There are plenty of unused facilities in Michigan for tlie pioduction of any
items used in the defense program. Generally speaking, Michigan is a mass pro-
duction State. It is a State where its manufacturers and workers are skilled in
repetitive operations. That is the kind of prime contracts we want.
The automotive manufacturers have, from the very beginning of the industry,
utilized subcontractors. I am advised that the Chyrsler Corporation has around
700 subcontractors on the medimii tank contract that it is now producing, and I
an advised that the Clirysler Corporation regularly in the production of automo-
biles buys from about fourteen or fifteen hundred suppliers.
I am also advised that the Ford Motor Co. buys materials from approximately
seven thousand suppliers: and that the General Motors Corporation and others
of the automobile companies utilize suppliers for a considerable percentage of
their finished products.
Therefore, it seems to me that one important solution of Michigan's difficulty
lies in utilizing the facilities of the larger manufacturers who, of course, will spread
their orders to subcontractors. It is easier for a sma,ll manuf?.cturer to work
witli a prima contractor in his territory than it is for liim to take a part of a
Government contract directly from the Government. In the first place, the prime
contractor has an engineering staff and the facilities for showing the small manu-
facturer how to make the product. He can give assistance that, if the small
manufacturer had to hire it or buy it, would make his prices out of line with what
the product could be obtained for on bids.
The prime contractor will assist the smp.ll manufacturer in changing over his
machinery, and the prime contractor may have certain machines that can fit into
the process to complete an operation started by the small manufacturer.
CONVERSION OP SMALL FACTORIES IN LAST WAR
In the last war, the Government experienced a great deal of dissatisfaction in
attempting to convert small factories. The most successful combination was the
employment of tlie facilities of the small factories in conjunction with the large
contractors. In procurement, too, the small manufacturers would have the assist-
ance of the buyers for the nrime contractors.
On the other hand, tliere are certain small industries in Michigan that have
equipment and the skill to complete a contract but it is expensive, in most cases
too expensive, for thesj firms to have representation in Washington. The Defense
Contract Service was designed to bring the Government orders close to the manu-
facturer. My reaction is that, through no fault of the Defense Contract Service,
the Government iirocuremant divisions would not let anything but the "cats and
7122 DETROIT HEARINGS
dogs," get into the liands of the Defense Contract Service. In looking over the
offerings of the Defense Contract Service, in a very cursory way, my conchision
is that many of tlicso things were difficult to obtain in Washingtovi, or the speci-
fications were so uncertain that it was not easy to place a bid fcr the product.
Obviously, the policy of decentralizing procurement of defense items has failed
miserably up to date.
Of course, hundreds of tliousands of small manufacturers throughout the United
States cannot be represented directly in Washington. It, therefore, seems that
the easiest solution of the troubles of the small manufacturer lies in seeing that
the larger manufacturers liave enough business to take uj) the facilities of the
small manufacturer.
ESTIMATES 115,000 UNEMPLOYED IN JANTJARY 1942
I have estimated that 115,000 men ^\'ill be unemployed in Michigan in January.
I base this on reports to me from the local chambers of commerce of the industrial
cities of Michigan. Their estimates appear to be based upon what will progres-
sively happen if their industries run out of materials and, further, upon the studies
that have been made of industry bj^ the Michigan' Unemployment Compensation
Commission. The problem of labor and its employment in the defense industries
is one requiring study and considerable experimentation. The manufacture of
defense items is, generally speaking, a i:)recision job. The production of aircraft
engines and instruments is a highly skilled occupation. There are large numbers
of v.'orkers in Michigan industries who have been what we call semiskilled work-
ers. The}^ operate machines which have been set up and which are maintained
by other men. Other men are emploj-ed upon assembly lines. Training pro-
grams can he used to retrain the younger employees for defense work. My con-
cern is with those men who have spent many years in these industries and who
have reached the age where it is difficult for them to undertake to learn precision
work. These are the men with seniority and will be the men, of course, last laid
off in the motorcar industry. But whether they can be utilized in the defense
industry is still a matter to be determined.
The big demand, if Michigan facilities are utilized to anywhere near capacity,
will be for a large number of highly skilled workers. These men are not immedi-
ately available, and the big shortage in tlie United States, as well as Michigan,
when and if the industrial facilities of the Nation are utilized, will be for highly
skilled workers. Michigan has a number of training programs in operation, both
in industry and in the schools.
I am attaching herewith excerpts from reports made to me by executives of
different chambers of commerce in Michigan on what the situation is in their
communities. I might say that these reports are in reply to a letter prepared
by Mr. John W. Abbott of your committee's staff, as to information desired by
your committee for these hearings. I think they are fairly accurate pictures of
the conditions in the cities from which they are received. In some cases the
report covers the county as well as the city.
("The material referred to above is as follows:)
Exhibit A. — Excerpts From Reports of Michigan Chamber of Commerce
Midland is the home of the Dow Chemical Co., the largest employer in this
district. Over 80 percent of the labor is unskilled and the supply has been suffi-
cient in Midland and the surrounding area. (This may not be true at the Dow-
metal Foundry in Bay City.) The Austin Co., a construction firm erecting a
chemical warfare plant for the Government at Dow, find it difficult to secure
skilled labor and have brought in people from all over the country.
This influx of people is this defense area has created a housing problem that is
not alleviated by the establishment of a homes registration office at the chamber
of commerce. Considerable private building continues but it is inadequate.
There are several smaller concerns, such as the Roland P. Place Manufactur-
ing Co. making plastics, and the Midland Macliine & Manufacturing Co. I have
•contacted both and neither seemed undulj' concerned over lack of materials, etc.
The latter concern at the present time is working on about 95 percent defense
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7123
orders for the Austin Co. and the Dow Chemical Co. They are not at full ca-
pacity but have a subcontract in view which will bring them up to full production.
The picture in Midland doesn't seem to be a bad one. With Dow, considered
as the number 1 defense plant of the country, the largest manufacturer and ac-
counting for employment of between 4,000 and 5,000 people in a city of approxi-
mately 11,000, there shouldn't be much unemployment in the immediate future.
BAY CITY
Insofar as can be determined, based on announcements made to date, the total
of primary contracts for national defense work here is estimated at $25,000,000.
Since figures are seldom disclosed on secondary contracts, we do not know what
these would amount to locally; although it is possible they might range from
$5,000,000 to $10,000,000.
The employment statistics you requested follow (these are actual figures re-
ported to us by all local plants employing 10 or more people) :
1937
1938
1939
1940
1941
7,147
8,662
7,738
7,849
7,900
8,226
8,871
8,897
9,588
9,266
8,539
6,292
5,225
5,202
5,073
4,998
5,121
5,742
5,719
5,259
6,142
7,891
8,187
7,723
7,541
7,173
7,205
7,007
7,403
7,094
5,909
6,154
8,045
8,281
7,898
7,956
7,639
8,657
7,708
7,081
7,171
7,415
6,185
7,558
8,699
9,384
9,681
9,467
8.957
9,232
9,518
9,601
9.575
9,882
July
10, 105
9,668
As of September 1, there were only 79 families on direct relief in Bay City.
Nothing could better reflect the policy of Bay City manufacturers of hiring local
labor. . ,, , c
Local manufacturers have not yet found it necessary to import large numbers ot
skilled, semiskilled, and unskilled factory workers. They have, however, m
certain instances, found it necessary to draw on the rural areas of the "thumb"
district and northern Michigan for employees. Many, if not most, of these
employees live within a radius of Bay City, which makes it possible for them to
drive iDack and forth to work.
For the most part, Bay City is a metal industries town.
Wherever they find it necessary to do so, plant operators are sponsoring
"training within industry" programs.
It is estimated that 400 new houses will be either started or completed in the
Bav City area this vear.
Although Bay City's housing situation is considered tight, it is by no means
desperate; and unless future months bring a much greater influx of defense workers
than we have had to date, it is thought improbable that there will be a need for con-
struction of so-called Government housing units. This chamber is, however,
attempting to encourage more and more privately sponsored residential construc-
tion, in an effort to improve the quality and quantity of lower- and medium-cost
housing. (Our vacancv ratio, according to a Work Projects Administration sur-
vev reported March 17," 1941, was 1.5 percent, of which 0.7 percent was considered
habitable. For details see Work Projects Administration survey No. A2274.)
YPSILANTI
So far we haven't been hurt, but we are plenty scared. Our two largest plants,
the Central Specialty Co. and the United Stove Co., have not as yet been able to
get anv defense business and because of the shortage of materials are going to be in
trouble verv soon. These plants employ 1,600 men; practically every ^other plant
in town is going to be similarly affected. Our manufacturers feel fairly sure of
their supplies up to December 1, if nothing goes wrong in the meantime. Beyond
that it is pretty much of a blank wall.
We do have some defense business, but it is negligible from the standpoint of
keeping men at work, and, of course, you know that the bomber-plant operation
is not going to absorb many men for months to come. They hope to be in full
production by next June.
7124 DETROIT HE.VIIINGS
The interesting angle to all this is that our men are working hard to get defense
business. In fact, we are one of the few towns in the whole country where we have
established a pool and where our manufacturers are willing to take business which
two or more of them might handle jointly. They have enaged a William Paxton,
of Detroit, to represent them with all Government jjurchasing agencies.
Our set-up, including a complete inventory of all our equipment, has gone to
all big prime contractors, Government departments, and Office of Production
Management officials who have to do with the distribution of Government orders.
Through this consolidation of manufacturers our fellows are spending real money,
time, and effort to get business. They have been doing this for 2 months because
of the realization that their nondefense business was being threatened and they
would have to have defense business to keep their plants running. They have
been anything but asleep, but as yet have been unable to get any substantial
amount of business.
We are going to point out some of the unbelievable experiences that our little
group is having in submitting bids. For instance, one of our manufacturers was
second low on an order of materials. His bid was $76,000 and the low bid was
$24,000. Yesterday at our regular weekly meeting when we were going over
specifications and blue prints as we do each Thursday noon, we learned that the
low bidder down in Georgia got the business. Our manufacturer figured that
they couldn't even furnish the material for $24,000. We just couldn't figure
that one out.
MANISTIQUE
The situation, as far as local manufacturers is concerned, is beginning to be
quite serious.
Our industries here are mostly wood products and stone. They have little or
no trouble in securing their primary raw materials, but they are definitely delayed
in securing repair parts and machinery.
The Manistique Pulp & Paper Co. is having trouble with priority in regard
to the purchase of screens, electrical motors, and repair parts, and, if some im-
provement is not made in the near future, it may be necessary for this plant to
shut down.
KALAMAZOO
We get from our power company the record of meter settings diie to new
families coming here and meter take-outs due to families moving from here.
This data does not cover apartments but it can be presumed that they will run
parallel to individual homes. The new meter settings from January 1 were 465
and the take outs were 350. I haven't taken the trouble to count up a year like
1937, but from our office familiarity, I would say that the above figures are just
about like they were in 1937. There has been no bulk migration of labor into
Kalamazoo or out of Kalamazoo.
Now as to defense employment unemployment. Late in July I canvassed all
of the nonpaper companies in town that I suspected might have a chance of having
any defense business. I asked for portion of man-hours allocated to primary or
subcontracts, total employment in Julv, and total employment the year previous.
The summary of this canvass is that there were 20 firms that had from a little to
quite a bit of defense business; that they had 1,800 employees, or the equivalent
thereof, on defense; that 800 of these represented increase of employment and
1,200 made over from civil to defense; and the total amount of labor in this city,
industrially, is somewhere 10 to 12 percent on defense. However, this does not
take into account the offsets in nondefense industries showing a decline and with
severe declines apparently threatened. The all-over condition is, for the moment,
that our city's business activity compares with what it might be in anv good
business year. That is, if national business conditions were good regardless of
defense, we would be as we are now without any help from defense locally.
The figures on awards of primarv contracts to Michigan cities show that we are
the lowest industrial citv in the State with primary contract awards equivalent
to about $6 per capita considering our metropolitan area. We only have about a
half a dozen firms who are sufficiently well anchored with banks of good machine
tools capable of close tolerances to have much chance at defense contracts. I
don't believe that their activity can overcome the shrinkage in industries not
equipped sufficiently witlf the right machine tools.
To prophesy what the unemployment will be if priorities are severely enforced
against nondefense industries, is hard guessing. But, for instance, if home-
heating units are not to be built, there will be about 1,300 men laid off, most of
NATIONAL DEFENaii MIGRATION 7125
them skilled. If water- and-gas heater units are cut to 50 percent, 175 men wiU
be laid off. Then add 100 percent to these figures for the lay-off of branch sales-
men throughout the several States. There are a whole lot of small shops and
service and retail establishments that are certainly due to be affected but I don't
know how to count up the result on a volume basis.
As to housing — our housing is all full but this year and for several years we have
had a fine program of home building on the individual basis and it has just about
kept up with its job. A larger program of housing may be needed but I don't
think so, not with the threat of imemployment in the nondefense industries and
the extremely high income taxes that are going to make some people owning homes
on a shoestring throw up their contracts.
For the time being, the administration is pursuing a program of throwing
nondefense out the window. Likely, that will go on for about 6 months until the
pressure of labor, namely union labor, sets up a howl that convinces the administra-
tion that it had better get on the big side again and then it will level off to some-
thing reasonable. But meantime, we will have had a nice mess in which the
theorists have had a good time.
GRAND RAPIDS
Returns from Grand Rapids manufacturing firms, numbering 74, received in
response to a form questionnaire mailed by the Grand Rapids Association of
Commerce, reveal the following facts:
1. That of the 74 firms reporting (including 41 metalworking, 17 woodworking
and furniture manufacturing, and 16 miscellaneous firms) 44 firms sought national-
defense contracts and of these 44, a total of 17 firms were awarded prime contracts
totaling $9,661,750 and 20 firms were given subcontracts amounting to $4,315,570;
a total of $13,877,320 in prime and subcontracts.
2. That employment in these 74 firms now is 15,545 hands, compared with 14,917
as of last January 1.
3. That there "are shortages of many materials now handicapping these firms,
ranging from a small percentage to 100 percent.
4^ That while probably less than 700 men have been laid off to date, due to lack
of materials, over 3,300 are threatened with loss of employment within the next
30 to 60 davs, due to this cause.
Following is a break-down of study of the reports of the 74 firms by classification:
Metalworking. — Employment: 11,082 currently compared with 10,946 on
January 1. Number of these firms seeking defense contracts, 29. Total value of
12 prime contracts received, $9,538,250. Some firms are just starting on these
contracts; others have completed them or are in various stages of completion.
Total value of 18 subcontracts received, $4,215,070. Plant facilities engaged by
21 metal firms reporting average about 47 percent (for defense contracts) and
range from 1 percent to 100 percent.
Thirty-one metal industries reported material lacks ranging from small percent-
age to 100 percent (as in case of aluminum). Materials in which there are short-
ages are: Steel, toluol, ethyl acetate, linter cotton, manganese briquets, nickel
anodes, rod, tube, and sheet steel, strip and bar steel, galvanized mesh, alloys,
pig iron, bronze, saw steel, brass, bronze, rubber, cadmium, ball bearings, rolled
shapes, heater controls, steel billets, carbon steel, tool steel, zinc, wire-bound boxes,
iron castings, nickel chloride, copper sulphate, hardware, locks, chair irons, ma-
carta schutes, chrome, tungsten, vent fans, and exhaust fans.
No unemplovment was noted in 32 plants reporting. One plant (Jarvis Co.)
stated "several hundred (laid ofi^) in 2 to 4 months." That company has no
defense orders. Another reported 50 percent of force laid off, but this figure is
not clear as company also reports 1,100 now employed compared with 1,400 of
last Januarv 1 (Winters & Crampton Corporation).
About 3,i00 anticipated lay-offs in next 30 days or 3 months.
Woodworking and furniture. — Seventeen woodworking and furniture manufac-
turing plants reported 1,291 employees at present, compared with 1,169 last
Januarv 1. Seven sought defense contracts, but only 1 received any and that for
onlv $1,.500 (Wadell Mfg. Co.).
No unemployment is reported to date and only shortage of material is a 30-
percent lumber shortage reported by one company (G. R. Dinette Co.).
No definite statements were made as to anticipated unemployment.
Miscellaneous manufacturers.— Sixteen miscellaneous manufacturers reported
employment of 3,172 persons now compared with 2,802 as of January 1. Eight
of these firms sought defense contracts. Total direct contracts received (by 4
firms), $366,800. Total subcontracts (by 2 firms), $100,000. Note: One large
7126 DETROIT HEARINGS
company (Corduroy Rubber) reports that 10 percent of its business is on subcon-
tract work; it does not state dollar volume of these subcontracts. Outside of that
company, only a small percentage of facilities of these firms used in defense
production.
One large company (Globe Knitting Works) reported its silk supply only 5 per-
cent of normal production. Other shortages reported were for board, castor oil,
methanol, alcohol, lacquer solvents, acetone, albone, resins, and chemicals, per-
centages running as high as 100 percent in cases of methanol, resins, and acetone.
Reports on current unemployment vague; one firm reported 75 laid off for 2
weeks; another said "some laid off during August."
In the matter of anticipated unemployment Corduroy Rubber, employing 698
on January 1 and 659 to date, anticipated 200 hands lay-oflf in November and
December; G. R. Varnish Corporation employing 136 on January 1, and 160 at
present, stated 10 percent lay-off anticipated. Others stated they were unable to
guess.
ALPENA
We wish it were possible to contribute something to the hearing, but at present
most of our local industries are "prettj' well set."
You know the Alpena picture, and, of course, are aware of the fact the bulk of
our industry is centered in the limestone and cement brackets. With one possible
exception, all of our other plants have been able to pick up subcontracts wherein
the prime contractor is seeing to it that he obtains the materials needed.
We anticipate a day, not too far in the future, when our situation will be more
acute than at the present time. Right now, the only situation we have at present
from the local standpoint has to do with a small foundry whose principal trouble
is financing rather than the lack of work.
SAULT STE. MARIE
The only one in our district is the Rudyard Block & T03' Factory. I under-
stand that they are not able to secure steel disks and therefore will not be able
to continue operation. They do have a lot of orders and this will really be a
disaster to Rudyard as it is the only jjlant they have.
It appears that, as yet, none of our industries has suffered to any marked
degree for want of material needed in their manufacture. There has been and
still is some delay, and it is anticipated that the condition will probably be more
pronounced in the near future. The seriousness of this is well appreciated by
all. However, no definite remedy has been presented.
We estimate a total of 1,000 employees will be required on contracts now
awarded when new plants and additions are completed and equipped, but we
also estimate that curtailment of passenger-car production will lay off at least
2,000 present employees.
There has been no migration in this vicinity except in the beet fields. Lack
of priorities has already reduced emplojanent in some of our woodworking plants,
particularly among trailer manufacturers.
Inasmuch as only three industries in Owosso have any defense contracts, it is
estimated that a good manjf of our factories wiU be in a verj' serious position the
first of the j^ear.
Our largest industry, the Owosso Metal Industries, is now doing some sub-
contracts and is going after other orders. However, they have informed us that
if they are not given more defense work, they will be forced to shut down Jan-
uary 1. This will throw approximately 2,000 employees out of work, or half of
our entire industrial pay roll.
We only have one industry here, the H. L. Hartley Machine Co., which is
doing any appreciable amount of defense work and we don't believe that they
wiU be affected. However, the rest of the list are in the same position as the
Owosso Metal Industries.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7127
ST. JOSEPH
The following information which is not detailed, reflects our situation.
To begin with, St. Joseph has a hosiery-knitting mill which has now laid off
about 50 percent on account of the fact that their stock of silk (which was pre-
sumed to be enough to last a full year) has been frozen by Government order.
Thing)!! look dark indeed in this spot.
We have a large washing machine manufacturing establishment which is very
near to that time when they will be obliged to curtail and add to the unemploy-
ment Vjecause of priorities on aluminum, steel, rubber, etc.
Many of our other smaller industries, one in point, a manufacturer of sheet-
metal signs, find themselves in a bad way on obtaining steel.
The picture is very discouraging. Recently one of the labor organizations of
the city has gone on record against these shut-downs and the thing which is causing
them and is endeavoring at this time to secure cooperation from all interested
parties.
SEBEWAING
As you no doubt are aware, we are located in an area which is primarily con-
cerned with agricultural problems; however, we find that everyone is more or less
concerned with the present state of affairs as it refers to priorities. The merchant
finds ever increasing difficulty in obtaining merchandise due to the priority
limitations; the service man serving farm equipment encounters difficulties also.
I have in mind a shop doing extensive business in repairing farm equipment.
The operator advises that he is having difficulty in obtaining metals for wielding
due to the fact that his work is not of a defense nature, however essential to
agricultural production. We have an industry which for the past 6 months has
been encountering tremendous difficulty in getting the die work and materials to
facilitate their starting production on electrical connections primarily in use for
autos and aircraft. The manager has advised me that he has been unable to
accept any orders for their product because of the fact he is unable to get this
material and unless concerns of this kind are given an opportunity to complete
their tooling they will be obliged to fold up and discontinue business. We had
placed great hopes in this venture for it meant the employment of upward of
.50 or 100 people. The equipment which they have already installed would make
them ideal for defense work if they were allowed to get under way.
This exemplifies the hardships placed on the Michigan manufacturers which
we believe is entirely unnecessary and which as a whole will react unfavorably
on the defense set-up.
We have a tool and die plant here, the manager and owner of which advises
that they are booked up with defense orders for the next 6 or 8 months to ca-
pacity. He is operating under priorities of the highest type, manufacturing tools
and dies for airplane parts. He advises that even though he has priority num-
bers, his production is being held up from 6 to 8 weeks due to the lack of materials
which he has been assured receiving under his priority numbers. It seems to
me that a case of this kind should require urgent attention that when a manu-
facturer enters into a 'proposition 100 percent devoting his entire production to
defense work he should be entitled to the cooperation of the Priority Board and
given every possible assistance in obtaining the material desired.
Ionia Desk Co.: About 85 percent of their business is priority business and
they plan a 50-percent increase; no shortage of materials as yet and no labor
shortage.
Ypsilanti Reed Furniture Co.: About 40 percent of their business is on defense
contracts; no material trouble except obtaining shipping paper; no shortage of
labor.
Other Ionia industrials are not on defense contracts, only commercial and have
no labor shortage.
Belding Foundry Co. — Some material hard to obtain; zlso a scarcity of trained
mechanics; some have moved to defense work cities.
Metal Glass Products Co. (Belding) : Commercial business will last but a month
or two; have created a defense department and have some direct contracts and
some subcontracts.
Extruded Metal Co. (Belding): On defense work 24 hours a day and 6 days a
week because of brass and aluminum priorities; no labor shortage.
7128 DETROIT HEARINGS
Lake Odessa Tool & Die Co.: Have no priority number as yet; have had some
subcontract work making dies for gas masks. Skilled labor hard to get.
Although our industrial activities are somewhat limited we are very much
aware of the problem and anxious that steps be taken to hel]) the situation.
The Martin Loomis Machire Shop and the Northern Machine Shop are really
the only two Clare concerns using a considerable amount of metal and are there-
fore experiencing the greatest difficulty.
In the case of the Loomis shop, some defense work has been obtainea through
another concern which means that they cannot use a priority number and cannot
obtain necessary material for their work which includes a considerable amount
in connection with thv oil producing companies operating in this area. Their work
which is therefore important in national defense in that the industry which they
serve is important, is hindered through lack of materials.
The Northern Machine Shop services farm machinery of all kinds and manu-
factures a road leveler. The first service will become increasingly important as it
becomes more difficult to replace farm machinery. This concern is having real
difficulty in obtaining materials.
We fully understand the necessity of diverting a great quantitv of materials for
defense work but believe that it is equally importent to assure that industries who
do not have priorities or defense contracts should be helped in some way to be
able to continue in operation.
JACKSON
Regarding the amount of primary defense contracts and subcontracts in Jack-
son. We made a survey a short i^ime ago and found there was approximately
$22,000,000 Avorth of defense work in Jackson. There are a few companies
practically 100 percent in defense work. Th^se include Hayes Industries,
Kelsey Hayes Co., Lefers Forge & Machine Co., Jackson Motorshaft, Jackson
Bumber Division.
Estimates from local manufacturers in Jackson show that the increase in
employment resulting from defense program is from 50 to CO percent. As near as
I can learn, there has been very little migration of labor eithei- into or from Jackson
because of publicity in the papers regarding defense contracts. We have of course,
receive some increase in population which includes Army inspectors, special
engineering personnel and some foreign labor and a few skilled mr'chanics from
the smaller surounding to-^ns. I also might add we have lost a few of our skilled
mechanics to Detroit, Pontiac, and Lanshig defense work.
Regarding the effect of priorities in Jackson, practically all of our plants have
been able to obtain material thus far. Some of our smaller plants ha.ve been
pinched in trying to obtain piiority extensions but as a whole material shortages
have a,ffected the production in Jackson very little.
I feci I would be safe in saying that few would move out of Jackson if they were
dislocated from the automobile industry, as manj' own their own homes here.
There are fewer psople on the un?mployment lists now than in some j^ears and, as a
whole, I would sav defense work has been an improvement for business conditions.
What the automobile production curtailment will mean to Pontiac plants.
American P'orge & Socket Co. (Mr. Hawke): "It will hit us very hard." This
cut would mean a 99 percent curtailment in production. About 5 percent of
their men are skilled workers, that would be about all that would be able to work
on defense work without training. They are trying to get defense contracts but
are not having much success. Present defense contracts are subcontracts for
seatbacks for Army trucks for Chrysler Corporation. Present employment 209.
Baldwin Rubber Co. (Mr. Shephard): Their employment would follow pro-
duction cut almost exactly. If production was cut 20 percent their employment
would fall off about 20 percent. Nearly all of their men are skilled laborers and
would be able to work on defense work. They are bidding on defense contracts
almost continuously trying to get them. Their present defense work consists of
making the rubber parts for the G. M. T. Army trucks. Present employment 445.
Jig Bushing Co. (Mr. Brinev, Jr): Automobile curtailment wouldn't affect
their production much now. Their viork is mostly defense oiders. They tiain
their men themselves — about 55 percent of them are now skilled laborers. De-
fense orders are all subcontracts making bushings and valve sockets for airplane
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7129
motors. Will probably have more defense contracts but at present are behind
on orders, have more than they cftn take care of for a while. Present eir.ploy-
ment 118.
Pontiac Pattern & Kna;ineering Co. (Mr. Albert Weber): Cut in automobile
production ^^'0uld cut their employment about 5 percent. Most of their men are
skilled. Only uefense work is subcontract work making aluminum and bronze
castings. Expect to have more defense contracts. Present employment 35.
Pontiac Appliance Co. (Mr. Victor Nelson): /ibout 10 percent curtailment
would take i^lace if automobile proauction is cut. Eighty percent of the men
are skilled woricers and are doing defense work. About SO percent of the work is
defense contracts. They expect to have more. They make steel spinnings and
stampings. Present employment 67.
Universal Oil Seal Co. (Mr. Victor Nelson) : About 10 percent of the men would
be unemploved due to +he automobile production cut. Eighty percent of the
men are skilled woikers and are doing defense work. About 80 percent of the
work is defense contracts. Expect to have more. Make oil seals for trucks,
tanks, airijlanes, and Navy. Present employment 85.
Wilson P'oundry & Machine Co. (Mr. Leonard) : Emplojmient would be cut
approximatelv 50 percent at the automobile production cut. Twenty-five percent
of the men are skilled aiu. are able to work on defense work. Are trying to got
more defense contracts, have some now. They do machine and founciy work and
Navy and Ordnance work. Present employment 480.
Pontiac Varnish Co. (Mr. Hutchins, Sr.) : Employment would be grea+ly
affected bv automobile pioduction cut. Didn't know exactly how much but he
spid a great deal. fteventy-fi\e percent of the men working aown there are
skilled laborers and are woiking on defense work. Defense work comes in sub-
contracts. Have been trying to get more defense work but have been unable.
Would like veiy much to have more of this woik. Present employment 40.
Average monthly employment
January
February..
March
April
May
June
July
.August.. _.
Se))teTnber.
October
N()\ ember.
December.
193/
193S
1939
1940
16,018
11,592
14,3ry2
15. 886
11,331
11,174
14,775
10,181
23,910
9,878
14,518
15,951
23,881
0. 108
13, 676
16,813
23, 922
8, 858
13. 467
17,8S5
24. 509
(i, 892
11.242
16, 953
24, 150
fi, 3(32
5,977
11,334
20, 448
5, 792
8,234
17. 572
22. 013
8,926
13. 227
19,584
22, 497
ll.OOl
14,313
21,667
19, (330
14,873
15,542
23. 380
18, 172
15, 054
16, 167
24. 016
22,478
23, 424
24, 010
23, 987
23, 525
23, 771
23, 035
15, 058
This report will gi\'e you a very good cross section of the situation that confronts
this area. In making up this survey I have used numbers. I will give you, here-
with, the names of the concerns as numbered on report.
Kawneer Co.
Michigan Mushroom Co.
Michigan Wire Goods Co.
Mid- West Metal Products Co.
United States Aviex Corporation.
National Standard Co.
1. Niles Cabinet Co. 7.
2. Niles Metalcraft Co. 8.
3. Niles Steel Tank Co. 9.
4. Tyler Fixture Corporation. 10.
5. French Paper Co. 11.
6. Garden City Fan Co. 12.
In summing up this report, I will endeavor to give you a little additional infor-
mation. In the Niles area the Kawneer Co. will release 50 men by the end of the
year d'le to lack of materials. The Niles Steel Tank Co. lias orders sufficient to
keep them operating at capacity but are unable to get delivery on steel. They
expect to be entirely out of material by October 15 at which time if steel deliveries
are not made they will have to close their plant, releasing 28 welders and helpers,
sheet-metal workers and lay-out men. The Michigan Wire Goods Co. expect to
lay off 8 punch-press operators within 30 days due to lack of materials. The Niles
Metalcraft have only a few days supply on hand and will be required to let 11 men
go.
7130 DETROIT HEARINGS
The over-all attitude of industrialists in this area is one of extreme uncertainty.
They are all doing everything that they know of to procure defense contracts thus
keeping their plants operating and their personnel intact. It is estimated by Mr.
Walter Sorenson, president of the U. W. A. — A. F. of L. that the various industrial
plants in Niles have lost approximately 300 workers in defense industries to South
Bend and Buchanan with a few going to Berrien Springs. It is estimated that
about 1,500 men living in this area are employed in South Bend and Buchanan.
Mr. Horst, personnel director of the Kawneer Co., states that in his opinion
the loss of workers to outside concerns is due to uncertainty (60%) and wages (40%).
One reason for the latter si the fact that our industries do not have the type of work
that commands the high wage scale.
The Niles situation is far from encouraging and it is my opinion that assistance
must come from the priority division in releasing some material for consumer
consumption. If this does not happen we are going to have a very serious unem-
ployment situation in Niles and this area. We must have either the release of
materials for consumer consumption or the allocation of subcontracts, so that they
can be more evenly spread among small manufacturers to keep their men at work.
A wide spread of unemployment in industry would create a bad morale condition
in other lines of business. It will surely have a bad effect upon the sale of defense
savings stamps and bonds and will create untold hardships.
REPORT ON 12 NILES, MICH., INDUSTRIES
1. A woodworking plant manufacturing radio cabinets and occasional furniture.
Fifty-eight employees. Have not been affected by material shortage or priorities
as yet. However, report that glue situation is getting bad. Have no defense
orders, but would like some. Equipped only for woodworking.
2. A metal stamping plant equipped with cadmium plating facilities producing
rubber mops and household specialties. Twelve employees. Must have sheet
steel in coils or strips and sheet rubber. Have on hand 2-day supply of rubber and
approximately 60-day supply of steel. Have been trying to get subcontracts, but
have failed so far. Must have material for consumer goods or subcontracts, or
will have to close the doors.
3. A plant manufacturing steel tanks and tank equipment. Thirty-two em-
ployees. Production about 30 percent on defense orders. There difficulty has
been in getting priorities from customers in time to replace their present stock
of raw material or get new material. Have tried hard to get subcontracts, have
listed with 5,000 prime contractors but cannot get enough to keep plant operating.
Regular consumer business would require about 100 tons per month of hot-roU
steel sheets and bars.
4. Plant manufacturing steel displays and storage equipment for food stores.
Three hundred and nineteen employees. Ten percent defense production on food-
storage equipment. Are badly in need of material for consumer business. Esti-
mate requirements — 20,000 pounds black-sheet steel, 30,000 pounds galvanic-
sheet steel, 8,000 pounds stainless-sheet steel, 100,000 pounds vitreous-sheet
steel, 10,000 board feet hardwood framing, 150,000 board feet soft lumber for
crating, 1}^ carloads of crystal and plate glass. The above estimate is for 1
month's production for normal capacity. Must have the above material for con-
sumer business or sufficient subcontracts to keep plant on 40-hour basis or un-
employment must result.
5. A paper mill manufacturing printer bond, mimeographed bond papers.
One hundred and thirtj'-three employees. Twenty-five percent production on
printing paper for Government printing department. The only shortage this
concern is experiencing is in steel banding for packing and shipping purposes. Also
some delay in getting chemicals used in manufacture of paper. However, they
state that a shortage in pulp and chemicals would materiall}' reduce their em-
ployment.
6. A plant manufacturing fan-blower apparatus for industrial application.
Fifty-five employees. This concern is on 90-percent defense production basis
on subcontracts. Have plenty priority numbers but having trouble getting
material from mills and foundries, particularly stainless steel, which curtails em-
ployment and production.
7. This concern manufactures store fronts, windows, doors, automobile and
aviation parts. Five hundred and fifty employees. Working 30-percent defense .
subcontracts. Looking for more. Have priorities on material to take care of
defense subcontracts but consumer business is suffering. Must have more
subcontracts or aluminum and steel for consumer business or must curtail em-
ployment.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7131
8. This concern grows and cans food products. Have no Government orders
at present time, are having considerable difficulty in securing cartons for shipping
consumer products. . t-i ^
9. This concern manufacturers a line of wire and steel specialties. P orty-seven
employees. This concern has a well equipped stamping plant, excellent toolroom
for making dies, bending jigs and fixtures. They have no defense contracts at
present; are endeavoring to secure defense work. To keep plant on consumer
production of 40-hour workweek must have approximately 30 tons of round basic
wire and flat steel wire and 10,000 corrugated shipping cartons per month or sub-
contracts carrying priorities to keep plant open.
10. This concern is a well equipped small stamping plant with complete tool-
room. Twelve employees. This concern has registered with O. P. M. offices at
Detroit and Chicago and has submitted apphcation for subcontracts with hundreds
of prime contractors but to date have been unable to secure any subcontracts.
Must have either subcontracts or material to carry on regular consumer business
or will have to lock the doors.
11. This concern are oil blenders. Fifteen direct employees, 160 distributors
affected. About 30 percent of their business is being sold to United States
Government through distributors located all over the United States. They are
unable to get steel drums to ship product in. Their requirements are as follows:
15 to 20 drums of following sizes per month— 55, 30, and 15 gallon capacities; also
approximately 100 5-gallon drums per month. This concern had on hand 5 orders
from United States Government at the time of contact with them. They were
unable to ship because of shortage of shipping containers. Have made application
for prioritv numbers at Chicago and Washington but as yet have had no results.
12. This concern are manufacturers of woven-wire products. One hundred and
ninety-two employees. They are doing 70 percent on subcontracts defense pro-
duction. Need niore defense production or material such as steel sheet, bar steel,
and maintenance items to continue in part on consumers' production or unemploy-
ment will result.
GRAND HAVEN
We only have one plant acting on direct orders from the Navy which is running
at full capacity. The rest of our industries are acting as subcontractors or are
doing only civilian production.
W^e have approximately 7 plants working on direct civilian production and
doing no defense work. The total employed in these plants will run between 400
and 500 people. Their situation is serious and small lay-offs are already being
made which will increase as their inventories reduce. From 2 to 3 months will
clean out the inventories of practically all of these plants.
A number of the factories are only part on defense work and this in a very small
volume. They, too, will be faced with laying off men unless they can secure addi-
tional defense work.
Our manufacturers and the Chamber of Commerce have made every effort to
relieve this situation. We have been to Washington, Detroit, and Chicago
calling upon the Office of Production Management and upon many prime manu-
facturers. To date we have had no success.
The majority of our small plants are in the stamping business. They can look
forward to very little relief as far as defense work is concerned, as many of the
prime manufacturers have idle stamping equipment. They naturally will not
farm out any work when their equipment is idle.
After 4 months' experience with the subcontractor problem our deduction is
that Congress should pass some regulation forcing the large prime manufacturers
who have tremendous amounts of materials stored up to release them. Secondly,
that a more efficient system, be developed by the Office of Production Management
in getting out information of work wanted by the various departments of the
Government and the large contractors in order that the small manufacturer can
receive notice of these bids in time to bid on the work.
In many instances we have received requests for bids on defense work after the
bid has been let. In the majority of cases we receive requests for bids only a day
or two before the date the bid is to be let. This does not give the small manufac-
turer time to figure his cost nor contact his suppliers and so forth. Another point is
that the delivery date should he based upon when the manufacturer receives his
material and not on the date specified in the bid. In many cases the manufac-
turer will bid thinking that he will secure the material and then he finds that he
cannot get as early or prompt delivery as anticipated or promised.
The writer sent a plea to Governor Van Wagoner for relief on this situation and
in doing so made an observation to this effect: "Why should there be so much
7 J 32 DETKOIT HEARINGS
confusion in the subcontract work when it has been operated for the last 25 years
by the large manufacturers? Our automobiles, radios, refrigerators, washing
machines, and so forth are all built under the subcontract system, so it is hard to
understand why there is so much confusion now."
MtJSKEGON
There has been considerable migration of labor into Greater Muskegon from the
area within a radius of about 60 miles, but the migration from outstate and from
other States has been very negligible. Employment in our greater Muskegon
industries was, according to our monthly survey made in August, the largest in our
history. The previous peak was 18,200 reached in 1937 and in August of this
year it was approximately 22,600. This, of course, is only industrial employment.
Of this number I woufd estimate 1,500 as coming in from out-of-town, but not
more than 200 or 250 have come in from places outside of this 60-mile area.
When your letter came to us we had in process a questionnaire endeavoring to
determine from our local industries, as well as from other western Michigan
industries, members of our West Michigan Legislative Council, just how they
were affected by this defense production program. Our local industries responded
fairlv well, about 80 percent of them answering the questionnpire, which is a very
goodly percentage. Sixteen of the west Michigan legislative group outside of
Muskegon also answered.
We are giving you a compilation of the answers received. The figure for
amount of contracts awarded is taken from the figures we receive from the Detroit
office of Office of Production Management. We have no figures for the plants
outside of Greater Muskegon. The bulk of the Muskegon contracts went, of
course, to the Continental Motors. We understand that they have approxi-
mately $90,000,000 in contracts, but a large portion of this is being taken care
of in "the Detroit plant. They are, therefore, not included in our figures. We
understand that another large industry here has just been awarded a contract
totaling about $3,000,000, but this is not included as the actual contract has not
yet been received.
We are rather surprised at the small number of plants who believe that their
employment will be reduced because of lack of material. Apparently niany of
these have not yet come to a realization of the seriousness of this situation.
COMPILATION OF ANSWERS TO QUESTIONNAIRES SENT TO GREATER MUSKEGON
INDUSTRIES ON EFFECT OF DEFENSE PRODUCTION
Number of plants answering questionnaire 41
Number of employees Sept. 1, 1941 18,160
Number of employees June 1, 1941 18, 600
Number employed Sept. 1 by those reporting reductions in em-
ployment 8, 695
Number emploved June 1 by those reporting reductions in em-
ployment. - - J 9, 906
Percent reduction in plants reporting reduction in employment 12. 2
Amount of prime contracts in hands of local contractors $42,999,305
Number producing defense materials 31
Number of prime contractors 10
Number of subcontractors 24
Percent of defense production to total production:
0 to 25 percent 71 51 to 75 percent 9
26 to 50 percent 8 | 76 to 100 percent 7
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
If not now producing defense materials have you tried to obtain contracts?
Yes, 9. No, 1.
From what sources have vou tried to obtain such business?
Regular customers.
Other sources
Army 6
Navy 6
Defense contract service 9
Are you experiencing any difficulty in obtaining —
Raw material? Contractors," yes, 25. Noncontractors, yes, 8.
Equipment? Contractors, yes, 18. Noncontractors, yes, 8.
Tools? Contractors, yes, 21. Noncontractors, yes, 9.
Other supplies? Contractors, yes, 18. Noncontractors, yes, 10.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGliATION
7133
Have you found it necessary to reduce your working force because of inability
to obtain above items? Yes, 7. No, 34.
If so, how much? Two, 10 percent. One, 11 percent. Two, 20 percent.
One, 50 percent.
Have you found it necessary to reduce hours per week because of such short-
ages? Yes, 5. No, 33. No answer, 3.
If so, how much? Four, 8 hours. One, 6 hours. One, 10 hours.
Do you anticipate further reductions in working force because of inability to
obtain material or equipment? Yes, 19. No, 12. No answer, 6.
Do you anticipate future reduction in hours because of such shortages? Yes, 18.
No, 7. Don't know, 5. No answer, 11.
Could your plant be converted to production of materials other than your
regular line? Yes, 14. No, IG. Doubtful, 11.
If so, would you be willing to convert it realizing that it might affect your
normal business? Yes, 14. No, 5. Depends, 8. No answer, 13.
Number affected by priorities on following commodities.
Commodity
Aluminum
Borax and boric acid
Calcium — silicon
Chlorine
Chromium
Copper
Cork
Formaldehyde
Pig iron^_
Scrap iron and steel _
Affected
by
Trouble
obtaining
Commodity
Steel — general
Machine tools
Magnesium..
Neoprene
Nickel- -
Rubber
Silk
Tools, cutting
Tungsten
Zinc
Affected
by
Trouble
obtaining
22
19
1
3
7
5
1
24
4
5
BATTLE CREEK
One manufacturer reports unable to obtain steel for making defense houses.
Recent order of Supply Priorities and Allocations Board granting priority to
houses under $6,000 will undoubtedly help. Another manufacturer reports
reduction in employment of 50 percent if he is unable to obtain any further
defense contracts and other materials are shut off under priorities. Another
manufacturer reports complete shut down if further defense work cannot be
obtained. One manufacturer is completely loaded with defense work and is
having no difficulty; has increased his employment considerably.
All manufacturers' reports to the chamber of commerce, except one or two who
have defense contracts, show that employment will be decreased 50 percent up to
100 percent if defense cannot be substituted for civilian work.
Some migration of labor from smaller communities into Battle Creek.
Exhibit B. — Replies to Query on Subcontracts and Employment in Plants
OF Battle Creek, Mich.
correspondence submitted by JOHN L. LOVETT, GENERAL MANAGER, MICHIGAN
manufacturers association
United States Register Co.,
Battle Creek, Mich., September 8, 1941.
Mr. John L. Lovett,
Managing Director, Michigan Manufacturers Association,
Detroit, Mich.
Dear John: We understand that you are going to have an opportunity to
appear before the House Committee Investigating National Defense Migration,
and we want to give you information pertaining to the situation we find ourselves
in at the present time.
Since the emergency started, quite a considerable portion of our production has
been for direct defense work. During the last year we have supplied registers
and vents of a total weight of 367,340 pounds to Army forts, airports, national
defense housing projects, and other direct defense work.
Under the present set-up it is not possible for us to obtain a priority rating for
our steel requirements. We have to make our quotations to the subcontractor
months before we receive the order and when the order is received we must agree
7134 DETROIT HEAKINOS
to make delivery by a certain time. If we waited until we were assigned the order
before we placed our orders for the material necessary we could never make
deliveries at the time required by the Government. For this reason we must have
supplies of steel here in advance of receiving the orders for these defense projects.
Under the defense rating plan we could obtain in this quarter the amount of
steel necessary to replace the steel that we used in filling direct defense contracts
during the previous quarter, but by the time we could get this priority arranged
the present quarter would be almost gone.
\\ ith full priority being put on steel as of September 1, our suppliers tell us they
cannot guarantee that we will get anywhere near our minimum requirements
during the next 2 or 3 months. At all times we have several quotations out on
defense projects and if we eventually receive the orders from these quotations we
do not know where we are going to turn to get materials with which to be sure
that we will be able to fill these orders and as you know, most of these Government
contracts contain a penalty clause.
There must be a large number of manufacturers whose problem is the same as
ours as we have outlined above. We are only too willing and glad to do all we can
in the interest of national defense and we want to be in a position to give the
service required on these defense orders when the orders are received by us, and
it seems as though some plan should be put in effect by Office of Production
Management so that people in our status will be able to obtain the necessary
materials to put us in a position to take care of these orders as they are received.
We are not trying to hoard steel and the facts in the case are that unless we get
some relief before the end of this month we will not only be unable to take care of
some defense orders but we will also have to lay off some of our help.
We understand that the Federal Housing Administration are endeavoring to
have Office of Production Management classify all housing costing $6,000 or less
or built to rent for $50 per month or less as defense housing, but so far this order
has not been issued. At least 85 percent of our production goes into such housing
and no one can dispute the necessity of continued effort in the future to supply
the required housing in this class.
We sincerely trust that you will have an opportunity to present these facts to
the committee for their serious consideration.
With kindest regards, we are
Very truly j'ours,
United States Register Co.
F, C. Bowers, President.
Battle Creek Chamber of Commerce,
Battle Creek, Mich., September 19, 1941.
Mr. John Lovett,
Michigan Manufacturers Association,
Detroit, Mich.
Dear John: Pursuant to our agreement, we are enclosing herewith replies
which we received from local manufacturers. Should we receive any additional
ones, we will forward them to you immediately.
Incidentally, you might be interested in knowing that Wednesday night we had
a meeting of management of those firms whose plants do not have any defense
work, or whose facilities are not being completely used for defense work. This
group is making a survey of facilities available in an endeavor to combine those
facilities so as to bid on prime or subcontracts.
Sorry you did not stay longer at Grand Haven. Would like to have seen you.
Verj^ truly yours.
Battle Creek Chamber of Commerce,
R. Habermann, Secretary.
Battle Creek Foundry Co.
Subcontracts from Clark Equipment Co. Rating A-l-a to A^IO.
Contract from Grand Trunk R. R. Rating A-3.
Now running at full capacity. At present we do not believe any unemploj^-
ment will result because of priority materials.
Battle Creek Foundry Co.
By C. J. Lofgren.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGHATION 7135
Electrical Manufacturing Co.,
Battle Creek, Mich., September 4, 1941.
Battle Creek Chamber of Commerce,
Battle Creek, Mich.
Gentlemen: In answer to your memo of September 3, the following informa-
tion is given:
(1) We have a primar}' defense contract in the amount of $78,000, no sub-
contracts.
(2) There will be no increase in our emploj^ment resulting from this contract
as the work will be done by our regular employees since we are unable to get
material for our regular nondefense work.
(3) No unemployment will result at present; however, unless we secure an-
other defense contract when our present one is completed, approximately the
coming November, it will be necessary to shut down our entire plant because of
lack of materials which have been diverted to defense.
Very truly yours.
Electrical Manufacturing Co.
Geo. C. Price, President.
Battle Creek Bread Wrapping Machine Co.,
Battle Creek, Mich., September 4, 1941.
Battle Creek Chamber of Commerce,
Battle Creek, Mich.
Gentlemen: We have j'our letter of September 3 asking for data to put in the
hands of John Lovett of the Michigan Manufacturers' Association.
To answer question (1) we have no prime contracts. We are handling sub-
contract work in several different directions, that is to say, for several companies.
To answer question (2) an estimate of increase in employment resulting from
the defense program is 50 to 60 percent of a late 1937 date.
In answer to question number (3) as to an estimate of unemployment which
will result because of priority of materials, or shortages, is 90 to 95 percent of our
entire organization. In fact, if we feel the pinch in this direction as we are told
we will, it will unquestionably mean our closing our doors and having to go out of
business.
Sincerely yours.
Battle Creek Bread Wrapping Machine Co.
Boyd H. Redner, Assistant Manager.
General Foods Corporation,
Post Products Division,
Battle Creek, Mich., September 4, 1941-
Battle Creek Chamber of Commerce,
Fattle Creek, Mich.
(Attention: Mr. R. Habermann.)
Dear Sir: Answering your questionnaire of September 3 for the Michigan
Manufacturers' Association, this is to advise that we have no primary or sub-
contracts for defense purposes, consequent!}' have no change in employment
because of any defense work.
We do, however, notice an increase in our business because of the general in-
crease throughout the countr.y due to the defense program.
Yours very truly.
General Foods Corporation,
S. H. Zimmerman, Plant Manager.
Oliver Farm Equipment Co.,
Battle Creek, Mich., September 4, 1941.
Battle Creek' Chamber of Commerce,
Fattle Creek, Mich.,
(Attention: R. Habermann, Secretary.)
Gentlemen: In reply to your general bulletin of September 3, wish to advise
that we have some subcontracts in our plant that have not changed our employ-
ment at all.
60396 — 41— pt. 18 6
7136 DETEOIT HEARINGS
As far as unemployment is concerned because of ])riority materials it is hard
for us to estimate at this time; however, we are finding it rather difficult to take
off on our 1942 schedules. Materials that we anticipated receiving in August
are now promised us in October, therefore if this condition does not improve or
if we fail to get material in those days it will mean a loss of employment of approx-
imately 25 percent in this plant.
Very truly yours,
Oliver Farm Equipment Co.,
C. W. Johnson, Plant Manager.
Clark Equipment Co.,
Buchanan, Mich., September 9, 1941.
Mr. R. Habermann,
Secretary, Battle Creek Chamber of Commerce,
Battle Creek, Mich.
Dear Sir: Your mimeographed memorandum of the 3d has been referred to
me.
Your memorandum is not clear, and I do not know whether you refer to our
Battle Creek plant, or to the company as a whole, but I assume you are referring
to the company as a whole.
We do not give out details on our Government contracts, but we have a num-
ber of them both direct and indirect.
Answering question 2, our employment is up about 50 percent over a year ago,
and it, of course, can be assumed that the bulk of this increase is from the defense
program.
Answering question 3, we do not anticipate any unemployment because of
priorities of material.
Yours truly,
Clark Equipment Co.,
A. S. Bonner, Vice President.
United Steel & Wire Co.,
Battle Creek, Mich., September 9, 1941-
Battle Creek Chamber of Commerce,
Battle Creek, Mich.
(Attention: Mr. R. Habermann.)
Gentlemen: I will answer in order the questions put to us in your letter of
September 3.
We have only one subcontract at this time — the job of making tool boxes for
the Duplex Printing Press Co. We are, however, furnishing wire shelves and
certain other wire parts to some of our accounts whose product in turn is sold to
the Government, or imder the defense program. We estimate this volume of
business as about 5 percent of our total.
We are operating almost at a maximum at the moment so there would be very
little increase in employment at our place if we secure more Government business
than we have now.
If we don't get more defense business within the next few v/eeks, we will have
to cut down our force considerably as we are not able to get some of the materials
which go into certain of our products. I am not in position to say how many
people we would have to let go for everything would depend on the amount of
work we would be doing under the defense program and along our regular lines.
It is certain, however, that there will be a cutting down of our force if we don't
get the amount of defense business we need to offset the amount of business we
can't handle due to our inability to get materials needed.
Very truly yours,
United Steel & Wire Co.,
By C. G. Genebach.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7137
Michigan Metal Products Co.,
Battle Creek, Mich., September 8, 1941.
Battle Creek Chamber of Commerce,
Battle Creek, Mich.
(Attention R. Habermann, secretary.)
Gentlemen: In reply to your memorandum of the 3d.
1. We have had one primary Government contract for bedstead card holders
for the Army, amounting to $4,875.
2. This resulted in no appreciable increase of employment.
3. It is rather difficult to estimate the unemployment that might result from
Ijriority of materials unless steel in second sheets, which we use, should be placed
mider the priority plan, which has not as yet been done. If this action is not
taken we can continue normal o])eration, in our opinion.
Yours very truly,
Michigan Metal Products Co.,
M. L. Gardner, General Manager.
Globe Manufacturing Co.,
Battle Creek, Mich., September 8, 1941.
Battle Creek Chamber of Commerce,
Battle Creek, Mich.
(Attention Mr. R. Haberman, secretary.)
Reference: Your memorandum letter, September 3.
Subject: Em])loyment survey.
Gentlemen: We are now doing subcontract work for a local manufacturer
working on defense orders.
This has increased our factory employment approximately 50 percent.
We should probably be completely shut down, however, because of inability to
get material for our own line were it not for this special machine work, and we
liave no way of knowing how long it will last.
Yours very truly.
Globe Manufacturing Co.,
M. R. Tyrrell, Treasurer.
Alsteel Manufacturing Co.,
Battle Creek, Mich., September 11, 1941.
Battle Creek Chamber of Commerce,
Battle Creek, Mich.
(Attention Mr. R. Habermann.)
Dear Sir: The following information is sent you in response to your request
dated September 3, 1941. We understand this information is to be used by Mr.
John Lovett, of the Michigan Manufacturers Association, in a summary of facts
to be presented before the House Committee Investigating National Defense
Migration.
1. (o) Primary contracts, none.
(6) Subcontracts: (1) No. DA-W-535-AC-56. Rating A-l-E; (2) No.
W-398-QM-10250. Rating A-l-F.
2. An estimate of increase in employment resulting from defense program,
15 percent.
3. An estimate of the unemployment because of priorities would be about 50
percent if we were unable to secure materials to manufacture items not classed
as defense and essential items.
Forty-seven percent of our total volume for August 1941 was produced under
priority ratings ranging from A-l-D to A-10.
Very truly yours.
Alsteel Manufacturing Co.,
H. B. Ford.
7138 DETROIT HEARINGS
TESTIMONY OF JOHN LOVETT— Resumed
Mr. OsMERs. Now, I am quoting from your paper because I want
to question you about it a little bit. You say here [reading]:
The hope of aiding the small manufacturers lies in getting the large manu-
facturer enough business so that he can subcontract.
Are you familiar with the York plan, in Pennsylvania:?
Mr. LovETT. Yes, sir.
Mr. OsMERS. Are there any possibilities in that plan for the State
of Michigan?
Mr. LovETT. The city of Ypsilanti has undertaken a similar plan,
and there is some effort being made in Jackson along the same line,
and also in Kalamazoo.
Mr. OsMERs. Are these efforts meeting with success?
Mr. LovETT. Not especially. The Ypsilanti plan is the furthest
along, and they have employed an engineer and surveyed their situa-
tion very carefully, but it hasn't produced any particular results.
They are contacting the various procurement divisions, but up to now
it hasn't brought anything particularly.
LITTLE FIRMS FORGOTTEN IN DEFENSE
Mr. OsMERS. One of the local newspapers here carried a story on
July 25 that was headlined:
Little firms forgotten in defense. Only 82 out of 1,407 in Michigan are on the
Michigan Office of Production Management list receiving contracts up to July 1.
I presume that that writer was referring to prime contracts?
Mr. LovETT. He must have been, because there are a great many
more that have parts of contracts.
Mr. OsMERS. I see. What would you suggest, Mr. Lovett, that
this Government do, through its O. P. M., that would spread this
work?
Mr. LovETT. I think the unportant thing in Michigan is to get the
job into the prime contractor's hands.
MICHIGAN A SUBCONTRACTING STATE
We are fundamentally a subcontracting State. The manufacturers
who produce a complete article themselves subcontract for parts, and
they are not large enough, they haven't got tlie staff to go to Washing-
ton and fight for contracts. In other words, if they bid on a contract
they have got to carry all of their sales overhead, their advertising
overhead — all that overhead. They have to carry it in a bid because
they have been making a stove, we will say, and all of the costs have
had to be carried in the stove.
Well, you are not going to get any Government business on that
basis. Now, if the prune contractor in Alichigan were able to go to
that plant with his engineers and his buyers and pick out the particular
things that man could do onthe defense program, he would probably
get the job.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7139
Mr. OsMERS. Would you say, following that line of reasoning, that
the Government should crowd some of these prime contractors —
the large contractors — more, than they are now, and give them more
contracts and shorter schedules?
Mr. LovETT. Right; absolutely right. That is the thing we have
got to have in this State. We have got to have more, and push up
the schedules.
Mr. OsMERS. You are aware, as secretary of the Manufacturers
Association, that there is almost a state of revolt among these small
manufacturers, and that they feel that this has been a "big business
boom," and that they have been left by the wayside. They can't
go to Washington. They can't get priorities. They can't get ma-
terials. And they are facing ruin, and the big ones are getting bigger,
and the small ones are getting smaller.
Have you found any disposition on the part of prime contractors
in the State of Michigan to refuse to spread this work out, to try to
hold as much of it as they can?
Mr. LovETT. I have found just the opposite. For instance, the
Chrysler Corporation, on this tank job, has 700 contractors.
Mr. OsMERS. Are most of those in the State of Michigan?
Mr. LovETT. No; they are scattered through their regular list.
They have about 1,400 or 1,500 regular suppliers ui producing auto-
mobiles, and they have tried to spread this out. What they would
like to do is spread it out more and get more tank contracts and more
of other contracts. There is no disposition not to spread it, because
a lot of the parts manufacturers have the equipment that the prime
contractor in the main plant may not have at all.
Mr. OsMERS. You are right. Has your association analyzed these
Michigan lii-ms with respect to their equipment for defense produc-
tion?
SURVEY OF EQUIPMENT OF 1,200 MANUFACTURERS
Mr. LovETT. We completed a survey probably 6 or 8 months ago,
in which we listed the equipment, the power sources, the source of
raw materials, everything that we felt was necessary in the defense
program ; and we turned that survey over to the local defense contract
service, so they have a list of all of the equipment of some 1,200 man-
ufacturers ui Alichigan on file there.
Mr. OsMERS. Do you have any knowledge of whether they are
using those files?
Mr. LovETT. Oh, yes.
Mr. OsMERS. They are using them?
CHARGES DEFENSE CONTRACT SERVICE GETS ONLY "CATS AND DOGS"
Mr. LovETT. They are using them. The trouble is with the defense
contract service. They just get the "cats and dogs." The stuff is
all let in Washington except what they can't find down there. Then
they kick it over to the defense contract service.
Air. OsMERS. Then the small man comes in?
Mr. LovETT. On the cats and dogs, sure — something that nobody
else wants, can't make. Then they try to farm that out through the
defense contract service to the small manufacturers.
7140 DETROIT HEARINGS
You know that if it were a desirable contract, somebody would prob-
abl}'^ grab it before it got out here, with all the salesmen there are
around Washington trying to get contracts.
Mr. OsMERS. You are agreeing with what I have said before about
the big boys hogging it a little bit?
Mr. LovETT. They don't do that. It isn't necessRrily hogging. I
don't think that is the right phrase.
Mr. OsMERS. Well, a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.
I think it would be about the same anyw-ay, but let us not worry
about the phrasing.
Mr. LovETT. O. K.
Mr. OsMERS. Let us go into the question of shortages of materials-
here. Does your organization make any attempt to find out about th&
shortages of material that are affecting your meml)ership?
Mr. LovETT. None, except for the purpose of this survey. We
canvassed, for your committee, all the local chambers of commerce as
to their situation, and tluMr reports ar(> attached to my original state-
ment.^
Mr. OsMERS. What is the most serious shortage situation you have?
Mr. LovETT. Well, the steel situation is bad — steel, aluminum, and
the alloys are all bad because they are strictly controlled.
Mr. OsMEKS. Have you found in any important instance that the
Priorities Division in Washington hasn't made fair and eriuitable
decisions?
MATERIAL DISTRIBUTION IN LAST WAR
Mr. LovETT. The greatest criticism of the Priorities Division has
been the delays in getting through orders after they have told you you
were entitled to a priority, and in getthig that actually issued to you
so you can pass it on for material. I would say generally the criticism
on priorities has been based on the confusion that has existed in the
O. P. M. m the whole priority question. I have felt that in the last
war Mr. Baruch's idea of an inventory — inventoryhig the supplies on
hand and then finduig out what the Government needed and letting
the producers distribute the surplus, pro rata to their custoiners —
was a much better scheme than trying to control the distribution of
all of this material, which, apparently, is the plan of the O. P. M. now.
Mr. OsMERS. Without basmg that distribution upon a natural
inventory? .
Mr. LovETT. That is right. I don't see how you can handle this
material thin.g unless you know what is on hand, what you can produce,
what the Government wants for 6 months or 12 months. It seems to
me that is just a. b. c. but I don't flunk they have got that infonna-
tion — certainly not as near as I can find out.
Mr. OsMERS. You feel the tendency now is to put the cart before the
horse and deal with the distribution of a product without determining
what is on hand?
Mr. LovETT. That is right.
SPECULATIONS IN STRATEGIC MATERIALS
Mr. OsMERS. I heard an amazing rumor over the week-end in New
York about some of these strategic materials. According to this story,
it seems that there are a great number of transactions now being con-
« See Exhibits A and B, pp. 7122-7137.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7141
ducted outside the pale of the Priorities Division — a sort of "black
market" in materials, in which they are changing hands quickly. It
is a speculative proposition, almost like a commo(iity market, and
there are a great many transactions, and people never see the goods
and never use them, and eventually they end up somewhere and are
found to be not what they should be. Is such a thuig in existence?
Mr. LovETT. I have heard that. I think there probably is a cer-
tain amount of it going on. Naturally a fellow who wants material,
a manufacturer, is going to get it if he can. I think that is being done
largely hy brokers.
Mr. OsMEus. That is right.
Mr. I^ovETT. I don't think it is being done by the producer.
Mr. ObiviERS. It is strictly a speculative proposition?
A.r. LovETT. That is right.
Mr. OsMERS. I am leading back to a pomt that you just made, that
if the inventory had been made in the beginning, we would laiow about
all of these things. It wasn't made, so there are little stores of these
materials around the country and they are being speculated in just
as one would in stock. Is that correct?
Mr. LovETT. That is right. I have heard the rumor hereabouts that
the Navy Department and a lot of its yards have enough steel on
hand for 2 ja^ars.
Mr. OsMERS. I would like to question you on that a little further.
That accusation has been made against the Navy and the Army —
that they have overordered to such an extent with the vast appro-
priations at their disposal, that they have needlessly crippled not only
defense but civilian mdustry in the United States. The story goes
that at this time they have just gone into the market and embraced
everything that w^as loose. Now, is that a charge that is made in the
State of Michigan?
Mr. LovETT. That is the cliarge that is made. You hear those
rimiors. I discussed that very subject with one of the gentlemen in
the O. P. M. He said, "Well, I can't answer you because we don't
know." That was 2 weeks ago. Last week I was talkmg with him
agam. He said, "Just last week we got an order to force the Navy to
reveal its inventory."
Mr. OsMERs. So we are getting back to the mventory question
agam.
Mr. LovETT. That is right.
Mr. OsMERS. Another evidence of its necessity?
Mr. LovETT. That is right.
Mr. OsMERS. Now, has the R. F, C. financed much of this defense
busmess out here?
Mr. LovETT. Practically all the new facilities have been financed
by the R. F. C.
Mr. OsMERs. Your new plants?
Mr. LovETT. Yes, sir; the Defense Finance Corporation.
ZONING OF LABOR COMMUNITIES
Mr. OsMERS. You made a suggestion in your paper that the Nation
be zoned, on a basis of wages and other factorS; and that bids be taken
on a zone basis or an area basis. Would you like to develop that a
little further?
7142 DETROIT HEAKIXGS
Mr. LovETT. I would like to illustrate what I mean. We had one
firm in Michigan which was designated by the Army Ordnance as a
prime contractor. The Government spent the money and made the
tools to make 3-incli shells. They ran an educational order, I think,
of 15,000 shells. Then the Ordnance called for bids and the big con-
tract of some 3 or 4 million shells went to a firm down in southern
Indiana that had never had an educational order and never had been
tooled up to the job. They were bidding on the basis of wages at 60
cents and this particular Michigan plant had a wage of about $1.02.
The Michigan plant, which was tooled and ready to go into produc-
tion, didn't get the contract Now, the Army Ordnance, I under-
stand, has recommended to the Attorney General that the districts
with like wage levels — this Great Lakes District, for instance, around
Detroit, Cleveland, and Toledo, has pretty much the same level of
wages — should be zoned and should not have to compete with lower-
wage districts, like southern Indiana and southern Illinois.
"Labor Communities"
I think that principle has been used in this designation of com-
munities as "labor communities". Mr. Hillman, I thmk, has brought
about a program by which certain cities are designated as "priority
labor points," and a 15-percent mcrease m labor costs is permitted
under bids, under his scheme.
He has designated some 10 or 15 conunmiities in Michigan as
priority labor districts. Now, that will give you a 15-percent advan-
tage on your bids there on labor.
But the reason we probably haven't a lot of prime contracts here
is that our wage rates have always been high, and they are high now.
Therefore, we have been out of competition with a lot of other dis-
tricts.
Mr. OsMERS. But aren't your methods of manufacture and your
per unit cost in Michigan generally lower, even though your wages
have been high?
Mr. LovETT. That is right.
Mr. OsMERS. A plant in southern Indiana may be paying 60 cents,
wdiile you are paying a dollar?
Mr. LovETT. Yes.
Mr. OsMERS. Your firm in Michigan, it seems to me, should have
been able to compete with an educational order behind them and
obviously the requisite skill to do the job. I am wondering in my
own mind how the firm in southern Indiana could make an intelligent
bid.
Mr. LovETT. I don't think they did.
Mr. OsMERS. I don't think so either, because if they had made one,
I believe that with the advantage of the educational order and pre-
vious mass-production experience here, you probably would have had
a lower bid in Michigan.
Mr. LovETT. Well, I think our bid was reasonably honest, and I
think the other felloM' was gambling. He got these shells for 3 cents
a shell less than we did, but the point is that he had to tool up. He
probably isn't in production yet, whereas our firm was ready to go
ahead 6 months ago when tho order was let.
Mr. Arnold. Was that a Du Pont concern in southern Indiana?
Mr. LovETT. No, it was not.
Mr. Arnold. And it wasn't a subsidiary of Du Pont?
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7143
Mr. LovETT. No; it was an independent concern. I have forgotten
the name of it now, but I did know at the time; and the Michigan
firm sent its engineers down to visit this gentleman and find out how
it was possible for him to bid on this and get a lower figure than they
did. They made a very thorough investigation to satisfy themselves
just what had happened.
Mr. OsMERS. What was their conclusion — that they had miscalcu-
lated the job, or that he was paying lower wages?
Mr. LovETT. Well, they figured that he probably would lose money
on the contract before he got through, because he didn't know any-
thing about how to make it and he just took a shot in the dark. He
was paying at the time he took the contract 50 cents an hour. He
figured 60 cents an hour on his wages in the contract.
Mr. OsMERS. In other words, the total sounded like a lot of money
and he thought he could get through on it?
Mr. LovETT. That is right. He took a shot at it.
Mr. OsMERS. Now, on page 3 (m this volume p. 7121) of your state-
ment, you say, and I quote you;
Generally speaking, Michigan is a mass-production State. It is a State where
its manufacturers and workers are skilled in repetitive operations, and that is the
kind of prime contracts that we in Michigan want.
Then later on you say:
The ro.anufacture of defense items, generally speaking, is a precision job.
Now, do you consider those two statements to be in conflict?
TRAINING PROGRAMS AND THE OLDER MAN
Mr. LovETT. Well, there is a certain conflict, yes, because that will
affect our labor problem, I think. There is quite a training program
on here now. Men have to be trained especially for all this aircraft-
engine business, and for a good deal of airplane riveting and that sort
of thins:.
The older men, who have been working for 10 or 15 years, we wdl
say, on a repetitive operation, have developed no special skiU. They
pick the piece up here and put it there and take it oft", and trip the
machine. They don't set the machine up, they don't make the tools.
Now, I don't know what position those men are going to have in
the defense picture, because generafly speaking the younger men are
the men who are being trained, and the ones who can be trained. So
I am not so sure that'we won't have a problem in those men over 40
who aren't able to be trained in these new processes. You can train
the younger feflows on the skifled jobs, even though they haven't
been working on them. But I doubt if you can train the other ones.
Mr. OsMERS. We are confronted with that same proposition, of
course, aU over the United States. I know in New Jersey we are
making Wright motors in quantitv, and in Baltimore they are making
airplanes in^quantity. I wouldn't want to guess at it, but I would
say the average age of the men involved in those operations is probably
around 21 or 22. It is amazingly low.
7144 DETROIT HEARINGS
WIDE TRAINING PROGRAM
Mr. LovETT. That is right.
Mr. OsMERS. Your situation here in Michigan would seem to call
for a very wide training program of different levels of skill. Is that
correct?
Mr. LovETT. That is correct. The programs are on. Mr. Hall
is more familiar wdth that program than I am. He has followed that
very closely in Detroit, but we have quite a little training in industry
itself and also in connection with the tools, not only in Detroit, but in
Muskegon and Grand Rapids and Jackson. There has been carried
on in Michigan for a number of years this vocational training within
the schools, as a joint operation between industry and the school
system.
Mr. OsMERS. Has that developed to be a very wise program in this
emergency?
Mr. LovETT. It has been shown to be very wise, and it has been
expanded a great deal in view of the defense orders that are out.
Mr. OsMERS. I 1 ( ;ilize you are not testifying as an educator. But,
could you give the committee briefly something about that established
training in Michigan in comiection with yoin- public schools?
Mr. LovETT. Well, we have operated here for a great many years
on part time in the schools and part time in the plants.
Mr. OsMERS. In the public schools?
Mr. LovETT. That is right.
Mr. OsMERS. And no tuition is charged the student?
Mr. LovETT. That is right.
Mr. OsMERS. Training young people of high-school age?
Mr. LovETT. That is right, yes. They go part time to school and
then they spend a part of their time in the factories. That has been
the basis of vocational training in Michigan.
The training that is given now, though, is more intensive than that.
The men go right into the schools and take the training and then hope
to get a job. It is entirely independent of that joint operation, but
over the period of years this joint plan has been used in the industrial
centers all over the State.
Mr. OsMERS. Well, in your new programs, leaving aside your public-
school program that has existed for years, in what categories do these
training programs fall? Do the men pay for the courses themselves,
or does the State pay for them, or is it Federal? How is it financed?
Mr. LovETT. The"^men taking private-industry training are paid a
wage as they go to school.
Mr. OsMERs. That is the training-in-industry program?
Mr. LovETT. Yes. The school program is paid for b}' the local
schools and they have a grant, don't they, Mr. Hall, from the Federal
Government?
Mr. Hall. That is right.
Mr. LovETT. And the men don't get any pay as they go there.
Mr. OsMERs. Do the private schools figure in the Michigan situa-
tion at all?
Mr. LovETT. Privately o\vned, run-for-profit schools?
Mr. OsMERs. Trade schools.
Mr. LovETT. They are here to some extent, and always have been,
and they are operatmg. I don't know how many pupils they have.
Of course, you have in addition to the regular commercial trade
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGKATION 7145
schools, other schools. General Motors has a school at Flint— the
Flint Institute of Technology — and Ford has the Ford Trade School,
and Chrysler has their Chrysler School, where they even go into
giving degrees. These men are fed back into those industries.
Mr. OsMERs. In those cases of the large automobile manufacturers,
do they pay the entire cost of that education?
Mr. LovETT. Oh, yes.
EXPECTED UNEMPLOYMENT
Mr. OsMERS. In your summary of the Michigan situation you pre-
dict that milcss materials are forthcoming m a city like Grand Rapids,
3,300 men may be laid off. Is that typical or is that an exception?
f^ Mr. LovETT. Xo; I would say that is typical — that proportion —
in a great many cities in Michigan. Grand Rapids is prunarily a
furniture-manufacturing town, and they have a lot of metal workers
there connected with the furniture mdustry — brass foundries and brass
stampings, and that sort of thing.
St. Joseph, Mich., is probably m the same situation. Sturgis and
Dowagiac are probably worse than any of them. They haven't any
big industr3\ AH they have is stoves and furnaces dowTi there, and
up to now the Government has not been buying anj^ hand grenades
or things that they can make m gray-iron foimdries of that type. So
• I M-ould say that that is probably a fair report on the southw^estern
part of Michigan.
Now. in the northeast part, cities like Saginaw, Bay City, and Flint
are devoted largely to automobile parts. They probably are not as
badly off. But'in southwestern Michigan it is pretty bad, or will be.
Mr. OsMERS. Your northern section is more adaptable to the needs
of defense?
Mr. LovETT. They have been making automobile parts and acces-
sories, and they have the equipment that can be converted.
Mr. OsMERs!^ Aside from hand grenades, what other things arc tliere
that these stove manufacturers can make, these gray-iron foimdries?
Mr. LovETT. Probably ammunition boxes and sheet-metal things,
but they are not able to take very much of an order m one plant.
Tlie3^ would have to pool orders or else the Government woidd have
to split them up.
They are primarily sheet metal and foundry industries tliere.
They don't have an}^ close precision equipment. There isn't anything
very precise about making a stove.
Mr. Arnold. I attended a conference in Chicago about a week ago,
and perhaps some of 3-our southwestern Michigan manufacturers and
city officials were there.
Mr. LovETT. They were.
Mr. Arnold. They broke up into industrial groups and manufac-
turers and city officials. Wliile I don't know that they knew I was in
the meeting, "an official from Quincy, 111., which city was then being
surveyed for something like the York plan or the Decatur plan, was
telling the other officials that that was what they were going to have
to do, "Forget peacetime manufacturing". JEIe told them they
should quit peacetime manufacturing and go into defense production,
and I thought for a short time they were going to throw him out of the
meeting.
7146 DETROIT HEARINGS
Thej" seemed to think, when he mentioned that, that all they had to
do was get hold of their Congressman or Senator and have him force
the Government to furnish materials for these nondefense industries
and let them go ahead as usual.
Of course, I didn't speak up. I didn't want to disillustion them.
But later Congressman Maas, who made the principal address, and
from whom I think they expected some comfort, said that if they
didn't get hep to the times and realize the situation in this Nation,
they could expect to go out of business.
Now, do you find any manufacturers of that type in Michigan?
I don't know whether they are isolationists, or what they are.
Mr. LovETT. Yes; it has been quite a task to bring them to the
proposition that the defense is probably all they will have. Through
our association we have run a regular campaign to try to convince
them. We started in 6 or 8 months ago to tell them that if they expect
to stay in business they had better try to get some defense orders.
Mr. Arnold. Some of them are pretty hard-boiled, aren't they?
MANUFACTURERS WANT DEFENSE CONTRACTS
Mr. LovETT. I haven't seen very many hard-boiled ones here. I
think they are hard-boiled in this way: they make up their minds
they are going to get into defense, and then send a man around to
try to find a defense contract, and he comes back very much dis-
couraged, w-ith the result that they are mad at everybody. They
can't get any steel, they know the steel people have told them they
are going to be cut off, and they can't find any defense work that they
can do, so naturally they are very much confused.
I doubt very much if we have among the manufacturers of Michigan
very many who have any objection to the defense program. They
would love to get into it if they could. I think that is the great feeling
in Michigan. I have found no manufacturers wdio have taken any
other position. And quite a few smaller manufacturers, who I
thought couldn't afford to do it, have sent men to Washington and
kept them there for quite a while, trying to find something to do. So
I don't believe that we have that situation.
I do Imow that far out through the Middle West, of course, that is
quite typical of the feeling that a great many manufacturers have.
They have felt that they could continue to carry on their peacetime
business. I beheve ours are better educated. They realize that that
is impossible.
O. p. M. SHOULD RELEASE MATERIAL NOT NEEDED FOR DEFENSE
The peacetime manufacturer might carry on to a certain extent if
the O. P. M. reached the stage where it knew what steel it had over
the 12 months' period and could say to the manufacturers who use
steel: ''Now, the country is producing 100,000,000 tons of steel this
year; the defense program requires 50,000,000 tons. There will be
50,000,000 tons of steel to go for nondefense purposes." If that were
true, then these fellows would at least have the knowledge that they
would get a piece of steel during the year.
I think that has brought on the confusion — the absolute uncer-
tainty as to where you fit in this picture. We know in industry that
the facilities are not here for using all the steel that is produced m a
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7147
year in the United States. You just haven't got the defense plants
to use it all. Now, why doesn't the Government arrive at the figure
that it is going to use and let the rest of the country know what it
may have?
I think that might be done also in copper and brass. Then, I
presume, there will be no private distribution of zinc. That is proba-
bly all going into defense. But that is what our people out here feel.
If they had some assurance as to what these programs were, you would
find them in a much happier state of mind.
Mr. Arnold. I thmk you are correct. I believe at this time more
materials could be going to private mdustries that are not in the
defense efi'ort. But of course rumors fly around, and the amomit of
materials thought available is mcreased, and when these stories get
around from manufacturer to manufacturer, they have it entirely
too high, then a number of them are gomg to have to get into defense
or quit.
Mr. LovETT. That is right.
Mr. Arnold. And they might as well make up their minds and
quit buckmg around and fighting the Government and hindering the
defense program.
SOME PLANTS NOT EQUIPPED FOR DEFENSE WORK
Mr, LovETT. Of course, Congressman, there is this pomt to bear
in mind. There are many manufacturers who are not equipped to
take on any defense work. They just haven't any equipment adapt-
able to defense work. A woodworking plant for example, in this day
and age hasn't much of a place in a defense program.
During the last war they used to make wooden propellers for air-
planes, and these woodworking shops had a lot of business. That
need is all gone. The result is that you are bringing in a class of
manufacturers who haven't the equipment and who never can get m on
defense orders. Now, what is going to happen to them? Those are
the ones that are really going out of busmess if this push, as they
tell us in Washington, is going to come.
I think most all the metalworking manufacturers eventually will
be absorbed if they push the program, but you must bear in mind
that a lot of them haven't any equipment that is adaptable.
Mr. OsMERs. Mr. Lovett, you were here when I questioned the
Governor, were you not? *
Mr. LovETT. Yes.
Mr. OsMERs. I tried to find out from the Governor a little about
the State of Michigan's relationship to Washington. Not the State
of Michigan, let us say, but the manufacturers of Michigan, in rela-
tionship with Washington. The Governor seemed to think that over
the hill there was a rainbow.
Manufacture! s whom I know personally have no such rosy picture.
They do not assume that everything is going to come out all right with
these new services that have been established, and new officials ap-
pointed.
In your position as general manager of the Michigan Manufacturers
Association, what would you say is lequired in Washington today to
rnake the efforts of the Michigan manufaciuiers effective in the na-
tional-defense program?
7148 DETROIT HEARINGS
Mr. LovETT. Well, I don't know whether you can do it in Wash-
ington.
Mr. OsMERS. Or anywhere else?
DECENTRALIZATION OF BIDDING PROCEDURES SUGGESTED
Mr. LovETT. What I would like to see is the centralization of all
these specifications and requests for bids. I would like to see them
sent out to localities like in Detroit and channeled through the de-
fense contract office here as soon as they are made available in Wash-
ington.
In the last war I was m Illinois, with the Illmois Manufacturers
Association. We set up, on our own initiative, the Illmois Manufac-
turers War Industries Bureau. We hired an engineer and sent him
to Washmgton. We furnished him with the itemized lists of equip-
ment that we had in these industries in Illinois. His office became
headquarters for a lot of procurement officers, because it was easier to
go over to his office and find out who could make a thing than it was to
run around the country.
Well, what this man of ours in Washington did was to relay to our
Chicago office all the blueprints and specifications on items that the
Government was buying, and we then called in to our Chicago office
the manufacturers equipped to make that stuff, and they sat around a
table there and took on the contracts.
Now, we haven't reached that stage in this situation, as I see it.
Washington lets a lot of contracts that we know nothing about out
here. The defense contracts office doesn't even loiow anything about
them.
Mr. OsMERS. You mean the contracts are let before the Detroit
office of the defense contract service knows that they are going to need
that equipment?
Mr. LovETT. That is right.
Mr. OsMERs. It is all over and done before they hear anything
about it?
Mr. LovETT. That is right.
Mr. OsMERs. A frequent complaint that I have heard — and I am
sure that every Member of Congress has heard it too— is that the
small manufacturer cannot get an answer on materials. There just
is no answer. In automobile production, for example, they skirt that;
they run around in percentages; and certainly, with the hundreds of
thousands of people involved, not only in tie State of Alichigan but
in every town and hamlet in the United States, there should be
something definite by this time on that industry. But I don't think
there is a man now who can say exactly what percentage of automobiles
made this year will be allowed to be manufactured next year; and they
are about as nearly ready on that item as any in the list. So you can
imagine what the result is, down in the lesser-known industries.
Automobile manufacture is a front-page industry.
It is well equipped to go and fight the battle. And yet, as any
executive in the motorcar industry today will admit, he doesn't
know what he is going to do from day to day; he doesn't loiow what
materials he is going to get, and can't guarantee he is going to get any.
Mr. LovETT. That is right. We don't know what we can get, when
we can get it, where we. can get it, or whether we can get it.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7149
Mr. OsMERS. You might be told that you can go ahead and make a
thousand sedans. But then when you go to make them, you can't
get the materials.
Mr. LovETT. That is right. That is what we are up against right
now. We don't know.
Mr. OsMERS. I am going to switch the subject entirely now, and
I want to ask you a general question with respect to the feelings of
your organization on the post-war period. Have you thought about
it at all?
ANTICIPATES 2 YEARS OF POST-WAR PROSPERITY
Mr. LovETT. Oh, yes. Well, the post-war period-ythat is shooting
into the future. I believe most manufacturers in Michigan feel that
for a year or two after this defense effort ceases they will have pretty
good business, and pretty good 'employment, because they have got to
replace a lot of things that have gone off the shelves.
Mr. OsMERS. A lot of civilian goods?
Mr. LovETT. Yes, sir; that was the experience in the last war.
Mr. OsMERS. You think it will follow that general pattern?
Mr. LovETT. The minute you start cutting down all of these so-
called luxuries, you are going to find a pubhc that has made good
money generally during this emergency, and they are gomg to want
to buy such thmgs. So I think for a year or two at least we will
run along pretty well and so will employment. But after that period,
I don't know. ' I don't know what is going to happen. Nobody here
knows.
Mr. OsMERS. It doesn't look very proniising to anyone, does it?
Mr. LovETT. No; there is great uncertainty.
Mr. OsMERS. Now, tell me this: A great many things have been
suggested, and are being suggested from day to day with respect to
that situation. I would say Uiat most important was the suggestion
to fix prices, to freeze prices, to control inflation, and keep us from
gomg through the roof. How do your manufacturers feel about that
idea?
Mr. LovETT. They have no objection if you control the causes of
prices which, of course, is costs; but it doesn't do any good to fix a
price on a commodity and not fix a price on the constituent cost
elements. If you are going to control prices you have got to control
wages.
Mr. OsMERS. Is there any disagreement on materials among
Michigan manufactm-ers?
Mr. LovETT. None that I know of.
Mr. OsMERS. Several other suggestions have been made. In one
of them I have been very much interested, and I probably will present
it to Congress in the form of a bill. That is to extend the cushion of
unemployment compensation after this emergency, extending the
length of time, so that the transition period will not be as rough.
Do you feel kindly toward such a plan?
Mr. LovETT. I heard you ask the Governor that. I have been
thinking some about it since. I am not so sure that is the answer.
I am not so sure that the Government can find the answer.
Mr. OsMERS. They can't find a complete or perfect answer, we
know that. Wliat I have in mind is making such a proposal to
lengthen the time of adjustment a little bit before we are on W. P. A.
7]^50 DETROIT HEARINGS
and city relief and everything else. The suggestion is that that can
be done by taking more from everyone during the period of the emer-
gency, thereby controlling an inflationary tendency by reducmg a
little bit the amount of money that is available for spending.
PREFERS UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION TO DIRECT RELIEF
Mr. LovETT. I would much rather do it your way than do it by
W. P. A. and so-called direct relief propositions.
Mr. OsMERS. I think you have a moral factor there that is very
important.
Mr. LovETT. That is right.
Mr. OsMERS. A man who is drawing unemployment compensation
payments feels, and rightly so, that he is drawing from a fund to which
he contributed and to which he is entitled. He doesn't feel any of the
stigma that a man would feel in going on relief.
Mr. LovETT. I think, on your unemployment compensation idea,
there is one fundamental factor that should be borne in mind. If you
are going to extend your benefits, of course you have got to increase
your taxes.
Mr. OsMERS. That is right.
Mr. LovETT. On your pay roll. Now, this pay-roll tax has a direct
effect upon the cost'^of living, and it is one of the things that is going
to keep the income, generally speaking, of the hourly worker, we will
say, from ever reaching up to his outgo.
We used to base our economy in this country, generally speaking,
on a balance of income and prices. ^Y\\en you had an unsettled situa-
tion, you had income do^vn and prices up, and sometimes you had
income up and prices down. But it seems to me now that you have
frozen the situation here, where your income never can reach your
prices, for the simple reason that every time you raise wages you raise
this tax, which becomes about 40 percent on the cost of your product,
as you pyramid it through your various processing operations, so that
you are alwavs pushing these prices up. Every time you raise a wage
you are also raising the tax. If your Social Security tax or unemploy-
ment compensation tax is 3 percent, you keep boosting it up because
the producer must add it into his costs. So I question, in the long run,
where that is all gomg to wind up in our national economy.
ENGLISH REPORT ON UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION
The English made a very interesting report here 4 or 5 years ago,
in which they analyzed unemployment compensation, the so-called
Keynes theory of made work, and all that sort of thing; and you may
recall that their commission came back to the proposition that when
unemployment compensation for those who were working on factory
pay rolls ran out, they went on direct cash relief at a subsistence basis.
That was the finding of their commission.
Mr. OsMERS. In view of all your own experience, is it your con-
clusion that as a Nation we w^ould be better off to follow those recom-
mendations and abandon this elaborate set-up and go on a direct
subsistence basis?
Mr. LovETT. Not at this time. I don't think we are far enough
along in it. I think we have been emotional about it and I think we
are still in the emotional stage. After we get into what we might hope
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7151
to be a normal era in the country, then we can find out whether it is
successful or not, but I wouldn't want to say.
CRITICISM OF DOLE SYSTEM
Mr. OsMERS. One of the great criticisms that was made to that
proposal and to the English system was implied in the word "dole."
Mr. LovETT. Yes, sir; that is right.
Mr. OsMERs. That gave it a very unfavorable light in the eyes of
the American people. A great many working people thought:
^'Well, if we do this it means that those of us who are working are just
gomg to support a permanent army of people who will subsist within
the population, people who never had either the ambition or the push
to get a job at slightly more pay than subsistence." That was the
great argument used agamst the plan.
The Chairman. Congressman Osmers, I was thinking about your
proposed bill to increase unemployment compensation, and I was
trying to think along with you. Wliat jurisdiction would Congress
have in passing any legislation telling the State of Michigan, for
instance, how much its rates should be? We have the Federal
Employees' Compensation Act, but that is limited, of course, to Federal
employees.
Mr. Osmers. I am referring to the unemployment compensation
category of the Social Security Act.
Mr. LovETT. You would take over the rate-making entirely as a
Federal activity, would you, Congressman?
Mr. Osmers. Yes, sir; probably exert more control over it.
Mr. LovETT. I wouldn't favor that fundamentally.
Mr. Osmers. I would like to say for the record that this proposal
is still a long way from the perfected stage, and I expect to send it
around and get a lot of advice from both employers and employees
before I go further with it. (To Mr. Lovett.) What do you think
of the forced savings plan?
OPPOSES FORCED SAVINGS PLAN
Mr. LovETT. I don't think very much of it. That becomes another
tax, and I don't think it is in accord with the psychology of the
American people. Even though they don't save, I don't think they
like that. It gets back to the proposition of the check-off again, and
not many of them like that, even though some of the union officials do.
TESTIMONY OF WILLIS HALL, MANAGER, INDUSTRIAL DEPART-
MENT, DETROIT BOARD OF COMMERCE
Mr. Osmers. Now, Mr. Hall, you are general manager of the
industrial department of the Detroit Board of Commerce?
Mr. Hall. Yes, sir.
Mr. Osmers. I have a couple of matters I want to discuss with you.
It is the feeling of your group, is it not, that the workers who are
going to be laid off in the automobile industry will, of necessity, have
to be reemployed in defense if they are going to get jobs at all?
Mr. Hall. That is correct; and it is the attitude of practically all
of the employers in Detroit that they are going to make every effort
60396— 41— pt. 18 7
7152
DETROIT HEARINGS
to get enougrh defense work so tliat they can reabsorb their workers.
That is their prin-ary objective at the moment.
Mr. OsMERs. The paper you have submitted will be entered in the
record at this point.
(The paper referred to above is as follows:)
STATEMENT BY WILLTS H. HALL, MANAGER. INDUSTRIAL DEPART-
MENT, DETROIT BOARD OF COMMERCE
Dotroit, Wayne County, is known as the home of mass production and the
automobile industry. Today it is becoming the defense production center of
America.
Defense production is the No. ] job of Detroit's industry. The production
genius of Detroit's industries and the skill of her workers a^-e })ein<.'- shifted
from automobiles to tanks, aircraft, guns, and munitions. This shift brings
manv problems and will cause teinporary unemployment for many Detroit
workers.
The tremendous growth of the automobile industry during the past 20 years
has drawn workers from all over the United States to Detroit. It is axMomatic
that when business conditions throughout the United States are reasonably
normal Detroit and the automobile industry booms, when the country is in a
depression Detroit business and employment drops, not as much as some large
cities, but Detroit always bounds back first as economic conditions in the Nation
improve.
Thus employment in Detroit swings up and down and there is a migration
of workers to and from Detroit with each swing. The attached tabulalion of the
Detroit employment index indicates these peaks and vallevs. For example,
the emplovment index went from a high of 130.6 in May 1937 to a low of 47.8
in July 1938. During this period there was considerable migration away from
Detroit. As busine>^s and employment improved during 1939-40 many of these
workers returned to Detroit and found employment. The employment index
reached 126.7 in June 1941, dropped to 96 in July during the automobile change-
over period and recovered 116 on August 30.
Industrial employment index, Detroit metropolitan area (1933-25 monthly average
equals 100) — data as of middle and close of month
[Prepared by industrial department of the Detroit Board of Commerce]
January...
February.
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October...
November
December.
ri27.0
1131. n
r"34,0
I m,. 0
r'37.8
I I sr,. n
n37.3
'3<i.O
ri37.0
131.0
"30.0
I?S. ?
r'?9.0
131.0
"3?. 0
'27.0
f'27.0
119.0
"07., 5
08.5
' S9. 5
93.0
■ 93. 1
r8.0
1930
101.5
ion. 5
10'^. 5
108.0
108. 0
108. .5
100.0
110.5
111.5
109.2
10-1. 5
99. 0
58.0
48.0
8.5.0
83.0
80.8
7-1.8
78.0
79. 0
80.0
75.8
78.5
40.0
76.4
70.5
78.0
81.2
82,
83.0
82.7
83.5
84.0
80.4
74.8
73.2
P8. 2
on. 8
53. 2
50.0
70.4
51.0
4n. 1
41.7
50.0
.52.7
RO. 7
64.0
67.2
69.0
69.4
68.6
68.0
65.4
63.6
67.5
69.0
69.6
70.8
72.2
69.6
63.4
32.9
29.2
44.7
37.4
41.6
42.0
40.8
39.3
44 2
48.0
5;
28.8
45. 5
49.2
33.5
41.8
47.5
.•"CO
51.0
52. 5
56.3
60.7
62.4
62.8
63.3
64.7
64.5
59.6
48.5
37.3
41.2
41.6
52.1
61.7
7.5.1
S3. 2
90 0
09.1
101.8
107.7
111.2
112.7
106.8
100. 5
93.2
83.1
87.4
83.9
79.5
'.0 2
70.8
64.2
54.1
50.2
51,9
62.4
84.1
91.2
101.4
108.3
110.0
109.5
110.6
110.2
110.9
110.8
U'r6. 4
102.4
97.1
93. V
90.7
66.6
'-0.2
71.7
71.9
82.7
93.7
100.9
107.5
107.8
109.9
108.8
109.2
103.8
101.1
100.0
100.9
101
104.2
105.8
105.4
105.0
10,5.0
103.5
104.3
101.0
91.3
78.0
75.7
83.9
99.6
103.0
112.6
117. ■,
122.2
126.1
1937
114.4
126.0
128.4
12, 5
8'
12'
l.^'O.O
1 30. 6
129.1
126.0
125.4
117.3
83.5
113.4
83.6
86.0
110.4
120.8
124.9
123.4
115. 1
102.1
74.5
1938
88.6
79.8
79.8
74.3
75.3
70.5
68.8
68.4
65. 1
58. 5
54.9
54.9
52.0
47.8
49.6
56. 8
62. 6
?2. 1
7^.7
88.0
92.6
97.6
ion. 9
102. 9
101.8
100
100
99.3
99,
97
96. 3
9''i 0
89.8
62.4
89,
86.7
71
59.5
65. 0
89.4
97.5
107.1
96.0
102 4
97.8
105.9
113.6
112.1
1940
106
104.9
111
109.9
110,6
110.3
108.3
108.8
104.8
102.6
102.1
96.0
75.0
64.1
86.8
93.4
102.2
111.6
117.3
120.2
122. 7
122^0
121.5
121.9
122.1
123.0
122.4
122.1
123.6
122.5
108.9
120.3
123.8
123,8
125.7
119.6
115.3
96.0
107.2
116.0
114.9
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7153
Recent estimates of the Michigan Unemployment Compensation Commission
indicate a current increase in unemployment of about 22,000 workers and an ad-
ditional 30,000 workers will become unemployed during December and January.
In addition to this net increase in unemployment many thousands of workers
will be shifted from nondefense to defense employment during the next 6 months.
Additional curtailment in the automobile industry or in nondefense manufacturing
due to scarcity of materials will create additional imemployment.
Employment on defense production is being expanded as rapidly as production
facilities can be equipped and made ready but it does not appear that the unem-
ployed nondefense w^orkers can all be absorbed in defense production before the
fall of 1942.
This curtailed employment during the transition period will have a depressing
effect on the entire community.
BUSINESS STATISTICS
Attached is a tabulation of Detroit Business Statistics for the first 8 months
of 1941 show'ing the percent increase or decrease over the same period in 1940.
Every factor except Detroit Stock Flxchange sales shows a considerable increase
over 1940. Estirnates for the next 8 months indicate a decreased volume of
business close to the 1939-40 pattern.
Detroit business statistics
BUILDING AND EEAL ESTATE
Contracts awarded, Wajme County
(Dodge Corporation).. .
Besidential contracts awarded in 37
States
Value of building permits— city of
Detroit
New buildings
Residential buildings
Factories and shops
Families provided for by new build-
ings, Detroit
Water board connections, Detroit area.
Deeds recorded, Wayne County .-.
Gas consumption, domestic, Detroit
gas units .
Gas meters installed, net, domestic
GENERAL BUSINESS
Deliveries of new passenger cars and
trucks, Wayne County
Postal receipts, Detroit area
Bank debits to individual accounts,
Detroit
Bank clearings, Detroit
Department store sales, Detroit 2
Electric meters installed, net, Detroit
area
Telephones installed, net, Detroit area.
Detroit Stock Exchange:
Number of shares traded
Value of shares traded
BUSrNESS rAILURES — DETROIT AREA
(Dun & Bradstreet, Inc.)
Number
Total assets
Total Habilities-
8 months ending
Aug. 31, 1941
I $83, 036, 000
« $1, 154, 043, 000
$58. 380. 300
$50, 729, 106
$40, 951, 974
$3, 742, 885
8,517
9.632
58, 736
I 16, 646, 982
1 +14, 291
120, 251
$8, 755, 099
$10,713,118,000
$5, 786, 168, 0.58
1 113
+25. 680
+34, 592
1,496,073
$12, 827, 609
136
$981, 518
2,011,514
Percent
increase
or
decrease
over same
period
1940
+29.8
+38. 9
+24.7
+24.3
+23.9
+356. 0
+9.5
+20.5
+27.0
+5.1
+47.2
+49.0
+9.5
+36. 5
+48.1
+22.9
+26.4
+92.3
-30 4
-37.4
-35.8
-71.3
-00.3
August 1941
1 $13, 437, 000
1 $205, 049, 000
$6, 986, 186
$5. 757. 186
$4, 904, 880
$278, 350
986
1,836
7,694
11,300,613
1 +2, 218
7,187
$1,042,059
$1,339,803,000
$777, 043, 802
197
+3, 556
+4, 768
207. 222
$1, 335, 805
12
$232, 632
$402, 442
Percent increase or
decrease over
Last
year
+19.4
+46.0
+10.3
+117.0
-5.2
+48.5
+10.4
+.6
+93.0
+28.7
+7.2
+43.8
+41.8
+36.5
+16.4
+74.8
+5.5. 0
-14.3
-45. 4
-55.3
-61.9
Last
month
+9.7
-.2
-16.5
-21.8
-21.6
-19.7
-22.8
+4.5
-11.2
-16.8
+35.0
-40 1
-.2
-9.6
-2.5
-11.8
-8.5
+29.3
.-5.6
-26.3
-29.3
+5».5
-3.5
1 July 1941.
> Index based on 1935-39 daily average equal to 100.
7154
DETROIT HEARINGS
Detroit business statistics — Continued
Percent
months ending
Aug. 31, 1941
increase
or
decrease
over same
period
1940
118.4
+18.6
M73
+29.0
« 695, 240
+24.7
1 16, 800, 461
+29.0
326
+27.3
« 3, 790, 476
+31.8
201, 543, 166
+12.4
1 8, 991, 705
+28.4
1+381
+20. 2
August 1941
Percent increase or
decrease over
Last
year
Last
month
INDUSTRIAL
'Employment index, Detroit area —
Industrial department estimate —
average '
Wages paid, industrial, Detroit area,
ba.se period, monthly average,
1934=100
Freight cars loaded and received —
transportation bureau, Detroit area-
Total in- and out-bound tonnage,
Detroit area
Power consumption index, Detroit
area '
Automobile production. United States
and Canada
Revenue passengers carried on Detroit
Street Ry. system
Gas consumption, commercial and in-
dustrial, Detroit gas units, Detroit
area
Gas meters installed, net. commercial
and industrial, Detroit area
111.6
« 199
1 94, 639
I 2, 389, 463
314
« 173, 000
20, 326, 594
I 1, 162, 041
1 -104
+28.7
+55.5
+45.4
+49.1
+26.2
+92.7
-1.7
+45.1
+9.6
+8.2
-2.9
-5.0
+.fi
-63.1
-16.2
-12.9
1 July 1941.
' Index based on 1923-25 monthly average equal to 100.
< Juno 1941.
« Preliminary.
Compiled by the Industrial Department of the Detroit Board of Commerce.
OUT-MIO RATION OF WORKERS
Detroit has a large mobile labor supply. Workers flow toward Detroit as
employnient and production increase and many leave Detroit as soon as they are
laid off. During the next 4 months the trend will be away from Detroit. It is
difficult to present an accurate estimate of this out-migration but it may easily
total 10,000 workers.
DEFENSE TRAINING
Your committee will have reports from the Training Within Industry Branch,
Labor Division of the Office of Production Management and the Vocational
Education Program for National Defense of the Detroit Board of Education.
Both of these groups have undertaken tremendous training programs to prepare
Detroit workers for the shift from nondefense to defense production. In addition,
many of our large industrial institutions have expanded their normal training
program to meet the training needs of the defense program. All of these training
activities will have considerable influence on encouraging the unemployed Detroit
workers to remain in Detroit, and enter training for specific defense jobs.
DEFENSE HOUSING NEEDS
Six months ago it appeared that Detroit would have need for a considerable
increase in residential building to meet the housing requirements of new workers
that would come to Detroit for jobs on defense production. Detroit's private
home construction industry undertook a large building program in anticipation
of that need.
Today, however, it appears that Detroit will have increasing residential va-
cancies during the next 6 m.onths. This condition together with the institution
of priorities for critical materials for defense housing costing $6,000 or less has
materially reduced residential construction during the past month. The decline
in residential construction will create some unemployment in the building trade
as soon as construction programs now in process are completed.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7155
However, we contemplate a continuing review of the facts relative to Detroit's
housing supply, increases in employment, unemployment figures, and residential
construction so that our housing needs can be forecast well enough in advance to
meet the needs of the community.
The Federal Government has allocated 1,000 defense housing units to the
Detroit area. The city of Detroit has established a homes registration bureau to
register available dwelling units for rent and to receive application from workers
for rental units. The rent index for Detroit on August 15, 1941, was 112.4. This
compares with a rent index of 114.8 on December 15, 1937, and 143.4 in December
1929.
Attached is the cost of living index for Detroit as reported by the United States
Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Cost of living in Detroit — Indexes of the cost of good'i purchased by wage earners and
loioer-salaried workers
[Average: 1935-39=100]
Date
All items
Food
Clothing
Rent
Fuel and
light
House
furnish-
ings
Miscella-
neous
69.1
71.4
83.4
101.2
120.9
141.7
163.2
150.9
127.5
124.6
129.4
127.3
132.1
129.2
125.5
123.9
124.7
113.3
98.7
86.2
83.5
87.6
91.2
95.5
99.5
105.3
106.4
103.0
100.7
99.8
99.1
100.2
99.8
99.9
100.9
100.5
100.6
100.4
100.9
101.0
101.1
102.1
103.4
103.4
106.4
107.0
107.4
81.3
84.5
101.2
126.8
148.4
163.7
199.6
144.5
123.0
119.8
122.6
122.9
141.9
137.7
132.1
129.6
133.0
112.5
90.7
73.8
78.2
85.4
91.0
99.4
101.1
109.3
103.8
99.8
96.0
94.0
92.4
96.2
94.1
94.5
98.3
96.0
95.5
94.8
95.8
97.0
97.2
98.4
101.3
100.7
107.0
107.2
107.1
68.8
70.4
81.8
101.0
147.1
193. 9
212.5
190.0
132.5
123.8
127.5
121.2
120.3
117.7
112.9
111.8
111.3
103.4
91.6
86.6
83.3
94.4
97.1
96.2
98.5
102.4
105.9
102.0
100.9
100.8
100.9
100.1
101.7
102.0
101.8
101.2
101.6
101.6
101.9
100.0
100.1
102.6
102. 6
102.7
103.2
105. 0
106.0
80.7
82.3
94.8
106.9
112.1
129.2
136.1
167.8
154.1
154.9
167.4
164.4
159.5
157.7
148.5
143.7
143.4
129.0
105.7
81.5
71.5
67.6
75.3
85.0
99.8
107.4
114.8
111.2
109.1
108.4
108.0
107.8
107.8
107.9
107.7
107.9
107.9
107.9
108.5
108.5
108.7
109.1
109.7
110.0
110.6
112.1
112.4
67.7
68.8
74.4
88.1
99.9
106.9
118.4
138. 4
120.2
132.3
125.2
123.7
136.1
126.4
119.7
119.8
120.2
115.8
107.8
99.6
93.1
100.3
102.5
104.7
100.2
97.9
99.8
95.7
98.7
98. 7
96.5
97.5
98.9
98.8
97.0
98.9
99.1'
99.2
99.4
97.9
98.3
98.3
98.3
99.8
101.9
102.2
104.2
62.1
67.5
77.3
93.4
128.7
169.2
190.4
176.3
122.2
112.4
127.4
123.0
120.2
117.1
114.7
112.5
111.4
103.4
92.7
82.1
81.3
91.0
94.4
94.7
97.3
104.4
107.4
102.2
101.2
101.3
101.5
101.3
102.8
100.3
99.5
99.2
99.6
99.6
99.4
99.2
99.2
102.7
103.1
103.5
106.4
109.0
109.8
48.0
49.7
1916 December
58.7
72.0
1918 December
82.9
96.1
1920, June ..- -
115.9
117.2
1921, December
110.8
1922 December - -
106.4
1923, December
109.7
1924. December -
108.3
1925, December ..-
106.9
1926, December
106.4
109.6
111.0
1929, December - ---
110.7
1930 December . -
108.1
1931, December .. ■ ---
104.7
1932, December .
101.2
1933, June - -
96.4
97.8
1934, Nov. 15
96.8
1935, Oct. 15
95.9
1936, Dec. 15
98.1
1937, June 15 .
102.4
Dec 15
105. 2
1938, June 15
103.2
Dec. 15 - -
100.7
1939, Mar. 15
100.2
100.2
Sept. 15
99.9
Dec 15
99.8
1940, Mar. 15 ._
99.9
99.9
Sept. 15
100.7
Oct. 15
101.6
Nov. 15
101.6
Dec. 15
101.8
1941, Jan. 15 --
101.8
Feb. 15".
101.8
Mar. 15
102.2
Apr. 15
103.1
May 15
103.1
105.2
July 15
105.0
Aug. 15
105.0
Source: U. 8. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Also attached is a tabulation showing the value of building permits issued by
the city of Detroit on a monthly basis during the past 5 years.
7156
DETROIT HEARINGS
Value of all building permits, Detroit
January...
February.
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November.
December -
Year
$6, 057, 879
5, 533, 315
11,917,635
11,548,340
11,209,318
9, 564. 058
10,913,415
9,823,611
9, 928, 308
6, 767, 971
4,880,017
2, 398, 630
100, 542, 497
$2,998,107
3, 795, 556
5, 350, 051
4, 694, 965
3, 203. 126
7, 940, 750
6, 680, 969
5, 747, 161
3, 600, 779
3, 419, 2f.O
3, 169, 046
2, 304, 140
52, 909, 940
1938
.$2, 183, 8.36
1, 988, 862
3, 291, 544
3, 989, 000
3, 984, 634
4, .533. 441
4, 573, 852
4, 777, 237
5,913.840
7, 226, 310
5, 079, 201
3, 888, 014
51, 430, 371
1939
$.3,410,949
3, 358, 676
5, 807, 144
5, 288, 482
5,647,831
5, 656, 736
5,851,306
5,465,940
5, 140, 693
6, 888, S93
5, 133, 572
4, 007, 877
61, 664, 099
1940
$3, 025, 004
3, 70S, 089
5, 628, 631
7, 627, 877
7, 319. 220
5, 405, 305
6, 727, 979
7, 372, 271
7,413, 139
7, 656, 630
6, 523, 875
12, 729, 713
81, 138, 733
1941
$4, 369. 850
5. 525, 872
9. 100,909
9. 054, 527
6,611,020
8, 359, 295
8, 372, 641
6, 986, 186
A brief summary of present and near future conditions in the Detroit industrial
area might be as follows: There will be increasing unemployment resulting from
shortages of critical material and the conversion of Detroit industry from non-
defense to defense production. Detroit industry is making and will continue to
make every effort to speed up employment and production of defense material.
Employment on nondefense will be maintained at as high a level as possible in
proportion to the amounts of critical materials that can be released for non-
defense production in order to cushion employment during the transition period.
Defense training programs will be increased and are expected to have considerable
influence on encouraging unemployed workers to remain in Detroit and train for
specific defense jobs. Workers leaving Detroit during this transition period will
probably return to Detroit when called by their former employer because wage
rates in industry in the Detroit area are higher than any other large industrial area.
Detroit is deeply concerned about the current problems incident to the transi-
tion from nondefense to defense production. Howver, we are even more con-
cerned about the problems that will confront Detroit and the entire country at
the end of the defense-production period. We can foresee greater economic
dislocations with its resulting unemployment, hardship, and suffering for thous-
ands of our citizens unless we plan now to meet the problems that will confront
Detroit and the country when we shift back to normal domestic production.
We are hopeful that the studies of this committee may aid in formulating some
program to meet those problems.
TESTIMONY OF WILLIS HALL— Resumed
Mr. OsMERS. You state in your paper, and I quote you:
It does not appear that the unemployed nondefense workers can all be absorbed
in defense production before the fall of 1942.
Mr. Hall. That is correct.
Mr. OsMERS. That is about a year from now?
Mr. Hall. That is right.
Mr. OsMERS. Could you just give us vour reasoning leading up to
that?
Mr. Hall. That statement is predicated upon the proposition that
you are going to curtail automobile production 48 percent in December,
and possibly more afterward. Our present schedules for defense pro-
duction just can't be stepped up in many of the larger defense plants.
They can't get all the tools and machinery and equipment ready, they
can't get production rolling fast enough to absorb those men at the
time that they are laid off.
Mr. OsMERS. It is going to be a question of timing?
Mr. Hall. Absolutely, a question of timing.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7157
Mr. OsMERS. You feel hopeful that m a year, if the present arc of
defense work continues, the employment situation will catch up with
itself?
Mr. Hall. That is right.
Mr. OsMEES. Now, you also say that this curtailment will have a
very depressmg effect on the entire community?
Mr. Hall. Can't help it.
Mr. OsMERS. You expect m the next 6 months a volume of busi-
ness close to the 1939-40 pattern. Would you consider that a
depressed standard — the 1939-40 period?
BUSINESS CURVE
Mr. Hall. It certainly would be depressing compared with what
we had during the last 9 months. Of course, in 1939 and 1940, we
thought we were having good business; and then 1941 came along
and business rose anywhere from 10 to 30 percent above the 1940
pattern, and now it appears that we are going to have this tremendous
temporary unemployment, depressed pay rolls, depressed production
of all items. We just won't have the buymg power in the com-
munity to mamtain the level that we have had during the past 8
months,
ANTICIPATED UNEMPLOYMENT FOR DETROIT
Mr. OsMERS. I think the most mterestmg figures in your paper are
your estimates of a current increase of 22,000 unemployed now, and
30,000 more becoming unemployed during December and January.
Mr. Lovett uses the figure ''115,000."
Mr. Hall. That is for the State.
Mr. OsMERS. I presume your figures are for the city of Detroit?
Mr. Hall. Yes; and ours were taken from a preliminary survey
made by the Michigan Unemployment Compensation Commission.
You will hear Mr. Stanchfield, the expert on that, this afternoon.
Mr. OsMERS. There is a story current in Detroit that you need a
$10,000,000 public works program, and the Detroit officials estimate
that 40,000 W. P. A. workers will be needed, as against 12,000 on the
rolls today. Do you care to comment on that estimate?
TRAINING PROGRAMS
Mr. Hall. Well, I doubt. Congressman, that 40,000 people will go
down immediately and apply for W. P. A. Remember that each of
these large industries is at the present time engaged in a tremendous
retraining program to fit the nondefense worker to take on the defense
job. In addition to that, you have the training program through
the school system. They have, I believe, about 15,000 people in
various stages of defense training in the school system today. And
then you have the other program of training within industry, under
O. P. M., and that is spreading down through many of the smaller
industries.
Mr. OsMERS. So it is not your opinion, summing it up, Mr. Hall,
that everyone who becomes unemployed in the next 4 or 5 months is,
of necessity, going to go right down to the W. P. A. office and apply for
employment.
7158 ' DETROIT HEARINGS
Mr. Hall. No. You will have certainly a material increase in
the applications for relief and W. P. A. but
Mr. OsMERS. But you don't feel it would reach from 12,000 to
40,000?
Mr. Hall. I don't see how it could.
Mr. OsMERS. What have been the effects on the city of Detroit of
the large number of people who live in Detroit when they have a job
in Detroit and who migrate elsewhere when they are unemployed?
BUSINESS FOLLOWS SAME CURVE AS EMPLOYMENT INDEX
Mr. Hall. Well, generally, you can figure that the whole economic
condition of Detroit swings up and down with the employment index
of Detroit's industry, because our whole economic structure is based
upon the pay rolls of the community. As those pay rolls go up,
generally business goes up; when they go down, business follows.
Mr. OsMERS. These people who leave Detroit when they are un-
employed, where do they go?
Mr. Hall. There was a map, Congressman, prepared in 1939 and
published in one of your committee's reports, which showed the out-
migration from Michigan, and it indicated the unemployed Detroit
workers went to every State in the Union. ^
Mr. OsMERs. Do you feel unemployment-compensation payments
have retained workers in Detroit, or helped to retain them here?
Mr. Hall. Not necessarily. If a worker is laid off here and can go
back to Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, or any other State where he might
find cheaper living in smaller communities, he will do that.
Mr. OsMERS. Did these men come here primarily to help with new
automobile models?
Mr. Hall. There is an accumulation of men who have come into
Detroit year after year for the past 10 or 15 years.
Mr. OsMERs. For that purpose?
Mr. Hall. Largely in the automobile industry.
Mr. OsMERS. Do they consider themselves residents of Detroit?
Do they vote here, and maintain residences here, and do they send
their children to school here?
Mr. Hall. Wliile they are here most of them do.
Mr. O.SMERS. On the citizenship or residence question: Do they
consider themselves Detroiters? Or Kentuckians or Tennesseans?
Mr. Hall. I think the great majority consider themselves De-
troiters— part of Detroit and Detroit's industry.
Mr. OsMERs. I am wondering what they are from a census stand-
point.
EXPECTED OUT-MIGRATION
Mr. Hall. They were counted here.
Mr. OsMERs. Now, unquestionably, as the defense program devel-
ops, and particularly when the full blow of automobile curtailment i&
felt in the Michigan area, you are going to lose workers here. You
are going to lose skilled workers from the State of Michigan. They
are going elsewhere.
Mr. Hall. We anticipate that.
1 See H. Kept. No. 369, Report of the Select Committee to Investigate the Migration of Destitute Citizens,
p. 496-F.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7159
Mr. OsMERS. They are coming to my State of New Jersey and
making airplane motors, and to other places to make guns or some-
thing else. Now, are your industrialists preparing some system for
bringing those men back? Are they making records of them, where
they go and so forth?
EXPECT TO KEEP SKILLED WORKERS
Mr. Hall. We doubt, first, Congressman, that we will lose a lot of
skilled men.
Mr. OsMERS. You doubt that?
Mr. Hall. Skilled operators. We believe it is inevitable that we
will lose common laborers and unskilled or semiskilled labor. But
certainly every effort is going to be made to maintain and to keep
within the area all of the skilled operators we can possibly keep here.
Mr. OsMERS. W^iat is your situation with respect to skilled labor?
Is there a shortage?
Mr. Hall. In some categories.
Mr. OsMERS. Chiefly what?
Mr. Hall. Mr. Calm here, I think, probably could give you
more information on the skilled trades shortages.
TESTIMONY OF CHESTER A. CAHN, SECRETARY, AUTOMOTIVE
TOOL AND DIE MANUFACTURERS ASSOCIATION, DETROIT,
MICH.
Mr. OsMERS. What is the situation, Mr. Calm?
Mr. Cahn. I think we will need skilled workers. There is a dehnite
shortage in almost all categories.
Mr. OsMERS. We shall incorporate your paper mto the record, Mr.
Cahn, at this point.
(The paper referred to above is as follows:)
STATEMENT BY CHESTER A. CAHN, SECRETARY, AUTOMOTIVE
TOOL AND DIE MANUFACTURERS ASSOCIATION
The automotive tool and die industry in Detroit embraces slightly in excess
of 200 jobbing shops with employment capacities varying from 10 to 500. The
industry is engaged principally in the manufacture of special tools, dies, jigs,
fixtures, gages, and special machinery. Its facilities are used by producers in
high quantities of metal goods, namely, manufacturers of automobiles, auto-
motive parts and equipment, stoves, refrigerators, tractors, and others.
The demands of the automobile industry require a close association between
the purchaser of tools and the supplier and close proximity of the two are essential
to efhciencv and satisfactory results.
Most of the tools and dies required by the automobile industry are designated
for the purpose of model changes, and are usually scheduled for delivery prior
to a dead-line date of August 1. At peak, a tooling program uses the total tool
and die manpower of the industry. Time occupied in producing tools for model
changes, and employment levels vary in accordance with the magnitude of the
model change. Extensive changes are accomplished by starting worlv as early
:as January 1, and by operating upon a schedule of overtime hours.
RELATION TO DEFENSE
Almost 100 percent of the facilities of the industry are now engaged in defense
work for the arsenals, aircraft manufacturers, aircraft engine manufacturers,
automobile manufacturers, tank manufacturers, and machine tool manufacturers.
The industry is operating upon an overtime basis.
7150 DETROIT HEARINGS
It must be explained that the use of facilities is limited to some extent because
there is not sufficient skill to operate all plants on multiple shifts.
EFFECT OF CURTAILMENT
Quantity of production does not bear directly on the number of tools and dies
needed for manufacture, but determines the structure and wearing surfaces.
After new models are put into production very little of the tool and die industry
is required to supply the needs of the automobile industry. Facilities of the
captive shops are usually more than adequate to rebuild the tools or dies required
as a result of break-downs or engineering changes. Curtailment of production
will have little effect on the tool and die industry.
THE EFFECT OF FREEZING MODELS
The question of whether or not the freezing of models will release tool and die-
makers for the defense program will depend upon the requirements of the pro-
gram at the time of the year ordinarily given to model changes; namely, the first
6 months.
Since much of the manpower and a large percentage of the industry are, and
have been, devoted to the making of dies, employment of these facilities will
depend upon the quantity of dies required henceforth for the defense. It is
highly probable that much of the equipment, particularly adapted to die manu-
facturing, will become idle.
MIGRATION
A cross section check of the industry indicates that slightly in excess of 2 per-
cent of the manpower engaged in the independent plants have migrated from
other areas within the past year.
An accurate check of those who have migrated away from this area is not
available but it is doubtful the total equals 1 percent.
TOTAL EMPLOYMENT
The automobile manufacturers, body manufacturers, automotive parts and
equipment manufacturers, and automotive tool and die manufacturers, in the
Detroit area, employ a total of 20,581 men in tool and die departments, exclusive
of apprentices.
TESTIMONY OF CHESTER A. CAHN— Resumed
Mr. OsMERS. Are your figures at variance with those of the labor
unions? We have had an amazing experience in this committee. We
have had one witness follow another, with the manufacturer or
employer saying there is a definite shortage of skilled workers, and the
labor man immediately contradicting him.
Mr, Cahn. Well, my figures may be at variance with those of
labor, but I can show evidence of the fact that there is a desire at the
present time for skilled workmen.
Mr. OsMERS. That there are jobs open?
Mr. Cahn. There are lots of employment opportunities for skilled
workers. Do not understand me to mean all classes of skilled workers.
I understand there are pattern makers out of employment, although
I have been told that there are opportunities in the shipyards for
pattern makers. The probability is that there won't be too many
opportunities for pattern makers so long as new models or the present
automobile models are frozen, because a lot of pattern makers have
been developed to build patterns for the automobile model changes.
In referring to pattern makers, of course, I am referring to a very
limited group of men. I don't know how many there are. I under-
stand about 500. But that is the only skilled group with which I am
familiar that has limited opportunities for employment.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7161
A great many of these men have the abihty to do other work. As
a matter of fact, I understand that Briggs Maniifacluring Co., which
is making airplane fuselages and wings, has developed a pattern-
making technique to assist them in maintaining models and bringing
about changes in models.
ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY THOUSAND DEFENSE WORKERS IN DETROIT
AREA
Mr. OsMERS. I see. Now, getting back again, Mr. Hall, to this
Detroit situation: There are, I believe, 130,000 defense workers in
the Detroit area now. Does that figure about jibe with yours?
Mr. Hall. It was taken from the Stanchfield report.^
Mr. OsMERS. Yes.
Mr. Hall. I think that is substantially correct.
Mr. OsMERS. How many of those are employed by automobile
manufacturers in defense?
EIGHTY-ONE THOUSAND AUTOMOBILE WORKERS IN DEFENSE
Mr. Hall. The Stanchfield report indicated, as of November 30,
48,000 would be employed by the 5 principal automobile producers
and the 33,000 additional would be employed by the automobile
suppliers, which would be a total of 81,000.
Mr. OsMERS. Out of 130,000?
Mr. Hall. Yes.
Mr. LovETT. I would like just to put in one more word on this
future of employment.
Mr. OsMERS. Please do.
COST PER POUND OF INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS
Mr. LovETT. Your skilled labor, of course, is going to become in-
creasingly scarce, because an automobile, for instance, sells for 25
cents a pound, while a tank like Chrysler is making, I think, sells for
much more — perhaps $2 or $4 a pound; the Bofors machine gun sells
for about $5 a pound ; and Pratt & Whitney engines or Wright Cyclones
sell for about $25 a pound. That is skill. That is all skilled labor in
there.
Mr. OsMERS. That is the factor that makes the difference?
Mr. LovETT. Yes; that is the factor that makes the difference in
cost.
Mr. OsMERS. There is just as much material in a pound of auto-
mobile as there is in a pound of airplane motor, but the degree of skill
is greater?
Mr. LovETT, That is right. And that is a pretty good basis for
you to chart your future use of skill.
Mr. OsMERs. Do you expect, Mr. Lovett, any substantial reduction
in the cost per pound of airplane motors as we really swing into mass
production on them?
Mr. LovETT. I think you will get some decrease in cost, but not a
great deal. Labor is a very important factor, and those motors are
all very close-limit jobs, as you know. They are precision jobs, to
J See p. 7189.
7162 DETROIT HEARINGS
two ten-thousandtlis of an inch, and that is close work. And that is
where your cost comes in. The material is no higher priced than the
material that goes into an automobile.
Mr. OsMERS. Yes; I guess that is true. Now, Mr. Hall, do you
think that multiple-shift operations will have the effect of keeping
your workers here in Michigan?
Mr. Hall. Could have. That would be, of course, a matter largely
of negotiation between plant manasiement and the unions.
Mr. OsMERS. What are the possibilities in that respect? Are most
of your defense plants now working multiple shift?
MULTIPLE SHIFTS
Mr. Hall. It depends on the volume of business they have. If
they are loaded up, they are working three shifts, 24 hours a day and
7 days a week.
Mr. OsMERS. Certainly that would be a much better solution —
the multiple shift plan — than having men traveling all over the country
seeking employment.
SENIORITY AS AID TO RETENTION OF SKILLED WORKERS
Mr. Hall. Mr. Congressman, the 0PM Committee that has been
meeting here in Detroit for the past 2 weeks is trying to work out a
way of preventing loss of skilled workers. Under this plan, the first
men to be transferred from nondefense to defense within the plant
that has the defense contract will be the oldest, those with greatest
seniority; and then, after those, the men who are qualified for the
job — for the new defense job; after that, they are trying to establish
that other defense contractors, seeking additional help, will apply
to the Michigan Placement Service, and men will be taken from those
still remaining on nondefense with the greatest amount of seniority
and qualifications for the new defense job. That will have an in-
fluence in helping retain our skilled workers in the area.
fears for AUTOMOBILE DECENTRALIZATION
Mr. OsMERS. Is there any concern in Michigan about the spreading
out of all these mass-production industries, and is there any fear that
it may lead to a decentralization of the automobile industry?
Mr. Hall. We at the board of commerce are greatly concerned about
that problem. You can understand that when we have five or six
billion dollars of additional plant — defense-plant facilities being created
and tooled up and machined throughout the United States — when this
thing is over, many of those plants with excellent machine-tool
capacity will be in areas with a much lower wage schedule than the
Detroit area and the southeastern Michigan area, and you can also
appreciate that after the defense emergency is over, there is going to be
a period of tremendous competition, in which business is going to the
producer who is able to produce the best product at the lowest price
and get the greatest distribution; so that ahead of Detroit lies a period
when we are going to have to do a tremendous job of planning today,
and from today on, to meet the problems that are going to come up 2, 3,
4, or 5 years from now.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7163
Mr. OsMERS. I think, of all of the things that we have considered
here this morning, that that probably is fraught with the greatest
danger to all parts of the country.
Mr. Hall. Much more serious than this temporary change-over
picture.
Mr. OsMERS. And that is serious enough. Because these huge
plants that you and I see ah over the United States, building motors
and airplanes and everything else, certainly will be able to make auto-
mobiles if they make enough money during the war to tool them up,
and they probably will.
Mr. LovETT. They will be for sale cheap.
The Chairman. You lead the Nation now in automobile produc-
tion, and you may have to take to the air.
Mr. LovETT. I think we will, Congressman.
Mr. Osmers. New Jersey will take care of that.
Mr. LovETT. That is what California is afraid of, Mr. Congressman.
Mr. Hall. I don't think there is any question that through the
entry of the productive skill of the automotive industry into air-
craft, we are going to find ways to produce airplanes and airplane
engines at much less cost than in the past.
Mr. Osmers. Do you think the so-called seepage-down process will
help some of these subcontractors to become prime contractors?
farming-out of defense contracts
Mr. Hall. I am entirely in agreement with the statemnt of Mr.
Lovett. If you gentlemen could appreciate the tremendous farming-
out organization that the automotive industry has, you would under-
stand what we mean. I think Mr, Lovett said in his statement, for
instance, that the Ford Motor Co. has 7,000 supphers. Now, the
engineering and purchasing departments of the Ford Motor Co. know
immediately what each of those 7,000 firms are able to produce.
They know the tools they have on hand; they know the management's
skill and ability; and certainly they are in much better position to
farm that production, down to the person who is best able to produce
it in the shortest possible time. I entirely agree with Mr. Lovett's
suggestion that if the purchasing agencies of the Army and Navy and
Air Corps and all other governmental agencies would spread the con-
tracts and the blueprints and specifications out to Detroit as soon as
they spread them in Washington and other places, we could probably
step up the farming-out process much faster than any other method
you could devise.
Mr. Osmers. In other words, it will have to come from the top
and then depend upon the pressure to shoot it out at the bottom.
Mr. Hall. Let me give you a definite example of that. The
Continental Motors is producing an aircraft engine for the tanks
that are bemg manufactured here. They received requests some few
weeks ago to step up production. Immediately they realized they
were going to need help to do it. Consequently, they have been
farming out much of their work, and they will have to farm out
much more, so through the defense contract service office they have
set up an exhibit of 50 different pieces of that engine, and have
invited 600 Detroit and Michigan manufacturers to look at that
exhibit and see what they could produce. As a result, they were
able to find production facilities and farm out the work.
7164 DETROIT HEARINGS
Now, today, in that same office they have three separate defense
contractors, with exhibits, and there is a constant stream of Detroit
and Michigan manufacturers, going in and looking at the pieces,
seeing what it wiU require to produce them. If they can produce
them, there is an order, and they go to work on it; and I think a
considerable improvement certainly has taken place in the last
couple of months in the farming-out process.
Mr. Cahn. I would like to express the same point of view, but from
a different angle, in connection with the large manufacturers who are
subcontracting the work.
DIRECT SUBLETTING BY MANUFACTURERS ADVOCATED
The majority of those 7,000 suppliers that Ford has on his list
would rather deal with Ford because in the first place they want the
goodwill of the Ford Motor Co. Secondly, and verj^ important, a
committee went to the office of contract distribution, as a result of an
investigation from Washington, and we looked at the equipment
they had, and we were advised by the agents there that the blue-
prints and that equipment "may be sent to 1 or 1,000 suppliers."
Well, of course, the man who does the estimating from those blue-
prints is one of the most important men in the organization of any of
these shops. His time is valuable, and supposing that one item of
$5,000 went to 1,000 firms, and was estimated by 1,000 estimators,
you can well understand that the cost of estimating it would be many
times the cost ot that article.
Now, that isn't the ordinary practice in the automobile companies.
They have five or six companies that will build that particular item,
and they will send their blueprints and specifications to those five or
six companies. Consequently, instead of 1,000 highly paid and
important estimators, estimating on 1,000 blueprints for a $5,000 job,
here are only 5 or 6 estimators.
Mr. OsMERS. I can easily see how the cost of estimating any
complex article might exceed the cost of the article itself if you carried
this process out to a ridiculous extreme,
Mr. Cahn. That is right.
Mr. OsMERS. Now, to go into another subject. We have learned
that 45 percent of the revenue of Wayne County is distributed to the
rest of the State. Is that right, Mr. Hall?
WAYNE COUNTY PAYS MORE THAN ITS PROPORTIONATE SHARE OF TAXES
Mr. Hall. I don't understand that formula, Congressman, The
formula that we complain about is that 50 or 60 percent of all the
State revenues come out of business and industry and the individual
in Wayne County, and our complaint is that we get back through the
distribution of State aid only about 30 or 35 percent of the total State
distribution. That differential between what we pay in and what we
don't get back is what we are complaining about.
Mr. OsMERS. That is, it is distributed among the less prosperous
counties of the State?
Mr. Hall. That is correct.
Mr. OsMERs. I think every State in the Union has that complaint.
Mr. Hall. Yes; Chicago and New York and all the other big cities.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7165
Mr. OsMERS. After this defense program is over, undoubtedly a
good many people who have come to Detroit to participate in it will
return to the States and counties from which they came. Will that
have the effect of easing Detroit's burden?
Mr. Hall. Somewhat. That is our usual experience. It may
create a relief problem in the Upper Peninsula. In many smaller
communities it may accentuate the relief problem.
Mr. OsMERS. There has been a great deal of talk and rumor about
the bottleneck in machme tools m the United States. Do you feel
that we have not developed our machme tool facihties to their fullest
extent?
PRACTICES LEADING TO LABOR PIRACY
Mr. Cahn. I think the machme tool people have done quite a job,
although I do feel that perhaps they have been a little careless in the
issuance of priorities on machine tools. As you probably know, there
is a decided lack of skilled labor here in Detroit, particularly in con-
nection with the making of gages, which calls for a high degree of
skill. Recently machines have been released to Detroit, to develop
new companies for the manufacture of gages. It doesn't seem
reasonable, in view of the fact that we haven't men enough to man the
machines we have now. If those machines were issued or given out
to develop and round out the companies that are now operating, they
would serve a useful purpose, but I think that they are really lost
because the men who operate those machines must be taken from
somebody else.
Mr. OsMERS. You mean it is gomg to lead to labor piracy?
Mr. Cahn. It has led to labor piracy.
Mr. OsMERS. And not increased production? Does it mean that
they are just going to be shufHing the people around, and will it lead
to rather unhealthy labor and business situations, steahng men from
other industries?
Mr. Cahn. Yes, sir; it has led to that. I have one mstance in mind.
A new plant started, and it took the entire second shift from another
plant that was making gages entirely for defense.
Mr. OsMERS. What proportion of these tool and die people have
been working on automobile production during the last 6 months?
Mr. Cahn. Oh, quite a considerable number of die people.
Mr. OsMERS. I just have one more question, Mr. Chairman, and I
will direct it to one or all of the gentlemen here. Would you care to
make any comment or any suggestion on the Governmnt's labor policy
with respect to these defense industries? Don't all speak at once.
Mr. LovETT. We might like to, but whether we should or not is
another matter.
Mr. OsMERS. I will leave it entirely to you. If you care to put any-
thing in the record or make any suggestions with respect to improv-
ing it, I would like to have them.
DEFINITE LABOR POLICY NEEDED
Mr. LovETT. I would be willing to say this: I think the Govern-
ment must get a labor policy pretty soon.
Mr. OsMERS. A book of rules?
Mr. LovETT. Yes.
7166 DETROIT HEARINGS
Mr. OsMERS. That everybody should follow — labor and employers
together?
Mr. LovETT. That is right. As it is now nobody knows what is
gomg to happen or what decision they may make in one case as opposed
to another case.
I think the shipbuilding case is a good pomt. They got themselves
out on a limb and now they are scrambling around trying to get back
somewhere. I think they would have been wise if they had done as
in the last war— said at the very beginnmg of the defense program
that the status quo shall be maintained and that they would not use
the defense program as a means of promoting either side.
Mr. OsMERS. Have you found evidence, Mr. Lovett — or again,
any of you gentlemen — that the Government has been using the
defense program as a lever to bring about social objectives that they
may have in mind?
Mr. Lovett. That has been the complaint. I don't know that
I would phrase it just that way, Congressman. I would say that the
lack of a policy by the Government has caused some labor leaders to
take advantage of the situation and try to bring out things that they
couldn't otherwise have brought about except under the pressure of
the defense program. There is a lot of comment, prejudiced or not,
that the important thing in the minds of some of the gentlemen who
are running the defense program is social changes, ahead of defense
production. That comment is heard frequently.
LABOR agreement FOLLOWED BY STRIKE
Mr. OsMERS. In company with the rest of the committee, I visited
the Federal Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co. in Camden, shortly before
the strike there, not because there was going to be a strike, but because
it was an important defense point; and my recollection is that all the
shipyards on the eastern coast had entered into an agreement that was
satisfactory to labor and governed wages, hours, and conditions of
. mployment. It came as rather a shock, at least to me as a member
ol the committee, on the heels of that to find this strike, which strikes
at the very heart of our defense program, right at the first line of our
defense. Isn't it your understandmg that that agreement had been
negotiated, providing that there would be no strikes and that both
labor and industry were satisfied?
Mr. Lovett. That is exactly right. I understood they had an
agreement and that all of these questions had been settled or were to
be taken up through mediation, without first striking. They were to
take them up ahead of a strike.
The same thing is true, more or less, on the Pacific coast.
Mr. OsMERS. I think the tragedy of the situation is demonstrated
by the young woman who was before the committee this morning.
The strike in Muskegon is going to be mediated by a Government
body anyway, but they are going to be depiived — those strikers — of
food and shelter while steps are being made to settle their differences,
and it is rough on the workers, very rough.
Mr. Lovett. Well, I agree with what she said about it. I think
that is our experience. I don't believe they gain anything by the
strike — not nearly as much as through the mediation process without a
strike.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7167
We have had two or three strikes here in Detroit with which I am
quite familiar. One case was a brass company. The Federal media-
tion board set a wage scale for the Waterbiiry, Conn., brass industry — •
that whole east coast brass industry. This particular firm in Detroit
is paying 7 cents an hour above that wage, set by the Board, and yet
the men went on strike. Three hundred and some out of one thousand
voted for a strike for 25 cents an hour increase, when their pay was
7 cents above the rate set by the mediation board.
Mr. OsMERS. The general public's concern, fiom my personal
experience with it, has not been so much with the strike that is caused
through a desire to obtain certain hours or increased wages, but with
the strike that seeks to do neither of those things, but to work out some
other objective
Mr. LovETT. Closed shop, check-off, or something else.
Mr. OsMERS. Everybody who goes into a grocery store or a meat
shop knows that the costs of living are increasing sharply, and we know
there are going to have to be increases in wages in many instances, but
I hate to see all of the gains of those increases in wages lost through a
period of 3 or 4 months of strikes before they get the increased wages.
Mr. LovETT. I agree with you. I think that the public's reaction
is just as you say.
The Chairman. Gentlemen, there is no use saving this Nation the
first morning of our hearing. We have more witnesses to hear to-
day— some very important witnesses — and we want to thank you very
much for appearing here. We probably could sit days or weeks, dis-
cussing the problem before us; but I want to say again that we ap-
pi'eciate the contribution which you have made to the committee.
We still stand adjourned until 2 o'clock.
(Whereupon, at 1:40 p. m., the committee recessed until 2 p. m.)
60396 — 41— pt. 18 8
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGKATION
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1941
House of Representatives,
Select Committee Investigating
National Defense Migration,
Washington, D. C.
AFTERNOON SESSION
The committee met at 2 o'clock p. m.
The Chairman. The committee will please come to order.
Mr. Stanchfield is our first witness.
TESTIMONY OF PAUL L. STANCHFIELD, CHIEF OF RESEARCH,
STATISTICS AND PIANNING SECTION, MICHIGAN UNEM-
PLOYMENT COMPENSATION COMMISSION, DETROIT, MICH.
The Chairman. Mr. Stanchfield, Congressman Curtis will interro-
gate you.
Mr. Curtis. Mr. Stanchfield, will you give your full name to the
reporter, please?
Mr. Stanchfield. Paul L. Stanchfield.
Mr. Curtis. And your position?
Mr. Stanchfield. Chief of Research, Statistics and Planning
Section, Michigan Unemployment Compensation Commission.
Mr. Curtis. You appeared before this committee once before, did
you not?
Mr. Stanchfield. Yes, sir; I saw you in Chicago.^
Mr. Curtis. Mr. Stanchfield, you have prepared a valuable and
detailed statement.
(The statement referred to above is as follows:)
STATEMENT BY PAUL L. STANCHFIELD, CHIEF OF RESEARCH,
STATISTICS AND PLANNING SECTION, MICHIGAN UNEMPLOY-
MENT COMPENSATION COMMISSION
Defense Migration in Michigan — Past Patterns of Migration and
Future Problems Resulting from Production Quotas and Priorities
This report presents selected data on the extent and character of migration
which has already occurred in Michigan as a result of the defense program, and
a discussion of future migration [)rob]ems which may result from dislocation of
labor caused by autom.obile production quotas, material shoitages, or other
factors related to the defense program. As background material, the report also
discusses the normal migration pattern of Michigan industrial workers, and the
character and location of Michigan's industries.
The rapidly growing mass production industries of Detroit and other manu-
facturing centers have in the past drawn a considerable part of their labor supply
I Mr. Stanchfield testified on August 21, 1940. Sec Chicago hearings, pp. 1195-1215.
7169
7170 DETROIT HEARINGS
from rural Michigan and from other States. Between 1920 and 1930, the popu-
lation of four principal automoljile manufacturing counties increased by more
than 400 percent. Most other industrial counties also grew rapidly. In the
same period most of the counties in the cut-over area and the Upper Peninsula
were losing population by migration.
The expanding industrial centers also drew workers from other States and
from foreign countries — so that in 1930 nearly a quarter of Michigan's residents
were natives of other States, and nearly one-fifth were foreign born. Prior to
1910, most of the migration into Michigan was from the East, but since then the
Southern States have been an important source of labor.
In depression periods, the trend of migration is reversed, with industrial workers
moving back to the rural areas of Michigan or to other States. This type of
movement is reflected in unemployment compensation claims filed in other States
against the Michigan fund by former Michigan workers. In 1939, about 20,000
individuals filed such claims — and only about 20 percent of these involved move-
ment to adjacent States, while 80 percent were in nonadjacent States. A rela-
tively large part of the interstate claimants moved from Michigan to States in
the Appalachian area (Kentucky, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia).
New York, California, and Missouri also were important.
IMPACT OF AUTOMOBILE PRODUCTION QUOTAS
The impact of passenger car production quotas will be felt severely in Michigan
because of the predominance of the automobile industry in the State's economic
structure. Nearly two-thirds of the 1,250,000 workers covered by the Michigan
Unemployment Compensation Act are employed in manufacturing. The auto-
mobile industry, together with steel, machinery manufacturing, and other in-
dustries related to automobile production, employ more than three-quarters of
all manufacturing wage-earners in Michigan, and almost half the total number
covered by unemployment compensation.
The predominance of the motor industry is even greater in Detroit and other
important cities. Nearly four-fifths of Wayne County's industrial workers are
engaged in production of automobiles, bodies, and parts, or in closely related
industries. The motor industry furnishes nearly all of the factory jobs in Flint
and Pontiac, and well over half the manufacturing employment in Lansing and
Saginaw.
Outside these five cities, the direct impact of automobile quotas will be less
severe, but serious dislocation of labor may result from interruptions of civilian
production which may be caused by material and equipment shortages in such
cities as Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Battle Creek, and Jackson.
Some of the State's smaller cities, dependent in some cases on a single non-
defense industry, may experience serious crises as civilian production is curtailed.
With primary defense contracts amounting to more than 1}>4 billion dollars, and
subcontracts and indirect defense work bringing the total close to $4,000,000,000,
Michigan's industrial centers will play a major role in defense production. New
job opportunities in defense industries, and boom-time production in consumers
goods industries, have led to considerable migration of workers to Detroit and
other industrial centers in the past year. Over 26,000 of the 108,000 workers who
filed new applications for work at Detroit employment offices in the 13 months
ending August 1941 were last employed outside the Detroit area. The number of
migrant applicants has increased steadily during the 13-month period. The total
of 26,300 includes about 7,100 workers from other parts of Michigan, 5,800 from
the Great Lakes area, 5,100 from the South, 4,100 from eastern States, 3,700 from
States west of the Mississippi, and about 600 from foreign countries, including
Canada.
COMPENSATION CLAIMS AS EVIDENCE OF MIGRATION
Less than 18 percent of the migrant applicants were skilled workers, while
about half of them had occupational backgrounds which appear unsuitable for
defense employment — ^including unskilled, service, clerical, saleg, and agricultural
occupations.
Other evidences of migration are found in initial claims for unemployment
compensation filed by workers previously employed in other States, which in-
creased by 21 percent from 1940 to 1941, while intrastate claims were declining
sharply. Almost all of the increase in interstate claims was in industrial centers
in the southeastern section of the State.
Wage records of the Unemployment Compensation Commission show that a
total of 66,000 workers who first obtained their social security numbers in other
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7171
States, but were not employed in Michigan in the first quarter of 1940, earned
wages in covered employment in Michigan later in 1940 or in the first quarter of
1941. Of these, 45 percent came from Great Lakes States, 18 percent from the
Middle Atlantic States, 9 percent from the Soulh Central States, 7 percent from
the South Atlantic States, and 13 percent from the Plains States. Other areas —
the Pacific Coast, Mountain, and New England States — were of relatively minor
importance. In addition to the Detroit area, employment offices in Flint,
Saginaw, Pontiac, and other centers in southeastern Michigan have reported a
more or less continuous influx of miairants from other States or from other parts of
Michigan. Muskegon, with a high volume of defense work, has drawn workers
from Grand Rapids and northern Michigan.
Areas in Michigan from which workers have migrated include the Upper
Peninsula and the cut-over area. While most of the migrants have sought work
in southern Michigan industrial areas, some miners from the Upper Peninsula
have gone to other States. Some of the less active industrial centers, such as
Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids, have lost workers to Detroit and other centers of
expanding employment.
Production quotas and material shortages will cause a considerable amount
of unemployment in Michigan in the next several months unless it is possible to
accelerate defense production. A 50 percent curtailment would eliminate about
175,000 nondefense jobs in the automobile industry by January 1942 — and in
spite of off-setting increases in defense work, net unemployment in January will
affect at least 54,000 workers in the Detroit area, 17,000 in Flint, and from 4.000 to
6,000 in Pontiac, Lansing, and Saginaw. Adoption of a 32-hour week would reduce
but not eliminate this unemployment. A more detailed discussion of the dis-
location of labor expected in important cities, and the limitations of the data on
which the estimates are based, is presented in section IV of this report.
CURTAILMENT IN OTHER INDUSTRIES
Outside the automobile centers, considerable unemployment may result from
curtailed production (caused by material shortages if not by quotas) in many
other industries using materials essential to defense. In Grand Rapids and
Muskegon, for example, unemployment from this source may be severe.
Since this dislocation of labor, in the absence of counter measures, may stimu-
late migration away from Michigan's industrial centers, there is a real danger
that essential workers will be unavailable when defense production reaches its
peak in 1942. In order to meet this problem, it is essential for the State and
Federal Governments — in cooperation with industry and labor — to take every
possible step to protect the economic security of displaced workers, to speed up
the expansion of defense jobs, and at the same time to prevent further migration
to Michigan industrial centers, which might only multiply existing problems.
Such possibilities as the liberalization of unemployment compensation, the
development of training programs which furnish at least a subsistence income,
and the assignment of defense contracts to concerns and areas most severely
affected by quotas and priorities, must be energetically explored.
Section I. Normal Migration Pattern of Michigan Industrial
Workers
Prior to the defense program the migration of workers to industrial centers has
played a vital part in the growth of Michigan industry. Since the turn of the
century, rapidly growing industries such as automobile manufacturing and the
manufacture of refrigerators, heating equipment, and household appliances have
required continually more manpower than has been available in the various man-
ufacturing centers cf the State. High wages and high living standards in in-
dustrial centers such as Detroit, Flint, Lansing, and Saginaw have attracted
workers not only from rural parts of the State but from other States and other
lands. Thus, a large part of the population of Michigan industrial centers con-
sists of workers who formerly lived in other areas and their families. The rapid
growth of Michigan industry would have been impossible without these shifts in
population.
The movement into industrial centers which marks periods of rising industrial
activity is reversed in periods of depression such as the early 1930's. During
such periods unemployed industrial workers who have migrated from communi-
ties in rural Michigan and other States tend to return to their home communities
and lower living costs. Rising business activity, however, finds many of these
workers or their friends and neighbors returning to the industrial centcs of
the State for employment in mass production industries at high wages.
7172 DETROIT HEARINGS
A. THE RISE OF MICHIGAN'S INDUSTRIAL POPULATION
In the late 1800's Michigan's working population was predominantly engaged
in agriculture, forestry, fishing, and mining, which accounted for 45 percent of
all gainful workers in the State in 1880. In 1900 these three basic industries
accounted for 37 percent of all Michigan gainful workers but by 1930 they ac-
counted for less than 15 percent. During this period there was a marked increase
not only in the proportion of workers engaged in manufacturing and mechanical
industries but also in related pursuits such as transportation, communication,
trade, and professional and clerical services.
More striking than the change in the distribution of gainful workers was the
actual increase in numbers from 569,000 in 1880 to 906,000 in 1900 and to
1,927,000 in 1930. From 1900 to 1930 the number of workers engaged in manu-
facturing and mechanical industries increased by 161 percent.
B. SHIFTS IN POPULATION WITHIN THE STATE
In the three decades from 1900 to 1930, the rise of large scale industry and the
decline of agriculture, lumbering, and mining brought about rapid and sig-
nificant changes in the distribution of population within the State. Although
the State's population increased by 1,154,000 between 1920 and 1930, nearly all
of the increase was concentrated in 26 counties, while 13 counties remained
nearly unchanged, and 46 counties experienced population losses. In 4 principal
automobile manufacturiiig counties, population increased from about 455,000 in
1900 to nearly two and a half million in 1930 — an increase of more than 400 per-
cent. Ten other important industrial counties also grew rapidly, with an aver-
age increase of 73 percent. During the same period, there were only minor in-
creases in the agricultural counties of the southern part of the Lower Peninsula
and the Upper Peninsula, and an average decrease of 13 percent in the cut-over
area comprising the northern half of the Lower Peninsula.
In each decade, an increasing percentage of the State's workers have been
massed in the industrial counties. The four maior automobile counties contained
less than one-fifth of the total population in 1900 but more than half of the total
population in 1930.
While population in the industrial counties was increasing between 1920 and
1930, the cut-over area and the Upper Peninsula were losing population by migra-
tion to other areas. By use of data on births ai^d deaths in each county, it is
possible to determine what the population would have been at the end of the
decade with no migration to other areas. On the basis of these dala all but one of
the counties in the cut-over area and all but three in the Upper Peninsula lost
population by migration in the decade between 1920 and 1930. While the move-
ment from farm to city was sharolv reversed during the depression, the expansion
of industrial employment since 1935 has again created movement of workers from
rural to urban areas.
C. MIGRATION FROM OTHER STATES
Migration of workers from rural sections of Michigan has been only one source
of the population growth of the large automobile manufacturing centers. Accord-
ing to the 1930 census, onlv 58 percent of the 4,842,000 persons in Michigan were
residents of the State, while 23.5 percent (nearly 1,137,000) were natives of other
States, and 17.6 percent (about 853,000) were toreign-born. The principal sources
of migration from other States, in order of rank, were Ohio, Illinois, Indiana,
Pennsylvania, New York, Wisconsin, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Sixteen percent
of the population of Michigan in 1930 consisted of natives of these eight States.
Prior to 1910 most of the migration into Michigan was from eastern States,
particularly New York. Since 1910, southern States, particularly Kentucky,
Tennessee, and West Virginia have accounted for a large portion of the migration
into Michigan industrial centers.
Michigan has long been a favorite center of settlement for the foreign-born.
Only four States (New York, Pennsylvania, California, and Massachusetts) had
more foreign-born residents than Michigan in 1930 and only seven States had a
higher ratio of foreign-born.
D. THE CHANGING DIRECTION OF MIGRATION IN DEPRESSION
With the highest wage rates in the world for unskilled and semiskilled labor,
and a relatively high standard of living, Detroit and the other automobile centers
have been a magnet for migratory workers during periods of industrial expansion.
NATIONAL DEFENSE EMIGRATION 7173
The trend was to some extent reversed during the depression years of 1930 to
1935, with thousands of workers and their families moving back to other parts
of Michigan or their former homes in other States as unemployment became wide-
spread in the manufacturing cities. The shift from the t;ities to rural areas and
to other States was reflected in school census figures and in the special Micliigan
Census of Population and Unemployment taken in 1935. The population of most
industrial centers shoAved a decli'^e during this period while rural agricultural
areas and cut-over areas of the State showed marked increases.
With the growth of rational recovery, from 1935 to 1937, the tide of movement
again turned toward the cities and former automobile workers (or their relatives
and friends) again moved into such cities as Detroit and Flint in the search for
jobs and high wages. While the volume of migration to Detroit in recent years
has probably been less than it was in the 1930's, it was substantial even before
the defense program created a new stimulus.
E. OUT-MIGRATION OP THE UNEMPLOYED
Two groups of migrants should probably be distinguished. Some of them —
probably the majority — found permanent jobs in the industrial centers, made their
homes there, and became part of the community. Others — especially those who
were unmarried, or who did not bring their families with them — worked in the
manufacturing centers only when jobs were available, and then returned to their
former homes in rural Michigan or in other States during the off season.
This latter type of movement is reflected to some extent in unemployment
compensation claims filed aocainst the Michigan fund, in other States, by workers
who formerly worked in Michiean. In 1939, about 20,000 individuals "filed such
claims — and in the 2 years ending June 1940, it is estimated that at least 30,000
different workers filed claims in other States against the Michigan Unemployment
Compensation Fund.
Less than 20 percent of these interstate claims came from States adjacent to
Michigan, while 80 percent were from nonadjacent States — with a relatively large
part of the total from Kentucky, Tennessee, Pennsjivania, and West Virginia.
Other important States to whicli migration occurred were New York, California,
and Missouri.
Many of the interstate claimants had insufficient earnings in Michigan to qualify
for benefits, but those who did qualify were primarily manufacturing workers
(70 percent) and about 43 percent came from the automobile industry. The
percentage of women among interstate claimants was considerably lower than
among claimants who filed their claims within the State.
Since 1939, as employment has expanded in the automobile centers, there has
been less migration away from Michigan and more migration into the State.
The out-movement which occurred during the 1938 depression, however, can be
expected to recur in rather similar form if production quotas and priorities create
a mass unemployment problem in Michigan.
A supplementary statement on the extent and character of outward migration,
as indicated by unemployment compensation records, will be submitted separately.
F. MIGRATION OF NONMANUFACTURING WORKERS
The number of nonmanufacturing workers cannot be ignored in the review of
Michigan migration. The fruit and vegetable industrj^, the beet-sugar industry,
the resort industry, and the logging industry depend to a considerable extent upon
migratory seasonal workers who return to their home communities in the off-
seasons.
The fruit and vegetable industry has been dependent to a large extent upon city
families with children who move from locality to locality with the crops. During
the past decade the beet-sugar industry has been largely dependent upon Mexican
labor from the Southwest for its field work. The resort industry is staffed largely
by residents of resort communities, but is also dependent upon students who turn
to the resort industry for summer employment and upon migratory resort workers
who systematically work in northern resorts during the summer and southern
resorts during the winter months. The logging industry is manned to a consider-
able extent by single unattached men who are not permanent residents of the
communities in which they work.
Section II. Character and Location of Michigan's Industries
The curtailment of passenger-car production will be felt more severely in
Michigan than_in any other State, because of the predominance of this single
7174 DETROIT HEARINGS
industry in Michigan's economic structure.- The development of mass production
has brought with it a rapid expansion of factory employment in this State. Some
indication of the importance of manufacturing is furnished by the fact that
more than 810,000 of the l,2.o0,000 workers covered by the Michigan Unemploy-
ment Compensation Act in December 1940 were employed in manufacturing —
approximately two-thirds of the total.
Employment in the manufacture of automobiles, bodies, and parts accounts for
nearly half of all factory employment — with a total of 394,000 covered workers
in December. The steel industry, which in Michigan is largely dependent on
automobile production, employed 95,000 workers at the end of 1940. Other
important manufacturing industries, which to a, greater or less extent are affiliated
with the automobile industry, include nonelectrical machinery manufacturing
(73,000 employees), rubber products (11,000), nonferrous metals (22,000), elec-
trical machinery (9,000) , and other transportation equipment (5,000) . Altogether
these selected manufacturing groups employed almost 620,000 covered workers
in December — almost half of the total number covered by the Unemployment
Compensation Act, and well over three-fourths of the total for all manufacturing
industries.
Measured in terms of pay rolls, the predominance of the automobile industry is
even greater than it is in terms of employment. In 1940, the wages and salaries
of workers employed in the manufacture of automobiles, bodies, and parts (31
percent of covered workers) amounted to $688,000,000 in Michigan — more than
36 percent of the State's total covered pay rolls of .$1,908,000,000. Iron and steel,
with aggregate pay rolls of $142,000,000, and nonelectrical machinery manufac-
turing, with $136,000,000, bring the total wages and salaries of workers in tlie auto-
mobile industry and the two most closely allied groups to almost $1,000,000,000 in
1940 — and at the end of 1940, when employment on 1941 models was at a peak,
wage and salary payments for these industries were proceeding at a rate equal to
close to $1,200,000,000 per year. In this quarter, these industries accounted for
45 percent of the State's covered employment, and 51 percent of all covered
pay rolls.
The manufacture of durable consumers' goods other than automobiles accounts
for a large part of the State's indvistrial activity. Although these industries have
not been affected so far by production quotas, they will be affected in many
instances by material shortages under the priorities system. This is particularly
true of manufacturers of refrigerators"; washing machines a,nd household appli-
ances; furnaces, stoves, and heating equipment; hardware; and metal furniture
and utensils.
Any decline in factory employment, resulting from production quotas and
material shortages, is certain to have repercussions on other industries, such as
trade and service, which exist primarily to serve the wage earners employed in
industry. Obviously, a curtailment in automobile production will restrict the
employment opportunities of the 38,000 wage earners employed in retail automo-
tive establishments, automobile service stations, garages, automotive finance
companies, and other businesses dependent on sales of automobiles. In addition,
some 16,000 proprietors are dependent on businesses in this field. Even if the
loss of employment in this "satellite industry" is not in full proportion to the
curtailment of production, substantial unemployment or reduction of income is
bound to occur. Workers in durable consumer goods outlets will be affected in
the same way.
The impact of declining factory employment on retail and wholesale trade,
service industries, and transportation presents an even greater problem. In
Detroit, for example, there are 70 workers engaged in service and trade for every
hundred engaged in primary production. Unless the unemployment of auto-
mobile workers is minimized or kept to a short duration, it is conservative to
estimate that at least 30 or 40 nonmanufacturing jobs will be eliminated for
every hundred factory jobs which cease to exist.
A. INDIVIDUAL AUTOMOTIVE CENTERS
In Detroit and other important Michigan cities, the predominance of the auto-
mobile industry as a source of manufacturing employment is even greater than
would be suggested by the State-wide figures already presented. Wayne County,
the automobile manufacturing center of the world, ranks second only to Cook
County (Chicago) in the nimiber of manufacturing wage earners emploved in
1937. In March of this year, about 499,000 of the 725,000 Wayne County
workers covered by the Michigan Unemployment Compensation Act were em-
ployed in manufacturing— and nearly 60 percent of Wayne County's factory
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7175
worker? (292,000) were engaged in production of automobiles, bodies, and parts.
Other closely related manufacturing industries, likely to be affected indirectly by
automobile curtailment are iron and steel manufacturing (with 51,000 covered
employees in March), nonelectrical machinery (46,000) and nonferrous metal
manufacturing (21,000).
Manufacturing emiDloyment in Flint, Michigan's third city, is dominated over-
whelmingly by the motor industry — perhaps to a greater extent that in any other
city in the United States. Of the 64,000 workers covered by unemployment coin-
pensation in March, nearly 50,000 were engaged in manufacturing and about
47,000 of these were in the automobile industry, nearly all of them in General
Motors plants.
Pontiac, like Flint, is practically a one-industry city. Of the 45,000 Pontiac
workers covered by unemployment compensation in March, 33,000 were engaged
in manufacturing activities, and more than 85 i^ercent of these (27,000) were
employed by automobile companies.
In Lansing, despite a somewhat larger proportion of employment in trade, serv-
ice, and Government work, manufacturing is the predominant industry — and
nearly 17,000 of the 23,000 manufacturing workers covered by unemployment
compensation in March were in the automobile industry.
Saginaw County, with 20,000 manufacturing employees in March, had about
12,000 in automobile parts factories, and more than 5,000 engaged in producing
nonelectrical machinerj', much of which is used by the motor industry.
B. AREAS DOMINATED BY NONAUTOMOTIVE MANUFACTURING
Automobile factory emploj'inent is concentrated primarily in five cities of the
southeastern section of the State — and in these cities any reduction of automobile
production will have an immediate impact not only on the jobs of factory workers
but also of men and women engaged in wholesale and retail trade and the various
service industries which exist primarily to serve the factory population. In other
sections of the State, production quotas will have a less direct effect, although
there are significant numbers of automobile workers in such cities as Bay City
and Grand Rapids. However, the principal unemployment problem which exists
in such cities as Grand Rapids, Muskegon, and Kalamazoo will result from
possible interruptions of civilian production which are caused by material and
equipment shortages rather than by the automobile quotas themselves.
Although Battle Creek is predominated by the processed cereal industry, it also
has a number of durable goods manufacturing industries, such as printing presses,
auto parts, stoves, steel and wire, and cooking utensils, which may be affected
by materials shortages. Its most important national-defense industry is Fort
Custer, which initiated a huge expansion program at the beginning of the defense
emergency. This building program drew thousands of workers into the Battle
Creek area.
The Grand Rapids and Holland area has been engaged to some extent in the
manufacture of automobile parts and equipment. The manufacture of furniture,
electrical household equipment, stoves, and furnaces accounts for, by far the
greatest proportion of its manufacturing. Industry is much more diversified in
this area than in the automobile centers. It has a large proportion of small
establishments, manj' of which are in various types of metal processing which
may be affected by material priorities. So far, this area has received a very small
number of national-defense contracts.
Jackson manufacturing has been devoted to automobile parts and equipment,
to electrical automotive parts and household appliances, and radios, and the pro-
duction of industrial grinding wheels, drills, and tools. Since the beginning of
the national-defense program, new firms have established plants in Jackson for
defense production which may offset unemployment resulting from materials
shortages and automobile quotas.
Although Kalamazoo is noted as a paper manufacturing center, it is also an
important stove and furnace manufacturing center, and produces considerable
industrial machinery, tools, dies, and machine-shop products.
Large national-defense contracts have resulted in considerable industrial
expansion in Muskegon, since the beginning of the national-defense program,
niaking this city an important center for the migration of industrial workers.
Since it is a large producer of refrigerators, metal furniture, and various metal
products, it may be affected greatly by material shortages under the priorities
program.
7176 DETROIT HEARINGS
C. NONINDUSTRIAL AREAS AND ONE-INDUSTRY TOWNS
The Upper Peninsula of the State, which has been noted for its mining and
lumbering industries, will probably experience increased activity under the na-
tional-defense program. Some mijies, which were inoperative for years, are now
being worked to provide defense materials, while the demand for domestic wood
pulp for the paper industry has been rising due to the fact that the European pulp
supply has been cut off by the war. The northern part of the Lower Peninsula,
which is predominantly cut-over and reforested land, has been little afifected by
the national-defense program.
Many of the small cities of the State which have single industries may be seri-
ously affected by material shortages and production quotas. While manufac-
turing in such cities accounts for only a small i^ortion of the industrial production
of the State, the closing of a single plant may create serious crises in individual
communities concerned. Lack of materials for stove production, as an example,
would deprive Dowagiac of its most important source of employment.
Industries such as the beet-sugar industry in the Saginaw Valley and Thumb
area, and the fruit industry of the Lake Michigan area have been little affected
by production quotas and priorities, but maj' be sorch' affected by tightening
labor-market conditions which are diverting migratory part-time workers who
have been traditionally emploj^-cd by these industries into defense cmploj^ment
and into the military forces. While agriculture and industries dependent on
agriculture have not been seriously affected during the 1941 season, more serious
labor shortages may be expected in 1942 or after.
D. DEFENSE POTENTIALITIES OF MICHIGAN INDUSTRY
As the traditional centers of mass production industry in the United States,
Detroit and the other automobile cities will play a major role in defense produc-
tion. Primary defense contracts for more than one and a half billion dollars have
been awarded to Michigan industry to date, p.nd additional subcontracts and in-
direct defense work amoimt to over $2,000,000,000. Ph'entually, when the transi-
tion from civilian to defense work has been completed, Michigan's factories will
have need for all their present workers, and perhaps for even more. Mr.ch of the
unemployment which may occur in the next few months represents only a tem-
porary problem, and a period during which we must make efforts to keep our
working force intact in prepa,ra,tion for the time when planes and other arma-
ments are rolling out of Michigan factories in overwhelming amoinits. Some
automobile workers, however, may not be able to find employment in defense
industries because of the special skills required. In addition, there is likely to be
continuing dislocation in nondefense employment throughout the defense period
due to changing and increasing demands for materials for defense.
By their very nature, Michigan's industries are potentially convertible to de-
fense production. In July a survey by the State employment service showed
that the automobile industry and other metal fabricating industries which might
be adapted for defense j^roduction emplo.yed more than 682,000 workers. Of this
total, more than 196,000, or 29 percent, were already engaged on defense work.
About two-thirds of these (123,000) v.'ere in the Detroit area, while there were
alreadv about 9,000 defense jobs in Muskegon, 9,000 in Pontiac, 7,300 in Bav
City, 6,400 in Saginaw, 5,600 in Jackson, and 5,200 in Battle Creek. To date,
the conversion to defense production has proceeded more ra.pidly in nonautomo-
tive industries than in the automobile plants. The next phase of the defense
expansion involves accelerated conversion of the automobile plants, with some
temporary dislocation of labor, and the prospect of an eventual peak of employ-
ment as high as or higher than anything in the past.
Section III. Pattern of Migration During the Past Year
The rapid expansion of both defense and nondefense employment in Michigan's
industrial centers during the past year has brought with it a considerable migration
of workers. In general, this has been a movement toward the principal industrial
centers especially those in which there were important defense contracts, or in
which there was a boom in production of civilian commodities.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7177
Because increasing employment during the past year has been due partly to
rises in automotive production and partly to defense expansion concentrated in
automotive, centers, the general pattern of in-migration has been quite similar to
the movement which has previously occurred vvhen auton.obile production has
reached high levels. Many of the in-migrants are undoubtedly workers who
have previously been employed in Michigan's industrial centers, especially in
1929 and 1937. The prospect of thousands of new factory jobs has encouraged
workers to move to such cities as Detroit, Flint, Pontiac, and Muskegon, both
from rural Michigan and from other States.
The Federal and State Governments, through the public employment service
sj-stem and the Office of Production Managem,ent, have attempted to prevent
unnecessary migration. The clearance system of the public employment offices
is designed specifically to encourage m.igration only when a shortage of workers
actually exists in a community. Local labor market information is used in an
effort to keep workers from leaving areas in which job opportunities will soon be
available. Because of the Nation-wide coverage of the clearance system, the
Office of Production Managem.ent has urged euiployers to use the employment
service whenever it appears necessary to recruit nonlocal workers.
In spite of efforts to restrict n.igration, however, there is a good deal of evidence
that many thousand workers have com.e to Michigan from other areas without
any definite jot)s offered to them, in advance.
Although a large proportion of the m.igrants have nevertheless found jobs, much
of the movem.ent has been undesirable and unjustified, since local workers have
been available and have been given preference for m.ost of the new jobs which
have developed. As a general rule, Michigan employers have preferred to hire
local residents, and have discouraged applications from the n.igrant group. Also,
many of the migrants have lacked the occupational qualifications which are
needed in defense jobs or in other expanding types of work. As a consequence,
there is some evidence that many of the niigrants have not stayed in Michigan, but
have continued to travel in search of work. In this section of the report, the
following types of data on recent migration will be considered:
(a) Analysis of "new applications for work" filed in Detroit offices of the em-
ployment service during the past year by workers who had never previously
registered in that area.
(b) Claims for unemploj'm.ent com.pensation benefits filed in Michigan by
workers previously employed in some other State.
(c) Studies of the wage records of the Michigan Unem.ployment Com.pensation
Com.mission to determine how n any workers with Social Security nunxbers origi-
nally assigned in some other State were working in Michigan in 1941, although
they had not been employed in this State at the beginning of 1940.
(d) Comm.ents on migration into or out of the labor n^arket areas served by
individual offices of the Michiran State Employment Service, based on narrative
labor market reports submitted monthh' by the local offices.
Later sections of the report will deal with future migration which may result
from curtailment of nondefense automobile production or from unemployment
caused be material and equipment shortages resulting from the defense program.
A. NEW APPLICATIONS FILED BY MIGRANT WORKERS IN DETROIT EMPLOYMENT
OFFICES, AUGUST 1940 TO AUGUST 1941
Because of the concentration of heavy industry in the Detroit area, a con-
siderable part of the defense migration during the past year has involved a move-
ment from other areas to Detroit or its satellite communities. Since August
1940, a sample of new applications filed in offices served by the Detroit Central
Placement Office has been analyzed to determine how many registrants were last
employed in some other area.
Figures based on this analysis are summarized in tables I and 2. The first of
these tables presents figures for each month in the period, surveyed while the
second analyzes the data in terms of occupation. (In the tables, the data from
the sample are expanded to estimated totals based on the total number of new
applications in each month. A new application is an application for work re-
. ceived from an individual for whom the local office has no record of a previous
registration.)
7178
DETROIT HEARINGS
Table 1. — Analysis of new applications ' accepted by Detroit area offices, by loca-
tion of last employment prior to registration ^ August 1940 to August 1941
Month
Total
all loca-
tions
Location of last employment prior to registration
Detroit
Applicants with last employment
outside Detroit
Total
Michigan
Great
Lakes
States
All other
locations
Total, 13 months
August 1940
September
October
November
December
January 1941
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
81, 720
26, 318
7,132
692
899
1,268
1,148
1.332
1,876
1,480
2,240
2,145
2.664
3, 432
3,679
3,463
158
250
345
311
414
497
469
592
506
617
887
911
1,175
5,775
151
177
255
252
246
425
386
481
483
638
795
755
731
383
472
668
585
672
954
625
1,167
1, 156
1,409
1, 750
2,013
1,557
PERCENT DISTRIBUTION
Total, 13 months
August 1940
September
October
November.
December
January 1941
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
75.6
81.2
77.7
76.1
74.5
77.8
76.6
82.2
82.9
77.1
75 3
73 5
69 0
66.0
24.4
18.8
22.3
23.9
25.5
22.2
23.4
17.8
17.1
22.9
24.7
26 5
31.0
34.0
4.3
6.2
6.5
6.2
5.6
4.5
5.4
5.7
6.9
7.7
11.5
4.1
4.4
4.8
5.6
4.1
5.3
4.7
3.7
5.2
5.9
6.1
6.3
7.2
12.4
10.4
11.7
12.6
13.0
11.2
11.9
7.5
8.9
12.3
13.1
13.5
17.0
15.3
1 Applications received from individuals never before registered in the ofBcc taking the applications.
2 Figures obtained by expanding from a sample consisting of new applications received on 2 days of each
week.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7179
Table 2.— Analysis of new applications ' received by Detroit area offices, by occupa-
tional division and location of last employment prior to registration,^ August 1940
to August 1941
Total, all
locations
Location of last employment (or training) prior to registration in
Detroit
Occupations
Applicants with last emlpoyment outside Detroit
Detroit
Total
Michi-
gan
Great
Lakes
East
South
West
For-
eign
Total, all applications-
108, 038
81, 720
26, 318
7,132
5,775
4,097
5,121
3,712
481
Total, by occupation
98, 620
74,411
24,209
6,527
5, 483
3,852
4,734
3.476
137
Professional and mana-
gerial
Clerical and sales
5,633
17, 036
12, 915
733
16. 477
31, 538
14.288
4,103
13. 476
10, 259
305
12. 160
23. 378
10. 730
1, 530
3,560
2,656
428
4,317
8,160
3.558
438
834
646
164
1,115
2,407
923
376
868
530
35
1,091
1,885
698
284
674
487
15
697
1,188
507
174
525
615
145
780
1,573
922
241
624
373
69
609
1,058
502
17
35
5
Agriculture, forestry,
fishing
Skilled
Semiskilled...
""25
49
Unskilled
6
Occupational class not avail-
2.578
6,840
1,812
5,497
766
1,343
131
474
103
189
86
159
80
307
67
169
299
No work history
45
PERCENTAGE DISTRIBUTION OF OCCUPATIONALLY CLASSIFIED APPLICATIONS
Total, all applications.
Percent
100.0
Percent
100.0
Percent
100.0
Percent
100.0
Percent
100.0
Percent
100.0
Percent
100.0
Percent
100.0
Per-
cent
100.0
Professional and managerial.
Clerical and sales
Service...
Agriculture, forestry, fishing.
Skilled
5.7
17.3
13.1
.7
16.1
32.0
14.5
5.5
18.1
13.8
.4
16.4
31.4
14.4
6.3
14.7
11.0
1.8
17.8
33.7
14.7
6.7
12.8
9.9
2.5
17.1
36.9
14.1
6.9
15.8
9.7
.6
19.9
34,4
12.7
7.4
17.5
12.6
.4
18.1
30.8
13.2
3.7
11.1
13.0
3.1
16.5
33.2
19.4
6.9
18.0
10.7
2.0
17.5
30.4
14.5
12.4
25.6
3.6
18.2
Semiskilled
Unskilled
35.8
4.4
• Applications received from individuals never before registered in the office taking the applications.
' Figures obtained by expanding from a sample consisting of new applications received on 2 days of each
week.
7180 DETROIT HEARINGS
About 26,300 of the 108,000 workers who filed "new applications" during the 13
months ending August 31, 1941, were last employed outside the Detroit area.
About 7,100 (G.6 percent) came to Detroit from some other part of Michigan, and
about 19,200 (17.8 percent) were migrants from other States. More than two-
thirds of the interstate migrants (about 13,400) had come from States not adjacent
to Michigan, primarily from the South and the West.
The number of new applicants whose last employment was outside Detroit has
increased steadily during the 13-month period. In August and September 1940
less than 900 "migrant applications" were filed per month, but the monthl}' num-
ber rose to 1,332 in December, 2,240 in March and reached its peak with a total
of between 3,400 and 3,700 per month in June, July, and August of this year.
Part of the increase in migrant applications ma probably be explained by more
general use of the employm.ent offices, since the total volume of new applications
(including local workers) also increased during the same period. In March, the
total volume of new applications was especially stimulated by a worker recruit-
ment campaign designed to obtain full registration of the available labor supply.
The proportion of new applications fled by workers last employed outside
Detroit rose from 19 percent in August 1940 to 25.5 percent in November, but
dropped as low as 17 or 18 percent in February and March. Since March 1941
there has been a steady increase in the percentage of new applications filed by
"migrants." Nonlocal workers represented 31 percent of all new applicants in
July 1941 and 31 percent in August.
Of all new applications from nonlocal workers, the number filed by workers from
other areas in Michigan has increased most sharpl}', rising from less than 300 in
August and September of 1940 to more than 900 in July and nearly 1,200 in August
1941.
New applications filed by workers from other Great Lakes States also underwent
a marked increase,, advancing from about 200 per month in the latter part of 1940
to a monthly total of between 700 and 800 in June, July, and August 1941.
Migration from States not adjacent to Michigan has shown the smallest pro-
portionate rise, but in each of the 13 months covered by table 1 the total number of
applicants from such States has been greater than the number from either the
Great Lakes States or from Michigan communities outside Detroit.
The State of origin of interstate migrants is shown in slightly greater detail
in table 2, which also classifies applicants from each area according to primary
occupational classification. Of the 19,186 migrants from other States, about 5,100
or 26.5 percent had been last employed in Southern States — representing a total
nearly as great as the 5,775 migrants from the Great Lakes area. Applicants from
Eastern States (including New England) accounted for a little more than one-fifth
of the total interstate movement (4,100 or 21 percent). A slightly smaller number
(3,712) had come from States west of the Mississippi and 481 of the migrant ap-
plicants had last worked or received their education in foreign countries, including
Canada.
Only a small proportion of the migrants had experience in skilled occupations,
the type for which there has been a .special demand in the defense program. Of
the 26,300 last employed outside Detroit, only 4,300 (17.8 percent) were classified
as skilled workers. The proportion of skilled applicants was fairly similar for
all areas, with the highest percentage of skilled applicants coming from the Great
Lakes States and the lowest percentage from the Southern States.
Semiskilled workers were the most important group among the migrant appli-
cants, comprising just over one-third of the total (8,160 or 33.7 percent). The
semiskilled proportion was highest among migrants from other points in Michi-
gan and lowest among migrants from the East and from the West.
About half of the migrants had occupational backgrounds which appear to
have no special suitability for employment in defense production. Of the total
last employed outside Detroit, nearly 15 percent were unskilled workers, 11 per-
cent were classified in service occupations, 15 percent in clerical and sales occupa-
tions. About 6 percent were professional and managerial workers, and 2 percent
were agricultural workers.
Migrants from the South included a greater proportion of unskilled workers
and service workers (19.4 and 13 percent, respectively) than any other section,
while Eastern and Western States had a relatively high proportion of clerical and
sales workers.
The above figures on new applications represent an understatement of the actual
number of migrant workers who have come to the Detroit area, since some mi-
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7181
grants fail to register with the employment service, especially if they are easily
able to obtain jobs without registering. However, the data shown' in tallies 1
and 2 give some indication of the general volume of migration, and the distribu-
tions of migrants by area and by occupational group are probably fairly repre-
sentative of all migration to the area.
B. INTERSTATE CLAIMS AS A MEASURE OF MIGRATION
A second source of information on interstate movements of workers is the record
of interstate unemployment compensation claims. The Michigan State Employ-
ment Service offices act as agents for other States in accepting claims for benefits
filed by workers previously employed outside of Michigan. Interstate claims
furnish only an indirect measure of worker migration, since many migrants may
be ineligible for benefits or may obtain jobs before filing claims in this State.
Despite these and other limitations, data on interstate claims furnish a useful
indication of the trend of migration, though not of the volume of movement (see
tables 3a, 3b, and 4).
Table 3 A. — Trend in total number of benefit claims filed with Michigan as liable
and agent State, monthly State totals and indexes} January 1939 to August 1941
Month
1939
Average- --
January
February. _
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
1940
Average- --
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
1941
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
Total number of benefit claims
Indexes ' of total number of claims
filed
filed
Michigan liable
Michigan liable
Michigan
agent
Michigan
agent
Intrastate
Interstate
Intrastate
Interstate
318, 196
12,980
24, 369
4, 250
100.0
100.0
100. 0
376, 021
3.865
118.2
187.8
90.9
266, 694
16, 171
3,893
83.8
124.6
91.6
261, 320
18, 024
4,072
82.1
138.9
95.8
210, 048
12, 024
3,365
66.0
92.6
79.2
265, 988
13, 319
3,697
83.6
102.6
87.0
412, 549
11,453
3,557
129.7
88.2
83.7
480, 644
12, 357
4,486
151.1
95.2
105.6
653, 546
16, 736
5,157
205. 3
128.9
121.3
271, 657
9,301
4,541
85.4
71.7
106.8
238, 568
7,038
4,760
75.0
54.2
112.0
214. 749
6,704
4, 804
67.5
51.6
113.0
166, 563
8,266
4, 807
52.3
63.7
113.1
265, 696
12, 414
7,244
83.5
95.6
170.4
252, 505
12, 729
6,503
79.4
98.1
153.0
235, 498
12, 752
5,910
74.0
98.2
139.1
218, 408
12, 344
5, 865
68.6
95.1
138. 0
242, 468
13, 808
7,130
76.2
106.4
167.8
237, 697
14, 273
6,898
74.7
110.0
162.3
291, 837
13, 799
7,057
91.7
106.3
166.0
575, 675
17, 717
9,357
180.9
136.5
220.2
541, 545
18, 334
8,477
170.2
141.2
199. 5
225, 450
10, 387
7,611
70.9
80.2
179. 1
143, 326
8,495
7,677
45.0
65.4
180.6
.100,374
7,237
6,845
31.5
55.8
161.1
123, 573
7,092
7,595
38.8
54.6
178.7
143, 003
11, 259
8, 563
44.9
86.7
201.5
131,202
8,669
7,166
41.2
66.8
168.6
120, 091
8,689
6,422
37.7
66.9
151.1
124,527
8, 045
6,766
39.1
62.0
159.2
96, 894
6, 361
6,028
31.1
49.0
141.8
80, 671
5,376
6, 520
25.3
41.4
153.4
252, 921
7,311
7,715
79.5
56.3
181.5
351,676
9,649
7,509
110. 5
74.3
176 7
> Base: 1939 monthly average= 100.0.
7182
DETROIT HEARINGS
Table 3B. — Trend, in number of initial claims filed with Michigan as liable and
agent State, monthly State totals and indexes,^ January 1939 to August 1941
Number of initial claims
filed
Indexes ' of number of initial claims
filed
Month
Michigan liable
Michigan
agent
Michigan liable
Michigan
Intrastate
Interstate
Intrastate
Interstate
agent
1939
67, 978
1,693
544
100.0
100.0
100.0
39, 219
38, 062
40, 050
39, 453
73, 865
173,411
149, 259
77, 101
32, 219
84, 380
33, 293
35, 423
50, 509
2,337
1,603
1,745
1,505
1,449
1,622
3,718
1, 516
1,016
1,299
1, .342
1,169
1,680
410
415
393
423
383
480
738
632
593
645
602
810
978
57.7
56.0
58.9
58.0
108.7
255.1
219.6
113.4
47.4
124.1
49.0
52.1
74.3
138.0
94.7
103.1
88.9
85.5
95.8
219.5
89.5
60.0
76.7
79.3
69.0
99.2
75.4
February
76.3
March .- _ -
72.3
77.8
70.4
88.3
July
13.5. 7
116.2
September . --
109.1
October .. -.
118.7
110.7
December - -
149.1
1940
179.8
63, 620
39,917
29, 864
44, 359
42, 392
79, 854
159, 659
53, 991
24, 206
22, 497
18, 095
27, 652
31,754
20, 423
20, 879
29, 780
24,548
21, 188
123, 981
54, 046
2,116
1,475
1,499
2.251
1,670
1,554
3,929
1,174
1,004
1,108
1,019
1,364
1,788
971
1,057
1,311
692
755
1,722
1,947
9G0
692
723
1,039
868
985
1,355
1,026
1,025
1,047
1,027
986
1, 362
949
984
1,346
909
1,026
1,387
1,267
93.6
58.7
43.9
65.3
62.4
117.5
234.9
79.4
35.6
33.1
26.6
40.7
46.7
.30.0
30.7
43.8
36.1
31.2
182.4
79.5
125.0
87.1
88.5
133.0
98.6
91.8
232.1
69.3
59.3
65.4
60.2
80.6
105. 6
57.4
62.4
77.4
40.9
44.6
101.7
115.0
176.5
February
127.2
March
132.9
April
191.0
159.6
181.1
July
249.1
188.6
188.4
October
192.5
188.8
181.2
1941
250.4
174.4
180.9
April -
247.4
167.1
188.6
255.0
August -
232.9
1 Base: 1939 monthly average=100.0.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7183
Table 4.- — Comparison of interstate and intrastate claim volume, by office, first 8
fnonths, 1940 and 1941
First 8 months, 1941
First 8 months, 1940
Percent change first 8
months, 1940 to 1941
Area and office
Total inter-
state claims
Initial inter-
state claims
Total inter-
state claims
Initial inter-
state claims
Total claims
Initial claims
Num-
ber
Per-
cent
of all
claims
Num-
ber
Per-
cent
of all
initial
claims
Num-
ber
Per-
cent
of all
claims
Num-
ber
Per-
cent
of all
initial
claims
Inter-
state
Intra-
state
Inter-
state
Intra-
state
State total
56, 689
4.0
9,230
2.7
57, 197
2.1
7,648
1.4
-0.9
-49.6
+20.7
+36.4
3,446
3.9
447
3.6
3,960
3.2
523
3.5
-12.9
-28.7
-14.5
-17.0
Escanaba.--
Hancock
256
599
678
405
755
45
272
209
63
8
40
116
4.3
4.3
6.1
6.9
4.2
2.2
2.1
4.8
1.4
1.8
1.7
1.6
39
64
87
51
107
7
44
15
5
4.8
4.0
3.3
9.2
4.6
1.7
2.6
2.2
.8
340
586
641
511
842
72
418-
122
144
4.0
2.1
5.4
6.7
4.3
2.6
2.6
1.4
2.8
45
69
90
58
115
11
60
16
14
3.8
2.6
5.0
8.4
4.7
2.4
3.4
1.2
2.1
-24.7
+2.2
+5.8
-20.8
-10.3
-37.5
-34.9
+71.3
-56.3
-31.2
-51.8
-6.6
-22.3
-9.0
-25.8
-19.9
-52.0
-15.7
-13.3
-7.3
-3.3
-12.1
-7.0
-36.4
-26.7
-6.3
-64.3
-32.4
-41.6
Iron Mountain- -
Iron River
Ironwood
Manistique
Marquette
Menominee
Munising
Ontonagon
St. Ignace
Sault Ste. Marie_
+50.0
-20.1
-4.0
-10.3
-4.0
-48.4
-8.1
8
20
3.1
2.4
40
244
2.0
2.0
8
37
3.6
2.1
0
-52.5
+21.1
-40.8
0
-46.0
+17.7
-53.4
Area 2 -
4,782
3.8
679
2.8
6,551
2.5
799
1.6
-27.0
-52.4
-15.0
-51.9
Cadillac
Grand Rapids...
Holland
155
1,505
498
266
491
1,193
325
349
2.5
2.8
4.0
2.9
8.4
6.5
3.2
4.1
17
251
63
38
59
191
32
28
2.2
2.1
2.6
2.0
6.0
4.9
2.8
2.3
366
2,236
632
234
598
1,432
586
467
2.8
2.2
2.3
1.5
4.0
2.6
3.5
2.9
29
279
94
38
73
209
28
49
1.7
1.3
2.0
1.2
2.9
1.6
1.6
3.0
-57.7
-32.7
-21.2
+13.7
-17.9
-16.7
-44.5
-25.3
-52.8
-46.0
-56.3
-42.3
-62,8
-67.5
-39.8
-47.5
-41.4
-10.0
-33.0
0
-19.2
-8.6
+14.3
-42.9
-55.0
-45.2
-49.2
-40.8
Manistee
Muskegon
Petoskey.
Traverse City...
-61.7
-70.4
-34.3
-24.0
Area 3 .-.
4,426
2.0
634
1.2
4,738
1.3
575
.7
-6.6
-42.5
+10.3
-34.7
Alma
230
152
667
2,117
332
794
134
1.9
1.0
2.0
2.0
2.3
2.7
2.1
29
13
85
302
45
150
10
1.5
.9
1.4
1.0
1.6
2.0
1.0
431
223
570
1,890
687
660
277
2.1
.8
.9
1.2
1.8
1.1
2.9
49
21
63
279
65
84
14
1.7
.7
.6
.7
1.1
.6
1.0
-46.6
-31.8
+17.0
+12.0
-51.7
+20.3
-51.6
-39.5
-43.0
-50.6
-31.0
-63.6
-51.6
-30.3
-40.8
-38.1
+34.9
+8.2
-30.8
+78.6
-28.6
-34. 7
-54.5
Bay City
Flint
-45.2
-24.0
Port Huron
Saginaw
West Branch
-54.3
-44.8
-29.9
Area4..-
8,777
5.4
1,324
3.9
10, 375 ■
3.4
1,312
2.3
-15.4
-48.4
+.9
-41.5
402
1,062
1,122
2,229
731
714
1, 235
784
169
329
7.4
6.7
6.9
17.3
3.8
4.3
2.2
16.8
1.7
8.5
55
223
146
271
111
111
222
105
35
45
4.2
5.4
5.0
13.2
2.8
3.1
1.9
9.2
1.6
7.3
612
776
1,036
3,094
1,111
1,194
1,223
799
178
352
3.9
2.8
2.7
10.1
2.3
4.4
1.4
9.9
1.2
4.0
69
145
140
324
123
163
181
101
21
45
2.1
2.9
2.3
7.7
1.4
3.9
1.0
5.6
.7
2.8
-34.3
+36.9
+8.3
-28.0
-34.2
-40.2
+1.0
-1.9
-5.1
-6.5
-66.5
-45.1
-60.3
-61.1
-60.4
-38.1
-34.5
-46.7
-35.9
-58.3
-20.3
+53.8
+4.3
-16.4
-9.8
-31.9
+22.7
+4.0
+66.7
0
-61.6
Ann Arbor
Battle Creek
Benton Harbor. -
Jackson
Kalamazoo
Lansing
Niles
-19.9
-53.0
-54.3
-56.6
-12.2
-35.9
-39.6
Owosso - --
-33.2
Sturgis
-62.7
Areas
35, 258
4.6
6,146
2.9
31, 573
2.0
4,439
1.4
+11.7
-53.2
+38.5
-34.5
Detroit
31,238
393
374
2,011
1,242
4.6
5.3
3.0
4.5
5.1
5,504
63
54
333
192
2.9
3.5
1.6
2.8
2.3
28,447
603
358
1,188
977
2.0
3.6
1.5
1.9
1.9
4,050
54
29
180
126
1.4
1.9
.7
1.1
1.0
+9.8
-34.8
+4.5
+69.3
+27.1
-54.2
-56.3
-49.1
-29.3
-54.7
+35.9
+16.7
+86.2
+85.0
+52.4
-35.0
Monroe
-38.3
Mount Clemens _
Pontiac
-20.0
-28.5
Wyandotte
-34.4
60396--41--pt. 18-
7184 DETROIT HEARINGS
Tables 3A and 3B contain monthly figures on intrastate and interstate claims
for unemployment compensation which have been received by the Michigan
agenc3^ Interstate claims received as liable State represent claims filed in other
States by workers who earned their benefit eligibility in Michigan. Agent State
claims are those filed in Michigan local offices by workers whose covered employ-
ment was in some other State.
Variations in the trends for these various types of claims are clearly indicated
by the indexes in tables 3 A and 3B.
While the total number of intrastate claims remained well below the 1939
average from September of last year through July 1941, the number of agent
State claims was from 42 to 102 percent greater than the monthly average for
1939 (table 3A).
Interstate claims received as liable State have declined since last year, but the
decrease for this type of claim has been considerably smaller than the drop for
intrastate claims.
Until the seasonal automotive lay-offs, the number of interstate claims taken
in other States against the Michigan fund have been considerably less than the
volume of claims taken in Michigan against other States, although the reverse
was true during the depression period of 1938 and 1939.
For initial claims, differences in the trends for intrastate and agent interstate
claims have been even wider.
During the first 8 months of 1941, 9,230 initial claims were filed in Michigan
by workers previously employed in other States. Most of these claims represented
different individuals, though a few workers may have filed more than one initial
claim. The total represents an increase of 21 percent above the corresponding
months of 1940, when only 7,648 initial interstate claims were filed in Michigan.
While the percentage of increase is not striking, its importance as a measure of
trend becomes greater when it is noted that the number of local initial claims,
filed by workers still residing in this State, declined by 36 percent in the same
period. The fact that claims takens as agent State have increased at the same
time that claims against the Michigan fund were falling suggests a significant
movement of workers from other States.
The increase in initial interstate claims has been by no means evenly spread
throughout the State. Almost all of the increase occurred in industrial centers,
with the change from 1940 amounting to a gain of 36 percent in Detroit, 85 percent
in Pontiac, 79 percent in Saginaw, and 35 percent in Bay City. There were
significant increases in Flint and Lansing, and a few of the small cities, including
Monroe, Wyandotte, Mount Clemens, and Ann Arbor, also had sharp gains in
interstate claims.
Since initial interstate claims generally represent the first appearance of a
non-Michigan worker at a Michigan employment office, these increases indicate
which sections of Michigan have had the greatest drawing power for migrant
industrial workers. In other areas, the volume of interstate claims has declined,
although in some cases the decline was less than for intrastate initial claims. None
of the Upper Peninusla offices accepted more initial interstate claims in 1941 than
in 1940, and in the northern and western sections of the Lower Peninsula declines
were general. (The only exceptions are minor increases in Petoskey, Niles, and
Battle Creek.)
While the number of initial agent State claims has remained small in absolute
volume, such claims were equal to 2.7 percent of the number of initial against the
Michigan fund in 1941, compared with only 1.4 percent in the first 8 months of
1940. In the Detroit area, the corresponding increase was from 1.4 to 2.9 per-
cent. In each of the five administrative areas, and in nearly all of the individual
offices, the ratio of initial interstate claims to initial intrastate claims was higher
in 1941 than in the previous year.
Although the total volume of interstate claims (including continued as well as
initial claims) was almost unchanged from 1940 to 1941, such claims represent
4 percent of the total number of claims taken in Michigan offices this year as
compared to 2.1 percent last year. In Detroit, the increase was from 2 to 4.6
percent.
C. EVIDENCE OF MIGRATION FROM WAOE RECORDS OP THE UNEMPLOYMENT
COMPENSATION COMMISSION
Data on employment service applications and interstate claims, while valuable
as industries of the trend of migration, fail to yjve the whole picture because they
deal only with unemployed workers. Another approach is necessary in order to
determine how many migrants have actually moved to Michigan and found jobs
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7185
here. Some of these are the same individuals who are reflected in interstate
claims or new applications, but there are no doubt many other migrants who
obtain work without registering at an employment office or filing an interstate
claim.
With this problem in mind, a special study of the wage records of the Unemploy-
ment Compensation Commission has been made, based on a sample of individuals
whose social -security numbers were originally assigned in some other State. The
study covered the five calendar quarters from the beginning of 1940 through the
first quarter of 1941.
In general, it may be assumed that workers with out-of-State social security
numbers who were not employed by subject establishments in Michigan in the
first quarter of 1941 and earned wages in covered employment subsequently are
for the most part migrants from other States. This assumption has certain obvi-
ous limitations. Some workers falling in this class may have been employed pre-
viously in Michigan, but may have been unemployed or engaged in noncovered
employment in the first quarter of 1940. On the other hand, some workers may
have moved in from other States and obtained jobs in Michigan in noncovered
employment, and this group would not be identified in such a study. Also, some
migrants who found work in covered employment may have obtained social
security numbers in Michigan after they arrived here. Assuming that these
various limitations tend to cancel out, the following summary is a fair indication
of the extent to which migrants have found work in Michigan.
The wage-record survey indicated that a total of 66,010 workers with out-of-
State social-security numbers, not employed in Michigan in the first quarter of
1940, earned wages in covered employment later in 1940 or in the first calendar
quarter of 1941. Workers who obtained their social security numbers in the
Great Lakes States made up nearly half of the total (29,680, or 45 percent).
The State of Ohio contributed the largest number of migrants (19 percent, but
nearly 13 percent were from Illinois, nearly 8 percent from Indiana, and 5.5 per
cent "from Wisconsin.
The area contributing the next largest group of migrants was the Middle At-
lantic States, with over 12,000 workers, or 18 percent of the total. New York
accounted for 9 percent, Pennsylvania 6.5 percent, and other Middle Atlantic
States less than 3 percent.
The Southern States, which furnished a rather large percentage of the unem-
ployed applicants at Detroit employment offices, furnished a smaller proportion of
the workers who actually found jobs in Michigan. Nine percent came from the
South Central States, with about one-third of these from Tennessee and one-
third from all other States in the area. About 7 percent of the total came from
the South Atlantic States, with a little more than 2 percent from Florida, 2 per-
cent from West Virginia, and the remainder scattered.
The Plains States, with 8,700 employed migrants, furnished a surprisingly large
proportion of the total. More than i3 percent of the employed migrants came
from this group of States, with 4.4 percent from Missouri, 2.6 percent from Iowa,
2 percent from Texas, and the remainder scattered.
A little less than 5 percent of the employed migrants had first obtained their
social-security numbers in Pacific Coast States, with nearly 4 percent from Cali-
fornia. The Mountain States and New England States, each accounting for less
than 2 percent of the total, furnished only a small fraction of the employed
migrants.
D. PRINCIPAL AREAS AFFECTED BY MIGRATION
A considerable amount of information, not easily reduced to figures, is available
on the general trend of migration in individual labor market areas throughout the
State. On the basis of monthly reports submitted by local employment offices the
following notes summarize the situation in selected communities to which there
has been a substantial amount of migration, or from which significant numbers of
workers have moved to other areas in search of jobs.
Largely because of the impetus of defense orders, Muskegon industrial employ-
ment is at an all-time high and workers have been entering the area from all of
northern Michigan and from some more southern cities, including Grand Rapids.
Both Flint and Saginaw offices of the State employment service have reported a
large number of northern Michigan workers applying for work in the automobile
factories, the latter office reporting over 100 migratory workers' applications during
7186 DETROIT HEARINGS
June. There are some indications that northern Michigan workers stop at these
cities and, if worli is not immediately available, continue on south toward Pontiac
and Detroit.
Applications of nonlocal workers have maintained an unusually high level in
Pontiac. In June the local employment service office reported that approximately
60 percent of the 550 new registrations were received from nonlocal workers, while
in July, the proportion increased to 65 percent. The Pontiac office reports that
approximately 75 percent of the migrant workers desire factory employment,
although a fairly large proportion are floating workers who do not wish steady
employment. The emploj-ment manager of one large automotive establishment
in Pontiac reported in June that nearly three-fourths of the workers applying at
the plant were from other States.
The Ann Arbor, Jackson, and Battle Creek offices of the State employment
service have all reported a more or less continuous influx of workers from other
States. During June, the Ann Arbor office received an average of 6 applica-
tions a day from individuals with less than 30 days' residence in the count}^ while
in Battle Creek, about 125 of the new registrants in June had been in the area for
less than 6 months. During the same period, Jackson reported approximately
5 registrations of nonlocal workers daily, approximately one-third of whom were
from outside of Michigan. There are indications that when work is not immedi-
ately available, the nonlocal applicants at these cities also move to the next center,
finally converging upon Detroit.
The leading Michigan source of migrant workers is undoubtedly the Upper
Peninsula and the northern part of the Lower Peninsula, where industrial employ-
ment opportunities are limited and defense employment has not been significant.
Nearly all local offices of the employment service in these areas have reported an
extensive departure of workers, chiefly for the southern Michigan industrial areas.
In the Hancock area, however, a considerable number of miners have also left for
copper producing areas in Arizona. The Hancock Employment Service office
estimates that nearly 1,500 workers have left the area for work in other parts of the
country. The office reported in July that few workers have returned with the
general comment that "jobs are not as plentiful as one is lead to believe."
Wisconsin industry has also attracted a significant number of workers from
Michigan's Upper Peninsula, some on a seasonal basis only.
In the Lower Peninsula, Manistee and West Branch have both reported large
scale out-migration in the direction of Detroit and the other Michigan industrial
areas. In Manistee, even employed workers are leaving, attracted by the higher
wage scales in other parts of the Lower Peninsula.
Although Grand Rapids is an important Michigan industrial center, it has
experienced a net loss of workers to Muskegon and the automobile manufacturing
cities of the eastern part of the State. Partly because of the nature of Grand
Rapids industry, relatively few defense orders have been awarded there and indus-
trial employment has not kept pace with that in the automobile centers and
Muskegon.
In southern Michigan, the Niles-Sturgis area has suffered a net loss of workers,
some to Detroit but mostly to the cities of northern Indiana such as Elkhart and
South Bend where defense employment is increasing considerably. In this case,
again, higher wage rates have attracted many employed workers. Kalamazoo,
like Grand Rapids, has not been as active industrially as many other Michigan
cities, and has consequently lost some skilled workers both to Detroit and to
northern Indiana.
The analysis of interstate claims contained in table 4 substantiates these indica-
tions of the destination of migratorj'^ workers from other States. During the first
8 months of 1941 initial interstate claims received in the Detroit area (area No. 5)
totaled 6,146, or 38^^ percent more than the number received in the comparable
months of 1940. During the same period, however, intrastate initial claims de-
clined nearly 35 percent. Similarly, Saginaw reported an increase in initial claims
of nearly 79 percent; Bay City, 35 percent; Ann Arbor, 53 percent; and Pontiac,
85 percent.
Section IV. Labor Dislocation Under the Defense Program
Production quotas and shortages of various materials essential to the defense
program will be responsible for a large volume of luiemployment in Michigan in
the next several months, unless special steps are taken to avoid this waste of
manpower by acceleration of defense production in the State's industrial centers.
Because of the predominance of automobile manufacturing in Michigan's indus-
trial structure, quotas established by the Office of Production Management to
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7187
limit the output of passenger cars and nonmilitary motor vehicles will have a
serious impact on Michigan employment. A survey made in July showed that
for the State as a whole, a 50 percent curtailment would eliminate 175,000 jobs
in nondefense production by January 1942. Despite anticipated expansion of
defense work, the July survey indicated net unemployment of 93,000 in January,
even if it were assumed that all defense joljs were available to displaced automobile
workers.
Since the plan actually adopted calls for a more gradual curtailment of passen-
ger-car production, the net dislocation of labor is expected to be less than was
indicated by the July survey. However, the quotas already established, permit-
ting national output of 817,000 units in the 4 months ending November 1941 and
204,000 units in December, will reduce nondefense automotive employment much
more rapidly than defense employment is now scheduled to increase.
On the basis of surveys made in August and September (assuming 50 percent
curtailment and a 40-hour week in nondefense automotive production) it is esti-
mated that net unemployment in Januarv 1942 will affect at least 54,000 workers
in the Detroit area, 17,000 in Flint, and from 4,000 to 6,000 in each of the other
three principal automotive centers — Pontiac, Lansing, and Saginaw.
This dislocation of labor — which will exist after taking into account the antici-
pated gains in defense employment — may result in a wave of migration away from
Michigan industrial centers unless special measures are taken to create additional
jobs or guarantee some other kind of economic security for the displaced workers.
Additional unemployment will occur in numerous Michigan localities because
of the inability of nondefense manufacturers to obtain materials or needed equip-
ment. Regardless of whether or not formal quotas are actually established for
such consumers' goods as refrigerators, washing machines, furnaces, and hard-
ware, the producers of such commodities are almost certain to have output cur-
tailed as material shortages become more severe.
Some of the dangers inherent in this potential migration, and governmental
measures which might be taken to reduce the dislocation, are discussed in sections
V, VI, and VII of this sta,tement.
The present section discusses surveys which have recently been completed in
an attempt to determine the extent and duration of unemployment of factory
workers which may result from the production restrictions iinposed under the
defense program, both for the State as a whole and for major individual communi-
ties. The discussion includes (a) a statement of the limitations of the surveys,
(b) a summary of the findings based on them, and (c) a brief statement of the
estimated trends in the individual areas for which surveys have been prepared
to date.
A. LIMITATIONS OF SURVEYS
All of the surveys are subject to some possible revision based on corrections
which may be submitted by the employers contacted, but even if no corrections
of this type were necessary, the surveys would be subject to the following general
limitations:
1. Trends in defense employment are based chiefly on estimates of labor needs
for contracts alread,v received. If additional contracts are awarded in time or
if delivery can be scheduled for earlier dates, unemployment will of course be
reduced.
2. In most instances, it has been necessary to assume that all workers laid off
from nondefense jobs will be occupationally transferable to meet expanding
defense needs. To the extent that such transferability is limited, actual dis-
location of labor will be greater than estimated in the surveys. Efficient training
programs will be extremely important in reducing the significance of this factor.
Without them, in-migration of specific types of workers may be needed to man
defense plants, even while local workers are unemployed because of nondefense
curtailment.
3. The estimates obtained in the surveys are generally limited to data on factory
employment. The full volume of unemplojanent will be greater because of the
indirect effects of unemployment in basic manufacturing industries on activity in
dependent economic fields such as trade and service. In some cases, the arbi-
trarx' restriction of production will have additional special effects, causing lay-offs
for example, in advertising which would not be ordinarily affected to the same
degree. Booming industrial activity in areas not suffering from defense unem-
ploj'ment, on the other hand, will tend to offset these indirect effects of unem-
ployment in selected manufacturing fields by maintaining a high demand level
on a national scale for such nondurable consumers' goods as food and clothing.
7188 DETROIT HEARINGS
4. Local unemployment conditions may be relieved by out-migration, but this
movement of workers may eventually handicap defense production, which is not
scheduled to reach its peak until several months after nondefense lay-offs are
forced by quotas or material shortages. Since the existence of material shortages
is based largely on the high level of current consumption, although some controls
have been established to conserve materials for future defense use, it is hardly
possible that total employment in the country will undergo any prolonged decline.
This conclusion is especially consistent with the fact that production of materials
has been substantially expanded and that some defense production processes
apparently require a greater ratio of manpower to equipment than the nondefense
mass-production processes which are being curtailed. Unless surpluses of certain
materials exist alongside of shortages of strategic materials, a high level of national
employment might lead to out-migration of workers from some of Michigan's
industrial centers in which they will be sorely needed as defense production
reaches its full stride in these areas later.
5. The effect of unemployment resulting from material shortages in nonauto-
motive industries is not fully represented in these estimates, because of the in-
ability of individual concerns to predict the exact time or extent to which such
lay-offs would occur. However, in many nonautomotive communities, such dis-
location may assume serious proportions.
B SUMMARY OF SURVEY FINDINGS
An analysis of estimated employment trends in "potential defense" manufac-
turing industries in the entire State was made in July 1941, prior to the announce-
ment of the official quotas for nonmilifcary automobile production for the first 4
months of the 1942 model year. Employers were asked to estimate their labor
needs on the basis of assumed quotas 20 percent and 50 percent under 1941 pro-
duction. Covering 296 plants with about 95 precent of the total of 411,000 em-
ployees in automotive and allied industries and 508 plants with 140,000 employees
in nonautomotive manufacturing, this survey furnishes the only available data
on the State as a whole.
Assuming 50 percent curtailment from the 1941 model year and complete trans-
ferability of displaced automobile workers to new defense jobs, the July survey
indicated that 67,000 workers from autmobile and related manufacturing would
be unemployed in September, 100,000 in November, and 82,000 in January.
From 41 1,000 in July, nondefense employment in automotive and allied industries
would decline to 314,000 in September (down 97,000), 249,000 in November
(down 162,000 from July), and 236,000 in January 1942 (down 175,000 from July).
Defense increases in these industries would fall short of offsetting the declines by
74,000 in September, 110,000 in November, and 93,000 in January.
With a 75-percent cut in effect, it Vv^as estimated in July that about 260,000
nondefense jobs would be eliminated by January 1942, with net unemployment
amounting to 176,000 at that time. Although no 75-percent cut is apparently
planned for January, this estimate does provide a rough approximation of the
amount by which defense employment would need to increase between January
and the time when a 75-percent curtailment is actually adopted, if very severe
unemployment conditions are to be avoided.
Reasonable allowance for practical limits on occupational and geographical
transferability of released automobile and related factory workers was con-
sidered to require addition of about 15-20,000 to the minimum figures on net
unemployment which were estimated in the July survey.
However, even the estimates of net unemployment reached in this survey are
obviously much too high for September and November because the actual pro-
duction cut was 26.6 percent instead of 50 percent. The established quota might
reduce the net displacement of nondefense workers to about 20,000 in September
and 50,000 in November, depending upon the production schedules followed in
turning out the full 4-month quota. Tending to reduce both of these figures still
further, and the January estimate as well, is the fact that sizable additional de-
fense contracts have been received since July and work on previous contracts has
been progressing more rapidly than was expected in some important cases. By
the end of November, however, there are some indications that unemployment
will be greater than the estimate of 50,000 because of gradual lay-offs as the quota
for August-November may be filled by various plants before the end of the period.
The local community surveys made in August and September provide more
reliable estimates of employment trends, since they were completed after the
quota for the first 4 months of the 1942 model year was officially announced.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7189
For all of the local labor market area surveys, unemployment estimates are
based on a comparison of anticipated employment totals with employment at
the end of May 1941. This base was used to avoid the distortion of current
figures by the seasonal lay-offs for model change-over purposes.
On the basis of a 40-hour week on nondefense automotive production, these
surveys indicated that net unemployment of factory workers on November 30,
might reach 41,000 in Detroit, 8,000 in Flint, at least 3,400 in Grand Rapids,
2,800 in Lansing, 2,400 in Fontiac, and perhaps 1,400 in Saginaw. A small
decrease (less than 500) would be expected to occur in Muskegon because of the
automobile quota, but lay-offs because of material shortages, especially for re-
frigerator and metal furniture production, may create an unemployment total in
excess of 2,000-3,000 in this area. In other areas as well, particularly Grand
Rapids, shortages of materials for nondefense manufacturing may force lay-offs
for many workers, but virtually all employers contacted, who had any expecta-
tion of material shortages, found it impossible to estimate the time, extent, or
duration of consequent pay-roll reductions. The situation with respect to ma-
terial procurement possibilities is too indefinite, but it appears quite likely that
most of the labor market areas surveyed to date will experience substantial
lay-offs of workers now using critical defense materials on nondefense production.
By January 1942, still assuming a 40-hour week on nondefense production of
automobiles it is estimated that output of 200,000 units would mean net unem-
ployment of at least 55,000 workers in the Detroit area, 17,000 in Flint, 5,600
in Pontiac, 4,700 in Lansing, 4,000 in Saginaw, 3,600 in Grand Rapids, and 700
in Muskegon. These estimates take anticipated increases in defense employment
into account, including increases expected in automotive and nonautomotive
plants; but lay-offs due directly to material shortages were not estimated for
reasons already explained.
The above figures for Detroit are based on reports from a sample of 45 major
concerns, which included the bulk of the area's automotive employment, but
only part of the nonautomotive concerns in potential defense industries. Where
the sample is expanded to furnish an estimate for all potential industries (firms
regularly contacted by the Employment Service to determine their labor needs)
the estimate of net unemployment is reduced somewhat, because of additional
defense prospects in nonautomotive plants not included in the 45-company
sample. This expansion of the "sample" would indicate net unemployment of
34,000 in November and 46,000 in January. Because of the practical limitations
or transferability from automotive to nonautomotive plants, and the probability
that additional unemployment will result from material shortages, the estimates
based on the 45-firm sample (41,000 in November and 55,000 in January)
probably come closest to predicting the actual situation.
With a 32-hour week in effect for nondefense production of motor vehicles,
November factory employment would be only slightly lower than in May 1941.
In January, however, even with this over-optimistic assumption, declines from
May would occur in each of the 5 principal automotive centers, amounting to
18,000 in Detroit, 12,000 in Flint, 2,700 in Lansing and Saginaw, and 1,700 in
Pontiac.
In the Bay City-Midland area, expected increases in defense employment are
more than sufficient to offset lay-offs resulting from the automobile quotas. As-
suming that displaced automobile factory workers can be absorbed into new
defense jobs, no increase in unemployment is expected in the area in either
November or January. In fact, total industrial employment should have risen
by at least 1,500 from May to November.
C. ANTICIPATED UNEMPLOYMENT IN INDIVIDUAL LABOR MARKET AREAS
Since the passenger-car quota for August-November was announced on August
21, surveys have been completed to determine the effect of this quota and material
shortages on employment in eight industrial areas in Michigan: Detroit, Flint,
Pontiac, Saginaw, Muskegon, Bay City-Midland, Lansing, Grand Rapids. A
brief summary of the findings of each of these surveys follows. The Detroit
summary below is based on figures from a revision being issued under date of
September 18, 1941.
Detroit.
In July, at least 130,000 workers in the Detroit area were already engaged in
defense production. But in spite of the enormous value of defense contracts
already received by Detroit establishments, substantial unemployment may be
7190
DETROIT HEARINGS
expected in the city during the next several months unless stop-gap contracts are
awarded, work on present contracts is pushed ahead of schedule, or the use of
manpower is diluted by operating nondefense plants only 32 hours per week.
Even with a 32-hour week on nondefense automotive production, thousands of
workers will be unemployed under the more severe curtailment program which
will undoubtedly be in effect in January.
Major cause of the unemployment expected in the Detroit area is the quota for
nonmilitary automobile production, but serious lay-offs are also likely to result
from shortages of materials for various metal and rubber processing production
of other nondefense goods. These shortages may even force passenger-car pro-
duction below the quota; already, material delivery delays were reported to have
slowed down last week's seasonal rise in automobile output.
For the 45 corporations contacted in the recently completed survey of the effect
of the automobile production quotas and material shortages in Detroit, unemploy-
ment would result in November for a net total of at least 41,000 of the 315,000
factory workers employed by these firms on May 30, 1941, if nondefense auto-
motive manufacturing is operated on the basis of a 40-hour week. By January,
if the national quota is about 200,000 passenger cars, the net total unemployment
on this basis would reach 55,000 factory workers (table 5).
Table 5. — Estimated trends in defense and nondefense factory employment, Detroit
area, totals for selected automotive producers and suppliers ' and nonautomotive
firms, May SO, to Nov. 30, 1941, and Jan. 31, 1942
40-HOUR WEEK ON AUTOMOTIVE NONDEFENSE IN NOVEMBER AND JANUARY
Type of firm and employment
Factory employment on
specified dates
Net change from
May 30, 1941 to—
May 30,
1941
Nov. 30,
1941
Jan. 31,
1942
Nov. 30,
1941
Jan. 31,
1942
Total, all selected firms --
314, 577
273, 127
260, 073
-41, 450
-54,504
Defense ..
72, 782
241, 795
119,293
153, 834
126, 558
133, 515
+46,511
-87, 961
+53 776
Nondefense . -_ ...
-108,280
5 automotive producers, total . .
216, 868
175, 006
164, 180
-41,862
-52, 688
Defense
29, 292
187, 576
56, 766
118, 240
61, 651
102, 529
+27,474
-69, 336
+32, 359
-85,047
Nondefense. ...
23 automotive suppliers i total
68, 516
62, 075
57, 357
-6,441
— 11,159
Defense
22, 826
45, 690
33, 432
28, 643
33, 357
2 24, 000
+10, 606
-17,047
+10, 531
—21 690
Nondefense
17 nonautomotive firms, total _. .
29, 193
36, 046
38, 536
+6, 853
+9, 343
Defense -.
20, 664
8,529
29, 095
6,951
31, 550
6,986
+8, 431
-1,578
+10, 886
Nondefense
— 1,543
32-HOUR WEEK ON AUTOMOTIVE NONDEFENSE IN NOVEMBER AND JANUARYS
Total, all selected firms
N ondefense
Automotive producers, total
Nondefense
Automotive suppliers, total.
N ondefense
Nonautomotive firms, total.
Nondefense. _
314, 577
305, 298
286, 627
-9, 279
241,795
186, 005
160, 069
-55, 790
216, 868
200. 017
184, 734
-16,851
187, 576
143, 251
123, 083
-44, 325
68, 516
69, 235
63, 357
+719
45, 690
35, 803
30, 000
-9, 887
29, 193
36, 046
38, 536
+6, 853
8,529
6,951
6,986
-1,578
-27, 950
-81, 726
-32, 134
-64, 493
-5, 159
-15,690
+9, 343
-1,543
1 Producers of automobile bodies, parts, supplies, equipment.
2 Partly computed by assuming same trend (for plants with 16,957 workers on May 30) as for remainder
of "suppliers" and 5 automotive producers.
3 Computed by adding 25 percent to nondefense automotive employment estimates based on 40-hour
week, except for 2 producers of finished automobiles from whom actual estimates were received.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7191
Table 6. — Estimated change in Detroit employment from May to November 1941 1
and to January 19^2, on the basis of a 40- and a 32-hour week for nondefense
work
Factory
equip-
ment,
May 30,
1941
Estimated change on basis of specified
work weeli for nondefense auto output
Item
40-hour week
32-hour week
To Nov.
30
To Jan-
uary 1942
To Nov.
30
To Jan-
uary 1942
Total - - -
385, 400
-34, 300
-45, 700
-700
-18,200
117, 000
268, 300
+65, 400
-99, 700
+76, 200
-121,900
+65, 400
-66, 100
+76, 200
-94, 400
216, 900
-41, 900
-52, 700
-16,900
-32, 100
29,300
187, 600
+27, 500
-69,400
+32, 400
-85, 100
+27, 500
-44, 400
+32, 400
Nondefense . _ - - - . . .-
-64, 500
97, 200
-9, 100
-15,800
-600
-8,900
36, 800
60, 400
+17, 100
-26, 200
+ 17,000
-32,800
+ 17, 100
-17,700
+ 17,000
Nondefense .- ..- --
-25,900
Nonautomotive producers . -- -.
71, 300
+ 16,700
+22, 800
+ 16,700
+22,800
Defense -
51,000
20,300
+20, 800
-4, 100
+26, 900
-4, 100
+20, 800
-4,100
+26, 900
Nondefense .. - . .-
-4,100
Since the automotive quota for December is only 204,000 units and defense em-
ployment would be several thousand below the level anticipated for January,
unemployment in December will probably be higher than the estimates developed
for January in this Detroit survey. Furthermore, it is also in December that the
full effect of material shortages on other nondefense production is expected to
make itself felt, as many manufacturers have accumulated stocks of supplies
which, together with at least small shipments in the meantime, may tide them
over until about December.
The anticipated net decline in employment for the selected firms from May to
November will result from a drop of 88,000 (from 242,000) in nondefense employ-
ment, offset in part by an estimated increase of 47,000 (from 73,000) in defense
labor needs.
By January, the 45 selected firms expected nondefense employment to be about
108,000 below the May 30 level, while their new defense jobs would permit absorp-
tion of only 54,000 of the released workers.
The 5 major producers of finished automobiles in the area (General Motors,
Ford, Chrysler, Packard, Hudson) expected a net decline of 42,000 by November,
slightly more than the net total for all of the 45 firms contacted. While their
defense employment is increasing by 27,000 to nearly double the May 30 total,
these 5 corporations expect their nondefense employment in the area to fall from
187,000 in May to 118,000 in November. The nondefense decrease of 69,000 for
these firms by November accounts for about 80 percent of the total estimated drop
in nondefense employment for the 45 establishments reached in the survey. From
May to January, these 5 producers reported an estimated increase of 32,000 in
defense employment and a nondefense drop of 85,000.
For the 23 automotive suppliers contacted, still on the basis of a 40-hour week
for nondefense operations, a net decrease of 6,400 was expected by November,
and bv January these firms expected to employ 11,000 fewer workers than they
did on May 30, 1941.
The survey revealed that the nonautomotive firms contacted would experience
a net employment increase of 6,900 by November and 9,300 by January. Of the
29,200 May employees of these 17 nonautomotive establishments, 20,700 were
already on defense work; and the number of defense workers was expected to rise
to 29,200 by November and to 31,600 by January 1942.
7192 DETROIT HEARINGS
On the basis of a 32-hour week for workers on nondefense automotive production,
the net decreases in factory employment of the 45 selected companies would
amount to 9,300 by November 30 and 28,000 by January 31, 1942.
Expansion of the figures for the sample of selected firms to reflect the total for
virtually all of the area's manufacturers of durable consumers' goods and of pro-
ducers' goods (with about 385,000 factory employees in May) gives estimated
declines of 34,000 by November 30 and 46,000 by January, on the basis of a 40-
hour week for passenger-car production. On a 32-hour schedule for nondefense
automotive production, the expanded figures reveal a net decline of less than 1,000
by November 30, but a drop of more than 18,000 by January 1942.
Flint.
Unless additional defense work is allocated to Flint, this city will probably
suffer a greater relative amount of defense unemployment than any other in the
State. Virtually 100 percent automotive and General Motors, Flint's manu-
facturing employment is expected to decline by 8,100 by November with a 40-hour
week, although no decrease would occur with a 32-hour week. By January with
a 50 percent curtailment of passenger-car production, the drop would be 16,800
on a 40-hour basis or 11,700 on a 32-hour basis. Of 45,000 workers employed by
the 6 General Motors plants in May, only 1,800 factory workers were in defense
production. Under present contracts, defense employment is expected to rise
to about 4,000 by November. By January with 600 workers added to the No-
vember defense total, defense employment in the area will be up to about 4,600,
provided that there is no decrease at A. C. Spark Plug as this division completes
work on present contracts.
Pontiac.
Less serious in its effect on employment in Pontiac than in Flint, the automobile
production quota will nevertheless cause a sizable amount of unemployment
unless the workweek on nondefense production is reduced to 32 hours per week or
defense output is stepped up. By November 1, with employees on nondefense
production working 40 hours per week, the passenger-car quota would mean net
unemployment for approximately 2,400 of the 24,000 wage earners of the 8 plants
contacted. A decline of approximately 3,800 in nondefense employment of wage
earners would be partly offset by an anticipated increase of about 1,400 in de-
fense production. Of the expected drop in nondefense employment, the 3 largest
automotive plants account for 3,700, while the expected increase in emploj^ment
on defense production by 1 of these plants accounts for 1,100 of the anticipated
rise in defense employment. In January 1942 a 40-hour week for nondefense
automotive workers, combined with a 50 percent curtailment of output from 1941
levels, would mean a net displacement of at least 5,600 workers. With non-
defense workers on a 32-hour week schedule, total industrial employment in
Pontiac would actually increase at least 1,250 by November, but would be down
by at least 1,700 in January. Because of the predominance of automobile manu-
facturing in the area, production quotas on other items than motor vehicles would
have an insignificant effect in Pontiac, and material shortages are not expected
to force lay-oflFs, in addition to those which miglit result from the passenger-car
quota, for any of the area's 18,000 to 20,000 nondefense workers.
Saginaw,
With 35 percent of Saginaw's employment of 18,200 workers in potential defense
industries already devoted to defense production and with the possibility that some
nondefense production now done in other areas will be transferred to Saginaw,
it is possible that no serious dislocation will occur in this area.
However, if nondefense automotive workers are on a 40-hour schedule, approxi-
mately 1,350 of the 13,000 workers employed by the 6 plants accounting for
practically all of the city's automobile workers (5 General Motors and 1 Eaton
Manufacturing) may be unemployed in November, while employment of the
other manufacturers in the area remains virtually unchanged from the May 31
total of about 9,000. A decrease of about 3,000 in civilian automotive employ-
ment would be only partly offset by an increase of about 1,650 in defense employ-
ment, with about half of this rise occurring at a single plant operated by an
automobile producer. In January 1942 with a 50-percent reduction in passenger-
car output and a 40-hour week, factory employment would be at least 4,000 under
the May 31 level, as defense expansion would permit transfer for a maximum of
only 1,800 of the 5,800 workers who would need to be released. Most of the
nondefense decline would be at a single plant which would not need 3,300 of its
6,400 May employees. With a 32-hour week for passenger -car production. Sag-
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7193
inaw's factory employment would increase by about 700 to November and decline
by approximately 2,750 in January 1942. Transfer of nondefense production
from General Motors plants in New York (Tonawanda and Syracuse) may
eliminate lay-offs of about 550 workers at 2 General Motors plants in Saginaw,
which would otherwise be necessary under the 27.6 percent cut by November,
but these transfer plans are not yet crystallized. While 15,000 of Saginaw's
22,000 factory workers are still engaged in nondefense production, no significant
lay-offs are expected because of other quotas or materials shortages, partly
because the area's nondefense, nonautomotive employment of about 4,000 to
5,000 is based largely upon agricultural products of the Saginaw River Valley.
Muskegon.
As only about 3,700 of the Muskegon area's 9,000 workers in automotive plants
are in nondefense production, the passenger-car quota will have relatively little
effect, causing net displacement of only 300 workers by November and 700 by
January. But a 50-percent reduction of refrigerator output would force Borg-
Warner's Norge Division to lay off about 1,400 of its 3,500 employees, unless the
plant's efforts to secure defense awards for ammunition cases, water heater
shield, etc., are successful. Although the relatively high ratio of about 45 percent
of the area's 23,600 manufacturing workers is already devoted to defense produc-
tion (with a total of 5,200 defense workers employed by Continental Motors,
Campbell-Wyant & Cannon, Lakey Foundry & Machine, and Shaw Box, Crane
& Hoist), material shortages may force lay-offs for several thousand nondefense
workers, but no definite data are available except from 3 plants which believe that
lack of materials might necessitate lay-offs for about 600 workers.
Bay City and Midland.
Compared with the pre-change-over total of about 13,000 workers, the total
employment of the plants contacted wiU be 1,450 higher by November, assuming
that the 850 workers released by the 2 major automotive plants can be absorbed
by the nonautomotive plants whose total employment is expected to rise by 2,300
(from 9,400 at the end of May). But most of the displaced automobile workers
will not be suitable for transfer to the new defense jobs in the nonautomotive
plants, with the possible exception of some unskilled jobs at the plants of the
Dow Chemical Co. in Midland and Bay City and a few skilled jobs at the Defoe
Boat Works. Even by January, an expected decrease of about 1,600 in non-
defense automotive employment would be more than offset by the anticipated
increase in defense work by November, but the fact that other workers may
already have the new jobs before the automobile workers are released, as well
as the occupational transfer difficulty, may create unemployment for a number
of the workers released from automotive plants. The employment of about
8,000 to 9,000 workers in plants not contacted in the survey is not expected to
change substantially during the remainder of the year. Although expanding to
manufacture airplane engine parts, the Chevrolet plant will probably not absorb
a significant number of workers by January. Estimates of automobile worker
displacement were based on a 40-hour week, and a 32-hour week would virtually
eliminate the need for lay-offs by November and substantially reduce the dis-
placement in January.
Lansing.
With a 40-hour week, current production quotas and a 50-percent automotive
quota in January, employment in Lansing is expected to decline by approximately
2,750 by October 30 and 4,700 by the end of January 1942 (from a May total of
about 22,000). A decline of nearly 8,400 in nondefense employment by January
will be partly offset by a prospective increase of about 3,700 in defense employment.
With nondefense work on a 32-hour week basis, net displacement in January
would be reduced to 2,700. Expansion of defense employment at Nash-Kelvi-
nator between January and August 1942 is the only presently foreseen prospect
for easing the situation in 1942. This firm expects eventually to employ a peak
of about 8,000 workers on airplane propellers and engine parts in Lansing. Nearly
all the labor displacement by January 1942 will be at 2 General Motors plants,
Oldsmobile and Fisher Body (13,000 nondefense workers in May); for all other
plants combined, defense employment will increase more than the prospective
nondefense decline. Unemployment of automotive workers may be greater than
estimated above as many released workers wiU not be transferable to new defense
jobs without considerable training.
7194 DETROIT HEARINGS
Grand Rapids.
Because of the extremely high proportion of Grand Rapids industrial employ-
ment which is confined to a large number of small plants, it is particularly difhcult,
in a very hasty survey, to obtain an entirely valid projection of employment
trends in this labor-market area. However, the 17 plants contacted in the .sur-
vey employed about 40 percent 'of the area's total of api)f6ximately 40,000 manu-
facturing workers. For these selected plants, the trend in total employment is
expected to be downward, with the total decreasing by 3,400 by November and
3,600 by January 1942. For automotive plants in the area with about 9,000
workers in May of 1941 a net decline of about 1,300 is expected by November,
and increases in defense employment would prevent any sizable additional decline
Ijetween November and January.
The most important prospective employer of defense workers is the Hayes
Manufacturing Co., which holds contracts for airplane fusela,ges, parachutes, and
stampings, and expects to have about 2,100 more workers on defense products
by January than it had on May 30, 1941. However, about one-quarter of the
workers needed for defense output will be transferred from nondefense production
of house trailers.
Nonautomotive producers in the area who were contacted in the survey esti-
mated a net decline of about 2,100 by November and 2,300 by January. More
than half of these anticipated declines were estimated for the Nash-Kelvinator
plant (refrigerators). Unless this firm is able to secure defense contracts which it
has unsuccessfully sought for shell or bomb cases, water containers, and field
stoves, at least 1,300 of the 3,500 workers employed by the establishment in May
will need to be released for a lack of materials, whether or not a production quota
is established for refrigerators.
Several thousand more workers in,cluding some of the 10^000 furniture factory
employees, may find themselves imemployed in Grand Rapids because of material
shortages and the relatively small amount of defense work in the area.
Only 13 percent of the 26,500 July employees of 87 Grand Rapids plants
regularly contacted for reports of anticipated labor needs were engaged in defense
production, compared with 29 percent of the State total of 682,600 workers in
potential defense industries. Particularly hard-hit in Grand Rapids may be the
numerous jjlants manufacturing hardware (with a total of about 3,500 employees),
since the equipment used for making small castings and performing plating and
polishing work apparently cannot be transferred to defense production. Recently
announced priorities for materials used in construction of homes valued at less
than $6,000 may reduce lay-offs among these firms. However, some special
arrangement might need to be made to give priority ratings, perhaps on a rough
proportionate basis, to these small firms in order to overcome the difficulty in
identifying the final consumer of their products because of their system of selling
through jobbers.
Section V. Social and Economic Problems Which Have Resulted or May
Result From Migration
The movement of industrial workers, or other seeking defense factory jobs in
Detroit and the other areas in which defense employment has been expanding, has
created a number of problems which have tested the community facilities of such
areas. Since more extensive statements on these problems will be submitted by
other witnesses at these hearings, I will merely mention some of them briefly.
In the absence of new housing construction, migration to defense centers creates
pressure on housing facilities — with overcrowding, trailer settlements, the mush-
room growth of shacks and substandard dwellings, and upward pressure on rentals
for houses and apartments which are already available.
In Warren township, just north of Detroit, we have seen these conditions in an
extreme form, and they have brought with them dangers resulting from inade-
quate sanitary facilities, insufficient schools, and lack of adequate police protec-
tion and other social services.
There are other problems which might be mentioned; among them the pressure
on roads and transportation facilities which results from the crowding of greatly
increased population into areas in which there has been no adequate development
of facilities to handle this population. The construction of new highways, and
the improvement of existing roads and highways, is vital!}' necessary in order to
permit movement between existing residential areas and new defense plants, and
to prevent the growth of ramshackle, unhealthy communities, which will be fit
only to be torn down after the defense boom has passed.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7195
An entirely different set of problems will have to be faced in connection with
the possible migration of thousands of workers away from industrial centers which
may occur if we are unsuccessful in keeping the dislocation of labor at an absolute
minimum during the transition from civilian to defense production.
MIGRATION OF WORKERS UNEMPLOYED BECAUSE OF PRODUCTION QUOTAS OR MATE-
RIAL SHORTAGES
In spite of accumulated seniority rights and eligibility for unemployment
compensation it is quite probable that many of the workers who are laid off
because of the automobile curtailment, other production quotas or material
shortages, will leave the areas in which they were employed prior to the model
change-over. Rumors of immediate opportunities for work in defense plants in
other areas, including locations in other States, would probably be easily sufficient
attraction for numerous unemployed workers. The system of interstate benefit
payments makes it possible for them to obtain unemployment compensation,
whether or not they remain in the area in which they were employed. Another
reason which leads to the conclusion that many workers would not hesitate to
migrate, even if temporarily unemployed, is the fact that many of them have
probably only recently migrated into the Michigan industrial centers in which
they are now employed.
If out-migration of displaced workers does occur on a large scale, several in-
dustrial centers in the State may be faced with a shortage of workers by late 1942.
In Detroit, it is estimated that increases in defense employment between January
and June 1942 would be greater than the net number of workers who will be un-
employed in January because of the automobile-production quotas, even with a
40-hour week, for nondefense automobive production. Large increases in defense
employment, especially for production of airplanepropellers and airplane engine
parts by the Nash-Kelvinator (the anticipated peak defense employment this
firm's plan's in Lansing is 8,000), may very easily create a general shorta^ge of
woi kers in this area by the middle of 1942.
Strong efforts should therefore be made to reduce unemployment of nondefense
workers, to accelerate employment on defense work, or to provide some adequate
system for the reducing of migration which might otherwise result from unem-
ployment due to production quotas or material shortages.
A high national production level, prevailing at the same time that substantial
unemployment exists in Michigan industrial centers because of quotas and mate-
rial shortages, would presumably encourage even more out-migration than would
ordinarily occur in a nationally depressed economy. It would also cause some
alteration in the direction of the out-migration.
Instead of going back home to Tennessee or to other areas where living costs
are lower and unemployment compensation payments have greater purchasing
power, many workers may be expected to go to some of the highly active labor
market areas in the country, especiallv those where large defense plants have been
built in the face of a relatively small lo^al labor supply. This change in the des-
tination of workers separated from ncniefense jobs in Michigan would probably
make it much more difficult than usual to get them to return to this State when
they are again needed for defense production here, in spite of higher wage rates.
In fact, if they did find jobs in defense work elsewhere, there would be little
justification under the defense program for seeking their return. But from all
points of view, the best solution is to develop a sufficient demand for labor, in
their present communities, to prevent the need for any outward migration.
Section VI. The Need for State Action — Measures to Reduce the Dis-
location OF Labor
During this period in whicli Michigan's industries are making the transition
from civilian to defense production, one of the State government's most important
tasks will be to develop policies and take positive action to prevent the damaging
effects which might otherwise result from dislocation of labor. The curtailment
of passenger-car production will create a major unemployment problem during
the next few months. In addition to this problem, we must face the certainty
that many other civilian industries will have their production curtailed or inter-
rupted because of inability to obtain materials or equipment whicli are of critical
importance in the defense program.
This situation, as was pointed out by Governor Van Wagoner this morning,
creates a threefold task for government — not only the State government, but also
7296 DETROIT HEARINGS
the various Federal agencies, such as Office of Production Management, which
can help in easing the shock of this necessary transition.
The first problem is to take every possible step to protect the economic security
of workers who are temporarily displaced, and furnish them with some source of
income until they can be back'to work on defense production.
Our second task is to proceed energetically with a variety of measures which
can speed up the expansion of defense jobs. This task will require the whole-
hearted cooperation of Government, labor, and industry.
Our third task is to discourage and prevent any further migration of workers
to Michigan industrial centers at this time, since such migration will only multiply
the problems which already exist.
Without trying to cover all of the steps which might be taken, it is possible to
mention a few possible lines of attack which may deserve further study.
1. Unemployment compensation will furnish a first line of defense for many of
the workers displaced from civilian production. From 80 to 90 percent of them
will probablv qualify for benefits, but this protection is limited in several ways.
The $16 maximum rate represents less than half the full-time wage for the majority
of workers in several industries. Even this amount is paid only after a 2-week
waiting period, and continued for not more than 18 weeks — with a maximum
duration as low as 8 or 10 weeks for workers who have had irregular employment
during the "base period." It is doubtful whether, with these limitations, the
unemployment compensation system will be enough to keep Michigan workers
in the cities where they will be" needed. An increase in the size of weekly pay-
ments and the duration of benefits might be considered as one way of encouraging
our labor force to remain in Michigan until defense jobs are available. Such an
extension, as the Governor has pointed out, might be especially justified in the
case of individuals who are undergoing vocational training which will qualify
them for new jobs. ^ . . ,. .^, ,, -n>- • •
2 The Michigan State Employment Service is cooperating with the Division
of Contract Distribution in the Office of Production Management in studying
areas where serious unemployment will result from production quotas. Where
the need for such action is indicated these studies serve as a basis for short-cutting
the normal procedure for alloting defense contracts so that available production
facilities can be used for defense purposes.
3. Where the existing facilities are not suitable for defense production, there is a
possibility of assigning civilian priorities which will permit at least part of the
present nondefense personnel to be kept at work. Since some consumers goods
will be needed even during the defense program, it is only reasonable to allocate
such production in such a way that no community will suffer inequitably from the
dislocation resulting from the transition to defense work. . ■, 4. •■, a
4. Management and labor in the automobile industry have worked out detailed
arrangements which will give preference in new defense jobs to experienced workers
who have acquired seniority in the regular operations of the industry. This
program, while it will not increase the total amount of work available, will tend
to give greater security to the older workers with family responsibilities and an
established place in the community. , x- x 4. •
5 The temporarily dislocated workers will be given greater incentive to stay m
Michigan communities if it is possible to expand the existing programs for training
workers in the special skills and occupations which will be needed m defense
plants. Such programs will be more effective if arrangements can be worked out
so that these workers can be paid at least a subsistence wage while they are being
6 Some of the defense plants which are now operating only 5 days a week or
are using less than three full shifts of workers, might be able to expand their em-
ployment considerably where it is feasible to operate the plants 24 hours a day and
7 days a week. In some cases such a schedule is impossible because of the time
required for servicing and maintenance of machines, but where possible it would
result in a gain of about one-third in the number of workers employed in defense
production. The State employment service and various divisions of the Office of
Production Management are at present developing methods of furnishing special-
ized types of labor or equipment to such plants where a lack of either is hindering
capacity production. . .
7 Especially in some communities, the impact of production quotas and priori-
ties will be felt most harshly by small employers who serve as suppliers or sub-
contractors for producers of consumers goods. Partial solution of the problems
immediately before us lies in the development of a systematic arrangement for
bringing together the primary contractors and the small manufacturers who
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7197
might be able to perform part of the work involved in the prime contracts. That
some progress is being made in this direction is suggested by yesterday's meeting
in New York at which Floyd Odium, Director of Contract Distribution for the
Office of Production Management, held a "defense clinic" to bring together the
representatives of more than 100 large firms and spokesmen for hundreds of small
machine shops and subsidiary manufacturers.
8. The State and Federal Governments can and will help to minimize and
shorten the unemployment resulting from priorities by thorough surveys of the
defense possibilities of plants which are being most seriously affected by priorities
and quotas. New rules on distribution of Federal contracts now permit a group
of employers, in a given industry or community, to bid on a single contract and
then divide the job up in accordance with their individual facilities.
All of these programs and others which might be mentioned must be stimulated
and coordinated with a single thought in mind, of making as many defense jobs as
possible for Michigan workers and preventing economic waste of unemployment.
We know that in the next year or two we cannot use as many men as in the past in
production of automobiles, refrigerators, and consumers goods — but we cannot
afford to have this manpower idle if there is any possible way of using it in further-
ing our national policy of defense.
(The following letter was received subsequent to the hearing:)
Exhibit A. — Labok Force of Firms Supplying Automobile Makers
Michigan Unemployment Compensation Commission,
Detroit, October 21, 1941.
Mr. Harold D. Cullen,
Associate Editor, House Committee
Investigating National Defense Migration,
Washington, D. C.
Dear Mr. Cullen: In response to your letter of October 16, we have assembled
various data indicating "the proportion of workers, in the automobile industry,
employed by manufacturers who supply final producers." Our figures are for the
State of Michigan only.
In July 1941 manufacturers in automobile and allied industries employed a
total of approximately 497,000 workers, including workers on temporary lay-oBf
because of shut-downs for model change-over purposes. Of this total, approxi-
mately 310,000 workers were employed by the five major "final producers":
General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, Hudson, and Packard. The remainder, com-
prising employment of the "suppliers", represents approximately 38 percent of
the total.
Restricting the figures to nondefense employment, we find that the totals for
the same period are 411,000 for the total, 276,000 for the "final producers,"
and 135,000 (33 percent) for the "suppliers".
Even when the data are limited to nondefense employment, the figures for both
"final producers" and "suppliers" include some employment which is in non-
automotive production. However, while the five producers of finished automo-
biles also manufacture such nonautomotive items as refrigerators and agricultural
tractors, the "suppliers" probably have a higher proportion of nonautomotive
employment. For this reason the above percentages may be slightly high.
Very truly yours,
Wendell Lund,
Executive Director.
By Paul L. Stanchfield,
Chief, Research, Statistics and Planning Section.
TESTIMONY OF PAUL L. STANCHFIELD— Resumed
Mr. Stanchfield. We expect and anticipate a very serious disloca-
tion of labor here in Michigan during the coming year. I think you
may want to ask me more detailed questions about that later. But
I would like to say, as an introduction to this discussion, that when
we talk about an estimate of the number of people who are going to
7198 DETROIT HEARINGS
be unemployed on a certain date, we are talking about something that
we hope won't really happen. In other words, we are talking about
the situation which would occur if we don't manage to take certain
steps that will help to cushion the blow.
Possibly additional defense contracts can be brought m. Possibly
production schedules can be advanced. Possibly the impact of mate-
rial shortages and various other causes of unemployment can be
cushioned by special treatment. Therefore, what is presented here
is an analysis of what would happen if the anticipated trend of non-
defense employment goes down to the extent that would be indicated
by our present figures, and if there is no additional defense work com-
ing into Detroit and the other industrial centers of Michigan, beyond
that which is already in sight.
Now, the paper, as you have probably noticed, is divided into six
sections. The first of these points out that throughout the period
in which Michigan's mass industries have been expanding, migration
has been a fairly important source of labor supply for the major
industrial centers of this area.
LABOR SUPPLY DEPENDENT UPON IMMIGRATION
About a quarter of the workers in Michigan were born in other
States and nearly a fifth in foreign countries. That is according to
the 1930 census; and especially during the decades between 1910 and
1930 it would have been impossible to find an adequate labor supply
for our growing factories and mass-production industries without the
movement of large numbers of workers into these cities.
Now, that migration movement really has produced some of the
permanent population of the State, but it remains true that Michigan's
industrial centers have a very definite drawing .power for workers
from the rural areas of this State or from the sections of other States
from which we draw our labor supply.
URBAN-TO-RURAL MOVEMENT IN DEPRESSIONS
That trend of migration is reversed, in general, during depression
periods. During the depression period, when jobs grow scarce or
when wages are lowered, there is some tendency for workers to move
away from the industrial centers back to rural sections of Michigan,
or back to the other States in which they have homes or from which
they originally came.
Not all of that is a permanent movement. As I testified at Chicago,
we find that over half of the unemployment compensation claimants
who went from Michigan to other States durmg the 1938 depression
came back again to Michigan and worked here when jobs were avail-
able in 1939, so that we have a certain pattern of movement into the
industrial areas at the time when the jobs are there, and a movement
away at the time when the jobs are not there.
During the past year we have seen a rather definite stimulus to
migration, resulting not so much from the policies of employers as
from the fact that people in other States and other sections of this
State have heard a great deal about potential defense jobs, new plants,
expanding employment in Michigan industrial centers.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7199
They knew the wages are high here. They have heard there is a
great deal of defense work in Michigan. As a result, workers have
moved in. A great number of them have not actually found jobs in
this area, but the figures which we present indicate a sizable flow of
imemployed workers, registering at the employment offices of Detroit
and Flint and Saginaw and various other automobile centers.
We do find some evidence that unemployed workers are filing claims
in Michigan against the unemployment compensation funds of other
States, again showing that after losing their jobs elsewhere, they have
tended to come here in the hope of finding work. And we find,
finally, indication that some of these migrants have received jobs,
because in the 15 months since January of 1940, 60,000 workers who
were not working in Michigan at that time and who originally received
their social security numbers in other States have found work here, at
least temporarily. However, a good many of those apparently merely
found temporary or stop-gap jobs, and moved away to other areas.
PRIORITIES AS CAUSE OF LABOR DISLOCATION
Now, WO are faced with an entirely different sort of problem, a
problem of migration away from the industrial centers of Michigan,
which may result partly from the production quotas in the automo-
bile industry and partly from the curtiilment of other civilian pro-
duction, which will result from shortages of critical materials.
That second factor is extremely hard for us to estimate. Employers,
some of them, seem to be overoptimistic because material shortages
have not hit them yet. They feel hopeful that they will be able to
continue because they have not yet suft'ered through material shortage.
Others, perhaps, are too pessimistic, and say that at the rate things
are going, their civilian production will have to be cut very sharply
and very soon. But there is a certainty that as priorities begin to
take up more and more of such critical materials as steel and rig iron
and gray iron and zinc and magnesium and aluminum, the civilian pro-
duction which depends on that type of supplies is bound to be cur-
tailed, and many industries other than automobiles are going to be
badly hurt in Michigan, and of course in a great many other States too.
However, since Michigan is a mass-production State, a State de-
pending on fabrication of metal products of some kind to a consider-
able extent, these priorities in the automobile industry and elsewhere
probably constitute as great a tlu'eat to this State as they do to any
other State in terms of dislocation of labor.
UNEMPLOYMENT ESTIMATES
As far as the over-all unemployment picture is concerned, the
figures presented by Governor Van Wagoner this morning come as
close as we can get to the probable situation in January — for the State
as a whole, probably 90,000 to 100,000 unemployed workers; for the
Detroit area, about 50,000 or 55,000. However, those estimates are
based on the assumption that there won't be a substantial reduction
of the work week — a thing which, of course, would have the result of
spreading the employment and at the same time spreading the unem-
ployment, but making it possible to keep a larger number of workers
on the job here.
60396 — 41— pt. 18 10
7200 DETROIT HEARINGS
That is a general summary of what is contained in the statement.
Mr. Curtis. Do you happen to know how the volume of defense
contracts in Michigan compares in dollars to the volume of potential
business that has not been transacted because of enforced shut-do\vns
through priorities and otherwise?
Mr. Stanchfield. Let me see if I am clear on your question. You
mean the anticipated defense employment that will come in the future,
as compared with the anticipated shut-downs in the future?
COMPARISON OF ESTIMATED DEFENSE HIRES AND SEPARATIONS
Mr. Curtis. Yes.
Mr. Stanchfield. In a study which we made in July of this year
we found that a 50 percent curtailment of the automobile industry
would eliminate about 175,000 nondefense jobs by January of 1942 —
that is, assuming that the prevailing workweek is not changed.
During that same period there would be an increase of a little over
80,000 in defense jobs, part of them in the automobile industry and
part in other industries, leaving a net unemployment for the companies
that we covered in the survey of about 95,000 in January of 1942.
Mr. Curtis. That was based upon estimates made when?
Mr. Stanchfield. That estimate was made in July, but it is still
the best over-all picture for the State that we have available today.
The studies we have made since then have been largely studies of
particular communities wheie we are trying to find out on an area
basis just what is going to happen. In July the total employment in
defense jobs was 196,000. That includes both employment on direct
defense contracts and employment of concerns which had priorities
resulting from the fact that they were producing machinery or supplies
or various other material for prime contractors.
Mr. Curtis. Then if you employ 86,000 more, that will be a total
of nearly 286,000?
Mr. Stanchfield. That is right.
Mr. Curtis. And you estimate that nondefense production has
been cut down to create an unemployment of 175,000?
Mr. Stanchfield. Yes; but that is a cut which will have occurred
after July, sir. In July, in addition to these people working on defense,
we had about 410,000 workers engaged either in producing automobile
bodies and parts or in producing supplies and equipment needed by
automobile companies, and those people were working at the same
time that these 196,000 were working, so what we are going to have
from July to January is the elimination of about 175,000 of the
nondefense jobs which did exist in July.
Mr. Curtis. Well, now I will ask you how many nondefense jobs
had disappeared by July 1.
Mr. Stanchfield. It was very close to our peak of automotive
employment. That wasn't true of two or three of the small concerns,
but the base figure that we used included the workers who had been
laid off in the immediate past just for seasonal model change-over.
Mr. Curtis. And how many was that?
Mr. Stanchfield. At that time it was very small — probably not
more than 10,000 or 15,000 for the State.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7201
Dr. Lamb. Mr. Stanchfield, perhaps the Congressman would Uke
to know where the 196,000 came from who were working on defense
jobs as of the 1st of July.
NET LOSS OF 90,000 JOBS BY 1942 EXPECTED
Mr. Stanchfield. As of that date there was very little unemploy-
ment in the State. Our unemployment compensation rolls just before
the beginning of July were running only about twenty to thirty thousand
claimants per week. In other words, up to that time we had had a steady
increase in the total volume of employment, and although some non-
defense jobs have gradually been eliminated, they had been translated
quite smoothly into defense jobs, so there had been very little disloca-
tion of labor up to that time. By January 1, however, we will have
a net loss of 90,000 jobs, because we will lose 175,000 jobs in civilian
production while we are gaining about 85,000 jobs in defense produc-
tion. That is starting with the situation we had in July, when we
had practically no unemployment.
Mr. Curtis. But when you had no unemployment, you had 196,000
people working in defense?
Mr. Stanchfield. Yes; and we will have those, plus 85,000 more,
or even a greater number by January; but at the same time we will
have dropped off the jobs of 175,000 people who were working in
nondefense production in the auto industry in July.
Dr. Lamb. In other words you will have 276,000 working on
defense jobs in January?
INDIAN SUMMER OF EMPLOYMENT
Mr. Stanchfield. That is right. And 175,000 jobs will have been
eliminated by January. That isn't the situation as of today, because
most of the plants are operating with nearly as many employees as
they had in July. There are exceptions to that. There are perhaps
20,000 automotive workers who were employed, who have been
ehminated from their nondefense jobs; but for the most part employ-
ment now is almost up to the July level. That is a very temporary
situation, as the plants are trying to get into production with the new
quota, and you wiU see a sharp drop. You might say we are in an
"Indian summer" of employment. We are having the last little
burst of nondefense employment as we go to work on the 1942 models,
and then very rapidly at the end of October and in November you will
find that the number of jobs on automotive production will be cut
down. Then, when the further quota cut comes in December and
January, you will have further reductions, bringing you to the final
end result that we have 175,000 fewer workers in automobile factories
on automotive work than we had before the model change-over this
year.
Mr. Curtis. Is part of the automobile industry located outside of
Michigan?
Mr. Stanchfield. Yes.
Mr. Curtis. The wholesalers and distributors and retailers of auto-
mobiles and automobile parts?
7202 DETKOIT HEARINGS
Mr. Stanchfield. Yes, sir.
Mr. Curtis. They will have no part in this defense program when
they shut down the auto production, will they?
Mr. Stanchfield. There are some exceptions to that. As a matter
of fact one of our large corporations, General Motors, to date has
probably distributed more of its defense contracts to its plants outside
Michigan — • — ■
PROBLEMS OF DISTRIBUTORS
Mr. Curtis. No; I am not talking about the plants. I am talking
about the wholesalers and retailers.
Mr. Stanchfield. They face a very definite problem, because they
will not have as many automobiles to sell, and as a result there are
bound to be reductions in personnel and loss of income to the pro-
prietors of such businesses.
Mr. Curtis. How many people are engaged in selling automobiles,
as compared to the number of people normally engaged in making
them?
Mr. Stanchfield. I don't have the figures for the country as a
whole. In the State of Michigan, as I remember it, we have about
36,000 wage earners, and I believe 17,000 or 18,000 proprietors engaged
either in selling automobiles or servicing them. Therefore, we have
about 50,000 people dependent directly or indirectly on the retail and
service end of the automobile industry, and in that realm of employ-
ment you are bound to have a curtailment. It may be less than 50
percent.
Mr. Curtis. How does that percentage compare with your total
employment in auto manufacturing?
Mr. Stanchfield. A comparison just for this State wouldn't be
very representative of the national picture.
Mr. Curtis. I realize that.
Mr. Stanchfield. Our total employment in production directly
or indirectly related to automobiles is about 410,000 in Michigan,
while the employment here in retailing and servicing automobiles is
about 50,000, counting the proprietors. We have, you see, two-thirds
of the total amount of productive employment and probably only
about 6 or 7 percent of the retailing and service establishments of
the country.
Mr. Curtis. In all probability the curtailment will run several
times more in the number of people engaged in selling and servicing
automobiles than in those making them, isn't that true?
Mr. Stanchfield. I have seen figures indicating that in one way
or another one-seventh of the wage earners of this country are directly
or indirectly employed because of the automobile industry. That
includes, of course, petroleum refining, transportation of automobiles,
all the productive activities, selling gasoline, garage mechanics, and
every other classification that goes into the picture; so that it is true
probably that you will find the greatest number of workers, who in
some way depend upon automobiles for their livelihood, outside of the
factories. However, I don't have exact figures.
Mr. Curtis. It is going to be impossible for those individuals to
shift to defense employment, isn't it, at least in their home localities?
Mr. Stanchfield. Some of them, of course, will be taken care of
by the fact that garage and repair services won't be curtailed as much
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7203
as production of automobiles. As a matter of fact, as we get more
and more second-hand cars on the road, we may need more of certain
services; but the retaihug end of the business is very definitely going
to be sharply hit.
PATTERN OF OUT-MOVEMENT
Mr. Curtis. In your paper you have a statement that the out-
movement which occurred during the 1938 depression can be expected
to recur in rather similar form as production quotas and priorities
create a mass unemployment problem in Michigan. Are you refer-
ring to the present time or at the close of the defense activities?
Mr. Stanchfield. I mean in the very immediate future. As we
find jobs eliminated, one of the dangers of which labor and industry
are all equally conscious is that a large part of our existing labor supply
will be tempted or compelled to move to some other area in search of
work. In other words, if the situation actually develops in such a way
that 80,000 or 90,000 or 100,000 Michigan factory workers will find
that they are not needed here for a period of several months, some of
them will be bound to move to areas in which living costs are lower.
The pattern of movement during the next 2 months may not be
exactly what we experienced in 1938 and 1939, during the last depres-
sion. At that time most of the movement was out to rural Michigan
or back to areas such as the Appalachian States of Kentucky, Teimes-
see, and West Virginia, with workers going back to areas in which the
cost of living was lower. That was because we had a nationally
depressed economy, and there were very few job opportunities else-
where.
The situation that we face in here may be a little different because
there will be areas in which defense employment is expanding rapidly,
areas in which there are important defense factories and a relatively
limited labor supply, perhaps, and toward those areas the displaced
workers from Michigan may be tempted to go.
One of the things we are most afraid of, in fact, is that this labor
supply, which we will eventually need when we get defense production
rolling on a maximum basis here, will move out, find jobs in some other
States, and then, when they are needed in Michigan, the skilled and
specialized and fairly adaptable group of machine workers who have
been used in Michigan industry won't be here for us to use. That
might create a very serious shortage of labor unless we take steps to
prevent it.
IN-MIGRATION OF POTENTIAL LABOR
Mr. Curtis. Have you had an in-migration of potential labor this
year?
Mr. Stanchfield. During the past year we have made some
analysis of the movement. There is no way of getting an exact
measure of the total number of migrants. However, a few figures
might be of some interest. In the Detroit area we found that out of
108,000 unemployed workers who filed new applications at employ-
ment offices, over 26,000 had been last employed somewhere outside
of the Detroit area; and that the proportion and the number have
been rising constantly during the past year.
7204 DETROIT HEARINGS
In August of 1941 more than one-third of all the new applicants in
Detroit employment offices were workers who had last been employed
in some other area.
The Chairman. What proportion, Mr. vStanchfield , was from out-
side of the State?
SOURCES OF RECENT IN-MIGRATION
Mr. Stanchfield. The bulk of those were from outside the State.
Out of that total of 26,000, about 7,100 had last been employed in
some other part of Michigan, and about 5,800 had been employed in
other Great Lakes States, including the States adjacent to Michigan —
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin — and 13,400 had come from
States farther removed. The next largest group was the Southern
States, which furnished about 5,100 migrants.
Mr. Curtis. Do Michigan employers prefer local labor?
POLICY TO DISCOURAGE MIGRATORY LABOR
Mr. Stanchfield. I think a very definite policy has been expressed,
at least, by the Detroit industry, to try to discourage migration into
this area.
Mr. Curtis. How do you discourage it?
Mr. Stanchfield. One way is by not hiring the people, by telling
them at the gate that you are hirmg local workers, and that you have
applications filed already by people qualified for this type of work.
Further, the employment service and the Office of Production Manage-
ment have made efforts to discourage any policies which might be
adopted by employers which w^ould tend to puU workers into the
industrial centers.
Mr. Osmers. Mr. Stanchfield, isn't it true that some of these
people have come in from outside the State and have established an
address in the Detroit area, and then returned to their regular places
of domicile? Then when word came to their Detroit address of a
job opening, they were notified by telegram and were then run into
the job?
Mr. Stanchfield. To a certain extent that has been true of part
of the automobile industry's labor supply as long as people can
remember. That is, there are always some workers who prefer to go
to smaller towns or some former home during the lay-off season,
and they leave a Detroit address, and the landladies send them a
telegram or letter when they are called back to work. I think the
extent of the practice has decreased, however.
Mr. Osmers. Has any evidence ^come to your attention to indicate
that employers in the Detroit areas prefer out-of-State workers
because of labor difficulties?
Mr. Stanchfield. I would be inclined to say the reverse is true.
I think there has been a definite change in policy over the past decade.
In the 1930's we found our stranded unemployed workers who had
been brought in from other States constituted a very defoiite relief
and welfare problem, which was expensive to the community and to
the industries that had to support the community by taxes. I think
that while there might be individual exceptions, the rule that is being
followed now is to try to use the local labor supply as much as we can.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7205
Mr. Curtis. What percentage of the job openmgs are handled
through the State employment service?
Mr. Stanchfield. That is a rather hard question to answer, because
we have no figures on the exact number of openings that are filled
from other sources.
Mr. Curtis. Is it large enough so that they can control the labor
market and almost set the policy to be followed?
Mr. Stanchfield. That hasn't been true in the past. In other
words, for the larger concerns, the bulk of the hiring has been at the
factory gate or from application files.
Mr. Curtis. I can understand that.
INCREASING USE OF EMPLOYMENT SERVICE
Mr. Stanchfield. There has been a tendency in the past few
months, as the labor markets grew tighter, for the employment
service to receive a larger proportion of the orders for workers, and
to fill a larger part of those openings, but it still remains true that
at least a majority of all of the jobs that are filled are filled directly
by contact between the worker and the employer.
Mr. Curtis. Will that be true in a plant especially constructed for
some defense effort?
Mr. Stanchfield. There has been some discussion in the recent
negotiations between O. P. M. and the unions and the automobile
industry, of the possibility of concentrating all new hiring of defense
workers in the employment service. That hasn't definitely been
agreed upon, but if that were done, it would guarantee that local
workers who are unemployed and available would get the first call
for defense jobs, so there is a possibility of a development which would
at least establish a centralized control on the expanding defense work.
Mr. Curtis. This committee is very much interested in the question
of subcontracting as a means of spreading defense production. The
Michigan automobile industry, of course, is noted for the high degree
to which it has developed subcontracting as an aid to production.
Can you tell the committee what proportion of workers in the auto
industry are employed by manufacturers who supply final producers?
Mr. Stanchfield. I think I could prepare some figures on that.
Mr. Curtis. Would you do that and either give them to our staff
or mail them to us in Washington? '
Mr. Stanchfield. I might comment at this point on that. In
Michigan, we probably have a somewhat larger proportion of final
producers than you would find for the industry as a whole, because
we have here some of the largest final assembly plants, and some of
those large companies draw in, through subcontracts, material which
has been produced in States such as Indiana and Ohio, which go to
build up the final assembly
PROPORTION OF SUBCONTRACTS LET
Mr. Curtis. Can you give the committee any idea as to how
many of the defense contracts let to employers in Michigan have been
subcontracts and how many have been prime contracts?
1 See Exhibit A, p. 7197.
7206 DETKOIT HEARINGS
Mr. Stanchfield. The figures that we have, based on a recent quick
study made by the defense council, woukl indicate that while there
have been a little over $1,500,000,000 in prime contracts, the number
of subcontracts would bring the total value of defense work for the
State up to about $4,000,000,000. That would mean that subcon-
tracts and other indirect defense work are larger than the prime con-
tracts themselves.
Mr. Curtis. It is a little hard to trace all that indirect business,
isn't it?
Mr. Stanchfield. It would be extremely hard to get it all straight,
because in some cases the subcontractor himself or even the purchaser
doesn't know exactly what production is going into defense and what
is going into nondefense work.
A company producmg truck transmissions doesn't usually know
whether or not this work is on a defense contract, ultimately. That is
also true of the metal industries.
Mr. Curtis. Has youi employment placement service observed
any change in the employability of such portions of the labor reserve
as Negro workers?
EMPLOYERS RELAX COLOR AND AGE REQUIREMENTS
Mr. Stanchfield. There has been a general tendency during the
past year, as labor shortages began to be felt in certain occupations,
for employers to relax their requirements in terms of age, color, extent
of previous service, and so on. I would say that applies more to the
age requirement than to the color requirement. There is still a ten-
dency in a good many plants not to extend work opportunities as
widely to the colored worker as to the white. That results in part
from the fact the Negro worker, through past hiring restrictions of
employers, usually has had less opportunity to acquire experience and
qualifications for factory work than the white worker who might be
an alternative for selection.
Mr. Curtis. Has the employment training service been extended to
Negroes?
Mr. Stanchfield. Yes; the same program has been extended to
them, and we find that the proportion of Negroes who are trained
is just about equal to the proportion of unemployed Negroes in the
Detroit labor market.
EMPLOYMENT OF NEGROES
Mr. Curtis. But their actual employment as skilled workers has
not increased very much?
Mr. Stanchfield. The hiring of these Negro trainees has been
slower than the hiring of white trainees for the same sort of work.
However, there have laeen some notable exceptions, companies that
have made a very real effort to divide the jobs between white and
colored workers.
Mr. Curtis. Do you have any recommendations as to how the
Michigan Unemployment Compensation Act can be amended so as
to assist workers about to be displaced, to tide them over until the
pick-up in defense employment?
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7207
Mr. Stanchfield. Wliat we really need to do is make jobs here
and accelerate the tempo of defense production by every possible
means, so that the length of time for which these stopgap measures
may be needed will be reduced. However, miemployment compensa-
tion at present probably does provide too low a weekly benefit rate
and too short a duration of benefits to cover the needs of the workers
who are going to be. displaced.
While it would be possible to amend the unemployment compensa-
tion law to increase the adequacy of those payments, I am inclmed
to think that what we need to do is to make more jobs in our factories.
In other words, get more prime contracts into the State and get those
spread out more widely among the subcontractors; make a very ex-
tensive and thorough study of individual communities in which ma-
terial shortages, priorities or quotas are causmg critical situations,
and then see that some sort of work that is needed in connection with
our national policy of defense is brought in to utilize at least the bulk
of the labor supply we have. In recent weeks the Contract Distribu-
tion Service of O. P. M. has been very definitely expanding both its
staff and its machinery dealing with what they call "priorities un-
employment." Now, by "priorities unemployment" they mean un-
employment which is resulting from production quotas or from the
inability of civilian producers to get supplies and equipment.
PRIORITIES UNEMPLOYMENT SURVEYS
They have already asked the employment service to make studies
of about 16 diflerent cities in Michigan, and a couple more requests
come through every week. In those studies we attempt to find out
as carefully and as completely as we can exactly which employers in
the community are going to have their nondefense work cut oft' or
reduced for any of the reasons that I have mentioned; what types of
workers are going to be displaced there, and the extent to which they
might be absorbed by existing defense contracts. Then, if they find
that the defense contracts that are now in sight are insufficient — and
that is true in several important cities — the next step is to attempt
to find defense contracts which can be moved into that area fast
enough and in the proper form to create employment for the displaced
workers.
In some cases it is easy to do that with only minor retooling or
merely by a reallocation of production. In other cases, you find that
substantial retoolmg may be required. In such cases there may be
further pressure for getting more defense contracts in.
RELAXATION OF RULES ON DEFENSE CONTRACT ALLOCATION
Incidentally, the rules on allocation of defense contracts have been
relaxed somewhat so that in areas which have been especially certi-
fied as "priorities unemployment centers," it is possible to assign a
contract even though the price bid by the employer is as much as 15
percent above the price that might have to be paid to some other
producer.
7208 DETROIT HEARINGS
The rules have been relaxed so that groups of employers in a par-
ticular industry or in a particular community may bid collectively for
a defense contract and then divide the job up among themselves in
order to get it done.
DISLOCATION OF SALESMEN AND DISTRIBUTORS
^ Mr. Curtis. When the automobile industry returns to its peace-
time task of producing automobiles, you will again need this vast
army of salesmen and the distributors extending throughout the length
and breadth of the land, in every city and village and cross-roads agency ;
will you not?
Mr. Stanchfield. That is right.
Mr. Curtis. And it is through their work in the past that you
were able to make and sell so many automobiles. Now, what have
you got to suggest for that individual, to cushion him against the
curtailment of automobiles?
Mr. Stanchfield. That problem is a lot broader than the auto-
mobile industry alone. Remember, you have refrigerator salesmen,
washing-machine salesmen
Mr. Curtis. They are all out. In the rural areas, out in the
country, the garageman sells all of those things. He sells Chevrolet
cars and refrigerators and radios and washing machines, but from now
on those things that he sells will not be available.
Mr. Stanchfield. I think the answer has to be the same that it is
for the workers who are displaced from other types of civilian pro-
duction. In other words, we have got to make enough jobs in the
right places so that we don't have any black-outs in communities
where there is no work at all; and when we get our productive system
rolling as rapidly as we can on the defense program that we are con-
templating now, we must make enough jobs so we can use the salesmen
as well as the factory workers.
Mr. Curtis. It is not possible for the smaller communities to get
defense activities.
Mr. Stanchfield. Usually it is not. You are thinking of the cross-
roads town or the small village?
Mr. Curtis. Yes.
Mr. Stanchfield. The unemployed workers from those areas, to
the extent they are pushed out of the picture by priorities on the
things that they sell, will probably be one of your migrant problems.
That is, they will have to be absorbed somewhere else.
The Chairman. Mr. Stanchfield, I was very much interested in
your statement that Michigan desires to employ local people. As
you made that statement, I was thinking of the 48 States of this
Union that are making it possible for the Federal Government to
spend huge sums for the national defense. All of the 48 States are
doing that, isn't that true?
Mr. Stanchfield. Yes.
The Chairman. Now, there are States of this Union that haven't
a single defense industry, are there not?
Mr. Stanchfield. I did not know that was so.
The Chairman. There are several that haven't a smgle one. Now,
if Michigan constructs a wall around herself and says, "We will only
hire local people," and there comes a time when you haven't the
natio:nal defense migration 7209
iiecessary help here and you have to ask the other States to help you
out, where are you going to be then?
NO WALL AGAINST IMPORTATION OF LABOR
Mr. Stanchfield. I wouldn't want my remarks to be construed to
mean that there is an absolute wall against movmg of workers into
this area if they are needed. The policy I was trying to describe is
one of using the local workers as much as they can be used — that is,
takmg up the slack of local unemployment before you call in workers
from other areas.
The policy is, first, to use the men you have here even if it is neces-
sary to relax specifications on age, color and so on; but eventually, as
far as we are able to see mto the future, there will be a time when we can
use all the workers that we now have in the Detroit area in some kind
of defense work. We will use at least that many workers.
control by employment service
There is this question in all of these estimates of unemployment we
have been talking about: How many nondefense jobs will be elimi-
nated and how many new jobs will be created in defense production?
Although the difference between those is the net number of unem-
ployed, actually some of the people who will be dropped out of the
nondefense jobs cannot be moved into these defense jobs because they
don't have the right occupational background. They lack the per-
sonal attributes or aptitudes that are needed for the new jobs. So
there is a certain amount of milling around in the labor market.
Some of the new jobs are bound to go to people other than those who
have been jjushed out of the old nondefense jobs, and in certain
skilled occupations even now there may be cases where it is necessary
to bring workers from some other community to Michigan centers.
However, when that is done, it is the policy of the State employ-
ment service and the United States Employment Service to see that
the movement should be controlled, working through the public
employment service system as much as possible, so that instead of
having the workers just move around hunting for work, the jobs are
found for them in a selected area. Then, after every resource of that
area has been exliausted, workers are brought in through the employ-
ment services of nearby communities, or eventually of other States,
which will be notified that these openings exist. The proper workers
will be located and then brought into the centers where they will be
needed, with a definite promise of a job and no waste motion.
The Chairman. The Great Plains States — Nebraska, the Dakotas,
Kansas — have lost over one million people in the last 10 years. Con-
gressman Curtis, of Nebraska, has lost approximately half the people
in his congressional district after 8 years of drought. Up until a
few months ago Nebraska did not have a dime of defense contracts.
I think finally they got one project at Omaha. There are some
Southern States that haven't received any. So we must go a little
carefully about this proposition of drawing walls about us, because
if we are going to win out in this emergency, it will take the 48 States —
all of them together, not three-quarters of them, not one-half of them,
but all of them. That is what I am trying to get at.
7210 DETROIT HEARINGS
Mr. OsMERs. Were you here this morning, Mr. Stanchfield?
Mr. Stanchfield. I heard most of the testimony.
Mr. OsMERs. I have been questioning some of the witnesses here
and in other places with respect to price-fixing. Any form of price-
fixing will have a very fundamental effect on the matter that we are
discussing, and even on the movement of people. Do you believe
that such price-fixing should include the fixing of wages and prices of
agricultural commoclities? In other words, should we fix our entire
economy at one time?
PRICE FIXING
Mr. Stanchfield. That happens to be a little out of my line, since
I am primarily interested in the labor supply and labor demand.
I think you do have to recognize the fact that all prices are related
to each other. On the other hand, when you try to fix prices — all
types of prices, including wages — you run into the problem of just at
what point in time j^ou will fix the wages, and how you are going to
reconcile the fact that some industries have already had their wages
increased with rising costs of living while others haven't.
I don't, frankly, know the answ^er. I imagine Mr. Henderson can
tell you something about that.
Mr. OsMERS. We hope he knows the answer.
Now, another question: Is there any evidence of race discrimination?
I listened carefully to your discussion of the Negro, with respect to
some of these industries. Is there any other form of race discrimina-
tion in this area?
Mr. Stanchfield. I don't quite get the question. You mean Jim
Crowism or things of that kind?
Mr. OsMERs. Discrimination not only as to color, but as to race.
Do you have any discrimination against certain races within your
population, in the filling of jobs?
LITTLE race DISCRIMINATION IN MICHIGAN
Mr. Stanchfield. I would say there is probably very little of that
in Michigan, for the reason that a very large part of our population is
foreign born. I know in some other areas of the country there is a
tendency to discriminate against the Italian name or the German
name or the Polish name, or whatever the employer doesn't like.
In Michigan, if you look over the pay rolls of our plants, I think-
the answer to that question will be self-evident, that national origin
certainly cannot be a major factor, because you will find almost every
nation of the world represented in our big plants.
Mr. OsMERS. I am glad to hear that.
There is just one other question I have in mind, and that is with
respect to this unemployment compensation law. I heard you reply
to Mr. Curtis that you thought the solution was more jobs. Well,
that program will probably fall short throughout the United States.
In Michigan you might approximate the change-over because you
have so many defense industries, but in the States that are not adap-
table for defense industries, they are just going to get the bad parts,
Michigan will probably end up among the first three or foin- States in
the Union.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7211
Now, jumping ahead to the post-war period. What changes do
you think should be made in our unemployment compensation laws,
briefly, that would cushion the post-depression period of a year or
two that will come when all this is over?
Mr. Stanchfield. I have some rather definite opinions on that.
STANDARDIZATION OF UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS RECOMMENDED
In the first place, I think one of the weaknesses of the present unem-
ployment compensation system is the fact that the standards of bene-
fits— the amount paid, the duration for which benefits are paid, the
requirements that must be met in order to qualify for benefits — tend
to be more and more widely divergent among the States. Some
States pay very low benefits. Others pay twice as high as the lower
States. Some pay what amounts to considerably more than half of
the full-time wage. Others pay considerably less under special
formulas.
Under the present system, there seems to be more and more scatter-
ing among the States. The result is that, depending on local pres-
sure, the unemployed worker in what you might call a progressive or
liberal State has adequate protection against unemployment, if he is
an insured worker. In other States, including a good many m the
South, the system is very ineffective in providing protection.
FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES
Now, another diflSculty is the financial problem. A State like
Michigan might be anxious to liberalize the benefit structure in terms
of longer duration of benefits, or a higher maximum rate, or some
other change that essentially is desirable, but with our present rate
structure we can't afford it. Some other States that are less sus-
ceptible to unemployment might be able to go considerably farther
and still remain solvent.
SUGGESTED CHANGES IN LAW
So — expressmg now my personal opinion rather than the opinion
of the commission^ — I feel that it is definitely necessary to consider
two types of improvement. One is the establishment of uniform
national standards governing the benefit structure and the eligibility
structure and requirements of unemployment compensation; and,
second, to rearrange the financing of imemployment compensation
so that through what you might call a reinsurance plan, or some
equivalent, the pay-roll taxes collected throughout the country can
be made available to meet the Nation-wide needs rather than being
allocated in little compartments to a particular State.
On that basis probably our present tax rate of 3 percent is plenty
to give us a much more adequate benefit structure than we have now.
Mr. OsMERs. Do you have a huge surplus in Michigan?
INADEQUACY OF SOCIAL SECURITY RESERVES
Mr. Stanchfield. Definitely not. The fund has been rising. It
is up now to just under $110,000,000, but our experience during the
7212 DETROIT HEARINGS
depression of 1938 and 1939 showed us that we probably will bear the
brunt of any depression more severely than any other large State in
the Union. We are highly specialized. "We are dependent on mass
production industries. We are dependent on Nation-wide marketing,
and we beUeve that when a post-war or post-defense depression
comes, the Michigan funds that we are now building up may be in-
sufficient to carry all the load. They might carry the load with our
present benefit structure, but they certainly impose serious limits on
the extent to which we can increase our benefits on the basis of our
own collections.
Mr. OsMERS. In my own State of New Jersey, we built up huge
reserves and we reduced our taxes. That is my recollection of it.
You feel, as a general thing, that there are measures that the Federal
Government can enact that will strengthen and improve and equalize
the whole set-up?
Mr. vStanchfield. Yes, sir; I do.
Mr. OsMERS. You don't feel we have anywhere near reached
perfection?
EQUALIZATION OF BENEFITS SUGGESTED
Mr. Stanchfield. No, sir; as a matter of fact, when the Social
Security Act was originally adopted it was with the understanding
that there would be experimentation on a State-to-State basis, as
even then there was a great deal of discussion of the possibility that
there should be, if not a Federal system, at least Federal standards
which would provide some uniformity between States; and I personally
feel that the time has come when we should have some of that uni-
formity.
Mr. Osmers. One of the objections that is constantly raised to
equalizing those benefits, not only with respect to unemployment
compensation but to all these measures that require a State set-up,
is that the more prosperous States feel that their funds are being used
to benefit the people in other States.
Now, it may not be a sound national viewpoint, but it certainly is
a very practical consideration when you attempt to pass some of this
legislation. That has been true of old-age assistance and unemploy-
ment compensation all the way through. What you face there is the
fact that a good deal of the unemployment problem that we have to
deal with has national causes, though it has local effects. Do you
agree?
Mr. Stanchfield. That is right. In Michigan, as a matter of
fact, we wouldn't suffer by some pooling of national resources. We
would tend to be drawing money from some other State that had a
surplus, and that would help us solve the problem which exists here,
because we get 70 percent of the automotive unemployment of the
country although we don't collect enough unemployment compensa-
tion contributions to pay adequate benefits to these workers.
The Chairman. Thank you very much, Mr. Stanchfield.
Mr. Osmers. Mr. Chairman, Mr. Stanchfield would like to add a
few words to his testimony.
NATIONAL APPROACH TO UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION PROBLEM
Mr. Stanchfield. I have just one more comment on this question
of a national approach to the unemployment compensation problem,
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7213
and that is that regardless of what the ncrmal situation is when we are
not in a defense program, we do know that the unemployment we
are going to face after this defense program will be somethmg resulting
from Nation-wide dislocations and a Nation-wide policy of building
plants where we need them, building plants that we know eventually
are going to fold up completely.
The location of that unemployment, and the impact of that unem-
ployment, may have no direct relationship to the normal resources
of the particular State where it occurs by the time it happens, and
therefore, regardless of what might be desirable in a noimal unem-
ployment compensation system, we certainly need to give some
attention to a national policy that will provide greater protection to
unemployed workers immediately after the eventual decline of defense
industries.
The Chairman. I want to say to you, Mr. Stanchfield, that is a
very good backing for Congressman Osmers' contemplated bill, and
I am inclined to back him up too.
Colonel Furlong will be our next witness. Colonel, will you come
forward?
TESTIMONY OF IT. COL. HAROLD A. FURLONG, ADMINISTRATOR,
MICHIGAN COUNCIL OF DEFENSE, LANSING, MICH.
The Chairman. Colonel Furlong, Congressman Arnold will interro-
gate you.
Mr. Arnold. Will you state your name and address and the position
you hold?
Colonel Furlong. Harold A. Furlong, Lansing, Mich., adminis-
trator of the Michigan Council of Defense.
Mr. Arnold. Colonel, you have submitted a statement here that
is very valuable for our record and it will be inserted in the hearings
in full.
(The statement referred to above is as follows:)
STATEMENT BY LT. COL. HAROLD A. FURLONG, ADMINISTRA-
TOR, MICHIGAN COUNCIL OF DEFENSE, LANSING, MICH.'
The defense production program is serving to revive and locally accentuate
migrator}^ trends in Michigan which were strikingly in operation between 1910
and 1930, but which were checked and even reversed during the depression years
of the thirties. The basic pattern of this migration has taken the form of large
scale influx of population into the cities of southeastern Michigan, attracted by the
phenomenal development of the automotive and auxiliary industries, and of a
marked efflux from most of the rural counties of the State.
Between 1910 and 1930 the population of Detroit, as the mass-production
capitol of the Nation, swelled from less than half a million to well over a million
and a half. During the same two decades the combined population of focal
Wayne County and of the contiguous counties of Macomb, Oakland, Washtenaw,
and Monroe more than tripled, while that of the outer fringer of motor cities,
Lansing, Flint, and Saginaw, increased by 163 percent. The influx into this region
represented a compound of intrastate, interstate, and international migration.
Contemporaneously with this spectacular inflow into Michigan's industrial
centers, there occurred a net loss of population in the majority of the counties
of the State. The census of 1930 revealed that in 57 counties, or more than two-
thirds of Michigan's 83 counties, there were fewer persons living than at some
former census period. The are as in which this net efflux occurred included not
only most of the cutover counties lying north of the Bay City-Muskegon line
(reflecting the decline in farming, lumbering, and mining), but also the majority
' Prepared with the assistance of Prof. Harald S. Patton, Michigan State College, East Lansing, Mich.
7214 DETROIT HEARINGS
of the older settled and fertile agricultural counties of southern Michigan and the
fruit-growing counties along the Lake Michigan shore. Here the shrinkage in
population reflected the double influence of the pull toward factory and urban
employment with its economic and social attraction, and of mechanization in
commercial farming. Between 1920 and 1930 the farm population of the State
declined from 848,710 to 782,394.
MIGRATION IN DEPRESSION YEARS
These pronounced migratory trends prior to 1930 were checked and even
reversed during tlie depression years of the thirties, which tell with special severity
on the automotive and machine industries. Many unemployed persons drifted
back from industrial centers to rural areas, while the natural increase of the latter
tended to be largely retained. Between 1930 and 1940 the population of Detroit
showed an increase of only 3.5 percent, compared to 58 percent in the preceding
decade; and that of Pontiac an increase of but 2.6 percent, compared to 89 percent
between 1920 and 1930. Lansing barely held its own, while declines of varying
degree were shown by Hamtramck, Highland Park, Monroe, Flint, Grand Rapids,
Battle Creek, Kalamazoo, and Jackson. On the other hand, the 1940 census
showed more persons living than in 1930 in every county of the State, except four
mining counties in the Upper Peninsula. In 1940 there were 18,190 more farms
reported in the State than in 1930, and the number of persons living on farms
increased by over 90,000. This movement represented, however, a retreat to
the land and a recourse to subsistence or part-time farming and gardening, rather
than an expansion in commercial farming, and many of those reported as living
on farms were not actively engaged in agriculture. Thirty-five percent of the
increase in the number of farms was among those 3-9 acres in size and nearly
90 percent was accounted for by those under 50 acres.i it is significant that this
increase in the number of census farms occurred not only through nearly all the
counties of the Upper Peninsula and the cut-over region of the Lower Peninsula,
but even more markedly in highly industrialized counties. Thus Wayne County
showed 74 percent more "farms" than in 1930; Oakland an increase of 67 percent;
Macomb, 35 percent; Genesee (Flint), 82 percent; and Kent (Grand Rapids),
27 percent. On the other hand, there were fewer farms reported in 1940 than in
1930 in such important commercial agricultural counties as Lenawee, Eaton,
Allegan, Berrien, and St. Joseph.
The decline during the thirties in the population of many Michigan cities and
the slackened rate of growth in others, served to relieve the pressure for providing
additional public utility, sanitary, housing, and school facilities which had been
demanded bv the spectacular influx into these industrial communities during the
preceding two decades. On the other hand, the outward migration to lower rent
areas and part-time farming locations imposed greatly increased demands for
such public facilities and services upon peripheral townships and villages, whose
existing bonded indebtedness and low assessed valuation, in combination with the
constitutional 15-mill tax limitation, generally made adequate provision finan-
cially impossible,
CONTRIBUTIONS OF WORK PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION AND PUBLIC WORKS
ADMINISTRATION
Considerable relief in meeting these problems has been afforded, however, in
many localities through the Federal Work Projects Administration and Public
Works Administration programs which have also contributed appreciably to
qualitative improvements in public buildings, facilities, and services in larger
cities. At the same time extensive highway improvements and the development
of suburban and interurban bus lines with frequent schedules have contributed to
making rural residence and urban employment and the supplementing of cash
income with direct real income, a combination of increasing and widening prac-
ticability. Along with this the experimentations of the Farm Security Adminis-
tration and the guided activities of county agricultural conservation committees
and land-use planning committees have been working toward adjustment and
stabilization amcng farm communities, and particularly toward long-term rehabili-
tation in the counties of the cut-over region and the Upper Peninsula.
1 For the purpose of the 1040 census a "farm" was defined as "all the land on which some agricultural
operations are performed by one person, either by his own labor alone, or with the assistance of members
of his household or hired employees. " Census enumerators were instructed not to report as a farm any
tract of land of less than 3 acres, unless its agricultural products in 1939 were valued at $250 or more.
NATIONAL, DEFENSE MIGRATION 7215
By 1940, when business activity regained the 1929 level, there were signs that
a certain equilibrium was being attained in Michigan between the urbanward
migration of the twenties and the landward retreat of the earlj^ thirties. A new
and more balanced demographic pattern appeared to be taking shape, character-
ized by a less disparate geographic distribution of population, by a higher propor-
tion of rural residents, by a closer approximation between community facilities
and community populations, and by a dwindling of intrastate migration, as com-
pared to the twenties. The cyclical increase in industrial employment, following
the recession of 1937-38 was met for the most part by the recall of local and
commuter-range unemployed, rather than by the hiring of workers from outside
areas.
Ahea Impact of Defense Production in Michigan
This new urban-rural pattern which was evolving in Michigan during the late
thirties is now being disturbed by the impact of the defense-production program.
Superimposed as it has been upon a cyclical upsurge in commercial production in
which the automobile industry has set the pace, and concentrated as it is in
Michigan upon the automotive centers, it has generated an emergency demand
for mechanical labor which the competition of employers and the activities of
recently recognized unions have promptly translated into uplifted wage rates.
This situation has already resulted in reviving and locallj^ accentuating both
intrastate and interstate migration into the same areas when it was most pro-
nounced between 1910 and 1930 and largely in abeyance during the thirties.
A greater volume of defense contracts has been awarded in Michigan than in
any other inland State. During the 12 months ending May 31, 1941, the value
of major defense prime contracts awarded by the Army and Navy Departments
to Michigan contractors amounted to $724,000,000, the only States receiving
larger awards being New Jersey, New York, and California where the category
of "ship construction and equipment" accounted for a third of their combined
total. 1 Defense orders placed in Michigan have been principally for Army trucks,
tractors, trailers, and maneuvre vehicles, airplane engines and fuselages, medium
tanks, antiaircraft and machine guns, shell casings, machine tools and precision
instruments, marine engines, hoists and winches, forging and castings. It is
n?tural that the V:)ulk of these prime contracts should be placed with the major
automobile concerns with their specialized and integrated plants, their large
engineering and research staffs, and their established relations with manufacturers
of parts and accessories.
The production of military vehicles involved a minimum departure from
normal operations. The output of airplane engines and shells was a matter
of engineering adaptation rather than of new plant construction or basic labor
shift. When additional plant facilities were required, these could often be
obtained most speedily and economically by the conversion of idle plants in
industrial centers. Thus the Chrysler Corporation has taken over the old Graham-
Paige factory in Detroit for the fabrication of Martin bomber fuselages, while in
the Lansing area General Pvlotors has converted the long disused Bohn-Ryan brass
foundry into a forge plant turning out shells, and a large section of the idle Reo
plant is being tooled for the production of Hamilton propeller blades bj^ Nash-
Kelvinator Corporation.
It is to the big automobile companies that the Army and Navy have also turned
for the design, tooling, and operation of major defense plants where new and
specialized construction was demanded, as in the case of the Ford bomber plant
near Ypsilanti, and of the Chrysler tank arsenal and the Hudson nayal arsenal
near Center Line just inside Macomb County. While the economics of industrial
location and management have dictated that all of these three huge plants should
be erected on open land on the outskirts of Detroit, the effect is to accentuate
the concentration of defense production and labor migration in the southeastern
corner of the State.
break-down of prime defense contracts
A break-down of prime defense contracts awarded for execution in Michigan
up to July 26, according to the counties in which the contracting manufacturers
or construction firms were located, reveals that 90 percent of the total value of
$1,291,000,000 involved, was assignable to the six adjoining and industrially
' a recapitulation by the Office of Production Management of all defense contracts awarded in Michigan
up to June 30, 1941, including those for food, fuel, and services, and those let by the Defense Plant Corpor-
ation and by Defense Housing agencies, showed a total of over $1,000,000,000.
60396— 41— pt. 18 11
7216 DETROIT HEARINGS
integrated counties of Wayne, Oakland, Maconil), Washtenaw, Genesee, and
Saginaw. The only other counties outside this bloc in which the value of de-
fense contracts awarded exceeded $5,000,000 were Muskegon ($40.7 million) in
which Continental Motors Corporation is located, Bav ($19,000,000), Kent
($11,000,000), Calhoun ($9.7 million), and Jackson ($5."5 million). Contracts
totaling between $1,000,000 and $3,000,000 for each county were also shown for
St. Clair, Berrien, Ingham, and Eaton. While the process of subcontracting, the
placing of orders for materials and accessories by manufacturers, and the inclu-
sion of Government contracts for foodstuffs, fuels, and services which do not
appear in these totals, suggests a somewhat more diffused pattern of defense pro-
duction and employment through the State than the above figures indicate, the
concentration of defense activity in the area between the Detroit River and
Saginaw Bay is of staggering proportions. And this is bound to be accentuated
by the bringing into production of the huge new defense plants now under con-
struction and the execution of jslant expansions in that region for which certificates
of necessity have been issued.
Labor Migration Into Defense Production Areas
The area allocation of defense contracts serves as an indicator of the localized
distribution of the emergency demand for mechanical and construction labor.
The existence of available labor reserves in the localities concerned does not
preclude the drawing thither of many persons from other areas who are unem-
ployed or who hope to better their employment by migrating to such centers of
active demand and high wages. Mere reports of the awarding of large defense
contracts or of the authorization of construction projects are sufficient to set
large numbers of job seekers in motion.
While comprehensive and accurate data on the extent and distribution of recent
labor migration into Michigan defense areas are not available, the council has
gathered certain indications from various sources.
motor vehicle operator licenses
1. A recent check made by the registration division of the secretary of state's
department of the number of motor vehicle operator's licenses issued to appli-
cants who had entered Michigan from other States showed a total of 10,918 for
the 3 months of June, July, and August of this year. It may be presumed that
most of these car owners brought one or more other persons with them into the
State, either as family dependents or additional job seekers. The Michigan ad-
dresses reported by these licenses indicated that 5,585, or more than one-half of
the total, had located in Wayne County, and another 1,288 in the adjoining coun-
ties of Oakland, Washtenaw, and Macomb. Other counties on each of which
more than 275 licenses were issued to out-of-State applicants included Genesee
(Flint), Kent (Grand Rapids), Ingham (Lansing), and Calhoun (Battle Creek).
These 8 industrial counties accounted for four-fifths of all licenses issued
during the last 3 months to operators entering from other States.
WORK PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION SURVEY OF MIGRATION
2. A survey of "recent migration into Detroit and its environs" conducted by
the Work Projects Administration Division of Research in June 1941 found that
16,300 workers, accompanied by 17,600 dependents, had moved into the survey
area (which included Detroit proper and 17 satellite cities, but not open country
areas) from places outside of Waj'ne, Oakland, and Macomb Counties subsequent
to October 1, 1940, who were still living in the survey area in June 1941. The
principal origins of these migrants were found to be the large industrial cities of
the east and midwest, the "depressed areas" of northern Michigan, and mountain
communities lying south of the Ohio River, the average distance traveled being
340 miles. Only 4 percent of these migrants were Negroes. Forty-one percent
of all the migrant workers came from rural places, and 21 percent had been en-
gaged in agriculture at their last place of residence. Most of the workers (68
percent) had moved to the Detroit area for the first time, and of those who had
formerly lived there about half had been absent for 4 years or more.
While 17 percent of these migrant workers reported that they had been with-
out jobs at their last place of residence, only 10 percent were found to be unem-
ployed in Detroit at the time of the surve3\ Of the latter one-fifth had been
jobless in the places from which they had migrated, another fifth had been en-
gaged in farming or mining at the time of leaving, and approximately another
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7217
fifth in domestic and personal service. Most of those who were skilled or semi-
skilled and had previously been engaged in manufacturing or construction had
found employment in Detroit, and a considerable proportion of those who had
previously worked in unskilled or nonmanufacturing occupations had succeeded
in moving up the occupational scale or making an industrial shift. Thus twice
as high a percentage of these migrant workers were employed in Detroit in skilled
or semiskilled occupations as in their last place of residence, and whereas only
26 percent had been previously engaged in manufacturing or construction, 50
percent were so employed in Detroit at the survey date.
It is noteworthy that more than half of these migrant workers were unaccom-
panied by any dependents, and that the total number of dependents brought in
was only "slightly more than the number of workers. The total number of migrant
persons"^ (33,900) was equivalent to only 1.8 percent of the 1940 population of the
area surveyed. This would imply that the additional demand so represented on
housing and school facilities in the Detroit area did not in itself present a serious
problem. The authors of the survey report concluded that "by and large the
movement into Detroit appears to have proceeded with reasonalale smoothness,"
and that "in general the migrants appear to have made a remarkably realistic
appraisal of the economic opportunities of the Detroit area."
This rather reassuring conclusion is subject, however, to several qualifications.
The survey does not include persons who may have come to the Detroit area in
search of jobs between October 1, 1940, and June 1941 and departed because of
failure to find employment. It excludes migrations of persons within the three
counties of Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb, and of course it does not cover migra-
tions into the Detroit area since the survey date in early June, which are known to
have been on an expanding scale, and are almost certain to increase in the near
future in view of anticipated labor reciuirements on existing defense contracts, and
of tlie bringing into operation of new defense plants under construction or tooling.
REGISTRATIONS FOR EMPLOYMENT
3. An analysis of new applications for employment accepted by Detroit area
offices of the Michigan Unemployment Compensation Commission, according to
location of last employment prior to registration, reveals that of 108,038 new regis-
trations for the 13-month period August 1940 to August 1941, inclusive, 24.4
percent were of applicants whose last place of employment was outside of Detroit.
The proportion of these increased from 18.8 percent in August 1940 to 34 percent
in August of this year. The following tabulation shows the number and the
regional distribution of these new applicants for the entire period and for the
initial and last months included.
Total all
locations
Location of last employment prior to registration
Period
Detroit
Applicants with last employment outside
Detroit
Total
In Mich-
igan
Great
Lakes
States
All other
locations
Total, 13 months _ --.
108, 038
3,686
10, 194
81, 720
2,994
6,731
26, 318
692
3,463
7,132
158
1,175
5,775
151
731
13,411
August 1940 -
383
August 1941
1,557
PERCENTAGE DISTRIBUTION
Total, 13 months
August 1940
August 1941
100
100
100
75.6
24.4
6.6
5.4
81.2
18.8
4.3
4.1
66.0
34.0
11.5
7.2
12.4
10.4
15.3
It will be seen from the above that the number of new applicants who had last
worked in Michigan outside Detroit increased from a mere 158 in August 1940 to
1,175 in August of this year, and that the number of registrants from, n.ore distant
locations beyond the Great Lakes States more than quadrupled within that inter-
val. While the number of applicants under the Detroit column was 6,731 last
month, con.pared to 2,994 in August 1940, it constituted a marked decrease from
7218 DETROIT HEARINGS
the 10,813 registered in March, and doubtless represented many who merely
wished to change their jobs, as well as young persons com.pleting defense training
courses.
SURVEY OF MACOMB-OAKLAND AREA
4. A survey of the Macomb-Oakland industrial defense area, conducted jointly
m June 1941, by the Michigan Council of Defense, the National Resources Plan-
ning Com.mission, and the United States Public Health Service (a copy of whose
report is attached as an exhibit i) reveals that whereas in the three Macomb County
townships of Warren, Erin, and Lake adjoining the northern boundary of Detroit
city, there had been only a few hundred industrial employees at the time of the
1940 census, there were actually 9,293 such employees in June 1941. It is in this
area that the new Dodge truck factory, the Chrysler tank arsenal, the Hudson
naval arsenal, and several sn.aller plants employed in defense production have been
located, and it is estin.ated that the labor loads of these combined plants will
am.ount to 14,890 by January 1, 1942, and rise to 27,640 by June 1, 1942. The
1940 census showed a population of 55,329 residing in these three townships.
The survey report estin.ates that the new industrial employm.ent in this area will
result in an increase of population of some 70,000, or nearly 110 percent by June
1942. Southern Macomb County constitutes the most acute and concentrated
area of actual and prospective defense migration in the entire State, and it presents
formidable and urgent sanitary, housing, and school problem.s, concerning which
the report m,akes specific recomm.endations, especially on the imperative necessity
of the immediate undertaking of a master sewage-disposal system.
LETTERS TO CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE
5. Letters sent out in late August by the executive secretary of the Michigan
Council of Defense to all chambers of commerce in the State, inquiring as to the
nature and extent of defense migration in their respective communities, brought
in replies from 17 cities. From these incomplete reports it appeared that cities in
northern Michigan (Hancock, Iron Mountain, Gladstone, Alpena) were losing
workers, most unemployed, by migration mainly to the southeastern part of the
State. Cities on the fringe of the Detroit metrpolitan area (Bay City, Saginaw,
Flint, Pontaic, and Jackson) were in substantial agreement in reporting that in-
creased factory employment represented the absorption of resident unemployed,
and was accompanied by reduction in local relief and Work Projects Administra-
tion loads, rather than by any appreciable influx of job seekers from outside
areas. (The manager of the Pontiac Chamber stated that "993'2 percent of our
employees today are residents of Pontiac, Oakland, or adjacent counties.") The
Greater Muskegon Chamber, in reporting that local factory employment had
risen by over 7,000 since April 1940, stated that while some 2,000 of these addi-
tional employees had been taken from Work Projects Administration rolls, and
another large element was represented by commuters, an estimated three to four
thousand had immigrated into the area, particularly from the nothern half of the
Lower Peninsula. Ann Arbor reported an increasing number of transient workers,
mostly headed for the Detroit area; and the secretary at adjacent Ypsilanti stated
that "the influx of unskilled workers from the south continued unabated."
Some significant figures were submitted to the council by the city manager of
Plymouth in Wayne County showing the distribution of employees of 5 factories
in that city according to the distance which they daily traveled to work. In the
case of the old established Daisy Manufacturing Co., 97 percent of its 325 em-
ployees lived within less than 5 miles of the factory. On the other hand, in the
case of the new defense plant of the Kelsey-Hayes Wheel Co., only 13 percent of
its 750 employees lived within 5 miles, and no less than 60 percent came to work
daily from living locations beyond the 10-mile range.
Impact of the Defense Program on the Copper Counties
While the positive and stimulating impact of the defense program is being
concentrated in the southeastern corner of Michigan its negative and hampering
efi"ects are being felt most acutely in the northern extremity of the State, where
the copper industry has been adversely affected by rising costs in the face of a
ceiling price for its product. Although copper production in the Upper Peninsula
increased by 85 percent between 1921 and 1929, the populations of Houghton
and Keweenaw Counties declined between 1920 and 1930 by 26.5 and 19.7 percent,
i Held in oommittee fliea.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7219
Showing Location op Macomb-Oakland Area
7220 DETROIT HEARINGS
respectively. This was due mainly to consolidations and technological improve-
ments in the Michigan copper mining industry without which production could
not have been sustained in competition with the newer and lower cost open pit
mines of the Southwest. During the depression years of the thirties, when most
of the mines had to discontinue operations, the exodus from these counties con-
tinued and they showed the highest relief loads in the State. Between the 1930
and 1940 census years the populations of Houghton and Keweenaw further
declined by 10 and 20 percent, respectively, although during the same decade the
population' of every other county in the Upper Peninsula, except Iron and
Dickinson, showed some increase.
Moderate recovery of copper prices after 1933, and selective concentration
upon high grade veins, made possible a stepping up of production from the low
point of" 46,800,000 millions pounds in 1933 to an average of aV^out 90,000,000
between 1936 and 1940, with 6 of the 19 mines operating in the last year. By the
time the defense program was launched a measure of stabilization and adjustment
had been attained in the copper country and consideiable progress was being
made in the rehabilitation program under the Farm Security Administration in
cooperation with county and local authorities and the mining companies.
Although only a few small-scale defense contracts have come to Upper Peninsula
cities (Escanaba being a limited beneficiary), the defense program is inducing
somewhat greater activity in the iron-mining and lumbering industries. In the
case of the copper industry, however, the necessity of raising wages to meet the
lure of high paid employment opportunities elsewhere, with most mines and work-
ings definitely submarginal at the present controlled maximum price of 12 cents
for copper, makes it unlikely that even the low output level of recent years can
be maintained. Meanwhile the efflux of workers from the area has been accele-
rated. The wHancock Employment Office of the unemployment commission
which serves Houghton, Keweenah, and Baraga Counties, in recently checking
registrations from active to inactive files, found that about 60 percent of those
who had failed to renew their cards had left the district, indicating a migration
of over 2,000 workers.
In the interests both of arresting further degeneration of the economy of
this depressed area and of increasing domestic output of copper for defense needs,
there exists strong justification for authorization by the Federal Price Adminis-
tration office of a supplementary price scale for copper produced in Michigan
mines, corresponding to established differential costs.
Impact of Defense Program on Farm Labor Situation
Defense production activity in Michigan impinges in a palpable measure on the
supply and supply price of labor required on general and dairy farms, and in a less
direct manner upon the interstate migration of seasonal farm labor to the fruit,
sugar-beet, and onion-growing areas of the State.
As noted in the first section of this memorandum., the drift from Michigan
farn.s to southeastern cities which characterized the twenties was reversed during
depression years of the thirties, and the number of persons reported in the 1940
census as living on farms in Michigan was over 90,000 m.ore than in 1930. A
large num.ber of those so reported, however, were properly urban workers living
on 3- to 10-acre holdings, and engaged in part-time or incidental fruit or vegetable
farming, poultry-raising, etc. Industrial recovery in the pre-defense period was
already leading to some return movement to cities, and the number of "census
farms'' which had risen sharply from. 169,372 in 1930 to 196,517 in 1935, was
reported as 187,589 in the 1940 census.
The swelling volume of defense employment is tending not only to draw back
to cities workers who had retreated to farms or rural villages in depression years,
and to attract young farni. people, but it has also inevitably induced a rising scale
of wages for farm labor, under the fam.iliar operation of the principle of "oppor-
tunity cost." According to the State agricultural statistician's office the weighted
average of farm wages (with board) in Michigan rose from $30.25 per month in
July 1940 to $39.75 in July of this year, an advance of over 30 percenx. This
is occurring at a tim.e when the Governm.ent's food defense program is calling on
farn^ers to heavily expand production of meat animals, milk, poultry and eggs, and
canning crops.
Migration from Michigan farms does not appear so far to be as extensive aa
claim.ed in certain quarters. Analysis of new applications received at the Detroit
area offices of the State employment service during the 13-m.onth period August
1940 through August 1941, reveals that of total applicants num.bering 108, 03H
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7221
only 7c3 were classified as havinp been last employed in "agricvilture, forestry, or
fishing." Of these only 469 gave Michigan as tlieir place of last employment;
and of these in turn 305 had worked on farms in the immediate Detroit area.
Doubtless there has been a larger nvovem.ent from. Michigan farm.s to nearby m.anu-
facturing cities, but the n\ain problem appears to be the r'sing cost of farm
labor, and of jr.eeting the need for additional help under the defense program of
expanded food production. . , . at. , • i
The defense program with its increasing absorption of resident Micliigan workers
is already giving signs of intensifying the migration of seasonal farm laborers from
the South. This has been a growing movement in recent years, and has been
attracted mainly to the small fruit region of Berrien and Van Buren Counties in
the southwest corner of the State, to the sugar-beet areas of the Saginaw Valley
and Thumb districts and Lenawee County, to the commercial onion farms in
south-central counties, and to the mint farms of Clinton County. A survey of
migrant farm labor in Berrien County, conducted during the 1940 season by the
Labor Division of the Farm Security Administration indicated an interstate
influx of at least 10,000 migratory workers, of which 75 percent were white families
from Arkansas and Missouri (mostly displaced sharecroppers) and the remainder
mostly single Negro workers from the South. Of 12,400 beet laborers in Michigan
sugar' factory districts in 1939, over three-fifths came from outside the State,
mostly Mexicans recruited in Texas. In view of the recent removal of domestic
sugar' quotas, and of reduced availability of resident workers, a greater influx of
beet laborers from the South may be anticipated next season.
So long as less toilsome and more remunerative opportunities of employment are
available to Michigan residents— intensified as they now are by the defense
boom— the seasonal influx of Mexican, Negro, and "poor white" labor is an eco-
noiBic necessity, unless the pattern of Michigan agriculture is to be substantially
altered. The problem, however, is not merely one of labor supply, but even more,
one of public health, involving housing, sanitation, medical examination, and
communicable disease control. The problems and needs in this direction are
elaborated in the statement prepared by Dr. Moyer, commissioner of the Michigan
Department of Health, to which the State council of defense urges that the in-
vestigation committee should give special attention. ^
Possibilities of Minimizing Defense Labor Migration
As developed in the foregoing analysis, the extrem.e concentration in the
Detroit areas of the primary impact of defense production in Michigan is inducing
a labor migration which not only creates serious housing and sanitary problems
in the areas of influx, but is also proving embarrassing to such areas of efflux as
farming communities and the copper country. And the greater the volume and
velocity which this m.ovement attains the m.ore formidable will be the dislocation
and problem, of readjustment when the flood of emergency defense orders subsides.
Migration of workers from one area to another is advantageous to both localities,
as well as the workers them.selves, when it results in the needed employment here
of those who were idle or dependent there. But it is economically wasteful and
socially disturbing when it draws large numbers of persons from places where their
services are needed to localities where the intensified labor demand is capable of
being suppMed from those already resident in the area concerned. As Secretary
John Lovett of the Michigan Manufacturers' Association has aptly put it, "Star-
ring the water around does not flU the pail." This suggests the crucial importance
of planned efforts to minimize dispensable migration and to m.aximize the utiliza-
tion on defense production of the actual and potent al resident labor supply. To
the extent that this is realized local pressures will be eased and the problem of
post-defense boom readjustment be mitigated.
In the Detroit area the potentially available local labor supply includes the
following elements :
(1) APPLICANTS REGISTERED WITH THE DETROIT CENTRAL PLACEMENT OFFICE
On July 31, registrants in the actwe flies totaled 60,833 of whom. 1 2 percent were
classed as skilled and 34 percent as semiskilled. While these include an unreported
num.ber who were seeking merely to change their jobs or had failed to report
placement to the office, the flgures suggest that the available resident labor
reserves of the Detroit market have been by no means fully absorbed. They also
suggest the importance of fuller utilization by employers of the facilities of the
State employment offices, and of giving preference to resident applicants.
1 See p. 7552 and Detroit hearings (Agricultural Section), "Report of anEpidemicof Diphtheria Among
Mexican Migratory Workers in Saginaw County."
7222 DETROIT HEARINGS
(2) COLORED WORKERS
The Michigan Unemployment Compensation Commission in a special report
last June on Occupational Qualifications of Available Negro Workers Registered
with the State Employment Service, pointed out that nearly one-fifth of the
registered applicants in the area served by the Detroit Central Placement Office
on April 25 were colored, and that of 10,609 colored male registrants 1,282 were
classified in skilled and 2,547 in semiskilled occupations. Relaxation of certain
employers' prejudices against the hiring of colored workers would presumably
serve therefore, both to reduce unemployment and relief loads in the Detroit
areas, and to lessen the occasion for the drawing in of workers from outside places,
with its attendant strain on housing facilities.
(3) TRAINING OF RESIDENT YOUNG PERSONS
The coordinated vocational education and National Youth Administration
defense training programs offer significant possibilities of increasing the supply of
special skills and services required in defense production, both quantitatively and
qualitativel}', through the selective utilization of resident young persons. At the
end of Jul}^ Detroit's vocational education program for national defense training
had nearly 2,000 enroUees in preemployment classes (representing prospective
new workers) and over 9,000 in supplementary courses (representing the "up-
grading" or specialized adaptation of men already employed). In addition some
500 workers on National Youth Administratic;j defense projects were also securing
instruction in defeii^e occupations. Registration of these trainees with State
employment offices and cooperation of employers facilitates their placement where
they can be most efi'ectively used, and their availability as "dilutants", releases
more experienced workers for "upgraded" tasks.
(4) TRANSFER OF WORKERS FROM NONDBFENSE PRODUCTION
The most important po.ssibility of meeting the emergency demand for mechan-
ical labor in defense production from local sources, both in Detroit and other
southern Michigan cities, lies in the transfer of exjjerienced mass-production
workers released by the compulsory curtailment in automobile output for the
1942 model year. The recent announcement of 4- and 12-month quotas for indi-'
vidual manufacturers removes the element of uncertainty which has long over-
hung this inevitable subordination of civilian to defense production, and it affords
a definite basis on which labor planning can proceed. The shifting of automobile
workers to defense plants and operations involves delicate questions of seniority
and grade and job reclassification. The now all-inclusive establishuient of collec-
tive bargaining in the Michigan automobile industry has proved conducive,
however, to the negotiated acceptance of standard principles governing these
issues. In view of the drastic curtailment in automobile output the erection of
the huge Chrysler and Hudson arsenals and of the Ford bomber i^lant on the
outer fringe of Wayne County is likely to induce a nuich smaller volume of labor
migration and to create a less serious housing problem than was earlier anticipated.
These defense plants lie within commuting range of the present homes of most
workers in the automobile factories of Detroit, Dearborn, and Poutiac. The
problem becomes therefore one of improved transportation facilities rather than
of new large-scale housing projects for incoming migrants. The Michigan High-
way Department's plan for a system of three-grade access highways to the Ford
bomber plant between Dearborn and Ypsilanti is indicative of how this problem
may be met.
Commuting Versus Migration
Commuting represents a form of labor mobility in which the worker maj^
change his place of employment while retaining his place of residence. As such
it is generally less disturbing to communities tlian is actual migration on an equiva-
lent scale, especially where the latter involves the movement of entire families,
and wliere the employment is of uncertain duration. Work-commuting serves to
link urban and rural communities and to make for greater social stability.
According to reports reaching the Council it appears that in m.ost of the larger
Michigan cities outside Detroit and Muskegon the increased nuii'.ber of workers
on the pay rolls of factories affected directly or indirectly by defense orders has
so far been accon'.i)anied by a considerable addition in the en\ployees commuting
front, surrounding townships and villages rather than by any extensive niigration
of workers and their families from distant locations. For example, the personnel
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7223
manager of the new General Motors forge plant near Lansing, engaged in turning
out shells, states that not n.ore than 2>^ percent of its present 1,100 err.ployees
have cone from beyond a 40- to 50-n.ile zone, n.ost of those from outside Lansing
com.n.uting from their hon.es.
The n.aintenance by the State employm.ent service of part-tim.e offices in sm.aller
cities and recent experui.ents in advertising scheduled appearances of its inter-
viewers in still sn.alJer places served to uncover available workers in shortage
occupations living in rural centers. For instance, during a recent 5-day appear-
ance at Caro, a village of 3,000 in Tuscola County, 372 individuals were regis-
tered, including n.achinists, core workers, n.olders, engine-lathe, and auton.atic-
screw operators. While the place where such skills are wanted n.ay be beyond
con .muting range of the place where they are discovered, m.igration of such workers
witiiin the State serves to reduce the occasion for interstate migration. Fuller
utilizat^"on by en.ployers of the State en.ploym.ent service with its interdistrict
and interstate clearing system, and formation of proposed labor-pool agreem.ents
an.ong local en.ployers' associations, are am.ong the n.ost effective n^.eans of m.axi-
m.izing the use of local labor supply and mininiizing long-range or unnecessary
migration.
Federal Assistance
Despite all that m.ay be done by intelhgent planning and cooperation within
the State to m.inim.ize dispensible labor migration, along the hues suggested above,
and to deal with local housing and sanitary problen.s, the defense production
program in Michigan has generated certain situations which dem.and special
Federal assistance. Ani.ong the n ost urgent of these, as em.phasized elsewhere
in this statem.ent, are:
(1) Immediate financial provision under the Public Works Administration or
Lanham Act for carrying out the master plan of the Michigan Stream Control
Commission and Department of Public Health for sewage disposal in southern
Macomb and Oakland Counties.
(2) Provision through the office of the Defense Housing Coordinator for appro-
priate supplementary housing facilities in the Center Line area of Macomb
County, and probably between Dearborn and Ypsilanti.
(3) Additional grants through the United States Public Health Service to per-
mit more adequate inspection and immunization among migratory farm laborers,
and the experimental establishment of government camps for such workers under
the Federal Security Administration where local authorities can be induced to
concur.
(4) Approval by the Office of Price Administration and the Reconstruction
Finance Corporation of a system of supplemental price payments based on differ-
ential costs for copper produced in Upper Peninsula mines.
Exhibit A.^Letter From Michigan Defense Council Discouraging
In-migration
(The attached letter was sent from the Michigan Council of Defense on July 19
to the following States: Virginia, Missouri, Florida, Georgia, Arizona, Oklahoma,
Louisiana, Alabama, Kentucky, North Carolina, Arkansas, South Carolina, West
Virginia, Texas, Tennessee, Kansas, Mississippi, and New Mexico.)
July 19, 1941.
Dear ■ — — ■ — •: It has recently come to our attention from several communities
in Michigan that there is a growing influx of unskilled labor into Michigan. This,
of course, is due to the information that has gone out regarding the defense indus-
tries developing in this State.
Permit us to call your attention to the conditions as they exist. A great many
contracts have been allocated to Michigan firms, and many of the plants are
operating to full capacity, but a number of plants are still under construction,
namely the tank arsenal, the Ford bomber plant, and the Hudson naval arsenal.
These plants, with a large total of new jobs, will not be in operation much
before the middle of November and will not reach their maximum capacity for a
year. In the meantime, the production of automobiles has been decreased and
most of the men who are employed in the automobile industry will be absorbed by
the new defense plants. Besides this there is still a large number of unemployed
registered with the State employment service to be absorbed by Michigan indus-
tries.
With this information our surveys indicate that we have plenty of men available
in Michigan to meet the labor demand for at least a year.
7224 DETROIT HEARINGS
Will yon give out the information through your council of these conditions in
Michigan and urge the men in your State not to come to Micliigan in hopes of
getting a job in the defense industry, except as they are assigned through the
United States Employment Service.
Winter will soon be here and many of these families coming to Michigan in
hopes of finding a job are bound to be disappointed.
Permit us to express our thanks to you in advance for your cooperation in this
matter.
Very truly yours,
Harold A. Furlong,
Lieutenant Colonel, Medical Corps, Administrator.
TESTIMONY OF LT. COL. HAROLD A. FURLONG— Resumed
Mr. Arnold. Would you rather proceed with some questions based
on that statement, or do you have something to add to it?
Colonel Furlong. I think I would prefer that you ask the questions.
I would like to say, however, that in Michigan we very greatly appre-
ciate the committee's coming here. We feel that it gives us an
opportunity to present to you information that it would not be possible
otherwise to present, and I think that the publicity which 3^ou have
received from all sources has been a splendid indication of the popu-
larity of your visit here.
I hope you will receive all the mformation that you desire and, so
far as the Defense Council is concerned, we will be glad to furnish any
further information that we can obtain.
The Chairman. We will extend you the courtesy of presenting any
additional statement you care to make for our records. You may send
it to Washington or hand it to our staff here.
You may proceed. Congressman Arnold.
Mr. Arnold. Will you summarize briefly for the committee the
powers and duties of the Michigan Council of Defense, bearing in
mind, of coarse, that we are particularly interested in a description
of those duties which relate most nearly to the problems occasioned
by migration?
POWERS AND DUTIES OF MICHIGAN COUNCIL OF DEFENSE
Colonel Furlong. As set up in the recent legislation, the Michigan
Council of Defense, composed of 11 members, is an advisory, investi-
gative, and coordinative agency to assist the branches of State, Federal,
and local branches of government in bringing the defense program as
closely as possible in touch with the people of Michigan. It has no
mandatory powers as such.
MICHIGAN IN-MIGRATION
Mr. Arnold. Have you any estimates as to the volume of migra-
tion into Michigan as a result of the defense program, or of the volume
of migration within the State?
Colonel Furlong. As you have heard from previous witnesses,
that is a very difficult problem on which to get any accurate informa-
tion. We here in Michigan are confronted not only with the seasonal
migration in and out of the State which is associated with the auto-
motive industry, but we also have a seasonal agricultural migration
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7225
ill and out of the State, associated with the fruit and sugar-beet
industry particuhxrly, and the onion industry in certain parts of the
State. ^,
Those are problems that we ahvays have with us. There has been,
in addition, some out-migration, particuhirly from the copper-produc-
ing areas in the Upper Peninsula. Those people are being attracted
by higher wages in other copper-producing areas, or by the defense
industries in this part of the State. _ _
There is some indication that in certain parts of the State — it is
rather fragmentary, I admit— that there is a certain amount of in-
migration nito the State, particularly around Detroit and Muskegon.
OUT-MIGRATION FROM COPPER AREA
Mr. Arnold. So from the copper area you are losing residents to
other parts of the State and to the outside?
Colonel Furlong. Yes.
Mr. Arnold. What recommendation has the Defense Council for
meeting the shortage in health, housing, and educational facilities in
defense communities? The committee has in mind, for example, the
situation in Macomb County.
SITUATION in MACOMB COUNTY
Colonel Furlong. Well, the Macomb County situation has been
completely covered in the report that was prepared by the Defense
Council. We have copies of that here for your consideration.^
The situation in ^Slacomb County is that of an area which was, a
few years ago, largely rural, and which, during the decade of the
twenties, began to urbanize and then suffered very keenly during the
depression years and again has shown a very great increase in popula-
tion.
For the period between the 1930 and 1940 census there is shown
an mcrease of about 39 percent in population in that area. It never
fell off completely. There has always been an upward trend. The
area for a number of years has been one of the rich agricultural parts
of the State, and perhaps hasn't developed as quickly as some of the
counties immediately north of Detroit, such as Oakland County,
because of the less desirable terrain.
The development there has been mostly among the men employed
in the large industries in Detroit. There is a rather substandard
type of housing in that area caused somewhat by the poor natural
facilities of drainage.
We look upon the major problem in the area of Macomb County
as one of providing a fundamental necessity, an outlet for the sewage
disposal.
You asked the question. What recommendations has the Council
to make?
The Defense Council has been working with various State and
local and Federal agencies in an attempt to arrive at a logical solution
of the difficulty in "that area. It is not only an area of low income,
but one in which, because of the many adjoining municipalities, there
are many municipal agencies at work. There is a problem there of
1 Held in committee files. Data contained in the report arc summarized in Exhibit 25, Social Welfare
in Macomb County, pp. 7678-7693.
7226
DETROIT HEAJRINOS
I
L,
X
CO
n- : CO »! I
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7227
dealing with a great many governmental agencies, both county and
local, and it has been complicated for that reason.
PROBLEM OF SEWAGE DISPOSAL
Over-all sewage disposal plans have been worked out in that area,
and we are hopeful that through the recently enacted community-
facilities bill and through Mr. Carmody's department of government,
we will eventually be able to work out a solution for the disposal of
sewage.
The Chairman. The trouble with that appropriation, Colonel
Furlong, is that it only provides $150,000,000. San Diego alone is
askmg for $21,000,000, and California is asking for $50,000,000. With
the pressing need for sewage disposal and other facilities, in so many
places, don't you think more money will be required?
Colonel Furlong. I think that eventually will prove to be the case.
Mr. OsMERS. What is the population of Macomb County, and what
plants are going in there, Colonel Furlong?
Colonel Furlong. The population has increased very much just
recently. I think I can answer your questions very nicely by showmg
you a map of the area involved.^
This map is of the five counties immediately surrounding Detroit.
Those [indicating] represent the municipalities. The map further
reduces the situation to just one township of Macomb County, in
which there has been a very rapid defense development. This shows
Warren Township of Macomb County and the industries that are
located therein.
POPULATION INCREASE IN MACOMB COUNTY
The population of Macomb County at the present time is 107,638.
That was according to the 1940 census. In 1930 the population was
77,146. The increase indicated for the last 10 years is 40 percent.
Mr. OsMERS. What would be the cost of this sewer plan that you
referred to, Colonel?
PLAN FOR sewage DISPOSAL
Colonel Furlong. The plan involves two projects. It involves an
Oakland County project, which is immediately adjacent to Detroit
on the north, and a Macomb County project. I will show you briefly
on the map what our problem here is. This is the Macomb County
line here, and this is the Wayne County line. Oakland County is
in here.
All these municipalities in the southern part of Oakland County have
to depend upon the flow eastward to dispose of their sewage.
Now, there is a project submitted from Oakland County to connect
with this large interceptor sewer of Wayne County, to dispose of waste
that now is traveling down Red Run Creek and Clinton River, out
mto the lake. There is the intake for Higliland Park, which is located
within and surrounded by the city of Detroit. Their water intake is
there and the city of Detroit's water intake is there [indicating].
' See facing page.
7228 DETROIT HEARINGS
That is one part of the project for Oakhind County. The Macomb
County portion of the project inchides building a portion of a drain,
a large interceptor drain in Wayne County from this point, which is
the Kirby pumping station up beyond the city limits of Roseville.
In addition, this drain, which is located in here, known as the nine-
mile drain, has been in litigation over a number of years. That will
be connected with that interceptor sewer at that point, and will take
care of this large area in Wayne County, in Warren Township, and
Centerline.
That portion of the Macomb County project will cost about $740,000
or $750,000, and that figure probably will be given in any application
made under the provisions of the community facilities bill. We hope
to make it a 100 percent grant.
Mr. OsMERS. What is the financial condition of Macomb County?
Colonel Furlong. They are unable to finance that themselves.
Now, in addition to the interceptor sewers, there are, of course, many
lateral connecting sewers to be built by each community under separate
projects of the Public Works Adm^inistration.
Mr. OsMERS. That is not figured in as part of the $750,000?
Colonel Furlong. No.
DEBT LIMITATIONS IN MACOMB COUNTY
The Chairman. Why is Macomb County unable to participate in
the project? Is it because of debt limitation?
Colonel Furlong. Yes. The IS-mill tax limit. There is a very
high delmquency of tax payments. Many parcels of ground have
reverted to the State, and the problem isn't just one of sewers alone,
but of schools and streets and other facilities necessary to develop
that community.
Mr. Curtis. After this defense activity is over, what sort of
community are you going to have there? Are you building for
permanency? Are there going to be that many people there all the
time?
MACOMB county REFLECTING GROWTH OF DETROIT
Colonel Furlong. The development of that area is part of the
natural growth of the city of Detroit itself. There is no overlapping,
no intervening break in the settlement. It is an artificial boundary.
On one side of the Eight Mile road is Wayne County, and on the other
side is Macomb County, and the growth has been taking place in the
last 10 years in Macomb County. Macomb County is a continuation
of the growth that has been going on in that area of Wayne County
for the last 25 years.
Twenty-five years ago certain parts of the City of Detroit were
faced with these same problems that Macomb County is now facing
today. Those have been solved in Wayne County and they remain
to be solved in Macomb County.
It is simply the result of the depression years and the large unem-
ployment. The community has not been able to keep up with the
demand for public services in that area.
Mr. Arnold. Wliat have they done with respect to education?
Have they kept up pretty well with that?
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7229
NEED FOR ADDITIONAL FUNDS FOR SCHOOLS
Colonel Furlong. They are having a great deal of difficulty there
with their schools. Some of the school districts were enlarged in order
to accommodate the children, and now they are no better than the
district schools they used to have. Some of the school districts have
been so contracted that they do not have a sufficient revenue-produc-
ing possibility to maintain adequate schools. Other districts that
were built up have greatly exceeded their school capacity. There is
an urgent need in there of additional funds to operate the schools.
There is also a need for a long-range program of consolidation of
school districts, to produce enough revenue to support the schools.
The assessed valuation of some of these communities has not been
sufficient to maintain their schools and other facilities to a desirable
basis and allow for expansion.
Mr. OsMERS. Now, if this sewage-disposal system is installed, can
you tell us how many F. H. A. applications will be released?
Colonel Furlong. I am afraid I cannot answer that question.
Mr. Arnold. Would there be a great deal of building there?
NEW HOUSING DEPENDENT UPON SOLUTION OF SEWAGE-DISPOSAL
PROBLEM
Colonel Furlong. Yes, sir; there is a demand for building there at
the present time. Many areas had already been approved for F. H. A.
loans, but because of the unsatisfactory sewage-disposal facilities it
was found undesirable to put more housing in that area.
Individual septic tanks do not work efficiently in that area. The
underlying soil is a very heavy, impervious clay. It has been impossi-
ble to carry on with that situation; the result has been a temporary
delay in opening or granting approval to new areas for F. H. A. hous-
ing, which will probably continue until such time as the sanitation
proble- is solved.
Mr. OsMERS. Does the figure you gave the committee represent
the approximate cost of the sewer plan up there? Does that include
the cost of the disposal plant, or is it proposed to pour that sewage
into the river?
Colonel Furlong. No. That plan contemplates the connection
of those deep interceptor sewers with the Detroit sewerage system
and paying a disposal charge.
Mr. OsMERs. A gallonage rate, or something like that?
Colonel Furlong. Yes, sir.
Mr. OsMERs. Does the Detroit plant have sufficient unused capacity
to handle it?
Colonel Furlong. We have been in consultation with the Detroit
departments, and they can do that.
Mr. OsMERS. It is always easier to add to an existing plant than
to build a new one.
Colonel Furlong. That is right.
Mr. OsMERs. There is one question I would hkc to ask you about
this little map that you put before us.^ Am I correct in assuming that
these two communities of Hamtramck and Highland Park are within
the city limits of the city of Detroit — completely surrounded by the
city of Detroit?
• See p. 7226.
7230 DETROIT HEARINGS
Colonel Furlong. Yes, sir.
Mr. OsMERS. Are they governed as separate municipalities, with
their own officials?
Colonel Furlong. Yes, sir.
Mr. OsMERS. Now, these little squares that j'-ou have numbered —
apparently they are communities — are incorporated?
Colonel Furlong. Yes, sir. Those are incorporated villages or
cities.
Mr. OsMERS. The blank space you have there is under county
government. Is that correct?
Colonel Furlong. Yes, sir; and township.
Mr. Arnold. I suppose surveys of housmg and educational needs
have been undertaken in Macomb County and such areas?
Colonel Furlong. Yes, sir; that is all included in the Macomb
County report.
ASSISTANCE TO WARREN TOWNSHIP
Mr. OsMERS. What assistance, if any, has your organization given
to Warren Township in securing approval of its request for schools
recently presented to the Lanham Committee?
Colonel Furlong. We have been endeavoring to assist them in
every way possible, including the seeking of cooperation of both
the State Department of Public Instruction and the United States
Department of Public Instruction.
I would say that the major part of our effort in the last 2 months
has been directed to the solution of the problems in Warren Township
and Macomb County.
Mr. Arnold. Does Macomb County have a health department?
Colonel Furlong. No; it does not. That is one of the things that
is very badly needed there.
Mr. OsMERS. Does the State law^ of Michigan provide for the
creation of coimty health departments?
COUNTY HEALTH DEPARTMENTS IN MICHIGAN
Colonel Furlong. Yes. Only 65 out of the 83 counties in Michigan
have county health departme^its. They are receiving funds both
from the State Department of Health and from the Federal Govern-
ment in support of those departments.
Mr. Arnold. Are there quite a few trailer camps up there?
Colonel Furlong. Yes, sir. Some are regulated and some not.
I am inclined to feel that it isn't as bad as it might have been painted,
however.
Mr. Arnold. You think some steps have been taken to supervise
camps under the new statute that w^as enacted?
Colonel Furlong. Yes, sir.
Mr. Arnold. Does the F. H. A. guarantee a mortgage in Warren
Township?
Colonel Furlong. I w^ould like to have that question referred, if
possible, to Mr. Foley, wdio is the FederalHousing Administrator here.
He is here, if you would like to ask him that question.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7231
TESTIMONY OF RAYMOND FOLEY, MICHIGAN STATE DIRECTOR,
FEDERAL HOUSING ADMINISTRATION, LANSING, MICH.
Mr. Arnold (to Air. Foley). Will you answer that? Does the
F. H. A. guarantee a mortgage in Warren Township?
Mr. Foley. Yes, sir; certain parts of Warren Township. Warren
Township includes some established communities as well as township
areas. In some parts we can insure a mortgage and in other parts
we can't.
Mr. Arnold. Will you give us your full name?
Mr. Foley. Raymond Foley.
Mr. Arnold. And your official capacity?
Mr. Foley. State director of Federal Housing Administration.
The Chairman. Thank you, sir.
TESTIMONY OF LT. COL. HAROLD A. FURLONG— Resumed
Mr. Arnold (to Colonel Furlong). The report of your council
stated that the number of people migrating from the Upper Peninsula
to the defense areas is reaching serious proportions. t\Tiat are the
causes for this?
DECREASE IN COPPER PRODUCTION
Colonel Furlong. There are four counties in the Upper Peninsula
whose economy, you might say, has been developed around the copper-
mining industry. Those mines have become high-cost production
mmes. With the price of copper placed at 12 cents, only six of those
mines are operating at the present time.
Mr. Arnold. Six out of how many?
Colonel Furlong. Six out of about nineteen. The selling price,
with the increased cost of labor in that area, has further reduced and
will probably further reduce the copper production m Michigan
unless some differential is established for Michigan copper.
They cannot compete with the low-cost-production mines in other
parts of the country. It costs them about 10 cents a pound to get
some of their copper to the surface up there, and when copper is
below 10)^ cents a pound they cannot operate.
Mr. Arnold. You speak in your statement of planned efforts to
minimize dispensable migration. Applymg this to the Michigan
situation, could nothmg be done to deal with that migration except to
allow a differential?
Colonel Furlong. On Michigan copper; yes.
Mr. Arnold. Quoting your statement:
A W. P. A. re])ort notes that in a sample check of migration for a given period,
more than half of the migrants reported were unaccompanied by dependents.
Would you say that this was of sufficient weight of itself to assume
that housing and school facilities demanded would be proportionately
less?
60396— 41— pt. 18 12
7232 DETROIT HEARINGS
Colonel Furlong. I think it should have some bearing on the de-
mands in the estimates of housing.
Air. Arnold. In connection with your assumption in your state-
ment that full utilization of local labor supplies, including hiring of
Negro workers, would lessen the need of outside workers, has the
Michigan Defense Council conferred with employer groups, with a
view to determining the extent of discrimination and the means to
mieet the situation?
Colonel Furlong. We have had no such conferences.
WORK AREAS FOR MACOMB COUNTY RESIDENTS
Mr. Curtis. Coming back to this Macomb County situation, where
do all those people work who have moved in there?
Colonel Furlong. Some of them in Detroit, some in Dearborn,
and some in Pontiac.
Mr. Curtis. Have any new defense plants been located in the
county?
Colonel Furlong. Oh, yes.
Mr. Curtis. Wliat are they?
Colonel Furlong. The largest is the new Chrysler tank arsenal, the
Hudson naval arsenal, and the Dodge truck plant. There is a large
steel plant along the Eight Mile Road, and a number of other plants.
They are listed on the map there.
Mr. Curtis. What is the total volume of the contracts, in dollars,
that have been awarded to that county in the present defense program?
Colonel Furlong. I would have to look that up.
Mr. Curtis. Have any training camps. Army cantonments, or any-
thing of that sort been established there?
Colonel Furlong. Selfridge Field is in that same county. That is
east of Mount McClemens, which is in Macomb County.
Air. Curtis. And that is the only one?
Colonel Furlong. That is the only one in the county.
tax-exempt PLANTS
Air. Curtis. Then of the new activities that have been brought
there, that would be the only one exempt from local taxation?
Colonel Furlong. No; the Chrysler tank arsenal and the Hudson
naval arsenal are both Government-owned and operated, one with the
services of the Chrysler Corporation and the other the Hudson
Motor Car Co. They are just as much a Federal arsenal as is Rock
Island Arsenal.
Air. Curtis. They are owned by the Federal Government?
Colonel Furlong. Yes, sir.
Air. Curtis. And not on the tax rolls?
Colonel Furlong. Not on the tax rolls. And they are of them-
selves creating a further difficulty in that area because of the increased
demand for facilities such as the disposal of sewage.
Air. Curtis. Then would you say the greater portion of those new
plants and establishments that have been placed there are tax-exempt
plants so far as their physical properties and equipment is concerned?
Colonel Furlong. Yes, sir; and that is a very serious problem, not
onlv there, but in similar arsenals that have been established through-
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7233
out the country. For instance, such an arsenal is located at Warren,
Ohio.
There should be, in my opinion, some serious consideration given
to the possibility of a service charge for the use of necessary facilities,
inasmuch as there is no return to the county for that service.
Mr. Curtis. The community gets the benefit of the pay roll.
Colonel Furlong. Yes; but that may not be sufficient to meet the
demands upon the community to furnish these facilities.
The Chairman. Thank you very much. Your paper and discussion
have been a very valuable contribution to our record and we appreciate
your coming here.
Colonel Furlong. I think I will have the opportunity tomorrow
afternoon of showing you some of this territory.
The Chairman. And we will take advantage of that opportunity,
Colonel.
Colonel Furlong. I think you will find it very interesting. I would
like to leave with the committee some outline maps which you may
find helpful,^ and should there be anything else that you desire in the
way of accommodations here, we will be very glad to be of assistance
to you.
The Chairman. We thank you very much. Colonel. Our next
witness is Major Gardner.
TESTIMONY OF MAJ. ROSS L. GARDNER, AUTOMOTIVE LIAISON
SECTION, CENTRAL PROCUREMENT DISTRICT, UNITED STATES
ARMY AIR CORPS
The Chairman. Major, we appreciate your coming here this
afternoon to help this committee in its hearing.
Major Gardner. And I am very glad to be here, sir.
The Chairman. Congressman Osmers will ask you the questions.
Mr. Osmers. Major Gardner, we are very much interested in the
way aircraft production is going to affect the economy of Alichigan,
particularly in the automobile industry, and in the transition from
automobile production to aircraft production. The statement you
have submitted will be incorporated into the record.
(The statement referred to above is as follows:)
STATEMENT BY MAJ. ROSS L. GARDNER, AUTOMOTIVE LIAISON
SECTION, CENTRAL PROCUREMENT DISTRICT, UNITED STATES
ARMY AIR CORPS
The Automotive Liaison Section is a coordinating, rather than an administrative
section, and deals with automotive concerns having aircraft engine or plane con-
tracts. Its functions consist principally of assisting contractors to avoid or over-
come delays in production on their particular contracts. It also studies the
schedules, training of personnel, and, in general, keeps its fingers on the pulse in
order to note anj^ changes which might cause delay.
Defense items covered by its activities are airplanes, engines, and their com-
ponent parts.
Due to changes taking place constantly in contracts, for the most part t)eing
revised upward, it would be practically impossible to estimate the peak labor
force required.
The same would apply to peak production date.
Since the transition from automotive or nondefense employment takes place
gradually, due to time required for training for such transition, and due to changes
1 See pp. 7219 and 7226. Other maps submitted by Colonel Furlong are held in committee files.
7234 DETROIT HEARINOS
as before stated in contracts, no estimate can be given as to what additional labor
force may be required for peak production.
Speaking from observations made in this area, there do not appear to be any
serious proi)lems either with regard to training, availability of labor supply or
transferability of present automobile personnel to defense work.
As stated previously, it would be extremely difficult to estimate by stated
periods or monthly estimates the rate at which present defense contracts may be
expected to absorb labor force being laid off because of a curtailment in automobile
production.
TESTIMONY OF MAJ. ROSS L. GARDNER— Resumed
Mr. OsMERS. I wonder if you would be good enough to give some
general views on the problems of transition from motorcar to airplane
manufacture?
TRANSITION FROM MOTORCAR TO AIRPLANE MANUFACTURE
Major Gardner. Aircraft work is a rather slow process at this tune'
due to the fact that the automotive plants are, of necessity, having
to retool their whole plant facilities to a different kind of business.
At the present time there is a rather great shortage of tool and
die makers and fixture makers. It is taking longer to accomplish
that retooling than it would under normal circumstances.
Mr. OsMERS. Would you explain, Major, your duties with relation
to that job?
Major Gardner. They cover practically everything involved in
the production of aircraft.
Mr. Osmers. You are located in Michigan, are you?
Major Gardner. The headquarters of the central procurement
district are located in Detroit. They have recently been moved up
from Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio, because this is the center of the
automotive industry, and since so many large contracts have been
given to the automotive industry, it was felt that it was much more
advantageous to have the headquarters of the central procurement
district located where those plants were centered.
Mr. Osmers. I wonder if you would tell us something of your
experience. I understand from members of the committee staff that
you have had a wide experience in aircraft production.
Major Gardner. That has been my sole business for 31 years.
Mr. Osmers. I wonder if you would be good enough to tell the
committee a little about the normal peacetime operations of the
aircraft industry and the normal peacetime operations of the auto-
mobile industry, and then we might see how they are going to fit
together.
Major Gardner. Up to the time of this emergency, the normal
facilities of the aircraft industry were sufficient to supply the needs
of both the Government and the commercial operators. There was
no need for the use of mass-production methods.
mass-production methods required
When the emergency arose, it was found that instead of buUding
in terms of a few hundred planes, it was a matter of building in terms
of many thousands of planes, in a veiy short space of time. This,
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7235
of course, would require different methods of production from those
normally used in the aircraft industry.
Up to the time of the emergency all planes had been custom-buOt.
They had not been built under the method that is a very integral
part of the automotive industry. It takes longer to lay out a plane
on the board before it goes into production. Many things take
place before it actually does go into production. Many tests are
made, which are not necessary in automotive construction.
They lay down a design for an automobile and build the tools and
stamp it out by the hundreds, and that is their method. That isn't
true of the aircraft mdustry, so that it has taken quite a little time to
bring about the changes needed for mass production of aircraft, using
the initiative and the production methods that are employed in the
automotive industry.
Mr. OsMERS. Do you feel that the transition can be made from
building automobiles to building airplanes?
Major Gardner. Oh, yes.
Mr. OsMERs. Do you feel that we can apply automotive-manufac-
turing methods to the aircraft industry?
Major Gardner. To a certain extent.
Mr. OsMERS. To a larger extent than has obtained in the past?
Major Gardner. Yes, sir.
Mr. Osmers. Is it true, as has been contended, that automobile
tools are almost wholly unadaptable to the manufacture of airplanes?
Major Gardner. That is not true.
Mr. Osmers. It is fair to assume that heavy contracts for aircraft
have already been placed with the automobile makers and more are
on the way, or you would not be in Detroit.
Major Gardner. That is right.
Mr. Osmers. I wonder if you could give the committee some idea
of the size and extent of these aircraft contracts that have been placed
with the auto makers.
Major Gardner. We don't have anything to do with the letting of
contracts. We are only concerned with them after they have been let.
Mr. Osmers. I mean those that have been let.
Major Gardner. As to that I could not say. I could not give you
a figure on that.
problems of transition to mass-production-made planes
Mr. Osmers. What are some of the latest developments in making
this transition from the custom-made airplane into mass-production-
made airplanes?
Major Gardner. The integral parts of a plane have previously all
been formed by hand. Now, it is a matter of teaching them how to
form them by hand equipment. Instead of making a few hundred
parts, we are going to make many thousand parts of the same kind, so
machines have to be devised to make those parts, to turn them out in
large quantities.
Mr. Osmers. We have a statement that was submitted by Mr.
Robert W. Conder, of the Chrysler- Corporation. He says:
We expect to recruit substantially all employees necessary for our defense
program from among our own employees of the automobile plants.^
» See 7322.
7236 DETROIT HEARINGS
Is that presuming that they have the requisite skills in the Chrysler
Corporation, for example, to make airplanes?
Major Gardner. No; it is necessary to train any automotive per-
sonnel for a specific job. The problem has been to teach men in air-
craft production in large numbers one specific job, the same as they
do in the production of automobiles.
The automotive men have not been in the habit of using riveting
in their production, while that is a large part of the program in aircraft.
RIVETING AS A NEW SKILL
Mr. OsMERs. Riveting is entirely new in the automotive field?
Major Gardner. Not only that, but it is a very exacting process
because in using flush riveting, as it is known, you have to be very,
very careful in getting a very smooth surface. Any indentation m the
metal, or any obstruction caused by a mishandled rivet sets up a
turbulence in the air and causes a cracking of the "skin."
Mr. OsMERS. Have you any estimate of the percentage of the auto
workers who may be transferable, either directly or after trainmg, to
the production of aircraft?
EIGHTY PERCENT OF AUTOMOTIVE PERSONNEL WOULD BE TRANSFERRED
TO DEFENSE PROGRAM
Major Gardner. To my knowledge, here hi my own contact with
the training program, I would say roughly 80 percent of the auto-
motive personnel could be diverted, not necessarily to aircraft, but to
the defense program.
Mr. OsMERS. Wliat are some of the special problems involved m
the training program for the Detroit worker before he enters into
aircraft production?
training PROBLEMS
Major Gardner. There are quite a number of problems here, due
to the fact that there are several methods of training. There is what
is known as T. W. I. training — training-within-industry — national
vocational training for defense program, and the contractor's own
school, set up by the contractor himself, in which he undertakes to
train his own personnel.
The breaking down of the number of hours required has been quite
a problem. In fact, it isn't satisfactorily answered yet. Some of the
operations require as much as 480 hours of training. Even though
the worker may have been employed in the automotive industry for
the last 10 or 15 years, he has to learn how to do a specific job hi a
certain way. He can't do it the way he normally w^ould do it from
his own knowledge of mass-production methods hi the automotive
industry.
HOURS OF training REQUIRED
Mr. OsMERS. I suppose jobs requiring 480 hours of training are few
and far between, are they not?
Major Gardner. Approximately 12 percent of those required for
aircraft manufactui'e. Then that varies. It runs down to as low as
65 hours for other jobs.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7237
Mr. OsMERS. What are your own duties here, Major? Do you go
to the plants and get right into the problems?
Major Gardner. Yes, sir.
Mr. OsMERs. Is that your function?
Major Gardner. I take up every problem that has to do with the
expediting of the production of aircraft.
Mr. OsMERS. You are not an administrative agent?
Major Gardner. No; just a coordinator.
MODEL CHANGES RETARDING PRODUCTION
Mr. OsMERS. Are you running into difficulty due to the fact that
the mass-production manufacturer wants you to freeze your models
while your designers and officials at Washington are constantly chang-
ing and improving?
Major Gardner. Yes.
Air. Osmers. I suppose you just have to make the best of it.
Major Gardner. The findings as a result of activities on the war
front at the present time are causing these changes to be made. New
determinations are made as a result of their activities over there.
Mr. Osmers. Is it impairing production?
Major Gardner. It is retarding it.
Mr. Osmers. Seriously?
Major Gardner. Yes, seriously. There are, however, two or tlu'ee
types of planes that have been frozen as to their present status, and
production is going ahead on them.
The Chairman. Major, one of the witnesses this morning expressed
a fear that this spreading of defense-contract plants outside of the
Detroit area might cause those outside plants to go into the production
of automobiles after this emergency period is over. Are you afraid
of that?
Major Gardner. Would be liable to do what?
The Chairman. In other words, with the spreading of defense
contracts throughout the country — industries tooling up for that
kind of production — might they be in position to manufacture auto-
mobiles, after the emergency, where none has been manufactured
before?
Major Gardner. I don't think that is true.
The Chairman. Our only suggestion was that if they press them
too hard throughout the country, the Detroit area can take to the
manufacture of airj^lanes.
Major Gardner. That woidd depend on the demand for airplanes.
The Chairman. You have studied this problem for 31 years, Major?
Major Gardner. Yes.
EXPECTED expansion OF AIRPLANE USE AFTER EMERGENCY
The Chairman. And do you look forward to a great expansion of
airplane production after this emergency is over?
Major Gardner. For civil use, yes.
The Chairman. Even to the carrying of freight?
Major Gardner. Yes; that is contemplated right now. As a
matter of fact there are three undertakings along that line that will
be under way very shortly.
7238 DETROIT HEARINGS
The Army has a very serious problem in air transportation of cargo.
The Chairman. Now, Major, with all due respect to the Army
and Navy, there is one point that was brought up by a witness this
morning, which I should like to place before you. It has been charged
that the Army is storing, unnecessarily, surplus materials that are
needed by nondefense industries. Do you see any evidence of that
around here?
ARMY NOT UNNECESSARILY STORING MATERIAL
Major Gardner. No, sir; we have to allocate aluminiun in quan-
tities of 5 pounds. I don't think that is storing material. That is
not true.
The Chairman. As an officer in the Army, you have found no
physical evidence of it around here?
Major Gardner. None whatever.
Mr. Arnold. In Chicago last week, at a meeting of manufactm-ers
who were desirous of securing allocations of material for nondefense
work, some one made the suggestion that at the Rock Island Arsenal
a 5-year supply of some materials had been stored up, whereas they
could have got along very well with a year-to-year supply. Do you
know anything about that?
Major Gardner. I think that would have to be determined by the
Army staff. I think their judgment would have to be given consid-
eration there.
The Chairman. In other words, it is something about which you
have no knowledge?
Major Gardner. That is right.
Mr. Osmers. Major Gardner, to get back to ahcraft manufacture,
are some companies substituting other methods for riveting?
no changes in method for riveting
Major Gardner. Not without the permission of the Air Corps.
Nothing is permitted to be changed without the approval of the Air
Corps.
Mr. Osmers. Has approval been given for changes in construction?
Major Gardner. No.
Mr. Osmers. For an operation that would substitute for riveting?
Major Gardner. No, sir.
Mr. Osmers. That would be considered a very vital and basic
change, which would probably take several months to determine?
Major Gardner. Yes; due to the fact that at the present time there
are 783,000 rivets-
Mr. Osmers. It has been suggested that some of these plants ought
to try welding instead of riveting.
Major Gardner. It has been suggested that that bo approved.
However, at the present time it has not been approved.
Mr. Osmers. But it is under consideration and in process of
experimentation, is it?
Major Gardner. The material used for skin covering of the plane
is too thin to weld.
Mr. Curtis. Major, this aluminum that is being conserved, the
greater portion of that goes into airplane production, does it not?
Major Gardner. Yes, sir.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7239
Mr. Curtis. I don't laiow that this bears on the investigation,
but I want to know for my own personal information, is this used
aluminum that was gathered up in the various communities, in the
form of old pots and pans and coffee percolaters, melted down and
made into aluminum which is used in airplanes?
Major Gardner. No, sir.
Mr. Curtis. It cannot be used for that?
Major Gardner. No, sir,
Mr. Curtis. What is it good for?
Major Gardner. Good for other uses of aluminum not connected
with airplane skin-cover.
Mr. Curtis. To make more pots and pans?
Major Gardner. No, sir; it is used for forgings, for castings, and
things of that short.
Air. Curtis. In what industries?
Major Gardner. In various industries; in aircraft engines.
Mr. Curtis. But it is not being used for aircraft engines?
Major Gardner. I could not say that. We have nothing to do
with scrap material except the disposal of it back to the aluminum
company. Wlxat becomes of it there, we have no knowledge.
Mr. Curtis. But the fact that it is turned back into the whole
industrial set-up makes that much more virgin aluminum available
for aircraft construction?
Major Gardner. That is right. The same holds true of materials
that are used in the training schools where they are teaching riveting
and metal forming and the various operations in connection with
aircraft production. They buy what is known as seconds of alumi-
num sheets — those that have been scratched and can't be used in
aircraft for skins. They return that and are paid so much a pound
for it as scrap material or second material, and they return it and
receive so much per pound for it as scrap material.
The Chairman. Major, we thank you very much. You have
made a fair and intelligent statement, and we thank you for coming
here.
Major Gardner. Thank you, sir.
The Chairman. Our next witness is Mr. Edwards.
TESTIMONY OF GEORGE EDWARDS, DIRECTOR-SECRETARY, DE-
TROIT HOUSING COMMISSION, DETROIT, MICH.
The Chairman. Mr. Edwards, Congressman Curtis will question
you.
Mr. Curtis. Mr. Edwards, will you give your name to the reporter?
Mr. Edwards. George Edwards.
Mr. Curtis. What is your official position?
Mr. Edwards. I am director-secretary of the Detroit Housing
Commission.
Mr. Curtis. You have a prepared statement, do you not?
Mr. Edwards. Yes, sir; I have submitted a prepared statement^to
the committee.
Mr. Curtis. That will be received in the record.
7240 DETROIT HEARINGS
(The statement referred to above is as follows:)
STATEMENT BY GEORGE EDWARDS, DIRECTOR-SECRETARY,
DETROIT HOUSING COMMISSION
Defense workers migrating into Detroit find themselves face to face with a
housing sliortage — a shortage imrticularly acute in the lower rental bracket.
Satisfactory^ homes, at low rentals, are ahnost nonexistent.
The luanber of available vacant dwellings for rent have been decreasing for
some time. As recently as 1938, when the real property inventory was conducted,
5.06 percent of the citv's dwelling units were found to be vacant. The percentage
of vacant units diminished to 3.5 percent in 1940, when the Federal census was
enumerated, and a further decrease to 2.2 percent was recorded in February 1941,
when a sample vacancy snrvev was conducted by the Work Projects Administra-
tion at the request of the Division of Defense Housing Coordination. This survey
revealed that, after eliminating all units not for rent, units in which major repairs
were needed, and those unfit for use, only 4,050 units (0.9 percent of the city's
total) remained available for rent and in good and fair condition. Recently the
homes registration office of the Detroit Housing Commission, in conducting a
survey, found less than 1 percent of the city's dwellings to be vacant. Thus, m
spite of consideraljle building activity, the available liousing seems to be appraoch-
ing the vanishing point. . . , r
It cannot be denied that this is a black picture to present to incommg defense
workers in search of satisfactory homes. How many such defense workers there
will be is difficult to estimate. According to a labor market bulletin issued by
the Michigan Unemployment Compensation Commission on July 22, 1941, it was
anticipated that the total employment in defense industries in the Detroit area
would be increased by approximately 68,000 workers in the period ivom July
1941 to January 1942. This figure does not take into account the number of non-
manufacturing jobs that would also be created. However, many of the large
defense plants in the Detroit area will not have been completed by January 1942.
Many others will not be in full production until some time after. The Ford
bomber plant, which will employ between 40,000 and 60,000 workers, the Chrysler
tank arsenal, Hudson naval arsenal, and the Packard aircraft plant, are a few of
the larger defense plants that fall in these classifications. The amount of migra-
tion resulting from this employment need, would, of course, in great measure
depend upon the amount of auto curtailment made effective. In any event, the
city of Detroit is very poorly equipped to house an incoming migration of defense
workers in any amount.
WORK PRO.TECTS ADMINISTRATION STUDY OF MIGRATION INTO DETROIT
A recent study made bv the Work Projects Administration during the early
part of June, 1941, entitled "Recent Migration into Detroit and Environs" bears
out the seriousness of the housing situation. Of the 16,300 families who had
migrated into the Detroit area since October 1, 1940, only aoout one-third occu-
pied a separate dwelling unit when enumerated. Well over half of the families
had doubled uj) with others, and one-tenth were living in hotels and trailers.
Not a very pretty picture in spite of the fact that it should be noted that many
families had moved to the Detroit area without all their normal family members.
It should be emphasized that reasonably satisfactory housing facilities must be
made available if migrant families are to bring in all of their normal family
IIlGllll)GrS
The Common Council of Detroit has refeognized considerable danger in the
housing situation and has recently taken steps to alleviate conditions. A rent-
investigation committee has been appointed, under the chau-manship of Council-
man John Smith, and including in its membership a number of Detroit's l^^ading
citizens representing various walks of life. This committee has divided itself
into three mediation panels, every one of which meets periodically and investi-
gates many rental disputes. The purpose of the committee is to arbitrate dis-
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7241
putes between landlord and tenant and to make an attempt to prevent an infla-
tionary run-away in rentals, which will inevitably happen if numbers of defense
families migrate into this city, unless vigilant control is exercised. IVIany of the
cases that have come to the attention of the committee indicated rent increases
of 40 percent and more. The greatest cause for anxiety, however, lies in the
I)raetice on the i)art of the landlord of evicting one tenant in order to rent to another
at a higher rate.
Relief families are especially vulnerable to this source of attack. They cannot
compete with workers in seeking and maintaining standard housing accommoda-
tions. G. R. Harris, general superintendent of the Detroit Department of
Public Welfare, in a recent letter to the Joint Committee on Housing, said:
"By reason of their unfortunate circumstances, families with no incomes must
take what is left after the employed have their choice."
"With Detroit's active part in the defense program, housing is becoming
more and more a community problem," he continued, "slowly but surely the
pressure of demand is causing the relief families to be evicted from any dwelling
which is not substandard. It has been necessary to provide emergency shelters
to house families for whom we cannot find accommodations in the community.
In the present emergency it would appear that we must increase the number of
these shelters. This, of course, is no solution, but it is a means of meeting a
daily emergency situation."
Conditions in suburban areas are no better. In most of these areas they are
actually worse. Lack of facilities for the proper enforcement of building and
health codes has resulted in a mushroom growth of shacks and jerry-built cottages
in the unrestricted areas about the city. The lack of sewers and water supply
have added to the burden, especially in Warren, Lake, and Erin Townships, in
Macomb and Oakland Qounties, where the lack of proper sewage disposal has
already resulted in pollution in Red Run Creek, the Clinton River, and Lake
St. Clair. Pollution is always the forerunner of epidemics, and once serious
epidemics break out the citizens of Detroit will not be immune just because they
live across the line to the south in Wayne County.
L.\CK OF HOUSING IX DETROIT
The lack of adequate housing in the city of Detroit has been a public concern
for some time. For many years little factual material was available. During the
year 1939, however, the time arrived when it became possible to express housing
conditions in statistical terms, since at this time the results of the real-property
survey of the city of Detroit became available in complete form. This survey,
conducted withiii the limits of the city of Detroit during the period from March
1938, through September 1939, was sponsored by the Detroit Housing Commission
and conducted under the Work Projects Administration. A striking condition
disclosed by the survey is that a considerable number of people in the City of
Detroit were living in dwellings and under conditions that are considered unsafe
and insanitary. For instance, 70,781 dwelling units were found to be sub-
standard 1 out of a total of 414,658 units. Only 3,537 of the substandard units
were found to be vacant.
The real-property surve.v conducted sample surveys to determine the income of
tenant families living in substandard housing. It was found that over 76 percent
of the 52,125 tenant family groups living in substandard housing were earning
less than $1,400 per year.
The survey brought to light the dearth of available satisfactory vacant units at
rentals compatible with the income of these people. Although 5.06 percent of
the city's dwelling units were found to be vacant, only 4,443 were available at
rentals of less than $30 per month; and 58 percent of the latter were found to be
unfit to live in. Thus, the number of available vacant units, fit to live in, renting
for less than $30 per month, amounted to less than 5 percent of the number of
1 A dwelling unit was considered substandard if any one or all of the following conditions existed in connec-
tion therewith: In need of major repairs; unfit for use; less than 1 flush toilet; less than 1 bathing unit; no
running water; no installed heating; neither electric norgas lighting; number of persons per loom 1.51 ormore:
any number of extra families, one of which contains 2 or more persons (exceptions are made to the last two
conditions when the monthly rent is more than $40).
7242
DETROIT HEARINGS
tenant family occupants of substandard housing who were earning less than
$] ,400 annually. (See following table:)
Total numhtr of tenant family groups living in substandard dwelling units in ike
city of Detroit, by income and size of family
Total annual family
Size of family
Total
income
2
3
4
5
6
7
8 or more
families
Under $400 .
3,706
1,599
3,744
1,946
2,132
1,670
1,237
602
669
852
49
1,856
957
2,430
1,356
1,770
1,302
1,005
492
558
754
13
1,027
644
1,440
1,084
1, 222
881
844
283
379
679
7
532
262
1,088
649
678
462
451
243
201
428
442
188
481
388
358
335
298
133
168
237
260
89
355
199
249
187
160
70
71
208
382
167
483
404
310
292
246
179
169
427
7
8,205
3,906
10,021
6,026
6,719
5,129
4.241
2,002
2,215
3,585
76
$400 to $599,..
$600 to $799
$800 to $999
$1,000 to $1,199
$1,200 to $1,399
$1,400 to $1,599
$1,600 to $1,799
$1,800 to $1,999
$2,000 or more
Not reported
Total. - .-
18, 206
12, 493
8,490
4,994
3,028
1,848
3,066
52, 125
Source: Real-property inventory, Detroit, 1938-39.
The urgent need for more adequate housing, demonstrated by these statistics,
poses one pertinent question: To what extent has private enterprise applied itself
to this problem? To ascertain an answer we can review the records for the
10-year period 1930-1939, inclusive. If we do so we discover that the net gain
in the number of dwelling units erected was actually less than the increase in the
number of families for the period.
Comparison of net gain in divelling units with increase in fatriilies, 1930 to 1989,
inclusive
Number of new dwelling units constructed ' 34, 889
Number of dwelling units demolished 5, 774
Net gain in dwelling units 29, 115
Estimated increase in number of families (United States Census) 55, 243
Excess of increase in number of families over net gain in number of dwell-
ing units 26, 128
• Included 1,624 public low-cost housing units.
(While the population of the citj' increased by only 3.5 percent in 10-year
period the number of families increased b.v 12.9 percent.)
RESIDENTIAL CONSTRUCTION FOR RENTAL PURPOSES
Of especial concern for the community was the attitude of private capital toward
providing rental housing for the community. An accompanying chart (see facing
page) illustrates the amount of residential construction during the decade and
demonstrates that only an infinitesimal amount was for dwelling rental purposes.
The bulk of the construction was in single homes, which are not built for rental
purposes. Construction of two-family dwellings, usually occupied one-half by
owners, was nominal; while construction of apartments, which are l)uilt solely for
rental purposes, was almost at a standstill. Moreover, the chart shows that most
of .the apartments that were erected were the public low-cost low-rent projects.
Out of 33,265 dwellings erected by private capital in the lO-j^ear period, 1930-39
inclusive, within the city limits of Detroit, only 3,995 units or 12.1 percent were
erected for rental purposes. Out of the 10,505 units erected in 1940 only 8 per-
cent were in apartments or two-flats. The balance were single houses erected for
owners. The first 8 months of 1941 do not materiallj^ change this picture. In
this period 8,226 new units were provided, 95.8 percent or 7,882 of which were
single houses.
The following table (p. 7244) shows the number of single family residences that
have been erected in Detroit (total for which building permits were issued) classified
in accordance with construction costs, for the years 1939, 1940, and 1941. It is
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7243
evident from the table that some effort is being made to lower the construction
costs of single houses. In 1939, for instance, the average cost per unit was
$5,780 as compared to $5,530 for the first 8 months in 1941. (These cost estimates
are building department figures increased by 15 percent to arrive at a better
market figure.) Using the generally accepted rule that a family can afford to
»3t 1933 1934- 193% 1936 1937 »938 1939
live in a dwelling of value twice as great as family income, it will be seen that only
4.5 percent of the houses erected in the first half of 1941 were within the reach of
families with less than $1,725 annual income; 27.9 percent were within the reach
of families with incomes between $1,725 and $2,300; and 67.6 percent of all homes
erected were built for families with incomes in excess of $2,300. It is quite evident,
then, that current construction is not in any great degree intended for the low-
income market.
7244 DETROIT HEARINGS
Total number of single residences erected in city of Detroit
Costi
1939
Number Percent
Number Percent
1941 (6 months)
Number Percent
Less than $2,300
$2,301 to $3,450-.
$3,451 to $4,600- _
$4,601 to $5,750. _
$5,751 to $6,900..
$6,901 to $8,050..
$8,051 to $11,500.
Over $11,500
Total
66
520
1,149
3,046
2,786
396
260
72
.8
6.3
13.9
36.7
33.6
4.8
3.1
.9
102
1,104
1,943
3,384
2,313
335
210
33
1.1
11.7
20.6
35.9
24.6
3.6
2.2
.4
5
254
1,607
1,458
1,598
631
185
26
0.1
4.4
27.9
25.3
27.7
10.9
3.2
.5
8,295
100
9,424
100
5,764
100
' Building department permit cost estimates increased by 15 percent to arrive at better market value.
Source: Department of Buildings and Safety Engineering.
It is also quite obvious that the majority of defense workers who will be attracted
to the Detroit area will not be in the market for the purchase of a new dwelling.
By the very nature of the defense emergency, the future is uncertain for them.
To believe that any great number will be willing to assume the burdens of home
ownership is highly problematical.
That private enterprise has made little progress in rehousing the occupants of
substandard housing is unfortunate, yet not surpiising when an analysis of the
factors involved is considered. It is a gieat social burden that the very people
who are most in need of decent housing have little opportunity to obtain it, for
the simple reason that they cannot afford it. This situation is graphically pre-
sented by the accompanying diagram where it is shown that the number of vacant
units available at rentals that tenant families forced to live in substandaid housing
can afford to pay is inversely proportional to the number of such families.
PROGRAM OP PUBLIC HOUSING IN DETROIT
To provide decent shelter for families of low income, the Detroit Housing Com-
mission is developing a program of public housing within the city limits of Detroit,
which will provide for 7,317 families when completed. Since this total program
represents barely 10 percent of the dilapidated and insanitary housing in Detroit,
only a small beginning will have been made when it is completed. However, with
the exception of this program, practically no rental housing is being provided in
the Detroit area for workers of low income.
After the completion of Detroit's program many tenant families (44,700) will
remain living in substandard dwellings. It is recognized that many of these
families are ineligible for public housing because, theoretically, their incomes
are presumed to be sufficient to enable them to provide decent shelter for them-
selves, and, therefore, in excess of the maximum limitations for approval for public
housing projects. On the other hand, many of the owner-occupied substandard
dwellings, of which there are 16,000 in Detroit, are inhabited by owner families
who remain in dilajMdated dwellings only because they cannot afford to provide
better housing for themselves. Moreover, there are many low-income families
living in satisfactory dwellings who are forced to pay more rent than they can
afford for the privilege of remaining in these dwellings and escaping the slums.
It is our opinion that these last two groups are the potential recipients of the econ-
omic benefits of a comprehensive, low rent public housing program, and that their
combined numbers more than offset the number of tenant families living in sub-
standard dwellings whose incomes are above the maximum limits.
Since the early part of 1938, the Detroit Housing Commission, under the powers
given it by Federal and local governments, has signed contracts with the United
States Housing Authority to build a total of seven projects. One of these projects
is completed and occupied by tenants; two are partially completed and occupied;
one is under construction; and the rest are in the process of land acquisition and
planning. In addition, the Brewster and Parkside projects, erected by the Pub-
lic Works Administration were completed in September 1938, and have been
occupied since that time.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7245
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7246
DETROIT HEARINGS
A tabulation of the status of the Detroit program as of August 28, 1941, is as
follows:
Complete low-rent public horising prograyn in Detroit
Project
Kind
Number
of dwell-
ing units
Type
Status
Brewster .
Public Works Administration .
do .. .-
701
775
240
355
2,150
440
210
1,704
742
Slum....
Vacant..
Slum-..
Vacant-.
...do....
...do.-..
...do....
Slum....
..-do--..
Project completed Septem-
ber 1938.
Do.
Parkside
Brewster addition
Parkside addition
U. S. Housing Authority
do
Project completed Aug. 1,
1941.
172 units completed in Janu-
ary 1941. Balance of 183 to
be completed about Sept.
15, 1941.
Herman Gardens
do
Charles
.... do.-.
completed about Septem-
ber 1942.
192 units completed July 24,
1941. Balance of 248 to be
completed about Oct. 1,
1941.
Site acquired. Planning
stage.
-\cfiuiring site, preliminary
architectural stage.
Do.
Brightmoor
do
Jeffries ..
... do
Douglass
do
7,317
No discussion of housing conditions in Detroit would be complete without a
review of the problems facing the Negro population. In the last 20 years the
Negro populaoion of the city has more than tripled.
United States census
Negro popula-
tion of city of
Detroit
Percent of
total
population
1900
4,111
5, 741
40,838
122, 066
1 142, 802
1.4
1910
1.2
1920 - -
4 0
1930
7.7
1940
8.8
1 Estimated.
Ever since 1910 the rate of growth in Negro population has been greater than
the rate of growth of white population. During the decade 1910-20, the World
War period, the percentage increase was greater than that for any northern city.
According to the latest United States census figures for 1940, Negroes comprise
8.8 percent of the city's population.
A constantly increasing Negro population has resulted in forcing these people
to live in badly dilapidated housing. The denial of opportunities for natural
expansion in unsubdivided areas, racial prejudices preventing an expansion into
areas of satisfactory housing, and general economic conditions, all work against
the Negro who wislies to better his living conditions. The inevitable result is
that Negro families are forced to remain living in dilapidated areas so unsafe and
insanitary that they have for some time Vjeen intolerable for human habitation.
When, in some few instances, Negro tenants permeate the fringes of white neigh-
borhoods, the monthly rentals of the dwellings vacated by whites are immediately
increased. This is the sort of situation that faces the Negro defense worker when
he migrates into Detroit.
The real property inventory of 1938 revealed some startling factors about tlie
living conditions in which Negroes find themselves compelled to live. Of the
dwellings occupied by Negroes, more v.-ere found to be unsafe, insanitary, or over-
crowded than in a satisfactory condition; 50.2 percent of all dwellings occupied
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7247
by Negroes were found to be substandard; only 14 percent of the dwellings occu-
pied by whites were found to be substandard. Quite a contrast.
Occupied by white
families
Occupied by Xegro
families
Number
Percent
Number
Percent
311,485
52, 134
86
14
14, 770
14, 897
49.8
50.2
Total - -- - -
363, 619
100
29, 667
100.0
The Detroit Housing Commission is particularly aware of the desperate need for
better housing among Negro families. Up to May 1, 1941, approximately 9,200
applications and registrations for apartments in housing projects had been re-
ceived from Negro families. It is estimated that about 6,300 of these are eligible
for admission. However, only 1,785 of these families will have been housed in
projects now completed, under construction and planned for the near future.
Thus an estimated balance of about 4,515 eligible families remain for whom there
is no future or present provision in our program. A recapitulation follows:
Application status for Negro projects, Detroit Housing Commission
Approximate number of applications and registrations filed up to
May 1, 1941 9,200
Total number of eligible families 6, 300
Selected for original Brewster .- 701
Families housed in Brewster addition 240
Turnover in Brewster project 102
Families to be housed in Douglass _ 742
Total families to be housed 1, 785
Estimated balance of eligible families which need housing 4, 515
In addition to the Detroit Housing Commission's program, the United States
Housing Authority will very soon begin construction of a 200-unit defense-housing
project for Negro defense workers. This is the only defense-housing project that
has been allotted to the city of Detroit by the Defense Housing Coordinator's
office at this writing.
A 500-unit project for white families was proposed some time ago to be erected
within the city limits. However, shortly after its announcement, Federal officials
decided to erect this project in the city of Centerline in Macomb County rather
than in Detroit. A construction contract for this project has recently been
awarded. The onlv other defense project planned for the Detroit area at this
time is a 300-unit project to be erected in Wayne, Mich. Thus the entire Detroit
defense area, faced with the prospect of housing thousands of defense migrant
workers, is allotted a mere pittance in defense-housing rental units — 1,000 dwelling
units. 4
In conclusion, it is well to point out that, if automobile production curtailment
is enforced so drastically that the influx of defense workers to Detroit will be
negligible, the present acute housing shortage may not be accentuated. However,
to summarize, there are certain factors prevalent today that cannot be denied.
They are:
1.' An existing acute shortage of available vacant dwellings, especially in the
lower rental brackets, in spite of considerable residential building activity.
2. A large number of unsafe, insanitary and overcrowded dwellings occupied
mainly by low-income families.
The two factors enumerated above are applicable to both whites and Negroes,
but they are particularly ap]3lica):>le to Negro families.
What Detroit needs, if it is to meet an invasion of defense workers, is many new
homes — mainly homes built for rental purposes. Unless we solve this problem,
Detroit's inability to house its defense workers may seriously hamper the defense
■effort of the mass production capital of the Nation.
60396—41 — pt. IS-
-13
7248 DETROIT HEARINGS
Exhibit A. — Brief Description of Detroit Public Housing Projects
report by george edwards, director-secretary, detroit housing
commission
Brewster and Parkside projects.
These two projects were built by the former housing division of the Public
Works Administration and subsequently leased by the United States Housing
Authority to the Detroit Housing Commission for operation. Brewster
Homes was built on a slum site, which along with the surrounding neighborhood
areas to the north, east, and south, was considered the worst slum area in the
city. The relocation of 718 families was made necessary by the construction of
this project. Parkside Homes was a vacant land project, located near the eastern
limits of the city.
Tenants have been living in these two projects since September 1938, when they
were completed. A complete alteration of family living among the tenants of
these projects has taken place. Many of the homes from which they moved
were miserable, damp, unhealthful quarters in which disease, ill-health and
demoralization were bred, and where the conduct of decent American standards
of living was impossible. One can only guess at the transformation made possible
by admission to homes flooded with light and sunshine, abundant recreation
facilities, and the possibility of community living, until he has actually witnessed
the change hiimself.
Recreational facilities are abundant at both projects. At Brewster, the close
proximity of the recreation center provides a gymnasium, auditorium, swimming
pool, showers, and club rooms. Chandler Park, adjacent to Parkside provides
excellent recreational facilities.
A fine community spirit among the families has been in evidence. Each project
supports a project newspaper. There are hobby clubs, classes in various subjects
and many social activities. At Brewster many tenants are taking a keen interest
in working in the flower gardens and caring for the lawns. At Parkside, there is
an annual contest for best-kept flower gardens and best-kept lawns. The manage-
ment is especially proud of these results. Nothing so dramatically reflects the
contrast between Parkside and the slums as the beautiful lawns, creeping vines,
and colorful flower beds.
Extensions to both projects have recently been partially completed. These
extensions are United States Housing Administration-aided projects.
Charles, Herman Gardens, Brightmoor.
With the beginning of 1938 when the first United States Housing Authority
funds became available, the Detroit Housing Commission found itself face to
face with a perplexing problem. Should it begin its building program by rebuild-
ing large areas of the slums with low-rent projects, thereby making the housing
shortage more acute during the period of construction ; or should the commission
begin its program by erecting large projects on vacant land? One of the con-
tributing factors to the acute shortage was found to be overcrowding in the slums.
It was decided, therefore, to build the initial projects on vacant land, and after
the completion of these projects to begin the rebuilding of the slums. This
policy would permit a gradual transference of families from dilapidated dwellings
in the slums to the outlying new projects, which would tend to lessen the pressure
of the housing shortage.
The three projects, Charles, Herman Gardens, and Brightmoor, along with the
extension to Parkside, are projects that are under construction on vacant land sites.
The Charles project will shortly be ready for occupancy. Construction on
Herman Gardens was unfortunately interrupted a few months ago when the
corporation counsel ruled that the general contract was void due to irregularities
on the part of members of the common council in the awarding of the contract.
Construction was halted at a time when footings and foundation walls were
well in place. It is hoped that within a few weeks' time a new general contract
will be awarded enabling construction work on the 2,150-unit project to be renewed.
The Brightmoor project is the smaflest of the lot and is in preliminary stages of
development.
In the projects erected on vacant land, due to the lower cost of the property,
it has been possible to plan for more open space, recreational and play area than
in other projects. This is especially true in the Herman Gardens project where
there is generous play space, tennis courts, ball field, spray pools, and open park.
This project, when completed, will be the largest in area of any in the United
States, although not in number of families. The residential buildings will be row
houses and row flats. The structures will all be two stories in height with the
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 724^^
exception of a few Avhich have three-story ends for architectural variety and
interest. Approximately 75 percent of the buildings will have pitched roofs, the
balance flat roofs. Utility rooms with individual laundry and storage facilities
have been included in all units.
The Charles project, although not nearly so large as the Herman Gardens
project, nevertheless offered unusual opportunities in planning. A large open
park and recreational space is located in the center of the site. The entire project
has been so designed that it is possible to walk to this recreational area from
any building on the site without the necessity of crossing an automobile lane — not
even a service drive. Thus, the best features of the garden city or "Radburn"
type of plan are attained without the disadvantages of using underpasses.
Jeffries and Douglass.
These two projects are large slum clearance developments. At the present time
condemnation proceedings are in process for the purpose of acquiring the sites.
The Jeffries project, to house 1,700 families, will clear a slum area containing an
incoherent street and alley pattern, with small, narrow congested streets. The
opportunity to eliminate this maze of congestion with the establishment of a
superblock system is very attractive. The result of the replanning will be to
establish 4 large superblocks where formerly 35 small blocks existed.
The site of the Douglass project, to house 706 units, lies adjacent to and
directly south of the present Brewster Homes and extension. As now planned it
will occupy 9 square blocks. In the planning of the project, it is proposed tO'
arrange the units in such a way that common entrance hallways and stairways are
entirely eliminated. This is accomplished by limiting the type of buildings to>
2-story flats and to a 3-story combination of flats and row houses.
Defense projects.
Recently the United States Housing Administration requested the Detroit
Housing Commission to act as its local agent in the development, construction
and operation of two defense housing projects to be erected within the Detroit city
limits. Sites for these projects, on vacant land near the city's outskirts, have
tentatively been chosen. The sites are well located in relation to the defense-
plants. One of the projects is to house 200 Negro families and the other from 300
to 500 white families. It is proposed to provide one- and two-story and two- and
four-family dwellings to be built of frame construction without basements and
with individual heating systems.
TESTIMONY OF GEORGE EDWARDS— Resumed
Mr. Curtis. Will you briefly describe the functions and program of
the Detroit Housing Commission?
FUNCTIONS AND PROGRAM OF DETROIT HOUSING COMMISSION
Mr. Edwards. Under the State act, the Detroit Housing Commis-
sion has jurisdiction over attempts to solve almost any of the housing
problems that may arise in this city. In addition, the commission i»
engaged in the low-rent public housing program as the local cooperat-
ing agent working with the United States Housing Authority.
Mr. Curtis. Does it allocate the funds?
ALLOCATION OF HOUSING FUNDS
Mr. Edwards. The United States Housing Authority has allocated'
$31,000,000 worth of funds to the Detroit Housing Commission.
Mr. Curtis. Then you in turn allocate it to various projects in
your Detroit area?
Mr. Edwards. Yes; and we build those projects through letting-
of private construction contracts. We are also agents for the United
States Housing Authority on the construction of one small defense-
housins: Droiect in this area.
7250 DETROIT HEARINGS
Mr. Curtis. In your paper you make the statement that houses for
rent are ahnost nonexistent. Will you discuss that situation?
DETROIT HOUSING VACANCY PERCENTAGES
Mr. Edwards. Since 1938 there has been a progressive decline in
vacancies in the city of Detroit. That is shown by the fact that in
1938 approximately 5.6 percent of the houses in the city of Detroit
were vacant. That was reduced at the time of the 1940 census to
slightly over 3 percent, and this year to 2.2 percent, according to a
W. P. A. survey last winter.
Quite recently the homes registration office of the Detroit Housing
Commission, which has been established at the suggestion of the
National Government, took a survey and found that of the total of
some 450,000 dwelling units in the city of Detroit, only 4,050 were
vacant. That is nine hundredths of 1 percent of vacancies for the
entire city of Detroit. It is my opinion there is a definite housing
shortage in the city of Detroit and a serious one at this time. In
housing and real estate circles I think it is accepted when 3^ou drop
below a 5 percent vacancy, you have a housing shortage, because
there always is a necessity for some dwelling units to be vacant in a
city as large as Detroit in order that there can be some mobility in
the housing population.
Mr. Curtis. The usual turn-over?
HOUSING SHORTAGES
Mr. Edwards. That is correct. As things stand in the city right
now, it is becoming increasingly difficult for families to find any
dwelling facilities whatsoever below the rental of, I would say, $45
to $50 a month.
Mr. Curtis. Do you have a doubling-up problem here?
Mr. Edwards. The only illustration that I can give you of that, in
statistical terms, is given by this count that the W. P. A. took
recently of some 16,000 migrant families who have come to Detroit.
I believe it was found that only one-third of the families that had
come to Detroit within a period of about the last year had managed
to find accommodations separate from other families. That is, two-
thirds of them were either living doubled up or in trailers or hotels.
Mr. Curtis. Aligrant families living in hotels?
IMr. Edwards. Yes; I believe 8 percent of the migrant families were
living in rooming houses or hotels.
Mr. Curtis. The common council here has had a rent investigation
committee, has it not?
Mr. Edwards. Yes.
Mr. Curtis. What work have they been able to do and with what
success?
RENT MEDIATION
Mr. Edwards. They have attempted to stem unjustified rent
increases and they have attempted to deal with the problem of
unfair rents and also with substandard housing.
I lK>liove that by thro\\Tng the spotlight of public opinion on some
of these conditions, thev have had some real influence in that regard.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7251
They have recently estabhshed a rent mediation committee, to
which landlords and tenants can come if they are agreeable to submit
their problem for voluntary mediation. Those committees have been
successful in some instances and they have been completely unsuc-
cessful in other instances because of the refusal of one party or the
other to cooperate.
I believe that that committee has brought out the fact that among
the lower group of rentals in the city of Detroit, rent increases are
quite common and quite substantial, and that there is danger of a
spiral of rent increases which would be dangerous to the whole indus-
trial picture here.
Mr. Curtis. Wliat do you mean, in your paper, by the phrase,
"emergency shelter"? You say, "There is a need for providing
emergency shelters."
EMERGENCY SHELTER
Mr. Edwards. The housing shortage has put much pressure on
the families at the bottom of the economic heap. Welfare families
are being evicted, and the Detroit Welfare Department has been
forced to use several additional emergency welfare shelters to take
evicted families — just dormitory-like structures. They keep them
there until they find some other place to house them.
I think at the present time they are having a great deal of difficulty
in finding any accommodations for a good many of their weKare
families. Today a family with children — ^and I thinly most American
families have children — who cannot pay more than $45 a month would
be pretty well stranded, so far as finding a place to live in the city of
Detroit is concerned.
The reason I know that is because we are operatmg the homes
registration office, and day by day we have families coming in and
saying, "Here, house us." And we are having real trouble in meeting
their requests.
HOUSING SURVEYS
Mr. Curtis. A real property survey has been made, has it not?
Mr. Edwards. Yes; in 1938.
Mr. Curtis. Who made that?
Mr. Edwards. The W. P. A.
Mr. Curtis. Is that the one you referred to in your discussion of
"doubling up," a moment ago?
Mr. Edwards. No; that is a different survey. This was made in
1938. It was sponsored by the Housing Commission and made by
the W. P. A. The other W. P. A. survey that I referred to was a
study of migrant workers, made just within the last few months.
Mr. Curtis. What were some of the significant facts this real-
property survey revealed?
substandard housing in the DETROIT AREA
Mr. Edwards. Among others, that 70,000 of the total number of
houses in the city of Detroit were ascertained to be substandard in
character at that time. Of these I think only 3,500 were found to be
vacant. In other words, there were, roughly, 67,000 families living in
substandard housing.
7252 DETROIT HEARINGS
In addition to that, the real-property survey showed that there were
52,000 tenant famihes hving in substandard housing. I beheve 76
percent of these 52,000 tenant famihes were earning incomes at that
time of less than $1,400 a year.
Mr. Curtis. Do you feel that the housing problem of Detroit is an
•especially new problem, because of the defense activities, or a chronic
situation that has been here for years but is being felt more because
of the defense impact?
Mr. Edwards. I think that Detroit has had a housing problem to
•start with. I think it has become progressively more acute during the
last years.
I think, in addition, that if, in the last analysis, there proves to be
•any in-migration of workers at all into the Detroit area, we will have
trouble housing them unless a defense housing program is started here
immediately on a considerable scale.
Mr. Curtis. Well, is private enterprise building any housing?
PRIVATE HOUSING CONSTRUCTION
Mr. Edwards. Private enterprise is building a good many houses.
Private enterprise built, I believe, 10,000 houses in 1940 and up to
<date in this year I think our figures show about 8,000.
Mr. Curtis. That is, 18,000 family units since Januaiy 1, 1940?
Mr. Edwards. Yes; that is correct.
Mr. Curtis. And how many have your public housing projects
l)uilt?
PUBLIC HOUSING CONSTRUCTION
Mr. Edwards. Our public housing programs include about 1,000
houses actually constructed within the last year, and 2,300 under
construction. That mcludes the 200-unit defense housing project
on which a contract has been let.
Mr. Curtis. Then you have between 3,000 and 4,000 built by
housing projects and about 18,000 built by private enterprise?
Mr. Edwards. Yes.
Mr. Curtis. Have any of these 18,000 units built by private enter-
prise been built for the purpose of renting?
Mr. Edwards. A very small percentage. I can give you those
figures.
Mr. Curtis. But it does affect the whole picture because some
people who are now tenants become owners in the new houses?
Mr. Edwards. Every house built relieves the shortage, but I would
like to point out to j^ou that these houses have been built on a con-
siderable scale for the last several years, and at the same time we still
have this vacancy picture which I mentioned to you earlier. That
vacancy count included new houses, vacant and available wherever
they were to be located in the city of Detroit.
Mr. Curtis. Are the defense workers in the market to purchase
a house?
Mr. Edwards. I would not think so. Migrants particularly
would not seem to be in the market for houses.
Mr. Curtis. Their presence is recognized as more or less a tem-
porary phenomenon, isn't it?
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7253
Mr. Edwards. It would seem to me that in-migration would
necessarily imply temporary employment.
Mr. Arnold. We had a migrant witness this morning who just
recently moved to Muskegon, and he is purchasing his o^vn house.
The Chairman. Yes; that is right.
Mr. Edwards. I don't doubt that for a minute. I think a good
many of them will be forced to purchase houses whether they should
or not, because they may not be able to get anything else.
EXPLOITATION OF NEGROES
Mr. Edwards. At the present time there are approximately zero
vacancies in the Negro neighborhoods. There is more doubling up,
and I think there is more exploitation in Negro neighborhoods than
any place else in the city of Detroit.
Mr. Curtis. Are your other areas in Detroit covered by what they
call covenants in the title of land, barring occupancy by Negroes?
Mr. Edwards. Yes; an overwhelming majority of the districts in
the city of Detroit are restricted by one method or another against
Negro occupancy.
Mr. Curtis. Are the Negroes paying higher rents for what they
get than the white people?
Mr. Edwards. Yes — without any equivocation.
Mr. Curtis. How much higher? Could you give an illustration?
Mr. Edwards. It is very hard to say. I know of apartment build-
ings purchased for the purpose of rental to Negro tenants. The white
families have been moved out, and Negro tenants moved in, and rents
were raised as much as $10 and $15 on an apartment.
Mr. Curtis. Is that justified on the basis that the percentage of
losses to the owner is greater?
INCREASED RENTS FOR NEGRO OCCUPANCY NOT JUSTIFIED
Mr. Edwards. I think you come there to a matter of opinion, be-
cause I cannot say that we have any accurate figures in relation to
private rental to Negro families, comparing m.anagement costs. I
can say we manage two projects of approximately the same size.
One is rented entirely to white people and one is rented entirely to
colored; and we have no difference in management expenses to speak
of, as far as those projects are concerned. We simply don't find that
a greater rent would be justified by management and expense.
Mr. Curtis. Wlien new houses are built, and people move into
them, are the places these people are leaving becoming available for
defense workers, or are they being filled by people who heretofore were
doublmg up? .
Mr. Edwards. I don't thmk there is any doubt that part of the
vacancy picture is that some of the families that doubled up during
the depression or the 1938 "recession," as they call it, are now separat-
ing and findhig vacant dwellmg units wherever they can.
However, I would say, to return to my original statement, that if
there are defense workers coming into this area in any number at all,
they will have an exceedingly hard time finding housing unless defense
housing programs are started.
7254 DETROIT HFyAKINGS
Mr. Curtis. The people living iii your U. S. H. A. houses are sup-
posed to have incomes not to exceed a certain figure?
Mr. Edwards. That is true.
Mr. Curtis. Are you presented with any demands to permit them
to stay on even though their income exceeds that, on the ground that
they can't get another house?
Mr. Edwards. Yes, sir; we have had that problem quite recently,
Mr. Curtis. And what have you done about it?
Mr. Edwards. The commission recommended disposition of the
matter to the United States Housing Authority. Final decision has
not yet been made by them.
\^e found 150 families in the Brewster project, which is the Negro
project, over our maximum income, and 50 families at the Parkside
project over our maximum income.
lifting of income limit urged
Only in a minority in each project were these families over the
maximimi allowed by the United States Housing Authority in certain
other cities. As a result of that, the Detroit Housing Commission has
reconmiended to the United States Housing Authority that our
maximum figures be increased by 20 percent; that the families who
fall within that 20 percent increase be allowed to stay for a period of
1 year on condition that they pay 25 percent more rent in order to
reduce the subsidy on the dwelling unit which they are occupying.
We felt that it would be impossible to evict 150 families from the
Brewster project because we didn't think there was any possibility
of housing them under the present circumstances or finding housing
for them at reasonable rentals.
Mr. Curtis. But they are in a better position to undertake the
problem for themselves than those with smaller incomes, aren't they?
Mr. Edwards. No question about that. If it were not for what I
consider to be a very serious housing shortage, these families, I
believe, should be asked to move and should be asked to find private
rentals for themselves.
I think it is illogical to take families from slums and move them
back into slum conditions at the end of their period of occupancy of
public housing projects, and as a result we have tried to mitigate that
evil to the extent that I have mentioned.
Mr. Curtis. But the public expenditure is made, however, to
take care of individuals in slums who have very little or no income.
Mr. Edwards. That is correct. So far as the United States
Housing Authority's definition of "low-income families" is concerned,
the 200 families about which we are speaking are still within that
definition.
The Detroit Housing Commission has set its standards of income
lower than the United States Housing Authority would have other-
wise allowed.
Mr. Curtis. In other words there is a variance in different localities
in the United States?
Mr. Edwards. That is correct.
Mr. Curtis. Based upon rent conditions.
Mr. Edwards. That is correct.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7255
Mr. CuETis. In your paper you say: "What Detroit needs is many
newiy built homes for rental purposes." Is it your opinion that the
recent priorities order limiting houses to $6,000 for home construction
will supply the need?
RENTAL HOUSING NEEDED
Mr. Edwards. No, sir; I do not think so. I think those homes will
be built for people who know that they want to buy a house. I
think that if there is an in-migration of defense workers, their problem
will be rental housing, and I see no possibility of their securing ade-
quate rental housing through the mere granting of priorities to private
housing construction in this area, which private housing construction
in most instances is going to be for sale.
Air. Curtis. But that will affect the entire picture, will it not?
Mr. Edwards. It will affect the entire picture from the viewpoint
of people who are ready to buy a house, but the defense workers are
not going to be the people who buy the houses, in my opinion. And
as a result, in judging the housing picture where there already is a
housing shortage, you are depending on a factor for the solution of a
housing shortage which does not relate to the problem itself. That is,
you are depending upon the desire of individuals now employed in the
city of Detroit to own a house, to produce a sufhcient number of
additional dwelling units to relieve the housing shortage, and I don't
think that is a safe assumption.
Mr. Curtis. Do you have any positive indication that you are
going to have a big influx of workers in Detroit?
Mr. Edwards. No, sir. I think the picture which undoubtedly
has been given you up to date, relating to the effect of the defense
program here, has probably been given by people more competent to
analyze it than I am. I have heard a great deal about it. I have
studied it, but I have to rely on a ^ood many of the same people who
have testified here, and the only thing that I can say is that it is my
information from those people whom I have talked with in the Office
of Production Management, that the inachme tools of Detroit and
the manpower of Detroit eventually are going to be used to the
maximum. Now, whether that is 6 months from now or a year from
now, I believe that if they are going to be used to a maximum, we had
better start working on the housing problem now, because you can't
solve a housing problem at the time the housing shortage exists.
Mr. Curtis. Of course, those with special skills brought into Detroit
will have to be taken care of.
Mr. Edwards. Yes.
Mr. Curtis. What has been the average cost of those housing units
you have built so far?
AVERAGE COST OF HOUSING UNITS
Mr. Edwards. The last project that we built cost $3,600 a dwelling
unit, net construction cost.
Mr. Curtis. Per family unit?
Mr. Edwards. Yes; per family unit.
Mr. Curtis. Is that white or colored?
Mr. Edwards. That is a white project.
Mr. Curtis. Has that been the average?
7256 DETROIT HEARINGS
Mr. Edavards. No. Some have been less and some have been
more. The one immediately previous to that cost $3,280. In other
words, there was an increase of close to $400 per dwelling between
those two projects.
Mr. Curtis. What is your maximum?
Mr. Edwards. Our maximum, I believe, would be $5,000 in a city
of this size.
Mr. Curtis. You have built some that cost $5,000?
Mr. Edwards. I believe about $4,000 is the top figure at which we
have built.
Mr. Curtis. Now, what does a family unit consist of?
Mr. Edwards. Of all the facilities that are necessary.
Mr. Curtis. How many rooms?
Mr. Edwards. About four and a half rooms is the average.
Mr. Curtis. What will be the effect of the out-migration of Detroit
workers on the housing situation?
Mr. Edwards. It would tend to relieve the existing housing short-
age, if there is such an out-migration, and to that extent would
mitigate the problem which we now have.
PROBLEM OF HOUSING FOR PARENTS WITH CHILDREN
The Chairman. Mr. Edwards, in our travels thi'oughout the country
we found, from the testimony of various migrant witnesses, that it is
very difficult for parents with large families of five or six children to
get any housing at all. Do you find that problem in the Detroit area?
Mr. Edwards. I would say that the worst housing problem in the
city of Detroit is for Negroes with children, and the next, for white
families with children. And in this regard I am referring to industrial
workers' families whose income presumably would not allow for paying
rentals going above the $50 mark.
The Chairman. You said four and a half rooms is the average size
dwelling unit. Wliat rooms are provided in such houses — kitchen
and what else?
Mr. Edwards. We don't have dining rooms. The average unit
would include a living room, a kitchen, and two and a half bedrooms.
The Chairman. Have you any defense housing projects in the
Detroit area?
defense housing projects in DETROIT AREA
Mr. Edwards. We have 3 in the Detroit area. There is 1
inside of the city of Detroit, and there is a 500-unit defense project
being built in southern Macomb County, at Centerline, and a
300-unit project being built at Wayne. That is just in the north-
west industrial area.
The Chairman. Will they be four-and-a-half-room units?
Mr. Edwards. I don't have charge of those two projects and I
don't know the details, but I think all of these defense housing projects
are being built with a room ratio that is above the previous U. S. H. A.
and P. W. A. housing standards, and I think that our experience bears
out the desire to build them in larger ratios.
The Chairman. I might say, Mr. Edwards, that we are not here to
criticize the Detroit set-up, because we are from the Capital of the
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7257
Nation, and things are not so good there. We had a witness before
our committee there who testified that there were 6,000 homes there
with outside privies, not connected with sewers; so we are in no posi-
tion to say anything about the rest of the country.
Mr. Edwards. Yes; I know Washington has its problems.
The Chairman. We asked a migrant witness out in Los Angeles
where he and his wife and six children slept. He said, "In a 10 by 14
tent. " I said, "I suppose you have the very latest sanitary con-
veniences?" He said, "No, Congressman, we have the earliest."
Before adjourning I want to say that Congressman Fred Crawford,
of Saginaw, has sat with our committee during the afternoon session.
His suggestions have been helpful, and we were glad to have him
with us.
If there is noth'ng further, the committee will stand adjourned
until 9:30 tomorrow morning.
(Whereupon, at 4:30 p. m., the committee adjourned until 9:30
a. m., Thursday, September 25, 1941.)
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGKATION
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1941
House of Representatives,
Select Committee Investigating
National Defense Migration,
Washington, D. C.
MORNING SESSION
The committee met at 9:30 a. m., in the Federal Building, Detroit,
Mich., pursuant to notice, Hon. John H. Tolan (chairman) presiding.
Present were: Representatives John H. Tolan (chairman), of
California; Laurence F. Arnold, of Illinois; Frank C. Osmers, Jr., of
New Jersey; and Carl T. Curtis, of Nebraska.
Also present: Dr. Robert K. Lamb, staff director; John W. Abbott,
chief field investigator; Francis X. Riley and Jack B. Burke, field
investigators; and Ruth B. Abrams, field secretary.
The Chairman. The committee will please come to order.
Mr. Thomas, you and your associates will be the first witnesses,
TESTIMONY OF R. J. THOMAS, INTERNATIONAL PRESIDENT,
UNITED AUTOMOBILE, AIRCRAFT AND AGRICULTURAL IM-
PLEMENT WORKERS OF AMERICA, AFFILIATED WITH THE
CONGRESS OF INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS; JAMES WIS-
HART, RESEARCH DEPARTMENT, U. A. W.-C. I. 0.; GEORGE
ADDES, INTERNATIONAL SECRETARY-TREASURER, U. A. W.-
C. I. 0.; VICTOR REUTHER, ASSISTANT TO MR. ADDES; RICHARD
DEVERALL, EDUCATIONAL DEPARTMENT, U. A. W.-C. I. 0. ;
AND RICHARD REISINGER, INTERNATIONAL BOARD MEMBER,
U. A. W.-C. I. 0.
The Chairman. Gentlemen, Congressman Osmers will inteiTOgate
you.
Mr. Osmers. Mr. Thomas, will you give your name and your title
to the reporter, for the record?
Mr. Thomas. R. J. Thomas, international president. United
Automobile, Aircraft, and Agricultural Implement Workers of
America, affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations.
Mr. Osmers. Now, would you care to present the other men who
are with you?
Mr. Thomas. I have with me as consultants, Mr. Wishart, who is
in charge of our research department, Mr. George Addes, who is
international secretary-treasurer, and who has been placed in charge
of our department on priorities unemployment; Mr. Victor Reuther,
who will be Mr. Addes' assistant; Richard Deverall, in charge of our
7259
7260
DETROIT HEARINGS
educational department; and Mr. Reisinger, international board
member, and also assigned to priorities unemployment.
Mr. OsMERS. Mr. Thomas, in going over your prepared statement
with respect to the automobile industry, I notice several observations
that are at complete variance with the generally accepted notions as
to the position of the automobile industry with respect to defense, so
as we go along, I am going to quote to you certain portions of your
own statement, and then you can enlarge upon them and thereby we
will have a full presentation of your views. The statement will be
incorporated as a part of the record.
(The statement referred to above is as follows:)
STATEMENT BY R. J. THOMAS, IXTERXATIOXAL PRESIDENT,
UNITED AUTOMOBILE, AIRCRAFT AND AGRICULTURAL IMPLE-
MENT WORKERS, AFFILIATED WITH THE CONGRESS OF IN-
DUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS
The impact of curtailment in the interest of national defense has not yet been
felt in the automobile industry.
It is true that the Office of Production Management has already announced
reduced quotas for passenger-car production for the 12-month period beginning
August 1, 194L Total passenger-car production in those 12 months will be
50 percent under production in the 12-month 1940-41 model year. No more than
2,148,300 cars will be produced as compared with the 4,223,732 cars which came
oflf automotive assembly lines in the previous year.
But this slash in production has not yet been realized. From the 1st of August
this year up to September 20 a total of 319,720 motor vehicles have been produced
as compared with pioduction of 272,673 for the same weeks of 1940.
Instead of the 26 percent cut in operations ordered by Office of Production
Management beginning with August 1 we have been experiencing a 17 percent
increase in production. Only in the last 2 weeks has production been checked.
The following table will indicate total vehicle production on a week-to-week
basis:
Motor vehicle production, Aug. 1 to Sept. 20
1941
August 1-31 . .
September 6,
September 13
September 20
Total..
173,000
32, 940
53, 165
60, 615
89,866
39, 665
63,240
79, 902
319, 720
272, 673
The auto production has proceeded at this speed is a matter of some concern
to the membership of my organization. For it indicates that the major pro-
ducers have turned their full energies toward securing the highest possible levels
of production in the first few weeks of the present-model year.
The United Automobile Workers fears that this all-out production of cars in the
last few weeks may be opening the way for a slump in production and employ-
ment before the 48.4 production cut announced for December 1 can take effect.
In the present uncertain situation, therefore, it will be impossible to present to
the members of the Tolan committee any reports of the full impact of production
curtailment in the automobile industry.
I can only suggest some of the probable effects of curtailment in the auto in-
dustry. I can only estimate conditions which will exist throughout our industry
within the next few months.
Before dealing with this question it is well to point out that in spite of the com-
paratively high level of production throughout the auto industry, displacement of
workers has already taken place in certain areas of the Union. In Buffalo, for
instance, 3,600 of our members foiuid themselves without emi'loyment over a
month ago when the General Motors Corporation shut down its plants in that
city for conversion to defense production.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7261
Earnest efforts on the part of Office of Production Management secured employ-
ment for some 1,400 out of this number in the booming defense plants of Buffalo.
The remainder, including about 400 now enrolled in defense training courses, are
now subsisting on unemployment compensation.
In a number of auto-parts plants, including the giant Briggs body plant where
lay-offs will shortly amount to about 4,000, future curtailment in final assemblies
has already taken its toll of employment. No conclusive data on this situation
is yet available on an industry-wide basis.
PRIORITY UNEMPLOYMENT
Beginning with December 1, 1941, the automobile industry will be allowed to
produce only one passenger car for every two produced last year. Beginning with
March of 1942 production quotas are to be reduced even below this level.
It should be understood that in establishing quotas for the automobile industry
the Office of Production Management makes no guarantee that materials will be
available for their complete fulfillment. No priority or preference rating is avail-
able for critical materials going into the production of automobiles. In the auto
industry such ratings are reserved for the production of heavy trucks and repair
parts.
In view of the shortages now existing in supplies of essential metals, it is alto-
gether likely that by the first of next year production quotas announced by the
Office of Production Management will become impossible of accomplishment
by the automobile industry.
On the face of it this situation constitutes a grave problem to the men and
women whose livelihood depends upon employment in the auto industry of Detroit
and Michigan. It is certainly a matter affecting profoundly the interstate move-
ment of workers.
How many workers are to be displaced by curtailment throughout the auto
industry?
The best answer to this question can be suggested by comparing last year's
employment with employment during the year of 1938. In that year the auto
industry produced about 50 percent of last year's motor vehicle output. And in
1938 an average of 305,000 workers found employment in the auto industry. Dur-
ing winter and spring of 1941 employment in the auto industrv has averaged
about 520,000.
These figures would indicate, then, that about 215,000 auto workers will be
seeking new em])loyment of some kind bj' the middle of December 1941.
It is true that a part of this 215,000 will be able to secure employment in expand-
ing defense industry. But defense employment will be sufficient to absorb only
a fraction of this nimiber within the near future. Between June and December
of this year not much more than 60,000 defense jobs will have been added to the
auto industry.
Assuming that every defense job went to a displaced auto worker, by January
1, 1942, at least 150,000 automobile workers would be still dependent on unemploy-
ment compensation, Work Projects Administration assistance, or relief.
For the State of Michigan alone at least 80,000 auto workers are threatened
with unemployment through the winter.
The effect of this situation would appear to be little short of catastrophic for
the communities affected. Unemployment for 150,000 auto workers will mean a
decline of $6,240,000 per week in the purchasing power of labor throughout the
county. 1
In Detroit it appears that net unemployment will be increased by 50,000 by
January 1942. In communities such as Flint, Mich., the problem may well assume
the proportions of a major crisis. Out of a total industrial employment of
50,000 in Flint as of May 1941, at least 20,000 are threatened by lay-offs within
the ne.xt 3 months.
Only one plant in Flint is now working on Government contracts; and defense
work now contracted for will not be sufficient to emplo}- a majority of its present
automotive workers.
Of course Flint's problem would be well on the way to a successful conclusion
had not the General Motors Corporation given up its plans for locating there an
aircraft engine plant which could have employed at least 10,000. On the claim
that "Flint's labor supply was inadequate" this aircraft engine plant is now
swinging into production in Melrose Park, 111.^
' Bureau of Labor Statistics average weekly earnings for auto workers in May 1941 ($41.64) times total
unemployment.
2 A similar mystery in plant location is the choice of Ypsilanti for Ford's giant bomber plant. This
community lacks all facilities for the 30,000 or more workers to be employed. These workers will pay the
price for this in a 30-mile drive to and from work over intolerably crowded highways.
7262 DETROIT HEARINGS
Saginaw, Lansing, Pontiac, and other centers of auto production in Michigan
are likewise threatened by the curtaihiient of automobile production— though in
those cities the impact will be less crushing than in Flint or Detroit.
How soon will defense production call for the labor of these men whose jobs
are threatened by material shortages and curtailment?
All the information we have been able to secure indicates that the auto industry
at its present pace is creating about 10,000 defense jobs per month. Unless this
pace is considerably increased — and I am confident such increase is possible —
net unemployment will not be materially reduced until the summer of 1942.
Defense jobs coming into the industry up to July 1942, will be barely sufficient
to absorb additional unemployment created by cuts well under the 50-percent
level anticipated for next spring.
I do not know how much at variance these conclusions may be with those
presented to this committee by representatives of the automobile industry. I
do not see how they can well present a more hopeful picture.
In recent weeks' representatives of management have come to take a more
realistic view of employment prospects in the auto industry than they had before.
Certainly it is difficult now to speak of a shortage of labor as a bottleneck in the
defense program.
This marks a considerable change over earlier attitudes. Representative of
the thinking 2 or 3 months ago of auto company executives is the following state-
ment which appeared in a study of The Auto Industry's Role In Defense pre-
pared by Wards" Automotive Reports in July of this year: "The automobile indus-
trv, therefore, is likely to add to its pay rolls by next spring a total of approxi-
mately 450,000 men. ' This is a tremendous total — about the equal of the 447,000
hourly rated employees which the plants are estimated to have employed in
1940.''
GENERAL EFFECTS OF PRIORITY UNEMPLOYMENT
All of us in Michigan are deeply concerned with the direct economic effects of
this dislocation upon our workers and our communities. If a well-planned pro-
gram can be followed out by industry, labor, and Government these unfortunate
repercussions can be kept at a minimum. But this problem must become not
only the concern of the auto worker whose security and standard of living has
been made precarious. Along with the worker the large group of tradesmen and
professional people whose incomes are dependent upon his wages are threatened.
The farmers of this State, too, stand to lose through the misfortune of the city
workers who make up their primary market.
Certain groups of workers are more seriously endangered by this "priority
unemplovment" than others:
1. The right to employment for Negro workers in the auto industry on defense
production has been resisted by many corporations. I am advised that repre-
sentatives of the Congress of Industrial Organizations in Chicago have taken
steps to bring the General Motors Corporation to the elimination of discrimina-
tion against workers of Negro or Jewish origin.
2. With the whole transition to defense production, the position of women
workers in the auto industry is threatened. Management has claimed in many
cases that work available on defense production is not suitable to the capacities
of their female emplovees. This attitude must be reckoned with here however
much it is in variance "with the experience of British industry in meeting problems
of wartime production.
3. Groups of skilled workers in the auto industry are finding that the present
training is of small help to them in securing defense employment. Large numbers
of trimmers, and polishers, for instance, are in a difficult position.
4. The unskilled worker and the older production worker are in weak positions
to meet the competition of a labor market which still contains close to 7,000,000
unemployed. Onlv through the protection of the union in securing employment
can workers in these categories find stability for themselves and their families.
RESPONSIBILITY FOR DISLOCATION
For many vears the American automobile industry has had a world-wide
reputation for 'its resourcefulness, initiative, and mastery of productive technique.
It is this industrv with its record of magnificent accomplishment which had been
counted on to provide the productive power necessary to make this country an
arsenal of democracv.
A confidential bulletin of the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce,,
quoted by I. F. Stone in his recent book, Business As Usual, states:
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7263
"The automobile industry is the outstanding major industry capable of pro-
ducing a much larger volume of defense materials * * * the automobile
industry constitutes our largest available reserve, contained in any single industry,
of productive power for defense."
Why is it that the contribution from this major industrial power to our national-
defense program has been, comparatively speaking, negligible? Out of 250,000
workers employed by General Motors in June 1941, only 34,000 were employed
in national-defense work. And at the present tim^e our estimates would indicate
that no more than 45,000 General Motors' workers are producing for the national-
defense program. The same ratio of defense to nondefense work appears to pre-
vail throughout the industry. National defense production in the auto industry
has been made up primarily of magnificent reports of plant construction and
engineering aspirations. Not one-tenth of the basic productive power in the
industry, even at this time of world crisis, has been directed toward ends of
national defense. It is in this situation that the explanation of a tragic paradox —
threatening unemployment to skilled workers and productive equipment of the
automobile industry at a time of national emergency — is to be found.
In November of 1940 our union made certain proposals to the Office of Produc-
tion Management and to the automobile industry for the speedy and complete
development of national-defense production in automobile plants. A plan to
achieve this purpose was worked out at my suggestion by one of our officers,
Mr. Walter P. Reuther, with the assistance of designers and skilled craftsmen of
the industry. This plan proposed the following:
1. That the excess productive capacity of the automobile industry be at once
mobilized for defense. Mr. Reuther demonstrated that tremendous resources
in machinery and equipment were used in the automobile industry only at certain
periods of the year. With the leveling off of production schedules, such equip-
m.ent would become available for immediate diversion to national-defense pro-
duction.
2. That the tooling resources of the automobile industry, including men and
equipment, be diverted immediately toward a general tooling up of the industry
for national defense purposes. With at least 200,000 machine tools available in
the industry, operated by a large mass of the most skilled workers in the country,
this tremendous machine-producing power could have been directed toward the
retooling of auto equipment for the production of aircraft and other items of
national defense importance. Such utilization of automobile machine-tool capac-
ity would have meant postponement of the annual model change-over for the
industrv.
Had steps been undertaken back in November of 1940 to call upon the produc-
tive power of the auto industry for national-defense purposes, we would not now
be facing a tragic crisis of unemploym^ent and retarded production. Had in-
dustry and Government been willing to undertake this essential task, defense
jobs developed in the industry would now be more than sufficient to absorb the
full complement of automobile workers displaced by curtailment of regular
automobile production. ,
In emphasizing this point, I am not seeking primarily to criticize representatives
of industry and government responsible for this failure. I am emphasizing it
because it is my conviction that the basic elements of the Reuther plan are still
applicable and must be brought to bear if we are to find a way out of the present
impossible situation. The key to our whole problem, in my opinion, lies in the
acceleration of conversion from regular automobile to national-defense production.
For this purpose the basic thesis of the Reuther plan that present automobile
machine tools and factories may be readily adapted to national-defense purposes
is still of the most vital importance. Automobile machine tools and the skilled
craftsmen to operate them are still available for the rapid transformation of this
industry. This can be done, and will be done, provided Government and indus-
try authorities are willing to cooperate with labor in the full coordination of all
production and tooling facilities in this industry in a major campaign to make
Flint, Detroit, and the other centers of automobile production main resources in
the drive to out-produce Hitlerism.
Auto workers throughout the country believe that a major crime against na-
tional defense and their own welfare has been perpetrated in this refusal of indus-
try to prepare adequately for national defeiise. Major automobile companies
have preferred not to tamper with their regular productive eciuipment. They
have hesitated to do anything which might interfere with their capacity to expand
production in the highly competitive production of automobiles. Instead they
have accepted Governnient funds for the building of new defense plants and the
60306—41 — pt. 18 14
7264 DETROIT HEARINGS
purchase of new machine tools.' They have accepted only such defense orders
as nii^ht be produced in these plants without interference to their "business as
usual" program.
Auto workers recognize that this policy of expanding "business as usual" and
accepting defense work as a marginal activity may well prove an expensive one
to the country at large.
For the past few months, as the world situation has become more and more
critical, well over 20,000 tool and die makers have been operating the machine
tools of the auto industry in producing the tools, dies, jogs, and fixtures necessary
to the production of new model cars. These critically important men and equip-
ment have been devoting their full energies to the creation of more attractive
automobiles; and from advance advertising, these automobiles appear to be very
attractive indeed. But I fear that they have been produced at the very high price
of unemployment to automobile workers and slow-down to the national defense
program.
In concluding the discussion at this point, I may say, on behalf of my organiza-
tion, that automobile workers are now ready as they have been in the past to take
the most energetic steps in cooperation with industry and Government for meet-
ing this situation.
In the interests of national defense, in the interests of economic security for
automobile workers, immediate steps must be taken for the speedy transformation
of the auto industry into a basic section of the American "arsenal of democracy."
SHORTAGES
It is true at the present time that one element of the Reuther plan cannot now
be carried through, and that is the continuation of regular automobile production
while surplus facilities are changed over to national defense production. This
cannot be done because supplies of steel, ahuninum, nickel, zinc, copper, and other
essential elements are insufficient to maintain both regular atito production and
all-out production for national defense.
For this situation auto workers place responsibility on the monopolistic "busi-
ness as usual" practices adhered to by major producers of these essential materials.
We have seen the evidence brought forward by the Truman cominittee's investi-
gation of the aluminum monopoly. We are familiar with the resistance to
expansion of steel productive facilities carried through by the American Iron and
Steel Institute and certain officials no longer connected with the Office of Pro-
duction Management. But we are happy to see that the American public is at
last becoming conscious of these problems; that steps are at last being taken
through Government agencies such as the Supply Priorities and Allocations
Board for organizing full productive capacity. We believe that such stejis will,
in the long nni, solve the problem of the automobile worker, and that in solving
his problem, the problem of the Nation as a whole will be met.
IMMEDIATE STEPS
As I have indicated before, the problem of unemployment in the automobile
industry depends for its solution upon a speedy transition to full national defense
production. This means the elimination of red tape in awarding contracts in all
places where priority unemployment threatens; this means the all-out utilization
of the engineering, designing, and tooling facilities in the auto industry in a
coordinated program of national defense tooling; this means, above everything
else, an abandonment of "business as usual" psychology in a full power drive for
defense production.
At the best, however, this cannot be an immediate solution to the auto worker's
problem. Mistakes have been made for which the auto worker is going to have
to pay the bill in uncm])loyment and economic insecurity for a period of some
months. To meet this situation, therefore, the United Automobile, Aircraft, and
Agricultural Implement Workers, Congress of Industrial Organizations, brings
forward the following program:
' LavSt wintor when major energies of auto corporations should have been directed toward converting plants
to arms production, they were instead engaged in a record-smashing passenger car production and sales
campaign. That brought big profits out of defense prosperity. But now last winter's "business as usual"
is going to mean "unemploynient as usual" for auto workers.
Thesy plants will doubtless be highly elhcient plants capable of asserting dominance in the aircraft indus-
try following the comijletion of our defense program, 'i'hcy are more valuable, therefore, to their present
owners than a regular automobile factory tooled up for di'fcnse production upon an emergency basis. Such
factories might not be able to meet peacetime aircraft coiTipetition.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7265
1. Full and complete enforcement of Office of Production Management principles
for employment security to automobile workers.
In recent weeks a series of meetings on this problem has been held in the city
of Detroit between officials of industry, the U. A. \^^-C. I. O., and the Office of
Production Management. Through these meetings a policy for transferring ex-
perienced automobile workers to defense jol:)s through channels of the United
States Employment Service has been worked out. This policy guarantees that
developing defense jobs will go first to experienced automobile workers in order
of their seniority, and that younger workers will be secured in their employment
on regular automobile production. This is the essential principle of the Buffalo
plan. But to become effective that principle must be secured by more adequate
machinery in its application; must be confirmed by more active cooperation from
the employers of defense labor.
2. Protection of the economic security of displaced automobile workers.
Even in such a city as Buffalo, N. Y., where tremendous demand for national-
defense labor is developing, the Buffalo plan by itself has provided employment
up to September 20 for only 1,200 out of 3, 600" unemployed automobile workers.
In centers such as Detroit," Flint, and other cities of Michigan, where there will
be no immediate expansion in over-all employment, the ratio of men finding
defense jobs to those unemployed will be considerably smaller for some time.
These workers must be protected by more adequate unemployment compensation.
With rising living costs, with generally chaotic economic conditions, unemploy-
ment benefit payments must be increased. A sum of .$110,000,000 at the dis-
posal of the Michigan Unemployment Compensation Commission indicates that
this may be done through a specially called session of the Michigan State Legis-
lature.
1 am advised also that in England at the present time, workers undergoing
training for national defense receive wages equal to their normal full-time wages.
It is the responsibility of both industry and Government to provide such corn-
pensation to groups of automobile workers who may require new skills for their
employment in the national defense program.
3. A moratorium on debts for unemployed automobile workers.
With the high rate of employment and weekly earnings prevailing in the indus-
try during 'recent months, many auto workers have undertaken heavy financial
responsibilities. They must not, in this period of emergency, be deprived of their
homes, their furniture, or of their automobiles. Protection of these workers is
basic to the maintenance of morale among them and in the communities in which
they live.
4. Increased production and employment in national-defense plants.
The recent meeting of the international executive board of the U. A. W.-C. I. O.
has called for the adoption of an additional shift with proper overtime payment
in all automobile-industry national-defense plants. This would increase the
hours of operation in national-defense plants to 160 per week and would provide
employment for at least 25 percent more automobile workers. Such a develop-
ment should be given the serious consideration of industry and Government.
5. The adoption of the Murray plan for the automobile and other industries.
The Murray plan calls for the adoption of industiy councils representative of
labor, industry, and government in each one of the basic defense industries
throughout the country. In the automobile industry, such a council would have
responsibility for the placement of contracts, for the utilization through subcon-
tracting of all the productive facilities, both in large plants and small plants, for
the coordination of tooling and productive equipment in an all-out production
drive, and for the protection of labor's democratic rights as a thing essential to
productive morale.
The principle must be recognized that national-defense production should not
be the private concern of powerful monopoly interests. It is a vital concern of
the workers involved, and of the Nation through its government, as well as the
executives of major industry. Fuller recognition of this fact will be the founda-
tion for future successful progress in our defense program.
7266 DETROIT HEARINGS
(The following was received subsequent to the hearing and is made
a part of the record, in accordance with instructions from the chair-
man:)
SUPPLEMENTARY STATEMENT OF R. J. THOMAS, INTERNATIONAL
PRESIDENT, UNITED AUTOMOBILE, AIRCRAFT, AND AGRICUL-
TURAL IMPLEMENT WORKERS, CONGRESS OF INDUSTRIAL
ORGANIZATIONS
Automobile Capacity for Defense Production
For the last 9 or 10 months considerable discussion has been going on regarding
the adaptability of automobile plants and equipment for defense production. It
has been the position of the U. A. W.-C. I. O. that the large bulk of automobile
productive machinery could be adapted to various types of defense production
within a comparatively short period. This could be done as proposed by Mr.
Walter P. Reuther, by the coordination of the tooling facilities of the auto in-
dustry for the production of the jigs, fixtures, and tools essential to making defense
plants out of auto plants.
Representatives of the automobile manufacturers have urged strongly an
opposing point of view. Said Mr. Alfred P. Sloan, Jr., chairman of the General
Motors Corporation, on November 20, 1940: "* * * Automobile plants are
not adaptable to the manufacture of other products. Repeated surveys have
indicated, for instance, that only about 10 or 15 percent of the machinery and
equipment in an automobile factory can be utilized for the production of special
defense material." Mr. Sloan added, "It is usually necessary to provide new
facilities, including machinery and tools."
It was on the basis of tin position that the automobile industry, the Office of
Production Management, and the United States Army and Navy have, up to
the present time, at least, followed a program of building new plants and of
developing new production equipment instead of utilizing facilities already avail-
able.
There is strong evidence to support the position of the U. A. W.-C. I. O.
Advice received from a large number of engineers and designers, who are
involved in both the automotive and aircraft industry, indicates beyond question
that the proportion of machinery and equipment available for early change-over is
many times higher than the estimate of 10 to 15 percent made by Mr. Sloan in
the statement quoted above. According to these men whose daily work is the
solution of tooling and production problems, at the very least, 50 percent of the
productive equipment of the automobile industry is available for change-over to
defense work within a period of from 3 to 6 months.
list of newly installed machines
Aircraft machine tools differ from those used in the auto industry only in the
jigs and fixtures employed. In this connection I should like to list machines
newly constructed and installed in the Allison division of the General Motors
Corporation in the city of Detroit. These machines listed are installed for the
production of aircraft parts ?jid duplicate existing automobile-jilant machinery:
Grinding machines: Cincinnati centerless, Exlo internal and external, Bland,
Norton, Landis, Blanchard, Brown & Sharpe, (Bryant) and Held. (These ma-
chines are used to produce the following parts which are common to both aircraft
and automobile motors: Camshafts, crankshafts, bearings, connecting rods, wrist
pins.) Milling machines: Milwaukee, Cincinnati, Sunstrand, and Brown &
Sharpe. Keller machines: Wickes lathes, Greenlee lathes, and Cincinnati
lathes. Spline machines: Sunstrand and Brown & Sharpe. Hones: Exlo and
Wickes.
figures of general motors president cited
It is interesting to note that in his speech of September 10, 1941, Mr. C._E.
Wilson, president of the General Motors Corporation, expresses opinions which
seem to be at variance with those expressed months before by Mr. Sloan. Says-
Mr. Wilson: "General Motors has a productive capacity and has been producing
approximately 8 percent of the total durable goods produced in the United States.
On this basis the corporation's proportion of the defense program for this type of
material would be about 8 percent."
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7267
Mr. Wilson is here assuming that general capacity to produce consumers'
durable goods is directly transferable to capacity in the production of defense
goods.
That is the position which our union has been taking for the last 10 months.
We believe it most unfortunate that a recognition of this fact has not been made
by Government or industry up until this comparatively late stage of our defense
program.
Because of this failure, the General Motors Corporation can report that out of
$1,350,000,000 production of finished durable goods during the first 6 months of
1941, only $131,000,000 worth of that production was in the field of national
■defense. This corporation, with 8 percent of America's total durable-goods ca-
pacity, has devoted less than one-tenth of that capacity to defense production
up to the present time.
Even more unfortunate, however, will be the effects of this policy in the months
to come when the full curtailment of auto production takes place throughout
the industry. Then auto workers will pay the penalty in unemployment for
apathetic national-defense preparation. If this had not been true, if a recogni-
tion of the auto industry's responsibility toward national defense had come some
months ago, preparation for a change-over might now be well under way. The
necessary engineering work, the work in designing and tooling, could have been
carried through without interference with regular automobile production during
the early months of 1941. True, the introduction of new models for 1942 would
have been postponed, but some 30,000,000 hours of skilled labor in the utiliza-
tion of essential jnachine tools might have been diverted from producing new
model cars to open the way for gigantic national-defense production.
"business as usual"
But the conception of "business as usual" triumphed in governmental agencies
as well as in the industry itself. New models were allowed. The largest group
of skilled workers in the country labored long hours to produce sleeker curves
and fancier grillwork. As a result, we are only now beginning the program of
retooling for defense production, which should have been initiated early in the
winter of 1941. In conseqlience, automobile workers are left to face an extended
.period of unemployment — a period of unemployment which might well have been
obviated by early planning for defense retooling.
Even at the present time, both industry and Government have failed to take
adequate steps to coordinate the full tooling facilities of the auto industry for
the change-over to defense production. A survey conducted by the Detroit and
Wayne County Tool, Die, and Engineering Council in 34 Detroit automobile
plants indicates that out of a total of 1,577 machine tools, 337 of those tools are
idle throughout the week. The remainder are being operated at an average of
70.4 hours per week. With capacity operations of all these macliines on the basis
of a 160-hour week, total weekly operation would be equal to 252,320 machine-
hours. Instead, actual machine-hours are in the neighborhood of 87,296. This
means that these tools, which are the most essential and most critical to the
defense program, and of crucial importance to retooling the entire industry, are
at the present date being employed at no more than 35 percent of full capacity,
COORDINATION IN USE OF EQUIPMENT URGED
In the opinion of the U. A. W.-C. I. O., this is a startling situation. It is our
conviction that immediate steps b.y authorities of the Army, Navy, and other
Government agencies should be taken to coordinate this reservoir of unused
equipment for the full and immediate transition of the auto industry as a whole
to defense production. This is the key to an early solution of the employment
problems now confronting auto workers. Even more important, it can be made
a key to the solution of America's basic problem — the problem of producing arms
in sufficient quantities to frustrate Nazi designs for world domination.
I have been advised by many local unions in our organization of another
problem which has developed in connection with securing full defense production
and employment. Information received by my office indicates that considerable
difficulty has been encoimtered in adjusting specifications established by the
ordnance departments of the armed forces to the necessities of mass production.
Too often the sjjecifications had been rigidly established some years ago and
are adhered to at the expense of efficient production methods. The auto industry,
for instance, has developed many time-saving techniques for welding. These
7268
DETROIT HEARINGS
have been tested and checked and found to be eminently rehable. Army and
Navy officials, however, have been very slow to relax specifications calling for
riveting. They have been reluctant to accept welded parts. Such attitudes are
an obstacle to obtaining maximum i)roduction at the earliest possible moment in
the interests of our national-defense program.
IMay I assert again labor's profound conviction that it has a very positive
contribution to make in solving the problem of defense production throughout
this country. Up to the present time labor has not been called on to make such
a contribution; and, as in regard to the Reuther plan, its efforts along that line
have not found a welcome in official quarters. It is labor's conviction that in
such a battle as we are now facing for the defense of democracy, the extension
of the democratic method itself is the surest guaranty of final victory.
Labor welcomes recent indications that both industry and governmental
agencies are beginning to shake off the apathy and red tape which have so far
circumscribed the auto industry's participation in the defense program. As
workers and as citizens of a democracy we are ready to cooperate in a further
essential advance along that front.
Machine availability survey of the Det-oit and Wayne County Tool, Die, and Engi-
neering Council, Oct. 10, lOJ^l
[34 plants surveyed]
Name of machine
Lathes
Planers
Shapers
Grinders
Mills
Boring mills
Kellers
Screw machines
Total
number
ma-
chines
Total
idle ma-
chines
261
49
237
296
171
81
40
27
Name of machine
Blotters
Jig borers
Radial drills
Drill presses.
Do-all_
Total-
Total
number
ma-
chines
30
27
87
266
5
1,577
Total
idle ma-
chines
10 1-4
3^i
17
40
1
337
21.4 percent of total number of machines are idle.
These plants are operating on an average of 44 percent of a full 7-day workweek.
Source: Research department, United Automobile, Aircraft, and Agricultural Equipment Workers,
Congress of Industrial Organizations, Detroit, Mich.
TESTIMONY OF E. J. THOMAS— Resumed
Mr. OsMERS. Now, Mr. Thomas, you say not one-tenth of the basic
productive power in the industry, even at this time of world crisis, has
been directed toward ends of national defense.
I wonder if you would enlarge upon that.
UNDER-CAPACITY PRODUCTION
Mr. Thomas. The automobile industry for a great many years
has never run at full capacity. What I mean there is that, due to the
intense competition in the industry, there was a great amount of
unused floor space and machinery. Even in the past year, when
there was record production in the automobile industry, a great deal
of that space was not being used.
Some 8 or 9 months ago w^e brought this fact to the attention of
various Government officials in Washington, and we tried very hard
at that time to get additional defense w^ork in the industry because
we knew from our experiences in the last war that there w^ould have to
be considerably more production of national-defense materials than
was being achieved then.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7269
We made a survey at that time, and since that time have kept very
close tab on the amount of work coming into the industry, and we
find in comparison with the amount of work put out by the industry
as a whole that the national-defense production is only a very minor
portion of the total.
SLOW TO CONVERT PLANTS FOR DEFENSE PRODUCTION
Mr. OsMERS. Now, you make another statement which in itself
constitutes a serious charge. I arti going to read it at this time
[reading] :
Auto workers throughout the country beheve that a major crime against
national defense and their own welfare has been perpetrated in this refusal of
industry to prepare adequately for national defense. Major automobile com-
panies have preferred not to tamper with their regular productive equipment.
They have hesitated to do anything which might interfere with their capacity
to expand production in the highly competitive production of automobiles.
Instead they have accepted Government funds for the building of new defense
plants and the purchase of new machine tools. They have accepted only such
defense orders as might be produced in these plants without interference to their
business-as-usual program.
Last winter when major energies of auto corporations should have been directed
toward converting plants to arms production, they were instead engaged in a
record-smashing passenger-car production and sales campaign. That brought
big profits out of defense prosperity. But now last winter's business as usual is
going to mean unemployment as usual for auto workers.
These new plants will doubtless be highly efficient plants, capable of asserting
dominance in the aircraft industry following the completion of our defense program.
They are more valuable, therefore, to their present owaiers than a regular automo-
bile factory tooled up for defense production upon an emergency basis. Such
factories might not be able to meet peacetime aircraft competition.
Mr. Thomas. I might give you an example that ties into that
statement very closely.
PROTESTS LOCATION OF BUICK PLANT
When plans were being discussed for building the new Buick plant
in the city of Chicago, to manufacture Pratt & Wliitney engines, I
personally made a protest to Mr. Knudsen against the location of that
plant.
Mr. OsMERS. What was your protest based on, Mr. Thomas?
Mr. Thomas. It was based on the fact that I personally felt and
knew that if this country was to have a war program such as was
necessary to defeat Hitler, there couldn't be "business as usual."
LOCATION OF PLANT AS CREATING UNEMPLOYMENT
Now, the headquarters of the Buick Co. is in Flint, Mich. That
plant has been their major producing unit. I felt a great number of
workers in Flint would be out of work, and building that plant in the
city of Chicago would not relieve their position. I also felt that in a
city like Chicago the new factory would not have the labor required —
mechanically trained labor, such as would be available in Flint. I
brought this to the attention of Mr. Knudsen. I protested violently
on the matter, declaring that by taking work like this out of Flint and
other centers, the industry would be very likely to make ghost towns
out of those particidar places.
7270 DETROIT HEARINGS
Mr. ICiiiidsen answered that they couldn't build the plant in Flint,
due to the fact that there would be a labor shortage.
Well, of course, he and I disagreed on that. He claimed there
would be a labor shortage and I claimed that if the plant at Flint
was abandoned, Flint would become a ghost town. Today I think
it is generally conceded that I was correct. There is a lack of defense
work in Flint. There are thousands of people in Flint out of work,
and the building of the Chicago plant is gonig on; and even today,
in my opinion, it would pay at this late date to see that those Pratt
■& Whitney engines are built in "Flint rather than in Chicago — even
if the Chicago plant has to stand idle.
Mr. OsMERS. Does Buick build its motors in Flint?
Mr. Thomas. Yes.
Mr. OsMERS. They have motor mechanics there?
Mr. Thomas. Yes, certainly.
Mr. OsMERS. Was it evident to you or to Mr. Knudsen or to
anyone concerned with the situation that there was any number of
unemployed motor mechanics in the Chicago area?
Mr. Thomas. Well, I can't give figures, but it is a fact that in the
city of Chicago there just haven't b^en any mass groups of people
who have had experience in building motors, because it hasn't been
done there.
Mr. OsMERS. I was wondering why the O. P. M. would look over
the map of the United States and pick out Chicago as a place to
build these motors — whether there w^ere any particular skills there,
or an availability of materials, or any other factors that would
influence them to do that.
I know Chicago is a big city, and I know they could probably get
a wide assortment of labor, but are the specialized skills required in
manufacture of airplane engines available there?
Mr. Thomas. For that particular kind of work there is certainly
sufficient labor in Flint. There is no question about that.
ON LABOR SHORTAGE
The Chairman. Mr. Thomas, I w^onder if I could interrupt for a
moment. There is a feeling in the United States, inspired by propa-
ganda from certain sources, that our labor supply is exhausted. The
Navy Department is turning down contracts because they say the
plants cannot get the necessary labor.
But we had a witness in Washington recently who testified there
were 6,000,000 people registered with the employment offices in the
United States. Do you believe the national-defense program cannot
be supplied with the necessary labor?
Mr. Thomas. No; there is plenty of labor. One of the problems in
our particular industry is created by the fact that certain people liigh
in the industry and in Government for the past 2 years have been
putting out information that there would be a shortage of labor. The
thing that I am afraid of is that such statements will bring down the
morale of the automobile workers. Morale of the workers is being
affected right now by the very fact that thousands of people are being
laid off today with no opportunity of a job at all.
The Chairman. Congressman Arnold.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7271
Mr. Arnold. Mr. Thomas, couldn't both the FHnt factory and the
Chicago factory be operatecl? Is there any reason why the Fhnt
plant couldn't yet be converted, even though it is late in the defense
program?
Mr. Thomas. There is no reason why it could not be converted
for defense purposes.
Mr. Arnold. Then why shouldn't it be converted and both plants
operate?
Mr. Thomas. Some of the things that are happening today are
due to inefficient planning in the past.
The thing that you suggest could be done, but to relieve the unem-
ployment situation, I think the job should be done in Flint first;
then, if it is necessary for additional expansion, the additional jobs
could be done in Chicago.
The Chairman. Congressman Osmers.
Mr. Osmers. Mr. Thomas, you know this committee is primarily
concerned with the migration of people from one section of the country
to the other as a result of the national defense program.
migration induced by location of plants
We see no reason for depriving an American citizen of the right to
move anywhere he wants to move in the country, but our object is
to avoid needless and wasteful migration.
Now, if we have motor mechanics in Flint, Mich., who are uneln-
ployed as a result of the defense program, and we build a motoi plant
in Chicago as a part of the defense program, isn't that likely to result
in a clear case of needless and wasteful migration? Will not such a
program make it necessary to uproot workers from other parts of the
country and bring them to Chicago?
Mr. Thomas. That is riglit.
Mr. Osmers. I know if 1 happened to be one of those unemjjloyed
workers in Flint, and the plants stopped making airplane motors
there and started to make them in Chicago, I would go to Chicago to
look for a job.
Mr. Thomas. That is correct.
Mr. Osmers. And tear my children out of school and upset my
family and try to find new living quarters.
Mr. Thomas. The people working in Flint — a large porportion of
them — have been living in Flint for a great many years. They have
their homes there. There arc certain economic factors which make
it difficult to transplant a man and his family from one place to
another in a short space of time.
But when a man gets hungry he will go anywhere to work. He
might have a home and an investment in Flint, but nevertheless he
will go to Chicago, if he has to, rather than let his family go hungry.
For these workers, making such a move is practically starting life
over again. And after the national defense program is over, then what?
Then he is confronted with the necessity of having to go back to Flint
again.
Mr. Osmers. And the chances are that the process of moving —
that is, of sefiing out in Flint and buying in Chicago and establishing
Y272 DETROIT HEARINGS
himself thoro, and then moving back to Fhnt — would certainly take
XI way from him any benefits that he might have received by making
the move in the first place.
HOUSING PROBLEMS
Mr. Thomas. Not only that, but we find in our investigations in
many places in the country today that it is practically impossible for
a worker to buy or rent a home."^ People who control the real estate
market are deliberately putting rents so high as to force workers to buy
rather than rent. Places that would normally be available for rent
they will not rent. They want to sell them.
Mr. OsMERS. Tliis committee, in traveling around the country, has
yet to find a place where rents haven't been increased to a ridiculous
degree — out of line with anything else in the community, and I am
■sure that that would follow m Chicago or any other place.
RENT RISES
Mr. Thomas. The average automobile worker's rent has increased
around $5 a month within the last 6 months.
Mr. OsMERS. You refer to the average automobile worker in
Michigan?
Mr." Thomas. No; I am referring to the automobile centers of the
entire country. I w^ould include in that figure Detroit, Pontiac, and
Flint. Those are the key cities in Michigan. Then, in addition, there
is South Bend, Los Angeles, and Anderson, Ind. Those are the key
automobile centers of the country.
Mr. Curtis. That is out of line with the upward swing of other
costs?
Mr. Thomas. Yes, it is.
IVlr. Curtis. By about what proportion?
Mr. Thomas. I should say it would be about 50 percent more. I
mean rents have advanced about 50 percent faster than commodities.
Mr. OsMERS. Here is another statement, Mr. Thomas, that I am
going to read back to you for your comment. This statement is on
page 8 of your paper: (In tliis volume, p. 7263.)
Had steps been taken back in November of 1940 to call upon the productive
power of the auto industry for national-defense purposes, we would not now be
facing a tragic crisis of unemplovment and retarded production. Had industry
and Government been willing to undertake this essential task, defense jobs de-
veloped in industrv would now be more than sufficient to absorb the full comple-
ment of automobile workers displaced by curtailment of regular automobile
production.
Mr. Thomas. \'Ve approached management and Government.
Around November of 1940 we brought to their attention the things
that could be done to expedite the national-defense program.
I talked to a lot of automobile manufacturers myself, having nego-
tiations and other matters to take up with them. The situation is
just beginning to change now. The only conception the average auto-
mobile manufacturer had of national defense was that it would be
over and above the usual production in the automobile industry.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7273
Mr. OsMEBS. You moan it was going to be business-as-usiial plus?
Mr. Thomas. Yes; business-as-usual plus, that is correct. Now,
of course, we would be very happy with a state of affairs like that,
but we didn't believe it was' going to be that way. I think we recog-
nized the facts sooner than the manufacturers did. There was a
bigger job to be done than the average person realized.
ALLEGED SHORTAGES OF TOOL AND DIE LABOR
At that time the newspapers of the country, as I said before, were
carrying stories — for instance, that there was a shortage of tool and
die makers.
We pointed out to Government and industry — and industry here
in Detroit knew it without our pointing it out to them — that there
were thousands of tool and die makers walking the streets, looking
for work. Those tool and die makers at that particular time should
have been utilized in working off the blueprints, making tools and
dies for something in national defense.
We proposed at that time that the automobile industry should not
change models, because we know what happens when there are model
changes. Again millions of man-hours are used in making new tools
and dies for the new models.
We felt that the automobile was or had been developed sufficiently
for a period such as we are in now, and that we could very well be in
a position to forego the change of models. Nevertheless, models were
changed. Time was lost. Klillions of man-hours were lost in build-
ing tools and dies for automobiles, hours that should have been spent
in building tools and dies for airplanes, guns, and motors.
It is only recently that we have been holding joint meetings with
Government and industry, trying to work out some program. Pre-
vious to that nobody would discuss the matter with us at all.
Mr. OsMERS. You say in your paper:
Automobile machine tools and .skilled craftsmen to operate them are still
available for the rapid transformation of this industry.
Mr. Thomas. That is correct.
Mr. OsMERs. Is that statement at variance with the general im-
pression around the country that skilled men to do that are not
available?
Mr. Thomas. That is correct.
Mr. OsMERS. Upon what do you base your statement and upon
what do they base their statement?
Mr. Thomas. I was just about to tell you that less than 2 weeks
ago I called a meeting here in the city of Detroit of various com-
mittees we have set up to make a survey of people unemployed.
We are making a survey to determine exactly what they are doing, how
much national-defense work is being done in the plants, and so forth.
The president of our local, which is No. 157 and is a tool and die
makers local in the city of Detroit, was present. On that night it
was stated by some representatives of O. P. M. whom I invited to
7274 DETROIT HEARINGS
the meeting that there was a shortage of tool and die makers. The-
president of this local, William Stephenson, stated that night that at
that moment in his local union there were 200 tool and die makers
out of work who were looking for jobs, and he would give that list to
anybody who wanted tool and die makers.
Mr. Os.MERS. How is it then, that manufacturers in general say
that there is a shortage of tool and die makers in the country?
LOCATION OF PLANTS AS CAUSE OF LABOR SHORTAGES
Mr. Thomas. I don't know why they say it but I will tell you why
I think they say it. You build a plant like the Buick plant in the city
of Chicago. Chicago is not a tool and die town, to any great extent,,
and never has been. They ma}^ be having difficulty in getting tool
and die makers, due to the fact that these workers resist migration.
When you build an aircraft plant in Wichita. Kans., or out in some
cornfield in low^a, certainly you will have difficulty in getting tool
and die makers. These woi'kers are like other men. They resist
migration. There is that resistance against moving. That is one-
of the reasons why we saj^ that work, more work, should come into the-
c enters where the men are available.
Mr. OsMERS. I take it from that, Mr. Thomas, that you would
Mr. Thomas. Will you pardon me a minute? Mr. Addes would
like to give you a few supplemental remarks on that.
Mr. Addes. I would like to supplement Mr. Thomas' remarks on
the question of skilled workers in the industry.
SKILLED WORKERS SHIFTED TO PRODUCTION JOBS
We have a great number of skilled workers in the industry who,,
after each season when the automobile industry changes models, are-
transferred into production work, such as assembling automobiles-
and working on motors.
It has been pointed out to the manufacturers here in a recent
meeting that there have been tool and die makers, tool makers, pat-
tern makers, and other craftsmen, painting benches, for example,
or cleaning up motors.
During the depression days, shortly after the collapse of 1929, a
great number of these skilled tool and die makers, because of the lack
of tool and die work, migrated into automobile production. There are
thousands, literally thousands, of those workers today, working on
ordinary production, workers who are capable of doing skilled work.
I mean highly skilled work, such as tool and die making.
For example, in Flint, in one of the Chevrolet plants, there are
approximately 400 tool and die makers in one department, the motor
assembly department, who are doing nothing but assembly work.
Now, these people, after the last tdol and die season was o\ er,
ran short of work, and naturally, because of their seniority, they were
transferred to production work. They are still working on ordinary
assembly work, which any man could learn in perhaps 2 or 3 weeks'
time — 2 or 3 days in some instances. We contend that if industry
would jerk out from the unskilled operations, from these assembly
lines, all these tool and die makers and highly skilled craftsmen, they
could find a sufficient number of tool and die makers to work on the
national-defense tooling job.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7275
In the city of Detroit we find tlie same problem. One of the largest
tool and die shops in the country is located here in the city of Detroit,
:and we find that even now that tool and die shop is not loaded to
capacity.
There is machinery in there to produce necessary tools and the
necessary dies for national defense, but management evidently has not
seen fit to create a sufficient number of jobs to load that plant to its
capacity. The result is that the national-defense program auto-
matically bogs down m the contention that there are not enough tool
and die makers, when as a matter of fact there are plenty of them
roaming the streets today.
Mr. OsMERS. You have raised a question in my mind there. You
have directed your criticism, with respect to that Detroit tool and die
plant, at management. But let us get down to fundamentals. Man-
agement can't provide any more work than it has contracts for, and
if there is a break-down m Washington, as some think there is, in the
distribution of these orders, you could have any kind of management-
management of your own choosing — at the Detroit plant, and you still
would not be using your full capacity.
PLANTS NOT OPERATED AT CAPACITY
We have had evidence here in Detroit that Michigan's capacity, the
capacity of the automobile industry and many other Michigan indus-
tries, hasn't been fully tapped. The production schedules are not
short enough; the orders are not large enough. We had evidence
yesterday from a group representing the Manufacturers' Association
that a shell contract — to take a very tiny example in the defense
effort — had been let to a concern in Indiana that was totally unpre-
pared to handle the contract. The testimony was that a plant here
in Michigan had tooled up for that work, that it had run an experi-
mental order and was ready to start production, but that the Govern-
ment gave the order to this plant in Indiana that had never made a
shell. That plant was paying about half the wages that they were
paying in Michigan, and although it may be true that the Indiana
plant is going to lose a lot of money, the fact remains that Michigan is
not going to get that business.
So, not excusing management for any of its sins, I thmk we have to
proceed very carefully before saying management is falling down on
nationl defense.
Mr. Thomas. I think your viewpoint is sound. But going back to
the tool and die situation, you asked me what, in my opinion, were the
facts in the matter when management says there is a shortage of tool
and die makers.
Mr. OsMERS. I think you answered that question satisfactorily.
SKILLED WORKERS PROTEST TRANSFER TO UNSKILLED JOBS
Mr. Thomas. There is another point that cornes to my mind.
I know of one management in the city of Detroit, in the automobile
industry, which had some tool and die makers. They had no tool
and die work for them to do but they thought they might have some
in the future. So they put those tool and die makers on a job of
painting the plant, \\lien a man is skilled in a trade, he just doesn't
like to "do anvthing else. I found out about it from the men, who
7276 DETROIT HEARINGS
came to mc and protested because tliey had to paint. They were
working 4 days a week when other tool and die makers were working-
7 days a week and getting time and a half for overtime.
1 find such practices prevalent throughout the industry. The
manufacturers, when tlie}^ consider it advantageous, will put skilled
men to sweeping rather than working at their own trades, so they can
hold on to them.
SENIORITY RIGHTS
I think we have a plan worked out now whereby those men can be
interchanged and at the same time their seniority rights can be pro-
tected, but as 1 say, it has been only within the last couple of weeks
that that has happened.
Mr. Curtis. Would those men rather be released than made to
sweep floors?
Mr. Thomas. Certainly.
Mr. Curtis. So they could go to another city and get defense
work?
Mr. Thomas. In some cases it is not even necessary to leave here
to get other jobs. They can, in many instances, get jobs, but we run
into this difficulty: In our contracts we have seniority set-ups, whereby
if a man takes a job with some other company, he loses his seniority
rights. That makes the man reluctant to leave.
Mr. OsMERS. Shouldn't those clauses be set aside during this
emergency?
Mr. Thomas. We are workmg out now a plan whereby a man's
seniority will revert to the original plant.
The Chairman. Mr. Addes, these hearings are very informal, but
we are still after the facts. We are a part of Congress, here, conduct-
ing these meetings. We are confronted with talk throughout the
Nation that skilled workers are not available. Mr. Lovett, of the
Manufacturers' Association, yesterday advanced the idea that if we
are turning out steel, we should know how much steel the Army will
need, how much the Navy will need, and other defense projects.
Now, if we have half of that steel left, we should know where it should
go. We should plan for equitable distribution.
NO SURVEY OF AVAILABILITY OF SKILLED WORKERS
With reference to your skilled workers, I would like to know if any
survey has been made by the Federal Government or the State of
Michigan as to the number of skilled workers, their skills, and their
availability for transfer. We should have an inventory of the skilled
and also the unskilled workers. Has there been any survey of such
resources?
Mr. Addes. As far as I know, there has been no survey such as
that. There has been a survey of the skilled workers who are usually
employed during the change-over of models. When an individual is
laid off, he comes here to collect his unemployment insurance, and
that is how the figures are obtained. But to my knowledge there has
been no survey made of the workers to whom you have reference —
those who have been transferred over to production, or of the workers
who moved into production shortly after the depression and who still
remain on production.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7277
The Chairman. This committee went to San Diego earher in the
summer. At San Diego is located the Kearney j\lesa housing project.
That is a project of 3,000 units, designed to house 10,000 people.
The man who took me around the project said: "We have all the
workers we want except painters. We can't get any painters."
I live at Oakland, Calif. When I went back to Oakland, I found
the employment service there had applications from hundreds of
painters looking for jobs. We told the authorities about the need for
painters at San Diego and the result was that they got all the painters
they wanted.
Now, what I am trying to point out is there must be some gap some-
where. Because of the lack of a survey of the type I mention, em-
ployers don't know where they can get these skilled workers.
MANUFACTURERS RESIST LABOR SURVEYS
Mr. Thomas. We have tried to make a survey, but we find great
resistance on the part of the manufacturers, whose cooperation we need
in such an attempt. I might say certain State groups have tried
to make the same kind of survey, but they have always found the same
resistance.
Mr. Reuther. There is nothing that would be more revealing than
the kind of survey that you have proposed. Congressman.
I think such a survey should be made not only so far as available
labor supply is concerned, but also to ascertain the available machinery
and floor space.
SUGGESTS SURVEY BY GOVERNMENT AGENCY
We have tried to conduct such a survey as President Thomas has
indicated. We made a survey not only of the number of our members
who are employed at present on skilled jobs, but also, in connection
with the question which Mr. Addes raised, the number of reserve
skilled workers we have in industry who are at present not employed
at their particular skill. There is nothing that we would desire more
than to have an official Government agency, like the United States
Employment Service, conduct a thorough and detailed survey in that
field. We claim there is no shortage. We claim that had such de-
tailed planning been made months ago, we could have had a gradual
transition from civilian production to defense production.
Wliile it is true that management isn't at fault as far as these
problems are concerned, there is a break-down in Washington on the
part of administrative agencies that are releasing the defense con-
tracts. And it is also true that industry has sufficient representation
there to have at least proposed to Government the waiving of its-
business-as-usual prerogatives, so it would have dispensed with the
construction of new streamlined cars, with all of their chrome and
shiny metal parts. Industry could have dispensed with that, and
immediately started releasing blueprints for the construction of tools-
and dies.
There was no shortage then, and there is no real shortage today.
It can still be done. Business-as-usual methods could, in the long
7278 DETROIT HEARINGS
run, accomplish the construction of tlio tools for defense, but the time
element is all-important.
Mr. Curtis. In your proposed survey, why wouldn't you hiclude
material?
Mr. Reuther. Very good. Make a survey of all that is available.
Mr. OsMERs. Mr. Chairman, surveys have been attempted by
unions or by State groups or by other bodies. In my judgment, the
very first thing accomplished in the defense program should have
been an inventory of every skill, of every machine, of every material,
before we started, and we wouldn't be building motor plants in
Chicago and giving shell orders to Indiana, where they never made a
shell, or going into the cornfields where obviously there is going to
be a shortage of tool and die workers.
This whole concept is wrong. But now we have got to make the
best of what has been a very bad job. We are trying in our little
corner of congressional work to cushion the shock — the shock to the
human side of the picture. You can make up for loss of money; you
can make up for the loss of a lot of other things; but if you destroy a
man's home, destroy his family life, you can't make up for that.
It has been amazing to me. Yesterday we heard a man testify
that private associations here and the defense contract service had
to do work that was essentially Washington's job. We find that the
contracts are let in Washington, apparently in response to the greatest
amount of pressure or salesmanship that can be exerted in Wash-
ington, instead of by consulting the file and saying: "There is the
State of Michigan. They can make these things better than anybody
else, and that is the place where those orders are going."
WORKERS STILL EMPLOYED ON NONDEFENSE JOBS
Now, you say in your paper, Mr. Thomas, that
For the past few months as the world situation has become more and more
critical, well over 200,000 tool and die makers have been operating the machine
tools of the auto industry in producing the tools, dies, jigs, and fixtures necessary
to the production of new model cars. Engineers, designers, and lay-out men have
put their labor into making more luxurious cars. These critically important men
have been devoting their full energies to the creation of more attractive automo-
biles; and from advance advertising, these automobiles appear to be very attrac-
tive indeed. But I fear they have been produced at the very high price of un-
employment to automobile workers and slowdown to the national defense program.
You further say:
In the interest of national defense, in the interest of economic security for
automobile workers, immediate steps must be taken for the speedy transformation
of the auto industry into a basic section of the American arsenal of democracy.
Now, concretely, what do you propose to have the Government do
to make the change-over, to make the arsenal of democracy?
Mr. Thomas. Vk ell, we made our proposal, as I said, and I think
from what you have said, you and I could be very much in agreement
on this. We made proposals over 8 months ago to the Government.
Mr. OsMERs. Do you renew those proposals now?
Mr. Thomas. We renew those proposals.
PROPOSALS MADE TO O. P. M.
Mr. Arnold. I would like to interrupt for a moment. I would
like to know who in Government is responsible for not taking this
advice? To whom did you make the proposal?
NATI0N.4X DEFENSE MIGRATION 7279
Mr. Thomas. To O. P. M.
Mr. Arnold. To whom in O. P. M.?
Mr. Thomas. Mr. Kniidsen especially. I had conferences with
Mr. Knudscn myself, and many of these things I am saying to you
I told him. My reaction was that O. P. M. had in mind "business .as
usual." I got those reactions from Mr. Knudsen himself. And I
have found out that the resistance has not been broken down yet.
We have found great resistance, in our effort to get the cooperation of
the automobile and aircraft industries.
I don't think the average American realizes how closely those two
industries arc bound together. Most of the skilled workers in one
industry have had the same sort of job in the other. Most of the
directors in the automobile industry are also directors in the aviation
industry. They have interlocking directorships, yet they have tried
their best to keep the two industries completely apart. Why that is,
I don't know. I don't know, but I have my own ideas.
They are thinking of keeping the industries apart after this national-
defense program is over. These men want to make a profit from two
industries, rather than from a joint industry. That is the only reason
I know of.
Mr. Arnold. The responsibility on O. P. M. is jointly shared by
Mr. Knudsen and Mr. Hillman. Isn't that so?
Mr. Thomas. We brought it to the attention of Mr. Hillman, and
Mr. Hillman agreed with us.
should not repeat early mistakes
Mr. Arnold. As Congressman Osmers says, we have to make the
best of a bad job, because of a bad start. We don't want to do any-
thing now to delay this program, but it is my opinion that those in
Government who are responsible for this 8 or 10 months' delay should
not be allowed to make the same mistake over again.
Mr. Thomas. Well, I certainly agree with you there.
Air. Osmers. I thmk that until more absolute and complete author-
ity is granted to some of tlicse individuals handling the problem, we
are not even going to be able to fix responsibility.
Take the O^ P. M., for instance. Referring to^the O. P. M. is about
like referring to a political party. It is so general you can't nail it
down anywhere.
Mr. Thomas. I read many editorials and newspapers from all over
the country. They think labor has a great voice in our affairs. I
have talked with manufacturers about the situation, and they say:
''Well, you can do that in Washington, I can't."
I think one of the reasons for the bogging down of the situation in
Washington today is that there hasn't been cooperation with labor
in planning for our defense; labor has not been asked and has not
been accepted. Labor knows the answer to many of these questions,
and to some that industry itself doesn't know. Air. Knudsen himself
does not know the answer to some of these questions.
I think that was proved when we put out pamphlets months ago.
I instructed Mr. Reuther, one of our international officers, to make a
survey, which has been completed. If you were to read that survey
today, and if Mr. Knudsen and others in Washington would read
that survey today, they would admit that it would practically fill the
bill if its findings were carried out.
60396— 41— pt. 18 15
7280 DETROIT HEARINGS
A survey was made by another board member, Mr. Frankenstein, in
the aviation industry, on skills and so forth. "Wlien it was brought
out, we couldn't get anybody's attention focused on it. But today
there are people who are willing to look into those plans, and in some
cages they are starting to carry out the recommendations.
SUGGESTS CENTRAL PLANNING BOARD
I personally think that the plan proposed by President Murray,
of the C. 1. O., for a top planning board in Washington — a set-up
headed by the President of the United States or his representative —
can solve this problem. I also personally feel that it will not be solved
in any other fashion.
Mr. OsMERS. I want you to describe to the committee, in your own
words, changes you woidd suggest in the Washington administration
of the defense effort.
Mr. Thomas. I think if there are no changes, you are going to
have a break-down, a complete break-down of the national-defense
program.
Mr. OsMERS. Am I correct in my understanding that you advocate
centralized authority in some direct appointee of the President —
shall we call him a "defense czar"? — I think that is the newspaper
phrase now used.
Mr. Thomas. I can't be sold on the "czar" idea, because that is
what we are fighting against.
Mr. OsMERS. I am using it merely as an often-repeated newspaper
term.
Mr, Thomas. I think there should be a more democratic set-up
than there is today. I think the Army and Navy people are jamming
things through.
Mr. OsMERs. A charge was made here yesterday, Mr. Thomas, that
the Army and the Navy had taken so much material off the market —
supplies for years and years — that many of these nondefense indus-
tries had to close down because of a shortage of material. Has that
been your information too?
Mr. Thomas. I don't know, I have no connection with that.
Mr. OsMERS. No one seemed to know definitely about it. Have
you been informed that they have huge supplies of materials laid
aside?
Mr. Thomas. I have read that. But I have not been otherwise
informed. I say I don't know. I don't know what the facts are in
the case; but I do say this, that this country is in a fight; we are going
"all out," as I understand it.
The Chairman. We arc as close as we can get to actual war without
being in it, I think.
QUESTIONS ARMY AND NAVY HANDLING OF DEFENSE ORDERS
Mr. Thomas. Yes; we are very close, closer than a lot of people
realize. We are in a national-defense program to protect ourselves
against dictatorships and Hitlerism. My impression of Washington
is that we have a set-up in the Army and Navy that is just as dictator-
ial as any nation in the world today.
There has been absolutely no democracy, and I know that they have
placed orders where there just seems to be no sense in placing them;
NATlOJsTAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7281
they have withheld orders when they shouldn't have been withheld,
when this matter of employment and everything else is taken into con-
sideration. There is a lot of buck-passing in Washington by people I
talked to, and there just doesn't seem to be anybody who knows what
to do about it.
Mr. OsMERS. We seem to come back to two things all the tune, Mr.
Thomas— not referring to your testimony especially, but to everyone's
testimonv with respect to the defense program. One is the crying,
urgent, patriotic need of an inventory of everything that we have.
Mr. Thomas. That is right.
Mr. OsMERS. And second, is some organization in Washington — we
can call it by any name we want to call it — some organization in Wash-
ington that wilftake that inventory and convert it into defense for us.
Now, 1 am trying to find out from you and from every witness what
that organization ought to be, what kind of organization it should be.
We don't want to create just another board or bureau for the sake
of creating another board or bureau. We know there is only one
official in Government who has any control over the Army and Navy,
and that is the Commander in Ghief of the Army and Navy. It is
either his problem or the problem of those to whom he has delegated
the power, the Secretary of War or some other official to whom he
might delegate that power.
We realize that if we vest power in someone over the Army and
Navy, and that power isn't correlated with power over the rest of the
economy, confusion will result.
Mr. Thomas. That is correct.
Mr. OsMERS. So now we are getting back again to the word "czar."
You want more "democratic procedure," to use the softer term that
the chairman has suggested to me. But what is the answer?
COOPERATION OF MANAGEMENT, LABOR, AND GOVERNMENT REQUIRED
Mr. Thomas. I still say that there should be a board set up, repre-
senting management and labor and government. At the head of the
board, of course, should be the President of the United States, or his
designated representative, as chairman.
Mr. OsMERS. Do you think that the so-called S. P. A. B., which
the Vice President now heads, is the answer? I read the news-
papers avidly too, and the newspapers read a great deal more authority
into this Board than the Board seems to possess.
Is that the type of board, does it include representatives of the
elements that you would like to have represented? It is appointed
by the President.
S. p. a. B. SET-UP a step IN RIGHT DIRECTION
Mr. Thomas. No. I think that Board has been a step in the right
direction, but it is a long way yet from what I think a proper board
should be.
Mr. OsMERS. Do you feel that Congress, as the direct representa-
tives of the people, should specify by law what that board should be^ —
not the names of those who should sit on it, but the various interests
that should be represented?
Mr. Thomas. Yes; I think they should.
7282 DETROIT HEARINGS
Mr. OsMERS. Do you feel that if Congress did it, it would have
more general support among the people of the country?
Mr. Thomas. That is a very difficult question to answer. The
President has more support today among the working class in many
places, than Congress has as a whole.
Mr. OsMERS. I am aware of that.
Mr. Thomas. For instance, if any Congressman who voted in favor
of this last tax bill that was passed had gone out among the working-
men, he would have found how much influence Congress has; but I
still think that Congress should set up some board. I know under the
present set-up in Washington that thousands of representatives of big
business are being brought into government there, with authority,
and they are runnmg the show. I was a young man in the last war,
but I was old enough to loiow something about it, and I read of the
congressional investigations afterward, and I am afraid the same thing
is happening today.
Mr. OsMERS. I am sure it is.
DEMANDS LABOR REPRESENTATION
Mr. Thomas. That is, representatives are not representing the
people of this country; they are representing their own interests; and
until representatives of the working people are given some authority
in this matter, that will never be stopped. Individual businessmen
are going to do the same thing they did in the last war.
Mr. OsMERS. That is a restatement of the thought that a change is
needed, but it is of no help to us in arriving at exactly what the change
should be. You have made a general statement that the working-
man must be represented. But how should he be represented? Who
shall appoint the board, and what authority shall it have?
You say that a lot of individuals have authority. One of our
functions as Members of Congress is to act as go-betweens, so to
speak, between our constituents and the Federal Government. But
I will admit, as a Member of Congress I can't get a "yes" or "no"
answer. I am not looking for favorable answers on everything, but I
can't get any kind of answer.
Mr. Thomas. It seems to me I was clear in my answer. I will try
to restate it; I will be very frank about it. I would like to give an
example first.
Mr. Kjiudsen was called into Washington and given a lot of power,
and I think in many cases he has failed. Mr. Knudsen represents a
company which employs about a quarter of a million people — 250,000
people who are in our organization, and I am the president of that
organization, with considerably more people mvolved. If I under-
stand government, government is the people; that is, if the Consti-
tution stUl prevails.
Mr. OsMERs. There is some question about that.
Mr. Thomas. Well, I say, if it still prevails.
Mr. Osmers. I didn't appoint Mr. Ivnudsen, so that lets me out.
Mr. Thomas. And I think I want to say for the record, so nobody
will have any mistaken ideas, that I am not here for the purpose of
castigating Mr. Ivnudsen. I think he is just about as good as any
of the other heads of industry.
NATIO^\\L, DEFENSE MIGRATION 7283
Mr. OsMERS. That is a heavily qualified statement.
Mr. Thomas. Well, there are some we get along with better than
others. That is the reason I qualified my statement. But what
I mean is, I don't want anybody to get the idea that I am here to
talk against Mr. Knudsen. I have simply used him as an example.
Mr. OsMERS. We don't want you to talk against anybody. We
want you to talk for the purpose of getting an answer to our problem.
Mr. Thomas. In Washington, business interests have been called
in. Those men cannot represent the interests of the people of this
country. I think if labor is called in, and given equal authority — -
and I don't mean by that boards set up to represent industry with a
banker and a couple of his colleagues. In that way you always get
outvoted, jerrymandered around. Labor should have equal repre-
sentation with industry. Then the problem could be solved.
Mr. OsMERS. Just a moment, Mr. Thomas. It was my under-
standing, and it still is, that Mr. Hillman has absolutely equal author-
ity with Mr. Knudsen — to such an extent that one of our very popular
magazines always puts the two names together, Knudsen and Hill-
man, without any division, indicating that they are a sort of two-
headed animal.
Now, either Mr. Hillman doesn't have equal authority with Mr.
Knudsen, or he does. I realize, and I think every competent ob-
server of the Washington scene would agree, that there are three groups
tussling for power behind the scenes: Business, labor, and Govern-
ment. They are engaged, sometimes even to the detriment of na-
tional defense, in a struggle to control this defense area. Which one
happens to be in the lead at the moment, I don't know.
Mr. Thomas. Even though it is said that Mr. Knudsen and Mr.
Hillman have equal power — and maybe they have
Mr. OsMERS. That was the President's clear explanation of the
set-up.
Mr. Thomas. But you also have a committee set-up there — this
new committee — and Mr. Hillman is only one man.
Mr. OsMERS. Right.
Mr. Thomas. And I am afraid that the Army and Navy repre-
sentatives are much closer to the representatives of industry than they
are to the labor representatives. I know that to be a fact. It is
quite obvious. Everybody knows that retired officers of the Navy
can get jobs at the Bethelehem Steel Co. if they want them. There is
a close tie-up there, and that may be the reason Bethlehem Steel gets
so many orders. I don't know. I am just saying that that may be
one of the questions to be settled.
Mr. Arnold. I want to make sure, Mr. Thomas, that you are not
prejudiced against captains of industry. I don't want to have testi-
mony here like we had on the floor of the House one day. A Repub-
lican Member was castigating Harry Hopkins. I have always been
pretty much of an admirer of Harry Hopkins. But he had me believing
a little bit about what he was saying, until someone said: "Well, Harry
Hopkins is about the most inefficient man in Government, isn't he?"
The reply was: "No. The President of the United States is
more so."
Mr. OsMERS. I am not going to argue that point, Mr. Arnold.
7284 DETROIT HEARINGS
Mr. Thomas. To try to prove to you that I am not prejudiced in
that fashion, let me remind you that it has only been a few months
ago that our organization was in a terrific organizational campaign
in the Ford Motor Co. I thought the Ford Motor Co. was one of the
most backward organizations in our industry. But I would like to
say today that in my opinion the Ford Motor Co. has been the most
forward company, as far as their planning of this situation is concerned,
and that their policy has changed 100 percent.
RECOMMENDATIONS MADE LAST NOVEMBER
Mr. Arnold. I would like to get back to the charge you make,
that last November you called to the attention of officials of Govern-
ment the fact that there should then have been started a change-over
in existing facilities in the automobile industry for the purpose of mak-
ing airplanes and producing materials of war. The 8 or 10 months since
then have been very important months. They might even determine
whether we have eventually to get into this war.
Mr. Thomas. That is correct.
Mr. Arnold. Now, I want to know if you called this to the atten-
tion of officials who had the power then to make that change-over.
Mr. Thomas. I met with Mr. Hillman and Mr. Knudsen.
Mr. Arnold. And you think they had that power?
Mr. Thomas. Yes, I do.
Mr. Arnold. And they didn't do it?
Mr. Reuther. And it was also called to the attention of the
President.
Mr. Thomas. It was called to the attention of the President of the
United States by Mr. Murray.
need for inventory of material and resources
The Chairman. Mr. Thomas, the problem that we are discussing is
a vast and interesting one. I shall take back to Washington the
thought, among others, that we need an inventory of skills and mate-
rials and of the various resources of our country. We may not be able
to do very much until we have such an inventory. We should know
how much of these materials should go to the Army, how much should
be allocated to the Navy, and what the surplus is. And perhaps most
important is the inventory of labor, skilled and unskilled.
Mr. Thomas. There is no question about that.
Mr. Reuther. On the question of setting up a new agency in
Washington, with labor, management, and Government representation,
I doubt^very much whether the establishment of any single agency in
Washington, administered from Washington, will be successful.
subcommittees for every major industry
This entire job, as it relates to the basic industries in America,
involves the fundamental requirement that labor has recognized all
through this 10-month period, and that is the establishment, for
every major industry, of subcommittees that will deal with the
specific problems in steel, aluminum, and so forth.
NATIO^'AL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7285
It was only a few weeks ago that O. P. M. took the initiative to
call together nia^iagement, labor, and Government representatives, to
deal with one particular problem as relates to the automobile industry —
the question of transfers, and the avoidance of dislocation of labor.
No one better understands the problems of the auto industry than
the people who build the automobiles and the management that owns
and represents own-ership of the automobile companies. Why
shouldn't we establish in the auto industry a committee of labor,
management, and Government, that will use the figures to be revealed
through such a survey? That committee could discuss where dis-
locations are occurring, where there are available supplies of machinery
and of plant space and labor, and see to it that the agencies in Wash-
ington that are going to release the contracts are adequately informed.
This body also will know and understand how to handle the problems
created by the pressure groups and by those who would adhere to
business-as-usual practices; it would do away with abuses through
personal relationships between the Ordnance Department and repre-
sentatives of corporations whereby decisions are made as to where
contracts should be released. Let us do all this on the basis of facts
that will be revealed from the survey.
Mr. OsMERS. I think, Mr. Reuther, there is a great deal in what
you have to say there. We have got to bring order out of chaos, and
I don't know how you are going to do it unless you have representa-
tives of all concerned. We don't want to be top-heavy, or weighted
one way or the other. If that occurs we will defeat the very purpose
we set out to accomplish.
Mr. Thomas. That is correct.
Mr. OsMERs. Mr. Thomas, how many members does your union
have?
UNION HAS 556,000 MEMBERS
Mr. Thomas. We have around 700,000 people under contract.
Our paid membership runs around, I think, 556,000.
Mr. OsMERS. How many of those arc in Michigan?
Mr. Thomas. Between 250,000 and 300,000.
Mr. OsMERS. And how many of them will be affected by the cur-
tailment of automobile production?
Mr. Thomas. Better than 200,000.
Mr. OsMERs. Is that the total number to be affected?
Mr. Thomas. Maybe I misunderstood your question.
Mr. OsMERS. How many of your members, all over the country,
will be affected by the curtailment of auto production?
Mr. Thomas. The cut will be close to 50 percent, and I figure that
practically 50 percent of our membership will be affected.
STUDY OF four-shift PLAN
Mr. OsMERS. Now, has your union made a study of the four-shift
idea, the idea of maximizing the effort and minimizing the man-hours
lost?
Mr. Thomas. We have, and we are working on it now.
Mr. OsMERS. Does it look as though that plan is going to get a
favorable verdict?
Mr. Thomas. There is that possibility.
7286 DETROIT HEARINGS
Mr. OsMERS. We are very much interested in those people who for
years have come to Michigan for the purpose of wQ^'king during the
season, and then returning to their former places of abode. In the
past, before the defense emergency, a great majority of these out-of-
State people could be counted on to retm-n when they were needed
in the new-model season. Now, do you think that in the course of
any new unemployment period, your membership can be expected to
remain in Michigan, and if not, do you think they can be counted on
to return when defense work does open up full blast?
In other words, how many will you lose during the unemployment
period, and how many will come back after the unemployment period
has tapered off?
FEW MIGRATORY WORKERS IN AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY
Mr. Thomas. We don't have very many migratory workers in our
organization.
Mr. OsMERS. They are not an important factor in it?
Mr. Thomas. They are not an important factor in our organiza-
tion at all.
Mr. OsMERs. Have you made any estimate of the number of
workers who are readily transferable to defense jobs — that is, with-
out further training?
Mr. Addes. Approximately 50 percent of them would not require
any training.
Mr. Osmers. Are you satisfied in general with the present training
programs that have been established? Do you feel that they are
adequate?
PRESENT TRAINING PROGRAMS INADEQU.A.TE
Mr. Reuther. The present training program is by no means ade-
quate, in view of the tremendous curtailments that are going to take
place.
It is true that we have been able to recruit a considerable number
of our own membership and enroll them in the vocational training
programs through the board of education, but their facilities are now
exhausted, and the training-wi thin-industry program has got to be
developed to a much larger extent. It must deal in terms of training
of 50,000 or 60,000 or' 100,000 individuals for speciahzed jobs in
defense production.
Mr. Osmers. That answers the question I was going to ask with
respect to which of the two, three, or four progTams that are gomg on
is the one that would be most adaptable for enlargement. You
think it is the training-within-mdustry program?
Mr. Reuther. Definitely, because they have the equipment there;
they have the machinery, and that is the thmg that the Board of
Education lacks at the present time.
Mr. Thomas. Wliile we are discussing this phase of it, there is one
thing I might bring to your attention.
NATIO:yAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7287
TRAINING PROGRAMS AND PLANT LOCATION
This point I brought up originally on the building of that Buick
plant in Chicago. The Government is spendmg thousands of dollars
there to break in trainees in that particular plant. Had that plant
been built in Flint, or available facilities in Flint used, it would have
been unnecessary to spend that money for a training program.
Mr. OsMERS. You mean that we are training men in Chicago to
perform work which could be done by already trained men in Flint,
while at the same tune these Michigan workers are losing jobs?
Mr. Thomas. That is so.
Mr. OsMERS. That doesn't seem to make sense.
Mr. Thomas. Not only that; they are moving machinery out of
Flint to Chicago — moving it away from the men.
Mr. OsMERS. That makes even less sense. Do you think the
present benefit provisions of the unemployment compensation system
are adequate to meet the situation now arising?
PRIORITY UNEMPLOYMENT
Mr. Thomas. No; I don't. Regardless of what plan you put into
effect, there is no question but what we are going to have here what is
known as priorities unemployment.
It is my personal opinion that in this city, for those who are suffering
priorities unemployment and who expect some time within the next
six months to a year to go on national-defense work, there should be
unemployment -compensation provisions to make the weekly amount
higher and to stretch out the period of payments.
Mr. OsMERS. You were not here yesterday when I questioned
several witnesses about a bill that I have been working on for some
time. I shall probably introduce it to Congress if it gets a clean bill
of health from people who know most about those things.
My proposal has two angles. One applies to the period after the
defense emergency, when we know that we may have a year or two of
prosperity, and following that a very hard depression.
It was my thought that we should extend the period of unemploy-
ment compensation to at least 26 weeks, if not longer, and that we
should increase and make more uniform the rates of weekly payment.
In general, would you say that that is a healthy proposal, a proposal
in the right direction?
Mr. Thomas. I would say that it is certainly very fine.
Mr. OsMERs. If the rates of taxation were increased, as they prob-
ably would be to make the program eft'ective, do you feel that such
increase might have, shall we say, an effect of controlling inflation,
by laying aside a little bit more of the worker's envelope each week,
which, of course, would be to his credit in the fund?
Mr. Thomas. I will answer "Yes" to the question, but I would like
to answer something further than that'. Again I want to bring up
this last tax bill.
I think the worker was hit pretty hard in that bill.
Mr. OsMERS. Because of the lowering of the exemptions, Mr.
Thomas?
7288 DETROIT HEARINGS
Mr. Thomas. That is correct — lowering the exemptions and faihire
to increase commensurately the tax bill for the manufacturer, for
industry.
Mr. OsMERs. Those rates are so confusing, even to the ones who
have studied them, that it is almost impossible to know what the
effect will be until after they have gone into operation.
The Chairman. I am afraid if we enter into a debate as to the wis-
dom of the tax bill, we will be here for about 40 years.
Mr. OsMERs. And then not know whether it was wise.
Mr. Addes. I would like to put forth another suggestion, since
you are contemplating introducmg a bill that is going to move in the
right direction as we see it.
SUGGESTS DEBT MORATORIUM DURING PRIORITY UNEMPLOYMENT
I think another bill ought to be introduced. It ought to be done
very rapidly. And that is a moratorimn on rents, automobile pay-
ments, refrigerator payments, et cetera, for workers who are affected
by these priorities. Ordinarily, when a man purchases a home, for
example, and becomes unemployed because of priority unemployment,
his payments don't stop; they continue, rents, automobile payments,
refrigerator payments, radio payments, et cetera. Those payments
must be met on a monthly or semimonthly or weekly basis, and a man
who becomes unemployed in this manner should be protected by a
law adopted by Congress, setting aside these interim obligations until
such time as he regains employment in national-defense industry.
Mr. OsMERS. Would you say, Mr. Addes, that the form of that
legislation should follow in general the legislation that grants relief to
a man who is put in the Army under selective service?
Mr. Addes. I think it ought to be much stronger.
Mr. OsMERs. How would you justify making it stronger, consider-
ing the difference between the pay of the selectee and that of the man
in industry?
Mr. Addes. I think the moratorium in effect under the Selective
Service Act is inadequate.
WORKERS MISLED BY REPORTS OF LABOR SHORTAGES
Mr. Thomas. There is something we should point out to you. Last
year, during the last model in the automobile iDdustry, the workers
had been told that they were going to have a very prosperous future;
that there was going to be a shortage of labor. Those stories came
out of government. The men were told there was going to be all
kinds of shortages of labor, and as a result, those workers who are
usually quite cautious about their buying have been misled. The
average man doesn't go out and buy something that he knows he isn't
going to be able to pay for. But because of these stories, a great
number of our workers bought new automobiles, new furniture, radios,
and washing machines. They were looking forward to this period of
prosperity.
Now they have waked up to the fact that the ground has been cut
out from under them, and many of them, unless something is done, are
going to lose the things they bought. That is not going to help the
economy of the country, as I see it.
natio:nal defense migration 7289
Mr. OsMERS. I think definitely if the Government is going to dis-
place men purely through the priorities route, or shall I say the lack
of materials under the priorities arrangement, some adjustment will
have to be made. Here the Government is coming in and upsettmg
the economy and putting a man out of work.
I understand in Buflalo there was a relatively small number dis-
placed— I am speaking of automobile workers in that city — but even
under the favorable circumstances existing in Buffalo, where there is
an expanding aircraft industry, only a little over a third of your mem-
bers found employment.
Mr. Thomas. That is correct.
BUFFALO PLAN
Mr. OsMERS. How do you expect the Buffalo plan will work out
when applied to the Michigan situation ?
Mr. Thomas. I personally think the Buffalo plan is a very fine plan
which, if put into operation, would also work in Detroit. But I am
beginnmg to wonder if the manufacturers— and I have got my fingers
crossed — even though they said they will go along with the Bufl'alo
plan, I am wondering if the manufacturers really would do so if a
larger number of people were unemployed.
Mr. Addes. Wlien the Buffalo plan was worked out, a group of
manufacturers got together and agreed. But some did and some
didn't agree to absorb these people who were qualified to work on
national-defense projects.
We have a program here that has been worked out between manage-
ment and labor. Management didn't wholly accept it but O. P. M.
finally put it as an order, and with this supplement to the Buffalo
plan, I believe that the arrangement can be worked out here very
well — provided, however, that management will cooperate.
I don't know whether you have seen the five points that have been
put into eft'ect by O. P. M. as a result of a meeting with management.
Mr. OsMERS. That was done in a recent conference?
Mr. Addes. Yes. ^
Mr. OsMERS. I wish you would give us a copy of it for our record.
How many of your workers, Mr. Thomas, have been trained on the
job for defense work?
Mr. Reuther. It is very difficult to answer that because so many
corporations have their own training plan.
TRAINEES STILL WAITING FOR DEFENSE JOBS
Mr. OsMERS. How many of your members, if any, have been trained
for defense work and are still waiting to be transferred from nonde-
fense work to the defense work? Is there any considerable number?
Mr. Thomas. No.
Mr. Addes. Yes. I would say in certain plants there are large
numbers of men who are awaiting assignment in the defense jobs.
Mr. OsMERS. You wouldn't be able to give us an exact or approxi-
mate number, Mr. Addes?
Mr. Addes. No; it is difficult to do that; but I know of two or
three plants where the expansion in national defense has not been
made rapidly enough to absorb those who have already been trained.
1 See pp. 7495-7496.
7290 DETROIT HEARINGS
Mr. Reuther. It was difficult to anticipate just where the ciir-
taihnent would hit hardest until the December figures were given to
us, but on the basis of those, we now know in Briggs and Ternstedt
and in other plants, exactly how many workers will be affected, and
there we are endeavoring to enroll those workers who will be affected
immediately, even before the lay-off, in a training program.
Mr. Thomas. I said, "No" to your question and the other boys said
"Yes." I want to explain that to you.
There have been large groups trained, but because of the way you
put the question, I was figuring on a percentage basis of our total
membership. It wouldn't amount to over 1 or 2 percent of the total
membership.
Mr. Reuther. I understand there have been approximately 30,000
trained in the city of Detroit through the vocational defense training
plants, and I believe we are very conservative in estimating at least
20,000 of those trainees were recruited from our organization and
referred to the Board of Education.
Mr. OsMERs. I think that is a tribute to your organization — taking
the lead in that question.
U. A. W. POSITION ON PAY FOR TRAINEES
Has the U. A. W. taken any position on the question of pay for
trainees while in trainmg?
Mr. Thomas. We have been negotiating with each corporation.
What we have been trying to negotiate is full pay for trainees. In
many cases that has not been accomplished; in some cases it has.
Our position has been for full pay.
Mr. Curtis. I was mterested in your illustration of the factory
that was placed at Chicago when, as you suggested, it should have been
located at Flint.
OPPOSES DECENTRALIZATION
Do you favor a program to decentralize the entire defense activity
and cany some of it out to agricultural and rural areas?
Mr. Thomas, The way it is going, I think it is just about the silliest
thing that I have run up against.
Mr. Curtis. Wliat is? — the centralization or the agitation for
decentralization?
Mr. Thomas. Putting large plants out in corn fields or in sandy
deserts is silly. It is just ridiculous, in my opinion.
Mr. Curtis. In other Avords, you do not favor any of this agitation
for further decentralization?
Mr, Thomas. That is correct.
AGRICULTURAL REPRESENTATION
Mr. Curtis. Now, on this board that you suggest, of labor, man-
agement, and government, would you give agriculture a representative?
Mr. Thomas. In industrial production agriculture should not have
any representative. Where farmers are involved, they should have a
board of their own, on which industry and labor would not be repre-
sented.
Mr. Curtis. Well, they have got more boards now than they have
farmers, but I refer to this super board that runs the show.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7291
'Mr. Thomas. Oh, certainly; I certainly do. The farmer should be
represented there.
DISCUSS DEBT MORATORIUM
Mr. Curtis. In reference to the moratorium that you suggested,
would you confine that moratorium merely to the industrial worker,
or would you extend it to the busmessman himself, the retailer — and
he is scattered the length and breadth of the country — who will be no
longer in business because he cannot get materials? Are you going
to give him a moratorium against his debts, including his wholesale
bills?
Mr. Addes. To be perfectly frank with you, I have never looked
at it from that angle. I was primarily interested in the workingman.
Mr. Curtis. Would you extend it to the farmers when it doesn't
rain?
Mr. Thomas. I was speaking of ''priorities unemployment."
When it doesn't rain, I don't think we can blame that on the Govern-
ment.
Mr. Curtis. Well, but we do.
Mr. Arnold. Some people do.
Mr. Curtis. It swings lots of elections. But would you extend
your moratorium to the businessman himself, the retailer particu-
larly?
Mr. Thomas. I think you would have to do so, for the retailer
particularly.
Mr. Curtis. And his individual salesmen as well?
Mr. Thomas. That is correct.
Mr. Curtis. I am thinking of many automobile agencies that are
out in areas where there is no chance to transfer to any defense
activities. They will just be closed up. But you are going to need
them, you are going to need that system to distribute your products
when you go back to automobile production.
increased profits to automobile workers
Mr. Wish ART. As you may know, prices on cars are being increased this
year, not only the manufacturer's price, but the dealer's price, through
his reduction in the allowance on second-hand cars. That means that
the dealer's discount or profit on a single car sale will be increased.
Under the curtailment, the total number of cars sold will be consid-
erably smaller than last year. At the same time, the profit per car
being higher, many dealers will be able to make out on that basis.
Mr. Curtis. But the extra profit is not sufficient to take care of
them.
Mr. WiSHART. It is hard to estimate exactly, but according to Ward's
Report, showing the actual price increase to the average purchaser of
a car will amount to about $200 or $250, making allowance for the
reduction in your trade-in value on a second-hand car. I should say-
there is going to be adequate provision for the dealer himself.
SALESMEN AFFECTED BY AUTOMOBILE CURTAILMENT
Now, for the automobile salesmen you might find the situation
somewhat difl'erent, because the necessity of the salesmen will be con-
siderably reduced by large buying power, met by comparatively
7292 DETROIT HEARINGS
small power to produce automobiles; so I think the problem there does
not involve the retailer, but his employees, and I certainly believe
that some provision should be made to transfer these men to jobs
which will allow them to maintain their position in our economic set-up.
Mr. Thomas. The automobile salesmen will perhaps be hit hardest
or as hard, as any other group in the country. There is going to be
such a demand for automobiles that the retailers won't need any
salesmen.
The Chairman. With reference to the moratorium on debts of
retailers and employees and one thing and another, I assume you are
not taking as a precedent the moratorium that was placed on the
debts of foreign governments following the first World War.
Mr. Thomas. W^e are not asking that our debts be canceled per-
manently; we are not asking Congress to scale our debts down. All
we are asking is time to pay them.
The Chairman. The Frazier-Lemke bill on real-estate mortgages
was based on that premise, was it not?
Mr. Thomas. Yes.
FURTHER SUGGESTIONS FOR DEBT MORATORIUM
Mr. Reisinger. I think the moratorium should extend to all of
those who are affected by priorities unemployment. If our workers in
the automotive plants lose their jobs, that unemployment in turn
affects others, the salesmen in the field, the small retail stores.
For instance, in Flint, which is strictly an automotive town, if the
large percentage of those people can't purchase, it must make a prob-
lem for the retail stores there.
I think consideration should be given to the businessman. I think
this matter of moratorium is very important to the whole set-up of
defense. Morale in our country is all-important in time of emergency,
just as it is in the Army or the Navy. I think if we have this unem-
ployment, people will begin to lose their morale if they are faced with
a lot of debts and foreclosures on their homes and other, purchases.
Mr. Curtis. I have no further questions, but I have this request to
make of you gentlemen: If in your work and your research you should
happen to find who is in charge of the defense program at Washington,
or any detailed part thereof, I will be glad to know it.
Mr. Thomas. And if you find out, will you let us know also?
Mr. Curtis. I was sent around from 1 department to another on
about 12 different errands 1 day, and it ended up with the last fellow
suggesting that I make the inquiry of my local chamber of commerce.
It so happened that that was where I got the original inquiry.
UNDEREMPLOYMENT ON DEFENSE CONTRACTS
Mr. Addes. Let me go back one moment to the question of labor
shortage. It has been said that there is a labor shortage on the one
hand, and on the other hand it has been stated that there is a great
volume of contracts. But the direct effect of these contracts on
actual employment is often exaggerated. For mstance in General
Motors, out of some 210,000 employees, there are only approximately
45,000 working on national-defense production at the present time,
which I think is mterestmg m the light of the ballyhoo, or the propa-
NATION.\I. DEFENSE MIGRATION 7293
gancla, I should say, that is emanating out of some agencies from which
the daily press carries statements that there is a shortage in labor.
Management has made that statement, and these same agencies
are carry mg on the propaganda that there is a great deal of national-
defense work left to be done; yet you find a corporation as mighty as
General Motors with only 45,000 people employed on national
defense.
Mr. Thomas. I filed a brief or statement with the committee.
I have an additional statement on what is happenmg to housing here,
from the point of view of a student of migration. Will it be permissible
to file that with the committee later?
The Chairman. Mr. Thomas, our record will be held open for at
least a couple of weeks. If there is something that occurs to anyone
in this panel, supplemental to what has been testified or brought out
in the hearing, we will welcome such information as a part of the
record.
Mr. Arnold. I just can't let one or two statements go unchallenged.
I was going to say to Congressman Curtis that we Democrats don't
have any trouble getting all kinds of information in Washington.
Mr. OsMERS. Wliat do you mean by "all kinds" — good and bad?
Mr. Arnold. I was going to ask a question of Mr. Thomas, in view
of the fact that he is opposed to the decentralization of defense
industries. I come from Illinois, and I haven't said anything about
the Chicago plant. I live farther down in the State. But I have in
mind the big shell and bomb loading plant being constructed at
Herrin, drawing upon an area of about five counties. Those counties
have been heavy coal producers, but the coal is mined out. As a
result, there have been some 30,000 unemployed there ever since 1930.
This shell and bomb loading plant was placed there to employ those
men. Otherwise they never would have been employed unless they
migrated to some other State, and that is what this committee is
trying to prevent.
Now, would you still say, in view of that, that these plants should
be centralized and further congested in the areas you speak of?
SHOULD LOCATE PLANTS WHERE LABOR IS AVAILABLE
Mr. Thomas. No, no. I don't want my statement misunderstood.
I said people who do the kind of work that is done in our particular
industry should not be forced to move to some little jerkwater town
in Oklahoma.
Mr. OsMERS. Or a little jerkwater town in Nebraska.
Mr. Thomas. In the particular situation you are talking about,
you have an unemployment problem there. It is necessary, as you
said, for those people to have some kind of work, and this plant you
mention is not for the purpose of curing priority unemployment. It
is a new kind of work altogether.
Mr. Arnold. In other words, you would say industries in that
classification should be dispersed and placed in areas that have
unemployment. You would apply this to industries that do not
require special skills?
Mr. Thomas. Yes; and not only that, but also industries that don't
require the importation of people into the area. The industry you
are talking about will not need to import people.
7294 DETROIT HEARINGS
Mr. Arnold. But you think the buildmg of airplanes should be
further concentrated in areas where the skilled labor is already
available?
Mr. Thomas. Yes.
Mr. Arnold. Well, I don't object to that.
The Chairman. I want to say to you gentlemen that we hope we
have not given you the impression of tiying to curtail your dis-
cussion. But we have a heavy schedule, and we have to get back to
Washington to save the Nation. We have that problem on our
shoulders.
We want to thank you very much for your valuable presentation
here today, and if there is anything else you care to put in the record,
you may forward it to the committee in Washmgton.
Air. Thomas. And we thank you for the courteous hearing we
have had, Mr. Chahman.
The Chairman. Commander Eade is our next witness.
TESTIMONY OF IT. COMDR. WALTER F. EADE, UNITED STATES
NAVAL RESERVE, INSPECTOR OF NAVAL AIRCRAFT, UNITED
STATES NAVY, DETROIT, MICH.
The Chairman. Commander Eade, will you take the seat there?
Congressman Arnold will interrogate you.
We appreciate your coming here very much.
Mr. Arnold. Will you state your name for the committee, and
the capacity in which you appear here?
Commander Eade. Lt. Comdr. Walter F. Eade, United States
Naval Reserve, inspector of naval aircraft in Detroit.
Mr. Arnold. You have submitted a statement. Commander Eade^
that will go into the record in full.
(The statement referred to above is as follows:)
STATEMENT BY LT. COMDR. WALTER F. EADE, UNITED STATES
NAVAL RESERVE, INSPECTOR OF NAVAL AIRCRAFT, UNITED
STATES NAVY
The defense program in its enlarged scale has created many problems having
to do with both manpower and materials. Some of these problems are extremely
difficult to deal with easily, particularly that of manpower. In the case of ma-
terial, the problem is of vast proportion but has one advantage, namely that the
"capacity of production" is tangible. The disposition of the mateiials of this
production capacity, although a tangible factor also, becomes much more diffi-
cult to adjust to defense needs than that of production because of the displacements
of manpower required from nondefense to defense work.
Productive capacity, with respect to basic materials required for defense work,
has been stepped up materially by a corresponding step-up in plant capacity, that
is to say a plant operating formerly at 50-percent capacity steps up to 100-percent
capacity with the attendant increase in man-hours. To implement this step-up
further required an addition of both manpower and plant facilities.
How to acquire the addition of manpower becomes a problem of transition of
available labor from nondefense to defense work with the least disruption to
invested capital in nondefense production. The curtailment of certain non-
defense production can supply manpower direct to defense production in specific
fields as in the manufacture of tanks, ships, machine tools, jigs, and fixtures and
probably a large amount of ordnance material.
The above transition should be accomplished with the least disruption to those
nondefense manufacturers who have the type of labor and have been producing
durable goods of similar nature to defense requireinents, as referred to above.
Attention should be drawn to the fact that in certain manufacturing centers
NATIO:SA.L DEFENSE MIGRATION 7295
where these durable goods are produced there will appear very little migration of
workers.
Cognizance should be taken, however, to the need for orderly curtailment of
nondefense production whereby manpower can be shifted in direct proportion to
curtailment of the use of basic materials which are needed for defense production.
In other words, "a tapering off of nondefense production and tapering on of
defense production commensurate with the requirements of materials and facil-
ities." The correlation of these factors is of prime importance to both labor and
the materials question,
FACTORS IN SUPPLYING AIRCRAFT LABOR NEEDS
In the case of supplying the labor demands for accelerating production of air-
craft, aircraft accessories and the like, except aircraft engines, the problem be-
comes one which is extremely difficult. The problem, as a general one, contains
several factors, among which are:
(a) The lack of nondefense labor market from which to draw qualified personnel.
(6) That aircraft production facilities in most instances are not located in areas
of large labor markets.
(c) That by virtue of (a) above labor must be trained.
(d) That by virtue of (6) above migration of potential labor must result.
One vital deficiency factor appears obvious from the above, to wit: That such
labor as is or could be made available by curtailment of nondefense production
cannot, by a large percentage, be either migrated or shifted to aircraft production
without being put through a training period. A minimum training period of 3
months appears necessary before this group of workers is sufficiently indoctri-
nated to place them in the production line.
Again, cognizance must be taken of the curtailment of nondefense commensu-
rate with a step-up in aircraft defense production to the end that an orderly
process may result. Correlation of the curtailment of nondefense work as to
materials available, training period requirement for airci'aft workers, and the rate
of absorption of these trainees into aircraft production together with availability
of materials and plant facilities, must be made if a labor disruption is to be
avoided.
Experienced aircraft workers have been in the past migratory to a large extent,
moving about with the allocation of contracts by the services, and in later years
due to an impetus in commercial aviation. The transition of nondefense indus-
tries to defense aircraft production creates the need for experienced key personnel.
Such personnel can only be requisitioned from the old line aircraft manufacturers.
Migration must necessarily follow in that an infiltration of experienced workers
must be made available to assist in directing these nondefense industries to get
under way, thereby accelerating the much needed aircraft program.
Aircraft production may be compared to automobile production within very
narrow limits. Except for the difference in materials used, punch presses, dies
(blanking and forming) are identical operations applied to sheet stock. The
finishing of forgings and castings is more closely allied to the rquirements of auto-
mobile engine parts. Due to the need for holding down weight in aircraft con-
struction, thus utilizing the material to its ultimate strength-weight ratio, the
required workmanship is more meticulous. This applies to all faying surfaces
designed for motion, such as parts of the control system, landing gears, wing
attaching bolt fittings, most of which are highly stressed forgings of steel or
aluminum alloys.
In this connection both men and machines must be capable; the machinist
must work to closer limits and the machine must be satisfactory for the finer work.
Automotive experienced personnel can be adapted to this type of work, with very
little if any training. However, the body worker in general must be trained in
the handling of both materials and tools applicable to the aircraft type of work.
BREAK-DOWN OF WORK IN AIRCRAFT MANUFACTURE
Some idea of the break-down of the classifications of work in the aircraft labor
field is indicated by the following cla.sses:
(n) Sheet stock, "cutting and forming: Press work (mechanical dies), hand work
(hand forming over wood forms), routing (cutting by machine routers), blanking
(cutting by dies).
(6) Forgings, castings: Machine work, high grade.
(c) Fabrication: Riveting (by machine liveters), riveting (by hand tools).
(d) Special processes: Heat treatment (very rigid control) finishes, paints,
spraying.
60396— 41— pt. 18 16
7296 DETROIT HEARINGS
(e) Fabric: Application of fabric preliminary preparation of fabric for painting
Classes: (a) Training insofar as more care in handling materials for aircraft
than in automotive; (6) greater accuracy in machine finishing; (c) requires ex-
tensive training in the handling of all tools required; (d) requires extremely close
supervision and general instructions; (e) application of fabric requires some skill
(women are best suited for this work and can be trained quickly).
(Note. — All finishing requires trained personnel.)
One of the factors causing delays in aircraft production is basic design. The
underlying reason being that those airj)lanes for which production is desired are
for the most part not entirely adaptable to mass production as the automotive
field views the problem. In addition, the subcontractor as the automotive field
becomes in general, finds the need for creating changes in design to make certain
parts adaptable to mass production, such changes should be welcome.
Changes in design brought about by studies from actual combat sometimes are
of absolute necessitv, whereas improvements of a general nature may be incor-
porated with slight delays of production to the present types, thus permitting a
certain frozen production standard. Changes of absolute necessity, such as
armament equipment usually result in a modified design and may become serious
factors retarding the acceleration of the mass production program.
Another inevi'table delay in getting under way is the interim required between
the time a design is frozen and production due to the tooling time requirement.
Along with this tooling time it should be noted that mass production for aircraft,
comparable to automotive production, requires a finer break-down of subassembly
operations with its attendant increase in jigs and fixtures.
Although the subject of design changes is controversial as to where to stop, the
automotive field is concerned only with conditions bearing on volume production.
Again the automotive industry requires, as in their automobile production, rigid
time schedules and the stabilizing or freezing personnel to fixed duties. These
requirements cannot be attained under constant changes in design except as minor
changes are dictated by production methods and wherein such changes are not
altering the strength factor. ,
Since it is admitted that skilled labor is not available, the reservoir of persons
"able and willing" must come from nondefense production and to a large measure
must be trained. True it is that schools of one sort or another have been set up
to train aircraft workers, but such training must be implemented by additional
training on the type of work for which the person will be assigned.
In conclusion, "it can be said that practically all mistakes made in the production
line-up are due to inadequate familiarization with the seriousness of such mistakes
and inadequate training of personnel.
TESTIMONY OF LT. COMDR. WALTER F. EADE—Resumed
Mr. Arnold. In what basic respect does aircraft prodiiction differ
from ordnance or automobile production? I realize that is a double-
barreled question.
TWO CATEGORIES OF AIRCRAFT PRODUCTION
Commander Eade. Aircraft production divides itself into probably
two distinct categories.
In the first place the aircraft division handhng the power plant and
machineable accessories is comparable in a large measure to the
automobile engine or machine products department; whereas the
fabrication of the major portion of the airplane— the wings, the tail
surface and body — is not comparable to body construction for auto-
mobiles, nor any phase of it. , • <• i
Mr. Arnold. Can you tell me to what extent acceleration of the
aircraft production program in the Detroit area has caused an influx
of workers?
Commander Eade. I can't answer that question with hgures.
I do not have any information available.
NATIONS AI. DEFENSE MIGRATION 7297
However, there has been some influx of aircraft people from other
plants, i. e., other old line companies.
That applies to the Briggs Manufacturing Co., the Murray Body
Co., and probably Hudson also, to some extent. I don't know exactly
how much.^
Mr. Arnold. Has this been a healthy migration, from the stand-
point of availability of aircraft workers?
Commander Eade. I can't answer. I think it is a necessary step.
Mr. Arnold. In your paper you state there is a shortage of skilled
labor. What effect is this shortage having on aircraft production?
SHORTAGE OF SKILLED AERONAUTICAL LABOR
Commander Eade. It appears to me that the shortage of technical
and qualified aeronautical help seriously hampei-s the ahcraft-produc-
tion program. The production methods in aircraft are not comparable
to those of automobile production.
Mr. Arnold. Assuming that the cut in automobile production wijl
release considerable numbers of skilled and semiskilled workers to the
labor market, can these workers be absorbed immediately by the air-
craft industry?
Commander Eade. No.
Mr. Arnold. You heard the testimony of the other gentlemen this
morning?
Commander Eade. I heard part of it; yes.
Mr. Arnold. Have you any comment to make?
AIRCRAFT WORK REQUIRES SPECIALIZED TRAINING
Commander Eade. My only comment is that ahcraft work is such
that the majority of it requires specialized training, even if it is train-
ing of only short duration.
The entire subject is quite controversial, and all one can do, I
believe, is consider details. For instance, a machinist operating on
automobile engines may be immediately transferred to comparable
work in aii'craft-engine manufacture, but the tolerances, the limits
within which he is required to work, are closer in most instances
than in automobile work. Therefore, he has to have some supervision
and must learn a more careful teclmique.
For work on aircraft materials, aside from the engine, the auto-
mobile worker must go through a training period of not less than 3
months to bring him to fixed duties.
In other words, the production system in the automobile field re-
quires an individual worker to be trained for fixed duties. Now, that
same system can be applied by companies in the aircraft production
field, provided they have trained personnel or provide a training
period within which to accommodate that purpose.
Mr. Arnold. You heard the testimony concerning the suggested
conversion of automobile plants If^st November instead of now.
Would you have any comment to make as to why that was not done?
Commander Eade. Primarily, the equipment and facilities are not
adaptable to aircraft production in general.
Mr. Arnold. Then you think the project of the Government in
establishing a plant in Chicago to construct engines has been effi-
ciently planned, that it has not been a wasted effort?
' See letter from AVarren F. Bow, p- 7662.
7298 DETROIT HEARINGS
Commander Eade. My ofi'hand thought would be that it hasn't
been wasted effort. I think it is necessary.
Mr. Arnold. Have you any comment to make on the faihire of the
Government to utilize the surplus of tool makers and die makers,
mentioned here this morning?
Commander Eade. Tool makers and die makers are valuable
assets to aircraft production.
I am constantly reminded that many of the managements of the
various plants say they cannot get them. The reason behind that I
would not know.
Mr. Arnold. You believe that the system of training which is
already established in many aircraft plants will have to be consider-
ably expanded, and that the men will have to have that training even
though they may have been skilled automobile workers?
Commander Eade. May I ask a definition of your phrase, ''skilled
automobile workers"?
Mr. Curtis. One who belongs to the union.
The Chairman. Will you answer that question, Dr. Lamb?
ABSORPTION OF SKILLED WORKERS
Dr. Lamb. I assume the reference is to the skills that have been
discussed here — those of tool and die makers.
Commander Eade. Tool and die makers can be directly absorbed.
Dr. Lamb. People with machine tool and die making and possibly
pattern-making experience.
Commander Eade. That is right.
Mr. Osmers. You wouldn't consider a man who had been working
on an assembly line, and who could be trained in a period of only 2 days
to 2 weeks, as a skilled auto worker?
Commander Eade. No, sir.
Mr. Arnold. Assuming that supervisory or key personnel are re-
leased by reason of automobile production curtailment, can these
men's services be utilized at once?
Commander Eade. Yes, sir.
balancing labor conversion
Mr. Arnold. Concerning the transition period from nondefense to
defense production, you state in your paper, and I quote:
There is need for orderly curtailment of nondefense production whereby man-
power can be shifted in direct proportion to curtailment of the use of basic mate-
rials which are needed for defense production; in other words, a tapering off of
nondefense production and a tapering on of defense production commensurate
with the requirements of materials and facilities.
Will you elaborate on this point?
Commander Eade. Let us go back to my reference in this paper to
subcontractors. At the present time, for the production of aircraft,
it takes considerable time to rehabilitate an automobile plant. It
takes considerable time to build jigs and fixtures necessary for the
assembly of machinery to make the dies necessary- for stamping out
the parts; it takes quite a lot of time to get the materials, because of
the priorities set-up. The subcontractor takes the priority of the
prime contractor by an extension. He in turn extends that to the
suppliers of the raw materials. It takes time to build up a backlog:
NATI0^\4L DEFENSE MIGRATION 7299
of material sufficient so that the manufacturer can release a quantity
of material for the production of a given number of units. You can't
just take one sheet of material and knock out one piece and say,
"We are starting into production." Because you are not. You are
releasing maybe 250 for the first crack on the die. Right or wrong,
you are starting that way.
EFFECT OF CHANGES IN BASIC DESIGN
Mr. Arnold. What effect do changes in basic design have on the
types of skills required in aircraft production?
Commander Eade. I don't think that subject has any bearing on
the type of skills. It is merely a question of delays in getting into
production of a particular design.
Mr. Arnold. Aircraft design is undergoing constant changes as a
result of observations of the present war, is it not?
Commander Eade. That is right.
Mr. Arnold. But the skills required in manufacturing are not
affected?
Commander Eade. The skills are not involved at all.
Mr. Arnold. Those are delays that are unavoidable?
Commander Eade. Yes, sir.
PROBLEMS INVOLVED IN DEFENSE OPERATIONS
I should like, for a moment, to go back to the curtailment of non-
defense operations. That should certainly be commensurate with
the increase in productive capacity of the aircraft or defense indus-
tries; otherwise, you would get this interim to which I referred in
my paper, of curtailment of automobiles and a simultaneous step-up in
aircraft, during which time you can't use the people because they are
not sufficiently trained. In the second place, you haven't got the
plant facilities available. And in the third place, you haven't got
the materials available at the plants.
Mr. Arnold. In the conclusion of your paper, you state, and I
quote:
Practically all mistakes made in the production line are due to inadequate
familiarization with the seriousness of such mistakes and inadequate training of
personnel.
Wliat do 5^ou consider to be the answer to "inadequate familiariza-
tion with the seriousness of such mistakes"?
Commander Eade. Step-up of the training program and the
definite need for the training program prior to putting these people
on the production line.
The Chairman. Commander Eade, we have heard in Washington,
and we have also heard here, a complaint that the Army and the
Navy are stormg up unnecessary surplus materials to the prejudice
of nondefense industries. Do you know anything about that, of
your own knowledge?
Commander Eade. I have heard those rumors, but I personally
don't understand your question fully, as to whether the Army and
the Navy, as services, are doing it, or whether the manufacturers,
under the control of the Army and Navy contracts, are doing it.
7300 DETROIT HEARINGS
The Chairman. We didn't break it down; we heard simply that
the Army and Navy were purchasing unnecessarily large stocks of
materials and storing them up as surplus to the prejudice of non-
defense industries.
NO DIRECT PURCHASING BY ARMY AND NAVY
Commander Eade. In the first place, the Army and the Navy do
not purchase materials for either prime or subcontractors except in
the case of such activities as navy shipyards, arsenals, and so forth,
whereas the private contractors purchase materials as required for
their use. Materials furnished by the Government to airplane manu-
facturers comprise such items as engines, propellers, instruments,
armament, tires, and tubes procured by the services of other sources.
The Chairman. Commander Eade, did you read the story concern-
ing this practice in the last World War, in 1917 and 1918, when
5,000 typewriters were on hand?
Commander Eade. It sounds a little familiar to me.
The Chairman. How did they get those typewriters?
Commander Eade. (No response.)
The Chairman. I am not saying the story is true. Commander.
Mr. Curtis. You were not in charge of the purchase of typewriters
at that time, were you?
Commander Eade. Thank goodness, I was not.
Mr. OsMERS. There are so many rumors running around the country
now, rumors of shortages of material, real or imaginary, that we are
trying to clarify this whole situation. One unusually persistent story
is that some firms have made it their business to get one or two minor
defense contracts — minor in comparison with the size of their opera-
tions— and using that priority to get a lot of material for their normal,
nondefense business.
Commander Eade. I wouldn't doubt that there is a tendency for
certain manufacturers to try that. However, I have to authenticate
all preference rating certificates, for contracts under cognizance of my
office, and the materials that I see on that list must be applicable to
the contract.
Mr. OsMERs. And in quantities?
Commander Eade. And in quantities requested on purchase orders
for a stepped delivery. If they want 100,000 yards of webbing for
parachutes, they cannot get that as of a certain date; they must set
forth a natural requirement, which would keep their production line
going.
Mr. OsMERS. Based on their operation?
Commander Eade. Exactly. So they have, say, a 30-day backlog
of materials, at the very least, and possibly a little more.
in-service training
Mr. OsMERs. You told Congressman Arnold and the committee
that you thought that a vastly stepped-up training program was
necessary. I wonder if you would care to tell the committee which
of the various training programs seems to be producing the best
and quickest results.
natiOjMai, defense migration 7301
Commander Eade. That is a little difficult. The only training
program with which I am familiar at the present minute and that
I have any direct contact with is the one at Briggs.
Mr. OsMERs. That is training-within-industry?
Commander Eade. It is training-within-industry. They use simi-
lar materials, parts, jigs and fixtures, and are trained for a period of
6 weeks, I believe it is, before they are shifted to the production line.
Mr. OsMERS. Is that training plan working?
Commander Eade. It is.
Mr. Osmers. From your observation of the one plant with which
you are familiar, would you say that that training program could be
expanded a great deal over what it is today?
Commander Eade. In my experience of the past year in this pro-
duction through the automobile field — that is, production of aircraft
through the automotive field — I feel that the Briggs plan is very satis-
factory, and it is the most likely that I know of to produce the desired
results in the shortest length of time.
Mr. Osmers. I am talking now about expansion of the Briggs plan.
EACH PLANT SHOULD CARRY ITS OWN TRAINING PROGRAM
Commander Eade. It should be expanded, but I think each plant
should carry on its own training program.
Mr. Osmers. I certainly think so, too. I don't think we ought to
try to train them all in one plant; but could the Briggs progi-am be
expanded?
Commander Eade. Yes, I think it could, and I think they are taking
steps along that line. They are prepared now, I believe, to train 250.
Mr. Osmers. Has there been any difficulty, conflict, confusion, or
competition in the procurement of aircraft because of the fact that we
have an Army Air Corps and a Navy Flying Corps?
Commander Eade. May I ask how far in procurement? I just
don't understand all the possibilities of "procurement." I can answer
part of the question.
NO COMPETITION BETWEEN ARMY AND NAVY
Mr. Osmers. We have four air forces in the United States; but two
of them are major, the Army and the Navy. They are both procur-
ing their own airplanes and materials. Has there been any competi-
tion between the two for the use of these facilities and materials?
Commander Eade. I don't believe so.
Mr. Osmers. It has not been evident to you?
Commander Eade. I thmk the Jomt Boards of the Army and Navy
work together very closely in the allocation of contracts.
Dr. Lamb. In his testimony here yesterday, Major Gardner of the
Air Corps, Procurement Division, testified that in his estimation 8U
percent of the workers in the automobile mdustry could be success-
fully transferred, either directly or after further trainmg, to the air-
craft industry. That doesn't quite correspond to your testimony
earlier, I would think, although I would like to have you comment
on it.
7302 DETROIT HEARING;?
Commander Eade. I don't believe that I went into any figures.
Dr. Lamb. No, but you suggested that required slvills were high,
and consequently the problem of securing them was difficult.
Commander Eade. I specifically divided it into two classes, those
who were in the automobile field primarily operating machine tools,
such as machinists, doing comparable work on engmes, and those who
were doing comparable work in other parts of the shop.
Dr. Lamb. Yes.
Commander Eade. Those who were doing similar types of work in
parts of the shop other than engines can be transferred directly.
Those who go into the assembly of aircraft must have training, but
what the percentage is, I don't know.
Dr. Lamb. I am asking with respect to the length of training neces-
sary to turn out a man useful to the aircraft industry. This, you see,
directly concerns the work of the committee. If the proportion of
eligible automotive workers is small, the number of unemployed will
be very large.
REQUIRES THREE MONTHS' TRAINING
Commander Eade. That is right. I intimated in my paper that
about 3 months of training would be necessary, and I was accounting
for some of the skills that are not easily developed.
Dr. Lamb. In the training-wi thin-industry program, which you
prefer as the most efficient, would 3 months still be the minimum
period?
Commander Eade. That is right.
Dr. Lamb. Proceed. Your testimony is perhaps not at variance
with that of Major Gardner.
Commander Eade. Not at all.
Dr. Lamb. Conceivably 80 percent could be trained, if they are not
already sufficiently skilled, for the tasks in the aircraft industry?
Commander Eade. I don't want to contradict Major Gardner, but
I don't know what the percentage would be. I simply divided the
workers in two general groups, and I still insist that that condition —
lack of experience — exists and must be corrected.
Dr. Lamb. Perhaps the question at issue is how many tasks are
involved in the aircraft industry requiring long experience in the
operation performed, and how many could be taught in a training-
within-industry progi-am, within a period of, say, 3 months' maximum.
Have you any estimate of that?
Commander Eade. You are getting me back on a figure now, and
hazarding a guess, which is a little difficult.
Dr. Lamb." Would you say 90 percent of the tasks could be done
only l3y men who are skilledover a long period, say 5 years?
Commander Eade. Oh, no.
Dr. Lamb. I am trying to get some basic conception of the problem.
From what you previously testified, I could assume, you see, that
only men of 5 years' experience could conceivably be used m the air-
craft industry.
Commander Eade. I see what you are driving at, but I don't know
how to answer you without a break-down of these operations. Let
me cite one example. To drive rivets m aircraft work, a man must
have at least 3 months' experience.
Dr. Lamb. I understand that.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7303
Commander Eade. If he is given fixed duties, as done in the auto-
motive field, and if that same type of procedure is adopted by mass
production in aircraft, then he will be trained in specific duties.
Dr. Lamb. But even without adoption of that automotive pro-
cedure, he could be so trained, could he not?
Commander Eade. Yes. In a frozen job.
Dr. Lamb. Given normal aptitude, or perhaps superior aptitude, he
could be trained in 3 months?
Commander Eade. Yes, sir; the average automobile worker could
be trained in 3 months to do the job that some workers in the aircraft
field have been doing for ] 0 years.
VALUE OF INVENTORY OF THE SKILLS REQUIRED IN AIRCRAFT INDUSTRY
Dr. Lamb. That is what I am getting at. A break-down of opera-
tions of the aircraft industry as a whole ought to be possible, according
to the number of people required in various operations, and the degree
of skill, measured in terms of the period of time required to train, plus a
certain aptitude, qualifying the man for that task.
In other words, you could make up a schedule for the entire aircraft
industry, let us say for a certain type of plane, and break it down
according to skills, and go ahead with your inventory of skills and the
transference of these men from one industry to another, through
schooling.
Commander Eade. That is right.
Dr. Lamb. Then if you have, let us say, 275,000 unemployed in the
automobile industiy throughout the country, about what proportion
of those men might be transferable to aircraft under the proper
organization and training?
Commander Eade. Transferred directly?
Dr. Lamb. I am not asking you to give me a figure. I just want
an indication. Is it as low as 10 percent, or do you suppose 50 percent
or more might be transferred?
Commander Eade. I don't know. I could answer that only if
you can tell me how many people are in the automotive field, doing
machine work on engine construction in the shops. I would say that
group can probably be transferred as required.
Dr. Lamb. They can be immediately transferred, certainly, biit we
are not talking about that group. We are talking about the training
program, and the workers who would be transferred through its
operation.
ESTIMATES 90 PERCENT NEED TRAINING
Commander Eade. I would say 90 percent of them will have to
be trained.
Dr. Lamb. I agree with that. I am asking first, how much train-
ing is required, and second, how large a proportion of the displaced
automotive workers could be trained and actually transferred.
Commander Eade. I say 3 months, as the time required for training
such men.
Dr. Lamb. How many of the operations in aircraft would require
3 months minimum, and how many would require 6 months, or longer?
Commander Eade. That is a difficult question too. I think a
study of that definitely would have to be made.
7304 DETROIT HEARINGS
Dr. Lamb. Don't you think it is important that a study such as
that should be made?
Commander Eade. Yes.
The Chairman. Thank you very much, Commander. We appre-
ciate your coming here, and the very fine statement you have sub-
mitted. It will be very helpful to us.
Our next witness is Professor Hill,'
1 The statement and testimony of Prof. E. B. Hill, of the farm management department, Michigan
State College, appears in pt. 19, a separate volume on the Detroit hearing, containing testimony, expert
papers, and exhibits exclusively on the subject of agricultural migration into the area.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGKATION
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1941
House of Representatives,
Select Committee Investigating
National Defense Migration,
Washington, D. C.
afternoon session
The committee met at 1:80 p. m.
The Chairman. The committee will come to order.
Mr. Raymond will be our first witness this afternoon.
TESTIMONY OF EARL E. RAYMOND, PRESIDENT, TRAILER COACH
MANUFACTURERS ASSOCIATION, SAGINAW, MICH.
The Chairman. Congressman Osmers will interrogate you, Mr.
Raymond.
Mr. Osmers. Mr. Raymond, will you state for the record your
name and the position you hold?
Mr. Raymond. Yes, sir; I am Earl Raymond, president of the
Trailer Coach Manufacturers Association.
The Trailer Coach Manufacturers Association is composed of man-
ufacturers wdio produce approximately 70 percent of the output of
the industry.
Mr. Osmers. The committee, as you point out in your paper, is
primarily interested in the part that trailers are playing in the housing
of defense project workers. Your paper will be introduced into the
record.
(The paper referred to above is as follows:)
STATEMENT BY EARL E. RAYMOND, PRESIDENT, TRAILER COACH
MANUFACTURERS ASSOCIATION
For your record may I say that I am speaking directly for the trailer coach
manufacturers who belong to the Trailer Coach Manufacturers Association — the
national trade organization of our industry. Our members produce approxi-
mately 70 percent of the current trailer coach production.
Indirectly, I'm also speaking for the trailer coach dealers of the country who
merchandise our products and for the trailer park operators who provide the park-
ing sites and services needed by the trailer owners who buy our coaches.
I understand that your committee is primarily interested in the part trailer
coaches are playing in the housing of defense project workers. I'll therefore try to
confine my remarks to points pertinent to your investigation as these apply to the
use of trailer coaches.
■USE OF TKAILERS BY THE GOVERNMENT
You are aware, we understand, that the Coordinator of Defense Housing already
has recognized both the economy and desirability of trailer coaches for mobile
■emergency defense housing. Our industry has supplied over 4,000 trailer coaches
7305
7306 DETROIT HEARINGS
so far this year in his temporary shelter program- — and this, by the way, at a cost
of less than $300 per person — including furniture — everything needed except bed
linen, dishes and cooking utensils. We cite this figure in comparison of the per
capita cost of housing our soldiers in training camps as %Yell as in comparison with
what is being spent on a per capita basis on defense-housing projects throughout
the country.
Before the Government became interested in the use of trailers for shelter
housing, individual defense workers recognized them as a satisfactory solution of
the housing problem occasioned for them by the increased industrial activities in
many areas. In many such regions acute housing shortages developed early in
1940 and as a consequence the demand for trailer coaches throughout the year
kept all of our factories running at peak capacity; several in fact had to increase
their facilities and pay rolls to even keep up with the demand for trailers— prin-
cipally from defense workers who, on their own initiative, and at their own expense,
solved their immediate housing problem at no cost to the Government by pur-
chasing a trailer coach.
At the beginning of 1941, therefore, practically all trailer coach producers were
operating at their full normal capacity with large banks cf unfilled orders on hand.
EFFECT OP GOVERNMENT ORDERS
In March the Government, through the Farm Security Administration, entered
the trailer market for its first 2,000 coaches and demanded delivery within 30
days. In order to accomplish this without disrupting our regular dealer distribu-
tion it became necessary to increase our output by putting on extra shifts, taking
advantage of mass production methods by manufacturing standard models, and
in many instances of utilizing additional working space.
The result was that Government jobs were delivered on time, that economies
in production costs (through making standard jobs) were uncovered, and what
was once considered our industry capacity output was practically doubled during
the period the Government orders were being filled.
This proved fortunate because the housing problem apparently has become more
serious as the year advanced. Individual defense workers who are compelled to
provide accommodations for themselves and their families have continued to
depend more and more on the trailer for their housing facilities. They have
placed orders through regular trailer dealer channels in sufficient quantities to
more than absorb the increased output of the industry at the pace to which it
was stepped up by the Government orders. This continued increased production
has practically exhausted anticipated stocks of suppliers and the priority limita-
tions have made it practically impossible for them to be replaced.
At present the industry is facing a very serious situation in a lack of materials.
Unless something is done quickly many plants will be forced to shut down. This
of course will be a blow to the individual plant owners, but of considerably more
concern to the men that will be thrown out of work and the industrious defense
workers who are desirous of providing their own shelter in trailer homes and who
will find them not available.
NEED FOR GOOD TRAILER PARKS
On the question of the need for good trailer parks it can be said that good
trailer homes with all equipment for comfortable living but without proper park-
ing facilities are like modern high speed automobiles without good roads. Modern
trailer parks take time to develop and require a substantial outlay of capital. Due
to increased activity practically all established parks are being improved and en-
larged and many new ones are under construction. There is plenty of capita
that can be interested in this type of investment provided:
1. That the general public will look with favor on the average trailer user rather
than with contempt. This change is taking place due to great a extent by the
fact that the United States Government has recognized the trailer as a practical
housing accoinmodation and has t;)Ought substantial quantities for this purpose.
Under the direction of Mr. Donahue's office satisfactory trailer parks have been
built by the Farm Security Administration or are under construction for the
parking of the Government-owned trailers which are being rented to defense
workers. We of the industry realize that much of the success of the Government's
experiment in its use of trailer coaches for temporary shelter is dependent on the
type of service rendered and the general api^earance of these Government trailer
parks. If handled well, as we are expecting they will be, they should set a desirable
pattern for the private trailer park operator to follow.
NATIONAL DE-FENSE MIGRATION 7307
2. That prejudice or misinformed communities do not curtail or prohibit private
trailer-park developments by restrictive legislation. Considerable progress in
our favor has been made in this respect recently and this again has been helped
by the Government action.
PREDICTION FOR THE FUTURE
As trailer-coach producers, naturally we are optimistic over the more extensive
use of trailers for homes during the defense period and after the present national
emergency is over.
When jt is remembered that there were upward of 200,000 trailer coaches in
use prior to the development of the national-defense effort, and that during 1941
approximately 20,000 additional trailers went into use — probably 95 percent of
them for temporary housing — and when it is reported that tlie defense workers
who are being sheltered in trailers have been found to be enthusiastic over them
(it was felt by the Government officials that they would not be very highly
regarded) we can only look forward to an increased use in the immediate future —
provided of course that our industry is given the materials needed to make them.
Then, after the emergency, we likewise can only look to a continuation of the
present demand — for many years to come. Ours is a depression -born industry.
Trailer coaches came into the national picture to a considerable extent through
the demand for lower housing costs.
If we are faced, as we probably will be, by a period of slackened employment
after the present emergency is over, then the trailer coach again will be called
to meet the needs of thousands wlio will be forced to very carefully budget their
resources for a period until they can be more permanently reestablislied.
Trailer-park owners, therefore, who now are developing facilities for use of
trailer owners during the national-defense period, if they are fortunate in the
selection of their sites, can, we believe, be assured of a fairly stable future in
their present ventures.
In closing may I tliank your committee for the understanding of the trailer
mode of living that has been shown in your earlier hearings. We of the trailer-
coach industry feel that you've been very considerate of our problems and our
interests as small business firms. We are grateful to you.
TESTIMONY OF EARLE E. RAYMOND— Resumed
Air. OsMERS. I wonder if you would toll us something about the
work of the trailer industry on Government orders.
Mr. Raymond. Along in November of last year the trailer industry
had a representative in Washington, in an attempt to interest the
Government in the advisability of using trailers in areas where defense
housing was becoming a problem.
Mr. Palmer's office — the office of Defense Housing Coordinator — ■
along in March of this year ordered a quantity of trailer coaches.
They were requisitioned and bids solicited by the Farm Security
Administration.
Mr. OsMERS. Do you know the total ninnber that were ordered or
bought or are now on order for the Government?
FOUR THOUSAND TRAILERS PURCHASED
Mr. Raymond. Approximately 4,000 units have been bought up to
date.
Mr. OsMERS. Do you expect that they will use more?
Mr. Raymond. Yes, sir; we feel confident they will use more be-
cause, according to those in authority there, the trailers have proved
satisfactory for the purpose for which they were purchased.
'7308 DETROIT HEARINGS
Mr. OsMERS. What is the effect of priorities on the industry?
Mr. Raymond. Right now it is serious. The Governnient's pur-
chases of coaches have increased the normal output of the industry to
such an extent this year that the ordinary run of supphes and materials
was used up ahead of schedule, and with the priorities system in force
at the present time, it has been almost impossible to replace the
materials.
TWENTY THOUSAND TRAILERS PRODUCED ANNUALLY
Mr. OsMERS. What is the annual production of trailers in the
United States now?
Mr. Raymond. Approximately 20,000 units.
Mr. OsMERS. How many more units could the industry produce
with its existing equipment if it was given priorities for material?
Mr. Raymond. With present facilities, 1 don't think that could be
exceeded very much.
Mr. Osmers. The plants are about up to maximum capacity at
present?
Mr. Raymond. Yes, sir.
Mr. Osmers. Tell us a little about the use to which the Govern-
ment is putting the trailers that it has bought.
Mr. Raymond. At the present time there are 14 areas which have
been designated as critical defense areas, in which there will be very
serious housing shortages.
Some of the areas already have industrial plants and projects in
operation, and in those the housing shortage is already evident.
TRAILERS SHIFTED IN ACCORDANCE WITH NEEDS
In other cases a shortage has been anticipated, coaches have been
placed in the areas. Due to changes in policy and programs, it is
becoming necessary to shift these coaches from one area to another.
For instance, in Baltimore, over there in the neighborhood of the
Glenn Martin aircraft plant, there are quite a few coaches — I would
judge about 350— and they are practically all in use.
In the Nashville area there were a few more than 350, possibly
400 units placed, and we just learned last week that they are to be
taken from the Nashville area and put in areas in which the shortage
has become more acute — ahead of expectations.
TRANSPORTATION OF TRAILERS
Mr. Osmers. How does the Government transport the trailers?
Mr. Raymond. There are transportation companies in the trailer
industry, and the Government so far has employed the facilities of
these transportation companies for transporting the coaches.
Mr. Osmers. Now, if you can estimate it, what has been the sale
to individual defense workers?
Mr. Raymond. The industry as a whole has, to the very best of its
ability, made a pretty careful check of that, and hopes that sometime
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7309
we might be able to get a priority. We find that upward of 85
percent of the output during 1941 has been sold in so-called defense
areas.
We have no absolute proof that all the coaches sold in those areas
have gone to defense workers, but the areas so designated are areas
in which the normal sale of coaches is not very great, so we have good
reason to assume that the big majority of trailers sold in those areas
are going" to defense workers.
STANDARDS FOR TRAILER PARKS
Mr. OsMERS. What sort of standard has the industry set up for
trailer parks, and how well has the Federal Government followed
those standards?
Mr. Raymond. That has been a troublesome point in the industry.
There have been several reasons. Trailers were more or less dumped
on the public a few years back, and sometimes the parking facilities
were far below fair living standards.
FARM SECURITY ADMINISTRATION TRAILER PARKS
We have had to work and strive to the best of our ability to get the
standard of trailer parks raised in the last year or so, and we have had
considerable help from the department set up by the Farm Security
Administration and Mr. Palmer's office.
Definite plans of park design have been promoted. The engineering
department of the Farm Security Administration, headed by Mr.
Donovan, has purchased land and begun to build parks in every area
that has been classed as a defense area, and their plans and their
program for park construction are very much worth while. If they
are carried out, we have every reason to beheve the trailers will be
capably provided for.
The Chairman. Thank you very much, Mr. Raymond.
Mr. Raymond. And I thank you very much, gentlemen, for the
time you have given me.
TESTIMONY OF PANEL REPRESENTING THE AUTOMOBILE
INDUSTRY OF MICHIGAN
The Chairman. Our next witnesses will be seven gentlemen repre-
senting the automobile industry.
Gentlemen of the panel, I think it would be well for the committee
to state that we haven't any preconceived notions as to how to solve
this problem of national defense migration.
We have traveled over the United States trying to get the facts.
Any questions that we ask you today are for the sole purpose of ob-
taining facts. We are not trying to cross-examine any witness.
Instead of asking you to appear before our committee in Washington
we have come to you people here in Detroit to get our answers. We
appreciate your coming here and giving what information you can,
so that we may report our findings back to Congress.
The papers you gentlemen have prepared are a valuable contribu-
tion to our record, and will be incorporated therein.
7310 DETROIT HEARINGS
(The papers refeired to above are as follows:)
STATEMENT BY C. C. CARLTON, MOTOR WHEEL CORPORATION;
PRESIDENT, AUTOMOTIVE PARTS & EQUIPMENT MANUFAC-
TURERS, INC.; MEMBER, AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY DEFENSE
ADVISORY COMMITTEE, OFFICE OF PRODUCTION MANAGE-
MENT, AND COMMISSIONER IN CHARGE OF INDUSTRY, MICHI-
GAN COUNCIL OF DEFENSE
May I first briefly describe the relationship of the automotive parts and equip-
ment industry to the automobile and truck industry, and indicate the geographical
concentration of the factories and the employment therein? With that as a
beginning, the following analysis of employee migratory trends will be more
readily understood.
Automobile manufacturers — whose corporate names such as General Motors,
Ford, Chrysler, Studebaker, Hudson, Packard, Nash, Willys-Overland and
Crosley are familiar to all — are the customers of a large number of manufacturers
who produce wheels, bodies, carburetors, bumpers, engine parts, and in fact the
entire list of components which together make up the modern motorcar.
Automobile and truck manufacturers are the customers of a large number of
manufacturers of automotive parts for chassis and actuating mechanisms, electric
equipment, bodies, and accessories which make up the automotive vehicle. A
list of the chief component parts of an automobile is appended hereto.
Automotive-parts manufacturers may be divided into three classes as far as
their production is concerned; viz:
(a) Manufacturers of "original equipment." This equipment is purchased by
and shipped to the manufacturers of automobiles and trucks.
(6) Manufacturers of "replacement parts." These parts are sold to the man-
ufacturer of the automotive vehicle, to jobbers, distributors, dealers, and garages,
to service the automotive vehicles already on the road.
(c) Manufacturers of "accessories," such as car heaters, bumpers, luggage
carriers, rear-view mirrors, tire chains, accessory lightijig equipment, and miscel-
laneous accessories which may or maj^ not be "original equipment" on the vehicle
as sold to the consumer.
All manufacturers of original equipment are manufacturers of replacement
parts, but many replacement parts manufacturers do not manufacture original
equipment.
The automotive-vehicle manufacturer of course builds automotive parts him-
self, but there are some parts of automotive vehicles which are not made at all
by the vehicle manufacturer. In most cases, however, the largest potential com-
petitor of the parts manufacturer is his own big customer, who may make a per-
centage of any given part in his own factory and "farms out" the balance of his
requirements to the automotive-parts manufacturer. This factor is an important
one in our present discussion and it will be explored more extensively later on.
GEOGRAPHICAL CONCENTRATION
At the time N. R. A. was put into operation, there was no accurate list of
automotive-parts manufacturers available. The best information as to the total
number of automotive-parts manufacturers was secured by the so-called Code
Authority of the autoinotive parts and equipment manufacturing industry." After
careful investigation over a period of a year, 856 manufacturers of automotive
parts and equipment reported as required by the law to the Code Authority of
that industry. So when we talk about the manufacturers of automotive parts
and equipment, we are talking about approximately 800 manufacturers; the
large majority of whose plants are located in the smaller cities and towns. This
approximate 800 manufacturers are located in at least 131 cities and in at least ii
30 States of the Union. j'
However, the hub and center of the industry lies in the Detroit area, where If
many major assembly plants are located. The suppliers naturally build up their '■
business within easy shipping distance of the plants of their customers. On a
map of this area, a circle with its center in Detroit and with a 300-mile radius will !
encompass 73.6 percent of the manufacturers of the parts industry and, more
important to the present inquiry, 97.7 percent of the employees of this industry.
A smaller circle with its center near Sandusky, Ohio, and with a radius of 185
miles, encompasses 80.7 percent of the employees of this industry but onl}^ 52.8
percent of the factories.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7311
The employees of the automotive parts and manufacturing industry number
more than 200,000. Within the larger circle which includes Chicago, Milwaukee,
Buffalo, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Toledo, and South Bend, with Detroit
as its center, are employed almost 200,000 persons. In fact the great majority of
these employees are in the Detroit area.
These estimates, added to those which you have* from representatives of the
automotive-vehicle manufacturers, present a graphic picture of concentration of
labor of a highly specialized type.
RELATION OF EMPLOYMENT TO AtTTOMOBILE PRODUCIION
Historically, the automobile business has followed a definite policy of yearly
change. New models are introduced each year, and there is necessarily a period
when large numbers of employees are laid off, while the factories close the produc-
tion of the current models, change their tools and equipment as needed, and begin
the new year model run. As the demand for parts slackens or increases, there
are consequent peaks and valleys in the parts-manufacturers' employment records.
This year, great changes were wrought in the industry as it prepared to assume
large defense orders, and the pattern of full employment ran well past its usual
declining point. Yet the change-over period did come, and we are just now
entering the production season again.
In this connection, I would like to refer to the point made earlier, that the
automobile manufacturer can, and does, make many of his own parts. I do not
know the exact percentages of parts produced by the various manufacturers for
their own cars, but let us assume that manufacturer A makes 50 percent of any
part he needs, and buys 50 percent from parts manufacturers. If, then, his total
need is reduced during the coming year it is natural to assuma that he will try to
keep his own employees busy, and that the orders to the parts company will
diminish progressively. In some cases, it is conceivable that the entire percentage
of farmed out production may vanish.
It is also possible that the assumption of defense orders by large plants may
bring about the reverse of this trend in some cases for a short time. The major
manufacturer may wish to train more and more of his own people in the defense
job, thus holding the parts company's orders fairly level. Yet even then the
progressive decline of total volume, as charted by the Government agencies, will
bring about the release of workers in the parts plants unless there are other kinds
of jobs available.
TRENDS OF DEFENSE EMPLOYMENT
Our efforts to procure a comprehensive record of present and future defense
employment have not been entirely successful, yet the evidence of some trends is
fairly conclusive. Generally, our plants which make engine parts find that there
is more work available in the aviation engine program than they can handle.
Plants which have the equipment to make ordnance face tremendous and expand-
ing demands. A factory which usually makes automotive or truck gears naturally
is in line for gear work for Army trucks and tanks. And parenthetically it may
be observed that the defense program calls for more trucks than ever have been
produced in peacetime; consequently the manufacturer of truck parts need worry
only about material, and perhaps later about skilled manpower.
In another section of our industry, the manufacturers are not so fortunate,
and the prospects of continued high employment are not bright. We have three
kinds of labor and equipment which are not needed in the defense program to
date, in the quantities presentlv found. One problem is illustrated by the larger
number of metal presses of all sizes, and labor to handle them, in our plants.
The work needed for these machines and men is comparatively light metal stamp-
ings. Yet with the exception of a few quartermaster's items, we have had no
orders which would require the use of these presses.
The second unused portion of our industry, as we envision the coming defense
program, involves plating work. The third great unused skill is our ability to
perforni rapid hand assen.bly in tremendous quantities.
No doubt these facts are all receiving attention from. Governm.ent offices at
present, and various individuals and associations liave built up a record as com-
plete as possible for the Labor Supply Section of the Office of Production Manage-
n^ent. I respectfully recomn.end to this com.mittee that it consult the members
of the Labor Supply Section of the Office of Production Management, if it has not
already done so, before preparing its final recommendations. ^
1 See paper and testimony of Eric A. Nicol, Associate Chief, Labor Supply Branch, OfBce of Produc-
tion Management, p. 7488 ff.
60396 — 41 — pt. 18 17
7312
DETROIT HEARINGS
GEOGRAPHICAL PROBLEMS IN DEFENSE
As a ir.en.ber of the Michigan Council of Defense, and also in m.y duties as
president of Auton.otive Parts & Equipn.ent Manufacturers, Inc., I have spent
son .e til) .e and effort in trying to detenr.ine the geographical variations inherent
to the transition from peace-tin .e pursuits to defense production. With the fore-
going staten.ents in n.ind, one can readily see that if a preponderance of n\etal-
stan.ping con.panies are found in one sn.all town, that locality is likely to suffer
large unen.ployn.ent. If an industrial city has built up its employrr.ent around a
large auton.obile assen.bly plant which is not in line for immediate defense work
the san.e thing will happen. Generally, this problem, assum.es two forn.s: there
are cities and towns which do not have sufficient necessary factory equipn.ent
ever to be of use in straight defense work, and there are others which have factories
which will be used for defense after 6, 8, or 10 n.onths, but which will have an
interim period of large unen.ployn.ent. Of the first class, Sturgis, Mich., is an
exan.ple; of the second, one n.ight take Lansing, Mich., as a good example.
These facts, I n.ight add, also are being studied at present by the Labor Supply
Section of Office of Production Managen.ent, and by special certification of unusu-
ally hard-hit areas we n.ay be favored with Governinent help.
MIGRATORY TRENDS
Appended hereto are analyses of various surveys m.ade by Autom.otive Parts &
Equipn.ent Manufacturers, Inc., dunng the past few weeks, wh'ch will give your
con.n.ittee certain precise inforn.ation as to the estim.ates ir.ade by our nearly 400
parts plants of the en.ployn.ent problen.s they face. Generally, it will be found
that defense work now on hand or anticipated for the im.mediate future w:'i not
entirely absorb the workers laid off because of the mandatory reduction in the
production of passenger cars. In total, the amount of left-over labor is not f righ ten-
in-^, but it n.ust be ren-.en .bered that the total review includes son.e plants which
are going to be very hard-hit, and others which will suffer very little, if at all.
These exhibits also include reports which were sent in as a result of a ques-
tionnaire distributed 3 weeks ago, which was made up after conferences with the
field representatives of the Committee on Migratory Labor. Generally, it will
be seen that there has been little migration of labor in this industry during the
past year, and we know of no such trends at present.
Again, however, we must take into account the history of the automobile indus-
try, and it is common knowledge that during the period of great expansion this
industry became the employer of thousands of men who came to the Detroit area
from the farm and small-town areas. Even now, as one reviews the returns of
our most recent questionnaire, he will find that among new employees there are
more from Kentucky than, for example, from Pennsylvania to the east or from
Missouri or Iowa to the West. From southern Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and
Tennessee a great many of our workers were drawn in the twenties. The sons
of these migratory workers now are found in our factories, and for some years
we have not drawn from the outside because the supply of local labor was
plentiful.
During defense times we have refrained from reading other States, and have
not advertised for men extensively; the result has been that among all the States
Michigan, we believe, has the best record to date for stability of employment and
for restraining migration. The Michigan Council of Defense has contacted de-
fense councils of other States and asked them to warn their citizens not to come
to Michigan expecting to find immediate employment. In fact, we have asked
them to notify their people not to come to Michigan for work unless they have
a definite job before leaving home.
Whether this record can be maintained in the near future is a question which
might well engage the attention of this committee. We are generally agreed that
there will be a period of change-over from our usual business pursuits to defense
work, and that during this period of a year or so there will be dislocations of labor.
We are further agreed that the defense production will reach a high level in the
closing stages of next year, and that by then our employment problem may well
be one of finding enough men to man our plants. But between now and that
period of full employment, some means should be found to discourage large-scale
wandering of labor from one town to another.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7313
Exhibit A. — Classification of Automotive Employees
At the request of a representative of the House Committee Investigating Na-
tional Defense Migration, an attempt was made to analyze and classify employees
as outlined below. It was found, however.' that the preparation of these question-
naires was a very great task and consequently only a minority of manufacturers
employing a minority of the total of over 200,000 employees were able to reply.
However, from the replies received, the following information w^as gathered
which mav be typical of the entire industry.
The analysis made consisted of 3 groups of 15,000 employees in each group, em-
ployed by 8 different manufacturers. One group of employees was employed in
the city of Detroit, one group in the State of Michigan outside of Detroit and one
group outside of the State of Michigan.
Results from partial returns as above indicated show employed in defense in-
dustries 25 percent in the city of Detroit, 33 percent in the State of Michigan out-
side of Detroit and 38 percent in the plants reported outside of Michigan.
From the same group of employees it was found that those employed from the
city in which the manufacturing plant is located indicate 41 percent from Detroit,
90 percent from Michigan cities outside of Detroit and 98 percent by plants out-
side of the State of Michigan.
The reply to question as to ho;v many employees were employed from the State,
but not from the city, in which the plant is located, showed 43 percent in Detroit
plants, Vli percent in Michigan plants outside of Detroit and 1 percent outside of
Michigan. In other words, 84 percent of the group of Detroit employees came from
the State of Michigan; 97% percent of the employees outside of the city of Detroit
came from the State of Michigan and 99 percent of the employes employed in
plants outside of the State of Michigan came from the State in which the plant
employing them is located.
Exhibit B. — Sample of Notice and Employment Questionnaire Sent Out
TO Factories by Automotive Parts and Equipment Manufacturers, Inc.
To Members: A congressional committee (headed by Representative John H.
Tolan of California) will hold public hearings in Detroit on September 24 and 25
on the question of migratory workers and what to do about them.
Preliminary to the meeting, the committee is asking the cooperation of a few
factories in procuring a record of present employment, to show as far as possible
where the workers came from, and how long they stayed on the job.
We have agreed to assist in this effort, and are sending out the enclosed ques-
tionnaire to you with the hope that you can return it filled in without too much
trouble.
If some of the answers are not readily available, will you please give us those that
are? Your employment records in many cases will provide the data — or enough
to give us a start. We can be of quite valuable assistance in this survey, and we
hope to avoid more than routine hearings by getting much of the information in
advance.
Sincerely, .
Frank Rising, General Manager.
P. S. — Two copies of questionnaire attached — one to be filled in and returned
to Automotive Parts and Equipment Manufacturers; the other for your files.
questionnaire on migration of workers
1. Number of employees as of Sept. 2:
(a) Employed on defense work
(b) Employed on nondefense work
2. Analysis of present labor force to show the following:
Employees employed —
1 year or Over 1
(a) Number from city in which plant is located or in less year
normal commuting area
(6) Number from rest of State
(c) Number from outside of State
7314
DETROIT HEARINGS
3. Show on the attached sheet the number of workers hired since June 1, 1940,
who actually came to work for your company directly from each of the
States listed.
Employees employed —
1 year or Over 1
4. (a) Number with previous experience in automobile and less year
parts industry
(b) Other manufacturing
(c) Agricultural
(d) No previous work experience
(e) Other
Please fill in and return immediately to Automotive Parts & Equipment Man-
ufacturers, 800 Michigan Building, Detroit, Mich.
Company
Location
Question No. S. — Show the number of workers hired since June 1, 1940, who
actually came to work for your company directly from each of the following States:
Alabama
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts.
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire-
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina-.
North Dakota- _
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
Pouth Carolina--
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming
Exhibit C— Report on Employment Questionnaires Sent Out by Auto-
motive Parts & Equipment Manufacturers, Inc.
Questionnaires were returned by companies in the following cities and areas:
Com-
pany
number
City or town
Rockford, 111
Saginaw, Mich
Detroit, Mich...
Racine, Wis
Huntington Park, Calif
Pontiac, Mich
Detroit, Mich...
do
Ann Arbor, Mich
Muskegon Heights, Mich...
Detroit, Mich
Detroit and Plymouth plants
combined.
Portland, Ind...
Detroit, Mich
do
Company's principal product
Universal joints.
Tappets and valves— automotive and aviation. ..
Mouldings and body hardware
Radiators and aviation heating and cooling units
Carburetors --.
Body hardware and stampings.
Brass strip, rod, and wire and copper strip
Steering gears .■
Springs— automotive and aviation
Piston rings
Bumpers .-
Wheels, brakes, hubs, and drums
Steering wheels and moulded plastics.
Springs— automotive and aviation
Radiators— automotive and aviation.
Average
employ-
ment
735
1,223
1,182
632
78
435
1,159
522
116
732
504
3,447
509
328
312
NATIONAX, DEFENSE MIGRATION
7315
Com-
pany
number
City or town
Wyandotte, Mich
Chicago, 111
Cleveland, Ohic-
St. Louis, Mo
Muncie, Ind
Hagerstown, Ind..
Lansing, Mich .. .
Ann Arbor, Mich.
Company's principal product
Gaskets— automotive and aviation
Lubrication fittings, mstruments, heaters— automo
tive and aviation.
Bearings and bushings — automotive and aviation
Piston rings— automotive and aviation
Transmissions
Piston rings— automotive and aviation
Wheels, hubs, bralte drums
Automotive instruments
Average
employ-
ment
346
3,396
2,115
390
2,085
700
2,078
1,024
Questionnaires were mailed to but not returned by the companies in the fol-
lowing cities and areas:
Com-
pany
number
City or town
Company's principal product
Average
employ-
ment
Detroit, Mich
St. Louis, Mo
Cleveland, Ohio
do
Syracuse, N. Y
Buffalo, N. Y
West Orange, N. J...
LaPorte, Ind
Detroit, Mich.
Philadelphia, Pa
Worcester, Mass
LaCrosse, Wis.
Detroit, Mich
Buffalo, N. Y
Toledo, Ohio
Bronson, Mich
Detroit, Mich
South Bend, Ind
Chicago, 111
Muncie, Ind
Toledo, Ohio
Ecorse, Mich
Grand Rapids, Mich
Milwaukee, Wis
Axles
Carburetors
Valves, pistons, and pins- automotive and aviation..
Crankshafts
Gear, differential, and transmission assemblies
Automobile radiators
Magnetos and spark plugs
Pistons
Engine bearings.
Piston rings
Gaskets
Automotive and aviation escutcheon plates and panel
dials.
Fiber products
Ilydrnulic shock absorbers, aviation parts
Electrical equipment
Electrical— starring, lighting, and ignition equipment
Tubing — automotive and aviation
Carburetors --.
Service tools
Water pumps and parts. .--
Universal joints, transmission, axles
Automotive frames
Body hardware
Accessories --
3, 462
1,446
4,480
708
1.400
128
240
166
1,649
259
141
614
908
1,845
3,889
829
996
28
82
1,775
1,132
954
93
DETROIT, MICH., 8 PLANTS
1. Number of employees as of Sept. 2:
(a) Employed on defense work 2,455 (7 plants)
(6) Employed on nondefense work 6,656 (8 plants)
Em ployees em ployed >
1 year Over 1
2. Analysis of present labor force to show the following: or"less year
(a) Number from city in which plant is located or in
normal commuting area 1, 048 2, 698
(6) Number from rest of State 107 140
(c) Number from outside of State 164 508
3. Show on the attached sheet, the number of workers hired since June 1, 1940
who actually came to work for your company directly from each of the
States listed.
Employees employed •
1 year Over 1
or less year
4. (a) Number with previous experience in automobile and
parts industry . 513 1,943
(6) Other manufacturing 228 339
(c) Agricultural 43 76
(d) No previous work experience 312 667
(e) Other 223 321
' These figures will not balance because one company did not submit necessary figures for inclusion.
7316 DETROIT HEARINGS
Number of workers hired since June 1, 1940, who actually came to work for these
companies directly from each of the following States:
Alabama 2
Arizona
Arkansas 4
CaHfornia 1
Colorado 1
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Georgia 1
Idaho
Illinois 15
I ndiana 2
Iowa 4
Kansas 1
Kentucky 26
Louisiana 1
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan 672
Minnesota 5
Mississippi 4
Missouri 8
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire-
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina.
North Dakota--
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Carolina-.
South Dakota--.
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming
11
2
30
1
Michigan, outside Detroit {6 plants)
1. Number of employees as of Sept. 2 —
(a) Employed on defense work 2, 128 (6 plants)
lb) Employed on nondefense woik 4, 101 (6 plants)
Employees employed—
2. Analysis of present labor force to show the following: _ l year or less Over i year
(a) Number from city in which plant is located or in
normal commuting area 1,332 4,573
(b) Number from rest of State 79 94
(c) Number from outside of State 37 114
3. Show on the attached sheet the number of workers hired since June 1, 1940,
who actually came to work for your company directly from each of the
States listed.
Employees employed —
1 year or less Over 1 year
4. (a) Number with previous experience in automobile and parts
industry 179 3,580
(b) Other manufacturing 199 308
(c) Agricultural 227 132
(d) No previous work experience 344 482
(e) Other 580 279
Number of workers hired since June 1, 1940, who actually came to work for
these companies directly from each of the following States:
Alabama 3
Arizona
Arkansas 10
California
Colorado 1
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Georgia 1
Idaho 1
Illinois 23
Indiana 20
Iowa 4
Kansas 5
Kentucky 10
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts I
Michigan 481
Minnesota 10
Mississippi
Missouri 7
Montana
Nebraska 3
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7317
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina.
North Dakota-.
Ohio
15
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania 12
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota.
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington. _
West Virginia-
Wisconsin
Wyoming
OUTSIDE MICHIGAN (9 PLANTS)
1. Number of employees as of Sept. 2 — ■
(a) Employed on defense work 5, 521 (8 plants)
(6) Employed on nondefense work . 9, 399 (9 plants)
2. Analysis of present labor force to show the following:
Employees employed—
1 year or Over
(a) Number from city in which plant is located or in less l year
normal commuting area 3,723 11, 086
(b) Number from rest of State 14 8
(c) Number from outside of State 62 27
Show on the attached sheet, the number of workers hired since June 1, 1940,
who actually came to work for your company directly from each of the States
listed.
Employees employed —
1 year or Over
Number with previous experience in automobile and less i year
parts industry 126 2,411
Other manufacturing 685 529
Agricultural 87 212
No previous work experience 293 253
Other 92 173
3.
4. (a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
ie)
Number of workers hired since June 1, 1940, who actually came to work for
these companies directly from each of the following States:
Nebraska 1
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey 1
New Mexico
NewYork 11
North Carolina
North Dakota --
Ohio --
Oklahoma 2
Oregon
Pennsylvania 1
Rhose Island
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas 1
Utah 1
Verm.ont
Virgi nia
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin 13
Wyoming
Alabama
Arizona
Arkansas 1
California
Colorado
Connecticut 1
Delaware
Florida 11
Georgia
ladho 1
Illinois
Indiana 301
Iowa 2
Kansas 1
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri 2
Montana
Exhibit D. — Address by C. C. Carlton, Before National Aeronautic
Meeting op Society of Automotive Engineers, March 14, 1941
In light of world events and the growing importance of aircraft to the Nation,
never has the wisdom of the establishment of the Society of Automotive Engineers'
aeronautical section been moru apparent than now.
7318
DETROIT HEARINGS
When you realize that this section was set up 24 years ago, at a time the air-
plane still was a novelty to most of us, you must agree that the board of governors
and officers of the Society of Automotive Engineers were indeed far-sighted.
The wisdom of this move has become especially apparent to me in the past 4
months. During that time it has been my duty and my privilege to be in close
touch with several automobile companies who are about to take on major sub-
contracts for aircraft manufacturers, and with a great number of automotive
parts companies who, too, will play a big part in this new program.
Let there be no mistake about the undertaking ahead. It has been my obser-
vation that the automobile industry is approaching this giant task with all hu-
mility and respect, and that the relationship that has developed between auto-
motive manufacturers and aircraft manufacturers is a cordial and healthy one.
The present cooperation between the aeronautic and automotive groups is, in
the words of John Warner, Society of Automotive Engineers manager, "right
down our alley." In other words, the society's organization is already well set
up and functioning for this very purpose. You only have to look at our aircraft,
our aircraft engine and other specialized groups, which function along engineer-
ing lines with our automobile, truck and bus, fuel and lubricants divisions, to
realize the fine family relationship which exists between the men whose allied in-
terests make them congenial and cooperative.
Though most of us have long know this was so, the general public is just begin-
ning to realize this fact. However, the realization is steadily growing. Already
five automotive companies are gearing their large facilities to the production of
airplane engines, thus giving assistance to the aircraft industry, which is badly in
need of these facilities to handle the huge assignment imposed upon it.
In addition — and what a tremendous addition it is — the automotive industry
is going to supply parts and assemblies for thousands of bombers.
This IS the phase of the defense work with which I have been closely associated
in recent months, as managing director of the Automotive Committee for Air
Defense.
SUMMARY OF WORK OF COMMITTEE
1 welcome this opportunity to summarize the work of this committee:
Last October, William S. Knudsen, then production chief of the National
Defense Advisory Commission and now Director General of the Office of Produc-
tion Management, called a meeting of leaders of the automotive industries, includ-
ing car, truck, body, tool, and parts manufacturing companies. About 100 top
men of the automotive industries, sitting with Army, Navy, and Defense Com-
mission officials, listened to Mr. Knudsen ask them to undertake the huge pro-
gram of manufacturing bomber parts, subassemblies, and assemblies. These
industrial leaders responded unanimously to the appeal, and immediately the
Automotive Committee for Air Defense was organized. Within a few days, the
committee leased 30,000 square feet of floor space in the Graham-Paige automo-
bile plant on the west side of Detroit. Here offices were established, an exhibit
with major sections from two bombers was set up, and a staff of technical experts
were employed to advise manufacturers on problems involved in aircraft work.
Our first job, then, was an educational one.
We obtained for the display as many separate pieces going into bombers as was
possible to secure. Our technical services were made available to all manufac-
turers, whether in the automotive industry or outside it, who had machinery,
personnel, a pool of labor, and floor space which iright be used to assist in the pro-
duction of Army bombers.
The cooperation of the men in industry was literally amazing. Up to this date,
more than 1,900 difl"erent executives, engineers, and production men, representing
1,067 companies, have visited the exhibit and conferred with our technical staff
in order to determine how they might help in this great defense program. Time
and time again, many of these men have come back — to study the parts closely
to determine whether their own facilities were equal to the task.
Throughout this period we have had the aid and advice of the IT. S. Army Air
Corps, who have had offices adjoining ours from the start. Without the assist-
ance of Maj. James H. Doolittle and others of the Air Corps staff, our job would
have been much more difficult, if not impossible.
NEED FOR MATERIALS, SERVICES IN BOMBER MANUFACTURE
Just why was the automobile industry asked to undertake this bomber-parts
program? . . .
I believe I can quickly illustrate why there was a need for additional facilities,
such as the automotive industry can furnish, to take some of the load off the greatly
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7319
expanded aircraft industry. While the large producers of bombers have worked
miracles in the past 15 months, yet there still existed a need for more machinery,
more materials, more management — and the automotive industry is the greatest
reservoir for these facilities. For a typical example of what the aircraft producers
were up against, consider the case of one aircraft organization:
In January 1940 — slightly more than a year ago — this aircraft company had
less than 5,000 men employed. Today it has nearly 20,000 employees, and that
number is expected to be doubled before the year's end. Last year it had 500,000
square feet of floor space. Today it is using 1,500,000 square feet of floor space
and another million square feet will soon be ready for occupancy. Within a span
of 2 years, then, this company will have multiplied its floor space by more than five
and its employees by eight.
So it soon became evident to defense officials and the Air Corps that one of the
biggest contributions that the automotive industry could offer was the services
of its executive personnel in production planning, in purchasing, and in the follow-
up of purchasing to assure the steady flow of materials.
The automotive industry, because of the great volume of passenger cars and
trucks which it produces for the Nation's needs, has led the world in industrial
organization and scheduling. Consequently, it was to the major producers of
motor vehicles that we turned for major assistance.
PLACING OP BOMBER PRODUCTION
Now, after 4 months of organizational effort, during which time we have
surveyed the facilities of 800 factories as to the availability of necessary equip-
ment, the Automotive Committee for Air Defense can make its final report as to
where this bomber production has been placed.
For the program, the Army selected three bombers; the B-24D, four-motor
bomber, designed and now being manufactured by the Consolidated Aircraft
Corporation; the B-25, two-motored bomber designed and now under production
by the North American Aviation Co., and the B-26, two-motored bomber designed
by and now being produced in quantities by the Glenn L. Martin Co. To the
Ford Motor Co. has been allocated the production of parts and assembles of the
B-24D, with the assistance of their suppliers, to be shipped to two new assembly
plants, owned by the U. S. Army; one at Fort Worth, Tex., to be operated by
Consolidated, and the other at 'Tulsa, Okla., to be operated by the Douglas
Aircraft Co. The Ford Motor Co. is about to build a new $11,000,000 plant
in which it will build air-frame assemblies for this bomber, and the Ford company
believe that it will be possible to have this plant in production before the end of
this year. This plant will produce wings, fuselages, noses, and stabilizer assem-
blies on a moving production line which it is believed will prove to be unique in the
aviation industry. Already 70 Ford engineers and designers are at San Diego
cooperating with the Consolidated Aircraft Co.'s organization, working out
methods to speed volume production.
The immediate plan is for Ford to build 600 sets of assemblies for the Con-
solidated B-24D long-range, four-motor bomber, and the same number for the
Douglas Aircraft Co. Production early next year is expected to reach 50 com-
plete assemblies per month for each company. This huge new plant will be
located near Ypsilanti, Mich. The first section will be 800 feet wide and 300 feet
deep; behind this will be another section 1,200 feet long and 400 feet wide, and
if the Government decides to assemble complete planes in this plant, the building
will he extended to house an assembly line a mile and a quarter long.
All of this production is in addition to the orders already placed with Con-
solidated at San Diego. So the Ford Motor Co. will call on all of their suppliers for
assistance, and our educational program which collected data from 800 factories,
will be made available to that great organization for locating proper suppliers. It
is interesting to note how an organization such as this can take on huge programs
and parallel them with great defense work already undertaken. For example, at
Ford, there is rapidly nearing completion a $21,000,000 airplane-engine plant,
for which ground was broken on September 17 for the production of Pratt &
Whitney engines which Ford states will be produced at a rate of one per hour.
These are 18 cylinder, double-row radial engines of two types, one developing
1,850 horsepower and the other 2,000. In order to get ready for this job, an
Aircraft Apprentice School, equipped to train 2,000 students at one time, is being
established. This same company has built its own magnesium-alloy foundry,
which is already in partial production. This foundry will probably be the largest
magnesium-alloy foundry in the world, capable of supplying 110,000 pounds of
light-weight castings a month. A complete U. S. Navy service school to train
7320 DETROIT HEAKINGS
navy recruits in technical duties is in operation in the heart of the great Ford
River Rouge plant, all provided and equipped by Henry Ford at no expense to Ihe
Government.
GENERAL MOTORS PRODUCTION
General Motors Corporation have undertaken the production of necessary parts,
and assemblies to produce 100 B-25 North American bombers per month in addi-
tion to a similar quantity which will be produced by the North American Aviation
Co. in their plants in California and Texas. Again the marvelous facilities of a
great organization have been put at the command of the Army Air Corps. Ground
has been already broken for an assembly plant at Kansas City, which plant will
be owned by the United States Army, manned by North American, and all parts
and assemblies necessary furnished by General Motors with the help of outside
suppliers from coast to coast.
Here, again, we see great defense efforts carried on by a great organization.
The far-flung defense assignments of General Motors already total $683,400,000,
which means that all manufacturing centers of any size in the Nation will set
their industrial wheels rolling as this automotive corporation calls for parts and
supplies for a long list of defense products.
General Motors AUison division in Indianapolis, for instance, is turning out
350 liquid-cooled engines a month, with a production rate several times that
number expected soon. Its Buick division is now breaking ground in Chicago for
a plant which will have a capacity of 500 Pratt & Whitney radial engines per
month. Anderson, Ind., watch a new aluminum foundry rise in 12 weeks, to
alleviate a bottleneck in airplane castings. In Rochester, production is beginning
on airplane control and instrument equipments. Cleveland is sending submarine
engines and other propulsion engines to the Navy from General Motors Diesel
engine division. In four cities, construction work is going forward and new
machinery is being installed for the production of machine guns, slated for delivery
in the latter half of this year. Other General Motors plants are tooling up for
production of 75- and 105-millimeter shells, cartridge cases, and fuses.
At the great Glenn L. Martin plant at Baltimore are now being prcduced 100
bombers per month and before the year is over, the majority of the facilities of
this plant will be turned largely to the production of that marveloys engineering
fighting machine, known as the Martin B-26. In order that additional facilities
might be made available to parallel this production, ground has been broken at
Omaha for an Army plant to be managed by the Glenn L. Martin Co., and the
parts and assemblies for this plant will be furnished by three automotive
organizations.
CHRYSLER PRODUCTION
For the manufacture of the fore and mid fuselage section of this bomber, the
Chrysler Corporation has made available some 600,000 square feet of floor space
in order that they may play an important part in the program to expand the
production of Martin bombers. A complement of able and experienced manu-
facturing executives, drawn from the Chrysler's regular staff has for some months
been making a special and intensive study of the problems before them in this
work. The Chrysler Corporation has therefore been designated to serve as a
subcontractor to the Glenn L. Martin Co. for the shipment of these parts to
Omaha.
Before this task was handed to Chrysler, they had already received defense
orders for nearly 60,000 vehicles of various descriptions, some of them of highly
specialized types, a substantial part of which has already been shipped. Workon
a great tank arsenal for which a contract was awarded last August, is proceeding
on schedule. Seven hundred thousand square feet of new buildings for that pur-
pose is now under roof and machinery is now being installed. When you remember
that it requires 1,000 man-hours to build the transmission alone for a 25-ton tank,
you realize the immensity of Chrysler's tank job. This organization has under-
taken a number of special engineering assignment such as the conversion of foreign
machine guns to American standards, and they are now preparing a proposal at
the Government's request to manufacture these guns in substantial quantities.
Orders for shells, shell cases, bomb fuses, and field kitchens are under way. The
Air Corps is interested in a new "in-line" liquid-cooled airplane motor designed by
Chrysler engineers which they hope will contribute to the development of the art
of aircraft motor design. The management of the Chrysler Corporation wants
that corporation to be in readiness to cooperate at all times with the defense
program to the extent that their resources and capabilities permit. Chrysler
Corporation is in full agreement with the Government's policies of farming out
NATIONAL, DEFENSE MIGRATION 7321
subcontracts for defense work to as many smaller manufacturers as is practical
in order that the full resources of this country may be applied to meet the present
emergency.
GOODYEAR PARTICIPATION
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. is participating in a large way in the production
of parts and assemblies for the Martin B-26 bomber. Goodyear already has
1,000 engineers and production men working on bomber parts. They are, at the
present time, using 300,000 square feet of floor space at their plant in Akron,
Ohio, and this program is being advanced steadily, so that by tiie latter part of
this year, Goodyear will be employing 8,000 men on aircraft production work,
utilizing about 1,000,000 square feet of floor space. Goodyear entered this
highly technical phase of fighting plane production with 25 years of experience
in the fabrication of light aircraft metals. To Goodyear has been allocated the
production of complete wings and all tail surfaces for the Martin B-26. They
are also building wings and tail surfaces for the Consolidated PB-2Y3. Mr.
P. W. Litchfield, chairman of the board of the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.,
says, "I believe that the command of the air is the most vital need in connection
with national defense, and we are giving this work priority over any other busi-
ness."
HUDSON PRODUCTION
To the Hudson Motor Car Co. has recently been allocated the aft section of
the fuselage for the Martin B-26. For several months, the Hudson Co. have
been building an organization of aircraft experts. They are already building
ailerons for another company. They have already taken on work for Wright
Aeronautical totaling severalmillions of dollars. A new Navy contract is under
way, and $15,000,000 in Government defense contracts will be under production
at Hudson before the end of 1941.
Let's not lose sight of the fact that each motor vehicle manufacturer is playing
his part — a big part — in this defense program. Right now the industry is shipping
13,000 military vehicles a month to the Army. That's just one task the industry^
has shouldered. Before the end of the year, it will have 150,000 men, exclusive
of those assigned to the bomber program, working on defense production. But
to conclude my report on the automobile industry's participation on the bomber
program, here is my final chapter:
The automotive committee for air defense, a voluntary organization, elected,
by various groups of automotive industry, has played an important part in the'
education of automotive engineers and production men to prepare them for the
huge production job which lies before us. The cooperation from all sources has
been spontaneous and enthusiastic. No one has refused to do anything asked
of him, and the staff of this committee has assisted every automotive manufacturer
to the extent of its ability. We were organized for a definite purpose to assist
in the allocation of this huge bomber program to the automotive industry, but
aircraft manufacturers quickly found out that 8505 West Warren, Detn-it, was a
place where they could get assistance on production already under way prior to
the bomber progra.n for which the committee was organized, so at least $1,000,000
of machine shop and die business has been placed in the automotive industry
through the efforts of this committee. Present production has been speeded up
by just that much.
The United States Army Air Corps now has leased additional space at our
location where, under the direction of Maj. J. H. Doolittle and a very competent
staff of Air Corps executives, the inspection section, the priorities division, and
the plant production division is being rapidly organized.
It's great to be an American. It's wonderful to live in America where men are
free. It has been a great experience to observe automotive engineers and produc-
tion executives tackle the job of learning "how" in order that aircraft production
could drive rapidly ahead.
I want to live to see the bomber seeds, which we have been sowing, sprout
and develop and take to the air in order that the aircraft supremacy of the United
States of America may be supreme and in order that every possible assistance
may be given to that great, brave country, Great Britain, our first line of defense.
I want to live to see democracy survive in America and in Great Britain and
in all other parts of the world where democracy is desired and deserved.
I want to live to see all "isms" except Americanism disappear from the hearts
and minds of our citizens.
I want to live to see whether or not some of the precision tolerances now re-
quired by the aircraft industry are reflected in the automobile of 1945, and to see
y322 DETROIT HEARIjSGS
the results of the mass production methods of the automotive industry reflected
in the aircraft of 1943.
I have been a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers for more than 25
vears and I ask very little other than I live to be its oldest member.
STATEMENT BY ROBERT W. CONDER, DIRECTOR OF LABOR
RELATIONS, CHRYSLER CORPORATION
We expect to be able to recruit substantially all employees necessary for our
defense program from among our employees of the automobile plants. So far
we have been able, in the great majority of instances, to place the employee
transfered on defense work similar to that previously performed by him in the
automobile plants, so little training prior to placing him on the defense job has
been necessary. Based on our present defense contracts, we expect to continue
this procedure where possible, and in all instances give such training as the em-
ployees selected require to do the defense work. The time we obtain macliinery,
equipment, materials, engineering data, and other pertinent data affects not so
much the location of employment opportunities but tbe prospective levels of
employment opportunities, in that we cannot start defense production involving
the placing of workers on the same until these things have been obtained.
/ Employment applicants, Chrysler Corporation, summary of Detroit plants, July
1, 1940, through June 30, 1941
Month
1940:
July
August
September
October
November.
December-
mi:
January...
February..
March
April
May
June
Total...
Total num-
ber of
applicants
3,437
11,882
51, 247
107, 909
60, 364
25, 620
44,873
45, 452
32, 462
12, 477
15, 920
20, 606
438, 149
Females
244
985
6,006
11, 136
7.908
2,012
3.587
4,619
3,522
2,321
2,754
3,004
48, 098
Colored
2.925
13, 180
8,554
2,089
3,319
3,371
1 33, 438
Nonresi-
dents
161
490
4, 543
7,191
9,976
4,879
7,262
13, 546
12, 949
4,410
3,765
5,249
74, 421
Detroit
residents
3,276
11, 392
46, 704
100, 718
56,388
20, 741
37,611
31,906
19, 513
8,067
12, 155
15, 257
363, 728
Total num-
ber of
applica-
tions taken
651
2,719
9,063
14,447
8,442
4,569
5,145
4,966
4,465
2,277
2,711
% 418
64,873
DODGE MAIN PLANT EMPLOYMENT APPLICANTS, JULY 1, 1940, THROUGH JUNE 30,
1941
1940:
July
August
September
October..-
November
December.
1941:
January...
February.
March
April
May
June.
Total...
1,820
5,215
25, 746
80, 552
54, 131
17, 308
34, 952
29, 000
20, 304
4, 988
7,226
7,604
288, 846
119
546
1,944
7,464
6,444
1,296
2,091
2,998
1,904
1,124
1,055
1,130
28, 115
2,312
11,97
7, 591
1,445
1,789
1,808
I 26,915
101
2.')3
2,029
4,776
8,765
4,413
5,546
9,240
9,448
1,972
1,154
1,227
48,924
1,719
4,962
23. 717
75, 776
45, 366
12, 895
29, 406
19. 760
10, 856
3,016
6,072
6,377
239, 922
895
2,838
6,693
4, 457
1,350
2,184
1,016
531
195
885
1,484
22, 616
' Negro applicants were not recorded separately until January 1941.
totals in relation to colored applicants cannot be made due to this fact.
An accurate comparison of the
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7323
1. Employment applicants, Chrysler Corporation, summary of Detroit plants, July
1, 1940, through June 30, 1941 — Continued
JEFFERSON-KERCHEVAL PLANT EMPLOYMENT APPLICANTS, JULY 1, 1940,
THROUGH JUNE .30, 1941
Month
Total num-
ber of
applicants
Females
Colored
Nonresi-
dents
Detroit
residents
Total num-
ber of
applica-
tions taken
1940:
July
124
2.645
7.756
10. 566
3. 171
3,344
4.556
3.912
3,912
4.153
5.054
3.359
10
207
2.194
2,416
741
460
1,145
688
723
682
1,213
742
2
120
45
146
88
216
795
1,298
1.612
1,588
1,564
1.441
122
2,525
7.711
10. 420
3,083
3,128
3,761
2,614
2,300
2,565
3.490
1,918
69
507
1,984
3,358
1,715
2,079
1941:
165
544
518
382
1,120
669
1,866
February ..
.. 904
702
1,027
May
836
554
Total
52, 552
11,221
1 3, 398
8.915
43, 637
15, 601
DE SOTO PLANT EMPLOYMENT APPLICANTS, JULY 1, 1940, THROUGH JUNE 30, 1941
1940:
July
100
508
6.235
4,085
1. 955
753
1.338
2,240
1,426
368
532
650
4
61
1,497
693
256
93
215
254
200
72
92
100
100
508
3,154
2.305
1,097
638
869
1,390
865
230
319
370
81
306
2,081
1,780
858
115
469
850
561
138
213
280
574
649
352
212
1941:
6
59
69
225
February.
103
March -
146
90
May
5
33
187
June -
135
Total-
19, 190
3,437
1 172
7,345
11,845
2,960
PLYMOUTH PLANT, EMPLOYMENT APPLICANTS, JULY 1, 1940, THROUGH JUNE 30,
1941
129
871
6,700
9,593
5,000
2,878
2,110
4,010
1,490
1,260
1,350
2,070
0
26
122
523
467
163
136
375
150
195
196
411
0
12
9
190
31
0
245
1,496
700
575
600
708
1940:
July
129
859
6,691
9,403
4,969
2,878
1,865
2,514
790
685
850
1,362
26
312
2.199
3,053
1,417
683
1941:
328
325
100
125
230
395
375
February
1,003
290
169
May -
183
210
Total.-
37, 461
2,764
1 1, 503
4,466
32, 995
9,920
' Negro applicants were not recorded separately until January 1941. An accurate comparison of the
totals in relation to colored applicants cannot be made due to this fact.
7324
DETROIT HEARINGS
1. Employment applicants, Chrysler Corporation, summary of Detroit plants, July
1, 1940, through June SO, 75^/— Continued
HIGHLAND PARK PLANT EMPLOYMENT APPLICANTS, JULY 1, 1940, THROUGH JUNE
30, 1941
Month
Total num-
ber of
applicants
Females
Colored
Nonresi-
dents
Detroit
residents
Total num-
ber of
applica-
tions taken
1940:
July
1,264
2,643
5,810
3,113
2,107
1,337
1,917
5,111
2,951
1,708
1.758
2,341
111
145
259
140
0
0
0
273
486
248
198
201
58
105
379
299
234
135
207
422
294
137
334
645
1,206
2,538
5,431
2,814
1,873
1,202
1,710
4,689
2,657
1,571
1,424
1,696
387
August
699
September . .
1,468
794
501
December
245
1941:
114
257
221
137
175
205
495
834
March
April ..
511
796
May
620
873
Total
32, 060
2,061
1 1, 109
3,249
28,811
8,223
TANK ARSENAL PLANT EMPLOYMENT APPLICANTS, JULY 1, 1940, THROUGH JUNE
30. 1941
1941:
1,179
2.379
31
59
25
55
240
334
939
2,045
1,106
2,286
June . -
3,098
139
248
817
2, 281
1,197
Total
6,656
229
328
1,391
5,265
4,588
' Negro applicants were not recorded separately until January 1941. An accurate comparison of the totals
in relation to colored applicants cannot be made due to this fact.
• Note.— Reports were not submitted for January. April, and May,
WARREN AVENUE PLANT
June 1941-
1,384
281
131
1,253
965
Note.— Employment activities were not organized until June 1941.
^. Job classification of employment applicants, Chrysler Corporation, Detroit plants,
5-month period, Feb. j, 1941, through June SO, 1941
General classifications
February March
April
May
June
Total
I. MALE
Apprentices
Clerical
Inexperienced
Inspection
Maintenance
Metal finishers and polishers —
Painters and trimmers
Production machine operators. .
Production machine repairmen.
Press operators -
Supervision
Tool and die workers
Welders —
Miscellaneous
1,209
906
12, 092
975
669
7.217
645
644
947
1,049
717
795
538
664
1,179
1,"383'
907
"2," 146'
1,246
"i,'990'
206
4,201
14, 752
128
2,113
10, 082
222
2.107
5,130
766
639
4,083
118
396
499
160
727
32
1,140
22
81
1,152
4,226
611
951
4,267
391
660
444
497
1,361
196
661
71
192
777
6.065
4,206
3,809
29, 468
509
3,258
3.451
657
5.420
228
10, 320
93
829
10, 350
40, 255
Total male applicants 40, 924
25. 749
14. 995
14. 041
17, 144
112,853
Note.— Figures for this 5-month period are given as representative of the types of work applicants have
requested or for which they seemed best suited. Inspectors, painters and trimmers, production machine
repairmen and supervision classifications were not recorded separately until May 1941.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7325
2. Job classification of employment applicants, Chrysler Corporation, Detroit plants,
5-month period, Feb. 1, 1P41, through June 30, 1941 — Continued
Oeneral clissiflcations
February
March
April
May
June
Total
11. FEMALE
3,815
268
192
208
93
3,474
284
128
246
90
2,379
291
91
185
32
2,402
189
70
144
34
2,347
224
121
198
25
14,417
Clerical --
1.256
602
981
274
4,576
4,222
2,978
2,839
2,915
17, 530
45, 500
29, 971
17, 973
16, 880
19, 448
129, 772
Employment applicants, Chrysler Corporation, Detroit plants, Sept. 8, 1941, through
Sept. 15. 1941
Plants
Dodge units
Jeflerson Kercheval
De Soto
riymouth--
Highland Park
Tank Arsenal
Warren Avenue —
Total
Total
number of
appli-
cants
678
252
189
260
490
1,291
431
3,591
Females
167
51
26
30
51
38
63
Colored
118
44
10
25
36
44
284
Nonresi-
dents
163
144
52
75
64
265
6
Detroit
residents
515
108
137
185
426
1,026
425
2,822
Total
number of
applica-
tions
taken
30
18
42
75
153
1,242
101
1,661
Job classifications of en.plcywcnt applicants, Chrysler Corpcraticn, Detroit plants,
for the period Sept. 8, 1^41, throvch Sept. 15, 1941
General classifications
I. MALE
Clerical
Inexperienced--
Inspection
Maintenance ... -.
Metal finishers and polishers
Painters and trimmers —
Production machine opera-
tors -
Production machine repair-
men
Press operators - -
Supervision
Tool and die workers
Welders -
Miscellaneous
Total male applicants,.
n. FEMALES
Factory workers
Clerical - --.
Stenographers
Typists
Office machine operators
Total female appli-
cants
Grand total
Dodge
units
76
142
2
15
3
6
2
0
1
7
160
Jefferson
Kerche-
val
678
18
109
4
1
21
0
De Soto
Ply-
mouth
230
103
47
26
27
0
0
8
4
0
29
0
0
0
0
0
167
51
26
30
260
High-
land
Park
0
16
0
5
18
215
Tank
Arsenal
38
189
26
85
32
0
253
1
48
1
18
84
478
38
Warren
Avenue
1,291
1
22
16
9
33
187
368
63
431
Total
177
638
70
139
103
37
422
12
126
17
49
172
1,203
3.165
258
48
31
426
3,591
7326 DETROIT HEARINGS
3 States represented by out-of-town applicants, Chrysler Corporation, Detroit plants,
Sept. 8 through Sept. 15, 1941
States
Dodge
units
Jefferson
Ker-
cheval
De Soto
Ply-
mouth
High-
land
Park
Tank Ar-
senal
Warren
Avenue
Total
Michigan (outside
Detroit area)
58
21
16
9
12
6
5
11
1
5
0
1
?
1
0
0
2
1
3
0
2
1
0
0
3
• 2
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
2
41
24
7
28
14
20
2
0
2
2
3
6
1
9
5
5
5
0
1
3
0
2
0
0
0
0
0
1
2
0
1
1
0
0
0
0
23
6
2
2
4
5
2
1
4
0
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
20
10
10
10
5
0
0
0
3
5
2
0
8
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
2
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
17
6
8
2
7
3
7
2
3
0
0
1
1
0
2
1
0
1
0
0
0
0
1
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
129
6
25
10
14
13
12
1
4
4
11
3
2
1
2
3
3
3
4
0
6
0
1
1
2
0
1
1
0
1
0
0
0
0
0
2
0
0
0
2
0
0
0
2
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
248
73
68
Kentucky
63
Ohio -
56
Pennsylvania
47
28
17
17
16
16
13
South Carolina
Alabama
12
12
10
North Carolina
West Virginia
9
8
7
6
6
6
Texas
4
3
Connecticut
3
3
North Dakota..
South Dakota
3
3
2
Wyoming
2
Colorado
0 0
1 0
0 2
0 0
3
Mississippi
2
Total
164
185
52
75
64
265
6
771
A Hires, Chrysler Corporation, Detroit plants, August 1, 1940, through July 31.
1941
Month
Dodge
main
Dodge
truck
Dodge
forge
7
82
52
19
16
29
3
10
2
5
11
3
Am-
plex
Jeffer-
son
Kerch-
eval
De
Soto
Ply-
mouth
High-
land
Park
Tank
arse-
nal
War-
ren
Ave.
Total
1940
August
Septen.ber
October
November
December
1941
January
February
March
April
182
1,122
3,275
862
216
135
260
143
67
74
132
75
2
344
305
516
35
103
156
149
474
175
91
9
16
13
20
8
12
43
19
41
2
4
11
10
142
992
1,012
425
241
124
158
171
286
210
39
19
2
1,016
503
155
50
47
62
30
300
118
13
7
24
359
250
37
6
6
7
2
100
105
73
38
33
936
344
223
75
78
58
16
2
307
130
25
353
654
368
82
292
481 ■
175
154
149
165
154
761
5,518
...
6,129
32
37
31
75
142
302
431
375
602
8
10
8
15
19
44
67
2,359
980
1,085
983
789
1,704
May
June
1,084
July
1,009
Total...
6, 543
2,359
239
199
3,819
2,303
1,007
2,227
3,104
2,027
171
23.998
NATIONAL DEB^ENSE MIGRATION
7327
5 Separations, Chrysler Corporation, Detroit plants, Aug. 1, 1940, through
July 31, 1941
Month
Dodge
Kain
Dodge
truck
Dodge
forge
10
13
24
10
20
20
15
87
31
21
25
187
Air.-
ple.x
14
8
4
11
4
10
14
14
32
38
3G
9
Jeffer-
son
112
121
224
194
257
317
256
344
128
423
364
2,067
Kcrch-
eval
134
79
211
180
192
231
184
272
51
206
263
3.014
De
Soto
Ply-
mouth
High-
land
Park
Tank
arse-
nal
War-
ren
Ave.
Total
1940
August
September
October
November
December
1941
January
Fehru^iry
March
April
379
435
568
495
776
847
930
3,498
861
790
1,079
15.090
1,209
75
39
57
50
78
77
4,59
101
136
122
136
35
50
112
127
227
143
80
127
113
120
128
1,640
213
291
205
234
194
195
215
772
267
575
1.669
7,086
72
153
307
122
106
216
203
363
288
193
254
260
2,178
1 , 225
1,694
1,430
1,826
2,057
1,974
12
18
48
68
74
2
5,948
1,890
2, 550
4,008
July
29, 565
Total.-.
25, 748
2,539
463
194
4,807
5,017
2,902
11,916
2. 637
220
2
56, 345
6. Number of employees for past 12 months segregated according to whether employed
on defense or nondefense production, salary and hourly employees, Chrysler Cor-
poration, Detroit plants
mo
September-
October
November.
December.
January. _
February.
March
April
May
June
July
August...
Number of
employees,
defense
production
7,072
7,564
8,161
9,003
9,182
9,115
10, 170
10, 903
11,292
12, 101
14, 825
Number of
employees,
nondefense
production
55, 112
60, 705
61,541
61,025
61, 176
61,212
57, 265
56, 693
57,047
55, 729
30, 264
46, 593
Combined
total
employees
62, 184
68, 269
69, 702
69, 854
70, 179
70, 394
66, 380
66, 863
67, 950
67, 021
42, 365
61,418
Note —All employees engaged on truck work have been included in defense production in conformance
with instractions of Michigan Unemployment Compensation Commission that such employees be consid-
ered defense workers. This report cannot be entirely accurate due to the fact that some employees divide
their time between defense and nondefense work, and some employees at the truck plant devote their time
to the production of civilian trucks.
60396— 41— pt IS-
-IS
7328
DETROIT HEARINGS
7. Estimated number of employees required for coming 12 months on defense and non-
defense production, salary and hourly einployees, Chrysler Corporation, Detroit
plants
mi
September
October
November
December ---
191^Z
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
Number of
employees,
defense
production
17, 522
18,061
19,016
20, 090
22,315
23, 591
24, 785
25, 394
25, 928
26, 682
27, 257
27, 654
Number of
employees,
nondefense
production
46, 456
46, 699
44, 960
32,317
32, 177
32, 152
31,138
31,138
31, 103
30, 286
30, 286
30, 286
Combined
total
employees
63, 978
64, 760
63, 976
52, 407
54, 492
55, 743
55,923
56, 532
57, 031
56, 968
57, 543
57, 940
Note. — All employees engaged on truck work have been included in defense production in conformance
with instructions of Michigan Unemployment Compensation Commission that such employees be consid-
ered defense workers. Thio report cannot be entirely accurate due to the fact that some employees divide
their time between defense and nondefense work, and some employees at the truck plant devote their time
to the production of civilian trucks.
8. Transfers from nondefense to defense work for the past year, salary and hourly
employees, Chrysler Corporation, Detroit plants
1940— September 1, 568
October 1,159
November.
December.
1941 — January. _ .
February..
March
April
375
298
37
114
234
376
1941-
-Continued
May 529
June 337
July 1, 174
August 2,411
Total 8,612
Note.— All truck plant employees are considered as transfers to defense activities in conformance with
instructions of Michigan Unempioyment Commission that such employees be considered defense workers.
This report cannot be entirely accurate due to the fact that some employees divide their time between
defense and nondefense work, and some employees at the truck plant devote their time to the production
of civilian trucks.
NATIONAJL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7329
STATEMENT BY R. I. ROBERGE, OFFICE OF EDSEL FORD, FORD
MOTOR CO.
Analysis of Industry
The following tabulations have been n.ade from employees' record cards as
requested :
Tables showing 1,000 employees represent en.ployees picked at random from
the record files.
Tables showing 1,500 en.ployees represent en.ployees whose records show place
of birth to be other than Detroit only.
(a) Last previous employment
of Ford Motor Co. employees
Place of
last em-
ployment
Num-
ber of
em-
ployees
Place of
last em-
ployment
Num-
ber of
em-
ployees
1
1
4
760
117
32
90
Michigan less than 100 miles
2
3
4
Michigan less than 100 miles
272
Rest of Michigan
87
Rest of Michigan
Others
Total
1,141
1 500
Total
S99
Industry
of last em-
ployment
Num-
ber of
em-
ployees
Industry
of last em-
ployment
Num-
ber of
em-
ployees
1
2
3
315
17
667
Automobile.- ---
1
2
3
162
Agricultural
Others
155
1,183
Total
Total
999
1,500
Industry
of last em-
ployment
before rehire
Num-
ber of
em-
ployees
Industry
of last em-
ployment
before rehire
Num-
ber of
em-
ployees
1
2
3
498
5
156
Automobile -
1
2
3
827
Agricultural
Others
Total
11
Others
155
Total
659
993
No. of
em-
ployees
No. of
em-
ployees
1,000
Male -
1.497
3
714
277
9
Total
Marital status:
1,500
Single
Marital status:
1,170
Total
1,000
Single
307
22
1
Total
1,500
7330 DETROIT HEARINGS
(6) Origins of em'ployees of Ford Motor Co., from records selected at random
1,000 EMPLOYEES
State or country of birth
Number of
employees
State or country of birth
Number of
employees
Alabama . . -
23Michi<ran
330
7
16-
Arkansas
14Missouri
14
1
Austria
3North Carolina -.
4
Beleium
2North Dakota
1
3
California
18
Canafla ...
1
Colorado
30hio
25
20klahoma
3
Czechoslovakia.
61
Denmark . .
IPoland
42
District of Columbia
2Porlugal
1
England -_.
IQ
Florida.
9
Georgia - - - -
26Scotland
18
Germany
20South Carolina
9
SSouth Dakota
2
Holland
2Spain ..
1
Hungary -
12Sweden
3
25Syi-ia
5
Indiana
14
Iowa ...-. -
9Texas
9Turkev
43Ukraine
^
Ireland .
4
Italy
1
Kansas - --_
SVirginia _ - - . .
S
Kentucky ..
23 Washington
6West Virginia
1
Lithuania -.
9
10
Maryland
1 Wyoming
SYugoslavia
5
1
1
Maine . .
5
Mexico -
1,000
(c) Origins of Ford Motor Co. employees, from records showing place of birth other
than Detroit
1,500 EMPLOYEES
State or country of birth
Number
of em-
ployees
State or country of birth
Number
of em-
ployees
Alabama
69
32
2
6
6
1
11
55
121
92
26
19
105
17
24
12
9
33
33
63
4
28
North Dakota. .
6
Arkansas _
New Hampshire
New Jersey
4
California
10
Colorado -.
3
Connecticut _ __ . _- __
New York _ ._ _ .__ .
71
District of Columbia _
Nebraska
8
Florida
Ohio .
164
Georgia
Oklahoma
14
Illinois . .
Oregon .
1
Indiana
201
Iowa
Rhode Island
5
Kansas . _. ..- .
South Carolina . .
22
Kentucky ...
South Dakota. ... .
5
Louisiana . .
Tennessee
Texas . .
104
M assachussets
17
Maryland . ..
Virginia
Vermont
24
Maine
6
Minnesota
Mississippi ,.
West Virginia.
Washington .
34
2
M issouri
Wisconsin
31
North Carolina
1,500
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
(d) Age of Ford Motor Co. employees
1,000 EMPLOYEES •
7331
Date of birth
Number
of em-
ployees
Date of birth
Number
of em-
ployees
Date of birth
Number
of em-
ployees
1867
1
1
2
3
3
3
5
6
5
6
11
8
15
2
11
24
27
18
1889
19
21
24
37
23
2
26
30
23
26
22
34
28
19
31
1
30
34
26
1908
23
1868
1890
1909....
22
1870
1891
1910
26
1871
1892
1911
18
1872
1893
1912
29
1873
1894
1913
21
1875
1895
1914. _
1
1876
1896
1915
33
1878
1897
1916
27
1879
1898
1917
43
1880
1899
1918
17
1881
1900
1919...
19
1882
1901
1920
39
1883
1902
1921
33
1884
1903
1922
28
1885
1904
1923
7
1886
1905
Total
1887
1906
1,000
1888
1907 ---
1,500 EMPLOYEES J
1863
1
2
5
1
1
2
2
4
4
8
7
5
10
9
7
14
10
13
15
21
1886
17
31
25
42
24
31
35
29
47
48
57
51
53
41
55
■ 52
44
42
64
47
1906
40
1867
1887 ....
1907
47
1868 - -
1888
1908
44
1869
1889 . . ..
1909
37
1870
1890
1891
1910
28
1871
1911
25
1872
1892
1912
27
1873
1893
1913.
42
1874
1894
1914
37
1875
1895
1915
39
1876
1896
1916
20
1877
1897 . . .
1917
32
1878
1898
1918-
17
1879
1899
1919.
23
1880
19' 0
1920
20
1881
1901
1921
32
1882
1902
1922
22
1883
1903 -
1923
2
1884
1904
Total.
1885
1905
1,500
' From records taken from files at random.
' From records of employees showing place of birth other than Detroit.
(e) Age of Ford Motor Co. employees when hired
1,000 EMPLOYEES'
Age when hired
Number
of em-
ployees
Age when hired
Number
of em-
ployees
Age when hired
Number
of em-
ployees
14
1
2
4
82
98
51
77
60
63
49
35
25
39
43
30
34
31
22
20
17
30
25
24
21
20
16
12
10
14
10
9
8
8
47
8
16
32
48
4
17
33
49
8
18
34 .-
50
5
19
35
51
1
20
36
52
4
21
37 .. -- ... ..
53
2
22
38
54 .
1
23
39
55
3
24
40
56
1
25
41
57
1
26
42
60
1
27
43
61 .
1
28
44 .
65
1
29
45
Total
30
46
1,000
' From records taken from files at random.
7332
DETROIT HEARINGS
(e) Age of Ford Motor Co. employees when hired — Continued
1,500 EMPLOYEES"
Age when hired
Number
of em-
ployees
Age when hired
Number
of em-
ployees
Age when hired
Number
of em-
ployees
16 . .-
4
5
44
68
78
131
115
89
78
82
72
76
75
39
61
38
32
52
50
31
42
29
35
27
23
14
12
19
19
14
12
13
10
48
13
17
33 -
49
7
18
34
50
3
19 . .
35 -
51
3
20 - .
36 .
52 . .
e
21
37
53 . .
22
38
54
23
39
55
24
40
56
25 . .
41
57
26
42 -.
58
27
43
Total
28
44
1,500
29 .
45
30
46
31 ....
47
' From records of employees showing place of birth other than Detroit.
(/) Length of employment, Ford Motor Co.
1,000 EMPLOYEES »
Year hired
Number
of em-
ployees
Year hired
Number
of em-
ployees
Year hired
Number
of em-
ployees
1908
1
3
2
6
2
12
28
4
16
32
21
1921
2
£8
76
17
SO
4
11
106
28
17
25
1932 .
28
1910...
1922
1933
4
1912
1923 ,.
1924 . .
1931
64
1913 .
1935
67
1914-.
1925
1936
06
1915
192'i
1937
38
1916
1927
1938
13
1917.
1928
1939
67
1918
1929
1940
194L
77
1919
1930
05
1920 .
1931
Total .
1,000
1,500 EMPLOYEES »
1913
12
2
14
30
4
11
58
38
52
216
1924
54
108
9
12
229
67
5
10
17
6
1934
51
1914
1925 .
1935
83
1915
1926 .
1936
76
1916
1927
1937
37
1917 . .
1928
1938
1939
3
1918
1929
98
1919
1920.
1930
1931
1940
1941
87
121
1922
1923
1932
1933.
Total
1,500
' From records taken from files at random.
• From lecords of employees showing place of birth other than Detroit.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
(g) Duration of reemployment, Ford Motor Co.
7333
Year of first rehire
Number of
employees
Year of first rehire
Number of
employees
1916
1
2
4
2
4
6
6
4
4
148
59
79
101
52
36
9
23
65
13
25
1920
1922
1923 ----
1924
2
1922
2
1923
6
1924
7
1925
1925
1926
4
1027
6
1928 -
1927.-.
1928
4
1929
7
1930 - --
1929
9
1931
1930
13
1932
1931
286
1933
1932
1933- -
146
1934
110
1935 .
1934
1935
152
1936
71
1936
37
1938
1937
1938 .-
6
1939
24
1940
1939
64
1940
18
1941
28
Total
643
Total --
1,002
Year of second rehire
Number of
employees
Year of second rehire
Number of
employees
1924
1
15
12
75
75
27
15
10
8
75
6
28
1922 -..-
1
1931
1924
1
1925
1
1933
1930 . .
1
1934
1931
1932
31
1935 -
20
1936
1933
137
1937
1934
147
1938
1935 .
58
1939
1936
1937
26
1940
3
1941
1938
7
1939
120
Total
347
1940
17
1941
9
Total
579
Miscellaneous Studies
Our latest age count was taken Septeir.ber 30, 1937, at which tiir.e there were
85,967 en.ployees, and there are approxin ately that nun.ber on the rolls now.
Using this report and allowing for the 3 years elapsed, the following figures
would be approxirr.ately correct:
En-.ployees 85, 967
Employees 40 years or older ._ _ 45, 482
Percent of men 40 years or older 52^^o
There are 9,800 disabled men employed at the Rouge.
There are now 10 m.en at the Ypsilanti plant whose ages range from. 66 to 80
with an average age of 70 years. The average length of service on these men is
9 years.
7334
DETROIT HEARINGS
We have no figures compiled as to the age of the employees who have been here
from 15 to 30 years but the following figures are con .piled from a report n.ade
March 13, 1939, showing length of service of employees:
Years of service:
15
16.
17_
18.
19.
20.
21.
22_
23.
24.
25.
Number of
employees
3,
203
1,
220
3,
876
3,
429
97
1,
691
2
454
1,
096
312
1,
301
844
Years of service:
26
27.
28-
29.
30.
31.
32.
33-
34-
Number of
employees
267
425
185
42
25
29
17
6
1
Total 20,520
(a) Ages of employees as of Sept. SO, 1937, Ford Motor Co.
[Includes Rouge, Highland Park, Flat Rock, Northville, Phoenix, Waterford, Plymouth, Nankin Mills,
Ypsilanti, Newburg, and Dundee]
Age:
Number
of
employees
Age:
17
3
41
18
744
42
19
. . 1, 599
43
20
1,876
44
21 2,198
2, 756
2,815
2,681
2,325
26 2,034
27.
22.
23.
24.
25.
1, 966
28 1,823
29 2,069
30 2,113
31 2,121
32 2,044
33 2,223
34 2,253
35 2,299
36 2,543
37 3,023
38 2,342
39 2,594
40 2,724
Number
of
employees
2,871
2,921
2,929
2,575
45 2,550
46 2,307
47 2,421
48 2,151
49 1,956
50 1,681
51 1,535
52 1,290
53-
54_.
55_.
56..
57..
58-.
59..
60-.
61..
62..
63..
64..
179
990
869
777
705
528
386
344
317
244
209
135
65.
66.
67-
68-
69.
70-
71.
72.
73.
74.
75.
76-
77.
78-
79.
80.
81.
82.
83.
84.
Number
of
employees
138
153
128
108
82
54
40
31
21
22
13
13
9
8
7
5
]
2
1
3
Total 85,967
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7335
(6) Place of birth and citizenship of persons at present employed
[Includes Rouse, Hisjhland Park, Flat Rock, Northville, Phoenix, Waterford, Plymouth, Nankin Mills,
Ypsilanti, Newburg, Dundee, Sharon Mill, Milan, Saline, Milford, Brooklyn, Manchester, and
Marine]
Count as
of place of
birth
Count by
present
citizenship
Count as
of place of
birth
Count by
present
citizenship
2
22
1
51, 834
10, 256
44
23
544
2
28
634
106
28
28
92
3,574
1
14
1
3
4
12
317
115
3
10
2,053
2
38
153
95
1,076
256
15
98
None
7
None
73, 706
10, 256
17
5
92
2
1
73
14
None
7
26
745
None
14
1
None
None
2
41
9
3
1
358
1
4
10
14
68
52
None
5
Honduran
Hungarian
Indian
Irish .
1
1,244
43
796
4,820
15
4
413
16
424
570
225
45
1
101
9
4
3,513
15
39
808
886
1,885
236
232
49
478
396
84
2
70
89
1
Albanian
Algerian
233
16
59
1,079
Arabian
Jamaican
Japanese
Jugo-Slavian
2
4
71
Latvian
Lithuanian .. .-
1
68
Maltese -
163
Mexican^ .. - .
157
Newfoundlander _-
3
New Zealander
Norwegian.
None
7
Canadian
Persian
Peruvian. - -
2
1
Polish
556
Puerto Rican ...
3
Costa Rican ..
Portuguese
Rumanian
11
184
Russian -
146
Scotch . . .
259
Danish
Spanish
Swedish.. _
96
21
Swiss... --
6
English
Syrian . -
126
Turkish
143
Ukranian
11
Uraguayan
1
Welsh
3
West Indian
30
Total
88, 997
88, 997
Hollander
Citizens of United Ssates of America-
Aliens (noncitizens)
Total..-
Note.— Salary and ofEce-roU employees not included.
83, 962
5,035
88, 997
Analysis of working force of the Ford Motor Co.
Year and employees
January
February
March
April
May
June
1937: Production..
42, 265
38,214
13, 578
26, 525
29, 426
34,010
38, 531
40, 243
34. 422
43, 331
41, 660
38, 109
12. 592
29, 546
24, 548
31, 148
34, 339
38. 842
35,612
43, 673
42, 002
38, 144
10. 295
29, 225
22, 146
29, 997
32, 886
38, 054
37, 536
44, 827
42, 693
38, 530
11.398
23, 538
26, 960
34, 365
33, 064
39. 761
20,114
28, 904
41. 273
38.911
12.053
21, 009
22, 193
32, 491
28,513
38, 810
45, 746
51. 152
37, 402
36,614
1938: Production
11.699
Nonproduction -
21, 642
1939: Production
23, 280
Nonproduction
1940: Production
33, 836
27,715
40, 554
1941: Production
44, 660
Nonproduction
51,601
Year and employees
July
August
September
October
November
December
1937: Production
Nonproduction .- .
22, 343
32, 308
10, 458
21, 499
23. 491
36, 087
18. 421
40, 122
37, 921
47, 849
28. 064
33. 951
8,213
22, 294
15, 233
38, 089
18, 006
38, 535
27, 440
42, 177
13. f.95
28,215
27, 542
39, 890
29, 208
41. 322
29, 093
41. 647
19, 533
31,058
3.5, 829
40, 104
34. 307
42,061
33. 123
40. 939
21,811
31, 553
39, 041
41,078
36, 704
44, 076
26, 887
35, 859
1938: Production
27. 977
Nonproduction
1939; Production
32, 993
39, 418
Nonproduction .
41, 256
1940: Production
33, 359
Nonproduction
43, 199
1941: Production
7336
DETROIT HEARINGS
Estimated employment by months
Defense
Non-
defense
September 1941
October 1941..
November 1941
December 1941 .
Total....
39, 900
85, 096
79, 139
49. 892
46, 616
260, 743
STATEMENT BY H. W. ANDERSON, PRESENTED BY C. E. WILSON,
PRESIDENT, GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION '
General Motors Corporation,
Detroit, Mich., September 22, 19U-
Mr, John W. Abbott,
Chief Field Investigator, House Committee Investigating
National Defense Migration,
Washington, D. C.
Dear Sir: I am herewith submitting a signed copy of report prepared by
H. W. Anderson in response to your several inquiries.
The forecasts have been based upon the present defense contracts of the cor-
poration and the allocations for civilian production. These allocations, are, of
course, contingent upon the corporation's ability to secure the needed materials.
There is real danger that shortages in supply may force an even greater curtail-
ment in employment for civilian production than that forecast.
For years General Motors has been cooperating with the Army and Navy in
the design and manufacture of military material. As a result the corporation
has substantial defense contracts which will serve to partially offset the effect of
the ordered curtailment in passenger-car business. Although substantial, these
defense contracts are not large in proportion to the capacity of the General Motors
Corporation to serve in the defense effort.
You will note from Mr. Wilson's talk, in the Problems ot Conversion section,
that although General Motors normally produces 8 percent of all the durable
goods in the United States, the corporation has been able to secure only 4}-^
percent of similar defense business.
While approximately 40,000 employees throughout the United States are now
producing defense materials, and present schedules call for an increase in this
employment at the rate of 5,000 a month, this is inadequate to offset the mini-
mum expected decline in employment due to the restriction of the automobile
production.
Yours truly,
B. D. Ktjnkle, Vice President.
1 On pages followins appear excerpts and statistical material from the report, a complete copy of which is
held in committee files.
NATIONAL, DEFENSE MIGRATION
7337
Actual and forecast employment of hourly and salaried General Motors employees in
Michigan cities
Bay City
Detroit -
Flint
Grand Rapids
Ionia
Lansing
Pontiac
Saginaw
Total...
Civilian
Actual
June
30
2,209
36, 789
45, 006
2,978
349
12,220
15, 923
9,785
125, 259
July
31
2,177
29, 86S
43, 727
2,330
273
11, 766
15, 198
9,479
114,818
August
31
1.379
25, 295
26. 491
2,406
265
5,130
9,033
7.027
77, 026
Forecast
Sep-
tember
30
2,100
28, 900
38, 300
2,100
200
10. 800
13, 800
9,000
105, 200
Octo-
ber 31
2,100
29, 400
40, 000
2,100
200
11,100
14, 300
9,000
108, 200
No-
vember
30
2,100
28, 300
39, 300
1,900
200
9,100
10. 400
8,800
100, 100
Decem-
ber 31
1.900
25. 400
28, 700
1,900
200
7.500
9,900
6,700
82, 200
March
31
1,900
23, 700
26. 000
1.600
200
6.800
10,000
7,300
77,500
June
30
1,700
20,600
20. 500
1,300
100
6,600
9.800
7,300
67, 900
Defense
Actual
Forecast
1941
1941
1942
June
30
July
31
August
31
Sep-
tember
30
Octo-
ber 31
No-
vember
30
Decem-
ber 31
March
31
June
30
Bay City ..
17
6.147
2.709
72
10
6.753
2,958
123
41
7,976
3,578
180
40
10. 700
4,200
200
20
11.500
4,300
200
30
11.800
4,500
200
200
13, 100
4.400
200
200
10. 200
4,500
200
400
Detroit .. .. -
11.300
Flint
4.800
Grand Rapids
200
Lansing
1,182
304
1.488
1,202
566
1,532
1,281
696
2,004
1.400
900
2,400
1,800
1.200
2.800
2.100
1.400
2,800
2,100
1,500
2,900
2.100
2.1)00
2,900
2,100
Pontiac
3.000
Saginaw
2,900
Total.-
11,919
13.144
15. 756
19, 840
21. 820
22, 830
24. 400
22. 100
24. 700
Total
Actual
1941
June
30
July
31
August
31
Forecast
1941
Sep-
tember
30
Octo-
ber 31
No-
vember
30
Decem-
ber 31
March
31
June
30
Bay City
Detroit
Flint
Grand Rapids
Ionia
Lansing
Pontiac
law
Total
2,226
42. 936
47, 715
3,050
349
13, 402
16, 227
11,273
2.187
36, 621
46, 685
2,453
273
12, 968
15.764
11,011
1,420
33. 271
30. 069
2.586
265
6,411
9,729
9,031
2.140
39, 600
42. 400
2,300
200
12. 300
14, 700
11. 400
2,120
40. 900
44.300
2.300
200
12, 900
15,500
11,800
2.130
40, 100
43, 800
2.100
200
11,200
11.800
11,600
2.100
38, 500
33, 100
2,100
200
9.600
11,400
9.600
137, 178
127, 962
92, 782
125, 040
130, 020
122, 930
106,600
2,100
31, 900
25, 300
1.500
100
8,700
12, 800
10, 200
92. 600
Note.— Includes hourly and salaried employees in manufacturing plants only. Excludes all sales and
distribution employees and all service organization employees, such as G. M. A. C, G. E. I. C, United
Motors, etc. Excludes Yellow Truck.
7338
DETROIT HEARINGS
The estimates given above are based upon the attached tentative allotment
provided by the Office of Production Management for passenger-car production.*
Truck production was estimated on the basis of 1941 volume. Defense as tabu-
lated includes all known direct and first degree indirect defense production,
including civilian type items destined for military establishments, or for further
fabrication into items of military equipment. It does not include articles for
defense housing or vehicles necessary to transport defense plant workers or other
second degree defense production.
The projections of defense emploj^ment are based on contracts on hand and
under negotiation which have reached the stage where a definite time, place, and
quantity of manufacture can be established. The large tank order now under
consideration for General Motors is excluded. The Chevrolet contract to produce
Pratt & Whitney engines has also been omitted. This will employ about 1,000
additional persons in Detroit, Bay City, and Saginaw by July 1942.
In preparing the projections of employment, the hours of workers on civilian
production were based on the principles set forth in C. E. Wilson's letter No. 64
to general managers, attached.^ Hours varied between plants as dictated by the
necessities of balancing production, the amount of automotive type defense
business in prospect, and the number of employees with seniority.
Defense employment was projected on expected hours at the time this report
was prepared. In some cases the limitations of productive equipment and the
exigencies of maximum production necessitated a work week beyond 40 hours,
even though there were unemployed General Motors workers in the same city.
The Detroit News reports on September 18 that the United Automobile Work-
ers, Congress of Industrial Organizations has moved to cooperate in four-shift
operation of defense plants, proposed bv Mr. Wilson on April 30.
This four-shift operation will permit (1) a substantial increase in the total
man-hours of work per week on defense production, and (2) shorter shifts in
bottleneck operations, which will make it possible to give jobs to a few more men.
Considering that bottleneck departments are now averaging 135 hours per week
and that a maximum would be 157>^, an increase of over 15 percent in weekly
hours and in employment seems possible under the four-shift operation.
Location of most recent employment of persons seekinp jobs in selected General Motors
plants, Sept. 11-17, 1941 '
Detroit
Flint
Previous employ-
ment
Cadillac
Gear & A.xle
Diesel
Biiick
Chevrolet
Num-
ber
Per-
cent
Num-
ber
Per-
cent
Num-
ber
Per-
cent
Num-
ber
Per-
cent
Num-
ber
Per-
cent
130
7
66
59
3
30
57
1
16
62
Detroit
Other Michigan
Alabama
604
43
2
1
2
86
6
87
8
1
87
• 8
1
93
8
77
6
1
18
Arkansas
2
2
1
1
5
2
6
2
Florida
1
1
2
1
1
1
1
2
1
1
Illinois
4
1
2
2
1
1
1
I
Kentucky
10
1
1
1
i
1
1
Minnesota
2
2
i
1
1 Based on representations of applicants.
1 See p. 7340.
s See p. 7342.
NATIONAl, DEFENSE MIGRATION
7339
Location of most recent employment of persons seeking jobs in selected General Motors
plants, Sept. 11-17, 1941 — Continued
Detroit
Flint
Previous employ-
Cadillac
Gear & Axle
Diesel
Buick
Chevrolet
Num-
ber
Per-
cent
Num-
ber
Per-
cent
Num-
ber
Per-
cent
Num-
ber
Per-
cent
Num-
ber
Per-
cent
2
1
2
1
8
4
2
2
9
1
2
1
2
1
6
3
2
2
New Jersey
1
1
2
1
1
2
1
1
2
2
2
1
1
2
Pennsylvania
South Carolina
i
1
1
2
2
1
1
2
2
1
1
699
Total
99
119
219
91
Pontiac
Saginaw
Previous employment
Pontiac
G. M. Truck
Steering gear
Num-
ber
Per-
cent
Num-
ber
Per-
cent
Num-
ber
Per-
cent
Num-
ber
Per-
cent
Horrp city
15
34
32
20
32
36
23
36
158
18
216
39
4
54
} 1, 222
414
3
10
6
2
1
12
3
2
13
1
1
4
13
2
2
2
5
1
12
1
8
2
2
12
1
3
]
1
69
Detroit -
25
52
24
Arkansas
1
1
1
1
Florida
1
1
2
2
1
1
1
Kentucky
1
2
1
1
M assachusetts
1
1
1
1
1
Nebraska
2
New Jersey
North Dakota
1
2
Ohio
1
1
1
Pennsylvania
South Dakota
1
West Virginia
1
Canada
1
2
Total
44
89
402
1,762
.
7340
DETROIT HEARINGS
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NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7341
General Motors Defense Activities
August 20, 1941
As outlined recently to stockholders, production of defense materials in General
Motors plants is increasing steadily, in both volume and variety. At the same
time additional obligations are being assumed on which the production stage
will be reached as rapidly as essential new facilities can be completed. Orders
received or under negotiation now total $1,200,000,000 as shown below. Par-
ticularly significant are the greatly expanded activities in the important field of
aircraft, toward which half of General Motors defense efforts are directed. Exten-
sive efforts are also being devoted to production of many types of highly technical
ordnance material. In all, more than 70 percent of the defense contracts and
orders of General Motors call for products outside the organization's customary
activities.
AIRCRAFT engines, PROPELLERS, PARTS, AND EQUIPMENT — $626,500,000
Airplane engines (I). — Continuous expansion has been necessary to keep pace
with orders for Allison liquid-cooled aircraft engines, which were again increased
recently for Army account. Military horsepower rating of the V-1710 Allison
engine has been stepped up to 1,325 without increase in size. Castings from the
new aluminum foundry at Anderson, Ind., and precision-built parts from Cadillac
Motor Car and Delco-Remy divisions have helped to boost production schedules.
Amount, $233,200,000.
Airplane engines (11). — Following an assignment from the United States Army
Air Corps, Chevrolet Motor Division is tooling plants at Tonawanda and Buffalo
to produce 1,000 Pratt & Whitney air-cooled engines per month. Additional
orders have made necessary an increase in the projected capacity of the Buick
aircraft engine plant, now approaching completion near Chicago, from 500 to 1,000
Pratt & Whitney engines per month. The Buick plant at Flint will produce
parts for these engines. Upwards of 25,000 men will be employed in these
activities.
Amount, $218,400,000.
Airplane propellers. — Production is under way on a pilot order for a new type
hydraulic airplane propeller for the United States Army Air Corps in the newly
completed Aeroproducts Division plant near Dayton. Additional tooling opera-
tions and plant increases, including a propeller parts plant at Frigidaire, are hasten-
ing the expansion needed to meet further orders under negotiation.
Amount, $70,800,000.
Bomber parts and subassemblies. — Fisher Body Division is now in production on
parts and subassemblies for twin- engine North American bombers in the expanded
bomber program. The Fisher Memphis plant is being revamped and tooled for
this purpose, and facilities of other General Motors divisions also are being utilized.
The bombers will be assembled by North American Aviation at their Kansas Cicy,
Kans., plant.
Amount (Fisher Body's assignment). $66,000,000.
Aircraft equipment. — Several General Motors divisions share in assignments for
the production of various types of specialized component parts for aircraft.
Included are bearings, heat exchange units, special aircraft spark plugs, landing
gears, electrical and instrument items.
Amount, $38,100,000.
GTJNS, SHELLS, AND RELATED ITEMS $204,900,000
Machine guns. — Months ahead of schedule, machine gun production lines have
been operating since April in the AC Spark Plug plant and the Saginaw Steer-
ing Gear plant. Frigidaire at Dayton has been in production since June and
Brown-Lipe-Chapin at Syracuse will be on a production basis in the near future.
The assignment shared by these four divisions has been augmented by additional
contracts in recent months.
Amount, $83,700,000.
Rapid-fire cannon. — Olds Motor Works Division and Pontiac Motor Division
now are installing special machinery and tools in preparation for the production
of two types of rapid-fire cannon on assignments from the Army and Navy.
Amount, $58,000,000.
Gun housings and gun controls. — Fisher Body Division is well ahead of schedule
on a United States Navy order for gun housings. The Fisher plant engaged in
this work has been awarded the Navy "E" for excellent performance and given
7342 DETROIT HEARINGS
permission to fly the Navy Ordnance Flag as a reward of merit. Production of
gun controls at the Delco Appliance Division has been under way for some time.
Amount, $26,000,000.
Shells, cartridge cases, and fuzes. — Another "ahead of schedule" G. M. defense
project is the shell-production assignment at the recently built and equipped
General Motors Forge plant of the Olds Motor Works Division. This plant is
now turning out thousands of shells daily. Cartridge cases at Guide Lamp Divi-
sion and fuzes at Delco Products Division are in volume production.
Amount, $37,200,000.
DIESEL ENGINES $159,700,000
Production of Diesel engines — principally propulsion and auxiliary units for
naval use — at the Cleveland Eiesel E!ngine Division is proceeding at an accel-
erated rate. Facilities have been enlarged and important additional obligations
assumed in recent months. Detroit Diesel Engine Division is producing Diesel
units for various defense purposes.
TRUCKS AND TRANSPORT EQUIPMENT $82,300,000
Additional orders have been assigned to Chevrolet Motor Division. Deliveries
of trucks of various special military types to the Biitish and United States
Governments continue at a rapid rate.
MISCELLANEOUS $18,100,000
Many G. M. divisions are in production or preparing to manufacture various
other types of defense materials, such as electrical equipment, tank track sets,
tank gun mounts, dies and machine tools for other suppliers, magnetos, motors,
and many other items of a technical and confidential nature.
CANADA $103,500,000
Substantial deliveries continue to be made by General Motors Canadian plants
of military trucks and transport equipment, as well as shell fuzes. At Walker-
ville, Ontario, the Border Cities Industries, Ltd., plant is preparing special fa-
cilities for the production of machine guns. All defense production in G. M
Cairadian plants is for account of the Canadian and British Governments.
Memorandum on Labor Policy
General Motors Corporation,
Aiigust 23, 1941.
Subject: Labor pohcies to be followed in connection with reduced production in
schedules resulting from Governn.ent regulations.
To: All general managers.
While the cut in General Motors' passenger-car business ordered by Office of
Price Administration and Civilian Supply and Office of Production Managem.ent
amounted to 54.5 percent for the n.odel year 1942 as compared to the n.odel year
1941, due to the fact that the corporation was changing n.odels and had no sched-
ule for August, and only a partial schedule for September, it will be possible to
reemploy more em.ployees than would have otherwise been the case. Office of
Price Administration and Civilian Supply has also ordered the Frigidaire produc-
tion to be cut 50 percent from the 1941 rate ot product'on.
Subject to our being able to obtain n.aterial, the following labor policies will
continue in effect until it is necessary to n.odify them due to production schedules
ordered by Office of Price Adirunistration and Civilian Supply and Office of Pro-
duction Management:
NATTONAI. DEFENSE MIGRATION
7343
1. No new employees are to be hired on defense or any other work in any plant
city where Generaf Motors' employees with seniority who can do the work are
laid off. Former General Motors' employees without seniority will also be given
preference on work they can do in new defense activities, providing they make
application for such work.
2. No employees working on automobile parts or Frigidaire parts who do not
have seniority will be called back unless the plant is working 40 hours a week.
If any such employees are now working, they should be laid off immediately unless
the plant will be required to work approximately 40 hours per week to meet the
schedules. This is only a problem in parts plants where only a small part of the
total production is for passenger-car parts.
3. All employees with seniority on autom.obile production will be called back
if the schedules make it possible to operate the plant on a 32-hour basis. If there
is not enough work to employ all seniority employees on a 32-hour basis, some of
them with the least seniority wiU not be recalled, in accordance with local seniority
rules.
In the body-assembly and car-assembly plants, all employees with seniority
will be brought back and the plants operated on a 40-hour basis until the assembly
production is balanced with the parts production. This is possible because these
employees have been laid off since late in July and the corporation had no August
production of passenger cars. A number of seniority employees on parts produc-
tion have already been recalled.
4. The above regulations do not apply to apprentices and others generally
considered exempt from seniority rules.
It is recognized that during this period of adjustment, and especially where
the plant has defense production as well as passenger car, truck, and other busi-
ness, some departments will work niore hours than others. It may be desirable
and necessary to even work some overtime on defense production where tooling,
machinery, or uneven flows of materials limit the number of people who can be
emploved.
5. While the situation is somewhat different in each plant, subject to conditions
beyond the corporation's control, it should be possible to operate the plants
through October on this basis.
Very truly yours,
C. E. Wilson, President.
Hourly and salaried em-ployee turn-over in Michigan cities, IS-month period, Sep-
teinher 1940 through August 1941
Defense plants
Civilian plants
Total
IN ew hires
Separa-
tions
Transfers
in
New hires
Separa-
tions
Transfers
out
1941 peak
employ-
ment
Month
of peak
Bay City
1
1,893
1 1, 126
263
333
8,703
7,828
433
83
3,472
2,624
2,407
176
4,683
2,249
171
25
936
1,581
1,654
1
1,590
1, 126
262
2,228
44, 452
47, 844
3, 100
350
13, 150
16, 064
11,302
Detroit
4,515
12,617
1,312
1205
Do
Flint .
Do
Grand Rapids
Ionia
May.
June.
April.
June.
Lansing
Pontiac
Saginaw
1,098
164
1,598
93
40
142
309
513
120
311
516
119
Total
9,992
1,792
4,225
25,883
11,475
3,925
138, 496
1 338 of these persons hired or transferred in Michigan have been moved to Melrose Park.
60396— 41— pt. 18 19
7344
DETROIT HEARINGS
Forecast as of Aug. SI, 1941, employment dislocation from June SO, 1941, levels
in General Motors product groups (hourly and salaried employees)
Employ-
ment,
actual,
June 30,
1941
Dislocation, i. e., reduction in employment
Division group
Actual,
Aug. 31,
1941
1941 forecast
1942 forecast
Sept. 30
Oct. 31
Nov. 30
Dec. 31
Mar. 31
June 30
Car - --- ---
113,000
59, 000
69, 000
20, 000
17, 000
14, 000
41,000
23, 000
4,000
1,000
(')
(')
11,000
13,000
2,000
1,000
(')
(')
6,000
11,000
2,000
1,000
(')
(')
10,000
15,000
4,000
2,000
(')
(')
23, 000
21,000
6,000
1,000
(•)
«
27, 000
24, 000
10, 000
(')
(1)
(')
28,000
27, 000
12,000
(')
(')
(')
Body
Parts and accessories
Household
General engine
Miscellaneous
Total, United
States
292,000
67,000
25,000
17, 000
27,000
47,000
68,000
64, 000
1 No indicated dislocation.
Note. — These are over-all estimates. In some cases the defense expansion is not in the same city as the
civilian curtailment. These estimates also assume that all employees no longer needed on civilian produc-
tion will be able and willing to take the available defense jobs. The United States totals include a se'ieduled
expansion of total employment in the general engine group. All United States divisions, operating and
nonoperating, are included. Yellow Truck is excluded.
For purposes of this tabulation, defense employment was limited to specialized defense plants or depart-
ments whose turn-over could be segregated with reasonable certainty. An important part of General Motors
defen.se production is military motor vehicles whose components are largely produced in conjunction with
related civilian items. Although it was possible to prorat.^ these defense workers on semicivilian type items,
it proved impossible to allocate the turn-over on this basis. New hires exclude persons recalled from lay-ofl
or returning from leave of absence. Separations are permanent separations only and exclude lay-ofls and
leaves of absence.
An attempt was also made to secure now hires classified by state of previous employment, but in every
plant approached the record system made an analysis of this character extremely difficult if not impossible.
Employment in Present and Planned Facilities of General Motors
^ I on ia
Grand Rapids r— 1 ^,^ i „ i „
^ '^ I Fisher I 265 I 0 | 0
Bay City •
I Chevrolet | 1379 | 41 | 640| 12-42|
Sag inaw
I Fisher I 2406 | 180 | 180 | S-41 |
0 Lansing
Fisher
1132
0
0
Olds
3998
1281
2105 11-41
Grey Iron
3783
7
62
12-41
Transmission
815
0
355
12-42
Malleable
1269
268
395
12-41
Steering Gear
1160
1729
2394
12-41
Flint •
AC Spark
6568
3305
3835
12-41
Buick
7758
44
2023
12-42
Chevrolet
8679
221
221
11-41
Fisher /I
1871
0
0
Fisher fZ
495
0
0
Fisher Stamp.
1119
8
13
11-41
Pont iac9
/
Fisher
2962 19
46
12-41
Pontiac
6071 677
3987
9-42
Civilian Defe
Present Employment Forecast Peak Defens
Enployment
Excludes Non-manufacturing Plants
Cadillac
2432
3169
4150
3-42
Gear 5 Axle
5817
1722
4380
12-41
Transmission
1640
23
30
10-41
Diesel
832
645
1368
6-42
Fisher xt
4868
1624
3405
9-42
Temstedt
8604
247
254
9-41
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7345
General Motors critical material requirements, 1941 and 19^2 model passenger cars
Material
Pounds per average
car
Design
saving
(percent)
Pounds
saved,
including
1941
1942
volume
reduction
7.6
3.6
.047
62.8
4.5
51.9
32.5
2.7
.0075
1.8
1.7
.005
18.9
4.6
55.1
34.4
2.8
.0074
76
53
89
64
-2
-6
-6
-4
1
14, 148, 000
Nickel --
5,899,000
92, 300
Zinc -
92, 027, 000
4, 957, 000
55,603,000
34, 916, 000
2, 955, 000
9,000
1941 production volume
1842 production allotment (tentative).
Cars
2, 082, 422
950, 956
(The following material was received subsequent to the hearing,
and was made a part of the record in accordance with instructions
from the chairman:)
Exhibit A.^ — Interpretation op Policies Enunciated by Office of Pro-
duction Management as They Affect General Motors Corporation
General Motors Corporation,
Detroit, Mich., October 20, 19^1.
Hon. John H. Tolan,
Chairman, House Committee Investigating National Defense Migration,
Congress of the United States, Washington, D. C.
Dear Mr. Tolan: As requested in your letter of October 17, I am enclosing
herewith a copy of the agreed-upon interpretations of the policies enunciated by
the Office of Production Management dated September 17, 1941, as they affect
the plants of the General Motors Corporation. I am also enclosing six copies of
A Message to Our Employees on the Employment and Defense Problem.
Copies of the enclosed message have been supplied to employees of the Corpo-
ration who are represented by the United Automobile Workers, Congress of Indus-
trial Organizations. Copies have also been made available to all other employees.
If there is any additional information I can supply you, I would be very glad
to do so.
Very truly yours,
(Signed) C. E. Wilson, President.
[Enclosure]
The following is an agreed upon interpretation of the policies enunciated by the
Office of Production Management, September 17, 1941, as they affect the plants
of General Motors Corporation:
provision no. 1
Where a man working on nondefense production is laid off and obtains defense
employment with another company, and that fact is certified to his former em-
ployer, he will not have to report back for nondefense production work in order
to protect his seniority so long as he retains the defense employment to which he
was certified. If he shifts from one defense employment to another, there must
be a recertification as to his new defense employment. Employers concerned
with the application of this policy will work out arrangements which will result
in the maximum possible acceleration of the defense program.
provision no. 3
Transfer of employees from nondefense to defense work in each local bargaining
unit shall be in line with agreements regarding the transfer of employees. Em-
ployees fully qualified for skilled and semiskilled jobs on the basis of past experi-
ence and training shall be transferred in line with their seniority.
7346 DETROIT HEARINGS
If no such employees or an insufficient number of such employees who have
made application are available, management will notify the shop committee and
new, fully qualified applicants may be hired.
If no such fully qualified applicants are available or it is necessary or desirable
to train men for the work, employees with the greatest seniority working in the
plant, who have applied and who can qualify within the period normally given
to new employees shall be given the opportunity to qualify before new employees
are hired to be trained for the job.
PROVISION NO. 3
When hiring new employees for defense work, qualified applicants out of work
on account of authorized Government curtailment of nondefense production, or
employees working on nondefense production in local industry where they can
be spared or loaned, and where curtailment in their industry is authorized for the
near future, will be given preference in such employment based upon length of
experience in the industry or occupation.
Such employees who are working or who have worked in local industries will
be given preference over employees from other localities who have also been laid
off because of curtailment.
Employees working in plants on nondefense work where employment is decreas-
ing who can be spared or loaned; who elect to accept such defense employment;
and who are found acceptable and so certified by the prospective employer will
be released with full protection of their seniority rights.
PROVISION NO. 4
Skilled tradesm.en, partially employed, or employed at occupations other than
their trade or its equivalent in defense usefulness, will be released upon their
request, with protection of their seniority rights, for full time defense work (40
hours per week) at their trade. In instances in which a collective agreement
pro -^ ides for a reduction of hours below the 40-hour basis, and employees collec-
tively elect such reduction, the schedule of hours so reduced shall be regarded
as fuU-tinie employment for the purpose of this provision. The prospective
employer must certify to the present employer that he has offered the employee
full-time defense work (40 hours per week) at his trade, before the request is
granted.
PROVISION NO. 5
The above provisions shall become operative October 2, 1941 and shall not be
retroactive, except that those provisions dealing with the protection of the
employee's previously established seniority status shall be retroactive to Sep-
tember 17, 1941.
PROVISION NO. 6 GENERAL
(a) Recall of employees. — An employee loaned or laid off, whether unemployed
or currently employed on defense or non-defense work, must report back for
defense employment to the company with which he holds his original seniority
for work in the same community, if and when called, on notice of at least one
calendar week. Recall of employees to defense work presupposes, the manage-
ment will endeavor to provide full time employment, contingent upon the
availability of the essential tools, material, and facilities. Skilled tradesmen will
be subject to recall only for full-time defense employment at their trades or the
equivalent.
(6) Defense training. — For the purpose of these policies, defense training is to
be considered defense employment, provided there is an understanding between
the en .ployer and the employee that the employee is being trained for a specific
pay-roll job.
PROVISION NO. 7
Any claim of discrimination by an individual employee arising out of these
provisions may be reviewed by the Shop Committee with the local Plant Manage-
ment but shall not be subject to further appeal. The Shop Committee is given
the right to appeal any charge of general discrimination to the Corporation
through the Defense Employment Division of the International Union, United
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7347
Automobile Workers-Congress of Industrial Organizations. Such charges must
be supported by written evidence at the time the appeal is made.
C. E. Wilson,
b. d. kunkle,
Harry B. Coon,
Geo. F. Addes,
Walter P. Retjther,
Richard E. Reisinger.
October 2, 1941.
Exhibit B. — A Resolution Offering Automotive Industry Facilities for
Mass Production of Standardized Airplane Body Parts
adopted at a meeting of automobile and truck manufacturers in new YORK
CITY, OCTOBER 15, 1940
The makers of motor vehicles have made it their policy to render their produc-
tive abilities available to the national-defense program to the extent that these
may be utilized, and have already individually undertaken extensive manufac-
turing programs for defense.
The manufacturers of motor vehicles now are informed that the vastly expanded
airplane production industry is or shortly will be overtaxed by the load imposed
upon it by the current aviation procurement program.
They further understand that a program of standardization on certain highly
important defensive military planes has been developed upon existing designs,
making it possible now for automotive industry mass production methods to be
brought into play.
Automobile and truck producers, as well as the producers of tools and dies and
bodies for the automotive industry, have certain facilities that may be adaptable
to producing airplane body parts in quantity for assembly by the aviation industry.
On the basis of these facts, and in the desire to forward the national-defense
program by aid to the responsible governmental agencies and to the aviation in-
dustry, individual manufacturers representing practically all of the production of
automobiles and trucks, present at a meeting today, hereby resolve:
1. That in this period the manufacturers of motor vehicles, the tool and die
makers and automotive body producers should subordinate work on automotive
model changes to the necessities of the defense program and specifically to aviation
procurement.
2. That the president of the Automobile Manufacturers Association appoint
forthwith a committee to cooperate with all those in the automotive industry,
the aviation industry, the tool and die makers and automotive body shops in
determining and listing all available facilities adaptable to airplane part
production.
3. That the committee cooperate with the National Advisory Defense Com-
mission, the aviation industry and the automotive industry to develop and make
effective a plan for the production of the desired tools, jigs, dies, and fixtures and
the production of the airplane parts.
4. That the individual manufacturers attending the meeting hereby do under-
take to subordinate work on automotive model changes to the necessities of the
defense program and specifically to aviation procurement, and to cooperate to the
fullest extent toward the fulfillment of this purpose.
5. It is further resolved that this action be immediately communicated to the
National Defense Commission.
The companies subscribing to the above resolution are:
The Autocar Co., Brockway Motor Truck Co., Chrysler Corporation, The
Corbitt Co., The Crosley Corporation, Diamond T Motor Car Co., Federal Motor
Truck Co., Ford Motor Co., General Motors Corporation, Graham-Paige Motors
Corporation, Hudson Motor Car Co., Hupp Motor Car Corporation, Inter-
national Harvester Co., Mack Brothers Motor Car Co., Nash-Kelvinator Corpo-
ration, Packard Motor Car Co., Reo Motors, Inc., Sterling Motor Truck Co.,
The Studebaker Corporation, Walter Motor Truck Co., The White Motor Co.,
Willys-Overland Motors, Inc., and Yellow Truck and Coach Manufacturing Co.
7348 DETROIT HEARINGS
Exhibit C. — Proportion of Unemployed Men in Chicago, Detroit, and Flint
Percent of total male labor force as reported in the census of 1940
On emergencv work (W. P. A., etc.):
Chicago! 4.2
Detroit 4. 1
Flint 2.8
Seeking work:
Chicago 11- 5
Detroit 10- 2
Flint 8- 2
Receiving unemployment compensation: '
Chicago 1- 9
Detroit 1-1
Flint • 6
» Refers to iren and women together because published data do not distinguish. Computed by dividing
total "corrpensable claims" (weeks for which total or partial compensation was paid) by 4, and then stating
BS a percent of "labor force" reported to Census. Compensable claims are as of November 1940, from the
Michigan and Illinois Unemployment Commissions. All other data are from the census of 1940.
Exhibit D. — Condensed List of 83 Defense Items Manufactured by
General Motors Corporation
(Most of the items shown here subdivide themselves into many similar items for
various applications)
ammunition
20 mm. projectiles.
37 mm. projectiles.
75 mm. shells.
105 mm. shells.
37 mm. cartridge cases.
90 mm. cartridge cases.
105 mm. cartridge cases.
3" cartridge cases.
Fuzes.
Boosters.
Primers.
aircraft
Allison engines.
Pratt & Whitney engines.
Bomber subassembhes.
Propeller assemblies.
Landing gears for bombers.
Radiators.
Oil coolers.
Generators and regulators.
Spark plugs.
Ignition cable.
Magnetos.
Autosyn motors.
Fuel pump motors.
Aneroid valves.
Hydraulic control valves.
Gun-firing solenoids.
Aluminum castings.
Aluminum die castings.
Aluminum forgings.
Magnesium castings.
Engine bearings.
GUNS, MOUNTS, AND CONTROLS
Navy gun housings.
.30 caliber machine gun.
.50 caliber machine gun.
20 mm. machine gun.
Gun sights.
Fire-control equipment (various types).
Electric motors for fire-control equip-
ment.
Tank gun mounts.
MOBILE UNITS AND PARTS
4x4 trucks.
4x2 trucks.
6x6 transfer cases.
6x6 axle sets.
Heavy duty gear sets.
Bomb service trucks.
Electrical equipment.
Radiators (trucks and tanks).
Oil coolers (trucks and tanks).
Thermostats.
Black-out lamps.
Tank tracks.
Tank fenders.
Field assembly plants.
Reflectors.
DIESEL ENGINES, ARMY AND NAVY
Tank engines.
Submarine engine sets.
Destroyer engine sets.
Minesweeper engine sets.
Escort vessel engine sets.
NATIOaS'AL, DEFENSE MIGRATION
7349
Subtender engine sets.
Fleet tug engine sets.
Plane tender engine sets.
Ship service engine sets.
Generator engine sets.
Miscellaneous Navy engine sets.
Upright Diesels for Navy.
MISCELLANEOUS
Machine tools.
Radio receivers.
Forgings.
Castings.
Ball and roller bearings.
Batteries.
Lighting plants.
Blowers.
Refrigeration units.
Navy warning signals.
Development work covering wide range
of defense material.
Marine water coolers.
Marine oil coolers.
Submarine identification signal parts.
Generator sets for special purposes.
Exhibit E. — Defense Deliveries by General Motors Corporation *
Before Oct. 1, 1940 $25,900,000
Fourth quarter, 1940 30, 300, 000
First quarter, 1941 46, 900, 000
Second quarter, 1941 62, 100, 000
Third quarter, 1941 2 107, 800, 000
' This exhibit was submitted in form of a chart, leproduction of which was not feasible. The information
was therefore tabulated as above. Figures given are for the United States only.
2 Estimated.
Exhibit F. — General Motors Production and Defense Contracts in
Relation to All United States Industry and All Defense Contracts
General Motors production relative to all United States industry, 1 936-40, at retail
General Motors proportion : Percent
All durable goods manufacture ' 8
All durable metal products ^ 13
1 Fiom Federal Reserve studies of George Terborgh.
2 Fstin^ated as a percent of each classification, e. g., consumers housing, 25 percent; mining and manufac-
turing, 90 percent.
Value of General Motors defense contracts as percent of total in United States '
Dbte
All defense.
excluding
pay and
subsistence
Defense
obligations
in metal
products *
June 30, 19413 1
Percent
4.1
4.0
Percent
5.0
Aug. 31, 1941 <
(')
' General Motors defense includes contracts, orders, negotiations, and estimates of future defense business
direct with governments and as subcontractor.
2 United States defense obligations includes orders in negotiation.
3 From Business Wecl£, Sept. 27, 1941.
* Based on testimony of William Knudsen before a congressional committee.
» Not available.
7350 DETROIT HEARINGS
Exhibit G. — Value of supply contracts per dollar's worth of Government-financed
plant
[In millions of dollars]
Total supply and facility contracts, excluding pay and subsistence —
Government funds for new productive facilities -.-
Proportion for productive facilities --- -.percent
All defense
All General
contracts
Motors
over
defense
$50,000,
contracts,
Aug. 31 1
Sept. 30 a
19,962
1,213
3,636
121
18.2
10.0
1 The analysis of all United States contracts shown above was prepared by the Office of Production Man-
agement Research and Planning Division and does not agree with most published totals because it (1) refers
to reported signed contracts as distinct from letters of intent and other firm commitments, (2) excludes pay
and subsistence, (3) excludes contracts for less than $50,000.
' General Motors contracts shown above include letters of intent and other firm commitments directly
with all governments.
STATEMENT BY L. CLAYTON HILL, GENERAL MANAGER,
MURRAY CORPORATION OF AMERICA
Summary
RESIDENTIAL PERIOD IN MICHIGAN, INDICATED IN APPLICATIONS FOR EMPLOYMENT
IN MURRAY CORPORATION OF AMERICA
Less than 6 months.
Less than 1 year
From 1 to 2 years..
From 2 to 3 years..
72
47
72
45
From 3 to 4 years 68
Over 4 years 1, 196
Total 1,500
HOME STATE, APPLICATIONS FOR EMPLOYMENT, MURRAY CORPORATION OF AMERICA
Alabama 4
Arkansas 10
California 1
Colorado 1
Connecticut 3
Florida 1
Illinois 25
Indiana 17
Iowa 6
Kansas 7
Kentucky .44
Louisiana 1
Maryland 2
Massachusetts 1
Michigan 1, 196
Minnesota 16
District of Columbia 1
Province of Ontario 3
Mississippi 2
Missouri
Nebraska
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina.
North Dakota..
Ohio
Oklahoma
Pennsylvania..
South Dakota..
Tennessee
Texas
Vermont
West Virginia. _
Wisconsin
12
1
2
1
8
2
1
35
3
38
1
34
3
1
10
7
Total 1,500
APPLICANTS FOR EMPLOYMENT OCCUPATIONS, MURRAY CORPORATION OF AMERICA
Agriculturists 73
Assemblers 158
Clerical 293
Engineering 119
Inspectors 57
Laborers 1, 045
Maintenance 72
Machinist — Tool 17
Machinists — Production.
Painters
Tool and die makers
Trimmers
Supervisors
Welders
112
30
47
25
23
113
Total 2,184
NATIOjSTAIi DEFENSE MIGRATION 7351
Employment of Murray Corporation of America, Sept. 1, 1940, to Aug. 31, 1941
Plant
Sept.
1940
Oct.
1940
Nov.
1940
Dec.
1940
Jan.
1941
Feb.
1941
Mar.
1941
Apr.
1941
May
1941
June
1941
July
1941
Aug.
1941
2,100
2,745
2,862
2,858
2,571
2,544
2,591
2,560
4
2,715
7
2,350
14
2,061
18
1, 9R2
24
Total
2,100
2,745
2,862
2,858
2,571
112
2.544
247
2,591
342
2,566
431
2,722
527
2.364
639
2.079
891
1,987
2 Defense
1,185
5 Civilian
400
370
20
318
35
285
60
286
71
228
97
214
136
160
160
180
270
246
573
136
761
102
927
Total
400
649
390
600
353
600
335
550
357
550
325
575
350
543
320
535
450
522
819
560
897
424
1,029
6 Civilian
410
588
453
651
576
692
705
512
705
516
773
520
813
528
825
494
804
498
846
609
864
468
866
436
Defense
808
Total -
1,041
1,270
360
1.227
1,405
390
1,307
1,372
400
1,217
1,294
398
1,289
1,277
421
1,333
1,274
429
1,353
1,239
430
1,298
1,224
409
1,344
1,236
399
1.373
1.220
393
1,334
1,160
114
1,244
10 Civilian
1.147
11 Civilian.--
240
5,367
453
6,161
596
6,144
740
5,897
755
5,621
956
5,570
1.157
5.545
1.303
6.382
1,400
5, 650
1,660
5,278
2,090
4,363
2, 536
4,297
Defense
2,945
Total -
5,820
6,757
6,884
6,652
6,577
6,727
6,848
6,782
7,200
7,368
6,899
7,242
STATEMENT BY C. E. WEISS, PACKARD MOTOR CAR CO.
September 20, 1941.
Employment opportunities in the automobile industry have always been
attractive to applicants for employment from outside of metropolitan Detroit
and Michigan. Even in the depths of the last depression tliere were people who
applied for work at our plant from up-State and also from localities far removed
from this area. Due to the publicity connected with the allotment of defense
contracts, applications naturally increased. We have discouraged out-of-town
applicants because of a policy closely followed for years, to employ people from
metropolitan Detroit before taking those from out of town. There are variations,
of course, to this policy at certain times because of heavy requirements for certain
skills which may not be available on the Detroit labor market.
Our employment records do not indicate the geographic origin of our employees.
We record information regarding their former employers, but this may have no
connection with their original residence.
In order to provide you with some facts regarding this situation we have ob-
tained from all applicants during the period of September 8 to September 19,
inclusive, information regarding their original residence with the following results:
Metropolitan De-
troit 10,676
Alabama
Arkansas
Colorado
Connecticut -
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky...
91
67
1
5
2
17
194
92
90
18
5
283
Geographic origin
Louisiana
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
New Hampshire.
New Jersey
New York
North Carolina. .
North Dakota
45
2
5
403
98
45
52
1
2
1
11
4
14
7
Ohio
Oklahoma
Pennsylvania
South Carolina..
South Dakota. _
Tennessee
Texas
Virginia
West Virginia. _.
Wisconsin
121
22
90
35
1
235
5
7
10
66
Total 12,823
Note.— No record was made of those who repeated their calls at the employment department. It must
be assumed that quite a number made return calls and increased the number listed as applicants.
7352
DETROIT HEARINGS
For the 2 years previous to the acceptance of any defense contracts the Packard
Motor Car Co. employed on automobile work an average of 10,390 employees.
On April 12, 1939, we began the manufacturing of marine engines for the United
States Navy. This project started with 125 people and now involves 929. These
were practically all transferred from the car division and replaced with employees
who had been laid off.
In September 1940 the company accepted contracts from the British Purchaiing
Commission and the United States Air Corps for 9,000 Rolls-Royce Merlin air-
craft engines. On December 31, 1940, there were 1,237 employees engaged in the
preparatory work necessary for the production of aircraft engines.
The tabulation given below indicates the employment on defense and non-
defense work from December 31, 1940, to date and a projection of what we expect
it to be from this date to the end of June 1942 by 3-month periods.
Date
Total
Marine
engines
Aircraft
engines
Auto-
mobiles
Dec. 31, 1940_
Mar. 31, 1941
June 30, 1941.
Sept. 20, 1941
Dec. 31, 1941.
Mar. 31, 1942
June 30, 1942.
Peak defense
12,018
10, 892
11,655
14, 040
17, 300
18, 180
20, 938
Unknown
646
923
922
925
1,000
1,200
1,300
1,300
1,237
2,362
3,725
5,796
9,300
11,980
14, 638
17, 600
10, 135
7,607
7,010
7,319
7,300
5,000
5,000
Unknown
We have had considerable experience with the transferring of employees from
automobile work to defense work. Our experience has indicated that in the skilled
groups, or journeymen, there is practically no problem involved. In the trans-
ferring of semiskilled employees even on similar types of work some retraining is
necessary. There is a considerable variation, however, in the amount of time
required. This variation in time ranges from 3 days or a week to as high as 3 or
4 months.
In addition to becoming familiar with the operation there is a considerable loss
in efficiency until the operator has become proficient in the cycle of work required
to complete his operation and can perform in accordance with accepted standards.
The above statement is based on the transfer from automobile work to engine
work only, as we have had no experience with other types of defense production.
STATEMENT BY ROBERT WALDRON, PERSONNEL DIRECTOR,
HUDSON MOTOR CAR CO.
September 19, 1941.
Employment by month for the past year, segregated as to whether on defense
or nondefense production:
Nondefense
Defense
Nondefense
Defense
August 1940
10, 831
11,2.38
11,137
7,216
5,057
5,158
6,915
0
8
41
33
122
243
463
March 1941
7,138
7,269
7,959
7,877
4,363
10, 233
6,749
585
September 1940
April 1941
591
October 1940
May 1941
548
Juno 1941 -
478
July 1941
553
August 1941
880
February 1941 .
September 1941
1,722
NATIOJSTAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7353
Number of hires and discharges for defense and nondefense production, and
transfers from nondefense to defense, by month, for the past 12 months:
Nondefense
Defense
Hires
Pay-offs
Hires
Pay-ofls
Transfers
September 1940
993
487
277
236
1,293
565
1,492
1,270
645
637
6,131
3,258
511
801
3,462
3,114
261
159
176
280
494
587
5,432
369
1,710
2,591
None
None
None
None
63
109
128
125
83
91
69
109
112
None
None
None
None
18
37
53
42
56
35
72
64
24
None
October 1940 -- - ---
None
None
December 1940 .. .- - ..- . -
None
2
February 1941
5
March 1941 . - -.-
14
April 1941 - - -
10
May 1941 - -
16
June 1941
19
July 1941
109
August 1941 .-
129
September 1941 (first 2 weeks only)
218
Estimates of employment on defense and nondefense production by month for
the forthcoming year:
Oct. 31, 1941_.
Nov. 30, 1941-
Dec. 31, 1941..
Jan. 31, 19421.
Feb. 28, 1942..
Mar. 31, 1942.
Nondefense
6,749
6,749
6,749
Defense
2,520
2,975
3,674
3,904
4,135
4,735
Apr. 30, 1942.-
May 31, 1942.
June 30, 1942.
July 30, 1942.-
Aug. 31, 1942-
Sept. 30, 1942.
Nondefense
Defense
5,335
5,885
6,435
6,700
6,967
7,235
I No estimates beyond this date are possible because of the fact that Office of Production Management
production quotas are not now available.
EFFECT OF CURTAILMENT IN PRODUCTION
As may be noticed in the aforementioned figures, the principal effect of the
curtailment on employment is sliown by the difference in our nondefense em-
ployment prior to the curtailment as indicated in the August 1941 figure and the
employment estimates on nondefense work for the remainder of the year 1941.
Those employees displaced will be recalled as rapidly as defense production can
absorb the qualified employees. This absorption is complicated by the fact that
the type of defense work we are undertaking requires a higher proportion of
skilled employees than normally are needed in automobile production with the
result that many of those competent to perform automobile production work
require additional training to qualify for defense production work.
TRAINING PROGRAM
Early last spring, Hudson Motor Car Co., in cooperation with the Office of
Vocational Education for National Defense, placed more than 2,000 of its em-
ployees in classes in public schools and in special classes organized in a new school
established at the Hudson Motor Car Co. These classes have given training in
machine-tool operation to Hudson employees in anticipation of their use at our
new United States Naval Ordnance Plant. More than 400 of these trainees
have been transferred to this plant, with more scheduled for possible transfer in
the future.
This training program was augmented, during the seasonal lay-off between
models, by classes operated at the Hudson Motor Car Co., 24 hours per day,
and in outside schools, 12 hours per day. In addition, Hudson classes again are
operating on a 24-hour schedule for employees laid off as a result of automobile
production curtailment.
7354 DETROIT HEARINGS
TRANSFER INTO DEFENSE WORK
In a further effort to minimize the dislocation of employment the company
and the local union have entered into an agreement providing for an orderly
transfer of qualified employees to defense work on a seniority basis. A copy of
this asireement is attached to the original copy of this report. It may be noted
that this agreement was negotiated in July 1941.
Geographical problems in transfers to defense work are not great because of
the fact that our United States Naval Ordnance Plant is only 10 miles from our
main plant, and all of our other defense activities are located in our present
plants.
The difference of skill required in cur nondefense and defense work, as indi-
cated in our answer to paragraph 4, has presented a specific training problem
which this company recognized and acted upon well in advance.
Of course, these estimates are in light of present knowledge.
Exhibit A. — Article 6, Paragraph (c) of Agreement Between Hudson
Local No. 154 and Hudson Motor Car Co.
"When new jobs or classifications are created or when vacancies occur, the
employees with the greatest seniority shall be given preferential consideration for
these jobs * * *"
In order to provide a uniform understanding of the procedure to be followed in
transferring hourly rate employees from regular production work to newly created
defense jobs, and in order to assure that this article and paragraph of the agree-
ment are adhered to, the following procedure will be followed:
1. Record cf.rds for each employee on the roll now are being completed, con-
taining, in addition to the employee's name and clock number, the following
information:
(n) All classification numbers on which the employee has worked in the employ
of the Hudson Motor Car Co., as shown in the employee's employment record.
(6) All classifications in which the employee has claimed experience, either at
the Hudson Motor Car Co. or elsewhere, as given by the employee in filling out
his "Experience record."
(c) All classifications in which the employee has claimed experience elsewhere,
while on leave of absence during the 1941 model, as given by the employee in
answer to the questionnaire sent to all leave of absence employees.
(d) The names of any vocational training courses in which the employee has
enrolled.
(e) The employee's seniority.
2. These cards are to be arranged in order of plant wide seniority. In cases
of employees who have split seniority, this seniority shall be totaled, in order to
give these split seniority people full credit for their total service with the company.
3. Immediately in advance of any transfers to new jobs or classifications, the
employment office will review these cards in an effort to find the oldest seniority
man capable of filling the new job, or of filling any vacancj^ in the mechanical or
machining division which is caused by the transfer of others from that division
to defense work.
Selection of employees for "training on-the-job" will be on the basis of experience
in related or similar operations, and on seniority. With the previous experience
being equal, the employees with the greatest seniority will be first chosen.
In the selection of employees to fill vacancies or for training on the job in skills
represented in the present organization of the Hudson Motor Car Co., employees
who would be next in line for breaking in on the job within their own seniority
district will be offered such jobs or training.
(a) Where an employee has previously performed the job at the Hudson
Motor Car Co., he will be offered the job without further qualification.
(b) Where the employee has not previously performed the job at the Hudson i
Motor Car Co., but where he claims he has performed the job elsewhere, or has
taken vocational training in that skill, he will be given a trial at that type of work
under competent supervision in our regular school locations on the fourth floor
of building 2S or elsewhere. If he shows that he is qualified to perform the job, he
will be offered the job. If he fails to qualify for the specific job an effort will be
made to see whether or not he can qualify at a later date by taking further training.
Meanwhile, an effort will be made to determine his highest usable skill, and to
transfer him to a job at that skill whenever his seniority entitles him to such a
transfer. ■,
NATI0;NAI. DEFENSE MIGRATION 7355
A special committee of three members of the union, all of whom must have com-
pleted an apprenticeship as toolmaker or machinist, will be appointed by the
union to review the technical qualifications of employees who dispute the decision
of the supervisor of this quaUfying station. The personnel division will meet with
this committee weekly, if any such grievances have occurred during the preceding
week, to expedite the handling of such grievances.
In highly skilled occupations, in which no present employee of Hudson Motor
Car Co. has had actual identical experience, or in which there are not sufficient
employees fully qualified by experience to fill the vacancies, new employees may
be hired to perform the job or assist in training other employees in these skills.
4. As employees are offered jobs on defense work, in order of their seniority,
each employee will have the following options:
(a) Of taking the job offered, if qualified.
(6) Of decUning the offer and remaining on his regular job until such time as
further restriction of automobile production or some other prolonged and per-
manent curtailment occuis. If this situation arises, employees having made this
election will be entitled to transfer in line with their seniority to such defense
work as they may be qualified for.
Employees retained on automobile production for the purpose of training new^
employees or for performing any operation in the automobile shop will have the
same rights as those outlined immediately above, either at such time when they
can be released from the job on which they previously had been held or at any
time when further restriction of automobile production or some other prolonged
and permanent curtailment occurs.
(c) Of remaining on his present job, with the understanding that he will wait
until another specific opportunity presents itself to him for a job more to his per-
sonal liking. (This would allow each employee to choose, for example, between
the gun plant, plant A, or the piston and rocker arm job.)
(d) In cases where the employee's present job would pay him more money than
the job he would be offered, the employee, who in this case would be taking train-
ing in a new skill, has the option of taking the new job at the current rate for that
job, or of staying on his present job, and continuing his training in his new skill
until such a time as it would appear to be to his best advantage to be transferred
from his present job. If the employee takes this latter optic n, he will notify the
employment office, in writing, when he decides to be transferred to his new skill,
and, if he has continued his training in the meantime, he will be offered the next
job which opens up in his new skill, to which his seniorit>' would entitle him.
5. All of the above elections will be made in writing, signed by the employee,
and kept on record in the employment office.
6. At the conclusion of this defense work, the seniority lists of January 1, 1941,
will be the controlling factor in returning defense employees to Hudson auto-
mobile work, with it being the expressed intention to have each employee resume
his regular position on January 1, 1941, seniority list at the conclusion of the de-
fense program. As provided in the contract between the Hudson Motor Car
Co. and the United Automobile Workers Local No. 154, 1 year will be added to
the seniority of each man on that seniority list for each year he w^orks for any
division of the Hudson Motor Car Co., whether on regular automobile w^ork,
or in any of its defense divisions. This would not allow any employee to pass
any other employee on that list, and would assure full protection of seniority
rights to those who go on defense work, and those who stay on automobile pro-
duction, alike.
7. Wage rates at the Naval Ordnance Plant will be the same as rates paid for
similar classifications at the Hudson Motor Car Co,
In the case of employees who have taken training in any skill, who have not
previously been employed in the classification to which they are to be assigned
at the Naval Ordnance Plant, the following w^age procedure will be established:
(a) On repetitive operations which are similar to production operations at
Hudson Motor Car Co., the employees will be transferred at the qualifying rate
for that classification unless employee's previous experience or qualification is
justification for an exception.
(6) On nonrepetitive operations similar to w^ork in the mechanical division the
newly trained employee will start at a learner's classification and will start at the
qualifying rate for the learner's classification in that particular skill. This learner's
rate will start at 10 cents below the hiring rate for the B classification in that skill
with the qualifying rate at 5 cents higher.
8. Exceptions to this procedure will be allowed only in cases where conditions
warrant such an exception.
7356 DETROIT HEARINGS
TESTIMONY OF AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY PANEL— Resumed
The Chairman. Dr. Lamb has a few prehminary questions which he
will ask you gentlemen.
Dr. Lamb. I would like to start by asking some statistical questions.
I suggest, for these first questions, that we go around the circle and
ask each of you, as representatives of your individual companies, what
your answers are for the record.
We already have received statistical material from some of you, and
incidentally, we want to thank you for the great effort that your staffs
have made to get this information for us. But I think the press and
the individual members of the committee will be interested to hear
these figures given individually as we go around the circle.
The Chairman. I want to say to you gentlemen, this is Congress-
man Curtis from Nebraska on my extreme right; this is Congressman
Arnold from Illinois, and this is Congressman Osmers from New
Jersey.
I am from California. You may proceed. Dr. Lamb.
TESTIMONY OF ROBERT W. CONDER, DIRECTOR OF LABOR RE-
LATIONS, CHRYSLER CORPORATION
Dr. Lamb. Mr. Conder, when do you think the cut in automobile
production will take place, and when will it have its greatest effect?
Mr. Conder. In December.
Dr. Lamb. This year?
Mr. Conder. Yes, sir.
TESTIMONY OF R. I. ROBERGE, OFFICE OF EDSEL FORD, FORD
MOTOR CO.
Dr. Lamb. Does that apply to you also, Mr. Roberge?
Mr. Roberge. I would say the early part of next year — probably
January or February.
Mr. Conder. Do you mean at what time will we be at our lowest
ebb in employment?
Dr. Lamb. Yes.
Mr. Conder. That is, before the defense work begins to take up the
employees who are laid off?
Dr. Lamb. That is right.
Mr. Conder. In the latter part of December or the first of January.
Dr. Lamb. And the same thing applies to you, Mr. Roberge?
Mr. Roberge. I would say the first part of next year, January or
February.
TESTIMONY OF C. E. WILSON, PRESIDENT, GENERAL MOTORS
CORPORATION
Dr. Lamb. Mr. Wilson?
Mr. Wilson. It is a little hard to say in our case, because our
answer must depend partly on how much defense business we are going
to have over a period.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7357
Dr. Lamb. Can you give us an estimate on the basis of foreseeable
reductions in employment today?
Mr. Wilson. A fairly severe reduction will occur in January, or
at the end of December, and perhaps from then on the defense business
will pick up about as fast as the passenger-car reduction occurs,
assuming that the present proposed schedule for the rest of the year
holds, which, of course, we don't know, because we have only been
given a schedule through December.
Dr. Lamb. I understand we are all having to talk on the basis of
the present outlook, until such time as new schedules are issued.
Mr. Wilson. There will be a substantial reduction at the end of
December, in our case, and then if the proposed schedule for January
tlirough July is adhered to, there will be increasing reductions in
automobile employment, but at the same time there will be some
increasing employment in defense. Perhaps they will offset each
other after the initial substantial reduction.
TESTIMONY OF L. CLAYTON HILL, MURRAY CORPORATION OF
AMERICA
Dr. Lamb. Mr. Hill, we will get your reply to the first question a
little later. When would you expect the pick-up in defense employ-
ment to absorb the displaced workers?
Mr. Hill. I would say our greatest reduction would occur in the
latter part of December.
TESTIMONY OF C. E. WEISS, PERSONNEL DIRECTOR, PACKARD
MOTOR CAR CO.
Dr. Lamb. And Mr. Weiss?
Mr. Weiss. We do not anticipate any reduction, although if there
is any, it would occur in the latter part of December.
We expect the defense contracts to take up that slack.
TESTIMONY OF ROBERT WALDRON, HUDSON MOTOR CAR CO.
Dr. Lamb. Mr. Waldron?
Mr. Waldron. I am making the same reservation Mr. Wilson
made. We don't know what is in the offing beyond the first of the
year. Our greatest reduction has already taken place. We have had
a drastic cut already, on the first 4 months' production.
Dr. Lamb. So you don't anticipate any further reduction?
Mr. Waldron. We don't anticipate any, unless some unforeseen
event might change the outlook further.
EXPECTED PICK-UPS IN DEFENSE EMPLOYMENT
Dr. Lamb. Now, I will go around with the second question, begin-
ning with Mr. Conder.
When do you expect that your pick-up in defense employment will
absorb these automobile workers?
Mr. CoNDER (Chrysler). On the basis of present defense contracts,
we do not expect to be able to absorb the employees laid off because of
the automobile curtailment. The situation will improve over what it
will be at the end of December or the 1st of January, but we will not be
7358 DETROIT HEARINGS
able to absorbe all of them unless there is more defense business than
we have now.
Dr. Lamb. Mr. Roberge.
Mr. Roberge (Ford). We hope to receive defense orders that will
assist greatly in absorbing some of the employees laid off, but it is
difficult to say just what they will amount to, because the orders are
not firm at the present time.
Dr. Lamb. Is that business still in process of negotiation with your
company too, Mr. Wilson?
Mr. Wilson (General Motors). I would like to point out that more
than half of the reduction in employment in the automotive industry is
going to be in General Motors alone, so that we have more than half of
the problem.
The present defense orders we have on hand, and the increased
quantities of material we are organized to produce, will not begin to
reemploy the people that we had employed last June.
We have been actively working with all interested Government
agencies to obtain more business, and have been since the beginning
of the emergency a year ago in June, and we have projects in hand now
and are submitting proposals on additional projects. But as the
matter stands right now, we don't see the end on reemploying all the
people who are goinq; to be laid off.
Dr. Lamb. Mr. Hill.
Mr. Hill (Murray Corporation). We should be able to absorb all our
male employees by the early spring of next year. I expect we will be
embarrassed because we have a considerable number of female
employees who may not be adaptable to the aircraft work. We will
use as many of them as we can, but we may have some difficulty
absorbing them.
From then on out, we may have to pick up some other employees
outside our own organization.
Dr. Lamb. Mr. Weiss.
Mr. Weiss (Packard). We do not anticipate that there will be any
lay-offs. In other words, our defense program will absorb practically
all of our car people.
Dr. Lamb. And Mr. Waldron.
The Chairman. May I interrupt for a moment. Mr. Hill, what is
the Murray Corporation of America?
Mr. Hill. We manufacture a large number of metal assemblies for
automobile bodies, chassis and frames for automobiles, and we have
a substantial contract for airplane wings and airplane parts. In addi-
tion, we manufacture cushion springs and wire products. That is
where this large percentage of women is employed, and we anticipate
a big reduction in that business.
Mr. Waldron (Hudson). We anticipate by March 1 we will absorb
all oin- male employees and perhaps some of the female.
TESTIMONY OF C. C. CARLTON, MOTOR WHEEL CORPORATION,
AND PRESIDENT, AUTOMOTIVE PARTS AND EQUIPMENT MAN-
UFACTURERS ASSOCIATION, DETROIT, MICH.
Mr. C^RLTON. I would like to answer that question. I understand
this discussion is rather informal.
Dr. Lamb. Certainly, we would like to have your answer.
Mr. Carlton. Speaking for the Motor Wheel Corporation at
Lansing, Mich., I would like to express a slightly different viewpoint.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7359
Our greatest reduction in employment has already occurred. About
25 percent of our 2,500 men are now laid off. We will have Govern-
ment work that will pick up a small part of them between now and
January, but eventually, despite anything that we may now have in
the way of Government orders, about 25 percent of our people will be
continuously unemployed.^
TRANSFER OF WORKERS TO DEFENSE PRODUCTION
Mr. Curtis. Wliat is your policy with regard to transfer of workers
from civilian production to defense work, and how is it working out?
Mr. Carlton. In the beginnmg of the work on our first defense
orders we could not transfer men because we were then running 100
percent in the automotive industry; therefore, we were compelled to
hire new men for defense orders. As the reduction in automobile-
passenger-car business occurred, we could absorb our own men, our
regular employees. However, the seniority situation handles that
pretty well because our own people will all be eventually employed;
that is, our older employees will all be employed on defense work as
far as the defense work will go.
Dr. Lamb. And Mr. Conder?
Mr. CoNDER (Chrysler). The great majority of our employees on
defense work now have been transferred from the automobile plants.
We have endeavored to select them on the basis of qualification by
their experience in the automobile plants to do the job in defense plants.
Mr. Curtis. Have they been transferred with or without training
under the defense program?
Mr. CoNDER. So far we have been able to find employees who
have had sufficient experience on similar types of work in the auto-
mobile plants to place these men on the jobs in defense plants, and
give them what training they needed there.
Mr. Curtis. How many have you transferred?
Mr. CoNDER. You are referring to both salary and hourly-rate
employees?
Mr. Curtis. Yes.
Mr. CoNDER. Approximately 400.
Mr. Curtis. Mr. Roberge, what is your answer to this question?
Mr. RoBERGE (Ford). As rapidly as the defense work progi'esses in
our organization, we transfer men from our automobile operations to
defense operations, and they are given training, of course, before they
proceed on that work.
Mr. Curtis. How much training?
Mr. Roberge. Sufficient to quahfy them for the job that they are
taking over.
Mr. Curtis. WTiat is the average length of the training?
Mr. Roberge. I couldn't tell you.
Mr. Curtis. What are the maximum and minimum?
Mr. Roberge. I don't believe I could tell you that. It depends on
the particular skill of the man and the job that he is going on.
Mr. Curtis. How many have you transferred?
I In a letter received subsequent to the hearing, Mr. Carlton supplied the committee with additional
information on this point, as follows: "That statement was true to the best of my knowledge and belief the
day I made it, but additional United States Government orders now on hand indicate that by the end of
November and from there on to an indefinite period, we shall be able to employ all Motor ^^ heel labor.
In other words, the serious reduction of employment due to the mandatory curtailment of passenger-car
production will all be taken up approximately by the end of November by additional Government contracts
which we have received."
60396 — 41— pt. 18—20
7360 DETROIT HEARINGS
6,000 WORKERS TRANSFERRED
Mr. RoBERGE. About 6,000.
Mr. Curtis. Is the plan working out all right?
Mr. RoBERGE. Yes.
Mr. Curtis. Mr. Wilson?
Mr. Wilson (General Motors). The way the corporation runs its
plants, the various divisions have seniority set-ups by plants. Some
plants also have seniority set-ups by occupational groups within
plants.
EMPLOYEES RETAIN SENIORITY RIGHTS
When we started our first defense operations, some of the em-
ployees were somewhat loathe to be transferred over to defense for
fear the defense job might run out and then they would be out of
their regular work; so we worked out a plan under which an em-
ployee transferred to a defense department or a defense plant keeps
his seniority in the old plant and acquires seniority in the new plant
from the time he starts his new work.
We did that a great many months ago, during the period from
June 30, 1940, to June 30, 1941. We employed about 80,000 addi-
tional people in our various plants over the country, so that it has
been only recently that we have had much of a problem with any
laid-off employees or any problem of transfer. We have had no
trouble finding suitable employees for the work. We have picked
out the people we thought could do the work best on defense projects,
and transferred them, or hired new employees.
In two places we did get cooperation from the local schools in
training, at our Allison engine plant in Indianapolis and in connec-
tion with our machine-gun plant in Flint. In both of those places
we specially trained new employees for the work.
EMPLOYMENT POLICY OF GENERAL MOTORS
Following the announcement of the large cut in business, we im-
mediately put into effect an order that —
no new employees are to be hired on defense or any other work in any plant in
any city where General Motors employees with seniority who can do the work
are laid off.
Former General Motors employees without seniority will also bt given preference
on work they can do in new defense activities, provided they make application for
such work.
That is the present General Motors policy.
Mr. Curtis. Would you say then, that by and large your transfer
system is working out very well?
Mr. Wilson. I know of no problems in connection with it now.
We also have an agreement in our union contracts covering the
transfer of employees within plants, so far as our regular work is
NATIOaNAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7361
concerned, and there is no reason why that same clause doesn't amply
take care of the transfer of employees from nondefense to defense
work.
Mr. Curtis. Could you state how many have been transferred?
Mr. Wilson. I don't know.
Mr. Curtis. Mr. Hill, what is your policy with respect to transfer
of workers from civilian production to defense production?
NEW WORKERS HIRED FOR DEFENSE PRODUCTION
Mr. Hill (Murray Corporation). Our defense contracts started
while our automobile work was at a peak, so we were unable to transfer
people. We went outside and started to hire new people.
Some of these were very highly skilled people, such as draftsmen,
engineers, laboratory and material-testing men, and aircraft engineers.
However, since the cut has been made in automotive production, we
have adopted a policy of not hiring any outside workers at all unless
we cannot find a properly qualified man in our own organization.
Recently we have attempted to follow a new plan. When men are
laid off in automotive production, we lay them off temporarily, and
then, as rapidly as we can we transfer our oldest men from our civilian
work into defense work, we hire back our employees with less seniority
who have been laid off. That is the plan we are attempting to follow
at the present time.
When we decide to transfer a man from civilian work to defense
work, we give him the opportunity to decline. If he declines, he does
not get another opportunit}^ until the next time we call up more men,
and when he goes to defense work he cannot "bump out," as the union
says, any men of lesser seniority who are in the defense work.
Mr. Curtis. Does he retain his seniority in his civil work?
Mr. Hill. Yes, sir; and he builds up a seniority in the defense work.
Mr. Curtis. Mr. Weiss.
EMPLOYMENT POLICY OF PACKARD MOTORS
Mr. Weiss (Packard). In the first defense project that we started,
which is now in operation, almost all the workers were taken from the
car shops. There was hardly any hiring from the outside at all. On
the next project, though, which is much larger, for the preparatory
work we had to build up our tool rooms and that sort of thing, and we
did employ quite a number of draftsmen and tool designers from the
outside, in addition to those we had. But on production jobs we are
transferring men from the car shops to the defense jobs every day,
and have been for the last several months.
Mr. Curtis. What defense work is the Packard Motor Co. doing?
Mr. Weiss. Building marine motors for the mosquito fleet and
Rolls-Royce aircraft engines for both England and the Air Corps.
Mr. Curtis. Have the skilled employees that you transferred had
to have some additional training?
Mr. Weiss. Not the skilled men, so much, but we have had to give
some training to the men on the production jobs.
Mr. Curtis. The lesser skilled?
7362 DETROIT HEARINGS
Mr. Weiss. They are what we call semiskilled people, and even in
some of those classifications we don't have enough in the car division
trained to do the work, and we have to build up training programs from
people from other classifications in that particular work in order to
get a sufficient number.
Mr. Curtis. Mr. Waldron.
HUDSON MOTOR'S TRAINING PROGRAM
Mr. Waldron (Hudson). We started last February on quite an
extensive training program, and we utilized about 20 schools in town,
plus 1 of our own, in training our present or our former personnel,
some of whom have been transferred. Some of our automobile
workers have been transferred into the ordnance plant as the machines
were delivered and installed, and that has gone along very satis-
factorily.
They are transferred according to the plan I submitted with my
brief to the committee.^
Mr. Curtis. What is the Hudson Motor Car Co. making?
Mr. Waldron. We are making 20-milhmeterguns and alarge number
of ordnance parts in a newly erected plant on the outskirts of town.
Also a section of the Martin bomber, and pistons and rocker-arms for
Wright Aeronautical Co., and ailerons for Repubhc Aircraft Cor-
poration.
Mr. Arnold. Mr. Carlton, I will direct this question to you, and
it may be that you will want to conduct a panel discussion on it. If
you do, please feel free to do so, because Mr. Thomas didn't hold back
this morning. He spoke what was in his mind.
In his statement, Mr. Thomas, of the U. A. W., testified that the
major responsibility for the prospective reduction in employment in
the automobile business rests with the industries themselves.
The union's contention was, apparently, that the industry preferred
to extend a prosperous automobile season rather than convert its
facilities to defense production. In order that the record may be
complete, I should like to have you gentlemen indicate what proportion
of your normal civilian facilities has been converted to defense pro-
duction.
percentages of employment in defense work
Mr. Carlton. That question, of course, will necessarily have to be
answered by each individual company; but for my company (Motor
Wlieel) I will say that about 25 percent of our people are now employed
on defense work, or will be by the 1st of October.
I am at a loss to understand why the first statement was made.
All the companies with which I am familiar first offered their services
in every possible way to every branch of the defense effort.
If you didn't get business that way, you then went at it as any
salesman would — sell the Government your facihties. I know, as
far as our company is concerned, we have done everything within our
power to get additional business. We are still working at it, and
hoping for additional business to keep our total number of employees
working and our total sales volume up.
1 See p. 7354.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7363
The parts industry initiates practically no business, as far as the
automotive industry is concerned. We are the suppliers to the auto-
motive industry, and as they go, we go, as they go down, we go down.
We can't increase our business very greatly except by taking business
away from competitors and getting more for ourselves, which means
less for the other fellow. The parts industry has practically no
influence upon the total volume of automotive business. Therefore,
these men from the automobile industry can answer that question
much better than I can.
Mr. Arnold. Mr. Roberge, do you understand the question?
Mr. Roberge. Yes.
Mr. Arnold. It charges that the responsibility for the prospective
reductions rests with the industry. Mr. Thomas's contention was
that the union recommended to Government officials and to business
last November that the automobile companies should start a conver-
sion over to defense production, instead of devoting their energies to a
prosperous season and the designing of new models.
Mr. Roberge, what proportion of Ford's normal civilian facilities
has been converted to defense production?
DIFFICULTY OF CONVERTING FACILITIES TO DEFENSE PRODUCTION
Mr. Roberge. I would say comparatively little, in our particular
case, because our organization is highly specialized, and it would be
difficult to convert the majority of our machinery to defense work
unless it consisted ^of trucks or something akin to what we are now
building.
We have built an airplane-engine plant which is now in operation,
and the employees are drawn entirely from our automotive work.
In addition, we have under construction a bomber plant at Ypsilanti,
which probably won't get into production until early next year.
Those employees will also be drawn from our automotive industry.
But it isn't simply a matter of converting our present machinery
to some other form of manufacturing operation. That would be very
difficult to do.
Mr. Arnold. Could you have curtailed automobile production last
November, and started in production with your present plant instead
of building of new plants?
Mr. Roberge. It depends on what particular article we were to
manufacture, and also whether we had the order for that particular
item at that time.
Mr. Arnold. Of course, I mean the articles that you are now manu-
facturing.
Mr, Roberge. Airplane engines? No.
Mr. Arnold. That would not have been possible?
Mr. Roberge. No, sir.
Mr. Arnold. Mr. Wilson?
MANUFACTURERS TENDERED THEIR SERVICES FOR DEFENSE PRODUCTION
Mr. Wilson. Personally, I think it is a very unfair criticism of the
industry, because I know the spirit of the industry — the men in it —
not only in General Motors, for I am well acquainted with most of
the men in the industry. On October 15, 1940, when Mr. Knudsen
talked to the Automobile Manufacturers Association in New York,
7364 DETROIT HEARINGS
the whole group went on record in a formal statement of policy on
the matter. All of us, not only the General Motors Corporation but
all others in the industry, have stood ready to take any project that
we could get or that any department of the Army or Navy or O. P. M.
wanted us to take.
I don't know of any refusal by the manufacturers to use their
organizations and facilities for defense work.
There is quite a misconception about the percent of facilities in the
automobile business that can be used to produce defense materials.
I know in our case I made an offer to use the Tonawanda-Buffalo
plant on defense months before it was accepted. I think the criticism
you quote is very unfair and shows a lack of knowledge of how to run
a manufacturing business.
Mr. Arnold. Last October, then, the industry did not say: "We
will go into defense production after we have a profitable automobile
season"?
Mr. Wilson. No, no. In fact, I have the resolution. I don't
know whether it has been put in your record or not; if it has not, it
should be.
The Chairman. We will permit it to be inserted.'
Mr. Wilson. The resolution was drawn up October 15, 1940, and
as far as I know, no one has built a motor car that got in the way of
defense. There was no labor shortage of any importance that I
was acquainted w^ith in Michigan or anywhere else in the automobile
industry.
We had no employment problem. We could hire all the men we
wanted to do any jobs that came up.
One thing that is overlooked is that this defense program started
as a relatively small one a year ago in June and July and that even up
to about the middle of last April, only about $15,000,000,000 of con-
tracts had been let by the Army and Navy. As far as I know, no
one in the automotive industry has refused to take any contracts or
has been unwilling to use any facilities that he had.
The machine-tool equipment m our plants is mostly specialized
for specific purposes, and perhaps 15 percent of it at the most can be
used on a particular defense project. That 15 percent is usually the
type of machinery that can be the most easily obtained, so that hasn't
been much of a help.
GAP BETWEEN APPROPRIATION AND PRODUCTION
The Chairman. Mr. Wilson, did the bottleneck come after the
Congress had passed the big appropriations? Is there some gap
between appropriation and production?
We voted an appropriation of $7,000,000,000 in the lease-lend bill.
The President's message stated that only $190,000,000 of it had been
spent. Is there some gap there? Do you see what I am trying to
get at?
Mr. Wilson. There most assuredly is a gap. If you start out
today to buy somethmg that is all designed and in production, but
your supplier has not bought the material for it and has not started
the fabrication, you will be lucky to get it in 3 months.
1 See Exhibit B, p. 7347.
NATIONAI. DEFENSE MIGRATION 7365
If it is something new that requires toohno:, even though the suppher
has the machine tools and the plant to make it, you will be lucky to
get it in 6 months.
If he has to buy new machine tools and build additions to his plant
or change the plant materially, get material and get organized to do it,
9 months will be a good job. When you pass an appropriation in
Washington, you must realize that money alone won't produce the
goods; that a lot of human effort has to go into the job somewhere,
and that we have to get the tools and organization together first.
The Chairman. In other words, it still takes 9 months; is that what
you are trying to say?
Mr. Wilson. It certainly does.
Mr. Arnold. I think the charge of Mr. Thomas was that instead
of converting your Buick plant at Flint, a plant was started in Chicago,
and his contention was that a conversion could have been made much
more quickly in the Flint plant than to build a new plant in Chicago,
where you don't have the skilled mechanics, and this unemployment
could have been avoided by having done that.
Have you any comment to make on that?
EXPLAINS location OF PLANT IN CHICAGO
Mr. Wilson. If you think it will be enlightening, I shall be glad to
do so. In the project that you are talking about — the Buick-Pratt
& Whitney engine project — part of the work will be done in Flint.
That is, Flint will be a supplier of the Melrose Park plant, just as our
Cadillac division here in Detroit is malving parts for our Allison
engine plant in Indianapolis. To the degree that buildings, equip-
ment, and processing fit in, we are putting that work in Flint.
The main assembly plant on the motors could have been put in
Flint or perhaps any other place. At the time the decision was made,
we made a survey of unemployed people and the number on relief,
in several different territories.
We were also desirous of spreading the corporation's activities in
better proportion to the amount of business that we receive. For
instance, the amount of busmess we have in the State of Illmois, in
proportion to the magnitude of the corporation's operations, made it
advisable to locate this plant there. That was one reason we built our
Diesel electromotive plant near Chicago at LaGrange. Besides, we
felt we already had a tremendous obligation to the city of Flint in
proportion to its size.
We did not foresee the present drastic cut in the automobile business.
Personally, I believe the necessary curtailment could have been less
severe had the flow of material been better planned.
MALADJUSTMENT OF MATERIAL FLOW
It is much easier to disorganize things than it is to reorganize them.
There is at present a maladjustment of material flow. There are
people getting material on priorities who are going to have it piled up
in the mud and will not use it for months. This is going to cause a
shortage of supply in the automobile industry.
The Chairman. What do you suggest to remedy that situation?
7366 DETROIT HEARINGS
Mr. Wilson. Years ago in the automobile business we learned how
to schedule the flow of material and the production of parts, and that
is really the essential of the mass production idea.
It isn't conveyors that are so important. It is really a planning of
the business on a progressive flow of material with interchangeable
parts and balanced production operations.
We in the automobile industry learned how to do that, not perhaps
because we were so smart, but out of necessity. With our own annual
model-change program, if we didn't properly plan the flow of our ma-
terial, we had a lot of unbalanced material left at the end of the model
run on which we had to take a big loss.
On the other side, if we didn't get the thing started on time, we
wouldn't get our production out; so the industry has learned how to
lay out a business and run it.
It isn't much of a trick to run something that has been going along
for years doing the same kind of thing ; but if you have to shut that
down and start it up again every now and then, you had better get your
operations balanced and control what is going on.
SUGGESTS STUDY OF MATERIAL FLOW
Now, my suggestion would be that more of a study be made of the
flow of material in the country to defense industries. If a man takes
a contract for 1,000,000 shells or 20 boats, or what not, he is gomg to
need a certain amount of material; but he doesn't need to buy it all
right now and have it all shipped to hun.
The Chairman. Mr. Wilson, don't you think that we need an in-
ventory in this country of labor, skilled and unskilled, and of material
and other supplies? In other words, if the Army and Navy needs
50,000 tons of steel, and we have a production of 100,000 tons, don't
you think it wise to arrange an equitable distribution of the balance of
that supply, a fair allocation for civilian needs of the country?
Mr. Wilson. As far as I know, no one has appraised the require-
ments of the defense program in terms of material.
The Chairman. We haven't found any such appraisal.
AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY KNOWS ITS REQUIREMENTS
Mr. Wilson. We know in the automobile business how much steel,
copper, zinc, nickel and everything else goes into 1,000,000 cars, or
100,000 cars, and we know how we want each kind of material to come
in. And the same thmg should be done on the defense projects.
As near as I can find out personally, the defense requirements for
raw materials are not as tremendous as many people think.
The Chairman. Have you any reason to believe that the Army and
Navy are storing up, unnecessarily, great surpluses of materials?
Mr. Wilson. I don't know of a specific case. I know that it is a
very human thing to want to store if one thinks there is going to be a
shortage.
The Chairman. You are not doing that, are you?
Mr. Wilson. We are following our standard procedure.
Probably we are going to run out of certain things because we
haven't stored.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7367
In General Motors, we run the business on a 3-month forward sched-
ule, plus the current month. To buy material beyond that requires
special approval. . .
Our various opeiating divisions try to run withm that limit. At
times you have to make your commitments beyond that, but in normal
times, that schedule usually takes care of the situation.
FEAR CREATES SHORTAGE
Probably you recall what happened when the report went around
that there would be no more silk for stockings. Ail the ladies rushed
to the stores to get then- stockings, didn't they? Now, as soon as the
word goes out that zinc is gomg to be short, everybody who needs some
zinc or has made a commitment to supply material using zmc — he
may have made the commitment over a year ago — will try to get that
zinc right now, so lie can make good on his commitment. If he has
committed himself to a price on the finished article he is going to try to
get the material to make good on his price. He is going to try to get
it right now.
The Chairman. What would you have recommended, Mr. Wilson,
that the ladies do? Would you have said, "Don't wear silk stockings,"
or, "Don't wear stockings at all?"
Mr. Wilson. No ; I am saying it is a very human thing for every-
one— Army, Navy, ladies, or anybody else — to try to protect one's
own situation. You are almost sure to create a shortage as soon as
you have a fear of a shortage.
Mr. Arnold. Mr. Wilson, I wonder if you would tell us how the
survey was made in Flint, and whether we could have a copy of it
for the record?
flint project RELATIVELY SMALL
Mr. Wilson. I think I have a memorandum of the figures reflecting
the unemployment situation which was a factor in our decision. I
would like to point out in addition that this is a relatively small proj-
ect as compared to the requirements of the whole General Motors
problem.
If I remember correctly, the Melrose Park plant is around 1,000,000
square feet. General Motors has over 60,000,000 square feet of
plant space.
The Chairman. Isn't your policy in this instance the same that is
being followed in many other defense industries?
STANDARD OF LIVING MEASURED BY CONSUMPTION OF GOODS
Mr. Wilson. You mean starting new plants in new places? I
don't know. Generally speaking, I think the point of view has changed
somewhat during the past 12 months. As I remember it, before the
election there wasn't a great deal of emphasis put on the fact that
we were going to be short of a lot of things in this country. The way
I look at it right now, we are not going to have plenty. The standard
of living is not measured by the wage per hour but by the consumption
of goods. That is the thing we have to live by, so if we are going to
curtail a lot of things in this country, we are going to have a reduced
standard of living. Lots of people are going to be without the things
they have been accustomed to for years.
7368 DETROIT HEARINGS
Mr. Arnold. Now, would you indicate what proportion of your
normal civilian production facilities has been converted to defense
production?
Mr. Wilson. I am not accustomed to thinking of it m those terms,
so I can't very well give it to you.
PROPORTION OF FACILITIES IN DEFENSE PRODUCTION
Out of around 300,000 employees last June, about 200,000 were
working on passenger-car production. The other 100,000 were work-
ing on defense items, refrigerators, Diesel locomotives, and the other
products that the corporation makes, including trucks; so that this
reduction in business affects the 200,000.
In other words, this schedule that is in prospect for next May,
June, and July is, in the case of the corporation, something around 30
percent, or a little less, of the production in 1941. Seventy percent of
200,000 would be 140,000 people, and that is a good many people to
organize in other work in that length of time.
Out in the corridor I have a chart, which I happened to have pre-
pared for other reasons, that lists the products the Corporation is
maldng. I think if you gentlemen would care to look at it you will
get a picture of what the Corporation is doing.^
HAS OVER 500 ORDERS FOR DEFENSE
We have over 500 orders for defense. We are making good on sub-
stantially everything we have contracted to do. We are not behind
on anything important, and most of our projects are well ahead of
our promised deliveries.
I am a little bit embarrassed about giving you the facts, because
the Army and Navy have asked us not to talk about production
figures in terms of Allison engines, or so many shells, or so many
gui's. I have the figures, of course.
Mr. Arnold. We don't want you to divulge anything that is
confidential.
PERCENTAGE OF MECHANICAL-GOODS PRODUCTION CAPACITY
Mr. Wilson. I can show you some other charts also, if you want
to pass them around, showing how we are up to date.^
I beheve the production facilities of General Motors Corporation
are underestimated by most people. The corporation has perhaps 8
percent of the durable-goods production capacity of the United
States. It may seem as if we have been given a good many defense
contracts but they total less than 5 percent of the value of all defense
contracts. We have worked hard at it. Perhaps some people have
criticized the fact that a big corporation was given so much business.
But actually we don't have our proportion of the load, with relation
to our ability to produce, and we have the big shot of the unemploy-
ment and the big shot of the change over. Tliis is because we haven't
built so many new plants.^
1 See p. 7344.
' See table, Exhibit E, p. 7349.
> See Exhibits F and O, pp. 7349 and 7350.
NATIONAI. DEFENSE MIGRATION 7369
I think I read somewhere that 800 plants had been built in this
defense program. Certainly the corporation hasn't got its share of
those 800 plants.
Mr. Arnold. I will repeat this question for Mr. Conder, because
he was not here when I asked it before.
Mr. Conder, in his statement this morning, Mr. Thomas testified
that the major responsibihty for the prospective reduction in employ-
ment in the automobile industry rests with the industry itself. The
union's contention apparently was that the industry preferred to
extend the prosperous automobile season rather than convert its
facilities to defense production.
In order that the record be complete, I should like to have you
gentlemen indicate what proportion of your normal civilian facilities
has been converted to defense production.
Mr. Hill. Wouldn't the answer to Mr. Thomas' question best be
arrived at by asking the authorities in Washington who had the plac-
ing of these orders to give us a list of those automotive concerns who
had refused to start an order when asked?
THINKS NOBODY IN AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY HAS REFUSED TO COOPERATE
Mr. Hill. I think you would find that list difiBcult to get. That
is, I don't think it exists. I don't think that anybody in the auto-
motive industry has deliberately refused to cooperate with the Gov-
ernment.
In our own experience (Murray Corporation) some of the aircraft
industry representatives came to our plant last August and looked it
over. We had some vacant floor space and they said it was adaptable
to aircraft work. From that time until the time we got our contract,
before we knew whether we were going to get business or not, our
company expended upwards of $100,000 of our own money and sent
some 70 men to the Pacific coast to receive training.
I cite that, not in especial praise of our organization, but as typical
of what I believe was done throughout the entire automotive industry.
Mr. Arnold. When did you start production in that space?
Mr. Hill. We are just starting production now. We have to go
through the preparatory period too.
I would like to cite another typical experience. This doesn't happen
to concern our own company, but one of the automobile companies
in Michigan. At this time it is undertaking the job of building parts
and complete bombers for the Army, and they have to have done in
this area or hereabouts 6,000,000 man-hours of tool work before they
can build an airplane. When you divide that by 8 hours per day, or
10 hours per day, you can see how many man-days it will require and
how many men would have to be employed.
Mr. Arnold. What proportion of your normal civilian facilities,
Mr. Hill, have been converted to defense work?
Mr. Hill. I have to answer that much as Mr. Wilson did, because
facilities could mean floor space, machinery, equipment, and so on.
Forty percent of our employees are now on defense work, or in
preparation for defense work.
7370 DETROIT HEARINGS
One other point regarding the building of new plants, that may be
pertinent here: Many people are wondering why automobile manu-
facturers haven't undertaken tnis work, and why they buildnew plants.
The public generally does not appreciate that when an automobile
manufacturer builds a new plant under a D. P. C. contract/ that plant
belongs to the United States. He builds facilities that contribute
nothing to his own welfare. Therefore, if he were selfish, he would do
his very best to convert his own facilities for the defense program,
instead of building new ones. Obviously the only reason he doesn't
is because his own plants are not adaptable for the purpose.
SOME EQUIPMENT CANNOT BE CONVERTED
Mr. Weiss (Packard). In our own plant we did divert some floor
space and some equipment to defense work, but the nature of these
defense projects is such that the equipment that you use for auto-
mobiles beyond a certain point just does not convert. In other words,
defense requires different types of equipment, and in frequently larger
numbers of units, and there must be space for it. Therefore, you
require additional space and additional equipment in order to do
the job.
Mr. Arnold. Mr. Weiss, can you give us the percentage of your
normal civilian facilities that has been converted at this time to
defense production?
Mr. Weiss. I can't tell you excatly, but I would say it was approxi-
mately 15 or 20 percent.
Mr. Arnold. Mr. Waldron?
Mr. Waldron (Hudson). Our ordnance work requires an entirely
different type of equipment from what we have, and it would be out
of the question to convert any of our machine-tool facilities for that
type of precision work. The equipment for ordnance must be uni-
versal enough to take care of thousands of different parts.
As Mr. Wilson says, most of our automobile equipment was pur-
chased and designed for a special part, and is altered to take care of
the same sort of part on the next model.
Naturally, our present equipment is not adaptable to aircraft
bomber sections.
DEFINITION OF PRECISION WORK
The Chairman. Mr. Waldron, would you define the expression
"precision work," for the purposes of the record?
Mr. Waldron. I did not mean to emphasize "precision" as much
as I did the "universal" character or adaptability, of the equipment
on fine ordnance work.
We may have 50 parts of 1 breech mechanism to do in 1 day,
and maybe 25 of a torpedo tube the next, and so on. Because of the
diversity of the products to be manufactured, we had to have universal
equipment, which we didn't have in our shops.
The Chairman. What is precision work?
Mr. Waldron. Ordnance work is in the category of precision
work — gears and things of that kind. Those gears cannot allow any
' Defense Plant Corporation.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7371
backlash, and they have to be lapped. The equipment that we have
had for making some of our automobile gears where backlash is
desirable wasn't adaptable for that sort of thing.
We were operating a naval plant, erected by the Navy for us to
operate, and we were left with the problem of providing the new eqiiip-
ment for the type of work which they required of us. They required
us to build many types of products.
Mr. Arnold. Did you say that none of your civilian facilities has
been converted to defense production?
Mr. Waldron. Oh, yes; we have some — our plant space, of course,
and some of our equipment has been converted for die work for Martin
bombers.
Mr. Arnold. Could you give a percentage?
TWENTY PERCENT OF EMPLOYMENT ENGAGED IN DEFENSE WORK
Mr. Waldron. I couldn't give you the percentage of floor space,
but we are using approximately 20 percent of our employment-
normal employment — in defense work now, and that percentage will
increase as the months go on.
Mr. Arnold. Mr. Conder, do you understand the question?
Mr. Conder (Chrysler). Yes." We have had the same experience
as the other gentlemen have related. A little of our machinery is
adaptable to the defense work which has been allotted to us. In a
few instances we have moved machinery from automobile production
to defense work, but by and large we have had to get more new
machinery.
We have one of the new plants that Mr. Wilson has referred to— a
tank arsenal. There were no facilities that we could use to build
tanks where we had been building automobiles.
The majority of the machinery at the tank arsenal is new ma-
chinery. I have sat in a number of meetings where there have been
discussions of what machines can be used on defense work, and ar-
rangements have been made to pull those machines from automobile
production and put them on defense.
AHEAD OF contract PROVISIONS ON SOME JOBS
We have made every effort to do the defense job quickly and well.
On the tank job and the Bofors gun job we are ahead of the contract
provisions. We have had some difficulty in getting blueprints and
engineering data. That has held us up. We have had some diffi-
culty in gettmg the new machinery as rapidly as we were ready to
use it. .
Those things have improved. We are coming along very well on
the tank job and the gun job.
Mr. Arnold. Can you say what percentage
Mr. Conder. I can't tell you the percentage, from the standpoint
of employment or machinery ; but I do know that much of our defense
work is being done on the floor space that was formerly used for the
assembly and manufacture of automobiles.
Mr. Carlton. I think, Mr. Chairman, these gentlemen, m their
natural modesty, have overlooked the finest example of cooperation
by industry that I have ever loiown, and I would hke to introduce or
7372 DETROIT HEARINGS
hand to this committee a copy of the final report of the automotive
committee for air defense.
The Chairman. We will insert it in the record.'
EDUCATIONAL EXHIBIT ARRANGED
Mr. Carlton. On the 25th of October 1940, Mr. Knudsen, General
Arnold, and General Brett and several others came to Detroit. They
had a meeting with about 100 manufacturers of automobiles, trucks,
parts, tools, and dies.
They asked for our cooperation in educating our industry in building
bombers. By the 29tli of October this committee had leased over
30,000 square feet of floor space. They elected a committee consisting
of passenger car, truck, and parts manufacturers. They had an em-
ployed staff operating by the 1st of November and started an exhibit
with the help of the Air Corps. The Air Corps assigned Maj. Gen.
James Doolittle to us. We conducted for months an educational
exhibit, in which we set up actual parts of bombers and whole bombers,
in huge floor space that we rented at our own expense. We invited
all the manufacturers from the automotive industry and elsewhere
to come and take a look at the terrific job that was before us to build
bombers and bomber parts.
Over 2,000 manufacturers visited that exhibit. Questionnaires
were made out, and over 700 people turned over questionnaires giving
their complete plant description, after studying the pieces they had to
manufacture.
Our job was first to educate the automotive industry and all industry
in this territory as to what a bomber is, how it is made, how many
hours it takes to produce a bomber.
ONE bomber REQUIRES 8,000 BLUE PRINTS
You might be interested to know that 8,000 blueprints were required
for this Martin B-26 bomber, plus 50,000 hours of labor, excluding
the Government-furnished parts, which are the motors, the landing
gear, the tires, and the wheels and all instruments on the instrument
board.
Mr. Knudsen delegated through O. P. M. a number of men to work
with this committee, and I remember the day they came to us and
said:
"Now, we have got to get in mind exactly what we want to do."
100-PERCENT COOPERATION
We called upon these people who are in this room and asked them
to take definite parts of that job. I have never seen a more remark-
able job of 100-percent cooperation than that committee had, under
the name of the Automotive Committee for Au' Defense. All the
expenses of that committee were paid by the committee itself through
its various members.
As a result of that committee, the Ford Motor Co. undertook the
terrific job of building the B-24 consolidated bomber, which requires
100,000 hours of labor outside of Government-furnished parts.
» See Exhibit D, p. 7317.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7373
General Motors undertook a part, and Chrysler undertook a part,
and Hudson undertook a part, and then they subcontracted until I
know today that there are at least 800 smaller manufacturers getting
contracts for parts from all of these companies that are going to build
these bombers.
BOMBER PROGRAM AN OUTSTANDING COOPERATIVE JOB
That bomber program is one of the outstanding cooperative jobs
that I know about in the industry.
Mr. Arnold. Of course, you gentlemen realize that we, as members
of Congress, know that this Nation started the defense program with
very few facilities for production. It was then a problem of conversion
from peacetime industry to defense industry. We know the problem,
but some of the people of the Nation don't understand it; and it is
well to have this information brought out so that misunderstandings
can be cleared up.
Up until today I have never heard any criticism of the automobile
industry. I have heard only praise of what the automotive industry
has done toward speeding up the defense program.
Mr. Carlton. As managing director of that committee, I con-
tacted every manufacturer of automobiles, trucks, and parts, and
never were we refused when we asked one of them to do anything.
Most of them came to us and said:
"You are not asking us to do enough,"
Mr. Arnold. That is marvelous cooperation and the Nation is
certainly fortunate in having manufacturers who are organized as
your factories are.
Mr. Wilson. Having also been a member of that same committee,
I would like to add a little comment, when Mr. Carlton reports on
what we did and how we tried to cooperate with Government. The
industry started out with a great deal of enthusiasm. We were some-
what disappointed when we couldn't get hold of anythmg to go to
work at for quite a while.
You gentlemen might look up the dates when Congress actually
appropriated the money to buy these bombers and when the teclinical
job of deciding exactly what bombers we were to produce was com-
pleted and when the contracts were fuially let.
BOMBER program NOT DELAYED BY INDUSTRY
I am suggesting you do that because I think there is going to be a
little disappointment in the country — perhaps by early winter — that
more bombers have not been produced. And I would like to make it
clear that this was not due to lack of cooperation by the automobile
industry.
The Chairman. I am sure, Mr. Wilson, that today in America one
of the most baneful influences is mdiscriminate criticism, criticism
which is not based on facts. All this is very enlightening. We hear
criticism on the floor of Congress, too, and that is one of the reasons
why we are here.
Mr. Carlton. Mr. Congressman, I happen to Imow that the Hud-
son Motor Car Co., with whom I have worked very closely, spent
$100,000 trving to find out how they could build aircraft before they
7374 DETROIT HEARINGS
got an order. I happen to know that the Ford Motor Co. spent
many times that amount of money before they were even promised
an order; and that is the way it went through the industry.
Following that, the industry was very disappointed because it was
many months before they could get hold of an order, or any letter
of intent, that indicated that we might go to work on the job.
DELAY IN ISSUANCE OF LETTERS OF INTENT
All through November, December, January, and February nothing
like a definite, official order was issued, or even the letter of intent.
But this industry didn't wait for that. The Ford Motor Co. surprised
us by having a plant all laid out, and all the engineering work done
on the plant, long before they even had a letter of intent with any
authority to go ahead and do anything about it.
The Chairman. But, Mr. Carlton, let us be a little charitable to
Washington. From the executive and legislative standpoint, it has
been a big problem, too, hasn't it? To decide on priorities and price
control and such matters as that is a tremendous job.
Mr. Carlton. The Army and Navy and Air Corps started from a
little bit of a business before this emergency, and have developed into
the biggest business in the country in less than a year's period. They
had a terrific job of organization on their hands.
Mr. OsMERs. Mr. Carlton, the suggestion has been made to this
committee since we have come to Michigan, that subcontracting would
be vastly speeded up if the manufacturers of motor parts, the prime
contractors in these defense orders, were loaded up, and that business
would then go out to all of the suppliers, many of whom are today
without employment or are facing the prospect of a loss of business
with the curtailment of automobiles.
Now, how is it that so many of the small businesses in the United
States have been left out of defense work entirely?
FARMING out OF CONTRACTS
Mr. Carlton. There just hasn't been enough business to go around.
The whole thing comes down to a matter of production plamiing.
For example, our first idea of building a bomber was that we had a lot
of vacant offices that we had leased, and we were going to ask each
one of the bomber manufacturers who was tlie sponsor of a given
ship that had been standardized by the Air Corps to set up an office
with us, bring in all of his blueprints, and tell us what he wanted, and
we would bring all the suppliers to him. We had a vision in the
beginning of bringing a thousand suppliers in, and the bomber rnanu-
facturers simply didn't have the organization to do the job. Finally
it had to be handled just one way. Large jobs had to be turned over
to certain organizations which were given the whole assignment of
production and planning, which were then allowed to farm that
business out.
I have a great sympathy for the small manufacturer who has not
been able to get any business, and I know a number of them who are
closed entirely.
Mr. OsMERS. I was thinking not so much of the man who didn't
get any new defense business, but of the man who lost all his own
business in addition to that.
Mr. Carlton. I know a number of plants that are de&iitely closed.
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00396— pt. 18
7374-A
7374-B
73T4-C
73T4-D
2 S
r374-E
Z ?
7374-F
7374-1
r4-j
r374-K
7374-L
7374-M
1^^
In the background is shown the start of a defens? worker's home, in the outskirts of Detroit. Until he can
finish the building in his spare time, his family must live in the tent.
r374-N
BUT
YOURSELF
A HONE
LUMBER
LABOR
AND
BUILT
^0' HI
ONLY
BUY A
\ WHY NOT ^Vt
/ YOURSELF
\ MONEt?
LOT NOW
^'*'
The build-it-yourself system of real-estate operations i^ lltmn.^luug in the viciniiy of (lie Chrysler tank
plant in Warren Township.
7374-0
4£„^
Open water ditches menace the health of Warren Township. Sewage flows along roads which boys and
girls must travel on their way to school (p. 7552).
A green-scum-covered ditch in the southern part of Royal Oak Township receives the overflow from septic
tanks. Alongside runs Eleven Mile Road, a main highway, and paths for the school children. (See
p. 7694.)
7374-P
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7375
Mr. OsMERS. Is there any hope for those peopkV? I am thinkiiio:
now of the fellow who is in the position that the automobile manufac-
turer was in — that is, he had his tools and his shop geared up for a
certam operation, and he hasn't the financial strength to convert it
into a defense industiy.
Mr. Carlton. Of course, there are some people who just never will
get any business because they haven't anj'^ equipment which is
adaptaiale to the defense program. There are others who will got
business as the defense program percolates, by subcontracting and
by the present efforts of O. P. M. in establishing offices locally.
They have placed a lot of business recently with small manufac-
turers.
The Chairman. Mr. Carlton, the time factor has exerted an in-
fluence throughout these procedures, has it not?
Mr. Carlton. Personally I don't believe it could have been done
any better than it has been done.
The Chairman. There was a time element there which represented
the pressure.
Mr. Carlton. Yes.
Mr. OsMERS. Do you feel, Mr. Carlton, that the prospective cut
in automobile production is too large at 50 percent?
Mr. Carlton. I certainly don't want to stick my neck out and try
to answer that question. I would like to amplify what Mr. Wilson
said. I have stood in the offices of O. P. M. and heard representatives
of the Army and Navy come in, demandmg material under priorities,
and I have heard them admit that they don't need the material until
1942.
shortage of plates
The subject of plates is one of my pet peeves. There is a shortage
of plates today, and there are places where there are plenty of plates
stacked up that won't be used until the last of next year, and some not
until 1942, and because of that the automotive industry is greatly
hampered and cut at the present time.
That was a matter of timing and managing and planning, and I
am told that no one executive had the authority to step into the Army
or Navy and tell them how they must schedule their material, until
the last Executive order creatmg S. P. A. B.,^ and in that Executive
order, Mr. Nelson is given the definite power to schedule not only
civilian but also defense production.
When he starts doing that, I think there will be more steel available
and more opportunities to build civilian articles than there are now.
Mr. OsMERS. I gather, from your panel and from the union panel
this morning, that the fault has not been at the point of manufacture.
The fault has been in Washington. I have learned that you men in
your capacities have stood ready to do j^our job, and labor apparentlj^
was ready to do its job; but orders were not forthcoming from Wash-
ington.
' Supply, Priorities, and Allocations Board.
60396— 41— pt. 18 21
7376 DETROIT HEARINGS
NO HOARDING OF AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY
Mr. Carlton. That is right; and I am willing to go on record in
saying that there has been no hoarding of any materials by the
automotive industry as a whole. The hoarding has been done by the
Army and Navy.
Mr. OsMERS. Now, as a general question for all of the panel: I
believe that all, or at least several, of your companies have under-
taken the construction of new plants for defense. When these are
completed and in operation, what proportion of your defense capacity
will be represented by thes(^ plants?
Mr. Carlton (Motor Wheel Corporation). I can't answer that
question because we built no new plants. We used our old plants.
Mr. Conder (Chrysler). I can't answer that, but I can tell you
how many of our people will be employed on defense, and I can tell
you how many of those people will be employed on our present facili-
ties that are used for automobile construction, and the number who
will be employed in these new plants.
Mr. OsMERS. Would you give us those figures, Mr. Conder?
Mr. Conder. I have the number of employees in defense jobs that
we now have, and I have the number of employees by plants. Do you
want it both ways?
Mr. OsMERS. The question that we are interested in at the moment
is the one of plant capacity — that is, new plant capacity — as compared
with the old plant, and the percentage of your defense work that will
be done in the new plants and the percentage in the old existing
plants.
Mr. Conder. I haven't it worked out that way. As I say, I can
give you the number of employees by plants. If I had some time I
could work it out for you;
The Chairman. We will give you the time, because our record will
not be closed for a couple of weeks. If you forward the information
to Washington, we will insert it as part of this hearing.
Mr. Conder. Then I will work it out for you.^
1 The following letter from Mr. Conder was received subsequent to the hearing:
Chrysler Corporation,
Detroit, Mich., October SI, 1941.
Mr. Harold D. Cl'llen,
Associate Editor, House Committee Investigating Defense Migration,
Washington, D. C.
Dear Mr. Cullen: I have your letter of October 16, 1941.
While testifying before the House Committee Investigating National Defense Migration, I was asked in
substance how much floor space in our established plants was being devoted to defense work as compared
to the floor space used in new plants for defense work. I stated at the time that I aid not think I could give
this information, but suggested that I might be able to advise how many employees were working on defense
work in the automobile plants and how many were working on defense work in new buildings. In checking
into this matter I found that the situation changes so rapidly that any figures given would be interesting
only as of the date covered and could not be taken as any indication of what tt;e situation would be at any
time in the future.
As the defense work dova^lops and as new defense work is taken on, different or additional manufacturing
equipment is required. We are trying to use whatever facilities are best adaptable to the completion in the
proper way of our defense work. Under the circumstances, no detailed figures covering any particular date
will be furnished for the record.
Yours very truly,
(Signed) Robert W. Conder,
Director of Labor Relations.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7377
Mr. OsMERS. I realize that unless you came prepared to answer
that question, it is going to be impossible to say offhand.
Do you have any figures on it, Mr. Roberge?
ANTICIPATES EMPLOYMENT ON DEFENSE WORK TO REACH 75 PERCENT
OF PRODUCTION
Mr. RoBERGE (Ford). Not in just that way. I believe when we
are at capacity on our present defense orders, 75 percent of our
present manpower will be employed on defense work.
Mr. OsMERS. But you don't know what the plant capacity figures
would be?
Mr. Roberge. It would be difficult to say, because of the inter-
relations between our present facilities and the new plant. Certain
items are made in the present plant and shipped to the new plant.
Mr. OsMERS. Do any of the other members of the panel have fig-
ures on that? Mr. Wilson, do you have any?
Mr. Wilson (General Alotors). I can make a statement on that.
As far as I can remember, we have asked the Government to put up
money for only one entire new plant, the Melrose Park plant near
Chicago, and additions to two others.
In other cases we have reorganized our existing facilities to make
space available or put back in production idle space, or built new
plants ourselves and used them for the purpose.
Mr. OsMERS. Plants that you owned, built, and paid for?
PROBLEMS CREATED BY GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP OF PLANT
Mr. Wilson. That is right; and one of the difficulties hes in the
fact that you have a pretty good sized plant and you figure that you
can take a defense contract and produce some of the pieces in that
plant, but in addition to that you need 200,000 square feet of floor
space to do the entire job. Now, if you want the Government to
put that up and put the money into it, you have to deed the land
to them. The plant belongs to the Government and the Govern-
ment turns it over to you to operate.
Well now, having a piece of Government-owned property in the
middle of your property raises all kinds of difficult problems, such
as powerhouse facihties and sewers; so where we could see any rea-
sonable use of the property ourselves, we put the money in and went
ahead with the job and forgot about it, knowing that we were going
to have plenty of space when this thing was over.
Mr. OsMERS. I am going to change the question around for just a
moment. Maybe this would be a little more revealing, in view of
facts which you have with you:
Wliat are' your expectancies after the emergency is over with re-
spect to the new plants you build yourself and the new plants that
the Government is financing and owning? Do you believe that nearly
all of that additional space will be abandoned, or do you look forward
to its use?
The Chairman. Or are you going to take to the air — commercial
airplane production?
Mr. Wilson. Well, I happen to be an optimist, so I am not too
much worried.
7378 DETROIT HEARINGS
Mr. Wilson (to the chairman). If wo build commercial airplanes,
what are you going to use them for?
The Chairman. Freight.
OPTIMISTIC OVER FUTURE OF INDUSTRY
Mr. Wilson. I think that, after a period of readjustment after the
emergency is over, we will find reasonable work to do in these plants.
Now, some of that is just a hope because I can't spell out exactly
what we are going to make and when; but I do know there are millions
and millions of people in the country who would like to have more
than they have, and I don't know any good reason why industry
doesn't go about trying to find some way of supplying those wants.
Mr. OsMERS. Does the rest of the panel feel as optimistically about
it as Mr. Wilson? [To Mr. Weiss.] Do you feel that these new
facilities — admitting the need for goods, wliich I don't believe any-
one questions — ^do you feel your new facilities, machinery and every-
thing, would be useful and convertible to peacetime needs?
Mr. Weiss (Packard). We have one project in our ow^n building.
Of the other projects, we have one-third in our own building and
two-thirds in a new plant.
Mr. OsMERS. A Government-owned plant?
Mr. Weiss. That is right. That job is larger than our average
production on automobiles for the last few years. As a result, it is
pretty hard to stretch the imagination that far.
Mr. OsMERS. Now, here is another possibility that is very real.
It seems that as a result of the nature of this whole program, the
big busmess of the country is getting bigger and the little businessman
is only holding his own or is being eliminated.
DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED BY BIG BUSINESS
Mr. Wilson. One of the biggest businesses in the United States is
the General Motors Corporation, but w^e are getting littler and littler
all the time. Actually the situation seems to work to the disad-
vantage of the corporation in two ways: First, we get a bigger reduc-
tion in our passenger-car business than our proper share of such a cut
because we are big; and second, when we get a million-dollar defense
contract it sounds like a lot, but in proportion to our capacity to
produce, it is small. Actually here is one of the assets of the country
in the national defense emergency that is not being used to the extent
that it can be used, and that is partly because of prejudice against
the big companies.
I put it right out there. There it is.
Why shouldn't General Motors Corporation, with its experience in
management, engineering, production, handling of business, and
starting new businesses, help with its full share of this national effort?
Mr. OsMERS. You certainly should have, but from a long-range
standpoint I thmk we should also consider the fate of the small manu-
facturer who is not in a position to tool up and get the busuiess, who
is primarily a subcontractor by nature. If he is not going to get this
business now, then when the emergency is over, in maybe 1 year or 5
years, you men here will still be going concerns, tooled right up to the
minute with an organization ready to produce, whUe this small man
will be nonoxist(>nt.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7379
Mr. Wilson. I think, to understand the thing, you have to consider
the types of businesses that exist. Big businesses aren't necessarily
big just because somebody tried to create a big business. The differ-
ence may he in the type of business that one is in.
Mr. OsMERS. That is perfectly true.
DEFENSE PROGRAM IS BIG BUSINESS
Mr. Wilson. This defense program is big business. We might all
just as well make up our minds to that. It is big business and it
isn't gomg to be handled by thousands of small businesses alone.
Small plants can't make tanks, airplanes, or other large, complex
armaments. They can help through large-scale subcontracting.
Mr. OsMERs. I think that is all generally recognized.
NO PROBLEM FOR SUPPLIERS TO BIG BUSINESS
Mr. Wilson. There are two types of small businesses: First, those
who make things of their own design and sell to the public — a kiddie-
car manufacturer, for instance; and second, those who make parts and
tools and supplies, and who are the natural suppliers of big business.
There is no problem for the latter, because they will have the
same relation to the big businesses that they have had for years.
Mr. OsMERS. The suppliers?
Mr. Wilson. That is right. The only trouble is that then- sub-
contracts come a little late. This whole program is measured in time.
The Ford Motor Co. or the Chrysler Co. or General Motors don't give
small business orders for tools and supplies and special materials
before they get their own contracts, or before they get them broken
down, or before they ascertain their needs.
If a period of 3 months or 6 months must elapse while you are build-
ing a new building and gettmg machinery, the small supplier hasn't
any business in the meantime, so he goes down to Washmgton and
complams about it, you see, because he is afraid he is going to be left
out; and I don't blame him for complaming, because it is a difficult
problem.
EFFECT OF PRIORITIES ON SMALL MANUFACTURER
The real problem is the small manufacturer who makes a specialized
product of his own design, which he markets to the people. He may
not be able to get material at this time.
Mr. OsMERS. That is it.
Mr. Wilson. If he would be satisfied with 30 percent, as the auto-
motive industry apparently is going to have to be satisfied, maybe
he would still he in business.
IMr. OsMERS. But many of those small manufacturers would not be
able to operate at all with a 50-percent curtailment. They are not
strong enough to do that for any period of time.
But be tiiat as it may, do you think one of the reasons for our
dilemma is that we are wobbling between a business-as-usual policy
and an all-out defense policy, and that weights are being put on both
sides of the teter?
Mr. Wilson. I personally think we are wobbling between trying
to get the defense program done and trying to change the method of
doing; business in the United States.
7380 DETROIT HEARINGS
Mr. OsMERS. I am not giving you a leading question, but do you
mean by that that the defense program is being used to bring about
some social changes and things that arc entirely apart from the
production of the defense program in its most efficient manner?
Mr. Wilson. I don't know that this is a correct appraisal of the
thing, but one of my friends said to me the other day: "There seem
to be two types of people in Washington — those who want to make big
business smaller and those who want to make small business bigger.
Wliy don't we get at the defense program?"
Mr. OsMERS. I think your friend left out a possible third cate-
gory— the gioup that wants to make American democracy into a
whatnot.
The Chairman. I doubt if we can complete a definitive discourse on
democracy during the time at our disposal, gentlemen.
Mr. Wilson. I would like to mention this while we are talking
about small business, and I am not quite like Mr. Carlton, because T
don't know of many that have closed up. I know a lot of such men
who are talking about closing up, but none who has stopped business.
I would like to point out that it takes a good many small businesses
to employ 140,000 people, and that ought to be taken into considera-
tion a little bit. Wliat is going to be done about these 140,000
General Motors employees who will be thrown out of nondefense
employment by next fall?
Air. OsMERS. The real key to the situation, Mr. Wilson, from what
I have been able to gather from the testimony, is tliis problem of
materials. Everybody is ready to go ahead according to his own
capacity and ability, but there seems to be no organization with
regard to materials. There is no straight answer.
You have stove manufacturers here in the State of Michigan, and
I don't suppose they know whether they are going to continue as
manufacturers of stoves or whether they are going to stop making
stoves for the duration of the emergency. They are not adaptable
for purposes of national defense, as I understand it.
Mr. Wilson. I think you are right about that.
Mr. OsMERS. I will put it this way: If the country as a whole does
not follow a system comparable to your automobile policy of order-
ing as you go along, and distributing materials as and when you need
them; if everybody is going to hog and hoard, there is not going to
be enough.
Mr. Wilson. I think there is perhaps an even more fundamental
difficulty. We had at one time a competitive society.
Mr. OsMERs. I can almost remember it.
MATERIAL DISTRIBUTION CONTROLLING FACTOR
Mr. Wilson. If you wanted something and had the money to get
it, you placed an order for it; and if you wanted it more than somebody
else, you perhaps paid a little higher price for it. Now the price is
no longer the determining factor, the factor that controls the dis-
tribution of material. It is on another basis. We haven't learned
how to do business on that other basis.
Mr. OsMERS. I think that is true.
Mr. Wilson. I have often wondered how they distribute their auto-
mobiles m Russia.
NATIO^WI. DEFENSE MIGRATION 7381
I can understand how everybody would have a food card, you
know, and get his part of the food. But how they distribute and
divide up the small automobile production they have over there? I
never could understand how that is done, when they don't have any
money or assets involved.
Mr. OsMERs. Maybe it is illegal for one man to offer $25 more than
the next man.
Mr. Wilson. How do they get the cars? It must be on some other
basis — prestige, or politics.
Mr. OsMERs. I think that last statement probably explains it.
Mr. Wilson. I might say this on the flow of materials. The
materials actually used in ordnance and aviation and so forth, while
they seem to be similar and are similar to the ones used in automobile
production, are not of the same identical classifications. The alloy
steels are somewhat different. The shapes of steel are different. The
aluminum is of a different hardness, or has a little different alloy.
Now, it is one thing to maintain a flow of production where inven-
tories are already established and the working process exists ; but you
have to fill up the channel before you get the flow that is necessary,
even if it is a well-controlled process, so if you put a lot of new products
into production in industry, you temporarily have to fill up the chan-
nel, even though you do it quite intelligently.
In addition to that basic necessity for increased inventories, some
of the scheduling has not been done very intelligently. As a result —
well, you men know that the tonnage of finished products isn't where
the material is going, because it hasn't come out yet. The difference
is partly in a legitimate increase of inventory on new specifications
of materials, and it is partly due to maladjustment — the wrong ma-
terials in the wrong place. Somebody is hoarding or somebody is
trying to protect his contractual relations on deliveries or on price.
You can't criticize the contractor who has made a contract to deliver a
certain product in the next year, and who steps out and buys the ma-
terial and gets it now so he can make sure he can deliver on his con-
tract. That is a human and natural thing to do, and that accounts,
in my mind, for the situation we are in.
The Chairman. At this time I should like to give the reporter a few
minutes recess.
(Short recess.)
The Chairman. The committee will please come to order. I desire
to say to the panel that it has been tremendously interesting to hear
this testimony.
We are scheduled to make a tour of the tank plant this afternoon.
We are supposed to leave at this time, but some of the members desire
to ask more questions, so I will turn you over now to Congressman
Curtis.
EFFECT OF DEFENSE WORK ON AUTOMOBILE RETAILERS
Mr. Curtis. I want to ask a question in reference to the automobile
distributors, the retailers, and individual car salesmen in our cities
and towns of all sizes and out at the cross roads where the one garage
may be the main business of the community.
In almost every instance the manufacture of articles that these men
sell, including cars, refrigerators, radios, washing machines, and so
forth, has been curtailed.
7382 DETROIT HEARINGS
What will be the effect on these dealers of your present and antici-
pated defense work, and what do you have to suggest to remedy the
situation, Mr. Roberge?
Mr. Roberge (Ford). I don't know that our defense work will have
any beneficial effect on the dealers and salesmen throughout the
country.
Mr. Curtis. Quite the contrary,
Mr. Roberge. They will receive their proportion of what we are
able to make, and, of course, some of them will have rather difficult
times ahead.
Mr. Curtis. There is no chance for that individual, unless he moves
somewhere else.
Mr. Roberge. Unless he gets a job in a defense industry, or some-
thing like that, I don't know what a salesman can do, for example.
Mr. Curtis. Are there any changes in your present schedule of
commissions?
Mr. Roberge. No change in our percentages of discounts to dealers.
Mr. Curtis. Mr, Wilson, will you discuss my question?
Mr. Wilson (General Motors). There isn't anything we can do
about the matter because the dealer is an independent businessman.
We are encouraging dealers to do everything they can to further the
service on old cars and try to make up in part with added income on
service, because if no new cars are produced, presumably there should
be more service on the old ones.
Mr. Curtis. Are you going to be able to give them all the repair
parts they need?
Mr. Wilson. I would think so.
Mr. Curtis. Is that true in your case, Mr. Roberge?
Mr. Roberge. I think so, yes.
Mr. Wilson. There has been some increase in price in cars, so that
the commission or discount the dealer gets is increased by that amount.
If a car has been raised in price 10 percent, the dealer will have 10
percent more.
Mr. Curtis. But that increase in possible commissions is not going
to be enough to take care of him for his loss in cars, is it?
SALESMEN WILL SUFFER MORE THAN DEALERS
Mr. Wilson. The dealer's employees will be hurt, in my opinion,
more than the dealers themselves. The automobile salesmen regu-
larly working on commissions will be hurt more than the dealers.
If they have only half the number of cars to sell and the same number
of salesmen are still working at the job, they will only make half as
much money. If half of them go into some other occupation,
then the ones remaining will do as well as they have in past years.
In other words, if the dealers shrink their organization, they will
also shrink part of their expense. They may have more service
business. But they wouldn't like the situation. It would mean
hardship for them. But we are going to have to find out in this
country that this program is hardship. W^e can't all have more than
we have had on the average in the past years, and still produce all
this defense material. We will find that out by hard going.
Mr. Curtis. How are you going to distribute your cars among the
dealers? On the basis of their past sales?
NATI0:N.\1. DEE'ENSE MIGRATION 7383
BASES OF AUTOMOBILE DISTRIBUTION
Mr. Wilson. General Motors Corporation has been worried about
that, and we decided that we would distribute 85 percent on the basis
of last year's sales, and 15 percent we would use to adjust distribution
in those communities or cities where there has been an appreciable
change during the year.
Some of these centers where they are building airplanes have
employed thousands and thousands of additional people, and the
towns, in 1 year, have doubled in size. The dealers there are going
to have some more cars to satisfy the demand.
Mr. Curtis. The territory I represent is having this year the first
good crop in 9 years.
Mr. Wilson. We thought it would be fair to tell the dealers, so
they would know where they are, that the least any of them would
get would be 85 percent of liis proportion as judged by his last year's
sales. The other 15 percent we would distribute as intelligently as
we could. If there is one territory that has had a drought, and the
people there don't want to buy very many cars, or can't afford to buy
them, that dealer will get 85 percent of his proportion of last year's
business.
In your territory, if the people have been waiting for years to have
enough money to buy themselves new cars, perhaps the dealer will
get 100 percent or 105 percent of his pro rata.
Mr. Curtis. Mr. Robcrge, what do you have to say as to the dis-
tribution of your cars to your dealers?
Mr. RoBERGE (Ford). That has been the subject of a great deal of
discussion and study, and I don't believe it is entirely completed as
yet, but we also had in mind holding a reserve which could be used h\
certain instances — for example, where there was a defense plant ui
construction and the people hauling material mto that area needed
more transportation than normally. We have held this reserve, or
will hold the reserve, for use in those particular areas where the greater
demand occurs.
Mr. Curtis. Mr. Weiss, what is your answer to my first question,
in regard to the dealer's problem?
Mr. Weiss (Packard). The problem of our individual dealer is
greater than that of the dealer in cars represented by the other gentle-
men here, because of the lower unit volume of our cars. There will
necessarily be some curtailment. People wiU be forced to give up
dealerships because they just can't sustain them on 50 percent of
what they have been getting.
Mr. Curtis. I have read in the press that the so-called big
three had a heavier cut in their allow^ible production than the rest of
the manufacturers. Is that true? Is that going to put Packard
dealers in a better position than the competitors across the street
selling General Motors products?
Mr. Weiss. No; because of the normal difference in the volume of
sales.
Mr. Curtis. Wliat is your answer to that, Mr. Wilson?
Mr. Wilson. I don't like to have a little disagreement in the family
here, but the way I look at it, the automobile dealer is an independent
businessman, and is operating on a competitive basis in the community.
Mr. Curtis. Would you call him an economic royalist?
7384 DETROIT HEARINGS
Mr. Wilson. I don't know what that is, myself. I thmk you can
figure it out for yourself. Here are two dealers trying to serve the
community. If one of them has 45 percent as many cars as he had
last year and the other has 85 percent as many, which one is going to
get along the better — assuming that there is a demand for all the cars
that anybody can deliver? As a matter of fact, there isn't a great
deal of difference in dealers, whether they work for the General Motors
Corporation or for a smaller company. We simply have more dealers,
among whom we distribute more cars. We have small dealers and
very large dealers. The large ones have large places of business.
They have many employees and responsibilities. We have made a
study of large and small dealers for many years, and we think the
question of how many cars should be supplied them must be deter-
mined by sales of the preceding year, independently of which kinds of
car they distribute.
Mr. Curtis. Is it your opinion there will be a discrimination
between the two types of dealers?
Mr. Wilson. I don't think there is any question about it. And you
must remember that our car lines are distributed as though our differ-
ent makes of cars were handled by separate corporations. A Cadillac
distributor distributes Cadillacs. He does not have Chevrolets along
with it, and so on. His income is gomg to be dependent on the
number of Cadillacs he handles.
NO shortage in automobile parts
Mr. Curtis. Mr. Weiss, are Packard dealers going to be able to
get all the parts they need for repair business?
Mr. Weiss. We assume so; yes.
Mr. Curtis. Did I ask you that, Mr. Roberge?
Mr. Roberge (Ford). Yes.
Mr. Curtis. And your answer was "Yes"?
Mr. Roberge. Yes.
Mr. Curtis. The good mechanics are pretty well drained out of the
country, aren't they?
Mr. Weiss. And the salesmen, as Mr. Wilson says, will probably
be hit harder than the dealer himself, who might be able to carry on
his business on an additional amount of service because of the cars
being older. Just how far that would go I do not know. I haven't
made a study of it.
Mr. Curtis. According to present arrangements, what percentage
of last year's production will your dealers have?
Mr. Weiss. Their business will reflect the curtailment of auto-
mobiles.
curtailment percentages
Mr. Curtis. And what is your curtailment?
Mr. Weiss. In the first 4 months our curtailment was 38 percent.
After that it was less because we started earlier than some of the other
people in the business. That is all a matter of record in the O. P. M.
adjustment.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7385
Air. Curtis. Are you goin^ to be able to supply the repair parts?
Mr. Weiss. I believe we will, sir.
Mr. Curtis. Mr. Conder, what will be the effect of your present
and anticipated defense work on dealers and salesmen? And what
do you suggest to remedy the situation?
Mr. CoNDER (Chrysler). We think it is going to have a very serious
effect on those dealers. Some dealers undoubtedly will have to go
out of business because they will not have enough cars to sell.
We think many salesmen working for the dealers will be laid off.
They aren't going to have the cars to sell. They are going to have
to cut down on expenses.
We are trying to assist them in building up a service business. We
hope to be able to supply them with all of the parts they need.
We are also trying to give them such assistance as we can in going
into a used-car business, trading used cars. But we can see that the
dealers are going to be injured very badly as a result of this curtail-
ment.
SHOULD CONCENTRATE ON DEALING IN USED CARS AND SERVICES
I don't know of any solution for it. We can't give them cars.
Mr. Curtis. Here is a question which I would like to have all of
you answer if j^ou can:
How does the number of people engaged in the distribution of your
products— distributors, dealers, and salesmen, and all of their neces-
sary force of bookkeepers and clerical workers — compare with the
number of people engaged in the production of automobiles?
Mr. CoNDER. You mean the men in our own employ? Or are you
taking into account the employees of the dealers as well?
Mr. Curtis. Employees of the dealers. In other words, the whole
automobile industry. ^ How many are engaged in distribution and
how many in production?
Mr. Conder. I have some figures on that, but I haven't them in
mind.
Mr. Curtis. Mr. Roberge, do you have anything on that?
Mr. Roberge. Nothing definite. I think the O. P. M. brought
out the figure of 400,000 people outside of the actual manufacturers.
I am not sure of that figure. I know there are roughly 44,000 auto-
mobile dealers in the country, but how many employees they have I
don't know.
Air. Curtis. Do you have anything on that, Mr. Wilson?
Mr. Wilson. I happen to have the figures here that one of my
associates just handed me.
production AND DISTRIBUTION EMPLOYMENT FIGURES
General Motors dealers and their employees number about 200,000.
Of these 200,000 about 40,000 are salesmen, and at least 60,000 more
are directly dependent on the conditioning and servicing of new cars
incidentalto new-car sales. In other words, about half of the dealer
set-up is dependent on new-car business. The other half is dependent
on the service business and the routine operations, so that a 50-percent
cut in our business will result, I would expect, in about 50,000 people
losing their jobs.
7386 DETROIT HEARINGv^
Mr. Curtis. How does your total of 200,000 compare to the total
number of people engaged in the production of General Motors cars?
Mr. Wilson. Out of 300,000 people, 200,000 work on passenger
cars and the other 100,000 on trucks, Frigidaires, Diesel locomotives,
and defense. At the present time around forty or fifty thousand are
on defense, and the rest are on truck production, Frigidaires, Diesel
locomotives, and the other products of the corporation.
I think you should consider also that there are other people depend-
ent on the automobile business besides the employees of the automobile
companies themselves — perhaps at least as many more.
Mr. Curtis. That is a principle we have to accept in any productive
industry, that it has overlapping influences.
Mr. Wilson. I don't quite mean that. I mean the suppliers of
perishable tools and nonproductive supplies and of parts and materials
for production.
There are at least as many more people engaged in the automobile
business indirectly. I don't mean the people supplying gasoline and
oil and personal services; I mean employees who will lose their jobs
when the automobile business stops.
(To Mr. Carlton). Do you think I am right, Clarence?
. Mr. Carlton. Mr. Curtis, in my brief you will find that in the
automotive-parts industry there are about 200,000 people employed
as suppliers to the manufacturers of automobiles.
Mr. Curtis. Mr. Weiss, do you have any figures on the number of
your dealers and distributors and salesmen as compared to your pro-
ducing force?
Mr. Weiss. No; not here.
Mr. Curtis. How about you, Mr. Waldron?
Mr. Waldron. I don't, either, but I imagine it w^oiild be fairly
close to the percentage Mr. Wilson points out.
Mr. Curtis. You think that is generally true, Mr, Weiss?
Mr. Weiss. I doubt very much if Packard's sales outlets are quite
as numerous in proportion as they are to General Alotors.
Mr. Wilson. My review of the figures seems to check the estimate
I gave you for General Motors. That is, 400,000 for the industry
checks with the 200,000 figure that I gave you. General Motors
Corporation did about half of the total passenger-car business.
The Chairman. We are behind our schedule but I want to ask
one question. I do it reluctantly, because I now have two Repub-
licans and one Democrat here on the committee and I have to be
very careful how I proceed. But this is an intelligent panel, and it
may never be assembled in just this manner again.
We were appointed first to investigate the migration of destitute^
citizens between States. We made our report to Congress, with cei'-
tain recommendations, and then we were continued to investigate
migration taking place in this defense program.
The migration of destitute citizens in past years had many causes —
worn-out soil, ill health, unemployment.
Now, what are we to do about this defense migration and the sit-
uation it is creating throughout the country, after the defense pro-
gram is completed? Your testimony today indicates there is going
to be unemployment, even before that time. And it may be far
more acute when there is no longer a need to keep all these industries
at work on wartime needs.
natio^nal defense migration 7387
CUSHION FOR UNEMPLOYMENT
In England, during the first year of the war, employ merit dropped
25 percent. There is going to be unemployment in this country,
whether it is because of priorities or price control, or whatever the
factors may be labeled back in Washington.
Now, what is the cushion for that? Have you gentlemen given
any attention to that question? Is it an increase in the unemploy-
ment compensation? Is it forced savuigs, voluntary savings, the dis-
missal charge, or what? Speaking now as one member of the com-
mittee, I think, unless we plan against the day, that post-war unem-
ployment may be just as dangerous as any attack from without. I
am' just speakmg for myself now. But I think it will be a whirlpool.
Have any of you gentlemen of this panel given any thought to what
we can do — what Congress can do now to plan for that?
Various schemes have been suggested; for example, public works.
England is taxing its citizens to the limit and is saying that each one
will get 10 percent back at the end of the war. But England may be
broke, and we may not have funds available for public works at the
end of this emergency. What can we do about it now?
The representative's on this panel employ hundreds of thousands of
individuals. Wliat can you gentlemen do? Does anybody have an
answer to that question?
ENCOURAGE BUSINESS TO CUSHION UNEMPLOYMENT
Mr. Hill. I can make one suggestion: Encourage research; encour-
age the development of business; put penalties on businesses that
don't advance; develop new products; eliminate the tendency to
discourage rather than encourage business to advance, so that during
the war period, or at least toward the end of it, our research depart-
ments can continue their investigations and research for the develop-
ment of new products.
As Mr. Wilson mentioned, the demand is going to be there after
the war, and we want to be in a position to supply those needs.
Encourage public investment in businesses that are going to produce.
We make the mistake of looking at business as institutions that produce
products. It isn't products we produce, it is employment; and from
employment we produce products. If we are discouraged in the pro-
duction of products, we are discouraged in the production of em-
])loyment.
Congress and all Washington could look forward to the encourage-
ment of what the businessman feels is the thing that produces employ-
ment, and that is profitable business, a business that can proceed
without too much regulation so long as it lives witliin decent iDOunds.
The Chairman. Any other suggestions?
PAY AS YOU GO GOOD NATIONAL POLICY
Mr. Wilson. I have thought a great deal on that point. I have
some opinions of my own. I may be getting a little away from my
experience, perhaps, but I will be glad to tell you what I tliink about it.
The country has to pay for the thing in effort, actually and currently.
Just for a moment, let us put money outside our discussion. What we
actually produce for defense lias got to come out of what we otherwise
7388 DETROIT HEARINGS
might have for ourselves. You can't borrow it from the past, because
we didn't produce it in the past. The guns that you would make next
year can't be used this year, so that actually the material and the labor
and efl'ort have got to be applied currently.
Now, how you pay for all that, and finance it, is going to determine
how bad the aftermath is going to be.
The Chairman. Nobody knows that.
Mr. Wilson. There is no reason why it should be very bad. Since
you have produced the goods currently, the country should be able to
go into an era of increased prosperity after this tiling is over, because
you stop the waste of labor and material, which is the same thing.
You can't get material without human labor.
Now, because of that, we should have a higher standard of living if
we handle it intelligently after the war. The big thing is to avoid an
inflation and a dislocation of business that will make it difficult to
reorganize and get going agam. Or are the ground rules going to be
so different that no one will know how to go about business?
Personally, I think this is the time for eveiybody to pay his debts.
Individuals should not be going in debt at the same time the Govern-
ment is going in debt at such a tremendous rate, because we can't all
be in debt. We would be just stagnated then. So it would be a fine
thing for the country if we would wind up this defense program with
the citizens of the country having some savings, so that they then
could start to spend for the things that they would like to have, thus
raising their standard of living.
The Chairman. Now you are talking my language. We addressed
that question to migrant defense workers in many parts of the coun-
try: Are they saving? Mr. Wilson, you have close to 3,000,000
people who have left their home States to go to these defense centers.
If they had five hundred or six or seven or eight hundred dollars in
their pockets at the end of this war period, I think they would have
gone a long way toward accomplishing what you have in mind.
The Government may have to retrench at that time. That money
would be the real cushion, don't you think, after all is said and done?
Mr. Wilson. Certainly; that would be the best thing to stimulate
business.
The Chairman. But the sad thing is those workers won't have it.
Mr. Wilson. That depends on how socialistic and nationalistic the
country is by that time. It will depend on whether we have softened
everybody clown to where he is not used to looking after himself, or
hasn't the courage or moral stamina to deny himself something, and
whether he is going to compete in the market and get very little for
the money he spends and contribute to the chaos of the present
situation.
The Chairman. If you gentlemen have any further suggestions or
information that would be of interest to the committee, please feel
free to send it to us. Our record will be held open for about 2 weeks.
This is a mighty big problem, and I am very sorry we have to cur-
tail this discussion. On behalf of the committee I want to thank each
of you gentlemen for your fine presentation. It is a valuable contri-
bution.
The committee will stand adjourned until 9:30 tomorrow morning.
(W^iereupon, at 4:40 p. m., the committee adjourned until 9:30
a. m., Thursday, September, 25, 1941.)
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER, 25, 1941
House of Representatives,
Select Committee Investigating
National Defense Migration,
Washington, D. C.
morning session
The committee met at 9:30 a. m., Hon. John H. Tolan (chairman),
presiding.
Present were Representatives John H. Tokin (chairman), of
Cahfornia; Frank C. Osmers, Jr., of New Jersey; Carl T. Curtis, of
Nebraska; and John J. Sparkman, of Ahibama.
Also present: Dr. Robert K. Lamb, staff director; John W. Abbott,
chief field investigator; Francis X. Riley and Jack B. Burke, field
investigators; and Rutli B. Abrams, field secretary.
The Chairman. The committee will come to order. Mr. Larned
will be the first witness.
TESTIMONY OF ABNER E. LARNED, STATE ADMINISTRATOR,
WORK PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION, FEDERAL WORKS AGENCY,
LANSING, MICH.
The Chairman. Mr. Larned, Congressman Sparkman, of Alabama,
will question you.
Mr. Sparkman. Mr. Larned, will you state your name, address,
and the official capacity in which you appear before the committee?
Mr. Larned. My name is Abner E. Larned. I am the State
administrator of W. P. A. Aly home address is 8120 East Jefferson
Avenue, Detroit. My Detroit office is 15020 Woodward Avenue, and
my Lansing office is 1331 South Washington Street.
Mr. Sparkman. I have rather hurriedly scanned the statement
that you have prepared, which will, of course, be included in full in
our printed record.
(The statement referred to above is as follows:)
STATEMENT BY ABNER E. LARNED, MICHIGAN STATE ADMINIS-
TRATOR, WORK PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION, FEDERAL WORKS
AGENCY
During the past 6 years that the Work Projects Administration has operated in
Michigan it has spent a total, cumulative to August 1941, of $494,812,923. A
large part of this money has been allocated from Federal funds; the balance by
local communities \\-hich have initiated and sponsored various Work Projects
Administration projects. Through the expenditure of this money thousands of
needy unemployed men were given work at times when no other work was avail-
able." This otherwise wasted labor resource was transformed into comanunity
7389
7390 DETROIT HEARIMGS
improvements — roads, streets, schools, airports, athletic fields, community serv-
ices— that otherwise would not have been made. From already hard-pressed
local counties and cities was lifted the burden of caring for thousands of destitute
workers. Into the shops of local merchants there was diverted the millions of
dollars paid in wages. The purchases of materials and supplies were a welcome
aid to manufacturers and distributors.
With the present industrial and general economic improvement, the present and
future role of a works program naturally comes up for discussion. It is important
to determine to what extent the Work Projects Administration program is involved
in the problems resulting from our effort to gear our economy to the production of
the essentials of war, the problems of industrial lay-offs due to priorities and
material shortages, expansion in plants manufacturing defense material, and the
migration of workers from one area to another. By an analysis of the past
employment experience of the Work Projects Administration pre gram and of
current data secured by local Work Projects Administration offices working
throughout the State, the possible present and future functions of the works
program will be examined.
WORK PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION EMPLOYMENT IN RELATION TO LOCAL NEEDS
The Work Projects Administration program is closely geared to the varying
needs of the counties and cities in Michigan. Subject to a necessary State and
Federal supervision, local communities initiate and sponsor useful projects; local
relief authorities refer all needy unemployed workers for Work Projects Adminis-
tration employment. Consequently to the extent to which community needs are
recognized by local authorities, they secure full recognition from the Work Projects
Administration.
Table I indicates the number of applications for work received through the
relief agencies throughout the State and also the number of certifications and
recertifications for Work Projects Administration employment. To permit com-
parison, separate data are included for the Upper Peninsula and Wayne County.
Since January 1940 the rate of appHcations has with minor variations declined.
The decrease in applications from Wayne County has been more rapid than from
the economically depressed Upper Peninsula. The number of certifications and
recertifications followed the number of applications quite closely for each month,
indicating prompt action by Work Projects Administration in approving certifica-
tions made by the relief offices for eligible workers.
Table I. — Comparison of applications to certifications and recertifications by State
total, the Upper Peninsula and Wayne County, Michigan Work Projects Admin-
istration, January 1940 to July 1941
Applications
Certifications and recerti-
fications
State
total
Upper
Peninsula
Wayne
County
State
total
Upper
Peninsula
Wayne
County
1940
9,949
8,781
8,650
5,153
3, 536
2,724
2,142
3,664
3,563
3,144
2,666
2,710
3,511
2,870
2,030
2. 579
3,072
2,508
1,232
1,589
1.075
957
684
421
277
431
399
611
618
339
390
554
428
361
800
1,831
978
195
4,045
3,525
4,469
2.525
2,000
1, 399
984
2,167
1,224
1,340
1,217
1,058
1,161
1,212
904
830
308
768
553
11,028
9, 249
8,070
6,401
3.710
2,515
2,053
3, .371
3,354
3,159
2,483
2,483
3,118
2,453
1,654
2,211
3,334
2,483
1,146
1,576
1,063
947
680
417
271
422
395
608
612
334
386
548
428
333
801
1,836
977
193
5,002
February -
3,384
4,068
3,667
2,078
1,229
July
923
1,981
1,159
October
1,383
1, 054
December
853
1941
January .
806
826
March -
575
April , - .
493
May ..
590
764
July
606
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7391
STATE WORK PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION EMPLOYMENT, AVERAGE HOURS AND
EARNINGS
The average monthly employment on Work Projects Administration projects
in Michigan and average hours and earnings of project employees from 1935 to
date is shown by table 11. Employment levels have roughly followed general
employment and business conditions in an inverse ratio. From a high employ-
ment level during the first quarter in 1936 Work Projects Administration employ-
ment, reflecting a general business upturn, decreased to a low of 43,215 persons
in September 1937. During the following year an all-time high was reached in
August. From this high point the Work Projects Administration employment
lead decreased with seasonal fluctuations to the present low level of August
1941, of 33,476 workers. Average hours and earnings show only minor variations
during the entire period.
60396 — 41— pt. 18-
7392
DETROIT HEARINGS
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NATIONAI. DEFENSE MIGRATION
7393
DIVERSIFICATION OF WORK PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION EMPLOYMENT
Recognizing that all workers are not suited for the same kind of jobs, even a
temporary job on work relief projects, the Work Projects Administration program
has attempted within the limits of available projects to fit jobs to the needs of
the workers. The experience and training of applicants are reviewed and
assignment made to work for which they are best suited. The division of projects
into construction, and white collar class only partially indicate their diversifica-
tion. Table III indicates the distribution of Work Projects Administration
employment into these classes.
Table TIT. — Project employment as of the last Wednesday in each month by total
employment, and employynent on nondefense and certified defense projects by
construction, white collar, vocational training, and other projects,^ Michigan
Work Projects Administration October 1939 to July 1941
Nondefense projects
Certified defense projects
Month
Total
W.P. A.
employ-
ment
Con-
struc-
tion
White
collar
Other
Total
Con-
struc-
tion
White
collar
Voca-
tional
training
1939
83, 664
87, 101
86. 404
84,867
87,317
88. 566
81,638
76. 303
61,053
63,819
66, 908
64, 482
68,017
66, 090
67, 075
68, 242
65, 888
61,716
54. 153
50, 894
46, 623
32, 006
66, 455
67,510
66,873
65,314
67, 943
69, 146
63, 416
57, 951
46, 402
47,122
47, 706
45, 098
48, 197
45, 059
44,870
45, 054
43,115
39, 035
32, 892
30, 194
26, 620
18, 469
16,816
19, 199
19, 121
19. 100
18,917
18, 927
17, 673
17. 787
14,037
15,120
16, 234
15, 869
16, 589
16, 903
17, 899
18, 191
17,929
16,983
15, 136
14,050
13, 990
8,133
393
392
410
453
457
493
549
565
554
488
489
472
495
491
484
471
468
465
456
379
385
413
1940
July
1.089
2,539
2,443
2,736
3, 577
3,822
3,920
4,376
5,233
5, 009
5,671
5,628
4,991
447
253
301
400
887
1,077
1,209
1,700
2,659
3,404
3,417
3,307
2,472
24
25
22
33
34
73
69
104
101
99
157
264
268
618
Au?ust -
2,261
2,060
October
2,297
November
2,656
2,672
1941
January .
2,588
February^ ...
2,566
March
2,473
April --
2.160
May
2,097
June
2,057
July -.
2,251
' Does not include employment on projects operated by Federal agencies with transferred Work Projects
A dininistration funds or on the Federal Nation-wide project, minor program classification 508.
Beginning in July 1940 a further break-down is made into defense and non-
defense projects. In addition to the workers employed on defense projects certi-
fied by Government agencies as being essential to the defense program, there are
a number of noncertified projects which are definitely related to defense activity.
The employment on these noncertified defense projects is included with nondefense
employment since consistent data are not at present available. The relative
weight of this factor can be indicated by employment on August 27, 1941. Out
of a total of 33,687 Work Projects Administration workers on that date, 12,061
were employed on noncertified defense projects and 4,675 were employed on certi-
fied defense projects.
RELATION OF WORK PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION TO TOTAL UNEMPLOYMENT
While the Work Projects Administration program has helped to ease the shock
of unemployment, it has only partially met the problem. Aside from the number
of unemployed workers with no resources or income who seek Work Projects
Administration employment, there is a large group of unemployed workers seek-
ing work who form a potential Work Projects Administration employment prob-
lem. According to a recent United States census release the total Michigan labor
force on March 24-30, 1940, was 2,128,291 persons. Of this number 94,672 or 4.4
7394
DETROIT HEARINGS
percent were employed by Work Projects Administration, v^ivilian Conservation
Corps, and National Youth Administration Out of School Work Programs and
200,696 or 9.4 percent were reported as seeking work. The 9.4 percent of the
workers seeking work becomes a Work Projects Administration problem if they
continue to be unemployed.
Included in this last group are those workers who have been certified to be in
need of Work Projects Administration employment but have not been assigned to
projects because of employment quotas resulting from limited appropriations. As
a result many of these needy unemployed workers are forced to apply for direct
relief which is often not available or to struggle along by other means. Table IV
indicates the extent of this problem. The ratio of Work Projects Administration
employment to the total number of certified persons is indicated by month from
April 1938 to date. As indicated by this table the number of unas igned certified
workers in Michigan has been as high as 38,128 persons. Of particular interest
at this time is the effect of the curtailment in Work Projects Administration em-
ployment beginning with the new 1941 fiscal year in July. On the last Wednesday
in June 1941 the employment load was 46,623 persons with 2,740 persons awaiting
assignment. During July Work Projects Administration employment was re-
duced to 32,006 persons but 11,956 unassigned certified workers were in need of
Work Projects Administration work.
Table IV. — State total project employment, persons awaiting assignment, total
load, and employment ratio,^ Michigan Work Projects Administration, April
1938 to July 1941
Month
'oject
Persons
awaiting
Total load
Employment
ratio
assignment
146, 704
21,218
167, 922
87.4
175, 790
20, 037
195, 827
89.8
187, 625
38, 128
225, 753
83.1
192, 749
5,795
198, 544
97.1
202, 296
6,527
208, 823
96.9
181, 176
9,353
190, 529
95.1
165, 264
5,021
170, 285
97.1
151, 279
8,902
160, 181
94.4
143, 480
14, 595
158, 075
90.8
135, 925
19, 652
155, 577
87.4
143, 948
10,297
154, 245
93.3
139. 029
14, 984
154,013
90.3
126, 105
27, 243
153, 348
82.2
119,548
26, 166
145,714
82.0
123, 081
18, 009
141,090
87.2
112, 162
12, 386
124, 548
90.1
85, 517
18, 028
103, 545
82.6
76, 123
18.816
94, 939
80.2
83, 664
11,855
95, 519
87.6
87, 101
8,446
95, 547
91.2
86, 404
7,326
93, 730
92.2
84, 867
12, 671
97, 538
87.0
87,317
15, 222
102, 539
85.2
88.566
17, 989
106, 555
83.1
81, 638
25. 163
106, 801
76.4
76, 303
23, 491
99, 794
76.5
61,053
37, 709
98, 762
61.8
03, 819
29, 489
93, 308
68.4
66, 968
24, 160
91, 128
73.5
64, 482
21, 143
85, 625
75.3
68.017
13, 892
81,909
83.0
66, 090
12, 936
79, 026
83.6
67, 075
10, 941
78, 016
86.0
68, 242
11,265
79, 507
85.8
65, 888
13,828
79, 716
82.7
61,716
13, 890
75, 606
81.6
54, 153
8,849
63. 002
86.0
50, 894
2,216
53,110
95.8
46, 623
2,740
49, 363
94.4
32, 006
11,956
43, 962
72.8
1938
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
1939
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
Octobrr
November
December
1940
January
February
March
April...
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
1941
January
February
March
April
May
June .
July
' Does not include employment on projects operated by Federal agencies with transferred Work Projects
Administration funds or on the Federal Nation-wide project, minor program classification 508.
NATIONAL DEFENSP: MIGRATION
7395
Also in this group reported as seeking work are those persons barred from cer-
tification by law because they are aliens or because they are members of commu-
nistic or nazi organizations. There are persons not eligible for Work Projects
Administration employment included who are members of families in which another
person is employed, receiving adequate income to support the group, or who
have other means of support such as pensions, personal investments or compensa-
tion benefits. Finally there are large numbers of persons who have obtained
employment in the vast industrial expansion which has occurred since March
1940. " All of these different groups account for part of the 295,368 persons
reported in the census of 1940 as seeking work and as employed on public-work
programs, so that as of September 1, 1941, a combined estimate of the relief and
Work Projects Administration organizations in the State set 59,500 as the total
number of needy families in Michigan having an employable member.
WORK PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION LAY-OFFS- — 18-MONTH CONTINOXJ.S EMPLOYMENT
DISCHARGES
The reasons for Work Projects Administration discharges of project workers
classified bv whether these lay-offs are voluntary or involunary on the part of the
workers affected is indicated by table V. The principal factors involved in the
involuntarv lay-offs are the restriction due to financial limitations and as indi-
cated by table' V the mandatory discharges due to 18 months continuous Work
Projects Administration employment as required by law. Since the 18-month
Work Projects Administration employment limit was apparently invoked to
urge project workers to seek private employment, it is significant that the number
of recertifications for these discharged workers is very high.
Table N.~ Stale total terminations from project employment by total, involuntary
and voluntary terminations, Michigan Work Projects Administration, January
1939 to June 1941
Total ter-
minations
Involuntary terminations
Total
Bylaw, 18
montlis con-
tinuous em-
ployment
Voluntary
terminations
1939
10, 041
10,412
11.332
1,5. 177
10. 655
6.889
17.010
32, 564
14, 923
12, 998
12, 488
10,564
10, 303
9.914
10, 149
13, 713
11,813
18, 661
6,313
7,404
8,133
7, 324
6,725
6,927
6,133
7,094
8,732
12, 004
10,228
12, 031
3,546
5,518
4,016
7,591
4,605
1,761
10,317
27. 404
6,723
5,343
7,160
6,897
6,886
7,272
6,823
9, 168
6,837
15, 408
3,418
4,077
4,127
2,534
3,316
3,472
2.915
3,436
4,473
5,754
3.948
7,599
6, 495
4,894
7,316
7,586
6.050
5,128
July -_-
6.300
21,483
5,573
3, 044
5,020
3,181
1,439
3.495
2,543
1,660
1,165
341
200
1,012
1,382
428
332
732
468
318
2,086
3,980
2,430
1,019
6,693
August - -
5,160
8,200
7,655
6,328
3,667
mo
3.417
2,642
3, 326
April - - -
4,545
May . - ^
4,976
3,253
July
2,895
August - -
3,327
4,006
October - - -
4.790
3,409
3.455
1941
January -- ------
3,218
3,658
4,259
6,250
6,280
June . - - - - - -
4,432
7396 DETROIT HEARINGS
The most obvious conclusion that can be drawn is that most of these workers
discharged on account of 18 months continuous employment on Work Projects
Administration projects have difficulty securing private jobs because they cannot
meet employer qualifications.
During the period from December 1, 1939, through June 30, 1941, a total of
28,211 workers were discharged because of 18 months continuous Work Projects
Administration employment. During a similar period beginning 1 month later,
because at least 1 montli must elapse before these discharged workers become eligi-
ble for recertification, 24,218 workers were recertified for Work Projects Adminis-
tration employment after previous termination of such employment under the
18 month ruling. On this basis, of the 28,211 workers discharged after 18 months
continuous employment, SG percent of this number were recertified during a simi-
lar period occurring 1 month later.
Voluntary lay-offs consisted principally of workers leaving the Work Projects
Administration program for private employment.
ECONOMIC ^REAS IN MICHIGAN
Michigan can be divided into four economic areas each having certain clearly
recognizable problems. These areas are (1) the Upper Peninsula, (2) the northern
cut-over area, (3) the southern agricultural and industrial area, and (4) Wayne
County.
Economic activity in the Upper Peninsula is based chiefly upon mining (iron and
copper), agriculture, lumbering, and the tourist trade. Agriculture is on a low
level consisting chiefly of small marginal farmers. The lumbering industry has
been steadily declining for several years since it is now unable to compete success-
fully with the production of western lumbering areas. Each year thousands of
tourists visit the Upper Peninsula and this trade forms the basis of an extensive
resort industry. However, since activity is limited to a few months a year, as an
employment factor the effect of this industry is limited. Mining has been and is
today the major industry. It consists chiefly of iron mining. The copper in-
dustry, already weak, has further declined as the price of copper has been de-
pressed. The competition of the western low cost open pit mines cannot be met.
This area has for years been economically depressed and a major relief problem.
The northern Lower Peninsula is the cut-over lumbering area of the State.
Since it has been impoverished by the lumbering industry, there has been little
economic improvement in this area. Because of poor land it is generally unsuited
for farming except for limited areas suitable for the cultivation of fruits. This
region consists of northern counties in the lower peninsula. A relatively large
percentage of the population requires public assistance since there is very little
industrial or agricultural activity.
The southern Lower Peninsula is economically well situated. It consists of
large areas of rich farm lands, wealthy industrial centers, and areas where indus-
trial and agricultural activities are combined. Large industrial concentrations are
found in Lansing, Pontiac, Jackson, Bay City, Saginaw, Flint, Grand Rapids,
Muskegon, Kalamazoo, and Battle Creek. In comparison with its population,
this area has the smallest percentage of relief recipients and Work Projects Ad-
ministration employees.
Wayne County is one of the largest industrial centers in the world. Its fortunes
are closely related to the condition of the large industries located there. Relief
problems are inseparable from the extent of industrial activity.
In table VI is given an analysis of the relief and Work Projects Administration
load as of July 30, 1941, in relation to the total population for the areas mentioned
and for each county under the areas. The Upper Peninsula and the northern
cut-over area have only 13 percent of the population but account for 25 percent
of the relief load and 29 percent of the Work Projects Administration employment
load. While although 87 percent of the total pojoulation is concentrated in south-
ern Michigan (including Wayne County), this area has a relatively smaller relief
and Work Projects Administration load with 75 percent of the State relief load
and 71 percent of the State Work Projects Administration load.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7397
Table VI. — Comparison of cases on direct relief, Work Projects Administration
employment and persons available for assignment by county under economic areas,
Michigan Work Projects Administration, July 30, 1941
Number of persons
Ratio to State total
Direct
relief
Work
Projects
Adminis-
tration
employ-
ment
Awaiting
assign-
ment
Popu-
lation,
1940 census
Direct
relief
Work
Projects
Adminis-
tration
employ-
ment
Awaiting
assign-
ment
Popula-
tion, 1940
census
Upper Peninsula..
Northern area
Southern area
Wayne County
4,302
2,985
9,529
12, 257
6,937
2,449
10, 769
11, W7
38
2,468
1,219
3,875
4,394
323, 544
360, 325
2, 556, 614
2, 015, 623
14.80
10.27
32.77
42.16
21.57
7.61
33.49
37.21
.12
20.64
10.21
32.40
36.75
6.15
6.86
48.64
38.35
State total...
29, 073
32, 160
11,956
5, 256, 106
100. 00
100. 00
100. 00
100. 00
A. UPPER PENINSULA
Alger
99
112
58
10, 167
0.34
0.35
0.49
0.19
Baraga
179
234
55
9, 356
.62
.73
.46
.18
Chippewa .
54
279
159
27, 807
.19
.87
1.33
.53
Delta..
602
689
251
34, 037
2.07
2.14
2.10
.65
Dickinson. .. -..
253
848
1,054
891
465
313
28. 731
31,797
.87
2.92
3.28
2.77
3.89
2.62
.55
Gogebic
.60
Houghton
832
1,364
426
47, 631
2.86
4.24
3.56
.91
Iron .
375
655
199
20, 243
1.29
2.04
1.66
.38
Keweenaw
106
246
36
4,004
.36
.76
.30
.07
Luce
198
10
38
7,423
.34
.03
.32
.14
Mackinac. ..
1 146
202
140
■526
28
194
9,438
47, 144
.50
.69
.43
1.64
.23
1.62
.18
Marquette..
.90
Menominee
167
461
132
24, 883
.57
1.43
1.11
.47
Ontonagon
217
122
84
11,359
.75
.38
.70
.22
Schoolcraft
124
154
30
9,524
.43
.48
.25
.18
B. NORTHERN CUT-OVER AREA
Alcona . ..
33
136
100
24
160
129
129
88
47
81
41
85
15
44
167
258
142
177
142
73
101
42
214
82
49
54
57
60
150
54
151
35
227
67
65
87
98
116
36
71
168
50
127
71
108
68
60
50
129
149
70
60
11
87
64
52
31
11
45
56
10
170
34
25
16
37
27
33
149
20
1
49
56
70
4
34
20
65
12
39
54
35
16
50
37
20
126
8
39
5
49
18
71
5,463
20, 766
10, 964
9,233
7,800
13,031
13, 644
9, 163
3, 765
15, 791
9,385
23, 390
8,560
25, 982
5, 159
4,798
8,436
18,450
19, 378
16, 902
8,034
3,840
19, 286
14,812
8,720
13, 309
2,543
5,827
12, 250
3,668
17, 976
0.11
.47
.34
.08
.55
.44
.44
.30
.16
.28
.14
.29
.05
.15
.23
.89
.49
.61
.49
.25
.35
.14
,74
.28
.17
.19
.20
.21
.52
.19
.52
0.11
.71
.21
.20
.27
.30
.36
.11
.22
.52
.16
.39
.22
.34
.21
.19
.16
.40
.46
.22
.19
.03
.27
.20
.16
.10
.03
.14
.17
.03
.53
0.29
.21
.13
.31
.23
.28
1.25
.17
.01
.41
.47
.59
.03
.28
.17
.54
.10
.33
.45
.29
.13
.42
.31
.17
1.05
.07
.33
.04
.41
.15
.59
0.10
.40
Antrim
.21
Arenac
.18
Benzie
.15
Charlevoix
Cheboygan
Clare
.25
.26
.18
Crawford
Emmet
Gladwin ..
.07
.30
.18
Grand Traverse...
.45
.16
Isabella.
.49
Kalkaska
.10
Lake ...
.09
Leelanau .
.16
,35
.37
Mecosta
.32
.15
Montmorency
Newavgo
.07
.37
.28
Ogemaw
.17
Osceola
.25
Oscoda...
.05
Otsego . --
.11
Presque Isle
Rescommon.
Wexford
.23
.07
.34
' Estimated.
7398
DETROIT HEARINGS
Table VI. — Comparison of cases on di.ect relief. Work Projects Administration
employment and persons available for assignment by county under economic areas,
Michigan Work Projects Administration, July 30, 1941- — Continued
C. SOUTHERN INDUSTRIAL AND AGRICULTURAL AREA
Allegan
Barry
Bay
Berrien
Branch
Calhoun
Cass
Clinton
Eaton
Genesee
Gratiot
Hillsdale
Huron.
Ingham
Ionia_.-
Jackson
Kalamazoo..
Kent..-
Lapeer
Lenawee
Livingston..
Macomb
Midland
Monroe
Montcalm...
Muskegon...
Oakland
Ottawa
Saginaw
St. Clair
St. Joseph...
Sanilac
Shiawassee..
Tuscola
Van Buren..
Washtenaw -
Number of persons
Ratio to State total
Direct
relief
189
155
193
257
143
217
69
87
99
542
140
115
71
671
198
325
455
1,210
204
242
109
163
35
400
106
518
538
265
372
415
1129
128
186
195
312
176
Work
Projects
Adminis-
Awaiting
tration
assign-
employ-
ment
55
60
102
8
518
53
277
117
48
15
751
53
100
8
66
2
96
18
1,275
837
180
7
63
29
20
102
998
163
140
56
643
274
376
90
1,573
451
79
8
105
25
18
2
236
141
7
51
200
49
69
43
692
247
450
459
92
44
700
181
192
124
48
14
20
24
175
17
49
4
77
46
279
53
Popu-
lation,
1940 census
41, 839
22, 613
74, 981
89, 117
25, 845
94, 206
21,910
26, 671
34, 124
227, 944
32, 205
29, 092
32, 584
130, 616
35,710
93, 108
100, 085
246, 338
32, 116
53, 110
20, 863
107, 638
27, 094
58, 620
28, 581
94, 501
254, 068
59, 660
130, 468
76, 222
31, 749
30, 114
41,207
35, 694
35, 111
80, 810
Direct
relief
0.65
.53
.66
.88
.49
.75
.24
.30
.34
1.86
.48
.40
.24
2.31
.68
1.12
1.57
4.16
.70
.83
.37
..56
.12
1.38
.37
1.78
1.85
.91
1.28
1.43
.44
.44
.64
.33
1.07
.61
Work
Projects
Adminis-
tration
employ-
ment ,
0.17
.32
1.61
.86
.15
2.34
.31
.21
.30
3.96
.56
.20
.06
3.10
.44
2.00
1.17
4.89
.25
.33
.06
.73
.02
.62
.21
2.15
1.40
.28
2.18
.60
.15
.06
.54
.15
.24
.87
Awaiting
assign-
ment
0.50
.07
.44
.98
.13
.44
.07
.02
.15
7.00
.06
.24
.85
1.36
.47
2.29
.75
3.77
.07
.21
.02
1.18
.43
.41
.36
2.06
3.84
.37
1.51
1.04
.12
.20
.14
.03
.38
.44
Popula-
tion, 1940
census
0.80
.43
1.43
1.70
.49
1.79
.42
.51
.65
4.34
.61
.55
.62
2.48
.68
.1.77
1.90
4.69
.61
1.01
.40
2.05
.52
1.12
.53
1.80
4.83
1.14
2.48
1.45
.60
.57
.78
.68
.67
1.54
D. WAYNE COUNTY
Wayne.
12, 257
11,967
4,394
2, 015, 623
42.16
37.21
36.75
38.35
1 Estimated.
METHOD OF ALLOCATING WORK PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION FUNDS BETWEEN AREAS
The four administrative districts of Work Projects Administration in Michigan
do not parallel the economic areas in entirety. District 1 is the Upper Peninsula.
Districts 2 and 3 divide the Lower Peninsula east and west, and thus each include
half of both the northern cut-over area and the southern agricultural and industrial
area. District 4 is Wayne County. As a result State allocation of the employ-
ment quota is based upon administrative districts rather than upon the economic
areas just described.
This distribution to districts is made on the basis of the proportion of the dis-
trict's total Work Projects Administration load, employed and awaiting assign-
ment, to the total State load. From this direct proportion distribution, a slight
adjustment is made according to the chance for employment in the area.
In each district office the same allocation of quota is made to the individual
counties. In general the division is in accordance with the proportion of the load
in each county; however, several incidental factors force variance from this simple
rule. Since persons returning from private employment within certain set periods
are eligible for mandatory reinstatement on project employment, the number of
such returns in a given area necessarily affects the quota. Other factors such as
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7399
available projects and projects of a defense nature having priority either lower or
raise the quota in a given county by their absence or existence within the county.
WORK PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION WORKERS AND LOCAL LABOR REQUIREMENTS
The Work Projects Administration program since its beginning has been con-
cerned with the problems of readjusting the project employees into the economic
life of their communities. The problems incident to the reemployment of Work
Projects Administration workers in private industry have been many. Through-
out the depression years there have been large numbers of unemployed workers
seeking work and a very limited demand for labor with the obvious result that
only the best-qualified workers were able to secure employment. Work Projects
Administration workers, while in most cases fully employable, have faced many
difficulties in finding jobs. The largest number were unskilled laborers or had
skills in occupations no longer in demand. Applicants for industrial jobs were
faced by age limits as low as 30 years; Negroes faced discrimination on the basis of
color; women found that onlv a few fields of employment were open to them; in
certain localities workers found that employers were prejudiced against workers
having had Work Projects Administration work experience.
While these factors have greater weight during periods of extensive unemploy-
ment, there is evidence that even under our present expanded economic program
these factors affect the employment opportunities of Work Projects Administra-
tion workers. From reports received during the first of September from local
Work Projects Administration ofl^ices it is evident that while shortages do exist
in industrial areas for some highly skilled workers, there is an abundance of semi-
skilled and unskilled labor. In Oakland County, for example, local sources indi-
cate that even at peak employment for the current year (March) when 24,000
workers were employed in the 1 1 largest Pontiac shops alone, there was a surplus
of unskilled labor. In Grand Rapids with an all-time high in employment levels,
the Michigan State Employment Service has, as of September I, 1941, 8,100
available workers on file. 'Of this group 1,486 are skilled, 2,071 semiskilled,
and the remainder unskilled. During 1937, a comparable year in many respects
because of high industrial activity, there were 195,533 workers totally unem-
ploved in the State plus 54,176 workers employed on emergency work (Work
Projects Administration, Civilian Conservation Corps, National Youth Adminis-
tration) , according to the United States Unemployment Census of that year.
WORK PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION WORKERS EMPLOYMENT QUALIFICATIONS
An analvsis of the qualifications of Work Projects Administration employees
employed and available for assignment as of August 27, 1941, indicates the present
status of Work Projects Administration workers compared to the qualifications of
all unemployed workers in 1937. The distribution by age of Work Projects Admin-
istration workers is especially revealing (tables VII and VIII). By far the largest
majority (81 percent) are 35 years old or older. In 1937, of all unemployed workers
onlv 46 percent fell into the group. Comparison of age levels of Work Projects
Administration workers in the economically poor Upper Peninsula and industrial
Wayne County indicate that Wayne County Work Projects Administration work-
ers are somewhat older (80 percent over 34 years old) than workers in the Upper
Peninsula (74 percent over 34 years old). While at the present time age require-
ments are undoubtedly being relaxed, there is abundant evidence that restrictions
still exist especially in regard to the hiring of unskilled workers in large industrial
centers.
The changing characteristics of the age factor in the Work Projects Adminis-
tration load is evident. In 1937 of all persons employed on public emergency
projects (principally Work Projects Administration project employment) 62 per-
cent were 35 years old or older but in August 1941 Work Projects Administration
workers were considerably older — 81 percent were over 34 years old.
Manv illustrations of the effect of the factor of age on reemployment could be
given. 'The following are representative. The local Work Projects Administra-
tion oflSce in Flint reports that although there is no definite age limit set, particu-
larly in relation to skills, in practice inexperienced men above 35 have a difficult
time in securing factory work. Hiring specifications at one Bay City industry are
reported as including:' Age limit to 31; weight about 150 pounds; eighth grade
education; physical examination required; experience not required. A Jackson
company recently requested the local Michigan State Employment Service
refer to them 60 laborers to work as dock hands. The men were to be about 6
feet tall, weighing about 165 pounds, and between the ages of 21 to 35.
7400 DETROIT HEARINGS
DISCRIMINATION AGAINST EMPLOYMENT OF NEGROES
Negroes also present reemployment problems. Twenty-two percent of the
current Work Projects Administration load are Negroes as compared to the ratio
of 12 percent Negroes to the total unemployed workers in 1937. The difficulty
of these Negro workers becomes more pointed by evidence received from various
areas throughout the State where Negro families are concentrated. The Detroit
Urban League states that a survey of 384 plants in Wayne County, of which 80
percent were engaged in defense orders, revealed that 273 employed no Negroes
and 71 stated they had no intention of hiring any. Negroes who completed
defense vocational education classes in Detroit were told that no Negroes would
be hired in two of the largest automobile factories. About 20 years ago, a Port
Huron foundry imported several hundred Mexican and Negro families. The
foundry no longer operates and other industry has been unwilling to absorb these
workers, leaving them a "stranded population" in the South Park section of Port
Huron. Opportunities for colored workers has been largely limited to difficult
or menial labor such as foundry work, domestic service, road and street work,
gasoline station attendance, and hotel work.
FEMALE WORK PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION WORKERS
The 9,390 female workers employed or awaiting assignment to Work Projects
Administration projects also present a placement problem, since they constitute
23 percent of the total State Work Projects Administration load. When, in
July, the Work Projects Administration was forced to reduce employment levels
to meet available funds a reduction was made on the Wayne County sewing
project. Very strenuous objections were made and a Detroit newspaper dis-
cussed the lay-off under the headline, "A Future Brimful of Nothing — Work Proj-
ects Administration snuffs the light in lives of 1,375 unwanted old women."
Tables VII and VIII indicate the age, sex, and color distribution of assigned
and unassigned persons certified to Work Projects Administration in Michigan
as of August 27, 1941. Similar data for all unemployed workers as tabulated in
the 1937 unemployment census is included to show the status of Work Projects
Administration employees compared to similar distribution in total unemploy-
ment in Michigan.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7401
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DETROIT HEARINGS
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NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7403
SKILLS OF WORK PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION WORKERS
Since worker's skills play an important part in the reemployment program and
there is now developing shortages in certain skilled trades, the composition of
the present Work Projects Administration load in respect to this factor is of
interest. A break-down of skills of Work Projects Administration workers, as-
signed and unassigned, as of August 27, 1941, was made and is presented in table
IX. This break-down indicates the large percentage of 45 percent of the workers
in the unskilled class. The next largest grouping is the production workers with
29 percent of the total, white-collar workers with 17 percent and service workers
with 9 percent make up the remainder. It is immediately apparent that as far
as present labor shortages are concerned, very few Work Projects Administration
workers could qualify for positions. The only group that can be considered to
have a relation to defense production labor needs is the production group. Yet
65 percent of this group are classified as construction laborers and a percentage
of the remainder have skills not considered essential to defense production.
Ti*BLE IX. — Total Work Projects AdministroAion certified load classified according
to skills, Michigan Work Projects Administration, August 1941
Total
Project
employees
Available
for
assignment
37, 390
31, 574
5,816
Total skilled and semiskilled -
20,492
16, 898
16,918
14, 656
3,574
Total unskilled -
2,242
White-collar total -- - -
6,505
5,337
1,168
1,406
3,266
1,833
1,194
2,604
1,539
212
662
Other -- -
294
10,976
9,271
1.705
Construction --
7,184
3,792
6,754
2,517
430
Other -
1,275
3,011
2,310
701
WORK PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION PARTICIPATION IN THE DEFENSE VOCATIONAL
TRAINING PROGRAM
Since July 1940 the Work Projects Administration, in cooperation with other
pubhc agencies, has maintained from two to three thousand Work Projects Ad-
ministration workers in courses offered by the national defense vocational training
program. The purpose of this program has been to provide, through schools and
local industries, training and refresher courses in skills essential to the production
of defense materials.
In selecting suitable candidates for this training, all Work Projects Administra-
tion workers currently employed or available for assignment were interviewed.
Workers who by interest and previous experience were likely to be benefited by
training and those already having skills in occupations related to defense indus-
tries were classified by experience in a defense industries register file. From this
file assignments to various training courses and referrals to available industrial
jobs are made as openings develop. Table X indicates, by industrial occupational
groups the composition of this file on July 16, 1941. On this date there were
12,420 persons believed to possess defense skills or to be eligible for vocational
training. This number represents 26 percent of the total number of workers em-
ployed and available for assignment of 47,052 as of that date and indicates the
relationship of present skills of Work Projects Administration workers to defense
labor needs. A number of the workers considered eligible for training, a certain
number are later disqualified after assignment to a training course is made.
(See tables XI, XII, XIII.)
7404
DETROIT HEARINGS
Table X. — Number of persons included in the defense industries register file cpialified
for employment in defense industries according to iridustrial occupational classifi-
cation, Michigan Work Projects Administration as of July 16, 1941
Industrial occupational group
Number of persons
State
total
Upper
Peninsula
Wayne
County
Total all groups - -..
1. Aircraft manufacturing and transportation occupations
2. Any industry occupations
3. Automobile manufacturing occupations
4. Automobile service occupations
5. Boiler-making occupations
6. Chemical and explosives occupations
7. Clock, watch, and optical goods occupations
8. Construction occupations
9. Electrical equipment occupations
10. Firearms occupations
11. Forging occupations
12. Foundry occupations
13. Garment occupations
14. Glass manufacturing occupations
15. Heat treatment occupations
16. Iron and steel occupations
17. Light, heat, and power occupations
18. Locomotive, car building and repairing occupations
19. Machine shop occupations
20. Miscellaneous industries occupations
21. Professional and kindred occupations
22. Radio manufacturing occupations
23. Sheet metal occupations
24. Ship and boat building and repairing occupations.
25. Telephone and telegraph occupations
26. Textile manufacturing occupations
27. Woodworking occupations
12, 420
19
2,711
1,034
390
22
2
4
1,520
15
4
317
1,249
71
7
116
44
19
24
1,752
2,483
122
7
108
31
16
8
325
1,591
1
315
53
185
5
0
1
420
4
2
96
37
0
0
2
2
198
5
48
0
33
5
1
0
161
7,682
12
1,369
749
110
7
1
2
588
10
2
105
978
70
7
90
41
4
14
921
2,467
49
4
30
8
4
1
39
Table XI. — All trainees who have been employed by the Work Projects Administra-
tion on the national defense vocational training project, by employment status,
course completion, and by race. State total, Michigan Work Projects Administra-
tion, Aug. 27, 1941
Employment status
Total
Course
com-
pleted
Course
not
com-
pleted
White
Negro
Other
49
9
Total
Employed on national defense vocational training
project - -
Separated from national defense vocational training
project because found unsuited for training
Known to have obtained private or public employ-
ment
Left Work Projects Administration for unknown rea-
son and not reemployed on any Work Projects Ad-
ministration-financed project
Other trainees employed on Work projects Adminis-
tration-financed projects
Other trainees not employed on any Work Projects
Administration-financed project
11.537
4,775
6,762
9,536
1,952
1,912
829
4,748
1,261
1,851
936
0
0
1.861
721
1,675
518
1,912 1,577
I
618
829
2,887
640
176
418
4,241
993
1,385
722
326
204
491
266
456
209
NATIONAI. DEFENSE MIGRATION
7405
Table XII. — All trainees who have been employed by the Work Projects Adminis-
tration on the national defense vocational training project, by employment status,
course completion, and by race, Upper Peninsula, Michigan Work Projects Ad-
ministration, Aug. 27, 1941
Employment status
Total
Employed on national defense vocational training
project
Separated from national defense vocational training
project because found unsuited for training
Known to have obtained private or public employ-
ment
Left Work Projects Administration for unknown rea-
son and not reemployed on any Work Projects Ad-
ministration financed project
Other trainees emjiloyed on Work Projects Adminis-
tration financed projects
Other trainees not employed on any Work Projects Ad-
ministration financed project
Total
182
59
304
30
195
42
Course
com-
pleted
0
0
261
17
155
25
Course
not
com-
pleted
182
59
43
13
40
17
White
812
182
59
304
30
195
42
Negro
Other
Table 'KIIl.^All trainees ivho have been employed by the Work Projects Adminis-
tration on the national-defense vocational-training project, by employment status,
course completion, and by race, Wayne County, Mich. Work Projects Adminis-
tration, Aug. 27, 1941
Employment status
Total
Course
com-
pleted
Course
not
com-
pleted
White
Negro
Other
Total
Employed on national-defense vocational-training
project
Separated from national-defense vocational-training
project because found unsuited for training
Known to have obtained private or public employment
Left Work Projects Administration for unknown rea-
son and not reemployed on any Work Projects Ad-
ministration financed project
Other trainees employed on Work Projects Adminis-
tration financed projects
Other trainees not employed on any Work Projects
Administration financed project.
7,383
3,359
4,024
5,557
1,787
1,144
532
2,680
1,033
1,339
655
1,121
613
1,260
365
1,144
532
1,559
420
79
290
852
339
2,228
466
284
187
440
254
437
185
The vocational training program has met with considerable success since there
has been a general recognition on the part of employers of the need for such a
program. A large number of trainees have secured work both before their course
had been completed and immediately afterward. Tables XI, XII, XIII report the
activity of the training program as it involves Work Projects Administration work-
ers. Data cumulative to August 27, 1941, are given for Wayne County, the
Upper Peninsula, and for the State. Out of the total number of Michigan Work
Projects Administration workers given training 41 percent were known to have
secured private employment and 1,261 workers, some of whom undoubtedly se-
cured employment, left Work Projects Administration for an unknown reason but
were not reemployed on any Work Projects Administration-financed project.
The percentage of workers securing private employment in the Upper Peninsula
(37 percent) and Wayne County (36 percent) were about the same. Only white
workers were given training in the Upper Peninsula since the Negro population is
very small. In Wayne County 1,787 or 24 percent of the total number of trainees
were Negroes.
In Work Projects Administration district 3 (eastern half of Michigan excluding
Wayne County) data are available indicating occupations at which former trainees,
known to be in private employment, are now working. Out of a total of 946
workers known to have obtained private employment 75 are working in foundries,
y^Qg DETROIT HEAltlNGS
.504 in machine shops and 217 in other industries. Table XIV indicates this dis-
tribution and makes a further break-down bj- type of work obtained by former
trainees.
Table XIV. — Occupalions of present employment former trainees known to be in
private employment national defense vocational training project district III, Mich-
igan Work Projects Administration, Augjist 1941
MACHINE SHOP — Continued
Electrician's helper 1
Inspectors 24
Pattern makers 1
Total 504
OTHER
Welding 37
Drafting 4
Blue-print reader 1
Mechanic 16
Menchanic's helper 1
Plant protection 1
Carpenter 4
Plasterer 1
Plasterer's helper 1
Sheet metal work 34
Sheet metal worker's helper 2
Truck driver 22
Boat pilot 1
Body bumper and painter 1
Painter 7
Lather 1
Salesman 6
Taxi driver 2
Sweeper 5
Watchman 1
Janitor 8
Porter 2
Clerical - 8
Timekeeper 1
Farm hand 2
Station attendant 2
Prison guard 1
Teacher (auto mechanics) 1
Cook 1
Section hand 1
Laborer (miscellaneous) 30
Laborer, construction 12
Core maker 5
Moulding 34
Chipper 2
Furnace helper 1
Heat treat 3
Shake-out 1
Stemmer 1
General foundry work 27
Foundry helper 1
Total 7.5
MACHINE SHOP
Machine operators 240
Grinder 30
Milling machine 9
Lathe 46
Drill press 12
Profile operator 3
Bullard operator 1
Machinist 29
Millwright 5
Production line assembler 26
Bench work 4
Tool maker's apprentice 3
Punch press operator 5
Shape operator 2
Automatic operator 1
Gear cutter 1
Factory laborer 21
Parts and service 2
Trimmer 1
Die maker 1
Saw operator 2
Burrer 4
Machine repair 2
Riveter 2
Tool crib attendant 1
Stock work 10
Maintenance 11
Electrical 4
Total 217
REQUESTS TO WORK PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION OFFICES TO SUPPLY LABOR
In their efforts to place Work Projects Administration workers in private
employment there is a close working relationship between the Work Projects
Administration and the Michigan State Employment Service, the principal
employment agencv in the State. While the practice varies somewhat bet\yeen
different areas in the State, the general procedure is very similar. The Michigan
State Employment Service notifies the Work Projects Administration occupa-
tional classifier of available work opportunities in the locality. The occupational
classifier interviews Work Projects Administration workers that meet the general
qualifications required and refer these workers to the Michigan State Employ-
ment Service for placement. There has been little difficulty in getting Work
Projects Administration workers to accept other employment. This procedure is
used extensive! V, and in Macomb County alone it is estimated that about 160
certified Work Projects Administration workers were placed in this manner. In
Lansing and vicinitv, with the cooperation of the Lansing Michigan State Employ-
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7407
ment Service office, several hundred placements of Work Projects Administration
workers in Lansing industry and Ingham County farm work were made. Each
year in the spring Work Projects Administration workers who have had farm
experience are suspended from their Work Projects Administration jobs in
areas where there is known to be a need for farm labor until the need for seasonal
farm labor is over.
Whether employment requests are received through the Employment Service
or directly by prospective employers, referrals are immediately made and followed
up. Appropriate action is taken where necessary to make certain that suitable
employment is accepted when available.
MIGRATORY LABOR IN MICHIGAN
The problems incident to migratory labor has affected, to various degrees, certain
communities in Michigan for several years. Elach year thousands of out-of-
State migrant fruit workers work in the orchards and small fruit fields of western
Michigan. Throughout the same region but extending into the Upper Peninsula
and northern lower peninsula are the State resort centers. The need of additional
workers in these areas draw many hundreds of both Michigan and out-of-State
workers. Migratory beet and onion workers are imported each season to tend
onion and sugar-beet fields. Annual migration of the lumberjack, sailor, and
casual job seekers have occurred for many years. These jjroblems still exist
within the State and have an effect on employment levels of the communities in
which they are found. The Work Projects Administration program in Michigan
has had little direct contact with these migrants since most of them leave for other
jobs when their work in Michigan is finis,hed and consequently only occasionally
arise as an unemployment problem.
Indirectly, however, this infiltration of workers affects Work Projects Adminis-
tration needs. To the extent to which they obtain jobs which would otherwise
have been filled by local unemployed workers, Work Projects Administration
employment levels are affected. Conversely it is undoubtedly true that the Work
Projects Administration program has its effect on the migratory-labor problem.
Workers leave their home communities and migrate when no hope remains
for local employment and rumors of work in other localities give the workers
the incentive to move. To the extent that the Work Projects Administration
offers employment or the prospect of employment to local workers, aimless job
seeking is minimized.
With the impact of change-over to defense activity, indications point to tem-
porary unemployment, changing labor needs within and between localities,
changing relief needs, and considerable shifts in population into and within the
State. The following paragraphs will be concerned with these trends and their
relation to the Michigan Work Projects Administration program.
EFFECT OF THE DEFENSE PROGRAM UPON INDUSTRIES AND EMPLOYMENT
The process of gearing industry to the production of material of war has import-
ant economic implications. During the past few months it has become increas-
ingly clear that this production cannot be superimposed upon our present industrial
processes. From information secured in the various communities in Michigan,
during the first week of September, it becomes apparent that because of shortages
of materials, industrial capacities and skilled workers, it is necessary to curtail
normal production of nonessentials so that the necessary war materials can be
produced. It is also apparent that although industrial communities are immedi-
ately affected, important changes are occurring in all communities throughout the
State. Since the situation is rapidly changing and many undeterminate factors
are involved, only very general conclusions can be drawn and these are subject to
clianges that are occurring daily.
INDUSTRIAL EMPLOYMENT LAY-OFFS DUE TO PRIORITIES AND SHORTAGES
The Michigan State Employment Service offices during August made a pre-
liminary survey of the effect of production quotas and material priorities on em-
l)loyment in five predominantly industrial areas: Saginaw, Flint, Muskegon, Baj'
City and Midland, and Pontiac. Data were obtained from field contacts with
industries representing a major portion of the total employment for each area.
Since employment in the automotive plants is now at a seasonably low level, em-
ployment on May 31, 1941, is used as a base from which the effect of the defense
program on employment trends may be measured. The following data are ob-
tained from these studies. Largely because of the contemplated 50-pcrcent reduc-
60396— 41— pt. 18 23
7408 DETROIT HEARINGS
tion in automobile production evidence pointed to extensive curtailments in em-
ployment in these areas. With a 40-hour-week schedule in January 1942, and
assuming a 50-percent reduction in passenger-car output, it is estimated that indus-
trial employment in Saginaw would be at least 4,000 below the total on May 31
of this year. The prospective rise in defense employment would permit transfer
and continued employment for a maximum of only 1,800 of the 5,800 workers
that would need to be released. In Bay City and Midland there will probably
be no additional unemployment because of labor shortages during the remaining
months of the year. While a few plants have experienced shortages and expect
future curtailments, most of the displaced workers will be absorbed in defense
production. In Muskegon it is expected that nondefense employment will de-
crease by 1,000 between August and the end of November. Defense employment
is expected to absorb half of the number. After November, due to automobile
curtailment, it is expected that more serious dislocations will occur. In Flint,
it was estimated that the net increase in defense employment from May to Novem-
ber will provide jobs for less than 2,300 of nearly 10,400 expected dismissals of
automotive employees.
The areas included in these studies are principally concerned with auto manu-
facturing and indications are that in these areas there will be a serious lag between
the absorption of released automotive emploj^ees into defense-material production.
Although as yet there were only scattered instances in these studies of curtail-
ments due to material shortages,, it is expected that this factor will affect produc-
tion in the near future. One obvious difficulty mentioned was the problems
incident to the absorption of auto workers in defense production because of the
specialized skills required in defense plants.
EFFECT OF CURTAILMENT IN AUTOMOBILE PRODUCTION IN DETROIT
In Detroit there is a fear of a depression in the midst of prosperity. All public
and private agencies concerned with this curtailment expect that unemployment
will occur with only limited immediate prospects for reemployment of dismissed
employees into defense production. Although the Office of Production Manage-
ment has ordered an average net cut of 26}^ percent in new-car production to
November 30, 1941, because of the apportionment formula the cut does not apply
equally to all manufacturers. In its varying application lies evidence of a 50
percent cut for the entire year. Material shortages complicate the problem i^ince
current shortages are reported for aluminum, steel, nickel, copper, tungsten,
vanadium, rubber, and other commodities basic to automobile production and
there is no evidence that the material supply situa ion is improving. Supplies
are considered adequate for the next 8 weeks but after that reductions and lay-
offs in the automobile industry alone is expected to total 60,300 in January.
Various estimates place total unemployment from 90,000 to 200,000 men. The
effect of increased defense employment cannot as yet be estimated, but it is gen-
erally agreed that national-defense production will not absorb the automobile
workers in Detroit for some time to come.
THE EFFECT OF PRIORITIES CONTROL AND SHORTAGES IN OTHER POINTS OF THE
STATE
The effect of priorities control and material shortages is not limited to the highly
industrial areas already mentioned. There is abundant evidence that these
economic controls affect communities in many areas in the State. Although
manufacturing is limited in the Upper Peninsula, one factory employing approxi-
mately 1,000 men will be required to reduce its labor force in the near future
because of a shortage of steel. It has made an appeal to local residents to label
all scrap sold by them "Forsale to the Manufacturing Co." However, there
are indications that industries providing raw material^mining and lumbering —
have increased their production due to present need for these products.
In southern Michigan the effect of curtailments have been generally felt. A
metal shortage at the Owosso Metal Co. may affect 2,000 men. The Huron-
Portland Cement Co. of Alpena (called the largest plant of its kind in the world
and normally employing about 650 men), laid off 150 men in the past few weeks
reportedly because large users of cement cannot get reinforcing steel. Difficulty
of obtaining foreign wood pulp was given as the reason for closing an Alpena
paper company employing about 200 men. Two plants iii Jackson County
recently dismissed from 350 to 400 men as a result of material shortage.
Throughout the southwestern part of the State the same situation exists.
Local Work Projects Administration offices submitted reports giving many ex-
amples of curtailment due to shortages. The furniture industry in Grand Rapids,
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7409
which employs from 8,000 to 15,000 workers, expects to have its production
seriously curtailed due to the shortage of ingredients used in the manufacture of
glue. The secretary of the Employers' Association stated, "The furniture makers
tell me if we can get glue we will work, if not we don't know what is apt to happen."
It is estimated that several of the metal trade plants in Grand Rapids may be
closed within 60 days if materials are not forthcoming. The Nash-Kelvinator
Co. which manufactures refrigerators has no defense orders and may find it neces-
sary to curtail production and dismiss some of their 2,000 employees. The
Secretary of the Grand Rapids Employers Association estimates that from five
to six thousand workers may be discharged within the next 90 days because of
automobile production curtailment and material shortages. In Kalamazoo the
Ingersol Steel & Disc Co. has laid off 150 men and expects further lay-offs. Other
Kalamazoo industries are experiencing similar curtailments and at present there
is insufficient defense work in Kalamazoo to absorb men expected to be laid off.
The experience of these industries are typical and indicate that industrial lay-
offs are occurring to an alarming degree and that unless there is a very rapid
adjustment, not yet evident to a large degree, of workers to defense production a
serious economic situation will result,
THE EFFECT OF PRESENT LABOR DISLOCATIONS ON THE WORK PROJECTS ADMINIS-
TRATION PROGRAM
It is clearly evident that there is at present and will be in the immediate future
considerable unemployment resulting from the priority controls and material
shortages discussed in preceding paragraphs. The effect of these reductions upon
the (total certified) load of the Work Projects Administration is not as yet evident
since many variable factors enter into the situation. The most immediate con-
cern as expressed by manufacturers and representatives of public and private
agencies affected by this situation is the probable extent to which defense activity
will alDsorb workers displaced from industries affected by current shortages and
curtailment. It was almost unanimously agreed that from present indications
defense production cannot absorb displaced workers and that at best a period of
unemployment will result from defense change-overs. Apart from this lag in
defense production there is the added difficulty of adjusting displaced workers to
employment in defense activities. Many unemployed workers, especially with
semiskilled production experience, have found that their skills were of no use
in defense material production.
Since most of the workers currently employed or recently discharged are cov-
ered by unemployment compensation, their benefit payments will cover a period
of unemployment up to a 16-week period. Providing that a job is secured during
this period, the unemployed worker will not be in need of Work Projects Admin-
istration employment. This period will in many cases be further extended to the
degree that unemployed workers have independent incomes or other available
resources. If, as appears easily possible, unemployment is of long duration, both
the relief and Work Projects Adininistration agencies will receive increased re-
quests for assistance. There is also a more immediate possibility of increased
Work Projects Administration applications. The Work Projects Administration
workers recently leaving Work Projects Administration for private employment
are, under current certification procedure, entitled to immediate reinstatement to
Work Projects Administration projects at the expiration of their private employ-
ment. Consequently, an increased volume of seasonal applications for reinstate-
ment may occur this fall and early winter if present trends continue.
Relief authorities expect increased relief loads this fall if absorption of unem-
ployed workers does not take place. The Kalamazoo County Board of Social
Welfare expects that there will be a definite increase in its case load after the first
of the year should local factories continue to be affected by priorities and lack of
materials. Berrien County is accumulating a reserve in anticipation of the ' 'largest
relief roll ever" which they expect during the forthcoming winter season. Members
of the Genesee County Board of Social Welfare have no definite prediction to offer
but expect a 50-percent increase in the need for relief and relief work this fall and
winter. Most other county boards of social welfare report that they expect in-
creased need for relief and work relief this fall and winter. Estimates of the
extent of this need vary between localities.
LABOR MOVEMENTS RESULTING FROM PRESENT INDUSTRIAL ACTIVITY
Local Work Projects Administration offices indicated that large numbers of
persons were moving into and away from various areas in the State as a result of
present defense activity. For the purposes of this report this migration of labor
7410 DETROIT HEARINGS
will be discussed in relation to the areas (Upper Peninsula, northern cut-over ariea,
southern industrial and agricultural area, and Wayne County) previously de-
scribed.
DEFENSE MIGRATION IN THE UPPER PENINSULA
As previously indicated, the effect of the defense change-over on industry is a
negligible factor in the Upper Peninsula. Iron mining and the paper pulp con-
cerns have been the principal industries affected. However, industrial gains in
the industrial centers of the Lower Peninsula have had a direct effect upon the
Upper Peninsula labor force. The unavailability of local jobs and low wage levels
are the principal motivating factors for migrations of workers from the Upper
Peninsula to southern industrial centers even though there is no scarcity of labor;
pulp operators in the entire Upper Peninsula have had considerable difficulty in
employing the number of men they need. This is generally considered to be due
to two main factors: Low wages and the consequent reluctance of younger workers
to take employment in these industries; and the unemployability due to age and
physical disabilities of workers formerly employed by these concerns.
An interesting example of industrially inspired migration is afforded by the
activity of a certain transfer line of the Upper Peninsula. Since January 1, 1941,
the company moved 88 families to Detroit and in the course of the next 6 weeks
will move approximately 25 more families to Detroit. This same transfer line has
also moved 40 Houghton and Keweenaw County famihes to Marquette County
where the economic head has obtained employment with a local iron-mining
company. There is every evidence that copper-country workers are preferred
when new employees are sought in the industrial plants of Detroit. This is per-
haps due to two things: The home ties of these workers remain fairly strong and
workeis tend to return to the copper country when their jobs end, and, it is also
said that Upper Peninsula workers are not so susceptible to unionization.
An important feature of the migration of workers from the Upper Peninsula is
their tendency to return immediately after they are discharged. The experience
of the Upper Peninsula Work Projects Administration office definitely indicates
that when the employment situation in down-State industrial areas is good, fam-
ilies migrated to these metropolitan areas; when work is no longer available there,
they return home.
DEFENSE MIGRATION IN THE CUT-OVER AREAS
The cut-over areas of northern Michigan present, in many respects, the same
migratory labor problems. As in the Upper Peninsula this area is economically
depressed and the factor of low wage levels and lack of jobs act as aii incentive
to drive workers into the industrial aieas of the south. The district Work Projects
Administration office, which has jurisdiction over the western part of the State,
reports that while there would be no direct effect of the reduced automobile pro-
duction in the northern cut-over area, the indirect effect would be heavy and
serious. There are thousands of men working in automobile industries who have
their homes in the cut-over area. It has been reported, for example, that 270 men
from Iosco County are employed in one Detroit plant. The Michigan State
Employment Service office in West Branch estimated that 450 men from Ogemaw
County were now working in Bay City, Saginaw, Pontiac, Flint, and Detroit.
When unemployed, these men return home. If unemployment continues, other
families from the shop towns come north for cheaper living arrangements. Thus
an uncompensated drop in auto-factory employment produces a heavy unemployed
load in northern counties.
MIGRATION IN THE SOUTHERN INDUSTRIAL AND AGRICULTURAL AREAS
The counties in southern Michigan are economically very different from those
in the cut-over area and the Upper Peninsula. As indicated in the previous
discussion, migration of workers consist of their immigratir>n into this region
from the economically poor Ui)per Peninsula and cut-over areas of northern
Lower Peninsula. Apart from this movement of workers there is an additional
factor of immigration of out-of-State workers. In Washtenaw County workers
are reported to be coming from Texas and Arkansas .seeking work in the Ford
bomber plant which will not be ready for oj:)eration before next March. Few of
the migrants are being emi)loyed as yet. While this plant will emjjloy, accord-
ing to various rumors, from 20,000 to 80,000 workers, a high percentage of skills
is reported to be needed. An interesting corollary to this situation has developed.
By a .special election the Washtenaw County Board of Supervisors has been au-
thorized to enact a zoning ordinance to govern housing as a protection against
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7411
the establishment of an unhealthy migrant "boom town" community without
proper health and sanitary safeguards.
Shifts of construction workers in this area, a normally transient group, is also
evident because of extensive Government construction at Army training camp
and private construction of new plants for defense production. In Muskegon
County immigration was very heavy during the construction of the defense hous-
ing project. Activity is now limited and many of the workers are returning to
their homes. Partly because of construction activity at Fort Custer, large
numbers of transient job seekers are coming into this area. Some of these work-
ers are from Southern States, others from other parts of Michigan.
THE DETROIT AREA IN RELATION TO THE TRANSIENT JOB SEEKERS
Wayne County has been labeled and advertised as the center of the defense
activity in the 'United States. This publicity, plus the additional incentive
provided by high wage rates, has resulted in the movement of thousands of job
seekers into this area. The extent of the immigration can be measured by a
survey of this problem conducted by the Work Projects Administration, Research
and Records Section, in June 1941. This study indicates that approximately
16,300 families, equal to 1.8 percent of the 1940 population for this area, have
come to this industrial center in search of work. These workers, 96 percent
white, come from the industrial cities in the East and Midwest, from the cut-over
areas of northern Michigan, and from the mountain communities lying south of
the Ohio River. At the time the study was made 10 percent were unemployed,
only one-third occupied separate dwelling units, over one-half lived with other
families, and 10 percent lived in hotels and trailers.
Apparentlv the Wayne County Board of Social Welfare has already felt the
effect of this'transient'problem. The application of nonsettled workers for relief
has increased. The latest figure available was for July. During that month
applications of nonsettled persons totaled 418, including 215 persons who had no
previous work history in Detroit.
From the information submitted from Work Projects Administration offices
throughout the State some present trends of the movements of transient labor are
apparent. Large movements of workers have and are at present evident. These
migrations are away from the economically depressed counties of the Upper
Peninsula and the northern cut-over lumbering areas. The principal reasons for
these movements are the general scarcity of jobs and low wage levels prevalent in
these regions. For apparently the same reasons large numbers of workers have
entered Michigan industrial centers from depressed areas in other States. Cur-
tailments in nondefense production has resulted in movements between industries
in the same locality as well as from other areas. Wage differentials between in-
dustries has resulted in employment shifts to the industries offering higher wages
especially among workers with specialized skills currently in demand.
WORK PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION POLICIES IN RESPECT TO NONSETTLED WORKERS
Responsibility for certifying nonsettled applicants for Work Projects Adminis-
tration employment rests with local relief agencies. Since Work Projects Admin-
istration wage rates vary between counties in ratio to the relative population
levels, certification is refused to workers moving to a county because of higher
wage rates. This is the only Work Projects Administration restriction for the
certification of nonsettled applicants and very few rejections have been made on
this basis. Since lay-ofTs are made on the basis of a worker's relative need for
emploj'ment and project requirements, there is no discrimination arising out of a
worker's length of residence in the communitJ^
In the certification policj' of the relief agencies, thei-e are some indications that
certification was denied to some nonsettled applicants. This was especially
true in cases where the relief authorities felt that the applicant might become a
permanent relief burden in the community if he was allowed to remain. Local
Work Projects Administration offices report that in most instances nonsettled
workers are certified by local relief agencies.
THE ROLE OF THE WORK PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION PROGRAM IN RESPECT TO
PRESENT NEEDS
In view of the present fundamental changes in Michigan's industrial and
economic life, it becomes essential to examine the Work Projects Administration
functions in relation to present-day needs. Under the present rapidly changing
7412 DETROIT HEARINGS
situation, it is impossible to accurately analyze the future needs for Work Projects
Administration employment.
The Work Projects Administration is concerned over unemployment resulting
from curtailments in employment experienced b}^ industries throughout the State.
The Work Projects Administration certifying agencies, county boards of social
welfare, are expecting increases in relief loads during the late fall and winter
months. While seasonal factors result in increased employable relief loads for
this period, local sources interested in employment problems almost unanimously
expect extensive additional dependency due to present industrial curtailments.
This factor will vary between areas to the extent to which their employment levels
are affected by curtailed nondefense industrial employment. Numerous factors
are operating which delay the effect of the main burden of this unemployment on
relief and work-relief loads. Affected industries may adopt part-time employment
to retain as large a part of their force as possible. Unemployment-compensation
benefits may cover a period of unemployment to a maximum of 4 months and
unemployed workers will exhaust all possible resources before applying for relief
or Work Projects Administration employment. The key to the entire situation
rests with the probable duration of unemployment resulting from the change-
over to defense-material production. Present indications point to a lengthy
adjustment period with considerably reduced employment levels.
Unfortunately at the present time, because of limited appropriations, the Work
Projects Administration program is operating at reduced employment levels with
large number of needy workers uneinployed and awaiting assignment to projects.
This situation, previously discussed in relation to past Work Projects Adminis-
tration employment experience, creates hardships to the eligible unemployed
workers and indicates an inadequacy of the Work Projects Administration pro-
gram, due to limited funds caused by overoptimistic estimates of unemployment
needs. To be as effective as possible in fulfiU'ing its various functions, the em-
ployment load should approximate as closely as possible the total number of
eligible certified workers throughout the State.
Even under present restrictions Work Projects Administration has been suc-
cessful in operating as a stabilizing factor throughout the various communities in
Michigan. Work Projects Administration employment offers needy workers at
least a temporary sense of security by providing a means of supporting their
families. Without the possibility of securing Work Projects Administration
employment, and at least a meager living, the conditions basic to large-scale
aimless migration with its consequent problems would develop. Even under a
restricted Work Projects Administration program there is some evidence that
migration of certified unemployed workers occurs. The Work Projects Adminis-
tration office in the Upper Peninsula reports that some discharged Work Projects
Administration workers left for metropolitan areas to secure employment. Some
of these men found employment but others were forced to return to the Upper
Peninsula when unable to obtain jobs.
In this respect the Work Projects Administration program, in relation to
changes resulting from defense activity, can perform an important function by
stabilizing unemployed needy laborers in their home community until actual need
for their service develops. Aimless migrations of job seekers in areas that cannot
absorb them create difficult problems. That these situations are occurring at
present is indicated by the Pontiac, Mich., State Employment Service. This
office reported 1,200 out-of-county registrations mostly from out-of-State areas
for work during August. Almost none of these registrants had skills adaptable to
shop work. Few, if any, of these out-of-State applicants were placed. Orderly
transfer through the existing machinery of the State employment service and
Work Projects Administration program would permit satisfactory adjustments
both for the workers and their employers.
CONCLUSIONS
1. While the Work Projects Administration program has employed large
numbers of needy unemployed workers, financial restrictions due to limited appro-
priations have resulted in quotas which neglect the needs of workers certified to
be in need of work but currently unemployed.
2. The Work Projects Administration program acts as a stabilizing factor in
communities and prevents problems incident to aimless job seeking by unem-
ployed workers. The effectiveness of the works program in this respect is at least
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7413
partially dependent upon the extent to which certified Work Projects Administra-
tion workers are employed.
3. It is apparent that the workers Included in the current Work Projects
Administration load are in an unfavorable position in relation to labor require-
ments because of age, color, sex, and skill. Indications are that the Work
Projects Administration load is approaching a basic residual level but that this is
influenced by changing employment standards.
4. Work Projects Administration participation in the national-defense voca-
tional training program has proved successful in the developing of skills of Work
Projects Administration workers able to meet present employer qualifications
and has assisted many workers to fill skills demanded by industries engaged in
defense production. There will undoubtedly be an increased need for a voca-
tional training program to assist workers in developing skills required by defense
industries.
5. Current change-over to defense production through accelerated priorities
and material shortages have caused and will extend unemployment in the near
future. Delav in the absorption of dismissed workers into industries producing
defense materials is evident and to the extent that this absorption is delayed
there will be increased need for an expanded public-works program.
6. Extensive labor movements are developing which have a direct relation to
the activities of the Work Projects Administration. In addition to the labor
adjustments between industrial areas, there is evidence that employment lay-offs
will affect the unemployment problems of the Upper Peninsula and northern
cut-over areas. Because of depressed economic conditions, it will not be possible
to absorb discharged industrial workers returning to these areas into the local
labor market.
Exhibit A. — Work Projects Administration Separations for Private Em-
ployment
supplementary report by abner e. larned, michigan state administrator,
work projects administration, federal works agency
The attached table presents data for the State of Michigan, the Upper Peninsula,
and Wayne County regarding the number of workers leaving Work Projects Ad-
ministration for private employment, the number separated because of absence
from projects, and the number that have returned to Work Projects Administra-
tion from private employment.
There are no data currently available on the number of persons separated from
Work Projects Administration because of absence from projects. However, in
mv statement, "Table V— State total terminations from project employment by
total involuntary and voluntary terminations," these factors as well as termina-
tion to private employment are included in the column headed "Voluntary ter-
minations."
The attached table has certain limitations which minimize its accuracy as a
trend of employment in Michigan. These factors are —
1. The termination to private employment include only those employed work-
ers who are known to have obtained private employment. A comparison of these
terminations to voluntary terminations shown in table V mentioned above indi-
cates that many Work Projects Administration workers who secure private em-
plovment are not included in this count.
2. The number of workers securing private employment as shown by this table
do not include workers securing private employment from the Work Projects
Administration available for assignment load.
3. In this table returns from private employment include only those workers
who are eligible for mandatory reinstatement on project employment because they
left Work Projects Administration projects since January 1, 1941, for private em-
ployment.
4. The count of persons returning from private employment is further limited
as an employment trend because of the unemployment benefits that may be due
workers. Under current administrative procedure, any M'orkers applying for
return to Work Projects Administration projects must first exhaust any unem-
ployment benefits due them before they become eligible for reemployment on
Work Projects Administration projects.
7414
DETROIT HEARINGS
Supplementary Table V-a. — Comparison of terminations to private employment
and returns to Work Projects Administration from private employment, by State
total, the Upper Peninsula, and Wayne County, Michigan Work Projects Adminis-
tration, January 1940 to August 1941
Terminations to private employ-
ment
Returns from private employ-
ment
State
total
Wayne
County
Upper
Peninsula
State
total
Wayne
County
Upper
Peninsula
1940:
1,155
918
1,460
2,701
3,425
2,094
1.621
1,811
2,347
2,669
1,714
1,362
1,464
1.761
2,457
4,159
3,935
2,509
1,501
858
351
296
469
578
511
393
336
617
892
932
450
322
338
505
627
732
718
489
342
201
312
162
188
440
1,421
629
452
335
363
463
397
337
339
354
415
1,057
1,115
815
406
278
1,665
1,632
1,437
1,073
929
653
773
904
982
1,130
1,209
1,383
1,418
870
535
500
377
392
284
396
606
649
538
373
423
252
271
302
222
217
182
213
318
204
106
108
115
97
87
130
280
163
288
163
May -
137
June
99
July .
140
161
203
October , -
415
November -
495
December . - .
420
1941:
January .
348
154
135
170
89
June - -
85
July .
61
August '
77
1 Preliminary figures. August supplemental report not yet available. Will increase totals by an esti-
mated 5 percent for returns from private employment and an estimated 20 percent for terminations to pri-
vate employment.
TESTIMONY OF ABNER E. LARNED— Resumed
Mr. Sparkman. I observe, accoi-ding to youi- statemeut, that W. P.
A. employment rose from approximately 43,000 at the end of 1937,
to a high of 200,000 during the summer of 1938. Will you give us
the reason for that increase?
W. P. A. EMPLOYMENT INCREASES, 1937-38
Mr. Larned. The reason is somewhat analogous to what we are
about to face here in Michigan, only then it was Nation-wide.
There was, as you recall, a very severe recession, as it was called
by some, and depression by others.
Mr. Sparkman. Recession by the Democrats and depression by
the Republicans?
Mr. Larned. Yes; exactly. Apparently the results were unchanged
by whatever name you called it. There were a great many hundreds
of thousands of people out of employment, and the relief rolls rose
very rapidly, in this State particularly, with the result that it was
necessary for us to ask Washington to give us increased quotas for
this district, which at that time, owuig to their fuiancial condition,
they were unable to do.
I regret to say that if the great unemployment that we seem to face
right now should occur, there is no such reservoh easily available to
us, and the money would have to come from a deficiency appropria-
tion by Congress.
Mr. Sparkman. Let us go a little further into that increase between
1937 and 1938. Of course, 1937 was a year of recovery.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7415
Mr. Larned. Yes.
Mr. Sparkman. A very prosperous year.
Mr. Larned. Yes, sir.
Mr. Sparkman. The best we have had, I beheve, since the cata-
clysm of the Hoover regime?
Mr. Larned. I think that probably would be a correct statement.
Mr. Sparkman. I want to confine our discussion more or less to
the State of Michigan, and to this area. We realize that those condi-
tions prevailed generally throughout the entire country — the change
from 1937 to 1938 — but what were the conditions here in your own
State? Where had those unemployed come from?
UPSWING OF POPULATION THROUGH MIGRATION
Mr. Larned. They were here, employed in our automobile fac-
tories. They had been assembling through the years, from various
parts of the United States. It is a fact that within a 30-year period the
population of Michigan rose from 2}2 million to 5 million. That
wasn't all accomplished by an increase in our birth rate here. Part
of it came through the migration of people to Detroit.
Mr. Sparkman. Through the years there had been a heavy upswing
of employment in the automobile industry?
Mr. Larned. Yes..
Mr. Sparkman. And in 1938 you saw a decided drop in that em-
ployment?
Mr. Larned. Yes, sir.
Mr. Sparkman. Aiid you would offer that as the primary cause for
the heavy unemployment in Michigan?
DETROIT HAS GREATEST EMPLOYMENT VARIATION IN COUNTRY
Mr. Larned. Yes, sir. I would say, in that connection, I formerly
was the executive director of the Michigan Unemployment Compen-
sation Commission, and we foimd that the mcidence of employment
and unemployment was gTeater in this city than in any part of the
United States. In other words, when times are tough we go down mto
the valley deeper than anybody else, apparently, and when they are
good, we go to a peak a little higher than the rest of the country.
Mr. Sparkman. Unfortunately I was not here yesterday. Did you
have the pleasure of hearing the testimony yesterday?
Mr. Larned. No ; I am sorry to say. I have only read press accoimts
of it.
Mr. Sparkman. I understand, from that same source and from dis-
cussion with others, that the testimony yesterday indicated that
employment in the auto industry may be expected to be cut in two.
If that drop materializes, the situation here will be much more
severe even than that in 1938, will it not?
Mr. Larned. That is our apprehension, and it is founded upon
what we believe is pretty careful thinking in the matter.
Mr. Sparkman. And you are already anticipating such a difficulty?
Mr. Larned. Yes, sir. However, I can't say that W. P. A. is
prepared to meet the problem at the moment.
Mr. Sparkman. That was the very question I was going to ask
you^ — if W. P. A. was presently prepared to meet that situation.
7416 DETROIT HEARINGS
W. P. A.'S PART IN UNEMPLOYMENT ABSORPTION
Mr. Larned. During the past few weeks, ever since this drastic
cut in automobile production has been discussed, and as soon as the
first reduction was announced, I have continuously and rather per-
sistently furnished Washington with all of the information according
to the forecasts made by labor and the manufacturers themselves,
and from any sources that we could tap, such as the statistical depart-
ments of some of the State authorities, and I think they realize pretty
thoroughly what is before them.
I don't believe I am going to have very much difiiculty in selling
Washington officials on the need of some action on the part of W. P. A.
to meet this crisis. As a matter of fact, gentlemen, it must be apparent
to you all that there is no other Federal agency in existence that is
prepared to make adjustment for sudden declines of industry, because
we have the machinery set up, and so far we have had the money to
quickly go into operation.
Furthermore, we have a very sympathetic group of sponsors, and
that observation isn't confined to Democrats by any means. That
group is more largely Republican in this State than Democratic,
because wherever you tap a municipality which has known W. P. A.
you find an enthusiastic group of sponsors who realize that we have
taken heavy welfare loads off their shoulders — loads that could not
have been relieved in any other way — and we have used those people
in such a way as to be regarded as a permanent asset to then com-
munity.
Now, a man's politics doesn't enter into the consideration of a fact
as obvious as that, and therefore there would be no difficulty, in my
opinion, provided we have the funds and the authority to assume
whatever part W. P. A. is accorded in this load of unemployment
that may presently occur.
Mr. Sparkman. I am sure that we all agree with you in the state-
ment you have made about the acceptance of the W. P. A. program,
and the important part that it has played in the Nation.
PUBLICITY GIVEN TO LACK OF EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES
I believe some time ago Michigan, and Detroit particularly, started
on a program of givmg publicity to the fact that additional workers
were not needed here. I have seen some press reports to that effect.
Mr. Larned. Yes; I think there has been a good deal of that.
Mr. Sparkman. Did that stop the migration m here?
Mr. Larned. I presume that it has to quite a degree.
Mr. Sparkman. Have any of the people who came in started to
move out to other areas?
Mr. Larned. Judging from the information available to me, I
should say, yes. We have pretty well publicized the fact that we
have a great body of labor here, and that it will be all we can do to
supply it with jobs in defense industries, and that really the oppor-
tunities for people coming in here are very scanty.
I think that has been well publicized.
Mr. Sparkman. I wonder if you have any estimate of the extent to
which the load might be lightened through the migration of these
people, when and if they do become imemployed, to other areas where
there are defense projects in progress.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7417
Mr. Larned. No; I couldn't give you any information on that.
Mr. Sparkman. An answer would be purely speculative?
Mr. Larned. Yes.
Mr. Sparkman. What is your opinion as to the possibility of the
W. P. A. assisting in a retraining program for these people?
WORK PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION DIVISION OF RETRAINING AND REEM-
PLOYMENT
Mr. Larned. It might be interesting to you gentlemen, if you are
not already aware of the fact, to Imow the extent to which we are now
engaging in retrainmg of W. P. A. people and those awaiting assign-
ment. I presume you understand what I mean by "awaiting assign-
ment." That applies to those who have been certified by the relief
authorities for labor on W. P. A. and have not yet been employed by
W. P. A.
Some time ago we set up in W. P. A. a division of retraining and
reemployment, and it has worked very satisfactorily.
In connection with that, we have conducted training in vocational
schools, these schools being afforded us through the courtesy of the
various boards of education.
We use their vocational departments after hours and during the
summer months, and we have had as high as 10,000 W. P. A. people
in training.
Mr. Sparkman. Is that figure for the State of Michigan or the city
of Detroit?
Mr. Larned. That is for the State of Michigan, but more largely
in Detroit than anywhere else. Pontiac and Flint have also been
good centers.
The people were selected because of some aptitude. A very careful
analysis was made of the latent qualifications of some of these men on
W. P. A. Many of them have had past factory experience of one
type or another, so we selected those with the best aptitudes and put
them in these vocational schools, and the results have been gratifying.
Many of the industrialists have observed this work with interest
and have told us that as soon as these men acquire any degree of
proficiency at all they will be glad to give them permanent jobs; and
that has happened to about 80 percent of those we put thi'ough this
period of training.
IN-PLANT TRAINING
You perhaps know of the in-plant training that we are now doing.
We go to a manufacturer and arrange for our people to come into the
plant and be trained, and we pay their wages while they are being
trained. That is developing nicely and we are getting a very cordial
response from the industrialists.
Mr. Sparkman. That program couldn't be expected to absorb a
very great number of anticipated unemployed.
Mr. Larned. That is for relief clients.
Mr. Sparkman. Your figures shov/ a sharp drop in July in W. P. A.
employment, but I notice from table IV in your paper,^ that the persons
certified and awaiting assignment in July were four times as many as
in June. What is the reason for that?
1 See p. 7394.
7418 DETROIT HEARINGS
W, P. A. REDUCTIONS
Mr. Larned. The reason for the drop in July was the reduced
appropriation by Congress. We were given $875,000,000 as compared
with $1 ,350,000',000 the year before.
Mr. Sparkman. That was at the beginning of the new fiscal year?
Mr. Larned. Yes; last year W. P. A. employed 1,700,000 persons
throughout the United States. Now, that was drastically cut to
1,000,000 in July. In this State alone we had reached in June an
employment quota of 50,000. In July we were obliged to cut that
40 percent, or 20,000, which meant that we had to tap 20,000 Michigan
citizens on the shoulder and say: ''You haven't a job any longer."
That was one of tlie most harassuig and distressing things I ever
had any part in.
Mr. Sparkman. Wliat happens to persons who are certified for
W. P. A. employment but who are not assigned?
Mr. Larned. They arc subject then to direct relief if they can get it.
In some instances where the relief agencies are well cushioned with
cash they are immediately put on, but generally speakmg, many of
the counties are not in shape to carry them with any degree of security
at all. They get a mere pittance in some of the counties.
CERTIFICATION OF NONSETTLED PERSONS
Mr. Sparkman. What about your nonsettled persons who are not
assigned?
Mr. Larned. W^e have put up no obstacle against the certification
of those people.
Mr. Sparkman. I am speaking of persons who are nonsettled but
are certified to the W. P. A. Can they get relief?
Mr. Larned. One year is the legal settlement time here.
Mr. Sparkman. Then if a person is certified to you for W. P. A.,
and has not been here a j'^ear, and you are not able to assign that person
to the W. P. A., what becomes of him?
Mr. Larned. I think that is up to the welfare board of the county.
I think, though, they have been exceedingly liberal in their attitude
toward those people.
Mr. Sparkman. At the present time, accordmg to your tables, you
are certif3^mg for employment about one-third more workers than you
are employing in W. P. A. Is that to keep a backlog?
Mr. Larned. It is because of a limitation of fimds. That is the
only reason.
Mr. Sparkman. In other words, you certify all who are eligible?
Mr. Larned. We don't certify them. The welfare agencies certify
them to us and we employ them if we have the projects available and
the funds to pay them.
Mr. Sparkman. In other words, the public welfare certifies them
and you employ as many as you can?
Mr. Larned. Yes. We don't hire our own workers. We do, of
course, review the certifications, but we are generally in accord with
the certifying agency.
EFFECT OF 18-MONTH TERMINATION CLAUSE
Mr. Sparkman. How successful was the 18-month termination
clause that Congress adopted a couple of years ago?
NATIONAL DEFBT^SE MIGRATION 7419
Mr. Larned. In my report I have furnished some interesting
figures about that.^ Of course, the purpose of Congress was to make
W. P. A. a revolving body so people wouldn't, as was feared by some,
make a career of W. P. A.
Mr. Sparkman. And to encourage people in finding jobs for
themselves?
Mr. Larned. Yes.
Mr. Sparkman. Exercise real effort in finding private employment?
Mr. Larned. Yes. Whenever we have dismissed people from
W. P. A. employment, in the vast majority of cases they have made a
sincere effort to find private jobs. But my figures, which are approxi-
mate but I think correct, show that of 28,000 so dismissed over a
period of 12 months, 86 percent were recertified to W. P. A.
increase in average age of w. p. a. workers
You see, a 30-day period has to elapse before they can be placed
back on the rolls. Now, that is due to a variety of reasons. The
constantly aging group on W. P. A. is responsible in a large measure.
Three years ago 39 was pretty fair for the average W. P. A. worker
in the State. Today I think the average age is closer to 49 than it is
39. Certainly in this district that is true.
That doesn't mean that those people can't do any work, as is
attested by the program we have carried on with them; but they are
not readily assimilated by industry. Industry is competitive in its
nature. It wants the most active element of our society. It wants
fellows who can step lively and produce. That is no criticism, but
the practice does inflict a severe penalty upon the person who
approaches the age of 40. He isn't wanted in industry, generally
speaking.
Now, if the conditions get more strenuous in the defense program,
those requirements will be relaxed somewhat.
HARDSHIPS INFLICTED BY 18-MONTH CLAUSE
Mr. Sparkman. Did you find much trouble with the 18-month
clause in connection with persons who were in great need — ^hardship
cases that had to wait 30 days?
Mr. Larned. Yes, sir. I don't like to make a sob story of my
report here, but I want to tell you
Mr. Sparkman. Of course we don't want you to, but I will say
that down my way I found that to be the greatest hardship they have
ever suffered.
Mr. Larned. It had the result of inflicting great injustices and
great hardships in many instances.
Mr. Sparkman. The scheme would be more workable if it allowed
for the exercise of some discretion, to take care of these hardship
cases, would it not?
Mr. Larned. Yes; and I want to assure you I have sometimes
stretched the limit of my own authority in trying to do that.
Mr. Sparkman. What do you mean by "involuntary separation,"
which you show in table 5? ^
' See pp. 7395-7396.
2 See p. 7395.
7420 DETROIT HEARINGS
INVOLUNTARY SEPARATION
Mr. Larned. "Involuntary separation" is one that is caused either
by a reduced quota, which makes a forced separation on our part nec-
essary, or some other provision — the closing of a project, we will say.
Mr. Sparkman. Would the 18-month clause be included in the
reasons for involuntary separation?
Mr. Larned. Yes; it would.
Mr. Sparkman. In other words, involuntary separation occurs when
there is any forced reduction of people on W. P. A. rolls?
Mr. Larned. Yes; something beyond their own desire or will.
Voluntary separation comes when a man leaves for private employ-
ment.
Mr. Sparkman. Was that sharp increase that you show in June of
this year due to the cutting down of the appropriations again?
Mr. Larned. Yes, sir.
Mr. Sparkman. Your table shows a very sharp increase of involun-
tary separations in June of this year.
Mr. Larned. Yes; due entirely to that, because we had plenty of
projects to employ these people on. And I want to say to you that
when this forced reduction was made, and we had to take 20,000
people off of our staff, that reduction affected every community in
Michigan and curtailed work on projects which were considered vital
to the welfare of many communities, and my office was the hot seat
of protest from all over the State — not on the part of the men whom
we dismissed, but on the part of the public officials who saw projects
which they had thought over very carefully and deemed very neces-
sary, in danger.
ASSIGNMENT OF QUOTAS
Mr. Sparkman. How do you decide whom to dismiss?
Mr. Larned. Perhaps if I referred you to page 5 of my statement
you will understand that.^
Mr. Sparkman. Do you assign a quota to each county, or to each
municipality?
Mr. Larned. At the State office our method is to assign quotas by
districts. We have four districts in the State. The district manager
is charged with the immediate responsibility of dividing those into
counties and assigning quotas by counties as needed.
Mr. Sparkman. How do you decide as between a county and a
municipality? Does your manager break it down that way, too?
Mr. Larned. A municipality is included in the county. It is a
part of the county.
Mr. Sparkman. But when it comes to deciding the number that
shall work in the municipality, and those that shall work in the
county, does your area supervisor also determine that?
Mr. Larned. Yes.
project reductions
Mr. Sparkman. Then in turn it is up to the officials of that govern-
mental body to decide which projects to continue?
Mr. Larned. Very largely.
> In this volume, p. 7399.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7421
Mr. Sparkman. And which persons to keep on?
Mr. Larned. Yes. We consult with our sponsors. If we have a
forced reduction that has to be put into effect immediately, we go to
our sponsors and say, ''Now, we have a half dozen projects, and here
they are in order. Will you give a list of priorities on these? Which
do you need most? And in large measure we take their word for the
projects that they thinly should be completed first.
That, by a natural process of elimmation, makes us drop some of
them, but we never drop a project in a semicompleted stage. If we
have begun it, we complete that unit of the project.
Mr. Sparkman. Does the W. P. A., in its certification procedure,
make any distinction among applicants on the basis of their residence
qualifications?
Mr. Larned. No; we do not, unless it is apparent that for some
reason or other the applicants are trying to get from one county to
another where the wage rate is a little higher.
As you perhaps loiow, we have four wage rates in Michigan. If
we think that is their purpose, we halt the assignment. But that has
occurred so rarely as to be almost negligible.
Mr. Sparkman. Could you teU us whether the proportion of
Negroes on W. P. A. has remained constant during the past year?
proportion of negroes on w. p. a. increasing
Mr. Larned. No; it has not remained constant. It has been
gradually increasing. The percentage of Negroes on W. P. A. was
17 percent, as of April 1941. The percentage was 20.4 as of August
27, and the last figure we have is 21.1.
Mr. Sparkman. How do you account for that?
Mr. Larned. The Negro is suffering from discrimination. There
is no question about that. He is under discrimination in private
employment.
My report indicates something of that nature.
Mr. Sparkman. I wonder how those percentages compare with the
proportion of the Negro population to the white population of
Michigan.
Mr. Larned. There again our residual load is gradually involving a
larger percentage of Negroes than of white people.
Mr. Sparkman. Well, I am glad to have that answer, but I meant
to ask what is the ratio of Negro population to the population of the
State as a whole?
Mr. Larned. You would like the percentage?
Mr. Sparkman. Yes.
Mr. Larned. I have it here but whether I can turn to it quickly
or not I don't know.
Mr. Sparkman. If it is in your report we will get it from there.^
How many persons who might be in need cannot qualify for W. P. A.
employment because of the fact that they are aliens?
Mr. Larned. I don't think I could answer that. I presume Mr.
Selwin would have an idea on that. Mr. Selwin is in charge of our
employment division in Wayne County.
» See p. 7400.
7422 DETROIT HEAIUNGS
TESTIMONY OF ALLAN SELWIN, DISTRICT EMPLOYMENT
OFFICER FOR WORK PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION, DETROIT,
MICH.
Mr. Selwin. The only figures we would have would be the number
of aliens receiving relief at the present time.
I am not sure just what that figure is today, but it has varied
between 900 and 3,000.
Mr. Sparkman. Is that in one county?
Mr. Selwin. That is in the city of Detroit.
Mr. Sparkman. What is your first name, Mr. Selwin?
Mr. Selwin. Allan.
Mr. Sparkman. And you are?
Mr. Selwin. I am district employment officer for the W. P. A.
in the city of Detroit and Wayne Countj^.
TESTIMONY OF ABNER E. LARNED— Resumed
Mr. Larned. I am informed that there are 2,500 aliens on relief in
Detroit at the present time. And at this time there are approxi-
mately 300,000 aliens in Michigan. One of the interesting parts of
our program is our Americanization effort to make citizens of those
aliens. We have carried on that effort for a number of years, with
very great success, but as you see, that is a considerable number,
and even in a highly intelligent State like Michigan, we have 71,000
illiterates — a fact which we are not stating with any particular pride.
Those two groups form probably the most fertile soil for subversive
propa9"anda that could exist in our country. That is why we are
intensifying our Americanization drive at this time, in an endeavor
to teach these people something about the country they live in and
the reason why they should be loyal to it.
Mr. Sparkman. Do you have an opinion as to whether Congress
should relax the restrictions that it has imposed on alien employment?
Mr. Larned. My own impression is that it should do so, because
many of these aliens are here performmg excellent work for the
country and were admitted with due process of law and are in the
process of getting their citizenship papers.
Mr. Sparkman. Many of them have their first papers?
Mr, Larned. Yes. And I think that would be the time to treat
them with the greatest leniency and make American citizens of
them.
Surely we don't want any influences at work that will make them a
part of a "fifth column," and we have cither got to have them with us
or against us. I feel that they want to be of us, not against us.
Mr. Osmers. Mr. Larned, would you make a distinction between
the alien who has signified his intention to become a citizen and the
alien who has not?
Mr. Larned, Well, I think that would need a little examination.
So often ignorance is at the bottom of their failure to take any steps
in that direction. That is why we can be very helpful to them. They
are timid about approaching the Federal agencies, to begin with.
They don't know how to make their first approach, and m our classes
wc are able to draw them together. The classes are not held in Fed-
eral buildings, or in any public building where the}'" are likely to feel
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7423
that there is a pohcing of theu- activities. Sometimes it is difficult to
get them to go, but through contact with members of their own race,
we bring them the thought that we are there to help them. When
they once understand that, they are very eager to come to the classes.
NO DIFFICULTY IN SECURING SPONSORS
Mr. OsMERS. Do you have any difficulty in the State of Michigan
in securing sponsors for projects?
Mr. Larned. I should say none whatever. Our difficulty is in
satisfying sponsors that we are not always able to do what they want
us to do. Of course there are certain areas where their ffiiancial means
are very restricted, where it is difficult for them to sponsor projects.
Perhaps one of the most striking illustrations would be m Houghton
Coimty.
Mr. OsMERs. In what part of the State is Houghton County?
Mr. Larned. That is in the Upper Peninsula of Afichigan, m the
heart of the "old copper country," as we call it.
drop in ASSESSMENTS IN HOUGHTON COUNTY
Some years ago, not much more than 10 years ago, Houghton
County had an assessed valuation of $180,000,000. It crowded
Wayne County very closely in its assessed valuation. Today the
assessed valuation of Houghton County is less than $18,000,000.
Well, you can see that such a tremendous drop as that makes direct
relief extremely difficult, and it is extremely difficult for those people
to sponsor W. P. A. projects with a 25 percent sponsor contribution.
Mr. OsMERs. Is that 25 percent mandatory all over the State?
Mr. Larned. Our average must be 25 percent, and I am allowed
the liberty at times of going below that, but if I do, then I have got
to sell somebody else a coat and vest at a higher price in order to bring
the average up, and that isn't a very satisfactory way of doing business.
The Chairman. Thank you very much, \h\ Larned. You have
filed with us a very valuable statement, and we appreciate your coming
here, I think it is a very fine report.
W. p. A. AS deterrent OF MIGRATIOI^
Mr. Larned. Mr. Chairman, I thank 3^ou for the courtesy of my
reception. There is just one thing that I would like to say before
I leave. I presume this thought has occurred to 3"ou, but I would
like to emphasize it: It seems to me that W. P. A., by reason of its
widespread employment, has been able to afford to these communities
as outstanding a deterrent to migration as exists in this country.
Ask j^ourself the question: "Wliy do people migrate?" The
answer is, "To get something to do that they can't find available in
their home community." Now, W. P. A. has helped to prevent that
migration in the State of Michigan, in all its 83 counties. We have
done something about it and have given the residents of those counties
a way of averting the necessity to pack up their belongings and go on
a fruitless search for a job, wasting their own substance and giving us
something of the picture we had back in the 1930's, when our highways
were thronged with them.
G0.396 -41— pt. IS 24
7424 DETROIT HEARINGS
Mr. OsMERS. Do you feel that the very factor that you have pointed
out has had the effect of freezing populations in certain places, popu-
lations that might be used to better advantage to themselves and to
the country in other places?
Mr. Larned. I presume in some instances that is true, Mr. Osmers.
However, I think it is rarely so because the wages that W. P. A.
pays certainly are not very inviting. They represent just a mere
subsistence.
Furthermore, the people are anxious to get off W. P. A. at the first
opportunity that offers private employment. They embrace very
readily any opportunity to get private employment, and they do
that because of the provision of the law that gives them some security
in doing it. If they leave W. P. A. employment for private employ-
ment and then are severed from that private employment through
no fault of their own, they can immediately be taken back on W. P. A.
That makes them perhaps bolder than they would be otherwise about
leaving W. P. A.
I haven't found any tangible evidence of people on W. P. A. wanting
to make a career of $44 a month.
The Chairman. Mr. Larned, you speak about migration. This
committee has been all over the United States, studying the mass
migration of destitute citizens. You have just indicated one of the
causes for that migration, but there are other causes too— tractors,
ill health, worn-out soil. Therefore, there is no single solution. One
solution you have indicated is to make their home conditions satis-
factory.
Mr. Larned. May I add a thought to that? Isn't migration the
natural impulse of the human family? Our ancestors in Europe
migrated all over that country and even emigrated across the sea.
They covered our country in wagons. And it seems to me that
migration is not an unmixed evil, by any means. It is the natural
ambition of man to better himself. If he can't do it in his own com-
munity, he will go somewhere else to do it.
The Chairman. You are practically quoting from our report, which
has already been filed with Congress.
Mr. Curtis. Perhaps he has read it, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Larned. And I might say that that part I have read is very
mteresting. Thank you, gentlemen.
The Chairman. Our next witness is Mr. Weuier.
TESTIMONY OF JOSEPH L. WEINER, REPRESENTING THE CIVILIAN
SUPPLY DIVISION, OFFICE OF PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT,
WASHINGTON, D. C.
The Chairman. This is Mr. Joseph L. Weiner, representing the
O. P. M., Civilian Supply Division. For the purposes of the record,
I will read a telegram from Mr. Leon Henderson, of that office:
Had made all plans to be in Detroit tomorrow and hoped until very last
minute to come mj'self. However, House Banking and Currency Committee is
keeping me here on price bill. Since impossible for me to come am sending
personal representative, Joe Weiner, who will present brief and I am sure do
noble job.' Please express my regrets because had fully expected to be able to
appear.
1 The paper to which reference is made appears on p. 7453.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7425
That is signed, "Leon Henderson, Office of Price Administration."
Mr. Weiner, Congressman Osmers will interrogate you.
Mr. Osmers. Mr. Weiner, I think I ought to open the questioning
by saying that every witness who has come before the committee in
the State of Michigan has had something to say about your office, and
I think, in the interest of accuracy, I should tell you the comment
hasn't been very complimentary in most cases.
Mr. Weiner. I hope it wasn't unanimously uncomplimentary.
Mr. Osmers. Well, I think it would come pretty close to being that.
Mr. Weiner. I am very sorry.
Mr. Osmers. I think the committee realizes, and probably the
country too, that the job you are doing in Washington would naturally
cause a great deal of criticism.
The Michigan problem is, I would say, more acute with respect to
the operations of your office than in any other State in the Union that
we have visited, because so much of the industry here is the manu-
facture of passenger cars, and because of the curtailment of that
manufacture.
Now, you will recall that Mr. Henderson was before this committee
in Washington last July.^
Mr. Weiner. Yes; very well.
Mr. Osmers. And since that time we have been informed that there
has been a reorganization in your office.
Mr. Weiner. That is correct.
reorganization in office of price administration and civilian
SUPPLY
Mr. Osmers. Now, I wonder if you would just describe briefly to
the committee the nature of that reorganization?
Mr. Weiner. As the office existed at the time Mr. Henderson ap-
peared before your committee, it was a price administration office
and a civilian supply office, all in one unit, which was a separate and
distinct organization from the Office of Production Management.
Under the reorganization, the civilian supply part of the office was
transferred into O. P. M. as a new division of that body, so that the
independent office today is a price office exclusively. The civilian
supply work is now being carried on through the new division of civilian
supply of O. P. M., of which Mr. Henderson is director, in addition
to his job as Administrator of the price office.
Now, apart from that, and in addition to it, there was created this
over-all policy board.
Mr. Osmers. Wliat is the name of that board?
Mr. Weiner. That is Supply, Priorities, and Allocations Board,
popularly referred to as S. P. A. B. It is not directly related to the
change in the office, but is a new creation designed to bring together
into one body, a purely policy-making body, the representatives of the
principal interests that have to be considered in connection with the
supply and allocation problem.
1 See Washington hearings, July 17, 1941, pt. 16, pp. 6620-6666.
7426 DETKOIT HEARINGS
If you care to have the membership of that body elaborated on, I
will be happy to do so.
Mr. OsMERs. The names would not be particularly important, but
the various functions of the members would be helpful.
FUNCTIONS OF MEMBERS OF SUPPLY, PRIORITIES, AND ALLOCATIONS
BOARD
Mr. Weiner. The set-up, briefly, is this: As chairman of that Board,
the President designated Vice President Wallace, and of particular
significance in this connection is the fact that Mr. Wallace had previ-
ously been designated Chairman of the Economic Defense Board,
so that that whole problem is represented on that Board directly
through Mr. Wallace.
Mr. Hopkins was named to the Board primarily, of course, because
of his active connection with lend-lease problems.
The Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Navy need no account-
ing for.
Mr. Knudsen and Mr. Hillman are included, in their capacity as
director general and associate director general of O. P. M., respectively,
and particularly because of the problems that they have been dealing
with and for which they have been the public representatives for so
long.
And finally, there is Mr. Henderson, whose problem has been pri-
marily the civilian supply and price problem, from the days of the
National Defense Commission.
MAJOR CRITICISMS OF SUPPLY, PRIORITIES, AND ALLOCATIONS BOARD
Mr. OsMERS. In general, I think it would be fah' to say that the
major criticisms that have been directed against the Board have been
these — and the other members of the committee may care to add to
the fom* that I have listed here:
First, and apparently the most serious charge that has been leveled
at your office, has been the fact that there has not been an adequate
inventory made of the materials available in the United States, of the
machines available, and of the labor available for both our civilian
needs and our war needs.
The second charge that has been made here has been that the
Government — this may not be your department — has failed to crowd
our industries sufficiently to speed up and to get business out to small
contractors — subcontractors and suppliers — and this failure has had
the effect of lengthening the transition period and of lengthening the
period of unemployment between nondefense and defense.
The third charge is that there are remaining in the country, and in
the State of Michigan particularly, many unused facilities that the
Government should use. That ties in a little with the second one.
The fourth major charge has been that organized labor has not had
a sufficient voice in determining the policies of the Goverimient with
respect to defense. In other words, they feel that while the Board
may be set up in such a way that they are represented on paper, in
operation they have not been adequately represented.
Now, we might just keep those four items in mind as we go along.
When we were in Washington, we were primarily concerned with
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7427
community facilities in defense areas, and rent control and other like
matters.
Now, we have come to Detroit because the problem of labor dis-
location here as a result of the defense program is probably more
serious than in any other State in the Union. At least it is more
evident. It may not be ultimately more serious.
Now, do you take the dislocation of employment into considera-
tion in your decisions as to allocations?
KEPLY TO CRITICISMS OF SUPPLY, PRIORITIES, AND ALLOCATIONS BOARD
Mr. Weiner. The answer is "Yes," but of necessity it is only one of
the factors that must be taken into consideration.
Let me, if I may, take the first point you put, as to the lack of an
adequate inventory.
I think it is a good deal like the lack of adequate fire-fighting equip-
ment. If the fire is there, you have to use what you have.
In the case of these material shortages, I think we would be the
last to say that we had information of the kind and of the quahties
that we want to have and ought to have, and I hope in time will have;
but at the same time, we have had information which definitely mdi-
cated a very serious and pressing situation, and the practical problem
was, Shall we postpone doing anything because the information isn't of
sufficiently high grade, or shall we take some action which seems indi-
cated by that information, regardless of the lack of refinement?
OBSTACLES TO AN INVENTORY
Mr. OsMERs. Mr. Weiner, is there any factor, speaking in an ad-
ministrative or legal sense, to prevent your office from making a com-
plete inventory of the facilities of the United States by questionnaire
or by whatever method might be determined?
Mr. Weiner. If you speak in terms of legal power, I think that
legal power has probably been conferred comparatively recently. It
didn't exist until the Vinson bill was passed by Congress.
But I don't believe that is a complete answer, because I have no
reason to believe that the industries of this country would be unwilling
to reply to any request for information that was addressed to them.
And in fact, even before that power was conferred, a vast amount of
information was requested and obtained, often at considerable burden
to the people from whom it was requested. But I think I ought to
mention the magnitude of that task.
At the present time we find that when we get this kind of informa-
tion in any volume, first it takes persons of special training, of whom
we haven't too many, to set it up in such form that it can be used.
Then we find that probably the only body which can actually run
through this kind of information and put it together in a usable form
is the Census Bureau. They are the only body that has ever been
faced with a job of dealing with information of anything like this
volume.
CENSUS OF MANUFACTURES
Mr. OsMERS. The Government has gathered for a number of years
information that I believe is known as a Census of Manufactures.
7428 DETROIT HEARINGS
Mr. Weiner. That is correct.
]\Ir. OsMERs. As a matter of fact, when I was active in business
myself I filled out the questionnaires on numerous occasions.
It seems to me that from those reports they would have a tre-
mendous amount of information that would be helpful. I know that
when I used to fill them out, they had a pretty complete picture of
what we were doin^ and how we did it.
Mr. Weiner. We knew, but it may interest the committee to
know, that in order to use the 1940 figures at the present time, we
have to get them run off especially for special problems, because
enough time hasn't elapsed smce that information was obtained, with
the size of the staff of the Bureau, to actually collate them today.
Mr. OsMERS. Would you say there is indicated thereby a need for
larger staffs, more adequate facilities for the receiving and developing
of information?
Mr. Weiner. At the present time I think that is a definite need.
Mr. Osmers. Is any action being taken to provide it?
Mr. Weiner. Yes, sir; we have gone a long way in that respect.
We have made arrangements with the Census Bureau to service the
defense agencies with respect to mass tabulation problems.
SUPPLY priorities AND ALLOCATIONS BOARD NOW ENGAGED IN
SURVEY
As you may have noticed, when the new Board — S. P. A. B. that I
referred to earlier — was created, one of its first announcements was
that it intended to get a complete bill of materials from every aspect
of the economy, for every objective — direct defense, lend-lease, export,
civilian supply — so that a complete picture could be presented simul-
taneously.
Mr. Osmers. They are now engaged in that work?
Mr. Weiner. That work is now under way.
Mr. Osmers. Has any approximate date been set, by which they
will have some useful figures available?
Mr. Weiner. No; because I doubt if anyone would be rash enough
at this time to want to predict such a thing.
Mr. Osmers. It will probably be a matter of months, will it not?
Mr. Weiner. In order to get a reasonably comprehensive picture,
it will be a matter of months. That doesn't mean that we haven't
some fairly reasonable hunches, but they are not by any means a
substitute for the kind of information we ought to have.
LABOR DISLOCATION PROBLEM
I should like to go back to your question, from which I have digressed
too long— the labor dislocation problem.
That problem arises in the calculation of these programs- in several
ways.
Having the knowledge that there is a material shortage — and that
we definitely do have, of course, before any action is undertaken — the
question then arises as to who is going to do without.
Now, the doing without, as against the particular person who does
without, is not of our makmg. That is the condition that we find, on
the basis of which action is called for.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7429
In canvassing the various possibilities, as to where a cure of the
material shortage may be applied, one of the salient problems is that
of dislocation, so that comes in as a very real factor at that point.
For example, in the automobile industry, the vital considerations were
first, the size of the dislocation itself, and second, whether by con-
version or whatever means there might be, there was reason to believe
that the dislocation could be overcome. It makes a lot of difference
whether it is something which is apparently going to be permanent,
or something which can be reasonably regarded as transitory.
Another consideration which is directly tied in with the problem of
labor displacement is the question as to whether some distinction
should be drawn between plants of different sizes.
A uniform, blanket rule, taking in large and small alike, is almost
certain to have uneven consequences, from a labor standpoint. You
have a minimum amount at which a plant can keep going. You
have, by and large — and I think this is a pretty safe statement — a
far greater ability on the part of the larger plant to convert. It has
greater financial, managerial, and engineering resources. It can do
things which the small plant often can't do. So again, the problem
of labor dislocation plays a part. But fundamentally, of course,
there would be no curtailment in production at all if there weren't
the material shortage to begin with.
Mr. OsMERS. The disturbances that have gone further toward up-
setting civilian morale and causing suspicion of the whole program
are things like the reported or actual gasoline shortage in the north-
eastern part of the country.
I happen to live there. The Secretary of the Interior has his views,
and the committee of the Senate apparently holds a contrary view.
But the average citizen in Michigan is, I presume, in the same posi-
tion as the average citizen in New Jersey or New York. The people
don't know which one is telling the truth. They are both telling the
truth, as they see it, of course, but it is a pretty difficult situation
when two responsible sources in government make absolutely con-
trary statements. It doesn't help the defense program at all.
They have adopted a policy in the northeast that seems extremely
silly to me. They close the gasoline stations from 7 o'clock at night
mitil 7 o'clock in the morning. I don't thinlv they are curtailing con-
sumption of gasoline a bit. Then you pick up your paper, and you
find out there is no gasoline shortage; and right here, at these hear-
ings, responsible men in the automobile industry have charged the
Army and the Navy and certain others involved in the defense pro-
gram with hoarding materials.
We discussed this matter of hoarding before the hearing started.
The Army and Navy officials have been charged with ordering huge
quantities of strategic materials that they won't use for years. They
have been charged with ordering materials to be put into a battleship
that will not be completed untU 1944.
Mr. Weiner. Well, I am sure I can't answer that.
Mr. OsMERS. There is no Yes-or-No answer.
Mr. Weiner. I don't believe there is. I am quite sure there have
been some of those abuses. I doubt very much if they are as serious
or as widespread as some people have charged.
7430 DETROIT HEARINGS
ARTIFICIAL SHORTAGES
I might also add, because I think it is relevant, that the fact that
hoarding has taken place doesn't change the fact of the shortage. But
the material that is hoarded is not available for actual use, and as you
know, the GovcT-nment lacks the power to take it away from the
hoarder.
Mr. OsMERS. It creates an artificial shortage.
Mr. Weiner. I agree with you entirely. We could carry on
production which the withdrawing of that material makes impossible.
It is an artificial shortage in that sense, but it is a real shortage from
the standpoint of the manufacturer who hasn't got the material to
run through his shop. But the phenomenon that you are dealing
with there is a common one, and it is due to a number of factors, some
of which are not easily condemned out of hand.
Take the situation of the Army and Navy. They were faced
suddenly with the job of getting production of military goods on a
scale never before equaled in the history of this country.
The job of planning that production, supervising it, seeing that it
proceeds on schedule, revising specifications in the light of new
military information, is enormous, and the problems that have to be
dealt with simultaneously are difficult to imagine.
Mr. OsMERS. Again getting back to the average citizen's viewpoint,
we realize, all of us, the human side of it, which is important; we
realize that if you were a manufacture^' and took an order to deliver a
certain number of finished articles in a year, your first tendency in
the light of circumstances now prevailing would be to go out and buy
all the material that you could and put it in the back yard and use it
as you come to it. But the Army and the Navy are instruments of
the Government, and I don't think they are to be regarded in the same
light as a private manufacturer. I don't think that agencies of the
very Government that is seeking this vast production should partici-
pate in creating the artificial shortage.
Mr. Weiner. I am sure everyone, including officers in the Army
and Navy, will agree with that.
BAD planning AS CAUSE OF MATERIAL SHORTAGES
I wasn't intending to condone any abuses, but what I did have in
mind was the realization that in the actual scheduling of these things,
there may well have been a certain amount of poor judgment, which
wasn't a deliberate desire to get material before it was needed, but
which results from the impossibility of planning with any degree of
perfection in the face of the unprecedented burden that was suddenly
cast upon the military forces or the producers working for them.
It is mighty difficult to schedule the arrival of materials in such a
way as to insure the gTeatest economy in our inventory and keep
waste down to a minimum.
A great deal of work has been devoted to that purpose and to a
very real degree I think everyone is confident that there will be im-
provement. I might say too that I for one feel a little hesitant about
pointing the finger at the military forces on behalf of the civilian
population, since it is a matter of common knowledge that the civilian
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7431
industries also went out and tried to lay their hands on whatever
material was available. I have no doubt that to some extent the
race between military and civilian procurement of materials con-
tributed to this confusion and to the damage that was caused by
premature buying.
BLACK MARKET IN STRATEGIC MATERIALS
Mr. OsMERs. Is there in this country any extensive "black
market" — that is, speculative trading — in strategic materials?
Mr. Weiner. I doubt if it is widespread. We have located specific
instances of it in chemicals, and some in scrap metal. I have heard
of it in copper, and as you may know, recently a number of these
cases were referred to the Attorney General by Mr. Henderson, with
a view to prosecution and prevention in the future.
Mr. OsMERs. Metals are in the forefront of those shortage materials.
What would your estimate be of the present supplies available in steel
and copper for civilian use? You might want to give it in percentage
of normal civilian consumption.
AVAILABLE STEEL SUPPLY
Mr. Weiner. Tlie best figures we can get at the present time are
those of the Iron and Steel Institute. At the current rate of orders
and available supplies, approximately 70 percent of the steel that was
available to civilian use last year is available for the same use at the
present time. That is on the basis of an anal3^sis of the August
figures.
AVAILABLE COPPER SUPPLY
In copper, so far as any comparison can be drawn, it is under 50
percent. I am not sure whether the copper figures have been cal-
culated with as great detail and break-down as the steel figures.
Mr. OsMERS. The automobile industry is the largest civilian con-
sumer of steel in the country, is it not?
Mr. Weiner. Yes.
Mr. Osmers. If the available supply of steel for civilian use is
70 percent of the normal, would not a 50-percent reduction in the
manufacture of automobiles indicate that we were curtailing the
manufacture of automobiles too greatly?
Mr. Weiner. But you will find that the rate of curtailment of
automobile production this year, as compared to the whole year 1940,
is less than 30 percent. Actual production of automobiles during these
last few months has, I believe, exceeded the production for the
corresponding months of the previous year.
Mr. OsMERS. I am not sure that I have that clear in my mind.
Now, 70 percent of the steel production available for civilian use in
1940 is available for civilian use in 1941.
Mr. Weiner. Yes. The amount available is 70 percent of the
amount that was available a year ago. Comparing the production of
automobiles a year ago with the production of automobiles today — •
that is, at this time of year — you would have a steeper cut than
actually has taken place.
7432 DETROIT HEARINGS
FACTORS GOVERNING CURTAILMENT
Mr. OsMERS. Were the shortages in steel and other essential mate-
rials the only consideration that entered into the decision to curtail
automobile production?
Mr. Weiner. They were the determining causes. Let me put it
this way:
The fact that there was a shortage, I believe no one can deny.
Various sources seriously disagree as to the extent of it, but as to the
fact, I think we are all agreed. That meant that some industries
simply had to do without; so that the problem was to go on from there
and to consider what the situation was with respect to those industries
that might have to do without.
Plainly, in the case of the need, recognized by Congress through
increased appropriations, for a greater production of military goods,
there was no possibility of making up the shortage of steel by curtail-
ment in the production of military goods. That would have been
flying directly in the face of the national mandate, and, of course,
was never considered.
Next to military requirements, you have to consider those civilian
requirements which absolutely are not postponable. Transportation
has to go on, or your whole scheme bogs down and you get no civilian
or military production. You have to maintain public utilities, and
other essential services may require at this time not only what they
required before, but increased amounts, because of the increased
demands made upon them.
That leaves a relatively small field where the material shortages
have to be made up. Construction and the consumers' durable goods
industries are the two largest users of metals which will have to use
less than they have been using. And that is what is taking place.
The part that we contribute in making this curtailment effective
is relatively small. We can. see that it is done on an orderly basis,
rather than to determine who does without the metal in a competitive
scramble.
Mr. OsMERS. Has your office, Mr. Weiner, made any study of what
other countries are doing? To what extent have they converted their
auto facilities to defense needs? For example, England, or Germany?
FOREIGN AUTOMOBILE CURTAILMENT
Mr. Weiner. In July 1940 the production of civilian automobiles
ceased in England. It ceased in Germany, if I recall correctly, prior
to that time. In calling for a curtailment in this country, we do
not imply that civilian automobile production is not an important
factor in maintaining our standards of living; we are merely asking
ourselves, What is there that we can postpone for a little time, better
than something else?
FREIGHT-CAR SHORTAGES
Take for example our situation with respect to freight cars. As
you know, we are faced with a very serious question as to whether we
are going to have enough freight cars and locomotives this fall. We
hope we will get by, but the situation is pretty risky.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIORATION 7433
Then too, every time there is a diversion of an intercoastal boat,
for example, it means there is more material to be carried by rail or
by truck.
Those freight cars, needed in October, don't perform the same service
if they are available a year or two from now. On the other hand,
with respect to automobiles, by reason of the very large production
that took place in the 1941 model year, we have a very substantial
stock pile of available cars. It isn't as if we had a large vacuum to
be filled in for that kind of transportation. Actually we have some
27,000,000 cars available, and that is a very high figure, even in
proportion to our population.
So that, measured as against other things, we can temporarily do
without the new automobile — make the old car do a little longer.
The Chairman. Mr. Weiner, we will allow a 3-minute recess for
the reporter.
("Whereupon, a short recess was taken.)
The Chairman. The committee will please come to order.
TWO VIEWPOINTS
Mr. OsMERS. I am going to resume, Mr. Weiner, by reading a
quotation from the paper submitted by Mr. Thomas, head of the
United Automobile Workers:
Had steps been undertaken back in November of 1940 to call upon the produc-
tive power of the auto industry for national-defense purposes, we would not now
be facing a tragic crisis of unemployment and retarded production. Had industry
and Government been willing to undertake this essential task, defense jobs de-
veloped in the industry would now be more than sufficient to absorb the full
complement of automobile workers displaced by curtailment of regular automo-
bile production.
And I would also like to give you the other side of it, as presented to
us in the testimony of the automobile manufacturers that same
afternoon.
They submitted some evidence that was rather compelling to show
that from the very beginning they have been ready and willing to do
anything they could for the national-defense program.
Now, that is the Michigan viewpoint, and it seems to lay the
responsibility at Washington's doorstep pretty directly.
Mr. Weiner. If I understand you correctly, you are presenting
two viewpoints rather than one.
Mr. OsMERS. I think the automobile workers, when they first
answered our questions yesterday, tried to be a little bit rough on
management. They said it was management's fault for not starting
to make guns and tanks right away, the minute we got involved in
this emergency. But upon further questioning, it developed that the
management had to have Government orders first.
Mr. Weiner. I might extend your remarks, if I may, by saying that
management tried to be a little bit rough on Government, and I
would try to avoid being rough on either.
I wasn't connected with the defense effort at the period to which
Mr. Thomas refers. As a general observer, I am sure I would want to
say that we could have done better. But I know of no yardstick that
would show how much better the job might have been done. I am
not sufficiently close to that situation, as it existed last November, to
be able to offer any comment as to what the attitude of people was.
7434 DETROIT HEARINGS
Mr. OsMERS. Let us narrow it down. From j^our experience with
the defense effort, have you found any unwilHngness on the part of
the automobile industry to cooperate?
HAS FOUND NO UNWILLINGNESS TO COOPERATE WITH GOVERNMENT
Mr. "V^'EiNER. I would say, from my experience with the defense
effort, which dates from last May, I have found no unwilHngness to
cooperate with the Government, either on the part of the automobile
industry or on the part of automobile labor.
Mr. OsMERS. So there might be some truth, then, m the charge that
the Government did not take as quick advantage of the automobik^
facilities as it might have taken?
Mr. Weiner. There might be, or it might be that the extent to
which such facilities were available may have been misjudged, perhaps
on both sides.
For example, one important representative of management in the
motor mdustry made an estimate of the extent to which his tools
could be converted for defense production, and after reconsideration
with a Government representative, he was prepared to admit that he
had put the figure much too low. So there are two sides to that story,
and probably three sides, when you have industrial representatives
who, knowing their own shops better than anyone else, state their
capacitv for defense performance incorrectly.
Certainly most of us in Washington are extremely reluctant to
present managements with contracts which they may not have the
ability to fulfill.
I am sure there has been a good deal of misjudgment, not neces-
sarily willful, on both sides.
Mr. OsMERS. Do you feel that there was an element of pressure hi
the automobile curtailment — I mean pressure to get the manufac-
turers to convert more quickly to defense uses?
Mr. Weiner. I am sure that it has had that eft'ect. It wasn't done
just for that purpose. It was done because of the material shortage,
as I stated; but that was definitely recognized, and I think it is safe
to say that American business still retams its mgenuity, and the tune
when it performs best is when it has to exert itself. I am sure that
is what the automobile industry will do.
Mr. OsMERS. Do you believe that the curtailment program will
lead to conversion of auto-manufacturing facilities on a scale sufficient
to absorb nearly all the displaced workers? My question, Mr.
Weiner, is not whether you personally believe it, but does your
department believe it?
high DEGREE OF REABSORPTION THROUGH DEFENSE BUSINESS
Mr. Weiner. Prophecy is difliicult. The estimates and forecasts
we have at hand are primarily from the Labor Division of O. P. M.,
which has, of course, been concerning itself with this problem of labor
displacement.
The estimates that they made showed a very high degree of re-
absorption through defense business. If that can be accelerated, I
thhik there is good reason to hope that your question can be answered
in the affirmative.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7435
Mr. OsMERS. Another subject that has come before the committee
here and one that has generally brought out criticism of the Govern-
ment, has been the so-cahed spreading out of industry and the build-
ing of factories in places or parts of the country that we do not normally
consider as manufacturing territory.
I think Wichita, Kans., was mentioned, and we might use that as
an example of a community which is not generally associated with
manufacturing, but which has now become an important manufactur-
ing center.
This committee is directly concerned with the migration of workers
that may result from the location of factories in such localities. Has
your division taken into consideration the possibility that the opening
of manufacturing facilities in such places as Wichita, Kans., and the
displacement of workers in Michigan, may lead to a migration of
workers, mechanical workers, from Michigan to Kansas?
LOCATION OF DEFENSE PLANTS
Mr. Weiner. Our division has little direct contact with the problem
of location of new defense plants.
The building of new defense plants in many cases was essential,
particularly in shell-loading plants, or, even more important, in the
production of chemical materials.
Mr. OsMERS. Powder?
Mr. Weiner. Powder necessary for explosives. It is the kind of
thing that we have almost no need for in normal times, but at times
like this the need for them is almost limitless.
When it comes to the, say, metal fabricating plants, certainly the
building of new plants in localities where they have never existed
before raises this migration problem.
1 was looking the other day at a map which showed the outlines of
the area recommended by the experts for the location of defense plants.
They were trying to keep those plants inland — that is, away from
the borders and points of vulnerability. On the same map, there were
pins stuck in to show the actual location of the defense plants, and
there was only a bare handful within that area; the rest were all
outside, mainly on the seacosts, on both sides, some down on the south-
ern seacoast, the Gulf coast, and a good many right here in Michigan.
Mr. OsMERS. It has been disturbing to this committee, as we go
around the country, to observe the results of the Government's policy
of placing a plant in a small community — an operation entirely out of
proportion with the community's labor supply, or the necessary sani-
tary and educational facilities — and it has meant a great deal of human
hardship in some instances.
That is one of the reasons why the people in States like Michigan,
which has these facilities, both manufacturing and community, believe
it would be a wiser policy foi\the Government to place this work through
the normal industrial channels of the country.
Now, we know there is a tremendous amount of concentration of
contracts going on, as the map which you described indicates, but
there are some very notable exceptions.
Mr. Weiner. I am sure there must be.
Mr. OsMERs. The Government has gone into communities of one
or two thousand people and put in operations that will employ ten
7436 DETROIT HEARINGS
thousand people; but I realize the location of those plants is beyond
the scope of your division.
EFFECT OF ADDITIONAL APPROPRIATIONS
Now, we come to another aspect of the defense effort that is very
important — ^the future. The President has requested that Congress
consider a further appropriation under the lend-lease program, of
some $6,000,000,000. I haven't any doubt in my mind, and I don't
believe j^ou have in yours, that Congress will appropriate a sum of
money substantially in accord with the President's request.
Now, what does that do to the work 'of your department? Do you
stand pat, or do you have to go again to the automobile manufac-
turers and ask for a further curtailment, or have you anticipated such
a new appropriation? How will it work out?
Mr. Weiner. I can give only a partial answer to that. In August
of this year the Government paid out a little over $1,000,000,000 for
defense purposes. Taking the national income this year at approxi-
mately $87,000,000,000 — and the best estimates indicate that it will
exceed that — we find a relatively small proportion of our national
income going out for direct defense purposes.
What is even more important, it is small as compared to what the
people we are trying to lick are spending in the way of their defense
purposes. To make the effort really worthwhile, we have got to step
up the defense expenditures of this country to about 2K billion dollars
a month.
Mr. OsMERS. About $30,000,000,000 a year?
Mr. Weiner. About $30,000,000,000 a year; yes. And that is
rather on the low side.
ONE-THIRD OF NATIONAL INCOME FOR DEFENSE PURPOSES
Mr. OsMERS. That would mean, if our income continued about the
same, approximately one-third of our national income for defense
purposes?
Mr. Weiner. One-third or a little lower, because this expenditure
itself contributes toward the enlargement of the national income.
That certainly is not high as compared to England, and it certainly
is not high as compared to Germany, or even as compared to Canada,
which is exceeding 40 percent today, I believe.
material conservation
Now, that means more and more tanks, airplanes, and guns, of
which in ordinary times we produce little or none at all. To strike
the balance between that and the production of civilian goods means
that every effort will have to be made to conserve materials. We
hope a substantial amount of these scarce materials can be saved
through conservation. A tremendous effort w^ill have to be made to
iron out unbalanced inventories, to compel the use of any material
that may have been hoarded before new material is obtained for the
same purpose; to compel better scheduling and also in all the important
instances, to increase the quantities of material available.
Mr. Henderson, from his early days on the Defense Commission,
has been an exponent of the proposition that defense expenditure was
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7437
going to call for a vastly increased amount of raw materials, and we
ought to start providing them. To some extent we have provided
increased amounts, but not nearly as fast as the rate at which the
demand for these materials has mounted, so that the real question —
and I don't know the answer — is whether, having made a schedule
to adjust the material situation to civilian production as it exists
today, we can, by devoting ourselves to conservation, simplification,
expansion of raw material facilities, straightening out of inventories,
and better scheduling, make up for the growmg amounts which the
defense program will requu-e. That is, we hope to be able to maintain
civilian production at about the level that would be estabhshed under
this series of programs that we are working on now, but that can
be done only if we can by these other means save enough additional
material to meet the growing demand for military goods.
Mr. OsMERS. That is a very laudable purpose, I am sure, and no
one would argue with you about it.
Now, from a practical standpoint, what is the Government domg
to make it a fact rather than a purpose?
Mr. Weiner. Well, let us take the conservation side fu'st. I think
that in the past few months, not only the Government, but a large
part of the country, has become conservation-conscious. Take the
automobile industry itself. The extent to which they have reduced
the requirements of aluminum, say, per unit of output, would have
been regarded as phenomenal a short time ago. The same thing is
true as to copper. They cut it down to about 40 or 44 pounds per
car, which is low, especially when you consider the elimination of
aluminum at the same time.
That is going on more and more as pressure is being exerted.
We no longer have copper gutters, but we still build houses with
satisfactory gutters. I think in conservation of the highly critical
materials, real accomplishment will be evident as time goes on.
MATERIAL EXPANSION
On the expansion side, we haven't done as much as some of us
would like to see done. But we haven't been oblivious to it. As I
recall it, in this country we used up in 1939 and 1940 an average of
somewhere between 850,000 and 900,000 tons of copper a year. Now
we actually expect to use — which means we must have available
here for use — somewhere around 1,600,000 tons of copper a year.
We have got the increased supply partly from our own production
and partly from a program of importation from Chile on a much
larger scale.
We have programs under examination now by the iron and steel
section of O. P. M., which is headed up by Mr. Arthur Whiteside,
for expansion of steel capacity by 10,000,000 tons, with an 87,000,000-
ton capacity forecast for the end of this year. Of course 10,000,000
tons would make a very substantial difference, particularly on the
civilian side.
Mr. OsMERS. That brings me right back again, Mr. Weiner, to
that question of the effect of these new defense appropriations on
automobile cm-taUment.
Let us assume that we are spending or will presently spend for
national defense, $30,000,000,000 out of $90,000,000,000. Now, will
that mean a further sharp cm-tailment in automobile production?
7438 DETROIT HEARINGS
Mr. Weiner. I couldn't answer that. It might. We hope it
won't.
Mr. OsMERS. I think we are going to end this fiscal year, if we
go along as we are, with an expenditure for defense of about $20,000,-
000,000 will we not?
Mr. Weiner. $18,000,000,000 is the figure that is generally used.
Mr. OsMERS. Now if we increase that by 66 percent and spend
$30,000,000,000 in the following fiscal j^ear, it seems to me that a
further curtailment will appear likely.
Mr. Weiner. It might well be the case. If w^e have that rate of
expansion of military goods, then something will have to give some-
where. It is difficult to parallel these things, and this is what makes
the business of forecastmg so hazardous. For example, it is hard to
tell whether we are going to have a continuous need of increased trans-
portation facilities, or whether, by providing them at a certain level,
we have met our transportation problem permanently. You have the
same uncertainty with defense plants, and there I might say that to
the extent that we succeed in converting existing plants, we save the
amount of material which it takes to erect new ones.
PRICE FIXING
Mr, OsMERs. All of this discussion that we have been having on
the question of amounts of money spent, and requuTinents and so on,
is based upon the assumption that prices will remain somewhat as they
are. We are workuig into the question of price-fixing, because if we
run into an inflationary spiral with that 30 billions which you and I
have been tossing around here with such careless ease this morning,
dollar figures will come to mean nothing at all. Isn't that correct?
Mr. Weiner. I agree with you entirely.
Mr. Osmers. All of these valuations will go out the window.
Now there are two schools of thought. 1 believe Mr. Henderson
adequately and ably voices one of them, and I think Mr. Baruch, the
other day, may have expressed a different point of view, a more
complete conception than Mr. Henderson has advanced.
Would you care to comment on either the necessity for price fixing,
if we are gobig to go through with all these things, or the effect of price
fixing upon the program?
Mr. Weiner. I had better stick to my last. Your colleagues in
Washington are having Mr. Henderson elaborate now on a subject
which he has already expounded for several weeks.
Mr. Osmers. He has been before committees so long, I think they
ought to make him a member, ex officio.
Mr. Weiner. I hope an honorary one.
Mr. Osmers. Would you care to make any statement with respect
to the importance of price fixing, regardless of the particular type of
price fixing?
Mr. Weiner. The fundamental need of price fixing is pretty uni-
versally acknowledged. I judge that from the fact that organs of
opinion representing wideh^ divergent views pretty much concur in
that general expression. Like many of us in dealing with our private
affairs these various sources believe it should be applied onlv to the
other fellow; but that is the kind of qualification that I think we all
recognize and understand.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7439
Mr. OsMERS. A price-fixing program that did not work would have
the effect of a monkey wrencli tossed into tlie gears of our production
effort, woukl it not?
PRICE ADMINISTRATION, NOT PRICE FIXING, NEEDED
Mr. Weiner. It would be extremely dangerous. Mr. Henderson
has repeatedly made the point that what we need is price administra-
tion, and not j)rice fixing.
It isn't merely a question of saying, "This is the price." It is a
question of arriving at the price adjustment that will also do the job —
that is, maintaining the flow of materials at that price; because if the
materials don't flow, the price fixing is a failure.
Mr. OsMERs. Many manufacturers would be concerned if the
Government should come along and fix their price without fixing the
price of all the costs that go to make up the finished article. They
are very properly afraid that they are going to be caught in a vice,
with a fixed price at the top and an unfixed cost at the bottom.
Mr. Weiner. We don't know what our import situation is going to
be, in the case of a great many commodities; we cannot analyze it
except on a day-to-day basis. There is plenty to be concerned about
in a situation like that, but very httle to do about it.
Mr. OsMERs. The effects of auto curtailment will be felt not only
in the plants here, but also out in the bushes where the cars are sold
and serviced. That industry employs as many men away from the
manufacturing plants as it does at the plants.
We had a panel of automobile manufacturers before the committee
yesterday, and they had quite a wide divergence of opinion as to the
way they ought to distribute their curtailed output.
Some were of the opinion that if a section of the country had been
unusually well supphed with automobiles last year, in the coming year
some other section should get a little preference. But I believe Gen-
eral Motors' representative, Mr. Wilson, contended that no dealer
should receive less than 85 percent of his share, and that the remaining
15 percent would have to be distributed in certam needy areas.
Does your office contemplate entering into that phase of the auto-
mobile curtailment?
Mr. Weiner. We have no plans to do so. We don't know what
the future holds in store. We know there is a problem there. We
don't know whether there is any real job that we could do, as against
what the manufacturers themselves conclude to do.
We have asked them to keep us mformed about it, and to give us
their conclusions by a certain date, so far as they may have arrived
at any, so that with our own study of the problem, we can see whether
there is any need for us.
' Mr. Osmers. a very interesting observation has been made to the
committee, that the heavy equipment in freight car factories is well
suited to armament production, and that the light equipment in truck
factories is not.
The suggestion has been made — naturally it is a Michigan sugges-
tion— that they make a great deal of armament in the freight car
factories and solve the transportation problem by truck.
60396— 41— pt. 18-
7440 DETROIT HEARINGS
Mr. Wetner. I think you will find that the facts are not too far at
variance with that. I think you will find that the locomotive and
freight car shops are producing substantial amounts of military goods.
Mr. OsMERS. I loiow some of them are.
Mr. Weiner. Baldwin is making tanks, and I think you will find
a distribution of defense work right through the industry. Cn the
other hand, as you probably know, the program which we have worked
out to get beyond the passenger automobile stage, which is the one that
caught everybody, is to provide for substantially increased production
of heavy trucks with the object of supplementing rail transportation.
The heavy truck production schedule goes beyond anything we have
ever attempted.
Mr. OsMERS. Are we using the facilities of the freight car manufac-
turers to the extent that we are using the automobile facilities?
Mr. Weiner. I can't answer that. I haven't the figures. I will
try to work them out for you, if you like, and submit them for your
record.^
The freight car manufacturers have been complaining bitterly that
they have been unable to get their material for the needed production
of freight cars, even within a relatively modest program.
Mr. OsMERS. Now, I am going back to some of those general criti-
cisms that I made in the beginning, and I would like to have your view
on the question of crowding these industries. Do you feel that we
haven't crowded them enough?
Mr. Weiner. I think I would always answer a question like that in
the affirmative. I don't think we should ever get into the frame of
mind that we have ever done anything well enough. There is more
crowding to be done on the Government side, and perhaps the shoe
has become a little bit tight on the other foot too, and I suspect some
of the automobile makers may be doing a lot of pushing.
Mr. Osmers. The attitude of Michigan, from all sides, labor and
management, seems to be that one of the real solutions to their troubles
here, in view of the curtailment, would be to increase tremendously
the flow of orders, and business would then speed up automatically.
Mr. Weiner. That certainly would help to solve that problem.
Mr. Osmers. Do you feel that labor's charge that they haven't been
considered and consulted enough in the program is justified? They
were highly critical he^e of the way that management and business
seemed, in their opinion, to have taken over the program.
Mr. Weiner. That condition has undergone a very considerable
change in recent months, largely, I believe, through the eff'orts of the
Labor Division of 0PM. And I know there is complete concurrence
of the other parts of that organization.
> In a letter received subsefjuent to the hearinjr, Mr. Weiner informed the committee as follows:
"According to information received from representatives of the industry, practically every railway car
builder has some defense work in progress and of the approximately 42,000 persons employed, some 13,000
not quite 31 percent, are on direct defense work.
"One company has leased its Baltimore plant to the Maritime Commission for shipbuilding. Others
are building tank bodies in their plants in Buffalo, Chicago, and Hammond. Other products manufactured
by the industry include airplane wings, shells, gun carriages, mortars, and miscellaneous ordnance. The
railway c'lr building industry is not strictly comparable to the automobile and other consumers durable
goods industries since all of its usual peacetime product is classed as essentially civilian. In fact, its oper-
ations have thus far been limited only by a shortage of steel, especially steel plates, and actual production
of freight cars has consistently fallen below the program."
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7441
Perhaps it did take more time than it should have for a general
awareness of the problems, and for a realization that in the planning;
of the program labor has a genuine contribution to make, even from
the technical side, because those men are in large part the technicians.
But under the program inaugurated some months ago, there is a labor
advisory committee for each of the industries, paralleling the man-
agerial committee.
A number of these committees have been formed. Some have been
working with extreme diligence, and, in one or two cases that I know
of, with very considerable effectiveness.
I know the movement is being encouraged. There are representa-
tives of the Labor Division here this afternoon who can give you a
good deal more detail about it. I think the criticism has, to a very
considerable extent, been met.
Mr. Curtis. Who has the final word in the matter of priorities?
SUPPLY, PRIORITIES, AND ALLOCATIONS BOARD HAS FINAL DECISION
Mr. Weiner. At the present time it would be the Supply, Priorities
and Allocations Board — S.P.A.B.
Mr. Curtis. Who is on the staff?
Mr. Weiner. Mr. Wallace is chairman and Mr. Nelson is executive
director.
Mr. Curtis. Now, does that board just lay down general principles,
or does it decide each individual case?
Mr. Weiner. It hasn't been in operation very long, but I see no
possibility that it can do any more than lay down general principles
and review important cases.
Mr. Curtis. Wlio is the executive officer of that board?
Mr. Weiner. Mr. Donald M. Nelson, who is also Director of
Priorities. He is close to the subject in both capacities.
Mr. Curtis. Is the Division of Priorities different from the Division
of Civilian Supply?
Mr. Weiner. Yes, sir. Those are two distinct divisions.
Mr. Curtis. It is rather difficult to separate them, isn't it?
Mr. Weiner. I would say that that is true of many of the divisions
of O. P. M. For example, the question whether to have a gradual
curtailment of civilian production or a uniform curtailment, both as to
time and to the size of the company, or location of the plant; now, those
are questions on which the Labor Division is often better informed
than we are, so the two divisions have to work together.
DETERMINING FACTORS IN ESTABLISHING PRIORITIES
Mr. Curtis. In allowing or denying a priority, what factors are
taken into account? Is it mainly the supply of materials that the
military needs, or are social factors and labor factors taken into
account?
Mr. Weiner. Let me describe it as best I can. It is a rather
broad subject. I will try to answer you, and if I don't, I hope you
will question me further.
7442 DETROIT HEARINGS
The first factor in any distribution of material has to be the supply.
Now, a great many priorities are actually granted without much
regard to the supply. Those are high military priorities. You just
grant them for guns and shipbuilding. You give them A-l-A or
A-l-B — the very highest claim upon the economy, even though you
are not sure how much will be left — simply because that demand
€omes first.
The point where you get into difficulties is wliere you are dealing
with a subject like agricultural equipment. You know that we need
nn abundance of food, particularly in view of the scale on which we
contemplate shipping it abroad. Now we are between what we would
regard as a basic essential on the one side, and the defense essential
on the other. We can't run the risk of leaving an unlimited supply
for this farm equipment because it would pinch too much in other
places. So what we have tried to do is get the hinges together. We
try to take into account the probable need in the light of the Depart-
ment of Agriculture's program for total production, and then to see
to what extent the available equipment might be continued to be
used, in place of the new equipment. The farmer, having more money
in his pocket, and having an old machine, feels that this is a good
time to buy a new one. We hope to have the Department persuade
him to keep on with the old a little longer if that machine is still
serviceable.
That would be an example of what the problem is, and how it is
approached. As I recall it, a priority was granted for farm equip-
ment, and the figure was at a percentage higher than the rate at which
we had had actual production in 1940. I believe it was 120 percent
of the 1940 average production.
Mr. Curtis. Suppose a manufacturer using steel has no priority
whatever, and can't claim any. Is there any way for him to determine
whether he can get any steel in 1942?
Mr. Weiner. I don't know how he can determine it if he has no
claim for a priority.
Mr. Curtis. He can't connect his business with the defense pro-
gram by any reasonable stretch of imagination, tlow is he going to
know what he can do in 1942?
Mr. Weiner. 1 don't know how he is, sir.
Mr. Curtis. What materials are we short of? Up to the present
time the greatest shortage has been in the metals, has it not?
MATERIAL SHORTAGES
Mr. Weiner. The most extreme shortage is in alumiiuim. There
is some dilTerence of opinion as to whether we will meet the military
heed, with an absolute minimum for civilian requirements, or whether
we will fall a little short.
Mr. Curtis. Is there a shortage in steel?
Mr. Weiner. There is a shortage in steel, based on what the de-
fense industries of this country will take, and what the people of this
<;ountry would buy in the way of civilian goods.
Mr. Curtis. I am not asking you for the figures, but does your
office know how much steel is on hand ni the United States, and how
much will be on hand on January 1, including the stocks on hand with
manufacturers, and the amount that will be used between now and
then, and the amount we will have produced?
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7443
Mr. Weiner. We have estimates which are made largely by the
groups that deal in steel, primarily the Iron and Steel Division of
O. P. M., which I mentioned before, the one headed by Mr. ^Vhiteside;
the Research and Statistics Division, headed by Mr. Stacy May; and
the Iron and Steel Institute, which has been doing a great deal of
work at the request of O. P. M., in furnishing us information.
I doubt, however, if anyone would be rash enough to assert that the
figures available today are accurate. But they do indicate definite
conditions such as a fairly substantial shortage.
Mr. Curtis. Regardless of appropriations or plans made on paper,
it should be known about how much steel can be consumed by
defense factories in the next 3 or 4 months.
Mr. Weiner. I think we have that estimated. It is bemg reesti-
mated at the present time, because there was considerable dissatis-
faction with the figures.
FACTORS preventing CORRECT ESTIMATES
Mr. Curtis. And you will know what steel you are going to pro-
duce during that time?
Mr. Weiner. We shall know pretty well, although even there, sir,
there are factors of uncertainty. For example, we are all greatly
concerned at the present time with the shortage of scrap, which affects
the quantity that we can actually produce. You see, we shipped so
much of it out of the country in past years that there isn't as much
available now as we would like to have and need.
Mr. Curtis. In other words, these are just estimates. There is
nobody who knows what you have or what you will have, say on Janu-
ary 1, which is not very far oft". There is no mathematical tabulation,
Mr. Weiner. We have mathematical tabulations, but those mathe-
matical tabulations are estimated, and it would be wrong to regard
them as anything else.
Mr. Curtis. Do you know what the actual militarv needs of steel
will be for 1942? '
Mr. Weiner. No, sir; because we haven't yet had any complete
program of military production for 1942.
Take, for example, the situation confronting us today. Here we
have the Russian situation. The Russians are here, both with their
own money and with requests for American financial aid, to get mili-
tary materials. If the policy of this country is to help them, that will
increase the quantity of military materials needed, and will make
necessary a reestimate. If Congress appropriates money in one
amount, you have your military program set; if it doesn't, then your
military program is something else. There is no way to make an
estimate or calculation which would give you now the situation as it
will exist throughout all of 1942.
Take as an example the shipbuilding situation. If a program is
set, and then you have tanker diversion, that changes your problem
somewhat. If you have ships sunk, that changes your problem. If
you have imports cut off from some country, that again changes
your problem.
Mr. Curtis. But you will know how much steel it will take to run
all your shipyards at full capacity, won't you?
Mr. Weiner. We now have several projects to put down additional
ways in the shipyards, if the rate of sinkings and the desire of this
7444 DETROIT HEARINGS
country to build a bridge of boats between here and England make
that expansion advisable. If that occurs, it will in turn take an addi-
tional amount of material.
Mr. Curtis. Suppose that decision is made. How many months
will elapse before you start using the steel?
Mr. Weiner. Not too many months, sir. Some time elapses, of
course, between the blueprint stage and actual construction. At
the same time, you have to make allowance for the fabrication proc-
ess and for transportation, so that the margin is not too great.
If you have, for the beginning of your deliveries, a margin of 4 or 5
months, that still might well be reflected within that year's capacity.
Mr. Curtis. You do know what the average peacetime con-
sumption of steel would be, or what it has been m the last 4 or 5 years?
Mr. Weiner. We know what it has been. People disagree as to
what is a good figure to use as an average. We felt 35,000,000 tons
during the depth of the depression was about bottom.
estimate of secondary military needs
Mr. Curtis. Do you know what the secondary military needs of
steel will be? I don't know whether you use that term or not, but
I am referring to activities such as transportation, added civihan
needs in defense centers, and that sort of thing.
Mr. Weiner. We have estimates of all of those things, sir.
Mr. Curtis. Those needs are not dependent upon the foreign
situation. They are pretty much our own problem here.
Mr. Weiner. They are. I don't think they are entirely inde-
pendent, though. For example, consider the transportation system.
As you probably know, we have had some diversion of intercoastal
shipping. In fact, there was a planned diversion. It was indicated
pretty plainly that it was more than we could stand at the present
time, so the plans were modified; and one of the reasons modification
was necessary was the inability of the railroads to take on that extra
volume of traffic.
If the ships aren't available, the rails will have to carry the traffic.
Something will have to be done to reheve our transportation system,
or else that material will have to stay at home.
no shortage of rubber
Mr, Curtis. Is there a shortage of rubber?
Mr. Weiner. The answer, I think, is "No." Apart from the
supply of synthetic rubber, our sources are all abroad, and at great
distance, as you know.
The Army and Navy, and I think everyone connected with the
defense program who is interested in it, is seriously concerned with the
possibility that that source of supply might be cut oflf at any time.
It wasn't so long ago that the general consensus was that it would
be cut off, at least for the time, so that a recommendation was made
and acted upon to stock-pile rubber. In that sense, we are not short
of rubber. We have a fairly substantial amount now in this country
which isn't being processed, and rubber is still moving into this country
today. We are using a lot of shipping, bringing in that rubber, and
we are just scared to use it up.
Mr. Curtis. What have you done to curtail the use of rubber?
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7445
RUBBER CURTAILMENT PROGRAM
Mr. Weiner. There was a program which, as I recall it, went into
effect on the first of July, for a continuing percentage decrease in the
amount of crude rubber that could be processed by the industries
using it.
That program is in effect now. The reason for using it was that
there was a stock-pile program which couldn't be met by complete
importation on top of the phenomenal rate at which we were using up
rubber.
We reached a rate of 850,000 tons a year, which is simply staggering
because in 1940 we had 600,000 tons for the total year's consumption,
and that was a peak year. In order to meet the stock-pile require-
ments, a curtailment program was put into effect, and is in operation
today. The purpose of that is to get a stock-pile of something over
a half million tons by the end of the year.
Mr. Curtis. How are you curtailing rubber?
Mr. Weiner. An order allows a percentage of the amount used
by the concern during a base period.
Mr. Curtis. What percentage is the manufacturer allowed?
Mr. Weiner. The figure changes each month at the request of the
industry.
The reduction was staggered so as to allow greater opportunity for
adjustment. The intent was to get the industry down by the end
of the year to an annual rate of 600,000 tons, which was the 1940
rate and therefore still a very high figure as judged by any standard
that we are familiar with.
Mr. Curtis. Has it been cut 20 percent or 30 percent?
Mr. Weiner. In terms of percentage of the maximum rate at
which we have been producing, it comes to something over 30, if I
recall it.
Mr. Curtis. After this rubber is made into automobile tires, are
they distributed on the basis of priority?
Mr. Weiner. No, sir; there is no restriction on tire production or
distribution.
Mr. Curtis. As of today, would it be safe to assume that the
average dealer could get 70 percent as many tires as he got a year ago?
Mr. Weiner. The whole program hasn't yet gone into effect. The
bottom isn't to be reached until the end of this year, so the present
rate may be higher; but that may be about right^that he could get
70 percent of — not a year ago, sir; we are exceeding today in rubber
production what we had back in June a year ago.
Mr. Curtis. But I am speaking of the retailer who is supplying the
civilian needs.
Mr. Weiner. What I am saying, sir, is that the rate at which we
are producing tires today is still in excess of the rate at which we
produced tires a year ago, although it may be 30 percent below the
rate we hit in June of this year, which was an all-time high.
Mr. Curtis. If our source of supply of rubber was entirely cut off,
how lona: would present supplies and synthetic-rubber supplies last?
Mr. Weiner. I would be guessing if I tried to answer that. I
haven't the figures in mind.
Mr. Curtis. Do you think it would be less than a year?
Mr. Weiner. Yes; at the rate at which we are operating today. In
fact, I am almost certain it is less than a year's supply, and that was
7446 DETROIT HEARINGS
one of the very alarming things about the situation which brought
on this curtailment.
Mr. Curtis. Has announcement of the curtailment increased the
demand for rubber?
Mr. Weiner. Well, we have heard it both ways, sir. The demand
that we are speaking of would be reflected in the retail market. So
far as the manufacturer is concerned, that demand is fixed by the
curtailment itself. The individual buyer, perhaps in fear of higher
prices, goes in and buys two or four tires, putting them away in his
garage or in the cellar.
We have been told that that has happened. I do not doubt it.
Supplies in the hands of the dealers are greatly diminished; yet
there hasn't been any great run upon the tire supply. Some run of this
kind is almost inevitable unless you want to clamp an unmediate
restriction on consumers. But the question arises. Is it wise and
administratively feasible to tell people immediately how many cars
or how many tires they can buy, and under what circumstances?
We don't think this situation is sufficiently acute, or likely to be,
to call for that, and our general principle, in this matter of market
restriction, is ''Don't do anything you can avoid doing."
FILLING OF NONPRIORITY ORDERS
Mr. Curtis. Coming back to the steel situation, here is a steel
company, let us say, or a jobber who has steel on hand, and he has an
order for steel from some manufacturer who has no priority claim.
Can he fill the order? Can he fill part of the order? What does
he do?
Mr. Weiner. It depends on the priorities he has. If he has
priorities which absorb his total supply, then he would be violating
those orders. If he has room for the fulfillment of that order, plus
the amount required of him because of priorities, he can fill that order,
and he should fill it.
Mr. Curtis. Do you know whether they are doing it?
Mr. Weiner. So far as we know, they are filling orders where
possible. When the total amount of orders exceeds the capacity,
a picking and choosing process is involved. The manufacturer may
not choose to fill one order because he is dealing with a customer who
has been shopping around — hasn't bought from him steadily — or
perhaps he complained about prices or discounts or deliveries. I hear
now and then of customers who are told their orders could not be
filled on account of priorities, when the real reason was that the manu-
facturer wanted to sell to somebody else.
Mr. Curtis. Do you think it would be more satisfactory if we
could work out a plan under which the manufacturer could say to
these concerns, "You can have 40 percent or 60 percent of what you
have ,been having"?
IN FAVOR OF definite ALLOCATIONS
Mr. Weiner. Yes, sir; I am in favor of allocating as far as possible,
because the one thing that it accomplishes, which is needed above all,
is that it serves to tell people where they stand, so that they can act
accordingly. I thmk that is far more satisfactory, and I think right
now the defense agencies are planning to. move as rapidly as feasible
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7447
in that direction.^ I think the automobile curtaihnent program was
based in substantial part upon that desire to bring some certainty
into the situation which otherwise is extremely chaotic. When people
don't know where they stand, they try to buy everything in the hope
they will have a chance to use it.
Mr. Curtis. As an individual Congressman, I am faced with that
problem. Manufacturers come to me with it. They don't know
from month to month, whether they can stay in business. They are
patriotic people, they will take it on the chin, regardless of what the
order is. It would remove fear, it would remove mistrust, it would
enable them to clarify their attitude toward their employees, if they
knew that for 6 months or a year they could have half of their previous
consumption, or 60 percent, or 70 percent, or whatever it might be.
Mr. Weiner. I think, sir, you will find that between now and say
the end of the year, decisions of that kind will be made and
published to cover practically all the important areas of our economy.
Mr. Curtis. But that information is not available.
Mr. Weiner. The information is not available. We have had a
good many programs which we worked up to a certain point, and
then we had to adjust ourselves to the reorganization, which has slowed
us up in our operations as any reorganization does. But now we are
engaged in it again. The S. P. A. B. has announced it wants to move
more and more into the field of allocations, a conclusion with which
we are in complete accord.
Mr. Curtis. Don't you feel that such decisions will take a tre-
mendous load off your priorities staff? At the present time these
individuals are trying to collect mformation and affidavits that some
of this material went into defense production.
Mr. Weiner. I believe every bit of that, and I think I could illus-
trate to the point of extreme boredom that those consequences would
be exactly m line with what you say.
Mr. Curtis. I have one other question m reference to the cut in
automobile production .
Why was there a difference between the cut in the Big Three and
the rest of them?
Mr. Weiner. I would say there were several reasons, sir. The
smaller concerns are brought to the borderline between shutdown and
ability to go on far more rapidly than the major concerns. Small and
large companies alike recognize this, and there is no dispute about it.
There is a point of mmimum production. And that same Ime exists
also for the dealer force. They have to have at least a minimum
number of cars to keep in existence. There is more leeway when the
total production is as large as in the case of the Big Three.
Mr. Curtis. Has it occurred to you that in the distribution of those
cars, in a given town there may be two dealers across the street from
each other?
Mr. Weiner. Yes, sir.
Mr. Curtis. Then if the Big Three's production cut is greater, the
dealer for Willys or Nash, gets perhaps 85 percent of the cars he has
1 On November 7, 1941, the S. P. A. B. auuounced a major revision of policy, under which the priorities
system was to be gradually replaced by a system of allocations.
7448 DETROIT HEARINGS
previously been getting, but the Chevrolet or Ford dealer can only-
get about 47 or 48 percent.
Mr. Weiner. I don't think you will find the percentages as wide
apart as that.
Mr. Curtis. But there is a difference.
Mr. Weiner. There is a difference. Those percentages were gone
over with a representative of every company, big and small, and that
difference in scaling, if my recollection serves me, was not objected to
by any of the Big Three.
Mr. Curtis. Were the dealers represented?
Mr. Weiner. The dealers were not represented at that discussion,
sir.
Mr. Curtis. There is no shortage of gasoline, is there?
Mr. Weiner. I believe there is.
Mr. Curtis. You think there is?
Mr. Weiner. Yes; in certain areas.
Mr. Curtis. Where?
Mr. Weiner. In the northeast.
Mr. Curtis. Is there any shortage in crude oil?
Mr. Weiner. So far as I know there is not, but I am not an expert
on that.
Mr. Curtis. Is there a shortage of refining facilities?
Mr. Weiner. The last I heard, our refmeries were working at
somethmg like 95 percent of capacity.
I would suspect, not knowing that industry, but judging from
others, that 95 percent of theoretical capacity really approaches very
close to actual capacity, which indicates a new problem m oil refining.
Mr. Curtis. In the "oil quota States" we have some oil wells that
are not permitted to produce even 1 percent of their capacity, and the
geologists and the oil experts are agreed that for good conservation
purposes they should produce at least 5 percent to prevent deterio-
ration and seepage and other losses. That is the situation you have in
some oil-producing States.
Mr. Weiner. You have me away off base.
Mr. Curtis. That is all.
Mr. Sparkman. I want to ask you a few questions, very hurriedly,
because you have been here a long time.
As I understand this situation, the curtailment in automobile
production was brought about primarily by a necessary curtailment
in allotment of certain raw materials, particularly steel and aluminum.
Are those the two principal ones?
COPPER shortage
Mr. Weiner. And copper. I think copper at the moment bothers
the automobile manufacturers more than any other material.
Mr. Sparkman. Is there any substitute for copper?
Mr. Weiner. Some substitutions have been made.
Mr. Sparkman. I mean in the automobile field.
Mr. Weiner. Apparently they have reached what they regard as
practically the minimum in copper, particularly for radiators.
Mr. Sparkman. What is being done to increase the output of
copper?
Mr. Weiner. That is a rather large-scale program. I will hit it in
a hurry if that is what you want.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7449
Mr. Sparkman. I would like to have you tell me.
Mr. Weiner. We got a Government buying program financed by
the Government through the Metals Reserve Company, for impor-
tation of copper from Chile. We have had negotiations with a num-
ber of plants for Government financing of expansion. We have made
arrangements with some plants, especially here in the Upper Penin-
sula of Alichigan, for the purchase of their copper at a rate above the
ordinary sellmg price, because of the special cost problem presented
there.
We have got negotiations going for various subsidized expansions,
and we are very hopeful that we can, within the near future, get an
increase of available supply at the rate of say, a quarter of a million
tons a yesLT.
Mr. Sparkman. Has work commenced on the expansion that you
refer to?
Mr. Weiner. Actual work in only one or two places, on minor
projects.
STEEL PRODUCTION
Mr. Sparkman. That same thing is true with reference to steel, is
it not?
Mr. Weiner. Some steel expansion, I believe, is actually in process,
Mr. Sparkman. I believe that is true. Some new plants are being
built.
Mr. Weiner. We have expansions of existing plants; we have had
a building of ore carriers here on the Great Lakes. We have brought
down far more ore this year, as you know, than we have ever had done
before.
ALUMINUM expansion PROGRAM
Mr. Sparkman. Now, with reference to aluminum, of course, we
have quite an expansion program there.
Mr. Weiner. Yes, sir.
Mr. Sparkman. We have been hearing a great deal of talk about
expansion of the steel industry and expansion of the aluminum indus-
try. That has been going on for nearly a year now, and I don't believe
a single one of those aluminum plants is under construction yet.
Mr. Weiner. I thought the Alcoa plant had been started. I know
they negotiated a contract about a month ago. The Reynolds plant
has been expanded, and is now producing.
Mr. Sparkman. They went in as an independent concern and buHt
their own plant.
Mr. Weiner. Borrowed some money to build it with.
Mr. Sparkman. But a while ago we were talking of building govern-
ment aluminum plants, and not a single one is under construction.
Contracts have been negotiated with the Aluminum Co. of America
to operate Government-owned plants, I believe to the extent of 500,-
000,000 pounds, but not another contract has been made.
Mr. Weiner. I thought they either had signed the contracts or were
on the verge of signing.
Mr. Sparkman. That is not true, unless they have been signed today
or late yesterday. But is there any answer for the tardiness of that
expansion program?
Mr. Weiner. I am not enough of an expert to answer that.
7450 DETROIT HEARINGS
Mr. Sparkman. It seems to me that the slowness of the proper
governmental agency — whatever it may be — to get this expansion
program under way is attributable in great part to our uneasiness and
the attitude with which we approach allocations.
Now, with reference to rubber. Of course, that is one of the stra-
tegic materials that we have been buying for a little over a year now.
Mr. Weiner. Yes, sir.
Mr. Sparkman. I believe you testified that we had on hand a
stock pile that probably would run a little less than a year if all
supplies were cut off.
Mr. Weiner. That is my impression.
Mr. Sparkman. The world production of rubber is about 1,500,000
tons a year, is it not?
Mr. Weiner. I don't know.
rubber purchases
Mr. Sparkman. I am sure that is correct; and the extent to which
we are buying it now is about 1,200,000 tons a year.
Mr. Weiner. That is very close to the figure.
Mr. Sparkman. And our normal purchases were about 750,000 tons
a year.
Mr. Weiner. That is approximately correct.
Mr. Sparkman. In other words, we are buying nearly three-fourths
of the available world supply now. And the effort is being made to
purchase the rubber on as orderly a basis as possible, so as not to
disturb world prices?
Mr. Weiner. Yes, sir; and I think we have done quite well on that.
Mr. Sparkman. I do, too, and as a matter of fact, the private com-
panies have cooperated very well in building up their own stock piles,
isn't that true?
Mr. Weiner. There has been a good deal of private stock piling,
which is now stopped because of the Government stock pile which is
operated through' the Rubber Reserve Corporation.
Mr. Sparkman. And the Rubber Reserve Corporation and the
private companies have worked together very nicely, as I understand
it.
Mr. Weiner. They have done an excellent job, w^hich I think
everyone is very happy about. They have moved the rubber where
it could best be stored.
Mr. Sparkman. The allocations that you referred to a minute ago
with reference, for instance, to steel — are those allocations based upon
the anticipated production after this expanded program is put into
effect?
Mr. Weiner. The allocations that we hope to make on an industry-
wide basis would be adjusted to the anticipated programs.
The actual operating allocations are today month-to-month figures,
based upon the actual rolling capacity of the mills and on orders on
hand .
Mr. Sparkman. Reference was made to advance buying of various
critical materials by the Army and Navy and possibly other defense
agencies.
Do you have any Imowledge of that?
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7451
Mr. Weiner. We have never investigated specifically any such
case. But I can venture to say that we didn't buy up critical mate-
rials.
Mr. Sparkman. Have these agencies been buymg steel beyond their
immediate requirements?
STOCK PILE PROPOSALS
Mr. Weiner. Some time ago Mr. Baruch and others had advocated
that we ought to stock pile these critical materials, but we have always
acted upon the general belief that this is a comitry of unlimited re-
sources and that it had everything within its o^^^l borders and it was
so hard to get rid of that conception that the proposal to stock pile
was difficult to get across.
It is hard for people to realize that tin and chrome and rubber,
which are among the essentials of our economy, are just not obtainable
in this country, that we import them.
Mr. Sparkman. I really did not intend to refer to those critical
materials. I really meant steel. Has there been any unwarranted,
forward buying m steel?
Air. Weiner. I have heard it said that the military forces have
got deliveries of materials — some armor plate or ship plate of various
kinds — long before they were actually incorporated into the military
article.
I have also heard it said that supplies of one sort or another have
been accumulated and stored against an emergency.
As I indicated before, I have no doubt that to some extent it has oc-
curred— partly through fear of being iniable to get material and partly
through difficulties in controlling the schedules. You can't be quite
sure when you will need it, and if you need these defense things, your
decision must balance the risk of not being able to get your ship out
as fast as possible, agamst the risk of tying up needed materials longer
than you have to. It is a difficult job for anybody to manage, and
I do not like to go scattering hasty accusations.
Mr. Sparkman. This board known as the S. P. A. B. is a relatively
new set-up?
Mr. Weiner. Yes, sir.
Mr. Sparkman. And the purpose of its organization is to smooth
out these very things?
Mr. Weiner. Yes, sir; and I think it is doing it.
Mr. Sparkman. I have great confidence in its accomplishing that.
Am I correct m inferring from your statement that the plan will be
to give out more or less blanket allocations — percentage allocations,
rather than a single specific priority to each individual company?
Mr. Weiner. The plan will be to decide to what extent the avail-
able material will enable various types of industries to operate at
given rates.
LIGHT-TRUCK CURTAILMENTS
Mr. Sparkman. You have stated that heavy duty trucks were
not bemg curtailed. Someone has suggested that that applies only
to trucks above IK tons in size.
As a matter of fact the trucks under that size are the ones that are
of primary importance to agriculture, aren't they?
Mr. Weiner. That mav be.
7452 DETROIT HEARINGS
Mr. Sparkman. And probably to ordinary commerce — not cross-
country transportation?
Mr. Weiner. That is primarily for delivery of light stuff.
Mr. Sparkman. Do you think the curtailment there would be
somewhat in Ime with passenger cars?
Mr. Weiner. The curtailment there, as I recall it, was tenatively
set at 30 percent, as against a very high recent rate of production —
higher than passenger cars, in relation to the general replacement
rate that is going on. I thmk we need a somewhat higher rate in
practically all instances of vehicles which are used commercially, as
;against those used individually, because more people get service by
them.
Mr. Sparkman. Now, this is my last question. As a matter of
fact, isn't this the situation: We are engaged in a complete defense
effort, and in order to accomplish that, all other matters must be
subordinated, insofar as this is reasonable or possible. The great
difficulty lies in the unwillingness, or perhaps the failure, of our people
to make sacrifices of their Tiormal peacetime privileges for the com-
pletion of that program. Do you see the general situation in that
light?
Mr. Weiner. Well, in answering the first part of your question, if
we are not "all-out," I think we had better get that way. If we are
not engaged in that kind of an effort, we better had be. As to the
Tinwilhngness
Mr. Sparkman. Probably I should not say "unwillmgness, but
the slowness. , , .
Mr. Weiner. There is that slowness there, and it is quite natural.
It is hard on those of us who have to go around trying to explain
what this means, and we get a good many brickbats. At the same
time, we have to bear with this peculiar phenomenon, which is perhaps
unavoidable after the first stages of a defense program.
The beginning of a defense program doesn't bring any reahzation
on the part of anybody that real sacrifices will be necessary. It takes
up unused capacity, and there are more dollars to buy goods with,
and at the same time some defense goods are produced. It is only a
trickle, a small trickle, but if all you want is a small trickle, that
makes' everybody happy. There is more spending, more employ-
ment, and more goods; more new automobiles and more new refrig-
erators. That is just fine — until you get to the point where the
pinch really comes.
So that the impact of a real defense effort on the psychology of the
people, instead of coming at the start of the defense program, really
strikes' a year or a year and a half after the best times the people may
have had in some years. Then it is awfully hard to adjust to the
necessity of sacrificing for the defense effort. I think it takes a little
time, but as it ge,ts on, I haven't the slightest doubt that the people
of this country will make the sacrifices necessary.
Mr. Sparkman. It is a sacrifice we have to make.
Mr. Weiner. Yes, sir; and I am sure we will do it.
The Chairman. Mr. Weiner, I would like to ask you some ques-
tions myself, but the time element is with us here just as it is in the
national defense program, so we wiU recess at this time.
As chairman of this committee, I want to say to you that I thmk you
have made a very patient and intelligent presentation. It will be
of value to us, and we thank you very much.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7453
Mr. Weiner. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate the spirit
in which this hearing has been conducted. I should like to add that
the brief mentioned in Mr. Henderson's telegram is now in preparation
and you will receive a copy as soon as it is ready.
The Chairman. We will adjourn until 1:30 this afternoon.
(Whereupon, at 12:30 p. m., the committee adjourned until 1:30
p. m., the same day.)
(The paper referred to above was received subsequent to the hear-
mg. It is as follows:)
STATEMENT BY DIVISION OF CIVILIAN SUPPLY, OFFICE OF
PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C.
replies to questions addressed to the division by the house select
committee investigating national defense migration
October 24, 1941.
Question 1 : What are the principal material shortages which have made necessary the
curtailment of civilian production programs, and to what extent have these short-
ages developed?
As Mr. Henderson testified before your committee in July, the curtailment of
the automoble industry was brought about by a shortage of materials for civilian
use arising from their diversion to defense production. This condition is going
to bring about a cut in civilian output no matter what measures are taken; the
commodities that will be affected are those made out of materials required for
defense.
For illustration, the extent of the shortages of two of these materials — steel and
copper — can be indicated. Even though the extent of the shortage could not be
measured exactly, there was no question as long ago as May that the supply of
steel was already inadequate. Steel producers received more orders than they
could fill, so that they had to cut down or push back tlie date of delivery on some
orders. By the middle of the summer, many steel fabricating plants curtailed
their operations, and a few more compelled to shut down completely because of
their inability to secure steel. In recent weeks, such large users of steel as the
automobile and refrigerator industries have been unable to fill their curtailed
requirements of particular types of steel.
\\'e did not need the letters from manufacturers who had been denied steel, or
the knowledge that the steel companies had to reject or scale down orders, to
foresee the present inadequacy of steel supplies. The large volume of defense
consumption, and the high levels of national income, combined to create so great
a demand for steel that the adequacy of supplies was questioned as far back as
January 1941, when the Dunn report was prepared. A technique, which we apply
to other materials, was developed to predict the adequacy of material supplies
to meet orders.
DEMAND FOR STEEL IN TERMS OF ANTICIPATED NATIONAL INCOME
The amount of steel ordered from the steel mills depends largely on the national
income. In prosperous times, both businessmen and consumers spend more
monev on goods which contain steel or require steel for their manufacture or trans-
portation; in a depression, the reverse is true. Consequently, the demand for
steel can be estimated in terms of anticipated national income. Given a national
income of (say) $87,000,000,000, it is a good guess that civilian demand for
finished steel will today be about 52,000,000 tons.
Total capacity for finished steel is estimated at 62.0 million tons for 1941.
Military needs for this year are estimated at 17.64 million tons, leaving 44.36 for
civilian and export use. Comparing this 44 mijlion tons with the estimated
civilian demand of 52 million tons, it would appear that the amount of steel for
civilian use will be less than the amount demanded by 7.64 million tons in 1941.
ORDERS ON BOOKS OF STEEL COMPANIES
These estimates, however, have been out of date for some time. They are
undergoing revision, and, unfortunately, are incomplete at the present time. A
better guide to the steel situation is given by the orders on the books of the steel
7454 DETROIT HEARINGS
companies. For the second half of 1941, civihan orders are about half of the total
orders. Since defense orders are filled first, civilian industry will, therefore, be
compelled to get along on less than 50 percent of the steel capacitj' .
Another basis for measuring the extent of the current steel shortage is the
relationship between the available steel suplies during recent months and the
amount of steel consumed last year. If all defense orders scheduled for delivery
in July and August had been filled, as they should have been, the amount of steel
left for civilian industry and nondefense export would have been about 70 percent
of average steel production in 1940. The amount of steel available for nondefense
use would have been only 88 percent of average steel production in 1939, a none
too prosperous peacetime year.
In other words, steel available for nondefense consumption was 30 percent
below 1940 consumption. It is interesting to compare this figure with the cut of
26.6 percent in automobiles during the months August through November. Of
course, some steel was used for defense production during July and August 1940,
but an allowance for that small quantity still leaves the over-all cut to civilian
use in the neighborhood of 25 percent.
SHORTAGE OP COPPER
The shortage of copper is even more serious that that of steel. In recent years
before the defense effort, copper was consumed at a rate of 70-odd-thousand tons a
month. We have substantially increased the supply so that the estimated amount
of refined copper available for September, 1941, was about 133,200 tons. But
since applications for copper total fully 219,900 tons, the supply is just about 60
percent of the demand. Here again, as with steel, we are confronted with the
necessity of fulfilling essential defense demands not 60 percent, but 100 percent,
with a correspondingly greater cut for postponable demands. Items classified as
defense (all ratings above A-10) amounted to 97,700 tons, leaving only 35,500 tons.
In other words, civilian industry is going to get 30 percent of the copper refined.
Compare this with the record of' the 12 months, July 1939 to June 1940, before the
defense program was announced. The total amount demanded today is 288 per-
cent of what was consumed during that year. The amount available for civilian
use today is 46.5 percent of last year's consumption. Of course, some of 1939-40
consumption was military. If we allow 10 percent for that, we find that civilian
industry now has available not quite 51 percent of what was used in 1939-40.
Or, putting it differently, civilian industry as a whole will have to take a 49 per-
cent cut from the 1939-40 level of operations. Since the 1941 level has been
substantially higher, the cut from current rates of consumption will be heavier.
Nor does the future look any better. For the 12 months, July 1941 to June
1942, Office of Production Management and Office of Price Administration
estimates of copper available range between 143,000 and 152,000 tons per month.
But purely military requirements will take 69,000 tons — almost half — and essen-
tial civilian or indirect defense another 46,000, leaving only 28,000 to 37,000 tons
per month for strictly civilian use. As with steel, the estimates of military require-
ments are based on the amount of appropriations during the early months of the
year and take no account of aid to Russia. They are almost certainly too low.
OTHER SCARCE MATERIALS
The consumers' durable goods industries also consume large proportions of
other scarce materials, including nickel, aluminum, chromium, rubber, tin, and
zinc. The acuteness of the shortage varies with each material, but savings are
necessary in practically every case. The curtailment programs announced to
date — automobiles and refrigerators — were intended to save substantial quantities
of each of these scarce materials.
NEED FOR NEW FABRICATING MACHINES
The materials needed by the defense program can be secured as they are mined
and smelted, but the provision of new machines to fabricate them is so much more
difficult and i)rolonged a process that we must make full use of our existing equip-
ment. The plants making consumers' durable goods are a large and as yet little-
tapped reservoir of munition-making capacity; but Government action is necessary
to assure their utilization. The firms in these industries naturally prefer to
continue supplying a profitable Civilian market. They do not want to lose
touch with their permanent customers, nor do they relish the prospect of immo-
bihzing part of their equipment in order to produce military products with the
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7455
remainder. But it has never been the feeling of the Division of Civilian Supply
that only those plants should be diverted to defense which could use almost all
of their equipment in defense production. The time is too short to worry about
slight wastes. In avoiding such slight wastes, we must not be guilty of the
greater wastefulness of failing to use for defense production what we already have.
The producers of automobiles and other consumers' durable goods have certain
equipment, space, engineering ability, and other talents which are useful for
defense. An automobile company is an operating mechanism which can change
its direction much more quickly than a new plant can be constructed from scratch.
The mere fact that it cannot be utilized 100 percent is a very poor reason for not
utilizing the substantial percentage that is adaptable to defense. _ ^
The pressing need for mobilizing for defense as much as possible of America s
productive capacitv was, therefore, a strong reason for the Division's plan to
curtail the output of automobiles and of other consumers' durable goods.
Question 2: How does the Division of Civilian Supply approach the problem of
allocafion?
The Division of Civilian Supply was originally created as part of the Office of
Price Administration and Civilian Supply, to cope with just such a situation as
faces us now. Its functions were continued when it was transferred to Ofhce
of Production Management by tlie Executive order of August 28, 1941, which
required it to "formulate plans and programs providing for the equitable distribu-
tion among competing civilian demands of the materials, articles, power, fuel,
and other commoditie's made available by the Supply Priorities and Allocations
Board for civilian use." But the responsibility of the Division does not end with
the program it formulates, or the industries it regulates; it extends to those
materials and industries which it chooses to leave unregulated. The lack of a
program means that the Division approves the flow of materials and products
which results when the particular industry is left to its own devices. Whatever
the outcome of regulation or nonregulation, the Executive order makes the
Division responsible for it.
Naturally, the Division takes no action when the supply of materials is adequate.
No restrictions have been made on the use of many basic commodities, such as
cotton glass, ceramics, and wood.
The Division must take action to direct the distribution of materials which are
not available in sufficient quantity to meet defense and civilian demands. This
action has so far been of two major types, (o) preference ratings, and (6) limita-
tion orders.
(a) Preference ratings are the oldest and best-known allocation device. Those
orders wliose fulfillment is deemed most important are delivered first, and less
essential uses must wait their turn. Military demands must, of course, be met
first; but in distributing the residual supply, the Division has granted the highest
civilian preference rating to manufacturers of hospital supplies, surgical equipment,
maintenance and repair parts, motorbusses and trucks, and other industries which
are indirectlv essential to defense or necessary to the public health and safety.
(b) limitation orders limit either the amount of material which an industry
may use, or tli.e amount of its outjjut. In both cases, the effect is to set a certain
figure as a ceiling on its material consumj^tion, but this amount is not formally
allocated. Tlie limit on material consumption in one industry releases materials
for other industries. Thus the net effect of the program is roughly to allocate the
available materials. (The reasons for this indirect method are given in the reply
to cjuestion 6.)
Question S: What are the procedures whertby the Division determines that the national
interest requires conservation of a given raw material?
Strictly speaking, it is not the Division of Civilian Supply which determines the
necessitv for conservation. It is the function of the other branches of Office of
Production Management, working with Army and Navy, lend-lease, and Maritime
Corn-mission officials, to compile estimates of defense needs and available supplies
which the Division takes as the starting point for its operations. These data are
needed to estimate the amounts available for civilian industry, and by comparing
these with both records of past and estimates of future consumption, the extent
of the shortage is roughly determined. Unfortunately, many of the estimates are
necessarily little better than guesswork. Moreover, increases in military needs
automatically decrease the amounts available for civilian use, and material sup-
plies which seem to be plentiful at one time may suddenly become quite short.
Excessive optimism, however, is soon corrected, for as the shortages become
apparent, the businessmen affected quickly apprise the Division of their existence.
60396 — 41 — pt. 18 26
7456 DETROIT HEARINGS
Question 4' Assuming that a shortage exists, on what basis is the residual allocated
among the various industries?
In general, the objective of the Division in allocating the residual amounts of
scarce materials among civilian industries is to minimize the burden of the short-
ages on labor, consumers, and industry.
An allocation program which consciously aims at this objective is necessary
because the peacetime mechanism of allocation cannot be trusted in a defense
economy.
In normal times when materials become short, their prices rise and they are
purchased only by those industries which can afford to pay these higher prices.
The market thus provides a kind of allocation program., but one which penalizes
persons with low income, and may cut the production of necessary commodities.
At present, the price system is partially restricted by the Office of Price Admin-
istration in fulfilling its obligation to prevent inflation. The absence of the price
increases that would occur were there no price control has created a situation in
which producers endeavor to buy far more materials than are available. Gov-
ernment allocation of scarce materials was decided upon merely because it is
superior to the allocation of these materials by the private firms selling them.
When the Government does not act, the firms that are the biggest peacetime
customers of the industries selling scarce materials generally get the materials
and consumers get whatever products these firms make. Businessm.en cannot be
expected to antagonize their best customers in order to divert m.aterials to essential
use. Sometimes, they ask the Government to forbid them to sell for less pressing
purposes because they dare not turn away their peacetmie patrons. Thus,
without Government allocation we might have automobiles, but little hospital
equipment; electric refrigerators but not furnaces; washing m^achines but not
freight cars. Moreover, private allocation would probably create a large am^ount
of avoidable labor displacement. Already many inventories are unbalanced and
there is hoarding of materials. These materials are withdrawn from the market
before they are actually used, thereby increasing the acuteness of the shortage.
Finally, private allocation of materials takes no account of the fact that som.e
industries (mainly the mass- production industries) employ relatively small
amounts of labor in relation to materials.
In modifying the pattern of allocation which the unregulated market would
produce, the chief considerations^ guiding the Division are (a) the minimization
of labor displacement, (b) the urgency of the need for various products, and (c)
the feasibility and need for converting production facilities and labor to defense
production.
(a) minimization of labor displacement
An attempt is made to allocate materials to industries where they give the
most employment. Those industries have been curtailed less which employ the
greater amount of nonscarce materials, including labor, in combination with a
given amount of scarce materials. Moreover, the Division has attempted to
judge the possibilities of alternative emploj'inent for displaced workers.
(b) urgency of need for products
The urgency of the needs satisfied by the various products which consume
scarce materials depends, in large degree, on the availability of substitutes and
on the postponability of demand. Where there is a possibility of stimulating the
production of substitute products which do not use scarce materials — e. g., wood
furniture for metal furniture — there is a strong case for curtailment. Likewise,
durable goods must bear a large share of the burden of the shortage because there
is already a large stock of them which can continue to give service to consumers.
The essential needs of public health and safety and of indirect defense, as in
defense housing, must of course be met before other civilian demands.
(c) feasibility op converting
The convertibility of industrial facilities and personnel to defense product on
has been an important consideration because it provides a way of absorbing
displaced workers. Other things being equal, the industries least convertible to
defense will be curtailed the least.
It should be noted that curtailment of civilian production is itself a strong
incentive to conversion to defense work.
No matter how great one's patriotism, no matter how great his interest in
securing additional business, the pressure to take defense contracts is immensely
enhanced when a company receives a sharp curtailment in civilian output.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7457
The objective of converting facilities to defense can, perhaps, be carried too
far — though if an error is to be made, it should certainly be in that direction.
In one industry for which a program is under consideration, it was argued that
this industry could easily be adapted to defense production. However, a check
by engineers indicated that the contribution of this industry would be very slight;
furthermore, it consumed very little scarce materials.
Hence the industry will probably be kept operating near the level of the pre-
ceding year. It was felt that displacement of a large number of workers was not
justified by small material savings and a contribution to defense production
which could better be made by other plants.
Question 5: To what extent were the ■probable dislocation of employment and forced
migration of workers considered in allocating production?
Labor displacement and the migration resulting therefrom were carefully
considered. The division could not reckon merely with the number of people
displaced by restricting output in a particular industry; it was necessary to com-
pare that with the number of workers that would be displaced by denying the
same quantity of material to other industries. In this connection, the number
of persons employed for each ton of scarce materials was calculated for various
industries. We were, therefore, able to determine roughly how many men would
be deprived of employment by withholding the same quantities of material from
each industry. In the automobile industry, for example, the number of people
employed for each ton of steel is so small that to save a ton of steel in other
industries, such as the washing machine or vacuum cleaner industry, about 10
times as many people would be put out of work.
Much current labor displacement has been caused, not by Government flat, nor
even by defense consumption of scarce materials, but, to put it bluntly, by private
concerns "hogging" the existing supply. The steel statistics point to a shortage,
but not to a shortage great enough to shut factories down. Even as recently
as August, the amount of steel available for civilian use was 70 percent of average
1940 consumption, and 88 percent of 1939 consumption. Actual "defense
unemployment" would be the amount caused by denying civilian industry enough
orders to force its consumption 30 percent below the 1940 level and 12 percent
below the 1939 level. But as far back as May, businessmen were complaining
to the Office of Price Administration and Civilian Supply, not merely that their
orders were being cut from the high 1940 level, but that they were being denied
any and all steel. During July, one of them wrote that he would gladly take a
cut of 50 percent— not 30 percent — from his 1940 purchases if only he could get
the other 50 percent. That steel was not disappearing into thin air. There is no
escaping the conclusion that it was going into the hands of other customers, both
for consumption and inventory building, and at a record-breaking pace. To the
extent that the curtailment program stops o'- reverses this process, it will be more a
preventive than a cause of labor displacement.
Question 6: Why was a policy of curtailment of production favored over a policy of
allocation of materials? ^
The Division has adopted the policy of curtailing production (or consump-
tion) of materials instead of makin? outright allocations because of the lack of
information necessary for an allocation program.
If the requirements of the defense program were known with certainty in
advance, the Division would know how much material was available to distribute
to civilian industry. It would then be possible to allocate to each industry
specified amounts of steel, copper, nickel, etc., for, say, a 3-month period. Every
firm could plan its production with the assurance that its full allocation would be
delivered.
Unfortunately, the amount of materials available for civilian use cannot now
be estimated in advance with anv accuracv. Increased needs of the military
may at any time reduce the residu 1 supplies. Therefore, it is impossible to
allocate materials to all industries, because the Division cannot be sure how
much it has to allocate. In these circumstances, it would be manifestly unfair
to make a guarantee of deliveries of materials to one industry, for this would
onlv increase the uncertaintv under which other industries must operate. The
Division has, consequently, been forced to set "ceiling" quotas, without guarantee
of delivery of materials.
There is no established policy that the "ceilings" should be on output of final
goods rather than input of materials. The Division chooses the method of limi-
• See footnote, p. 7447.
y458 DETROIT HEARINGS
tation which is administratively the most convenient and fits the circumstances
of the individual industry. In the case of automobiles, the desire to release
productive facilities for defense work was one factor favoring the curtailment
of production.
Question 7: How are the factors discussed above related to the curtailment of auto-
mohile production?
The considerations described above dictated the extent of the automobile cur-
tailment. The most important, besides the extent of the material shortage, include
the availability of alternative employment for displaced workers, the adaptability
of auto facilities to defense production, and the relatively slight sacrifices that
would be required of consumers.
REABSORPTION OF AUTOMOBILE WOKKERS
Workers displaced in the automobile industry are likely to be reabsorbed much
more quickly than workers in most other industries subjected to limitation pro-
grams. The producers of automobiles are concentrated in the Detroit area,
where it is estimated that defense work and increased production of trucks and
busses would offset the displacement of employees from ])assenger-car production.
The conversion of automobile plants to defense (itself stimulated by the cur-
tailment) will increase the absorption of automobile workers. In drafting the
program, the Division drew upon established agencies for information on the dis-
placement of automobile labor and opportunities for their reabsorption. The
Division was in continual contact both with the Department of Labor and the
Labor Division of Office of Production Management. The automobile curtail-
ment was carried through with full knowledge of its effect upon employment.
The Division was ready to face the large volume of unemployment in the auto-
mobile industry because far greater unemployment would have resulted elsewhere
if the materials had been denied to other industries. Furthermore, we knew that
Detroit and other automotive centers would soon increase defense production
sufficiently to absorb practically all displaced workers. But even in the absence of
these opportunities for reabsorption, curtailment would have been necessary
because of the great quantities of scarce materials used by the industry and the
postponable consumer demand.
The automobile cut was graduated in order to decrease the amount of imem-
ployment between jobs. A slow tapering'off of civilian production in the industry
was impossible, and perhaps even graduation to the degree finally included was
inadvisable. Tapering off requires larger quantities of materials than a pre-
cipitous cut. The generosity to the automobile industry in this regard no doubt
aggravated the material shortages of many other industries and enlarged the
labor displacement beyond what it should have been had an immediate curtail-
ment been implemented.
CONVERTIBILITY TO DEFENSE
In the case of the automobile industry, while the pressure of material shortages
was sufficient to justify a severe cut, an important factor was the knowledge that
automobile facilities, manpower, engineering skill, capital, ingenuity, and initia-
tive could be adapted to defense production just as it had been in England, France,
Germany, and Canada, and to some extent already in the United States. Auto-
mobile producers who estimated before curtailment was announced that only
15 percent of their capacity could be diverted to defense before the program,
found upon reconsideration "that as much as 50 percent conversion was possible.
And probably even this estimate is low. In order to promote reemployment and
speed defense production. Office of Production Management sent out a group
of engineers to find out whether automobile manufacturers could produce more
defense items. Although the final answer will not be known vuitil the full pressure
of the curtailment program is felt, some indication of the probable result was
obtained. Conversion estimates were sharply raised. In many cases where a
plant could not turn out a finished military ])roduct, it could produce some neces-
sarv part. Certain companies whose peacetime goods met no very high precision
requirements found that their existing equipment could produce some of the most
delicate and complex items needed by the armed forces.
Presumably, automobile producers will find much of their equipment adaptable
to defense production and will help achieve the President's request that the going
organizations of the great plants in the consumers' durable goods industries be
transferred to defense. Although there will be some cost incurred in the change-
over and some delay, these obstacles are extremely small compared with the
difficulty of creating new defense plants.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7459
The New York Journal of Commerce, on October 5, reported that the auto-
mobile industry was rapidly developing a program of tank construction for "the
double purpose of supplying an 'urgent' item in the defense program and absorb-
ing the slack in automotive emjiloyment * * *. ^ way has been found to
put the new program promptly into such a production stage that it will take up
many of the thousands of unemployed in Detroit and Flint. The new program
will largely make use of existing factory and machine facilities.'' [Our emphasis.]
The report added that those in touch with the program were hinting "at a sensa-
tional new development in production technique * * * which will 'surprise
the world.' " Such surprises can only be welcomed.
SACRIFICES TO CONSUMERS
The reduction in new car output will mean little or no reduction in the existing
stock of cars. Consequently, there is no likelihood that the supply of automobile
service will be impaired. Over the last 10 years scrappage of automobiles is esti-
mated at an average of less than 2,000,000 vehicles against a proposed production
during the model year, 1941-42, of 2, 151,000 cars. Actually, the rate of scrappage
will probably be reduced because the higher prices of new automobiles, excise
taxes, the reduced new and recent used-car supply, and the higher level of income
taxes will discourage people from buying new cars or better used cars. The
smaller rate of scrappage which is to be expected should, therefore, result in an
enlarged stock of automobiles on the road izi spite of the curtailment program.
Consumers will, therefore, suffer no loss in automobile service.
Even if it later proves impossible to maintain our enlarged stock of automobiles,
a decline in the number of automobiles on the road would probably not lead to
great hardship. In the first place, plans were made to permit the production of
busses at a rate as high as that attained during the first half of 1941. Though
automobiles cannot be considered as purely an instrument of luxury or pleasure,
they are, nevertheless, in many cases, merely a convenience. Though certain
individuals will be denied passenger cars who may want them and be able to
afford them, the inadequacy of the supply will, in most cases, merely compel them
to forego the pleasure of driving to work rather than taking a public carrier or
deprive them of the enjoyment of pleasure driving.
Question 8: How was the exact extent of the automobile curtailment arrived at and
how was the allocation to individual -producers determined?
In determining the exact amount of the cut in automobile production, the
considerations referred to in answering question 4 were carefully weighed; but it
was impossible to give a precise mathematical weight to each. The aim of the
program was to reduce total automobile output to half that of the 1941 model
year. But in dividing the market among the various producers, an average of
the 3 model years 1939 to 1941 was believed to be a fairer indication of the com-
petitive positions of the firms than any single year. Large companies were cut
40 percent from their average annual output during these 3 model j'ears; and small
manufacturers, 15 percent.
The primary reason for curtailing the output of individual concerns unequally
is the desire to maintain the usual peacetime competitive relationship between
the various concerns after the emergency is over. Equal treatment of all pro-
ducers would have an unequal efi"ect upon their post-war standing the automobile
market. .
The importance of the dealer organization to the profitability of an automobile
manufacturer is very great. The loss of dealer representation in a community
would limit the possibility of making sales. More important, perhaps, is the like-
lihood that buyers already owning the make of automobile that loses its single
dealership would develop an antagonism to the company because of their inability
to secure replacement parts and reliable service. Large automobile companies
often possess many dealerships in the same localities that are served, by one
dealer selling the cars of one of the "Small Five." When a reduction in output
makes it inexpedient to maintain all outlets, the dealerships of the large manu-
facturer can be combined; but the small company will be unrepresented, because
the same decline in output and sales would compel its dealer to go out of business,
■rherefore, to maintain as far as possible the status quo in the automobile market,
the output of the small manufacturers was cut only three-eights as much as the
output of the large ones. No such general rule can be perfectly equitable, but it
was less discriminatory than uniform curtailment of all the firms.
The ability of each firm to transfer to defense, the availability of alternative
employment, and the need for laborers of a particular skill in the community were
7460 DETROIT HEARINGS
considered. But deviations from a general principle lead to endless appeals and
the danger that the more heavily curtailed firm will charge that it has been
discriminated against. Consequently, it has thus far been the policy of the
Division of Civilian Supply to divide concerns in a given industry into several
size groups and give uniform treatment to all concerns within each group. In
the automobile industry, one exception was made, because the base period was
inapplicable to a new manufacturer.
Question 9: Was the effect on the "feeder" industries taken into consideration in
determining the automobile curtailment programs?
The automobile industry was considered as a whole — parts makers together with
assemblers of finished automobiles. The curtailment was intended to reduce the
use of scarce materials by the makers of parts. The makers of replacement and
repair parts and the operators of service stations will be benefited by the curtail-
ment program, since, in the absence of new cars, it will be increasingly necessary
to maintain old ones in good working condition. A preference rating of A- 10 has
been assigned to manufacturers of repair parts for passenger automobiles and
light trucks.
Question 10: What are the prospects for further curtailment in the auto industry?
The prospects for future curtailment in the automobile industry, as in every
civilian industrv, depend on the future defense requirements for raw materials
and productive facilities. The division does not know definitely the future needs
of the Armv and Navy and the lend-lease program. Consequently the extent to
which it will be necessary to curtail civilian industries in the future cannot now be
estimated. But as it seems probable that a greater share of our national income
will be devoted in the future to the task of defeating Hitler, increasing shortages
of materials and facilities for civilian production must be expected. Further cur-
tailments of the production of civilian passenger cars are, therefore, quite likely.
Question 11: Why were the companies involved given so little notice as to the extent of
curtailment? Would not a long-range program, set forth in advance, have per-
mitted the adoption of measures to reduce dislocation and unemployment?
The automobile program was not imposed upon the industry without adequate
warning. The industry was informed last May that passenger-car output would
be curtailed over 20 percent in August. At the beginning of July a series of
conferences was started, at which the necessity for a greater curtailment was dis-
cussed with representatives of the industry and labor. Thus the limitation on
passenger-car output was preceded by at least 3 months' notice.
It is not always possible to give long advance notice of programs, nor even
always desirable. The speed of action depends on the suddenness with which
material shortages appear.
A long-range program set forth in advance facilitates measures to reduce dislo-
cation and unemployment. It was in the hope that the automobile industry
would undertake a large-scale conversion to defense that the necessity for cur-
tailment was announced several months in advance. In addition, the curtail-
ment was made gradual in order to reduce the dislocation incident to a transition
from civilian to defense production. However, it is not possible to set forth with
any confidence an exact long-range program, because the Division does not know
in advance the requirements of defense for materials and equipment, which are
in turn dictated by the course of international events. Finally, advance notice
of curtailment often encourages additional buying by consumers and dealers.
Question 12: To what extent did industry participate in the determination of a
curtailment program?
The automobile industry was called together many times before the curtail-
ment program was finally implemented. Members of the stafi" also had many
personal conferences with executives of all ranks, from all branches of the auto-
mobile industry.
Moreover, in formulating our program for the automobile industry, we solicited
the views of representatives of the automobile unions. They cooperated with the
Labor Division of the Office of Production Management in planning for the
reabsorption of displaced workers through the establishment of training programs,
arranging for the rehire of displaced workers by automobile plants on their defense
projects.
The curtailment, as finally determined, was issued at the end of a conference
at which the Office of Production Management, Office of Price Administration
and Civilian Supply, industry, and labor were all represented.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7461
Question IS: What other industries may be subjected to curtailment programs in the
future?
Since the announcement of the curtailment of automobile production, an order
has been issued limiting the production of domestic mechanical refrigerators to
about 56 percent of sales during the year ending June 30, 1941. The Supply
Priorities and Allocations Board has announced that no scarce materials can be
made available for nonessential construction. Orders limiting either production
or the consumption of scarce material are contemplated for the followmg products,
among others: Domestic ice refrigerators, washing machines and ironing ina-
chines, domestic vacuum clearners, metal office furniture and equipment, cookmg
stoves and ranges, miscellaneous domestic electrical appliances, coin machines,
and metal household furniture. All civilian industries which use materials or
equipment needed by the defense program may eventually have to be formally
curtailed.
Question 14. Has the Division of Civilian Supply, or 0. P. A. C. S., put forward
at any time a policy for industry, which, if adopted, would have averted the pros-
pective large scale priority unemployment?
"Defense unemployment" cannot be avoided in the course of a rapid diversion
of national resources. It can be reduced by speeding up the diversion of labor
to defense work and Office of Production Management has made great eflforts to
assist in this direction. The Division of Civihan Supply tries to avoid taking
scarce materials awav from industries using small quantities and supporting a
large volume of employment. The Director of Civilian Supply, Leon Henderson,
has long endeavored to secure increases in a capacity to produce many of the
materials now so scarce.
Question 15. Has the Division of Civilian Supply any program for industry appli-
cable at the present time, consistent with maximum national defense production, to-
' minimize the extent or duration of priority unemployment?
"Defense unemplovment" will be substantially reduced only by an expansion
of the production of" raw materials and the diversion of labor to defense work.
The greater the supply of steel, copper, and other scarce materials, the more jobs
there will be. But expansion of capacity itself requires scarce materials, tem^
porarily increases the necessity for curtailment of civilian industry, and may even
interfere with defense production.
"Given limited capacitv, labor displacement is inevitable when the Nation
shifts from the production of consumers' goods to the production of munitions.
The Division of Civihan Supply can only attempt to minimize "defense ur em-
ployment" by directing the flow of materials to those channels where they
provide maximum employment.
Question 16: What recommendations does the Division of Civilian Supply offer to
take care of the human problems created or about to be created by the curtailment
programs?
It is not the direct function of the Division of Civilian Supply to take care of
displaced workers. Th Division of Civihan Supply does, however, seek to
minimize the extent of labor dislocation by distiibuting scarce materials between
industries after taking account of the amount of employment given by the use of
materials in each. But the suffering brought about by a curtailment program
is an inevitable outgrowth of the defense program which should be borne by no
single group. The compensation of displaced workers should be considered no
less a cost of the defense program than the cost of armor-plate for battleships,
and should therefore be borne by the whole community.
This is a function in part of established agencies, the Work Projects Admmis-
tration and the Social Security Board, and in part of the Division of Contract
Distribution and the Labor Division, which have been set up within the Office of
Production Management to deal with the problem.
Question 17: Did the Division of Civilian Supply take into consideration problems
of post-war readjustment in determining curtailment programs and their probable
effects on conversion of plant and labor forces?
Post-war readjustment will be considerably eased if the curtailment program
results in extensive conversion of existing plants and labor forces to defense use,
If nearly all munitions were made in new plants especially built for that purpose
the end of the emergency would find us with much idle industrial capacity.
Large numbers of people might be stranded in "ghost towns", where they had
7462 DETROIT HEAKIxNGS
moved at much sacrifice. But if the automobile and other consumers' durable
goods industries are able to convert to defense production, they will be able to
convert back again, and their workers will be spared the ordeal of twice uprooting
their lives.
Moreover, curtailment of the output of automobiles and other durable goods
over an extended period will give industry a large backlog of unfulfilled demands
after the emergency. This sliould help to prevent a post-war slump.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGEATION
thursday, september 25, 1941
House of Representatives,
Select Committee Investigating
National Defense Migration,
Washington, D. C.
afternoon session
The committee met at 1:30 p. m.
The Chairman. The committee will please come to order.
Our first witness this afternoon will be Professor Haber.
TESTIMONY OF WILLIAM HABER, PROFESSOR OF ECONOMICS,
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, ANN ARBOR, MICH.
The Chairman. Professor Haber, I feel wc owe you an apology.
We had scheduled your appearance for this morning, but we spent
about eighty or ninety billion dollars, and it took considerable exami-
nation to develop just where that money was going; but we appreciate
very much your coming here. We look upon you as one of our most
important witnesses, and we hope we haven't inconvenienced you.
Dr. Haber. Not at all. It was a very worth-while hearing.
The Chairman. Professor, it has been a very interesting investi-
gation.
In the last session we visited New York, Alabama, Illinois, Nebraska,
Oklahoma, and California. We were then investigating the migration
of destitute citizens. Then we were continued to investigate national-
defense migration, which involves a couple of million people who have
left their home States and gone to these defense centers.
As I imderstand it, 3'ou have been interested in that migration
yourself, Professor Haber, and have been studying it?
Professor Haber. Very carefully.
The Chairman. I am glad to know that. As we go around the
country, we don't attempt to cross-examine witnesses or assume any
crusading role. We are simply a fact-finding body, and we have
been received by the press and public very generously.
Congressman Curtis will interrogate you.
Professor Haber. If I may respond to your kind comment. Con-
gressman Tolan, I think the hearings and the testimony accumulated
by this committee are going to make a very genuine contribution
toward an understanding of some of these problems.
I have been immensely impressed with the report of your committee.
It has in it observations dealing not only with the current situation^
7463
7464 DETROIT HEARINGS
but some very significant findings in connection with the outlook
after we are over the present emergency.
The Chairman. MiUions and millions have been spent for the per-
fection and regulation of the materials, the creations and tools of man,
and a great body of law has been built up in this country to control the
interstate traffic in these things. But this is the first time our Gov-
erment has given its attention to the movement of the human
element that is wandering aimlessly from State to State, looking for
work.
Because of your interest in this problem, Professor Haber, I am
going to send you a brief in the case of Edwards v. The State of Cali-
jornia, a case in which one Edwards was prosecuted for transporting
his brother-in-law, Duncan, into the State of California. Edwards
was convicted. It is now on appeal to the Supreme Court of the
United States. It is a very interesting case, and I shall not forget to
send you a brief. ^ It is interesting to note that 28 States of the
Union today make it a crime to transport a poor or indigent citizen
from his home State to another State. Michigan is one of them, and
here you have the Federal Government today urging them to leave
for defense purposes.
You may proceed. Congressman Curtis.
Mr. Curtis. Wliat is your full name, Professor?
Dr. Haber. William Haber.
Mr. Curtis. And with what institution are you connected?
Dr. Haber. I am professor of economics at the University of
Michigan.
Mr. Curtis. Located where?
Dr. Haber. At Ann Arbor.
Mr. Curtis. And you serve also as chairman of a Presidential
committee, do you not?
STUDYING RELIEF PROBLEM OF PAST 10 YEARS
Dr. Haber. I am chairman of a committee appointed by the
President. The committee is one set up by the National Resources
Planning Board. It is known as a committee on long-range work and
relief policies. It has been studying the problem of public aid of the
past 10 years, with a view of finding out to what extent our experi-
ence may guide us in the future, to what extent these ineasures have
been of a transitory emergency nature, and in what directions we ought
to go.
The report of the committee is in its final stages, and will be com-
pleted in the next 2 or .3 months.
Mr. Curtis. And will be submitted to the President?
Dr. Haber. That is correct.
Mr. Curtis. And how long has that committee been working?
Dr. Haber. About 18 months with a staff gathering the data, in
consultation with the agencies; but the committee is independent
of any administrative agency, and is located in the National Resources
Planning Board.
Mr. Curtis. How many persons are on the committee?
Dr. Haber. The committee has eight members.
> Select Committee Investigatinfr National Defense Migration, committee print, Analysis of Material
Bearing on the Economic and Social Aspects of the case of Fred F. Edwards v. the People of the State of Cali-
fornia (No. 17, October term, 1941, Supreme Court of the United States, Washington, 1941).
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7465
Mr. Curtis. Are all of you professors of economics?
Dr. Haber. No ; four of the members hold positions in agencies of
Government, the Federal Security Agency, Office of Production Man-
agement, the Office of Civilian Defense, and the Department of Labor.
Four are pubhc representatives: Father Haas, of the Catholic Uni-
versity of America; Fred Hoehler, of the American Public Welfare
Association; Mr. C. M. Boolonan, director of the Cincinnati Com-
munity Fund; and myself.
Mr. Curtis. Professor Haber, will you please give this committee
your views as to the adequacy of our system of unemployment
compensation?
We are particularly interested in your opinion as to the type of
unemployment for which the present system was designed, and how
the present system of benefits will stand up under the impact of
priority unemployment.
PRIORITY UNEMPLOYMENT
Dr. Haber. I should like to start with the latter part of that question,
about "priority unemployment".
I have followed the discussions of this committee in the last 2 days
on that subject. There is no doubt that it is a serious problem,
very likely to affect not only thousands of workers in Michigan, but
perhaps millions throughout the country.
I am more inclined to take the point of view of Congressman Spark-
man this morning, the view that "priority unemployment" is inevit-
able. In an effort to achieve a national-defense economy, dislocations
will take place.
I think it would be unfortunate if, because of dislocations, we per-
mitted ourselves to do anything to slow up our efforts of defense.
What I believe we ought to do is deal with the problem which
involves these people, rather than to attempt to slow up our defense
efforts.
I don't like the term "priority unemployment" because it tends to
get our minds to think in terms of some special program to deal with
"priority unemployment," and we will find ourselves very soon
setting up a different kind of program to deal with a special type of
unemployment .
Today we call it priority unemployment. If 6 months from now
we decide we are going to make only airplanes instead of tanks and
the process of converting tank plants into airplane plants results in
unemployment for tank workers, we would call it some other unem-
ployment problem, perhaps conversion unemployment.
There are many people who have proposed that we set up a separate
scheme to deal with priority unemployment. I think it is important
for us to reahze that priority unemployment affects not only defense
workers, but other workers, maybe just as much as a defense worker.
It affects the Fuller Brush man— he may be unemployed because of
priorities. . .
The Fuller Brush man may be just as much subject to priorities
unemployment as the automobile worker, if for some reason or other
he can't get brushes or bristles. It seems to me that this concern is a
commentary on our feelings, that there is something inadequate, about
our methods of dealing with unemployment, of which priority unem-
ployment is one.
7466 DETROIT HEARINGS
Mr. CuKTis. In other words, to a man who is unemployed and to
his family and to his community and to the Nation at largo, the
problem is the same, regardless of the cause?
Dr. Haber. Correct. We only complicate the matter by setting-
up special schemes to deal with special groups.
If priority unemployment cannot be taken care of by present
methods, then there may be other kinds of unemployment that cannot
be taken care of. We ought, therefore, examine the entire schedule
for dealing with the whole problem.
Priority unemployment presents a special threat, first, because it is
concentrated in certain areas, areas in which the defense industries
have been concentrated, whereas the system of reserves for the States
did not anticipate the type of unemplojmient to which they will be
subjected.
What I mean, Congressman, is this: Priority unemployment is a
national problem. It happens to be located here, or in California, or
in New Jersey.
RESERVES FOR UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE
The unemployment compensation law is a State law, on the basis
of State reserves. We may talk about the $2,300,000,000 reserve for
unemployment insurance in Washington. I think "reserve" is a
misnomer. That $2,300,000,000 reserve is composed of 51 air-tight
compartments. You can't transfer the surplus of one State to the
deficit of another State.
Priority unemployment in a State like Michigan may cause a
serious drain upon the insurance fund, and introduce very genuine
dangers in its preparation to meet possible defense unemployment.
That is likely to be much more severe, both in magnitude and in
duration, than priority unemployment.
So my reaction to your question. Congressman, is to say, first, that
the present unemployment compensation laws are not suited and
ought not to be expected to deal with a problem the origin of which is
national, but the incidence of which is State. We ought to recognize
that. If we don't, we will weaken our efforts to get ready for the
post-defense period.
INADEQUACY OF UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS
Second, one may raise some very serious question whether the
amount of benefits we have and the duration of unemployment
benefits are adequate for this particular group of workers.
Even though priority unemployment is temporary unemployment—
at least I hope to think of it that way — the problem should not be
underestimated; but I don't think it should be exaggerated either. I
am a little bit afraid that we are likely to get too excited about it.
It is an inevitabl(> problem, and we must deal with it; but I do
not believe that a system which provides benefits for 10 weeks in
terms of $10 or $12, taking national averages, is adequate to deal
with any kind of unemplojnnent. I believe we ought to avoid setting-
up emergency measures to deal with priority unemployment, because
we will only confuse ourselves.
We should definitely examine our methods of providing for the
unemployed, as to whether they are adequate for any type of unem-
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7467
ployment, which at the moment we happen to call priority miem-
ployment, and 6 months later by some other name, and 2 years
later by a third name.
Have I answered your question?
Mr. Curtis. Yes.
Wliat changes would you suggest in order to meet the present
emergency? You may have heard witnesses before this committee
estimate the number to be unemployed as a result of the automobile
cut at as high as 200,000.
Dr. Haber. I tliuik our unemployment insurance law must be
examined as to whether its benefit structure in terms of weekly pay-
ments and its average duration of payment are adequate. I think
they are not adequate for priority unemployment or any other type
of unemployment, and if this discussion calls for a review of the short-
comings of our present methods of dealing with the problem, there
are obviously other changes.
Mr. Larned suggested this mornhig, I believe, that perhaps on a
temporary basis we might increase the available appropriations for
jobs for W. P. A. in areas such as this.
No one can quarrel with that suggestion. I for one doubt very
seriously, however, whether work relief is the best method of dealing
with priority unemployment. It is obviously going to be of short
duration. Whether "short" means 10 weeks or 3 months or 6 months,
no one but the circumstances, the speed of conversion, will determine;
but I think the work relief measures ought largely to be dedicated to
long-time unemployment and not to temporary unemployment.
SUGGESTS BENEFIT PAYMENT PERIOD BE EXTENDED TO 26 WEEKS
We ought to perfect the measures of cash benefits — that is, unem-
ployment insurance, and from that point of view I think that we ought
to aim definitely at a fixed duration of 26 weeks in our unemployment
insurance law. " I say "definitely" because if you examine the average
duration of normal unemployment — and I am not talking about a
depression, but about normal seasonal unemployment or a normal
technological unemployment — you will find the present unemploy-
ment insurance laws are woefully madequate.
I don't know whether this committee is aware, for example, that
last year 50 percent of all the insured workers in the United States
were still unemployed when they got their last checks, and in one
State 80 percent were still unemployed when they got their last checks.
In Michigan the proportion was about 45 percent.
If unemployment insurance is designed to provide cash benefits for
weeks of unemployment, we have got to be realistic and find out what
is the average duration of unemployment. W^e will find that we have
made some pretty bad calculations when these laws were framed, and
I am as guilty of that as anyone else.
Mr. Curtis. Do you feel that our objective should be that the
Government, both State and National, should assume the whole job
•of providing for an unemployed person and eliminate the individual's
responsibility to hmiself? Do you think our ultimate objective should
be for unemployment compensation to carry everybody clear on
through their period of unemployment?
Dr. Haber. No, Congressman. I don't believe that it is the func-
i^ion of Government, through legislation, to destroy to the slightest
7468 DETROIT HEARINGS
extent the individual's reliance upon his own ingenuity, his own
resources, his own capacity. But, it is a responsibility of Govern-
ment not to delude itself, and if our examination of average income
convinces us that dire privation takes place, then we ought not to
satisfy our conscience by saying that it is the individual's responsibility.
The last 30 years have transformed the economy of our country.
We call it progress. The standard of living today is a result of that
kind of progress, and it couldn't have been achieved except for the
tremendous institutions of American enterprise that we have developed.
INSECURITY OF AVERAGE WORKER
But simultaneously with that progress, certain other changes have
taken place, and outstanding among those. Congressman, is the tre-
mendous increase in the insecuiity of the average worker. He depends
on a job. A job is a relationship that he doesn't create. Somebody
else has to create it. In our agricultural economy, if he doesn't have
a job, his large family, his savings, or some other resource, took care
of his need. For that reason I believe that while the Government
unemployment insurance system ought not to aim to take care of a
worker 100 percent the very moment he is in adversity, it ought not
evade an examination of the problem whether he is in a position to
help himself; and if we conclude that he is not, we ought to provide
for him.
Now, by the "individual helping himself," we mean tlu-ough savings,
through odd jobs, and so on. 'Ihe figures on savings, I think, are
already in the record at earlier hearmgs of this committee, and they
definitely reflect the change that has been taking place smce 1930.
I am of the opinion that when the average industrial worker loses his
job after 10 years of unemployment, he is out of funds after a short
period.
Dr. Lamb. In that connection, Professor, I would like to ask whether
the system of unemployment compensation is not substantially a
system of insurance, job insurance, as compared with other forms, of
insurance against accidents which may befall the individual.
For instance, for protection against the accident of falling down a
flight of stairs and breaking a bone, which lays you up for a period of
time, you insure with an insurance company; and because you are
one of a limited number of people who fall downstairs and break a
leg and are laid up, that insurance company is able to take care of you.
Therefore, unemployment compensation for such situations as pri-
orities unemployment is correctly described as an insurance scheme.
That is to say, we can conceivably insure against a limited volume of
unemployment
UNEMPLOYMENT AND PRIVATE INSURANCE NOT ANALOGOUS
Dr. Haber. Provided we don't put too much of a technical defini-
tion on the word "iisurance." I don't believe the analogy between
unemployment insurance and private insurance is a good one. I think
a great deal of our trouble with unemployment insui'ance arises from
our effort to maintain that analogy. To the worker we pay compen-
sation or benefits directly related to his premiums. That is the trouble
with our unemployment insurance law. It is actually social insurance.
Dr. Lamb. In this instance, it is a form of group insurance?
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7469
Dr. Haber. Correct. Collective insurance.
Mr. Curtis. Were you here yesterday?
Dr. Haber. I was not.
Mr. Curtis. It was developed that there is an army of workers
engaged in the distribution of automobiles equally as large as the
army engaged in the makuig of them. Those people are not covered
by your unemployment insurance, are they?
"Dr. Haber. They may be. In most States they are em.ployees.
They are working for an employer in a profit-makmg industry- — or
should I say, for the present, nonprofit"?
EXPERIENCE RATINGS
Mr. Curtis. Is the unemployment compensation tax m Michigan
geared to experience ratings of individual employees?
Dr. Haber. Does the Michigan law provide for reduction of taxes
as a result of experience rating? Yes.
Mr. Curtis. Now that the employment of a particular firm is
influenced to a large extent by Government contracts, how does that
affect the justification on underlying experience ratmgs?
Dr. Haber. Experience rating is, in my opuiion, gentlemen, one
of the most confusing phases of the unemployment msurance
legislation.
I must admit that I was very enthusiastic about it when this
legislation was originally considered. I should indicate for the record,
in answer to your question, that I think now it is an unfortunate part
of the unemployment insurance law.
The objective of unemployment compensation is to pay benefits to
unemployed workers so they may maintain such standard of living
as such benefits permit. That is the only objective. It ought not
to be saddled with any other objective — particularly if the other
objective defeats the first one. -
The introduction of experience ratings, I am sorry to say, is rapidly
contributing to the defeat of the first objective of paying benefits;
and the major interest in States where experience rating is beginning
to operate is in ways and means of savmg the tax and cutting the rate
through one device or another. For that reason I believe that it
represents a very definite threat to the fuiancial stability of the
unemployment compensation law. It is very likely that our unem-
ployment compensation tax may go down to an average of iK or 2
percent, instead of 3.3, thereby making it useless as a means of dealing
with the post-defense situation.
But there are additional reasons why I believe that this committee
ought to give very serious consideration to the question of experience
ratings.
The system of experience ratings was based on a theory that the
employer, under the incentive of tax reduction, would do something
about cutting unemployment.
An examination in the States where it has operated shows that the
industries which have had lower rates because they have had less
unemploym.ent are naturally industries with less unemployment, and
would have had less unemployment with the same rates. They are
industries in which fluctuations are well known to be less than the
average.
7470 DETROIT HEARINGS
Now, I do not want to be misunderstood as implying tlia,t we ought
not to include every conceivable device to encourage stabilization and
regularization. I think those are so' d and necessary. I only wish
it were possible, after watching this tlmig for several years, that those
devices were removed from the unemployment insurance law and tied
up with an income tax or some other tax device, so that they do not
contribute to the defeat of the main objective of unemployment
compensation— that is, the payment of benefits.
I think there is a very genuine threat in experience ratings. For
that reason I hope that this committee can find time to give serious
consideration to what extent experience ratings might not be an
unfortunate aspect of the law in relation to its ability to meet the post-
defense problem.
Mr. Curtis. You feel that the development of incentive among
employers to spread the work out and give year-around employment
should be covered in general tax laws and by other methods rather
•than in laws governing the amounts paid into this fund. Is that
correct?
Dr. Haber. That is my conviction. This fund is society's method
of assessing upon each industry a tax for the purpose of building up the
collective insurance that Dr. Lamb was talking about. We ought
not permit the industries which can best contribute toward this fund
to be exempt from it, particularly when the reason they have less
unemployment is not that they are particularly brilliant or ingenious.
They happen to be industries in which there is naturally less fluc-
tuation. .
Look at the current situation. How much control does the indi-
vidual employer have over priority unemployment? He is helpless
under the influence of national policy, and I tliink that is generally
true of most unemployment.
There is one type of unemployment that the employer can attribute
to normal turn-over. Some of it is seasonal unemployment. He can
contribute toward the regularization of seasonal changes. I do not
believe that that is enough of a contribution, however, toward the
whole task of providmg security for unemployed people.
I want to say that I have come to my conclusion in regard to ex-
perience ratings very reluctantly. When the Michigan law was passed
I was one of the strongest advocates of that particular provision,
SUGGESTED CHANGES IN SYSTEM
Mr. Curtis. Have you given any thought. Professor Haber, to the
question of changes in the unemployment compensation system to
meet the needs of the post-emergency period, if it is possible to look
that far ahead?
Dr. Haber. Yes, sir; I have. And I am pleased, Mr. Chairman and
Congressmen, that this committee is giving thought to the post-
emergency period.
We can make serious blunders, I believe, in social policy in America
today, with the whole energy and interest of everyone properly con-
centrated on the current situation, if we fail to recognize what we will
face 2 or 3 or 5 years from now.
Congressman Tolan referred to the two or three million people who
have become migrants in defense industries. Let us realize that when
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7471
we reach the peak of defense production, probably 50 percent of our
industrial capacity will be engaged, and perhaps nearly 50 percent of
our national income will be dCf^^pted to defense. We must be quite
realistic and make studies now.-^-as difficult as these problems are,
and as uncertam as one must be about the conclusions — about the
kmds of problems we are likely to face.
ARGUMENTS AGAINST POST-DEFENSE DEPRESSION
There are a great number of people in this country, and you gentle-
men have met many of them who say that when the post-emergency
period comes, we are not going to have a business depression. They
explain this mainly by three argimients. They say, first, that the
workers are not going to be able to spend all their money for goods
now, as a result of the priorities ; they are saving money ; they are going
to get good wages, even better than they are now getting, and therefore,
when the post-defense period comes, there will be a terrific volume of
consumer spendhig power ready. Second, they say that community
and public projects — public works and particularly housing — will be
available in unprecedented volume. And third, they say that this
country will have a great role to play in rebuilding the world ; they point
to the poverty in South America and China and India, and see there
an unlimited demand for American products.
These are all sound arguments; yet I think it would be short-sighted
indeed if we assumed because of them that we are going to avoid a post-
defense problem.
CHALLENGE OF READJUSTMENT PROBLEMS
The readjustment which will be necessary challenges the imagina-
tion today. Perhaps 25,000,000 people may eventually be engaged in
these defense industries, and the problem of converting defense items
to consumer items will be just as serious as the problem of converting
automobile production to defense production. You will have the same
problems, but you will call them by some other name — not priority
unemployment. They might be problems of transporting people back
to the places from which they came.
1, for one, on the basis of as careful and calculated consideration as
I coidd give to it, believe that our country should plan and plan now
to meet the problems of fifteen to twenty million unemployed people.
No one is prepared to say how long such a condition will last, or
whether it will come suddenly or gradually. I think it would be tragic
if it were sudden, but that will depend largely upon the policy which
the Government will follow in staggering lay-offs. The policy the
Government is gomg to adopt in its contracts and in the manner of
termination of these contracts, will determine in great part what we
are going to face. The contracts could be so worded as to provide
for a gradual easing off.
But whatever happens, the readjustment of the various economic
and social and industrial factors is going to challenge every capacity
that we have; and, therefore, I am pleased, gentlemen, that you are
raising these questions now.
I don't think the measures adopted during the 1930's for dealing
with this problem are adequate to meet the prospective situation of
G0396— 41— pt. 18 27
7472 DETROIT HEARINGS
the 1940's, especially in the matter of unemployment insurance, and
I should like to indicate what seems to me to be the two or three basic
weaknesses.
UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFIT RESTRICTION
First, our unemployment msurance laws cover only 50 percent of
the gainfully employed population of this country. The other 50
percent are kept out of it for administrative and other reasons. We
didn't think we could handle employers who only had one or two
employees. We have learned now, in our experience with old-age
insurance, that those administrative hurdles can be easily overcome.
There were also political reasons. We thought we should not be-
come involved in arguments as to whether farm labor or domestic
workers or employees in nonprofit institutions should be included.
I think we have learned enough in the past 5 years to say that if
we want to include those people, we can. There are no obstacles,
financial or administrative, that cannot be overcome. The thing
we have got to realize is that about 50 percent of the gainfully em-
ployed workers are covered by our unemployment insurance laws, and
that the others are not.
In addition- — and I think this is a point that needs emphasis — of
those covered, about 15 or 20 percent cannot get benefits because the
benefit formula under which our laws operate excludes people unless
they happen to have earned certain sums of money in certain quarters
in certain base periods.
In other States, 38 percent of the people who applied for benefits —
insured workers — couldn't get them because their earning experience
had failed to meet some technical requirement.
Mr. Curtis. Was it that they just hadn't worked long enough?
Dr. Haber. Some had worked long enough, but hadn't earned
enough.
Mr. Curtis. What is the mmimum?
TECHNICAL DISTRIBUTION GIVES INCOMPLETE COVERAGE
Dr. Haber. It varies. In some States you have got to earn $250
in the preceding period; but the period is so staggered that it must
have been at least $50 in each of so many quarters. It is a technical
distribution, the result of which is to rule out from benefits people
who have low earnings.
One of your questions implied that the unemploj^ment insui'ance
law should not cover such people. Why should they be in an insur-
ance scheme at all if they are not sufficiently regular in their work
to earn an adequate sum of money?
I think the facts argue otherwise. These people aic regidar earners,
but of low income. The provision in the law works particularly
against women workers. It operates largely against Negro workers.
It goes against low-paid workers geiici'ally. And I think we should
examine it with a view of finding out whether our unemployment-
insurance law should not be changed to provide as fully as possible
for complete coverage of the entire industrial and gainfully employed-
population of the United States. I believe it should. I think that
unless it does, we will not be adequately prepared to deal with the
post-defense period.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7473
Mr. Curtis. Would you include the bosses as well as the workers?
SHOULD INCLUDE SELF-EMPLOYED PEOPLE
Dr. Haber. I should not put it just that way. I would favor some
provision for self-employed people, because the term "bosses" is
itself an all-inclusive term that applies to the poor fellow who runs
a gasoline station and may be making less money than the skilled
worker in the factory. I certairily would include those people in our
old-age insurance program. I am less certain as to whether they are
. a proper classification under unemployment insurance. They are
not tecluiically or legally "emploj^ees." That is a wealaiess, I be-
lieve, in the unemployment-insurance law.
Another weakness is the benefit amount. You raised that earlier
when you asked about priority unemployment. The average benefit
of the unemployment-insurance law in the United States is about
$10 a week for about 10 weeks a year. I believe $10.67 is the correct
figure. The highest-paying State is California.
The Chairman. My State.
Dr. Haber. And the lowest is South Carolina, which averages
about $5.50 per week.
But these averages are deceptive. About 35 percent of the people
who got benefits in 1939 got less than $5 a week.
I am not suggesting we ought to be overgenerous; but we ought
to maintain a decent standard of living. I believe that, and I present
it from a practical point of view. We ought also to have a law
which does not compel people to get help from two agencies at the
same time. And on the present scale, in the post-defense period
people would be getting unemployment-insurance benefits as well as
relief simultaneously, or we will be evading our problems.
FURTHER CHANGES SUGGESTED
There is a second aspect of this benefit business, which I alluded to
eai-lier. Our unemployment-insm-ance law treats a married person
with a family of tlu'ee or four the same way that it treats a single
person, on the theory that it is insurance, and therefore the benefits
must be directly related to the earnings. We are in effect failing to
provide a benefit which is adequate to meet the need.
I should like to see our law get away from the earning require-
ment. I prefer to see it tied up to length of employment rather than
total earnings. The purpose of the requirement is mereh^ to establish
the proof that the beneficiary is a regular worker; it should not
penalize the person with low earnings.
Third — and I think this is one of the most vital weaknesses — our
unemployment insurance laws pay benefits over too short a period of
time. I believe we ought to aim, in the post-defense period, at a
fixed period of 26 weeks throughout the country.
I should Uke to go further. I am not certain whether that period
is adequate for the type of problem we will have in the post-defense
period. A large number of people have urged that we think in terms
of an even longer period with some resti'ictions on benefits beyond 26
weeks.
7474 DETROIT HEARINGS
A FEDERAL UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE SYSTEM
I prefer that we think of other measures than unemployment insur-
ance for assistance beyond 26 weeks, such as work rehef or gen-
eral public assistance, and there we enter a very difficult problem,
Congressman. I do not believe that these changes can be made in
the unemploj-ment insurance law — that is, more adequate coverage,
more adequate benefits, a longer duration, which is realistic in relation
to the problem. We will have to meet a series of curtailments or
restrictions or abolition of experience ratings by keeping the present
system of State laws, and I have reluctantly come to the conviction
that this national problem will have to be met by national methods.
We will have to revise our unemplojanent insurance law for the post-
defense period into a Federal Unemployment Insurance System. I
think any measure short of that is going to complicate our problem
seriously. Our reserves will be inadequate on a State basis. Even
in 1940, there are four States paying out $1.30 or more for every
dollar they take in.
The Chairman. Congressman Osmers of New Jersey contemplates
introducing a bill with provision for the change that you are now
advocating. I think you have covered the subject very competently.
Dr. Haber. Thank you. It is a very significant and controversial
subject, because it gets into the realm of State rights and Federal
bureaucracy. But I don't think we ought to be scared by phrases.
We must ask the question whether we can handle a problem whose
origin is entirely national in character, by setting up funds in 51
air-tight compartments.
It has been proposed by some that we ought to keep this system but
set up a Federal reinsurance fund. Thus upon the 51 State insur-
ance funds we will superimpose a Federal reinsurance fund by taking
from each State, let us say, 10 or 15 percent of its money and setting
it up in a pool. That is a compromise, and like all compromises
it runs away from the problem. I don't think it is going to deal with
the issue. We need a flexible method. The present one is not. It is
rigid. Flexibility requires, not that we pool 10 percent of our collec-
tions, but that we pool 100 percent of our collections.
SHOULD ESTABLISH FEDERAL STANDARDS
The other proposal is that we keep the Federal-State relationship
but establish Federal standards, whereby the Federal Government
will say to the State, "You must pay for 26 weeks, and if you have
experience ratings, these are the conditions and these are the require-
ments."
I am afraid that also is running away from the problem. It is
going to complicate an already complex admmistrative relationship
between the Federal Government and the State governments. I
strongi}?- urge that this committee give very serious consideration to
the question whether our present systems of unemployment insurance
can handle the post-defense problem, involvmg a volume such as I
have suggested. This is not meant as a forecast. It is risky to
make any forecast. But I think it is a question we cannot evade.
What I have said about the unemployment insurance law applies
with equal force to the State employment services.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIORATION 7475
NEED AN OUTRIGHT FEDERAL EMPLOYMENT SERVICE
I believe Unit the present experience of the Nation indicates the
extent to which we are rapidly changing from a local labor market to a
national labor market. We are calhng upon om^ labor reserves, not
only here, but wherever they might be. I think we can handle that
mobilization more etTectively with an outright Federal employment
service than with the present Federal-State service.
I hope 1 have answered your question.
Mr. Curtis. Yes. We spoke a moment ago of the inclusion of the
employer or proprietor of small businesses in the unemployment
compensation program.
Perhaps the "employer" doesn't employ anyone. Perhaps he has a
one-man business, or a two-man business. The fact that he feels
insecure makes him long for what he terms "a good job in industry"
and he is willing to turn the key on his place of business and go into
that. I have talked to hundreds of such men, and I know how they
feel.
Isn't that creating a further unemployment problem, with all of
these people seeking jobs? They are registering with the employment
services. They are listed as job seekers, and they are job seekers, and
they are taking jobs away from others. I think that trend is in the
wrong direction.
You have a situation here in the United States now where small
businessmen have the hope and ambition to become an employee
instead of an emploj^er.
Dr. Haber. It is quite a change.
Mr. Curtis. Do you think that is true?
Dr. Haber. Yes"^; I think it is a problem that fluctuates in its
importance with the passage of time. I don't think it remains the
same for a long period. But let me point out, Congressman, that the
small businessman is a risk-taker. He is in business.
Mr, Curtis. Yes; and he thinks that you are providing security
for the employee and not for him; and he further feels that the Gov-
jemment has kind of made war on him pretty much on all fronts.
POSITION OF SMALL BUSINESSMAN
Dr. Haber. The assumption in taking risks is that if he earns more
than he needs to meet his current living expenses, he can provide for
th€ rainy day. That is the assumption. If the assumption is wrong,
then vou have a real point.
I don't think it is wrong. I do thmk, however, that the state of
morale of the small businessman is bad, and I think that deserves
^ome very serious attention.
Mr. Curtis. He is unorganized and he isn't able to express his re-
sistance to tax programs and such.
Dr. Haber. I favor very defmitely the revision of our old age in-
surance law for the inclusion of the self-employed person, but perhaps
on a different plan. I am not certain about the feasibility of the
unemployment insurance legislation for that group.
7476 DETROIT HEARINGS
Mr. Curtis. In its various hearings throughout the country, study-
ing the effects of migration of workers lookmg for jobs, the committee
has often felt that a great deal of unnecessary migration could have
been avoided if people had had more accurate mformation about the
job opportimities in the places to which they came.
Is the present employment service set-up adequate to meet the
business problem?
IMPROVEMENT IX EMPLOYMENT SERVICE
Dr. Haber. I think, gentlemen, it is meeting it in an admirable
way, and if you laiew the employment service only as it operated 5
years ago, you wouldn't recognize it today. A tremendous amount
of progress has been made in establishing an employment service in
this country. It has some shortcomings. Industry has for a long
time been pretty suspicious of the employment service.
I can frankly say that the suspicion of mdustrialists was for a long
time fully justified, and they have not completely overcome it. As a
result, the manufacturers are using the Employment Service some-
what less than they might use it. But I should point out that that
is not a distinctly current problem.
Great Britain has had an emplojTnent service on a national basis
since 1911, yet only 25 percent of the placements made in England
are made by the employment service. The others are made just as
they are made here.
SHOULD BE NATIONAL IN SCOPE
I think the Employment Service can be improved veiy substan-
tially, particularly in the direction of thmking of our labor market in
regional and national terms. As at present organized, it thinks of
it in local and State terms, and even "State" is an exaggeration. It
works on the theory, presumably, that it uses its local reserves first
and then moves on — a theory that isn't always justijSed when you
examine the local situations.
Mr. Curtis. Mr. Stanchfield, in his testimony, stated that the
major employers did not use the employment offices to recruit their
working force. Do you think any formula devised by the Employ-
ment Service could have any appreciable effect upon the movement
of workers in search of jobs?
Dr. Haber. If by a formula you mean a law, I would say it might
be very undesirable.
Mr. Curtis. No; I don't mean that. I should have said a scheme
of dispensmg information.
Dr. Haber. I think it could have a very great effect. It is an
educational process, and an educational process for skilled and semi-
skilled and unskilled workers offers something very definite. But
that educational process, like all educational processes, is very slow.
Mr. Curtis. And then there is a certain amount of indirect benefits
that come from the Employment Service. We can measure them.
One individual may go to the Employment Service and get his mfor-
mation and direction about a job, but we have no way of knowmg
how many people benefit by that one call and get the same mforma-
tion and apply at the gates or at other firms, isn't that true?
Dr. Haber. That is right.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7477
Mr. Curtis. Dr. Haber, this committee, in its report to Congress
last year, recommended a fourth categor}" for relief under the Social
Security Act to meet the needs of the unsettled persons. Do you
have any opinion on that?
FOURTH CATEGORY FOR RELIEF
Dr. Haber. Yes; I have. I can perhaps go a bit further. Unem-
ploj^ment insurance, too, which has been involved in our discussion up
to now, is only one measure, only one method of dealing with the need
resulting from unemployment.
I think a very definite shortcoming ui this country is the fact that our
system of general assistance — general relief, as we usually call it —
does not have any Federal assistance, either fuiancial or m terms of
supervision or administration or standards; and I believe, therefore,
that we are takmg a very definite risk in moving toward the post-
defense period, without exammmg to what extent we ought to pro-
vide, in addition to unemployment insurance, an underpinnmg
structure which will take care of these people who are going to fall
out at the end of 26 weeks or never fall into any of the 26 weeks at
all, or w^ho can't get mto a works program for one reason or another.
At the present time this is left entirel}^ to the States and localities,
to their own resources, to the best of their ability. I am certam they
did not meet the problem adecpiately betw^een 1935 and a year or so
ago, and dire privation and destitution prevailed m many of our
States where the only general relief available was Federal surplus
commodities. I am referrmg to Texas and to other States where
the grants were unbelievably low.
I believe, therefore, that in anticipating the unemployment problem
of the post-defense period, we ought to study this need of an under-
pinning system by way of a fourth category.
I think that is obvious because this very migration that is taking
place is going to result, I am afraid, in a very unfortunate attitude
toward the migrant. You will find cities in this State starting soon
to protect themselves against having to take care of people who aren't
their citizens. One city in Michigan is already suggesting that
perhaps they should have a 10-year settlement law instead of 1
year, and I don't think that tendency is limited to Michigan. You
will find many communities scared by this problem. People who
are very much needed now will be very much unwanted a few years
hence, and unless we are resigned to seeing those people kicked around,
we must devise a method of taking care of them.
We can do it by saying to the State, "You take care of them under
your system and we will reimburse you for all expenditures made for
unsettled or migrant persons," or we can set up a purely Federal
transient system for migrants, or set up a fourth category which is to
include this particular group in addition to others.
I for one favor such a foiu'th category. I am not certain whether
it ought to be on a grant-in-aid basis or some other, but I feel that
here is an area this committee should explore.
Mr. Curtis. Do you feel that appropriations for a w^orks progra,m,
a general relief program, and increased unemployment compensation
wm solve the problem of unemployment in the post-defense period?
Dr. Haber. Not at all.
7478 DETROIT HEARINGS
IMr. Curtis. In fact, these measures have nothing to do with the
problem of unemployment itself, do they?
Dr. Haber, Not at all. They are national security measures,
made necessary because of the problem which exists.
GOVERNMENT SHOULD ENCOURAGE PRIVATE EMPLOYMENT
I should say, in addition, that the Government ought to use every
measure and every resource, whether it is subsidy or tax incentive or
whatever it might be, to encourage and assist private enterprise to
utilize the fullest possible employment of people. I am talking about
the problem of people who, for one reason or another, do not get
private jobs, and I merely suggest that realistically we ought to be
prepared for a large group in that condition. But I do not regard
these suggestions as planks in a platform for the solution of unem-
ployment. I should say we shall have a very real obligation in the
post-defense period if we are faced with 15,000,000 or 20,000,000
unemployed. Preceding this confusion and process of conversion, a
great deal can be done by the Government. I look for intelligent
pubHc policy-making to frame a very ambitious program of public
works.
Mr. Curtis. As an economist, do you think there is any danger
that the Federal Government will have no money to spend on general
relief and work programs, or even on unemployment compensation?
Dr. Haber. May I answer the question with another question?
Mr. Curtis. I would rather have an answer, but you may answer
it any way you wish.
• total resources of AMERICA SHOULD BE USED IN POST-DEFENSE
PERIOD
Dr. Haber. I would answer that question by asking: Is there any
danger that the Federal Government might not have enough money
to finance the present defense effort? We say no, obviously not,
because the total resources of America are being used to finance the
defense effort. The total resources of America will have to be used to
give our people work. Our national mcome will reach $90,000,000,000
in 1941. It will reach $100,000,000,000 m 1943, or perhaps late in
1942. It is unthinkable we will get up to $100,000,000,000 national
income and then let it drop to $60,000,000,000 after we have learned
how to keep it at $100,000,000,000.
Mr. Curtis. But you are going to raise it up there with the defense
effort. When that effort stops, it is not going to stay up there.
Dr. Haber. How can we keep it up there? How can we keep it
up there by methods short of the kmd of fiscal surgery we have had
to undergo?
We have stopped talking about a balanced budget as being dan-
gerous, to be sure; but unless we continued with unbalanced budgets,
we couldn't have financed the defense efl'ort. We might have to do
the same kmd of fiscal surgery, for a time, in the post-defense period.
, Mr. Curtis. Well, is there a limit to how far you can go m that
surgery you are talking about?
' Dr. Haber. There is a Imiit, of course. I don't think we have
reached the limit.
Mr. Curtis. You would not want to fix the limit?
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7479
Dr. Haber. Well, let me say we thought there was a lunit in 1936.
We thought the national debt of $40,000,000,000 would be about the
worst thing that could happen to this country, and $60,000,000,000
was fantastic.
We are livmg under a $60,000,000,000 debt now.
The situation is not simple; but all I say is that we are dealing with
a problem now, and we shall have to deal with a post-defense problem
using the total resources of this country which are not reckoned in
terms of dollars but in the labor power and other resources of the
people and our industries.
Mr. Curtis. Do you mean the Government will take them all over?
Dr. Haber. No, no; "take them all over" is an over-simplification.
The Government should encourage private industry by one way or
another, to keep it at work, and it should engage in useful public
projects if private industry camiot.
I do not believe that we dare come to a post-defense period and
permit our working population, to the tune of 15 or 20 million, to
contemplate any probability that they are going to be unemployed
through 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 years.
CANNOT AFFORD A BALANCED BUDGET NOW OR LATER
I think we are dealing with social dynamite that we can't play with.
Under those circumstances we shall have to face the issue even if
it means discarding some notions which for a long time were regarded
as pretty sound and would be sound today if we could afford them.
We can't afford them. We can't afford a balanced budget. It is too
dangerous.
Mr. Curtis. You believe, then, that we have gone tlu'ough a period
in past years, during which we based Federal expenditures on what
we could afford to pay, but that in a wartime economy we have to
base our expenditures on what we have to have.
Dr. Haber. That is right.
Mr. Curtis. Now, I understand you to say that in the relief prob-
lem that follows
Dr. Haber. In the unemployment problem.
Mr. Curtis. Yes; the unemployment problem that follows national
defense; we will have to continue with our appropriations for relief
and public works and so on, without regard to what we can afford
as a nation, but with regard to what we will have to have m order to
take care of the unemployed.
Dr. Haber. Yes, the unemployed who are not provided for in
regular jobs in private industry. May I amplify that a little?
Mr. Curtis. Is that your thought?
ANTICIPATING INCOME AND TAX FIGURES
Dr. Haber. Yes. But I should like to amplify that just a little.
We are going to have a national income of $100,000,000,000 in 1942
or 1943 or 1944. It depends on how fast we go. Under the present
tax rates, not taking into consideration the new tax bill that was signed
last week, $100,000,000,000 national income will produce a revenue to
the Federal Government of $14,000,000,000.
7480 DETROIT HEAllINGS
A program to meet the social security and miemployment com-
pensation problem in the post-defense period, on the basis of such
calculations as we have made, probably will call for a Federal Budget
of anywhere from $12,000,000,000 to '$14,000,000,000.
Mr. Curtis. If we have a $100,000,000,000 income, we won't have
very much of an unemployment problem, will we?
Dr. Haber. That is right. I am sajmig that the real problem will
be to maintain a $100,000,000,000 national income. The Govern-
ment itself, through loan devices, through direct public projects,
through housing, and through a larger program of reforestation and
conservation, may itself have to become the creator of national
income by employing people.
Air. OsMERS. 1 have been very much interested in your remarks on
the unemployment compensation program. The fact that your
thinking on the subject has changed is an indication in itself that we
are still in an experimental stage with such a program, and it is going
to be pretty hard to write the ideal bill. But you have given such a
clear description of your views on it that I am not going into that.
I want to continue a little further on the general economic picture
that Air. Curtis was developing.
I don't think that the average citizen, or the average Alember of
Congress, is particularly concerned about the country going into debt
in a time such as this. The thing that is concerning thoughtful people
is that since the start of our social program, some 8 years ago, we have
not in any single year of recession, depression, good business pick-up
or anything else, been able to break up that deadly relationship of
$2 of outgo to every $1 of income.
Now, your picture for the committee of $100,000,000,000 of national
income in 1 year certainly is just around the corner if we continue as
we are. But we had a man sitting in that chair this morning who said
that he anticipated, at the time you anticipate the $100,000,000,000
national income, a $30,000,000,000 annual expenditure for defense.
So leaving out all of the civilian needs of the country, we will be back
right where we were before, with $2 going out and $1 coming in.
ECONOMIC CONSIDERATIONS
The question that I would like to ask is not how we can get thi'ough
these emergencies, but, from a still broader viewpoint, how can we
run this country permanently on that kind of economy — an economy
that never balances itself?
Dr. Haber. It is a very hard question, Congressman, one to which
one can suggest answers, rather than state anything categorically.
Mr. Osmers. There is nothing sacred about a balanced budget,
in my mind, but I think we realize that if we are going to continue
the system of government that Ave have now, unless we want to go
over to some kind of commodity dollar or some such economy, eventu-
ally we are going to have to see a balance somewhere along the road.
Dr. Haber. I am not by any means the pessimist on the post-
defense problem. I am talking about the post-defense emergency,
the problem we have to deal with when this shock and adjustment
takes place.
Mr. Osmers. That raises a ver}^ serious long-time question. The
tempo of growth in private investment and exploitation of industry
in this country has changed in the last 25 vears.
NATIONAL DEFENSE IVnGRATION 7481
Dr. Haber. Quite true.
Mr. OsMERS. There are some pessimists, who call themstslves "im-
ortliodox economists," who sa}^ we are in a permanent period of stag-
nation. They are very much concerned because the population isn't
increasing rapidly and the statisticians tell them the trend is going
to reach a peak in 1950.
Dr. Haber. It stands to reason that while our population has been
increasing every 10 years, a stoppage there will have tremendous
repercussions on our economy.
It may very well be, Congressman, that we are getting into a situa-
tion in which the full employment of all our people will require that
many of them be employed in social projects, such as pubhcly financed
housing, and other works publicly financed.
Mr. Osmers. We have had some pretty good samples of that over
the last 8 years. We have had our W. P. A. programs, our State
work -relief programs. We have had all of these palliatives.
Dr. Haber. We have had them largely in terms of relief, in tempo-
rary, emergency programs, on the assumption of an immediate return
to private industry.
Mr. Osmers. Let us assume we face the situation and we answer it
by putting 10,000,000 people on nonprofit work — ^call it anything you
will, Government work, social work, housing, or any public project.
Those people would not contribute taxes to the Federal Treasury.
They would be paid out of the Federal Treasury, and it would be
silly to pay taxes back into the Treasury.
Dr. Haber. They would pay some.
Mr. Osmers. I can see that; and I can see a Congress sitting in
Washington, enthusiastically, under certain circumstances, passing
such a program.
Dr. Haber. What would these people be producing. Congressman?
Mr. Osmers. Well, that is, of course, the key to it. Would they
be producing anything?
Dr. Haber. National wealth.
Mr. Osmers. National wealth? Now, just a minute. Would that
be national wealth of a kind and character applicable to the liquidation
of the debts that were being incurred to produce it?
Dr. Haber. Housing, for instance.
Mr. Osmers. Housing comes close to it. But, of course, there is a
limit to housing. We haven't an unlimited future in housing.
Dr. Haber. We can go a long way.
Mr. Osmers. Yes; we can go a long way, but we can't run an entire
national economy on a Federal housing program.
Dr. Haber. No one suggested that. When you get that far you
are talking about a collapse.
Mr. Osmers. Certainly.
Dr. Haber. I am talking of a system of private enterprise, such as
we have now, continuing as a system of private enterprise, with the
Government stepping in when necessary to insure the continuity of
standards of living which our system of private enterprise has not been
able to sustain at all times unaided.
Mr. Osmers. I think I can restate my question now much more
brieflv. I will put it this way: '\'\lien are we going to get the money
to do'^it?
7482 DETROIT HEARINGS
Dr. Haber. I have said that on the basis of national income, with
present tax rates you have a Federal Budget adequate to finance that
kind of lay-out.
Mr. OsMERS. Do you suppose that if we had an unemployment
problem of 10,000,000 or 15,000,000 people, we would have at the same
time a $100,000,000,000 national income?
Dr. Haber. I get your point. You would avoid an unemployment
problem as such.
Mr. OsMERs. If you had a $100,000,000,000 national income in the
United States, it is my opinion that your unemployment problem
would be one for the church charities.
Dr. Haber. But you may get that. You may have to make those
public expenditures to get the $100,000,000,000 national income. I
don't call spending money for housing "spending." That is invest-
ing it.
Mr. Osmers. Let us grant that is true.
Dr. Haber. Similarly, other expenditures you make to employ
people on productive work add to the national wealth; it is not the
mere giving of relief that contributes to the national income. You
may have to spend $10,000,000,000 of Federal funds to make sure you
have a national income of $100,000,000,000. All I am suggesting is
that in the post-defense period, we will have to do that.
Mr. Osmers. If it costs $8,000,000,000 or $9,000,000,000 to run the
Federal Government in a normal year, and we spend $10,000,000,000
to produce $100,000,000,000 national income, and the tax rate returns.
$14,000,000,000, as I figure it, we have $18,000,000,000 or $19,000,-
000,000 of Federal expenditures.
Dr. Haber. I was not refining these figures when I mentioned
$10,000,000,000 for a program. I am talking in generalities. .
Mr. Osmers. I am too.
SHOULD PLAN FOR POSSIBLE BUSINESS COLLAPSE
Dr. Haber. I merely say, Congressman Osmers, that we are very
likely in the post-defense period, for a considerable time, to have a
business collapse. , ,
Mr. Osmers. I- think everyone anticipates that.
Dr. Haber. I am not pessimistic about it, as some people, but I
think it would be short-sighted not to plan for it.
Mr. Osmers. I don't think it will be the end of the world, either,
but I think it may bring 3 or 4 or 5 years of what we call very hard
times.
Dr. Haber. I hope we can avoid a distress period that long.
Mr. Osmers. So do I. . :
Dr. Haber. If we can maintain the employment by subsidies to
private industry — mind you, by grants to private industry — I would
say, let us do it. All I am trymg to emphasize is that we cannot
contemplate a recurrence of the employment problem of 1933.
Mr. Osmers. You see, I am not worried about 1933 or about 1944,
but I am worried about 1935, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1939— those years
when we were not strictly in a state of depression. We had sort of
leveled off, but we just didn't make it work. Now, I can suggest,
and so can you, and so can anyone in this room, a dozen ways o|
usefully employing 10,000,000 people— building houses, bridges,
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7483
toads, sanitary facilities, educational facilities, and a million and one
other things
Dr. Haber. Which add to the national income.
Mr. OsMERS. Yes; but I want to find out, is there anybody any-
where who can tell us how we are going to pay for it, where we are
going to get the money? They say any fool can spend money, but
that it takes a wise man to raise it."^ We are not short on ideas as to
how to employ people. Everybody has a lot of ideas how to do some
very useful things. But we are very short — in fact, we are absolutely
blank — on the means of raising revenue to pay for it.
Dr. Haber. What do you mean by "means of revenue"? Do
you mean taxes?
Mr. OsMERS. Taxes sufficient to pay all of the cost.
TAX RESOURCES
Dr. Haber. You don't imply that the Federal Govermiient is
short of ways of raising taxes?
Mr. Osmers. I think we have nearly every one of them in this
new bill.
Dr. Haber. You are driving at another point. I think I would
answer that by saying we don't get money out of a hat.
Mr. Osmers. One would thmk we did, the way we are spending it.
Dr. Haber. Perhaps we get the money out of the resources of our
people, and sometimes out of the potential resources of our people.
Mr. Osmers. When the Secretary of the Treasury needs money to
pay the expenses of the Government, he sells the obligations of you
and me to a private individual or a bank for X number of dollars and
that constitutes an X dollar obligation of the Federal Government.
Now, I know about potential resources, and I know about national
resources, and I know about the working ability of the American
people; but I don't know where we are going to get the X dollars to
pay off that obligation.
Dr. Haber. We may have difficulty getting it.
Mr. Osmers. I think that is the answer.
Dr. Haber. But I am sure that obligation is going to be paid, and
that is probably the faith that most Americans have.
The Chairman. How did Hitler get the money?
Dr. Haber. Well, I might have gone on that tack. That is a very,
very genubie answer.
Mr. Osmers. And a very penetrating question.
Dr. Haber. It is a genuine, legitimate question. Hitler didn't
raise the question of fiscal surgery. He said, "I have 30,000,000 peo-
ple who can work, and they are going to work." The question is.
Can we as Americans find ways of doing the same thing without get-
ting involved in the denial of liberties and restrictions to which Hitler
resorted? T think we can.
The Chairman. Professor Haber, if I get your viewpoint correctly,
it conforms to my own.
I am always thinking of the human equatioii. What you are trying
to demonstrate is your interest in employable people, people who
want to work so that they can live. You want to think in terms of
them, you want some cushion for them after this defense effort is over.
Dr. Haber. To be sure. And I also want to support Congressman
Osmers' point of view. I hope we can avoid any public policy which.
Y484 DETROIT HEARINGS
discourages the employment of these people m private enterprise to
the fullest extent.
Air. OsMERS. I don't think there is any disagreement there.
Dr. Habek (to Mr. Osmers). You spoke of the late 1930's as a
period of leveliug-ofT. Accordmg to the newspaper account I read
yesterday, Congi-essman Tolan said, as the hearing opened, ""We still
have 5,000,000 unemployed today."
Mr. Osmers. That is right. That is the thmg that worries every-
one. After we did bail out from the 1931, 1932, and 1933 dip, we still
had not eliminated the unemployed.
Dr. Haber. Private investors seriousW raise the question where
they can put money with an assurance of a return.
Mr. Osmers. Maybe we have come to the end of the capitalistic
system. I don't know.
Dr. Haber. I don't think so.
Mr. Osmers. I hate to think so; but I think if we are approaching
the twilight of it, we ought to start thinking about it.
Dr. Haber. No; I think it is much simpler than that. It is the
function of this economy to see that all of the savings and all of the
capital we have accumulated is put to work to employ people.
Mr. Osmers. I am afraid if we are going to continue with this
system, we may find ourselves faced with the very dismal possibility
that a rigid control of the business of the country will be required to
make it work.
The Chairman. Dr. Lamb.
Dr. Lamb (to Dr. Haber). You have been saying, in efiect, that
granted there are 10,000,000 people employable and unemployed after
this defense emergency is over, if you put those 10,000,000 to work
on public works programs, of which the backbone is housing
Dr. Haber. Or pubUcly financed private programs. I want to
emphasize that. If the reason our people aren't working is that pri-
vate industiy hasn't a profitable outlet, then our Government ought
either to borrow those funds and provide the outlet or otherwise
encourage private enterprise to find the outlet. We ought not permit
any of our funds to be idle while labor is idle simultaneously.
UNCERTAINTY OF CONVERSION FACTOR
Dr. Lamb. Lot us say 10,000,000 people are unemployed, and you
put them to work on public works programs or in subsidized industry.
Let us sav that the amount expended in order to employ these people is
$10,000,000,000. AVliat would be the multiplier by which an expendi-
ture of $10,000,000,000 in this form would generate purchasing power
throughout the remainder of the economy? Have you any estimate
of that?
Dr. Haber. No. I have heard the estimates of others, and there
^re variations — variations so great that I doubt if anyone can talk
with certainty about the conversion factor.
Dr. Lamb. "^ Isn't it an essential point in your argument that per-
haps not in 1 vear, but over a period of, say, 5 years, the expenditure
of $10,000,000',000 per year in this fashion would so increase the general
purchasing power as to permit not only the sale of goods to the people
so employed and to the remainder of 'the purchasing public, but also
to provide sufficient income for tax purposes?
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7485
Dr. Haber. That is right.
Dr. Lamb. Sufficient income, that is, to begin, if not to complete,
the hqiiidation, through taxes, of that 5-ycar, $50,000,000,000 ex-
penditure?
Dr. Haber. Yes; I am very glad you restated it.
Dr. Lamb. And that is a correct statement of your position?
BALANCE BETWEEN PUBLIC EXPENDITURE AND TAX INCOME
Dr. Haber. Yes; that is correct; and Congressman Osmers' ques-
tion is then answered by pointing out that part of this expenditure
itself produces the income which will eventually liquidate the indebt-
edness.
Dr. Lamb. So that your contention is, the greater the expenditure
for this purpose, the greater the possibility for tax income?
Dr. Haber. That is right.
Dr. Lamb. And the less the expenditure under these circumstances
of large-scale unemployment, the less the possibility of an adequate .
tax program?
Dr. Haber. I agree with you.
PARTIAL AND TOTAL UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS
Mr. OsMERS. I want to clarify one point, Professor, which was
raised in one of your answers to Congressman Curtis.
You quoted average weekly benefits under the unemployment
compensation law, and I think they were very low; around $5?
Dr. Haber. Yes, sir.
Mr. Osmers. Does that include split weeks?
Dr. Haber. Total unemployment.
Mr. Osmers. For full weeks?
Dr. Haber. That is right.
The Chairman. Professor, the problem we have been talking about
is so vast that we couldn't explore it and exhaust it m days of dis-
cussion, could we? Your presentation has been very valuable and
very intelligent, and it is going to be helpful to us. We thank you for
coming here.
The committee will take a 5-minute recess.
(Short recess.)
The Chairman. The committee will please come to order.
Mr. Campbell, I think you desire to be heard.
TESTIMONY OF HARVEY CAMPBELL, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT,
DETROIT BOARD OF COMMERCE, DETROIT, MICH.
The Chairman. Mr. Campbell, please give your full name and the
capacity in which you appear here.
Mr. Campbell. Harvey Campbell, executive vice president,
Detroit Board of Commerce.
The Chairman. Will you state to the committee, as briefly as you
can, what vou liave in mind?
Mr. Campbell. Well, Dr. Haber was pretty fluent on my subject.
There are a couple of things, though, to which I should like to draw
voiir attention.
7486 DETROIT HEARINGS
PREVENTION OF HOARDING
One is the prevention of hoai'ding, which will leave us with some
kind of market when this crash comes — when we get to the end of the
line. We can all remember here in this town that we couldn't build
an aircraft motor for several years after the last war because we had
such a tremendous superabundance of Liberty motors and also of those
Curtiss OX-5's. We had to absorb them first. If that condition is
going to prevail, and if everybody is going to have all the stuff on hand
that he needs, there will not be a market to take care of the situation.
People will want things, but they will be all built for them, and there
will be no necessity for employing any folks to manufacture them.
COMPULSORY SAVINGS
Another point I wish to raise is that the people themselves — they
weren't mentioned in Dr. Haber's testimony, as far as I can remem-
ber— ought to consider their own future in this matter. The indi-
vidual should remember that he is riding to a fall.
I don't know, Congressman, whether there is going to be any use sav-
ing money if these pieces of paper aren't going to be good, but I think
defense bonds should be purchased for the defense of the mdividual,
because he is the man who will need defense, and he should take some
of the stuff that he is going to get in the next few years, which he
thinks is money, and put it where he needs it, so he won't have to ask
the Government for help.
The Chairman. We have already explored that. There have been
several suggestions with reference to compulsory savings and the like.
Mr. Campbell. All right, let us forget that subject, and give me 2
minutes on something that I haven't heard discussed here, which I
think should be said about the immediate situation of today.
I am very happy that this committee has shown such a tremendous
interest in Detroit's affairs, because Detroit has a national reputation
as a workshop, and right now everybody seems to think it is barri-
caded.
WILDCAT strikes
If something could be done through this committee to cut out some
of the wildcat strikes that are givmg Detroit a bad reputation, so we
could get the kind of desirable migration that would help us to turn
out the defense job we have to do here, it would be extremely helpful.
At the present time we have in our daily press the story of a possible
cessation of our defense housing program because of the vandalism
of some of the labor unions. We have also going on today the impor-
tation of some folks from the mines, with the tlu'eat that they are
going to tip over the trucks of the Railway Express Co. here. The
express company employees are all union members. That is, they are
members of one of the brotherhoods, and the C. I. O. seems to want
their end of the business.
The Fruchauf Trailer Co. has had a contract, signed and ratified
by the National Labor Relations Board in July, but since then they
have had several strikes and work stoppages on trucks and trailers,
and those ti-ailers are as big as boxcars. We need boxcars.
In today's Detroit News, there is a very well written story giving
both sides of a controversy at the Evans Products Co., now inanu-
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7487
facturing machine-gun mounts. Their contract with the C. I. O. has
been ratified by the National Labor Relations Board. The Mechanics
Educational Association of America members are picketing Evans
and asking them to break the law. They are tipping over their
trucks, hurling stones, and doing all kinds of illegal things.
Now, that can be stopped, and I would suggest that it be stopped
by the man who started it and that man is, with all due respect, the
President of the United States, who stood on the city hall steps in
Detroit and told the workers of Detroit "to go and get what they
wanted; he would back them up."
Now, we have got way beyond that pomt. He has been elected
twice since then, and we are in an emergency, and if he would tell
labor over the air or in any way possible that this is labor's war,
and that they should play ball and work with him to take care of this
defense program, I rather think that we might be able to work together
and win this game, instead of having all this pettiness, with chips con-
stantly on the shoulders of those fellows.
We can work together lilvc that and do a satisfactory job. If he
doesn't do something about it, we will continue to have labor stop-
pages, and migration will be affected. It is practically civil war here
in Detroit, and we are stepping on our own toes instead of going
forward as we should as Americans.
That is all I have to say.
The Chairman. Thank you very much, Mr. Campbell. Our next
witnesses w411 be Mr. Nicol, Mr. Keenan, and Colonel McSherry.
TESTIMONY OF ERIC NICOL, ASSOCIATE CHIEF, LABOR SUPPLY
BRANCH, OFFICE OF PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT, WASHING-
TON, D. C. ; EDWARD L. KEENAN, ACTING CHAIRMAN, REGIONAL
LABOR SUPPLY COMMITTEE, 0. P. M., CLEVELAND, OHIO; AND
COL. FRANK J. McSHERRY, DIRECTOR, DEFENSE TRAINING.
0. P. M., CLEVELAND, OHIO
The Chairman. Gentlemen, Congressman Osmers will ask you the
questions.
Mr. Osmers. We are anxious to find out from you gentlemen what
we can about the possible migration of workers as a result of the cur-
tailments and dislocations that have been created by the national-
defense program.
We are as much interested in in-migration for employment as we
are in out-migration.
THE BUFFALO PLAN
Now, I understand that the Labor Division of the O. P. M. has
devised, for dealing with the problem of priority unemployment, a
formula popularly known as the "Buffalo Plan" and that you expect
to extend it to the whole State of Michigan if possible.
I would like to have your comment on a statement that was made
yesterday before this committee by R. J. Thomas, of the Automobile
Workers, who said that even in such a city as Buffalo, N. Y., where
tremendous demands for national-defense labor are developing, the
60396 — 41 — pt. 18 28
7488 DETROIT HEAIilNGS
Bufi'alo plan l)y itself has provided employment up to September 20
for only 1,200 out of 3,600 unemployed automobile workers.
He went on to say that in cities such as Flint or Detroit the plan
would be still less eli'ective.
I notice from the statement that you submitted to the committee
that those figures are substantially correct.
(The statement referred to above is as follows:)
STATEMENT BY ERIC A. NICOL, ACTING CHIEF, LABOR SUPPLY
BRANCH, LABOR DIVISION, OFFICE OF PRODUCTION MANAGE-
MENT, WASHINGTON, D. C.
The Labor Division of the Office of Production Management has as one of its
major functions the provision of an adequate and continuous supply of trained
manpower for the defense program. To perform this function, the Labor
Division has established a National Labor Supply Committee composed of
representatives of the several Government agencies which are concerned with the
recruiting, training and job-placement of labor. On this committee also are
representatives of other branches of the Labor Division. Among these branches
are labor relations, defense training, training-within-industry, and priorities.
The operating arm of the National Labor Supply Committee is the labor
supply branch of the Labor Division, which coordinates the over-all program and
policies developed by the National Labor Supply Committee and translates them
into action. This labor supply branch functions throughout the country through
12 regional labor supply committees and local or industrial area labor supply
committees, all of which are responsible for the direct application of the national
program and policy for labor supply.
CENTHAL AUTHORITY ON LABOR SUPPLY
The efhcient use of the Nation's labor supply and its training facilities requires
that there be a central administrative authority which will direct the movement
and training of workers toward the specific needs of defense production.
The efforts of the labor supply branch are therefore shaped by the necessity
of affecting the most productive employment of all available manpower. Con-
sequently, there has been a broadening and intensification of placement of unem-
ployed workers, of securing the highest possible utilization of skilled workers
already employed and of training programs, both public and within the plants,
in order that workers may be supplied in sufficient numbers in the needed occu-
pations and at the proper time.
PRIORITIES AND DISLOCATION OP WORKERS
Priorities on raw materials and machinery create the problem of dislocation of
workers in nondefense industr3^ Workers are displaced both by the curtailment
of production resulting from the operation of priorities placed on raw materials
such as copper, aluminum, and silk — and by the restrictions placed on output of
certain items of a nondefense character such as mechanical refrigerators and
bicycles.
Failure to take prompt effective action on behalf of these thousands of dis-
placed workers has a twofold effect upon the local and upon the national-defense
program: First, it tends to undermine morale of the workers; second, it results in
disorganization of the labor market and wasteful immobilization of manpower
now critically needed.
The labor suppl.y branch is fully aware of problems incident to the labor short-
ages in one industr}' or one area and labor surpluses, including displacement of
workers due to priorities, in other industries or areas. Consequentlj', it is attack-
ing this labor supply proI)lem on a Nation-wide as well as a local level. All the
facilities of Government, management, and organized labor are being coordinated
in a serious effort to prevent major dislocations, fruitless migration, and the conse-
quent lowering of national morale.
GOVERNMENT AGENCIES WORKING ON LABOR SUPPLY PROBLEM
We should like to mention a number of these facilities and Government agencies
that are actively associated with the labor supply branch in this work, in order
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7489
to give the committee a picture of the extent to which all available resources have
been brought to bear in the attack on the labor supply problem.
The labor supply branch has the intimate and daily cooperation of four im-
portant branches within the Office of Production Management; the labor rela-
tions, the priorities, defense training, and training within industry. In addition,
a similar working relationship is maintained with the United States Employment
Service, and its 1,500 local employment offices.
The participation of these units in the day-to-day functioning of the labor
supply branch, both in Washington and in the various States and local com-
munities, is one of closely integrated cooperation.
There are seven other governmental agencies whose closely coordinated facili-
ties, joined with those mentioned above, make it possible to anticipate labor
supply and displacement problems before they become acute, thereby permitting
speed and precision in developing corrective measures to be undertaken.
LABOR RECRUITMENT POLICY
It might be well to turn, for a moment, to the labor recruitment policy under
the national-defense program.
The United States Employment Service through its regional offices and through
the local offices of the individual State employment services is designated by the
Office of Production Management as the official defense employment agency.
Emploj'ers having defense contracts are urged to use public employment offices
for the recruitment of workers. No emploj^er should attempt b.y any methods
to recruit labor from outside his local area or engage in any advertising, local or
otherwise, without first consulting with the local public employment office as to
the availability of local labor and the necessity of such action' and the methods
to be employed.
INSTRUCTIONS TO UNITED STATES EMPLOYMENT SERVICE
In order to achieve a proper and orderly recruitment of defense labor, the
United States Employment Service has been instructed by the Office of Produc-
tion Management to carry out the following responsibihties through the personnel
of State employment service offices and the regional offices of the United States
Employment Service:
1. To persuade employers to recruit labor by use of the facilities of the State
employment service offices in order that the labor demands of defense industries
may be pooled and that necessary labor turn-over and competition between em-
ployers may be avoided.
2. To urge workers unemployed and available for placement and workers
employed on jobs not fully using their skills to register with the local offices in
order that, insofar as possible, the supply of labor may be known and registers
maintained of persons available for employment in defense industries.
3. To obtain periodically, from the operations of State employment service
offices and other appropriate local sources, current information regarding supply
and demand of labor, and changing characteristics of the labor market, as well
as to supply such information to other governmental agencies associated with
the defense program.
4. To consult with employers concerning the recruitment of workers in occupa-
tions in which there are shortages in order that first there may be ascertained the
most adequate use of already employed workers through job analysis and upgrad-
ing, as well to obtain the employers' not anticipated labor needs."
5. To provide technical assistance in order to facilitate job analysis and up-
grading through cooperation with the staff of the Training- Within-Industry
Branch, Labor Division, Office of Production Management.
6. To exhaust the sources of available labor supply within the locality before
resorting to recruitment of labor from outside the locality, or training outside the
locplity in filling employers' orders. This includes the responsibility of exerting
every effort to place available workers in minority groups, such as Negroes, foreign-
born, and native workers of foreign-born parentage; and to use women to the
extent that they are qualified and available. Furthermore, the canvass of local
sources of labor supply includes methods of advertising according to approved
standards.
7. To urge employers, when orders cannot be filled locally, to utilize the
Employment Service clearance machinery for recruitment of labor rather than the
employers themselves attempting to secure such labor advertising methods and
labor scouting.
"7490 DETROIT HEARINGS
8. To notify training-within-industry and apprenticeship field officers of any
defense firms or industries needing technical advisory service on training problems.
9. To relate the public training program, insofar as possible, to the anticipated
hiring schedules of defense employers in order to avoid the placement of orders
for workers into clearance if there are local labor reserves which can be trained
to meet the labor demands. State employment service offices are instructed to
determine periodically the kinds of training needed in the community and to
collaborate with the training authorities in establishing the necessary training
courses and in recruiting persons for training courses, referring persons to training
courses, and placing trainees in openings as they occur.
RECRUITMENT BY CIVIL SERVICE
The Civil Service Commission, through its 13 district offices, has the responsi-
bility for recruiting civilian personnel for the Government departments partici-
pating in the defense program, including the manufacturing and maintenance
establishments of the Federal Government.
TRAINING-WITHIN-INDTJSTRY PROGRAMS
The national-defense training and training-within-industry programs are also
intimately linked to the problems of labor supply and labor displacement.
Special" attention of the labor supply staff is being given at the present time
particularlv in this area to the problem of workers displaced through the action of
material shortages and priorities for defense work. The Labor Supply Committee
has established "a basic over-all pattern of procedure utilizing all of its constituent
units.
From time to time the problem of worker displacement will justify the participa-
tion of representatives of the labor supply branch in conferences with employers
and labor leaders in industrial areas. Such a conference has just been conducted
in Detroit.
COOPERATION OF MANAGEMENT AND LABOR
We feel strongly that the most important factor in carrying out this program
is the cooperation of the representatives of management and organized labor.
For this reason we are appointing to the regional labor supply committees and in
most regions there have been appointed, labor and management representatives
who are expected to work with their constituent groups to effect the orderly-
transfer or reemployment of displaced workers.
The management representative will assume the responsibility for determining
the employers concerned and securing their full cooperation in carrying out the
national policy of the Office of Production Management as developed by manage-
ment and labor; for getting industries to cooperate in reemploying displaced work-
ers; and for securing cooperation in giving advanced information as to lay-offs.
The labor representatives will assume the responsibility for securing the coop-
eration and participation of representatives of organized labor on regional, State,
and local levels in the registration of workers and in determining training needs
and eligibility for placement.
United Automobile Workers (Congress of Industrial Organizations), for example,
has set up a national policy committee on displacement problems and appointed
a national coordinator to be responsible for cooperating with Government agencies
in getting their displaced workers reemployed in defense production. In turn
their State and local committees have been appointed to help with the program of
the Federal Government in their respective areas.
CONFERENCE AFTER BUFFALO LAY-OFF
In Buffalo in late July, 3,200 workeis in three automobile plants were laid off
while their factories were being reequipped to produce airplane motors. It was
announced that the retooling would take 6 or S months.
This situation was promptlv brought to the attention of Office of Production
Management Associate Director-General Sidney Hillman by the Congress of Indus-
trial Organizations United Automobile Workers Union. Mr. Hillman immediately
dispatched one of his assistants to Buffalo where he investigated the situation
with Walter Reuther, director of the United Automobile Workers General Motors
division, and local union officials. Representatives of the New York State Em-
ployment Service and the Buffalo Board of Education were present, and the extent
of their possible cooperation was explored. "Key employers," holders of large
defense contracts in the area, who might be able to absorb the displaced workers-
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7491
^vere suggested. The conference recommended a formal meeting with defense
plant employers and with Government representatives from Washington to
develop a program of action. . ,, ^t ^- ^ o^ 4.
Mr Hillman promptlv called the conference, which met m the New York btate
Office Building in Buffalo on August 7, with Arthur S. Flemming, Chief of the
Labor Supply Branch, Office of Production Management, presiding. Other Wash-
ington officials represented the Labor Relations and Defense Training Branches
of the Labor Division and the aircraft section of the Office of Production Manage-
ment's Production Division. „ ,, , . ^ ^-u -n a ^
Bell Aircraft, Curtiss- Wright, Worthington Pump & Machinery, and the Buttalo
Arms Corporation were the large defense plants which were at this time repre-
sented. They offered full cooperation and the following program was adopted
and put into effect:
PROGRAM ADOPTED FOR HANDLING BUFFALO SITUATION
1. Federal and State agencies were to be organized, with labor and employer
cooperation, to get the displaced workers registered for unemployment com-
pensation, which would be paid during the period of training necessary for defense
work; these agencies would register and classify men available for immediate
employment, and would arrange for retraining the balance as quickly as possible.
2. Qualified workers of this group were to be given preference for defense jobs
over applicants from outside the Buffalo area.
3. The labor union representatives agreed to provide a master hst of their
membership in these plants, which was substantially the same as the list of
displaced men. The union sent a letter to each of these, notifying him to register
at the State employment service office for unemployment compensation benefits,
and to be interviewed for assignment. A special card was attached, by which the
employee was asked to notify the employment service of any changes m employ-
ment status during or after his training period. .
4. The State employment service arranged for its whole staff to be at its
offices at night, from 6 to 9 p. m., during the week of August 11, to interview
displaced workers. About 700 workers were asked by the union to report one
night, a similar group the next, and so on until all were interviewed. Vocational
school and union officials were present to aid in the interviews and assignment to
special classes. « i? x, j-
The four big defense plants and other Buffalo employers hired 400 of the dis-
placed workers promptlv, and 400 others were absorbed in other plants in the
area. Most of the remaining workers were lined up for training aimed directly
at defense needs in the Buffalo area.
The local emplovment service manager, Herbert Helwig, was designated as the
Office of Production Management representative to follow through on the
program with the cooperation of the employers and local union committees.
RESULTS OF THE BUFFALO PLAN
The committee may be interested to know more specifically the amount of
success the Buffalo plan has had. The following are the figures as of September
17, 1941:
Laid off by General Motors Corporation 3, 244
Registered with employment service _ 2, 085
Did not register with the emplovment service 1) 1^9
Reemployed and working (803 from those registered with employment
service, 472 from those not registered with employment service) _- — 1, 275
Assigned to classes for retraining (74 have left classes principally for jobs,
600 are completing training in vocational schools) 674
Available for work (this includes 600 in training courses) 1, 003
Have failed to renew applications or respond to calls; 279 from those
registered, 502 from those not registered. It may fairly be assumed
that they are working. Hence, there are probably 2,056 (781 plus
L275) employed 781
The following is the information as of September 22 regarding the Buffalo
experience as specifically requested by your committee.
We believe we are supplying the information desired. In compilation, we are
following the numerical order of the questions:
1. About 4,700 were employed in the General Motors plants locally. 1,800
are employed by Ford, no lay-off as yet.
7492 DETROIT HEARINGS
2. 3,242 General Motors workers were displaced, segregated as follows, by
skill:
Machine operators (milling, lathe, broach, drill press, etc) 1, 296
Assemblers 1, 458
Metal workers 162
Welders (various degree of skill) 65
Spraj^ painters (polishers, etc.) 97
Laborers (porters, etc.) 164
3. Local aviation companies employ approximately 28,000 workers at present.
4. The estimated value of contracts scheduled for production in Buffalo is
$550,000,000.
5. 2,085 displaced auto workers registered for new employment as follows:
Machine operators (milling, lathe, broach, drill press, etc.) 804
Assemblers 985
Metal workers (including ding men, bumpers, metal formers, etc.) 96
Welders (mostlj^ acetylene) 37
Spray painters and polishers 61
Laborers (porters and similar) 102
6. 780 have been transferred to the aviation industry as of today (September
22, 1941). All transfers have been made prior to additional training since those
being trained are not yet available for referral.
Of the above about 500 obtained employment in the aircraft industry as machine
hands, i. e., machine operators, as milling, lathe, grinder, etc. Approximately
200 received jobs, based on manual dexterity gained in their General Motors or
previous employment, as assemblers, panel department workers, etc.
Of the balance, 20 were welders and the remaining were sheet-metal workers
such as ding men, cowling workers, metal formers, etc.
7. Of those registered with the New York State Employment Service the fol-
lowing remain unemployed, with skills as indicated below:
Machine operators (various types as indicated elsewhere) 199
Assemblers 724
Metal workers (various types as indicated elsewhere) 21
Welders 9
Spray painters (polishers, etc.) 19
Laborers (porters, etc.) 31
8. A total of 1,072 were referred and accepted for national defense training.
Six hundred and seventy-four started training. There are now, because of drop-
outs for various reasons, primarily acceptance of employment, only about 600
remaining in school.
Practically all machine operators entered machine shop courses. About
one-half of the assemblers also entered this course. The balance of the assemblers
entered aviation mechanics courses such as aviation assembly, fabrication and
riveting.
Of the General Motors employees of the lesser skill type, the majority went to
aviation mechanics courses (as above). A few studied welding and foundry
practice and a small number took machine shop practice.
9. We assume the question here to be: "What is the prospect for placement
after training?"
In replying, all these trainees can readily be absorbed in local industry quite
promptly provided the employers committed to assist in the return to employment
of these men, cooperate.
10. Most of the former General Motors workers who have accepted new
employment are working in occupations which demand at least as much skill
as did" their occupations in the General Motors plants. Very few have accepted
work in an occupation of lower skill requirement. However, the hourly rate of
pay in their new work does not in most instances compare favorably with the rates
paid by General Motors. (The General Motors rates were considerably above
the local average.)
11. It is estimated that approximately 4,300 persons have been added to the
pay rolls of national-defense employers of Buffalo since the date of the General
Motors lay-off. We have positive verification of the placement of 1,275 General
Motors men, and we believe that the majority of the 781 who have failed to appear
at our office in spite of numerous call-in efforts, are also working.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7493
The four employers pledged to cooperate in the reemployment program, report
that they have hired former General Motors workers as follows:
Curtiss Aircraft Corporation 450
Bell Aircraft Corporation 350
Worthington Pump Co 24
Buffalo Arms Corporation 64
12. The New York State Employment Service and national defense school
authorities cooperated in the referral to the training courses and in the training
program itself. General Motors workers were accepted in preference to other
applicants in all local schools. Every worker who desired training was able to
participate.
13. The General Motors Corporation's unemployment compensation plan has
proven of immeasurable assistance to the displaced General Motors workers.
This plan permits laid-off workers to draw up to two-thirds of their average
normal salary for a considerable period of time — the period extends considerably
beyond the time needed to complete training. Also, most of the unemployed
men are drawing unemployment insurance benefits in the amount of $15. (This
amount, however, is deducted from the amount of unemployment compensation
paid by the General Motors Co.)
We understand that the department of social welfare has found it necessary to
help but few of these workers. If such help is necessarj^, placement on Work
Projects Administration rolls would be readilj' accomplished. (Eligibility for
welfare aid is a prerequisite to Work Projects Administration employment.)
14. The plan and its resultant publicity has discouraged migration of workers
into this area — which is well. Local companies generally prefer to employ local
workers.
Replying to- the second question as regards "local unemployed" prior to the
General Motors lay-off. The local labor supply had been seriously diminished.
There were few persons of even semiskilled type available for referral — hence, the
plan has not particularly changed the prospective insofar as local employment is
concerned. We have heard but verj' l.ttle criticism of the plan from other unem-
ployed persons.
15. We have no knowledge of the placement of these workers on defense jobs
in other areas nor do we believe that these men have migrated in any appreciable
numbers. There is no plan known to us of Federal Government assistance where
moving to other areas is necessary.
Definite preliminary successes have also been achieved in applying a large part,
if not all, of the Buffalo plan to priority unemployment in the silk industry, where
the jobs of 175,000 workers have been threatened and an estimated 25,000 already
been laj'ed off as the result of the stoppage of silk imports.
CONFERENCE IN PHILADELPHIA
A few days after the Buffalo meetings, Mr. Hillman called a similar conference
in Philadelphia to discuss methods of absorbing the displaced silk workers into
other fields. Fifteen of the largest defense contract employers and the same num-
ber of labor union leaders conferred with Office of Production Management Labor
Division officials on August 19, and drafted a more general program along the
same lines.
Here again it was agreed to give preference in hiring displaced workers from
the area, and to tie the vocational school and union officials directly into the
interviewing of workers who need defense training.
LAY-OFF OF PENNSYLVANIA SILK WORKERS
Last week Mr. Hillman sent James E. Rossell, Office of Production Manage-
ment Labor Supply Branch Assistant Chief, to Wilkes-Barre and Scranton, Pa.,
where several thousand workers in the silk industry of that area have lost their
jobs. Two meetings were held in each city, one with trade-union representatives
and the other with employers.
In Scranton, Mr. Rossell obtained commitments from 14 employers present at
the meeting to hire 335 power-sewing machine operators as soon as they are
available. All told, Mr. Rossell ascertained an immediate need for 550 power-
machine operators for the garment industry. In addition, it was disclosed that
there was an immediate need for 50 workers in Scranton's cigar-making industry
and. an eventual need for 100 more.
7494 DETROIT HEARINGS
In nearby Wilkcs-Barre, the need for skilled workers in the garment industry-
was even more pressing. The industrialists who met with Mr. Rossell declared
that they could employ at least 1,000 power-machine operators as soon as they
were trained and qualified for the work.
Here, then, was a need for 1,550 skilled workers in an area where between
1,500 and 2,000 men and women had recently lost their jobs. The employers
agreed to take on the displaced silk workers if they were trained to operate the
power-sewing machines.
Action is being taken now by the Office of Production Management Labor
Division to establish, as quickly as possible, training programs in Wilkes-Barre
and Scranton which will qualify the displaced silk workers for these new jobs in
the garment industry. Existing training facilities will be used to the fullest
extent, but where they are not, adequate machinery and materials will be supplied
by the Government.
To facilitate this work of placement and retraining, employers were asked to
survey their present and anticipated labor needs and make this information avail-
able to the State employment office. Trade-union leaders were requested to
make certain that all workers whose jobs are threatened are registered at the
employment office.
The problem of priority unemployment is by no means unsolvable. It can be
effectively attacked by a coordinated program of action that utilizes all the exist-
ing Federal, State, and local facilities for training and placement and sets up
new facilities where needed. The Office of Production Management Labor
Division, we believe, has developed a valuable approach and technique of pro-
cedure which, when finally prefected, should go far in cushioning the effects of
priorities displacement.
The Displacement Problem in Michigan
The ramifications of the labor displacement problem in Michigan, particularly
in Detroit are probably more complex than any facing the labor supply branch
of the Office of Production Management anywhere in the Nation. The labor
supply branch has gotten into the Detroit situation in advance of the majority
of lay-offs which are expected due to curtailment. Government, management,
and labor are aware of the probability of serious dislocations and are taking steps
in an effort to alleviate the situation.
In our opinion the best figures available on the Detroit labor market situation
are those prepared early this month by the Research and Statistics Division of
the Michigan Unemployment Compensation Commission after a comprehensive
survey. However, it is important to note than even these current figures of
estimated unemployment are subject to change because of possible acceleration
of defense production and the award of additional contracts or subcontracts
which can be placed in production without extensive retooling. There is also the
possibility that these figures are subject to upward revision in case that automo-
tive manufacturers are not able to secure the materials necessary to produce pas-
senger cars for civilian use to the maximum allowed under present Office of
Production Management quotas.
EXPECT ONE-THIRD OF AUTO AND PARTS WORKERS TO BE DISPLACED
(i) Using the aforementioned figures as the best estimates available' it is
indicated that approximately 450,000 persons employed in automobile and auto-
motive-parts manufacturing in Michigan, roughly one-third, about 160,000, are
expected to be displaced as a result of automobile curtailment by the end of
January 1942. Almost 114,000 workers will be displaced in and around Detroit.
This assumes a 40-hour operating week. With a 32-hour week, the displacement
would be not more than two-thirds of the above or approximately 100,000. The
problem will become quite large by November 1941 when perhaps one-half of
all those affected will be released from their regular employment.
Defense employment will expand at a much lower rate than displacement and
by the end of January will still leave between about 70,000 to 75,000 unemployed.
Expansion of defense em]jloyment during the early part of 1942 will be relatively
slow. Thereafter, particularly during the last half of the calendar year 1942,
defense employment will accelerate and the slack is expected to be taken up.
Probably by late 1942 or early 1943 a labor shortage rather than unemployment
will be the problem in the Detroit area.
One of the assumptions used up to this point is that new jobs will be available
to those currently emploved in automobile or parts jiroduction. Several thousand
defense jobs will, however, call for different skills than those possessed by auto-
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7495
mobile workers, and competition for defense jobs from better qualified workers
in other industries or among the unemployed, might change the composition of
those employed but leave the net displacement as a result of curtailment the same.
An additional factor which will swell the unemployment total will be the return
to Michigan of several hundred draftees who will be released from mihtary
service in the next several months.
On a basis of the best available estimates it is evident that a considerable period
of dislocation will occur for several thousand workers during which they will be
unemployed or working at considerable reduced hours.
The above discussion pertains only to automobile and parts industries. Other
priorities unemployment which may occur in Michigan in the refrigerator, radio,
electrical appliances, aluminum products and die casting industries will add several
thousand more workers to the unemployment rolls since employment on new or
defense jobs has already been measured against the supply of displaced auto-
mobile labor. We estimate that approximately 10 to 12 thousand additional
workers may be involved.
WORK OF LABOR SUPPLY BRANCH OF OFFICE OF PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT
(ii) The labor supply branch was created in the Labor Division of the Office of
Production Management on July 7, of this year and the Fifth Regional Labor
Supply Committee covering the States of Ohio, Michigan, and Kentucky, had
its organizational meeting July 22. At this latter meeting the situation in the
automobile industry was given extended consideration. The report of the
representatives of the Michigan Unemployment Compensation Commission, who
had prepared a report on automobile employment displacement was discussed,
and a subcommittee of the Labor Supply Committee was appointed to work out
with the Michigan State Employment Service and the defense training agencies, a
procedure to effect a program of orderly conversion from nondefense to defense
jobs.
The subcommittee met with the State Council of Administrators for Defense
Training, and subsequently with representatives of management, to determine
the feasibility of a detailed survey of the industry to secure the necessary occu-
pational data in order to lay out a schedule for a revised and expanded supple-
mentary training program to implement an orderly transference of workers from
nondefense to defense jobs. This was not particularly successful because of the
lack of detailed information available regarding the extent and immediacy of
automobile quota cuts.
As soon as passenger-car production quotas were set, the labor supply branch
initiated a series of meetings with management and labor representatives of the
automobile industry, separately and jointly, to develop a program designed to
assure workers who are displaced the fullest opportunity to find jobs with due
Tegard to their qualifications and experience, and with protection to their seniority
rights. As result of the first two conferences, statements of policy with respect
to the handling of displaceiren' in the automobile industry were promulgated by
the Office of Production Management on September 17.
The statements of policy are as follows. Statements 1 to 5 are to be consid-
ered as subject to the general provisions listed in statement 6:
Statement Ah. 1.
Where a man working on nondefense production is laid off and obtains defense
employment with another company, and that fact is certified to his former em-
ployer, he will not have to report back for civilian production work in order to
protect his seniority so long as he retains the defense employment to which he
was certified. If he shifts from one defense employment to another, there must
be a recertification as to his new defense employment. PJmployers concerned
with the application of this policy will work out arrangements which will result
in the maximum possible acceleration of the defense program.
Statement No. 2.
Transfer of employees to defense work shall be by seniority in the following
order:
First, those fully qualified for skilled or semiskilled jobs on the basis of past
experience and training.
Second, those who can qualify within the period normally given to new
employees.
7496 DETROIT HEARINGS
When management and representatives of the workers are agreed that no em-
ployees or an insufficient number of employees with seniority are available in the
first group, new, fully qualified employees will be hired.
Statement No. 3.
When hiring new employees for defense work, qualified applicants working on
nondefense work with seniority in local industry will be hired before workers
coming from other localities. When so hiring, the qualified applicant with the
longest seniorit.v record will receive preference.
The senior employees among those working in plants where employment is de-
creasing who can be spared; who elect to accept such defense employment; and
who are found acceptable will be the first released with full protection of their
seniority rights.
Statement No. 4-
Skilled tradesmen laid off, partially employed, or employed at occupations
other than their trade or its equivalent in defense usefulness, will be released
upon their request, with protection of their seniority rights, for full-time defense
work (40 hours per week) at their trade. The need for these workers in defense
employment will be certified to the worker's employer.
Statement No. 5.
The above policies are to be construed as. a pattern for industry and labor to
follow and are not retroactive. It is understood that their application is a local
community problem and must be worked out on the basis of cooperation between
plants in a community and the workers involved.
The operating machinery to effect this point will be set up at an early date.
Statement N^o. 6 — General provisions.
1. Recall of employees. An employee loaned or laid off, whether unemployed
or currently emploj'ed on defense or nondefense work, must report back for defense
employment to the company with which he holds his original seniority, if and when
called, on notice of at least 1 week. Recall of employees to defense work pre-
supposes, and management will endeavor to provide, full-time emploj'ment,
contingent upon the availability of the essential tools, material, and facilities.
Skilled tradesmen will be subject to recall only for full-time defense employment
at their trades or the equivalent.
2. Defense training. For the purpose of these policies, defense training is to
be considered defense employment, provided there is an understanding between
the employer and the employee that the employee is being trained for a specific
pay-roll job.
To implement statement of policy No. 1, and make if effective, an agreement
was reached at a subsequent meeting held with labor and management repre-
sentatives in Detroit on September 18. A form with instructions which were also
agreed upon at the conference has been provided as the certification required by
policy statement No. 1.
The plan being developed in Detroit will govern the handling of displaced
workers in the automotive industries throughout the country and will serve as
a pattern for the handling of labor displacement problems in other industries.
Paramount in these plans is the place of the public employment service, the agency
which is handling the recruitment of new workers for defense employment and
which can handle the registration of displaced workers or workers about to be
displaced with the purpose of providing an orderlj' transfer of such workers from
nondefense to defense employment.
Because a national policy is involved, time and considerable thought is necessary
before determining upon the detailed machinery and interpretations which will
place into effect the other statements of policy. In general, it is hoped that the
detailed procedures will insure that trained and skilled local older workers will
be moved as rapidly as possible from nondefense to full-time defense jobs. Other-
wise a situation could exist in which older workers who arc established members
of the community would be retained in nondefense passenger-car production, with
the possibility of suffering reduced hours of work or unemployment, while workers
who are just coming into the labor market would be filling the jobs in defense
industries, working full 40-hour weeks, perhaps with overtime. In our opinion
the morale of the country necessitates planning which will eliminate the worst
features of this situation, not only so that migration will be held to a minimum
and unnecessary migration eliminated, but so that the older workers who have
been working regularly and over an extended period of time in civilian passenger-
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7497
<;ar production will continue to be employed through an orderly transfer to
defense work.
This procedure in itself will not create new jobs, and obviously the desirable
solution to the gap unemployment problem in the Detroit area is the creation of
more defense work. Large defense contracts are already contemplated that will,
in the long run, cause the displaced workers to be reemployed. Every effort is
being made to find the type of needed defense goods which can be made imme-
diately in the plants which will be affected by curtailment. This is difficult to work
-out because most of the plants have to be extensively retooled for new defense
work, and our real problem in this area is in filling the gap between the lay-off and
the preparation of plants for new contracts.
PROCEDURE FOR LABOR CHANGE-OVER INTO DEFENSE
{in) As indicated above, the labor-supply branch has long been interested in
securing detailed occupational information regarding the workers who would trans-
fer from nondefense to defense jobs. It was for some time unable to secure data
of sufficient value because of the uncertainty of the size and incidence of the quota
<!uts. Detailed data should be available in October, although the amount of de-
tail will vary from plant to plant, depending upon the extent to which management
has information available regarding the future share of production and employ-
ment. At the same time, a procedure is contemplated whereby workers who are
given advance notice of their prospective release will register with the State em-
ployment service, and indicate their occupational skill in as great detail as possible.
This occupational data will be classified and tabulated, and listed against prospec-
tive defense employment needs. Through this procedure, the need for training
can be determined, and programs will be set up in collaboration with the various
training agencies: training within industry, national defense; vocational education
for national defense, and National Youth Administration.
PLANS FOR ROUTING OF WORKERS
(iv) Plans made by the Labor Supply Division for the routing of workers in-
-clude the following:
1. A displaced worker will be expected to register with the employment service,
which in turn will serve as the source of information regarding prospective defense
jobs in the area. Based on occupational qualifications and the local defense needs,
the employment service will determine the worker's immediate occupational suit-
ability and refer him to a defense employer or determine his need for training, and
refer him to the proper program through which his chances of securing suitable
•defense employment will be enhanced.
2. Training where needed. (See above.)
3. Sustenance during training period.
Most of the workers displaced will be able to draw unemployment compensation
for a period up to 18 weeks, although many will undoubtedly exhaust their benefits
in a much shorter period of time. The majority of the conversion training courses
will rarely exceed 8 to 10 weeks — some of them may only require from 60 to 120
hours; hence, this interim period would involve no great hardship if defense jobs
become immediately available after training, or shortly after the time of lay-off
from regular employment. These workers who can qualify for the National Youth
Administration or Work Projects Administration training will receive a security
wage which is roughly comparable to that paid under unemployment compensa-
tion.
4. Assistance in moving where defense jobs are out of town. No Federal or
State program has proceeded in this matter of furnishing financial assistance to
workers to aid them in moving to out-of-town defense jobs. For those workers
for whom no employment in defense is in prospect, the immediate recourse will be
to unemployment compensation, and Federal or State or local relief or work pro-
grams.
o. Those for whom no employment in defense is in prospect.
There are several possibilities, such as the moving up of delivery dates and
acceleration of defense work now in progress, letting further contracts for the
same type of defense material to those plants now in production so that extra
shifts of workers can be added, the awarding of prime contracts to plants where
curtailment is expected if it is possible to find material needed for defense which
can be produced in such plant without major retooling, and the letting of further
subcontracts on the part of prime contractors to smaller employers who can make
parts necessary for defense articles. Perhaps some type of consumers goods
7498 DETROIT HEARINGS
priority or similar device might be put into effect in order to "stem the gap" in
cases where a plant is making consumers goods and needs only a relatively small
amount of a vital material or metal in order to keep a number of workers em-
ployed until such time as expanding defense industries are in full production.
Such a proposal would not be desirable if the securing of yital materials or metals
for nondefense production would mean that defense production would be im-
peded. It would also have to be considered whether the use of a small amount
of vital material or metal in one consumer industry would mean that a like amount
of vital material or metal would, therefore, not be available in some other con-
sumer industry as this in turn would only cause a displacement problem in some
other area in the country.
Training Programs
training-within-industry program
Approximatelv $51,000,000,000 has been appropriated for national defense, of
which contracts" for some $26,000,000,000 have been placed (as of September 1,
1941). This means that large numbers of new workers and supervisors must be
trained; that new demands will be made on experienced workers and supervisors
as well as executives.
Shortages of skilled workers with resultant intensive on-the-job training pro-
grams have demonstrated how greatly the usual training time can be shortened
and new workers gotten into production quickly when industry gives intensive
training on the job. Training is largely the solution to problems of production,
quality, expansion, and over-all effectiveness. Hence, training within industry
makes training information and assistance available directly to all defense
industries.
What the program offers.
Assistance is available to deal with three types of:
1. Supervision. — Expanding the supervisory force. Quick training of new
supervisors. Factors affecting selection, upgrading, training, status. Organized
aid to the managerial group.
2. Production workers. — Upgrading policy and plan. Quick training plans.
How to develop instructors and potential supervisors.
3. Trade apprenticeship. — Providing all-around skilled craftsmen in the
shortest possible time.
What the program accomplishes.
Through the efforts of systematic training, each contractor can now readily
meet the skill demands of 'defense production. This training when carried on
by all contractors will —
1. Provide production while being trained.
2. Avoid "pirating" of trained workers.
3. Help stabilize or reduce the need for migration of trained workers.
4. Assist in maintenance of better supervision.
How the program operates.
District representatives of training within industry with staffs totaling 683 of
experienced industrial training men (loaned by industry) in 183 principal indus-
trial areas served defense contractors. The service, supplied at no cost, helps
each company start and operate its own training program. Training staffs are
on a volunteer, part-time basis, and offer to interested companies successful
experience in other industries.
One thousand five hundred and ninety defense contractors have been directly
reached by training within industry field and headquarters' staffs during the first
year of the program. These contractors now employ some 2,474,000 employees
and face further expansion ; 470,000 copies of specific training aids have been used
in assisting industrial organizations and governmental agencies throughout the
country.
APPRENTICESHIP TRAINING
The Federal Committee on Apprenticeship was first established by Executive
order in 1934 under National Recovery Act. In August 1937, it was reestablished
under authority of an act of Congress and located in the United StatesDepart-
ment of Labor.' Emergency appropriations granted by Congress since that time
have increased the staff of the Apprenticeship Section to approximately 200 field
representatives located in stategically important industrial areas in the United
States.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7499
The functions of the staff of the Apprenticeship Section are: To promote sound
labor standards of apprenticeship in industry by joint cooperation between man-
agement and labor; to provide technical assistance in the establishment or improve-
ment of apprenticeship systems; and to assist in the development of programs for
trainees at less than the apprenticeship level under approved labor standards.
The Apprenticeship Section cooperates very closely in all its work with the
Training-Within-Industry Division of the Office of Production Management,
State apprenticeship councils, the Vocational Division of the Office of Education,
State boards for vocational education, the State employment services, and the
labor supply boards.
The actual training of apprentices and short-term trainees is given by industry;
the function of the Apprenticeship Section is to promote and assist in developing
such programs of training. Consequently the number of workers here reported
will be those estimated as being affected by the apprenticeship prograin. It is
estimated that somewhat more than 125,000 apprentices are employed in the
United States. Of these approximately 60,000 have in some way been affected
by the work of the Apprenticeship Section. The vast majority of these appren-
tices are white males between the ages of 18 and 25, and are employed in defense
work. No estimate can be made of the number of trainees affected or employed
under short-term training programs because this development has only recently
been initiated.
FEDERAL SECURITY AGENCY PROGRAMS OFFICE OF EDUCATION
(1) Retraining refresher, sufplementary and out of school youth (vocational training
for defense workers).
The program of vocational education for defense workers is designed to help
meet the labor needs of defense industry for skilled and semiskilled workers
through the utilization of the Nation's public vocational schools. It represents a
cooperative enterprise between the United States Office of Education under
policies prescribed by the Office of Production Management and the State and
local school boards which actually carry on the training.
The defense training program of less than college grade may be summarized
under three major headings. First are the programs which are concerned with
offering supplementary, preemployment, and refresher training. The supple-
mentary courses are for the advancement of workers already employed in defense
occupations, to jobs of greater skill and responsibility. During the past year
there have been 464,986 workers enrolled in these courses. At the present time
there are 150,368 enrolled. The preemployment courses give induction training
for immediate employment in semiskilled jobs in defense industries. Refresher
courses seek to bring up to a level of immediate employability persons who have
had skills important to defense, but which skills have become rusty from disuse. It
also includes types of training known as retraining and conversion training. Dur-
ing the past year 418,350 trainees were enrolled in refresher and preemployment
defense training courses. At the present time there are 101,000 enrolled.
A program for out-of-school rural and nonrural youth offers general training for
mechanical occupations. This program has as its purpose the conditioning of a
reserve labor supply in the direction of familiarity with tools, materials and pro-
cedures. During the past year there were enrolled in this program 238,586 youths.
Finally, the young people employed in work experience centers of the National
Youth Administration were offered courses of training by the public vocational
schools which supplemented their job experience. During the past year there
were enrolled in these courses 250,000 youth. During the current fiscal year
youth defense work projects have .been established in certain National Youth
Administration centers where specific training for defense occupations is given to
enrollees by the public vocational schools. There are enrolled in these youth
defense work projects at the present time 68,500 enrollees.
All of these jDrograms are in addition to a regular program of Federal aid to
vocational education operating for the past 24 years which in tlie fiscal year
1940-41 has enrolled 2,225,000 persons equally distributed between young people
and adults. 1 The rapid adjustment of the vocational schools to an emergency
training situation has been possible only because there existed this back-ground
of Federal-State cooperative relationship.
{2) Engineering, science, and management defense training.
The college level defense training program was authorized under Public, No. 812,
Seventy-sixth Congress, third session, approved October 9, 1940. This act appro-
priated to the Office of Education $9,000,000 "For the cost of short engineering
I This program has been in operation for the past 6 years under the George-Deen Act and, prior to that,
under the Smith-Hughes Act.
7500 DETROIT HEARINGS
courses of college grade, provided by engineering schools or by universities of which
the engineering school is a part, pursuant to plans submitted by them and approved
by the Commissioner, which plans shall be for courses designed to meet the short-
a.ge of engineers with specialized training in fields essential to the national defense:
Provided, ThsA. only engineering schools which operate under charters which exempt
their educational property fi'om taxation shall be eligible to receive these funds:
Provided further. That not to exceed 20 per centum of the amount a.Uotted to any
school shall be allotted to it for expenditure for purchase or rental of additional
equipment and leasing of additional space found by the Commissioner necessary
for carrying out its approved plan."
The first courses under the program were started by the enginee-ing school
about the 1st of January. By the end of the fiscal year, June 30, 1941, 144 engi-
neering colleges located in 47 States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico
had been authorized to set up under the so-called engineering defense training
program 2,354 short, intensive courses to accommodate a maximum of 137,656
trainees, and $8,795,171 of the $9,000,000 appropriation had been allocated.
A continuation and expansion of this program was provided under Public, No.
146, Seventy-seventh Congress, first session, for the current fiscal year, in which
Congress appropriated $17,500,000 "For the cost of short courses of college grade
provided by degree-granting colleges and universities pursuant to plans submitted
by them and approved by the Commissioner, which plans shall be for courses
designed to meet the shortage of engineers, chemists, physicists, and production
supervisors in fields essential to the national defense, and such plans may provide
for regional coordina.tion of the defense training program of the participating
colleges and universities: Provided, That only colleges and universities which oper-
ate under charters which exempt their educational property from taxation and
public degree-granting educational institutions shall be eligible to receive funds
herefrom : Provided further. That not to exceed 20 per centum of the amount allotted
to any school shall be allotted to it for expenditure for purchase and rental of addi-
tional equipment and leasing of additional space found by the Commissioner
necessary to carry out its approved plan."
Since July 1, 1941, and prior to September 22, 1941, an additional 881 courses
have been authorized under the new engineering, science, and management de-
fense training program, providing for a maximum of 51,199 trainees at an esti-
mated cost of $2,622,000.
Two kinds of training are offered: (1) Part-time courses for persons already
employed either in defense or nondefense activities to give training for increased
responsibility, improved technique, or new employment in fields essential to the
national defense; such courses may be given either on or off campus in the day
or evening, and ordinarily require about 6 to 12 hours a week in class and prepara-
tion; (2) Full-time courses jjrimarily directed toward new employment but avail-
able to persons already employed in defense activities who may be assigned to
thsir employers to take the work; such courses may be given either on or off
campus, and ordinarily require about 45 to 60 hours a week in class and prepa-
ration. The course? in general range from 12 to 16 weeks in length.
Approximately 90 percent of the trainitig given under the program is part-
time. Some of the persons enrolled in part-time courses are available for new
employment on completion of training. The bulk of the part-time trainees,
however, are already employed in defense activities and are being trained for
increased responsibility and improved techniques. This large ration of part-
time to full-time training is due to the relative scarcity of ])ersons with adequate
preparation for the type of training authorized and the need that has developed
for up-grading training as existing staffs in industry and Government are
enormouslv expanded by defense activity.
Most of the full-time traineers are available for new defense employment on
completion of training, although a small percentage of those in training are-
members of the armed forces detailed to the colleges, or have been assigned ta
full-time courses by their respective companies.
Since courses are available throughout the country and especially in the in-
dustrial areas, there is relativelv little migration cf persons prior to training. In
general the persons who complete preemployment courses are employed within
the areas customarily served by the institutions. The mobility of persons en-
gaged in technical activities, however, is well known and theri are many instances
of placement in areas remote from the centers of training.
The placement of trainees who have been available for new emi^lcyment has
presented no problem. While complete data on placement are not available, ali
of the evidence indicates that many times the number available for employment
could readily be placed.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7501
A summary of the number of persons trained and in training under this pro-
gram as of June 30, 1941, and the sex, color, and age characteristics of those
trained appear in the following tables:
Enrollments in engineering defense training, by type of training, July 1, 1940, to
June SO, 1941
Type of training
Total.— - -
Aeronautical engineering
Arclutectural engineering
Basic sciences
Chemical engineering
Civil engineering
Electrical engineering
General engineering
Industrial engineering
Marine engineering and naval architecture
Mechanical engineering
Metallurgical engineering
Mining engineering -.
Unclassified
Number of
Act
Vf
enroll-
enrollments
ments
on June
concluded
30,
1941
64,061
50, 823
6,692
4,596
167
101
926
1,267
2,498
2,448
3,415
2,932
3,527
3,201
13, 631
12, 936
11,618
8,178
1,672
1,474
14,012
9,858
5,507
3,159
109
98
387
575
Age distribution of representative sample of trainees in engineering defense training
training courses, December 1940 to September 1941 '
Age ' last birthday
515 engineering defense training
trainees
Number
Percent
45 to 60
18
255
242
3 5
26 to 45 .
49.4
Undcr*25
47.1
Total
515
100 0
'
' Sample controlled to represent all regions of the United States and all types of courses in proper
proportion.
* Median age, 26.7.
All enrollments, enrollments of female trainees, and enrolhnent of Negro trainees,
engineering defense training courses, as of June SO, 1941
Item
All enrollments
Enrollments
of female
trainees only
Enrollments
of Negro
trainees only
Cumulative total, July 1, 1940, to June 30, 1941
Active enrollment, June 30, 1941
114,884
50, 823
610
263
816
439
FEDERAL SECURITY AGENCY PROGRAMS NATIONAL YOUTH ADMINISTRATION
By authority of Congress, Public, 146, the National Youth Administration has
established a program for work experience in authorized defense occupations.
This work experience is combined with a specific organized shop training program
provided through local vocational schools operating under the direction of the
United States Office of Education.
^ Because the youth defense work program (national defense) of the National
Youth Administration has been in operation only since July 1, statistical data
of the exact nature requested is not available, the National Youth Administration
reporting system being set up on a quarterly basis. Complete statistical data
will be available for the months of July, August, and September on or about
October 15.
7502 DETROIT HEARINGS
The following facts relative to the July and August youth defense work programs
are also submitted:
During August 1941, a total of 75,068 different youth were employed on projects
of the youth work defense program.
During July and August 1941, an approximate total of 17,500 youth left the
youth work defense program to take jobs in private industry.
The average age of youth emjiloyed on the youth work defense program is ap-
proximatelj' 20 3'ears.
The largest concentration is at the 19-year level, which includes more than
one-fourth of the total number.
Sixty-nine percent of the youth are under 21 years and 9 percent are more than
23 years.
Less than one-fifth of the emploj'ment on the youth work defense prograin con-
sists of girls.
On the youth work defense program 88.5 percent of the youth are of the white
race and 11.5 percent are other than white.
WORK PROJECTS ADMINISTRATION"
The Second Deficiency Appropriation Act, 1940 (Public, No. 668, 76th Cong.)
approved June 27, 1940. amended section 1 (b) of the Emergency Relief
Appropriation Act, fiscal year 1941, to include projects for training for manual
occupations in industries engaged in production for national-defense purposes
in the list of types of public projects that may be prosecuted with funds appro-
priated to the Work Projects Administration for the fiscal year 1941.
Accordingly, a Nation-wide vocational training project was sponsored by the
Office of Production Management and cosponsored by the United States Office
Education which provides for participation by the Work Projects Adminis-
tration in the preemployment and refresher defense training program of the
United States Office of Education which is operated througli State and local
vocational education authorities. It is predicated on the use of existing vocational
schools and related facilities. The courses are usually based on intensive 12-week
training periods. Work Projects Administration funds in the amount of
$53,118,114, authorized by this project, are primarilj' used to meet the subsistence
needs of Work Projects Administration trainees by payment of a security wage
while undergoing training. The cost of instruction and supplies is paid for out
of funds supplied by the United States Office of Education.
A second Nation-wide project was sponsored by the Advisory Commission to
the Council of National Defense and cosponsored by the Civil Aeronautics
Administration which provides for in-service training of airport servicemen at
airports designated b.y the Civil Aeronautics Administration. Work Projects
Administration funds in the amount of $1,429,690, authorized by this project,
are used to pay the security wage of Work Projects Administration trainees and
the cost of instruction. This project has recently been put in operation and at the
present time training is taking place in 29 States. As additional airports are
designated by the Civil Aeronautics Administration, the program will be expanded
throughout the Nation. The training of airport servicemen under this project
is limited to Work Projects Administration trainees.
In the vocational training program, the determination of need for training in
specific occupations is made by local advisory committees representing employers
and labor, schools, and referral agencies. The initiation of preemployment and
refresher training courses in these occupations is then a responsibility of the local
vocational school authorities, provided the necessary training facilities are avail-
able. Where facilities are available and training is instituted, the Work Projects
Administration has been allotted approximately 50 percent of the number of
trainees 'enrolled for training. The extent of training luider this program, con-
sequently, depends on the need for training in designated occupations as deter-
mined by local advisory committees and the availability of training facilities.
SCOPE OP THE PROGRAM
The training of persons who are on the certified rolls of the Work Projects
Administration is helping to meet the requirements of the defense program in
designated essential occupational skills. In addition, such training is a logical
and effective means of qualifying needy persons for gainful employment and
removal from public relief rolls. The extent of this means of qualifying needy
persons for gainful employment is limited in scojie l^y the present Emergency
Relief Appropriation Act, 1942.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7503
Work Projects Administration trainees are now undergoing vocational defense
training in 791 communities in the 48 States, the District of Columbia, Hawaii,
and Puerto Rico. Since the inception of the defense-training program, July 1,
1940, there have been 144,660 Work Projects Administration trainees enrolled in
these courses up to August 27, 1941. As of this date 37,321 were still undergoing
training. Of the 107,339 who were no longer in training, approximately' 63 per-
cent, or 66,939, had left the rolls of the Work Projects Administration for gainful
employment made possible as a result of the training which they had received,
and the balance for whom gainful employment was not immediately available
are being rapidly absorbed as new defense plants and defense contracts reach the
production stage. Expenditure of Work Projects Administration funds to date
for the training has averaged approximately $150 })er trainee.
Operating airports in 29 States from Maine to California have so far been host
to training classes of W^ork Projects Administration airport servicemen; 55 classes
are still in operation. Over 75 percent of all graduates of the airport servicemen
training courses have taken private employment in jobs related to their training.
No break-down is kept for placements by type of defense occupation, nor has
statistical data yet been assembled as to the age or sex grouping of those trained
and placed. A study of the age characteristics of those currently in training is
now under way.
All other date requested is included herewith.
1. Number of trainees on Work Projects Administration training project to
date: Total, 144,660; white, 128,804; other, 15,856.
2. NumVjer of workers who have obtained private employment or voluntarily
left the Work Projects Administration program: Total, 66,939; white, 62,568;
other, 4,371.
3. Number trained but not vet placed: Total, 40,400; white, 33,878; other,
6,522.
4. Number still in training: Total, 37,321; white, 32,358; other, 4,963. (See
separate chart of occupation.)
5. Sex and age of those trained and placed: This information is not available.
Nuynher of trainees employed by Work Projects Administration on national defense
vocational training projects, by type of training, United States and Territories,
Aug. 27, 1941 '
Number 0
T\pe of course: Trainees
Auto services 3, 244
Aviation services 2, 535
Machine shop 12, 701
Welding 5, 588
Drafting 949
Pattern making 838
Woodworking- . 1, 580
Riveting 465
Sheet metal 3, 490
Radio services 221
Electrical services 1, 923
Foundry 892
Forge _^' 474
Ships and boat building and repair 1, 358
Construction, 521
Other . 542
Total 37, 321
' Partly estimated, subject to revision.
Work Projects Administration trainees are paid a security wage by the Work
Projects Administration during the period of training. Since onh' workers who
are in need are assigned liv the W^ork Projects Administration, the wage is needed
by these trainees to maintain themselves and their families during the training
period. W^ithout the Work Projects Administration wage, the persons assigned
by the Work Projects Administration could not remain in training.
Coordination Under Colonel McSherry
On March 27, 1941, Paul V. McNutt, Administrator, Federal Security Agency,
created the position of Director of Defense Training, Federal Security Agency.
The duties of the Director of Defense Training are to direct and supervise all
60396— 41— pt. 18 29
7504 DETROIT HEARIMGS
defense training programs conducted by the constituent units of the Federal
Security Agency. On the same date the Administrator, Federal Security Agency,
designated Lt. Col. Frank J. McSherry, General Staff Corps, to be the Director of
Defense Training, Federal Security Agency. In order that the constituent units
would have definite instructions on policies governing conduct of defense training
programs a mimeograpihed statement entitled "Instructions and Policies Govern-
ing Conduct of National Defense Training Programs of the Federal Security
Agency" was prepared by the Director of Defense Training and approved by the
Administrator, Federal Security Agency, and the Director, Labor Division,
Office of Production Management. This document outlines the definite occupa-
tions in which training might be given, the relative importance of the different
types of training, the training of the unused labor supply, and similar data. In
addition this document set up an organization to insure more effective collective
action of the constituent units insofar as defense training is concerned. To
accomplish this councils of State administrators were established consisting of a
representative designated by the State board for vocational education. State
administrator of the National Youth Administration and the State employment
security agency. The Council of State Administrators acting under the policies
and regulations promulgated by their respective Federal and State authorities
decide all questions involving the effective coordination of the activities of two
or more of the participating agencies in the establishment and operation of public
defense training programs, including selection, placement, and work experience
within the State. Similarly, councils were established at the local level.
At the same time a supplement to this document entitled "Administrative
Procedures Governing Conduct of National Defense Training Programs of the
Federal Security Agency" was prepared by the Commissioner, United States
Office of Education; Administrator, National Youth Administration; Director,
Bureau of Employment Security, Social Security Board; and the Director of
Defense Training, Federal Security Agency, and distributed to the constituent
units participating in the defense training program. This latter document
amplified certain points contained in the basic policy document as well as certain
instructions in administrative procedures considered necessary.
Under this organization the participating agencies have been brought together
thereby eliminating friction that existed previously between public agencies.
The preemployment defense training programs have become more specific and
geared definitely into the needs of defense industries. The reports we have
received from all over the Nation indicate that the organization is effective and
is accomplishing the results desired.
Coordination of Training Program With the Contracts Division
By Contracts Division, it is assumed, is meant the contract awarding machin-
ery "of the defense program. The Plant Site Board, which has the responsibility
of approving the location of new plants, collects information relating to the
character of the available labor supply and training facilities in the area in which
a given defense plant is to be established. The Office of Education is called upon
frequently to furnish to the Plant Site Board and related agencies information
concerning the capacity of the vocational schools to provide the necessary train-
ing and the availability of trainees in connection with the product which is to be
manufactured at the new site.
The general pattern of defense training is geared in, very intimately, with all
available indexes of defense production, namely, contracts awarded, labor require-
ments, Government and private assistance in plant construction. The Training
Planning Section of the Defense Training Program in the Office of Education has
as its specific responsibility the collection, analysis, and interpretation of all avail-
able data relating to defense activity. This information is passed on to the
regional agents, who in turn transmit this data to the State and local vocational
authorities.
On the regional, local, and State levels, administrative mechanisms have been
established which bring together the operating personnel of the vocational
schools, the United States Paiiployment Service, the National Youth Administra-
tion, the Work Projects Administration, the Defense Contract Service, and the
Training Within Industry Branch of the Office of Production Management. More-
over, the vocational school authorities are guided and assisted by advisory com-
mittees with representatives from defense industry employers and workers whose
function it is to give specific advice on the numbers of persons to be trained and
the occupations for which training should be given. In this fashion it has been
possible to develop a close relationship between the labor requirements of defense
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7505
industries and the character and quantity of training necessary to meet these labor
requirements.
There is presented herewith a tabulation showing, by census of manufacturing
regions, distributions of expenditures for equipment and for all purposes other
than equipment under the defense training program. Government aid for expan-
sion of industrial facilities, and additional labor required in selected defense indus-
tries. The tabulation is prepared on a regional rather than a State basis because
comparisons of indexes of training activity with indexes of defense production
are more valid on that basis.
Comparison of defense-training program expenditures with [defense-prodnction
activities i
Distribu-
Distribu-
Distribu-
Distribu-
Distribu-
tion of
tion of
tion of
Distribu-
tion of
tion of
expendi-
expendi-
additional
tion of
expendi-
expendi-
tures for
tures on
labor
Govern-
tures for
tures for
equipment
defense
require-
ment aid
Region
equipment
equipment
to Au". 31,
training
ments in
for ex-
to Aug. 31,
to Aug. 31,
1941 (P. L.
program
aircraft,
pansion
1941 (P. L.
1941 (P. L.
146 and
(excluding
shipbuild-
of facilities
812) (fiscal
146) (fiscal
812) (fiscal
equip-
ing, ma-
through
year 1941)
year 1941)
years 1941
and 1942)
ment) to
July 31
chine tools,
ordnance
July 1941
Total - ..-
100. 00
100. 00
100.00
100.00
100. 00
100.00
100 00-
United States -.
99.32
99.62
99.61
100.00
90 0&
9.05
11.28
10.30
7.98
9.61
6 07
Middle Atlantic
22.05
16.33
14.03
20.36
17.69
18.45
30.39
23.93
18.59
24.23
14 22
East North CentraL-
19.25'
West North Central
2.61
5.82
4.36
4.35
6.18
7.61
South Atlantic -
11.60
6.56
5.84
8.53
10.63
15. 1»
East South Central
5.70
3.86
4.70
3.63
3 95
7 07
West South Central
6.73
9.52
8.25
4.69
4.83
9 35
Mountain _
1.22
24.71
6.93
20.96
4.35
22.68
3.49
12.62
2 26
Pacific.
21.98
9.10
Off continent and unassigned.
.68
.38
.39
9 94
1 Derived from data of U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and U. S. Office of Education.
Training does not occur in each State exclusively for employment in the same
State. Labor market areas transcend State boundaries and in communities
where expansion is pronounced, the labor supply is frequently drawn from distant
points. In many cases, such as in States contiguous to California, the bulk of
training is being done for placement outside the State. Preparation of this
tabulation on a regional basis eliminates errors due to this factor which would be
present in a compilation showing State by State distributions.
There is in general a close correspondence between the expenditure of funds
under the training program and training needs as indicated by additional labor
required and expansion of industrial facilities.
There are some apparent discrepancies which require explanation. The Middle
Atlantic region has received 30.39 percent of defense training funds (excepting
funds for equipment) although only 18.59 percent of the demand for additional
labor is from this area and only 14.22 percent of defense facilities expansion w;tl
occur there.
The divergence is attributable to the apparently excessive funds going to New
York State which has received 19.66 percent of training funds. These figures,
however, are deceptive. In most instances expenditures represent actual dis-
bursements by communities. In the case of New York, however, the figures
represent money allocated to New York State and which it has allotted to com-
munities. Much of this money will remain in unexpended balances and will be
refunded.
The Pacific region shows apparent inadequate training activity with only 12.62
percent of training funds spent in it, although 21.98 percent of the demand for
additional workers is from the region. This is attributed to the extremely serious
pressure on the labor supply on the Pacific coast which has made it impossible to
find sufficient trainees in the area and has made it necessary for west coast indus-
try, particularly aircraft, to secure its labor force from all over the country.
7506 DETROIT HEARINGS
That the training program is conscious of its responsibilities in this area is
indicated by the large proportions of funds for school equipment which have been
allocated to the area. For the fiscal years 1941 and 1942, 22.68 percent of equip-
ment funds have been spent for this region b,v August 31, 1941.
SELECTION OF OCCUPATIONS IN TRAINING PROGRAM
The occupations for which training may be given in the Defense Training Pro-
gram are limited to those contained in List of Occupations Approved by the Office
of Production Management for Vocational Training Courses for Defense Workers
prepared by the Bureau of Employment Security of the Social Security Board in
cooperation with the United States Office of Education.
The above-mentioned list of occupations enumerates and defines 550 occupa-
tions. Since the purpose of the approved list is to provide a guide for the estab-
lishment of courses under the vocational training program for defense workers, occu-
pations not suitable for such training were omitted. Occupations excluded were
those requiring training of professional grade, those for which training can be
given only on the job and those requiring such brief induction training that
preemployment training course has not been considered necessary. Some of the
occupations included in the list normally requiring training much more extensive
than can be given in these courses are included because certain phases of related
training can be provided. The inclusion of an occupation in tlie approved list
does not mean per se that training should be given for these occupations in any or all
communities. It merely means that such an occupation is important in the
defense program and may be considered as an appropriate field for training if the
local conditions of labor supply and demand warrant such training.
The United States Employment Service and the advisory committees have the
initial responsibility of presenting to the training authorities the schedules of labor
requirements of defense industries. These schedules normally indicate the
specific occupations for which training courses should be set up, the number of
persons required by occupation and the intervals at which trainees must complete
training in order to man defense jobs.
SKILLS TO BE RELEASED BY PRIORITY CURTAILMENT
The Office of Production Management in cooperation with representatives of
industries and labor organizations efi'ected by priority curtailment is working very
closely to minimize and where possible to avoid any unnecessary unemployment of
workers affected as the result of priorities. In general this problem is considered
from the angle that displaced qualified workers will be given preference in referral
to employment in defense industries in the given community. Dislocated workers
are also given preference in conversion training courses to prepare them for jobs in
defense industries. Conversion training courses are established upon determina-
tion of need therefor.
The effect of dislocation of workers on the training programs may be sum-
marized as follows: The existing defense training facilities will be utilized to a
maximum extent required in the retraining or conversion training of displaced
workers as indicated; the facilities available over and above those required for con-
version training will be utilized to a maximum for supplementary training in order
to adjust workers more speedily to their new jobs (supplementary courses are f(^r
employed workers) ; if there are any remaining facilities available for training, they
will be utilized for preemployment training as they have heretofore been utilized.
Naturally, the number of dislocated workers possessing skills available for
placement will affect the number to be given preemployment training.
SUPPORT OF WORKERS WHILE IN TRAINING
From the inception of the defense training program in June 1940, provision
was made for the payment of wages to the regularly assigned Work Project-
Administration woikers receiving training in the public vocational schools. Thi:-
device has served two purposes. It has permitted the reduction of the Work
Projects Administration rolls by training Work Projects Administration workers
for immediate employment in defense industries. Secondly, it has made the
retraining jjossible with no hardship to the individual Work Projects Administra-
tion worker.
A similar procedure is in effect with relation to young people in the vyork
experience centers of the National Youth Administration. Congress has given
the public vocational schools the responsibility for the vocational training of
these young people. The National Youth Administration workers are required
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7507
to spend 80 hours in training and 80 hours in work experience centers. The
National Youth Administration paj's these National Youth Administration work-
ers during this period.
Under current consideration is a project to utilize the Civilian Conservation
Corps in areas in which there are shortages of trainees. According to this plan,
prospective trainees would enroll in the Civilian Conservation Corps, receiving
Civilian Conservation Corps wages and at the same time securing training in
specific defense pay-roll jobs.
The support of dislocated workers due to priority curtailment of nondefense
industries is receiving serious consideration of all interested agencies. At the
present time there is some support available for these workers:
(1) Certain industrial plants are now operating or planning to operate training
programs for employed workers in order to effect transfer to defense jobs with a
minimum of unemployment.
(2) Unemployment compensation will provide a weekly amount for those who
are eligible as a result of establishing wage credits, varying from $15 to $18 for
a period, dependent upon individual State laws, from 12 to 20 weeks.
(3) Certain dislocated workers after a period of time may be certified to the
Work Projects Administration.
(4) A limited nimiber of the younger workers under 25 years of age may enroll
in the National Youth Administration defense project and receive training in
these projects.
Without a doubt there will be certain disclocated workers who for one reason
or another have not built up a credit in unemployment compensation and who
are not eligible for the Work Projects Administration or the National Youth
Administration who must of necessity fare the best they can during the training
course.
It is hoped that much of the conversion training, both in industry and in the
vocational schools, can be given to employees who are to lose their employment
because of priorities prior to the date they are laid off. In this way these workers
would be available for defense industries as soon as the jobs are open. Training
of this type is being carried on in the Hudson plant at the present time.
TRAINING AS AN ALTERNATIVE TO IN- AND OUT-MIGRATION
It is the policy of the Office of Production Management that the local labor
supply will be fully utilized prior to importation of labor from other communities.
The need for such a policy was recognized by Mr. Knudsen, Director General of
the Office of Production Management, in a letter to all holders of defense conttacts
dated February 27, 1941. In this letter Mr. Knudsen emphasized the desirability
of fully utilizing the local labor supply by defense contractors prior to recruiting
workers from other communities. This policy for employment of workers by
defense contractors set the pattern for the policy of defense training programs.
As a result, training programs in the community where the defense plant is located
will be so geared as to train available workers possessing employer specifications.
When it is apparent that the local supply of trainees is inadequate to meet the
needs of the given defense contractor, or if existing training facilities are inade-
quate, training is authorized in other communities. Trainees completing the
courses in communities other than where the defense plant is located will not be
referred to jobs until the local supply of qualified workers has been exhausted and
defense jobs are available for such referrals.
The Training Within Industry Section has constantly advocated and, insofar
as possible, has influenced defense employers to establish upgrading programs
within their plants to meet the needs for skilled workers. The Training Within
Industry Branch is assisting employers wherever their services are requested in
establishing such training programs in order that the need for skilled workers
might be met as much as possible with the local labor supply. The training pro-
grams established within industry have been supplemented by programs estab-
lished by the vocational schools for instruction in related subjects in order to
expedite the development of skills in workers being upgraded. It might be well to
point out here that the training of skilled workers, such as tool makers, instrument
makers, and similar craftsmen, cannot be completed in a period of a few months.
The development of craftsmen of this type requires a 4-year apprenticeship or its
equivalent. Hence, defense training programs are designed to upgrade men al-
ready employed to higher levels of skill, and feed in men trained for a single
operation at the bottom. The job requiring skill in a single op oration can be
taken care of by trainees of preemployment courses of short duration. The man
7508 DETROIT HEARINGS
to be upgraded must have instruction on the job as well as instruction in related
subjects. . , , , ■
However, in certain communities the hiring practices of defense contractors
are such that all of the available local labor supply is not utilized. For example,
in some communities there is a supply of qualified colored workers available who
are not given employment in defense industries. Similarly, in other communities
there are workers of other minority groups who are qualified and who have not been
able to secure emplovment. The policy governing defense training programs in
communities where a part of the local labor supply is not being utilized by defense
contractors, is to insure that a small number of such workers of minority groups
are trained and available for employment. This is considered desirable in order
that if and when a defense contractor changes his hiring practices to employ
members of the minority groups, a small supply of trained workers will be imme-
diateh' available.
EMPLOYMENT LEVEL TO WHICH TRAINING PROGRAM IS GEARED
The answer to this question may be approached in two ways; from the view-
point of the numerical level and from the vie^T)oint of the skill level.
At the outset of the defense training program in June 1940 and for many months
afterward, the vocational school authorities in the States and local communities
and the United States Office of Education, did not have available any data
approximating a supplv and demand schedule for labor in defense industries.
The United States Office of Education, in making its estimates of training require-
ments, and the State and local vocational school authorities, for the most part,
relied upon the active guidance and assistance of their respective advisory com-
mitees and the United States Employment Service for information with respect
to the specific occupations for which training should ge given and the numbers to
be trained. i , , r
The first systematic attempt at relating estimated trainmg load to the level of
defense employment came with the hearings on the defense-training budget for
the 1941-42 fiscal period. The Office of Education, in submitting estimates of
defense employment, utilized the conclusions of agencies such as the United States
Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Bureau of Employment Security of the Social
Security Board, and the Labor Division of the Office of Production Management.
According to these estimates, which wore made in March 1941, the number of
workers employed in defense industries February 1941 was 4,307,000, of whom
2,000,000 would require supplementary training. It was estimated that between
June 1941 and June 1942, there would be a total of 2,092,000 additional workers
employed, of whom approximately 1,080,000 would require training. In preparing
these estimates of training, the Office of Education assumed that, for the greatest
part, the requirements for workers in the upper brackets of skill would be met from
those already employed through a process of upgrading. For estimating purposes,
it was roughly anticipated that 50- percent of the persons already employed in
defense industries would require training for this purpose, or, in other words,
supplementary training.
It was assumed that roughly 50 percent of the additional workers to be em-
ployed in defense industries would require induction training, or in other words,
preemplovment- refresher training. In justification of these rough estiniates, it
must be remembered that there existed no reliable data on the relationship of the
training load to defense employment.
It was estimated that there would be available in the fiscal year about 82,000
public vocational school training stations which would be subjected to varying
degrees of capacity utilization for defense purposes. It was estimated that these
82,000 training stations would provide training for 1,056,000 preemployment-
refresher trainees and 795,994 supplementary trainees during the fiscal year.
In the explanation accompanying these estimates, it was indicated that this
distribution, as between preemployment-refresher trainees and supplementary
trainees, should not be construed rigidly; furthermore, that because of the less
intensive utilization of training stations by the supplementary trainees, an increase
in the number of supplementary trainees might be achieved at the expense of a
proportionately smaller decline in the number of preemployment-refresher
The figures on Julv 1941 enrollment bear out this inference. According to our
estimates, July should have shown an enrollment of 123,984 in preemployment-
refresher courses and 112,335 in supplementary courses. The actual enrollment
revealed that the net enrollment in preemployment-refresher courses was 101,116
and the net enrollment in supplementary courses was 150,388. It will be seen
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7509
that, whereas the actual net enrollment in preemployment courses showed a
reduction of 22,868 from the estimated enrollment, the reduction in the actual
supplementary enrollment from the estimated enrollment was 28,053. It will
also be seen that our estimates show a greater enrollment in preemployment than
in supplementary courses, whereas the actual enrollment data show an increase of
supplementary over preemployment.
The difference between actual and estimated enrollment data bears out what
is now a distinct trend in the character of training; namely, that the greater
part of the training program is concerned with upgrading persons already em-
ployed, to jobs of greater skill and responsibilities. The type of defense training
which complements this up-grading program is, of course, supplementary training.
FIVE PROBLEMS IN ADJUSTING PROGRAM TO SKILLS
From this point of view of the level of skill to which the defense training program
is geared it is possible to distinguish five major problems of varying degrees of
importance.
The first, and most pressing, problem has been a shortage of qualified workers
in the higher brackets of skill. Machinists, tool makers, die makers, loftsmen,
and pattern makers are illustrative of the high order of skill involved. It has been
estimated that in the year ending April 1942, selected defense industries will
require more than one-half million workers in the skilled categories. It has been
recognized that as the number of unemployed workers with the requisite skills
reach the vanishing point, the greater part of the need for skilled workers would
have to come from the ranks of experienced workers on the lower levels of skill.
Second, although less pressing, the sheer number of persons to be hired in semi-
skilled jobs has constituted a serious problem.
Third, the induction of large numbers of new workers in semiskilled occupations
and the necessity for breaking down the operations in the skilled occupations has
raised the problem of providing an adequate force of foremen and subforemen.
Fourth, as the exercise of priorities in materials has curtailed employment in
nondefense industry, there has arisen the problem of retraining the workers thus
employed to make them employable in defense industries. Illustrations of this
may be found in unemployment in the automobile, silk, and aluminumware
industries.
Finally, although there appears to be no general shortage of labor numerically,
it has been considered a matter of good public policy to develop a secondary labor
reserve.
SUPPLEMENTARY INSTRUCTION
It is, therefore, this kind of labor market situation to which defense vocational
training has had to adjust itself. Supplementary instruction has been the major
source of training utilized to alleviate the shortage of skilled workers. This type
of instruction is given during out-of-work hours, and takes one or both of two
forms.
In the first instance, as part of an in-plant upgrading program, it seeks to teach
employed persons to perform at a higher grade of skill than they are now doing
by permitting them to work in a school shop under expert supervision and
direction and with the pertinent tools and machines. At the time when machine
facilities and factories are being utilized to full capacity in actual production, it
is not feasible, in many instances, to permit extensive learning on the job, in the
process of which such machines would be diverted from production.
Secondly, supplementary instruction provides the related knowledges which are
essential in the performance of semiskilled jobs in the higher levels and all skilled
jobs. In this category would fall such courses as blueprint reading, shop mathe-
matics, and mechanical drawing. Here again, it is not feasible, for the most part,
to provide such background training on the job. It has been found that the school
shrp makes possible a more effective acquisition of such knowledge. Between
July 1, 1940, and July 31, 1941, a total of 548,000 persons have been trained in
supplementary courses under the defense-training program.
Prospective trainees for supplementary courses are usually referred to the
schools by employers and labor organizations. The educational authorities work
with local representatives of the Training Within Industry Branch of the Office
of Production Management in the utilization of supplementary instruction as a
desirable and effective means of complementing the program of training within
industry.
Supplementary instruction serves much the same purposes in the apprentice-
ship program. That is, it provides the training in manipulative skills which can-
yi^lO DKTKOIT HEARINGS
not be given adequately in the plant or factory. It also gives the apprentice
instruction in the related knowledge which is necessary. On the Federal level,
the Office of Education cooperates with the apprenticeship unit of the United
States Department of Labor in establishing desirable standards of educational
participation in the apprenticeship program. Thus, the minimum standard of
144 hours per year of related instruction in the vocational schools has been set
up as a necessarv part of an approved ai^prenticeship system.
Locallv, the schools cooperate with the apprenticeship unit of the State de-
partment of labor, the apprenticeship committee, composed of representatives
from emplover and employee groups where such agencies function, and the re-
gional representative of the Federal apprenticeship unit. In many cities the
vocational school authorities have appointed an apprentice coordinator whose
function it is to adjust the related instruction of the apprentice to his work
experience on the job.
PREEMPLOYMENT COURSES
A major source of semiskilled workers in defense industries are the preemploy-
ment courses. The preemployment courses offer induction training to unem-
ployed workers. The objective is to provide instruction which will fit the trainee
for immediate employment. The emphasis is put on training for a specific pay-
roll job, rather than on simply general conditioning.
In previous legislation authorizing defense vocational training, the formal des-
ignation for this type of course was "preemployment refresher," on the assump-
tion that there existed a reservoir of skilled and semiskilled workers who, with a
short amount of "refreshing," could brush up on skills which they had commanded
previously. It is apparent now that the numbers of workers with refreshable
skills has gradually, if not completely, been exhausted. PubUc Law 146, the
most recent legislation, therefore uses the designation "preemployment and re-
fresher," in this wav taking notice of the fact that at this stage in the condition
of the labor market it is necessary to give training to persons who do not have
refreshable skills and who are new entrants into the labor market. Between
July 1, 1940, and July 31, 1941, a total of 472,000 persons have received training
in preemployment courses.
Prospective trainees for preemployment courses are required by law to be re-
ferred to the schools by the United States Employment Service. Other author-
ization makes possible the referral by the Work Projects Administration of Work
Projects Administration workers to preemployment courses. Such Work Proj-
ects Administration referrals receive work-project wages while in training. It
has been recognized as an element of good public policy to transfer, as rapidly
as possible, persons on Work Projects Administration rolls to gainful employment
divorced from the connection with relief.
The educational authorities have attempted to meet the problems raised by
the need for competent foremen and subforemen through intensive utilization of
the foremen-training staffs of both the United States Ofl^ice of Education and the
State and local vocational school authorities.
Through the conference method the foremen conference leaders emphasize the
functions of the foreman as an instructor. The instructional aspects of the fore-
men job mav be thought of in terms of job analysis, planning of instruction, and
the teaching process. The technique of job analysis involved an ability on the
part of the foremen to examine the details of the job from the beginner's point
of view. The experienced worker frequently overlooks significant details of the
job which ha,ve, in a sense, become automatic to him. There is also involved in
the ability on the part of the foremen, the recognition of key motions, in other
words, the "knacks," which are indispensable in the satisfactory performance of
With the analvsis of the job on which the new worker is being broken in, as
the framework, the foremen should l)e able to devise a program, or plan, indi-
cating points which must be stressed, the sequence in wliich operations are to
be taught, and the methods of developing satisfactory jiroductive eflRciency on
the part of the new worker. Finally, the foremen should be able to command a
practical understanding of the elements of the learning and t<^aching process.
It is, then, these abilities and knowledges which the foremen conference leaders
impart to prospective foremen trainers and, in many instances, to the foremen
themselves. All of this, of course, assumes that the foremen are occupationally
competent.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7511
PRIORITIES UNEMPLOYMENT NECESSITATES RETRAINING
The problems raised by what may be called priorities unemployment have
resulted in essentially a retraining program. A concrete situation of this kind
may be illustrated by citing the unemployment of 3,600 automobile workers in
the Buffalo industrial area. While many of the occupations in the automobile
industry are comparable to other occupations in defense industries, notably in
the aircraft industry, the operations are nevertheless not identical. In coopera-
tion with other agencies concerned with the problem of labor supply the Buffalo
vocational schools are offering short intensive courses specifically designed to
make the transition from one job to another as short as possible and at the same
time assure the acquisition of the skills necessary to satisfactory performance of
specific pav-roU jobs.
From the instructional point of view, the problem of developing a secondary
labor reserve does not involve training for specific occupations, but rather a
general conditioning of the trainee to factory and shop practices and an under-
standing of tools, materials, and machines. The out-of-school youth training
program and the training program for youth on the work projects of the National
Youth Administration have been set up precisely for this purpose of developing
a secondary labor reserve. Since the youth affected by the out-of-school youth
and the National Youth Administration programs reside, for the greatest part,
in rural communities, these programs serve the additional purpose of providing
a conditioned labor supply which may be of substantial importance in connection
with the increasing significance of the less densely populated areas in defense
production. In view of the potential shortage of farm labor, the specific training
of rural youth for defense occupations is carried on as well with due consideration
to defense agricultural labor requirements. Trainees for both youth programs
are required to file a registration card with the Employment Service, but no prior
registration is mandatory. In the fiscal year ending June 30, 1941, 300,000 young
people received training in the out-of-school youth training program and 250,000
National Youth Administration enroUees received training on the National
Youth Administration vocational training program administered by the various
State boards for vocational education.
Other groups of workers of additional labor supply which are not normally in
the labor market in the heavy defense industries are women workers. The Office
of Education has followed a policy that defense training programs should be set
up for women workers where there are existing or anticipated employment
opportunities for women in specific occupations. There is apparent an increasing
utilization of training facilities by women who are preparing themselves for
occupations which have been traditionally limited to male workers. This is, of
course, a reflection of the increasing opportunities available for women in defense
industries.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR NEGRO WORKERS
Where there are existing or anticipated opportunities in defense occupations for
Negro workers, adequate provision will continue to be made for their training.
In areas where there are serious color limitations in employment, defense occu-
pations in which Negroes are being used are being reported promptly and training
of Negroes in these fields are offered to the extent needed to facilitate the maximum
use of the local labor supply. Negroes are trained in selected occupations in
communities where, at the present time, there may be no opportunities for them
but in which it is probable that their services will be used at a later date by
defense contractors.
REGIONAL DIFFERENCES IN THE SCOPE AND TYPES OF THE TRAINING PROGRAM
The preemployment courses in the program of vocational training for defense
workers are designed to prepare workers to take jobs in defense industries. They
are geared to provide workers to industry to the maximum possible extent i:-; the
locality in which the training is given. The pattern of training in each area,
therefore, coincides with the pattern of the defense industrial comoosition of the
area.
As the defense program expands substantially, new industries such as aircra.ft
production and the production of some types of ordnance products are being built
from the ground up. Other industries, such as shipbuilding, are increasing their
capacity manyfold. As these expansions have occurred, we have found that
industry has tended to concentrate in particular areas of the country. Eighty-
seven percent, for example, of July employment in the aircraft industry was in
7512 DETROIT HEARINGS
plants located in the North Atlantic area and on the Pacific coast. Similar con-
centrations are found in shipbuilding in the coastal area and in machine tools in
the Northeast. Where this has occurred, training for these industries has also
been concentrated and courses and enrollments have been offered in the field
which offers the greatest placement opportunities.
As an industry becomes dispersed, the employment and training of workers in
it also tends to disperse. In the aircraft industry, for example, the proportion of
employment from March to July 1941, in the central and southern areas increased
from is percent to almost 19 percent. As plants are constructed and contracts
are awarded in these regions, the labor requirements of the industrj' begin to take
shape and the training program adapts itself to these needs.
TWO FUNCTIONS OF TRAINING PROGRAM
The training program was originally designed to perform two functions: (1) To
refresh the skills of workers who had been employed at a craft and had lost their
skill out of long disuse during the depression, and (2) to give employed persons
training in advanced skills so that they might be upgraded on the job.
As industry expanded in certain regions faster than in others and the pressure
of the labor supply became severe in the areas of greatest expansion, it was found
that the essential character of the program began to differ among regions. In
some areas in the Western and North Pacific regions, particularly, the reservoir
of unemployed that had been built up in depression years became depleted. Unem-
ployed persons with refreshable skills no longer existed. The training program
then resorted to unemployed persons with no previous experience in the industry
for preemployment training courses. In many communities on the Pacific coast
and in the North Atlantic where substantial hiring has been done and where
considerable additional labor is required to staff" still expanding industries, even
these persons have disappeared. Where they do exist, employer needs for addi-
tional workers are so pressing that they are being hired without previous experi-
ence or training. In these regions, therefore, enrollments in supplementary courses
are becoming greater and greater proportions of total enrollments in the defense
training courses. The special job of the training program has become to provide
workers with higher skills or with knowledge in collateral skills such as blueprint
reading and shop mathematics so that they might be advanced on the job to
positions of a higher level of skill, and to provide training in basic skills for persons
who were taken on by industry without previous experience or training.
In the central and southern regions, on the other hand, the defense program has
not been felt to the same extent. There has not been the same general depletion
of labor on the skilled levels and there are still available large numbers of unem-
ployed youth. Thus, the training program in these regions still retains the twofold
function, as originally conceived, of refreshing skills and uptraining employed
workers. In addition, unemployed persons with no previous experience are being
trained in the basic skills to take jobs in defense industry. However, as the
defense program expands, and as defense contracts and facilities flow into the
central and southern regions, it can be expected that the labor requirements
situation and the training program will more and more resemble what has devel-
oped in the North Atlantic region and on the Pacific coast,
EMPLOYER ESTIMATES OP NEEDED WORKERS WITH SPECIAL SKILLS
There is noticeable an increasing ability on the part of defense employers to
predict their labor requirements with greater accuracy. This has resulted from
the greater speed with which defense contracts have been awarded. In the early
stages of the defense program, it was rather difficult to get from employers esti-
mates of labor requirements far enough in advance to do the necessary training,
in large part because they had no clear notion of the demands the defense program
would put upon them. Another element in the early difficulty of employers to
estimate their requirements was their unfamiliarity with what the training pro-
gram could do for them. As they have had increasing demonstration of the ability
of the training program to do a sound training job, there is apparent a more
effective relationship between the training authorities and defense employers.
Frequently, it isn't enough to be able to predict how many workers will be needed
and in what occupations such workers will be needed. There must also be some
indication of when such workers will be needed. In other words, the tempo of
accession exerts a significant influence on training.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7513
Where it has been possible to closely gear the training program for preemploy-
ment training to the needs of the industries, and trainees are selected to meet the
referral specifications of the defense contractor, placements have been almost
automatic. On the other hand where trainees are selected for training courses
without regard to the referral specifications of the employer or employers for whom
the training is specifically set up, placement of trainees completing preemployment
courses is not so good. Of course, many men trained will eventually find employ-
ment in other concerns than the ones for which the training was specifically geared.
As an example there are many colored trainees who have been trained as machine
operators in the Chicago defense training program while the referral specifications
of the larger defense employers indicate white workers. Consequently, the place-
ment of colored trainees is practically nil, while at the same time these defense
contractors need additional trained machine operators.
In some cases defense employers have been unable to give employment to
trainees upon the competion of the courses due to their inability to complete a
new plant, or equip a new plant, or due to delay in deliveries of materials needed
in production. Delays of this character are frequently temporary and the trainees
are absorbed when the given conditions are rectified. In other instances, workers
completing training, finding no placements in the plant upon whose need they
were given training, will seek other jobs. This may result in out-migration.
ESTIMATES OF NUMBER TO BE RETAINED MIGRANTS OR RESIDENTS
It is impossible to estimate the number of workers who will have to be trained
or retrained until the total number of workers that will be laid off due to priorities
is known. In certain places where dislocation of workers in nondefense industries
due to priorities has taken place, app oximately one-third of the workers have
been referred to training courses and are being retrained. Many variables are
inherent in the problem: The type of industry in which the lay-off occurs the
number of existing defense contracts in the community, and the extent to which
the industry or industries are expanding, the ability of existing plant facilities
in the community to take on additional contracts, as well as other similar con-
siderations. The defense training program for dislocated workers must be geared
to meet the needs of defense industries and the skill of the laid off workers. In
some communities and in some industries this conversion defense training pro-
gram will be very small, while in other communities and in other industries it
may well be that the majority of the workers will need conversion training of
some kind or other.
In regard to the total number of workers that will have to be retrained, it is
impossible to give any accurate estimate. However, we know that there will be
approximately 2,500,000 additional workers absorbed in defense industries during
the next year. Approximately 38 percent of these workers must be skilled and
37 percent semiskilled. In the skilled division some may be obtained from dis-
located workers in nondefense industries; in the semiskilled category, however,
the bulk must be given conversion training. It is not believed that the defense
training program will be decreased due to the release of skilled and semiskilled
workers in nondfense industries affected by priorities. The migration of, dis-
placed workers will depend to a very large extent on the defense contracts that
have been or may be let in the community where the dislocation occurs. Until
the defense contracts to be placed in a community are let, it would be difficult to
estimate what migration of workers may be.
TRAINING PROGRAM AND DISTRIBUTION OF MACHINES
It is assumed that the intent of this question -is the relationship of the geo-
graphic distribution of the training equipment to the distribution of the industrial
machinery on which persons completing training will work. In the earlier stages
of the defense production program, contracts were awarded rather largely in the
areas where production capacity for the contract items alreadj^ existed. For all
practical purposes, this meant the concetnration of defense production in the
North Atlantic and Pacific coast areas. A noticeable trend in the later stages of
defense production program has been the wider geographical distribution of defense
contracts. The full force of this trend is yet to be felt.
Geographical distribution of equipment of the public vocational schools for the
normal training job has rather largely paralleled the geographic distribution of
industry. However, defense production has been characterized by an unusual
concentration in heavy industry. This has meant that, even in the earlier stages
of defense production, the existing equipment of the vocational schools have had
7514 DETROIT HEARINGS
to be supplemented by additional training stations in such training fields as
machine shop, riveting, and welding. Moreover, the large-scale extension of
defense production to the central and southern industrial areas has meant that
the schools in these areas would have to receive equipment of a character and
magnitude different from the normal training requirements.
Purchase of e(|uipment from funds appropriated by the first appropriation,
passed June 27, 1940, was not authorized. A partial solution of the equipment
problem was made by the passage of subdivision (2) of Public Law 812, the second
defense training appropriation, which made $8,000,000 available for the acquisi-
tion of equipment in connection with the preemployment, refresher, and supple-
mentary courses. However, the need of the public vocational schools for equip-
ment in order to do an adequate job of defense training was far greater than that
which could be met by this appropriation. The third appropriation. Public Law
146, made available an appropriation of $12,000,000 for the preemployment,
refresher, and supplementary courses. In addition, $8,000,000 from the unex-
pended balance of Public Law 812 was made available for equipment as well.
The Office of Education has followed the policy, in distributing the $12,000,000
under Public Law 146, that areas with urgent defense needs be given priority.
In distributing the supplementary $8,000,000, consideration has been given to
those areas where no urgency existed presently but where it is authoritatively
recognized that significant needs would develop in the immediate future.
The effective cooperative relationship existing between the vocational school
authorities and the advisory committees has in general served as an assurance
that the training equipment acquired would be adequate for training for specific
plants. The course content in defense training is developed in close collaboration
generally with members of advisory committees and specifically with the technical
personnel of the plants for which training is being given.
Of course, the other training programs, such as training on the job, apprentice-
ship programs, and supplementary courses, are all definiteh^ set up to meet the
specific needs of the given industries in which the workers are employed.
TESTIMONY OF ERIC NICOL, EDWARD L. KEENAN, AND COL.
FRANK J. McSHERRY— Resumed
Mr. OsMERS. Woiild you care to make any comment on the state-
ment of Mr. Thomas that the "Buffalo plan" has not been effective?
Mr. NicoL. We know that 1,275 of the employees m Buffalo were
placed under that plan, and in addition, 600 persons are in schools,
takmg courses.
Under the plan, which we worked out with four employers in Buf-
falo, there was an agreement that those workers would be absorbed
by industry if they qualified and were graduated from the courses in
school.
Mr. OsMERs. Do you believe, Mr. Nicol, that the workers in Buf-
falo who have been displaced can look forward to jobs — all of them?
Mr. Nicol. Not all of them, but I think the majority can.
Mr. OsMERs. How big a percentage — 80 percent?
Mr. Nicol. Yes; I thmk so.
Mr. OsMERS. What are the arrangements for the coordination of
the training program with the Contract Distribution Division?
Colonel McSherry. We do have a definite tie-in, through the Office
of Education, msofar as the plant site committee of the Contract
Bureau is concerned. Of course the larger requirements for additional
workers come in contracts which call for a new plant or an addition
to an old plant built normally financed by the Federal Government,
Mr. Osmers. How are the occupations for training determined?
determination of training program needs
Colonel McSherry. We have set up what we call the council of
State administrators, and we also have a coimcU of local administra-
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7515
tors, composed of representatives of the Employment Service, the
schools, and the N. Y. A.
The Employment Service makes a survey of all industrial concerns
in the community every 2 months, on what they call Form 270, and
m that form they secure information as to the current need for addi-
tional workers, by occupation — the needs in 60 days, in 120 days,
and in 180 days.
Based upon those findmgs, and with the advice of our advisory
committee, which is composed of equal representation of labor and
management, we determine what courses are needed in a particular
community.
Now, we have a safeguard on those courses. The O. P. M. has
approved a list of occupations essential to defense uidustries. This
list contams 515 occupations. Wliile it does not authorize trainmg,
it restricts training courses to those listed. The local officials deter-
mine which ones are needed.
In case the local needs are greater than the training facilities in a
given community, or in case there are not enough trainees to attend
the classes, through the State council, we have utilized training facil-
ities for training workers for the community.
All this is preemployment training. The big training program we
carry on for national defense is supplementary training — that is,
instruction in related subjects for employed workers. This program
fits in with the training-withm-industry program to up-grade workers
in order that they may take on jobs requiring higher skills.
Mr. OsMiLRS. That program goes on while they arc working?
Colonel McShp:rry. That is right.
Mr. OsMERS. We have heard a great deal in Michigan about the
need for a comprehensive inventory of men, materials, and machmes.
I was just wondering how you determine the number of machmes
available for the trained workers. If there was a certain type of lathe
to be operated, for example, how would you guard against framing
three times as many lathe operators as would be required?
ESTIMATING NUMBER OF WORKERS TO BE TRAINED
Colonel McSherry. Let us take a specific example. We are in a
town, let us say, where there is just one industry. The management
of that concern is contacted. They want 20 lathe operators on the
1st of October; they want 40 operators by the 1st of December;
they may want 30 more operators by the 1st of February; and so on
through a 6-month period.
We have those requirements of the concern. The Employment
Service has available in its files the names of laid-off or unemployed
people who have that same skill or occupation.
After they have checked the requirements against the available
supply and the potential lay-offs, let us say they find a difi'erence there
of 50 lathe operators. The training should be set up, then, for 50
lathe operators, and they so report to the council of local admmistra-
tors.
Mr. OsMERs. That sounds like a practical scheme. Is it in opera-
tion?
Colonel McSherry. It was not, initially. We started with this
program in June of this year. I came in on this job the 1st of April.
7516 DETROIT HEARINGS
We put out definite instructions that all training on preemployment
would be of a specific character, for specific jobs.
Now, unless they get instructions from higher authority to expand
the scope of training, the local people are restricted to the training
requirements of their particular locality. Unless the State or National
Council gives them instructions to offer specific training where a
specific need is known to exist elsewhere, the scope of framing is
not widened.
Mr. OsMERS. Mr. Thomas yesterday was quite fearful that the
employers in the Michigan area would not cooperate in the Buffalo
plan if that was attempted here. Have vou found any evidence of
that?
Mr. NicoL. No ; there is no evidence of that.
We have a little problem in Detroit that we did not have in Buffalo.
In Buffalo, employees had been actually laid off before we came into
the picture, so the problem there was one of persuading employers to
take on men who were actually out on the street.
ANALYSES OF EXPECTED LAY-OFFS
In the automobile situation, we know that there is going to be a
lay-off, and we are able to anticipate some of it. We have to analyze
what kind of employees are going to be laid off, and what is going to
happen to the rest of them, and it is possible to visualize a situation
where there may be 50,000 employees laid off. In accordance with
seniority rides, the younger workers woidd get laid off first, and they
would therefore get the cream of the defense jobs, with the possibility
that the older workers in the industry would be left with the nondefense
jobs, and perhaps eventually get shorter hours.
Our problem is to know how to meet that, and while we have had
no objection in principle to tackling that problem, there is some ques-
tion of mechanics, as to how to work out the best methods of doing it.
WILL NOT LOSE SENIORITY RIGHTS
Full agreement has been reached that as employees are laid off,
now or in the future, or leave and go into defense jobs, subject to call
back for nondefense, if their defense employer certifies that they
are actually working m defense, their seniority will be protected, and
they will not be called back to work for the former employer on
nondefense work.
Mr. OsMERS. You mean they will not lose their seniority?
Mr. NicoL. That is right.
Mr. OsMERS. Even if they do not answer the call?
Mr. NicoL. That is right. We have worked out a system whereby
they will be certified as having full-time defense work.
Mr. OsMERS. Has your division had an opportunity to observe how
the President's proclamation urging all employers to hire without
regard to race has been observed in the State of Michigan? I am
thinking particularly of the Negro workers. You have a great number
of them here.
Mr. NicoL. Yes, sir. I am not informed about Michigan. Can
you tell us, Mr. Keenan? I know generally throughout the country
we are getting a better response since the President's proclamation.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7517
STILL SOME DISCRIMINATION
Mr. OsMERs. There has been an improvement?
Mr. Keenan. Yes, sn-; that is all we can claim at the moment.
There are some encouraging results.
Mr. OsMERS. Does your division receive many complaints on that
score?
Mr. NicoL. Not as many as we used to. I spent about 3 months
on that problem, domg nothing else, and I got right into the middle
of it. There is still a good deal of discrimination, but I think there is
less than there used to be.
Mr. OsMERS. Does your division give consideration to the mainte-
nance of workers while they are in training for defense occupations?
I am not referring to those who are training while they are on the pay
roll.
WAGE PAYMENTS DURING TRAINING
Colonel McSherry. Consideration has been given to that prob-
lem. As you know, we have some 37,000 W. P. A. workers taking
training courses. Those workers are paid their regular W. P. A. wages
during the training period. For workers under 25 we have defense
classes in vocational schools, in conjunction with the youth work proj-
ect of the N. Y. A. The youth receives a wage of from $22 to $25.
Of course there is a limitation on the workers in these groups.
Many workers are not covered by either one of those agencies; that is,
there is no provision for people of 25 or over who are not on W. P. A. ;
or people under 25 who are married and not eligible for N. Y. A.
Nothing is done to take care of these groups.
Consideration has been given to that situation. Some attempt was
made to get fmids, but it fell by the wayside.
Mr. OsMERs. So at the moment, if a man is not on W. P. A. and not
on N. Y. A., he receives no pay?
Colonel McSherry. That is true — unless he gets miemployment
compensation through something that he earned before he was dis-
placed from his nondefense job.
Mr. OsMERs. That income, however, would not be a result of his
training.
Colonel McSherry. No, sir.
Mr. OsMERS. In tackling your labor problems, do you consult the
files of the United States Employment Service before you start a
training program?
In other words, if you want to develop 500 die makers of a certain
type, do you go through the files of the Employment Service in an
effort to find out whether those workers are available somewhere else
in the United States, and, do you look into the possibility of bringing
them to the job rather than training 500 new ones?
Colonel McSherry. The training of a tool or die maker requires a
long period — 4 or 5 years of apprenticeship.
Mr. OsMERS. I probably used a poor occupation as an example.
Colonel McSherry. Let us change it to riveting, which requires
a 4- or 5-week course.
7518 DETROIT HEARINGS
SELECTION OF TRAINEES
Wc set up a course because there is known to be a definite need in
a community — let us take Los Angeles, for instance — ^we know there
is a definite need for riveters there, and we set up a riveting course.
Locldieed Aircraft Corporation at Burbank wants workers, and as
long as we have trainees there, we try to meet the needs of Lockheed
with the trainees in Los Angeles.
In case there are nO more available trainees, such as has been the
case at San Diego, we go elsewhere — over to Arizona, and start a
training course there, so that the boys will be trained at home rather
than have to subsist themselves at San Diego prior to getting employ-
ment.
Mr. OsMERS. When you start training a boy in Arizona for a job in
San Diego, do you provide him with transportation to go to the job?
Colonel McSherry. No. We tell him there is a job for him in
San Diego. An exception to this is the case of W. P. A. workers from
other parts of California sent to San Diego to receive trainhig and go
into industry there. They were paid transportation and subsistence
during the trainmg period, and until they secured jobs. That is, they
were put on the San Diego W. P. A. rolls.
The N. Y. A. has what they call a residence center in San Diego,
where they can bring the boys and pay them $25 a month while they are
getting their training.
Mr. OsMERS. You have to get your estimates of needed workers
from employers. Have those estimates been generally accurate?
Have they overstated their needs or under-stated them?
LABOR ESTIMATES FAIRLY ACCURATE
Colonel McSherry. Initially we had estimates from only a few
employers. Today we get estimates from practically all employers,
and in general I would say those estimates are fairly accurate. Some-
times, due to delay in delivery of materials, they are overstated.
For instance, we were given estimates by the North American
Aviation Corporation plant at Kansas City, which was to open on
July 20, for so many men. We set up our program to give them the
men on July 20, but because of priorities of materials, the plant hasn't
opened yet. The men will be absorbed after the plant is opened.
Oftentimes, however, the procedure has been just the reverse. For
instance, let us take the California Shipbuilding Co. at Los Angeles.
Last March or April they estimated they would need, as I recall,
something like 1,200 welders. Then they received an additional con-
tract and increased the number of men needed to around 1,800. Along
in June, the contract was revised for earlier delivery dates, and this
again boosted the number of men required to 2,400. The last tinre I
heard from out in California, they wanted 3,700 welders by November 1 .
Mr. OsMERS. That mcreases the difficulties of your job, does it not?
Colonel McSherry. It does.
Mr. OsMERS. To what extent have communities faced with priority
shut-downs received special treatment m the allocation of contracts?
Have they been given any special consideration?
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7519
COMMUNITIES AFFECTED BY PRIORITY SHUT-DOWNS
Mr. NicoL. Yes. I don't know how effective the practice has been.
We are not responsible for the work of the Contract Service, and I am
not informed about the details on that; but what we are doing in the
Labor Division is to carry out an agreement that has been made with
the Defense Contract Distribution Division and the Army and Navy,
by which we can certify for defense contracts those communities or
areas in which the contract should be placed in order to meet the need
of the labor supply.
That process is just going into effect. We have now certified some
of the cities which are in need of contracts on that basis and we are
hoping that prompt action will be taken, both in this area and other
places.
The Chairman, Gentlemen, we thank you very much for coming
here. Our next witness is Mr, John Reid, secretary of the Michigan
State Federation of Labor,
TESTIMONY OF JOHN REID, SECRETARY OF THE MICHIGAN
STATE FEDERATION OF LABOR
The Chairman, Mr, Reid, Congressman Sparkman will ask you the
questions,
Mr. Sparkman, Mr. Reid, will you state your name and the
capacity in which you appear?
Mr. Reid, John Reid, secretary of the Michigan State Federation of
Labor,
Mr, Sparkman. Mr. Reid, you have presented to us a paper
which I have read .
(The paper referred to above is as follows:)
STATEMENT BY JOHN REID, SECRETARY, MICHIGAN STATE FED-
ERATION OF LABOR
Early in the development of the defense program it became apparent that in
spite of a large number of unemployed workers, local demand for particular types
of skills could not always be filled locally. Labor unions knew there would be
great migration of workers to new areas, directed to particular jobs and hoping to
find jobs on defense projects. Sometimes the announcement that a defense proj-
ect was proposed in some city was enough to start workers moving to that place
long before work was ready. Sometimes employers started the migration by indis-
criminate advertising for workers. Whatever the cause, labor knew it must face
the problem of unnecessary migration and make provision for local temporary
shortages of workers with certain skills.
Early in 1940, we learned that large numbers of skilled workers would be required
for construction in military camjis and new factories for defense production.
International unions in the building trades made a survey through their affiliated
locals to find out the number of skilled workers available who would be willing to
go to other localities. The first project in Michigan was at Fort Custer, Battle
Creek, and it was comparatively easy to supply the workers for this project from
other cities in Michigan and the adjacent States. As other projects developed in
Detroit, Flint, Midland, Muskegon, Fort Brady, and other cities, it became more
difficult to get skilled men and it was found necessary to reach into other States to
provide sufficient construction workers for those projects.
Busine.ss agents in local unions normally act as placement agents, but the supply-
ing of skilled union men to jobs was improved and speeded by the cooperation of
the 51 employment offices of the Michigan Employment Service. All unem-
ployed union members were instructed to register at the employment office, and on
many projects the employment office acted as referral agent for the unions. Pro-
cedures were worked out to be followed by local offices to make effective use of all
60396— 41^ ~pt. 18 — —30
7520 DETROIT HEARINGS
channels of labor placement, to preserve the functions of union placement and pro-
tect rights of union members working under union agreements.
The procedures for supplying workers to defense areas worked out by the unions
and the Michigan Employment Service is intended to get the men on the job where
needed. Providing the necessary facilities for them in defense areas is another
problem. The location of defense plants was apparently dictated by other con-
siderations and the problem of housing was not given sufficient consideration.
Due to the lack of housing in McComb County, Midland, and Ypsilanti many
construction workers were forced to travel many miles to and from work without
any provision for traveling time or maintaining and operating an automobile,
which is quite an item in the weekly budget. Workers at Midland are forced to
go to Bay City or Saginaw for housing facilities. This increased demand for
housing has brought increases in rent and occupation of substandard housing in
Muskegon, Saginaw, Bay City, Battle Creek, Midland, and Detroit.
The housing problem is not new and will be with us when the defense emergency
has passed. A comprehensive housing program has long been recognized as one
of the cushions against a slump in our economic system when we are again able to
shift to a peacetime economy.
We need more homes, well built, rightly situated, well planned so as to be a
real asset to the community in the future, and built to rent for a price the average
worker can afford. In all of these communities, members of the American Federa-
tion of Labor are anxious to contribute their knowledge and experience toward
finding a constructive solution to this problem.
The migration of large numbers of workers and their families to defense areas
has greatly overtaxed the facilities of school districts, in those areas, to provide
sufficient educational facilities. Van Dyke school district has an additional 500
school children; Center Line the same number, and Roseville 140 additional
children to provide for. Those increases are the result of workers migrating to
the Chrysler tank plant to work. Battle Creek will have an increased enroll-
ment of 350 children, and Lakeview, close to Fort Custer, an additional 200 chil-
dren enrolled.
In others area, the problem of overcrodwing will loom largest in the districts
surrounding the cities. Saginaw and Genessee Counties will each have an in-
crease of 500 with the city of Pontiac having a similar increase.
Detroit has a slightly different problem in the city, but in the outskirts there
is an acute shortage of schools. It will require 10 new schools to provide adequate
facilities for children in these districts. Even though there may be room in
Detroit schools it is impossible to transport the children from the outlying dis-
tricts to the cit}^ schools.
Other cities will experience the same difficulties as the defense program expands
and new enrollment will disrupt the present school program. Many local school
districts are not able to bear the burden, of extra equipment and persomiel re-
quired because of the migration of defense workers and their families and will
need assistance from the State and Federal Governments.
There has been a oO-j^ercent increase in industrial accidents in the first 6 months
of 1941 compared with the first 6 months of 1940. Throughout the year 1940
industrial accidents cost four times as many man-days lost from production as
were lost by strikes. Time lost by accidents has received practically no atten-
tion, while time lost from strikes has been carried in practically every news-
paper in the State. Longer hours of work, as overtime employment increases,
contribute to cummulative fatigue, and in some defense areas workers are forced
to live so far from the job that they spend 2 or 3 hours traveling to and from work.
Many communities lack adequate sanitation facilities and other cities have been
forced to put a dangerous load on existing facilities. Makeshift dwellings, tents,
trailers, and shacks are being used with no health facilities available in some defense
areas and the local community is unable to cope with this problem. Prevent-
able accidents and ill health are causing needless loss of manpower hours and the
Michigan Federation of Labor urges that appropriations be made for adequate
health services in defense areas and for industrial hygiene department functioning
through the State department of labor and industry.
NATIONAL DEFENSE SnGRATION 7521
SOCIAL SECURITY
More than half of the States have frozen the benefit rights of draftees under
their State unemployment compensation laws, but the meager benefits and
limited coverage in this State make these provisions ineffective in many cases.
No provision has been made by the Federal administration to protect the rights
they had been building up for old-age and survivors insurance.
Construction workers moving from one defense job to another in a different
State may find present State unemployment laws of no value to them. They
may not be able to meet the provision of earning sufficient wages in two quarters
to qualify, as many construction jobs do not last that long. As he moves from
State to State, a migratory worker may find himself unemployed with no rights
to compensation in spite of sufficient earnings because his earnings in the different
States cannot be pooled for unemployment compensation benefits.
Experience ratings provisions in the Michigan unemployment compensation
law impose unnecessary hardships on contractors since defense construction work
demands large forces who will complete the job quickly and will have to be laid
off at the end of the work in that area to seek other employment.
Employment and unemployment are national in scope and we ask for a national
system of unemployment compensation with Nation-wide adequate standards of
benefits and the abolition of the discriminatory system of experience rating.
DEFENSE UNEMPLOYMENT
The cut in automobile production and priority orders on materials will bring
about a serious increase in unemployment in this State.
In the cities of Detroit, Pontiac, Flint, Saginaw, and Lansing, approximately
80,000 displaced auto workers will be unemployed by January 1942. Workers
in other cities will be laid off because of lack of materials. The stove and furnace
industry located in Dowagiac, Marshall, Milan, Kalamazoo, Holland, and Battle
Creek are already hit by the material shortage and several thousand workers will
be unemployed unless immediate provision is made for making defense contracts
^available to those employers. Several industries in other cities in the State are
having difficulty getting mtaerials and have been forced to lay off workers.
The producers of refrigerators located in Grand Haven, Muskegon, Grand
Rapids, Benton Harbor, Niles, Greenville, Riga, Tecumseh, CarroUton, Jackson,
And Grandville are already reducing forces and many will be forced to shut down
■completely unless they can get a supply of materials.
In several of the cities mentioned, producing refrigerators is the only local
industry, and a shut-down would be disastrous to the community and cause
great distress among the workers.
Labor does not question the need for priorities, but it challenges the procedure
by which they are arrived at and the lack of advance planning which results in
widespread unemployment. When Government tells industry it cannot have
materials essential to its production and thereby deprives workers of jobs, it
owes it to the plant, the employee, and the community to provide defense con-
tracts at the same time priority orders become effective. There must be advanced
planning to make full use of machiner}- and production facilities and thus avoid
unemployment.
TESTIMONY OF JOHN REID— Resumed
Mr. Sparkm.\n. You state in your paper that workers who have
migrated to many of the defense areas have experienced difficulty
in securing satisfactory housing. Have you any comments to make
about the work done by the Federal Government to meet the situation
through the division of defense housing under Mr. Palmer?
Mr. Reid. Some work is being done in Michigan, but as far as our
people in the building industry are concerned, when they go in to
build a project, the housing all comes too late. The work on the
project doesn't last many months. We put a lot of men on and we
-speed them up. On projects like at Camp Custer, which was probably
the first one in the country, we threw a lot of men on, and there was
:no provision made for housing them.
7522 DETROIT HEARINGS
Mr. Sparkman. You have reference, then, to the housing for the
workers on the construction jobs, rather than homes for permanent
workers?
Mr. Reid. The men who go in to put tlie houses there. We have
just finished 300 houses at Muskegon, which is going to be a great
reUef to the people who are going to work in the plants, but the fellows
who were building the project — about six or seven hundred men —
weren't helped a bit by it.
After the houses are built, they move to another project. That is
the difficult}^ we have with the construction worker.
INCREASE OF 50 PERCENT IN INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS
Mr. Sparkman. You state that during the first 6 months of 1941,
mdustrial accidents increased 50 percent over a similar period in 1940.
Do these figures cover industrial operations in the State of Michigan
only?
Mr. Reid. That is right. Those are the State department of labor
figures.
Mr. Sparkman. Wliat are the mam reasons, in your opinion, for
that increase?
Mr. Reid. The chief cause of the increase ii; accidents is the practice
of calling back to work men who have been unemployed for so many
years that they have lost part of their ability to protect themselves.
They have lost their safety education, and many of the organizations
which are expanding so rapidly to meet the defense program haven't
stressed the safety angle.
Mr. Sparkman. Would you say that having to drive a long distance
to work might contribute to it?
Mr. Reid. Probably. Drivuig a long distance to work, because
of the lack of housing facilities, extends the worker's day: and after
working in the factory all day, driving at night is not safe, especially
when everybody leavmg the plant gets on the road at one time.
It is hard work driving at such a time, and that develops extra fatigue.
Facilities for living close to the plant would alleviate that problem.
Mr. Sparkman. What would you say would be a reasonable
driving distance for the average Michigan worker?
reasonable driving distances
Mr. Reid. It depends on the locality. In the smaller cities, like
Muskegon, Grand Rapids, Saginaw, and Lansing, a matter of 10 or
12 miles wouldn't be a long distance; but drivmg in Detroit is different.
A man may have his home in the west end of Detroit, and may have
to work over on the east side; and because of the size of the city, much
greater travel is necessary than in a smaller town. But I don't know
what you mean by an "average distance."
Mr."^ Sparkman. What distance, would you say, would be so exces-
sive that it would contribute to the industrial hazards? What dis-
tance would tire the men and contribute to these industrial accidents
that you mentioned? The further a man has to drive, the more
fatiguing his travel will be.
Mr. Reid. Not always. For instance, if a man lives on the west
side of Detroit and works on the east side, he will have a much more
NATIONAL DEFENSE xMIGRATION 7523
fatiguing drive home than he would have if he worked in Lansing
and was driving out to Pottervilie.
Mr. Sparkman. That is because of traffic conditions?
Mr. Reid. Yes, sir; and the width of the road. The man going to
Pottervilie would be worse off than the man going to Williamson or
Howell, because the latter would have a four-lane road, two lanes on
each side.
All those conditions affect travel. One can hardly give a blanket
answer to the question.
Mr. Sparkman. I note that you recommend the national system
of unemployment compensation. The committee, as you doubtless
know, heard the same proposal advanced by Mr. William Green,
president of the American Federation of Labor. Would you indicate
for the committee your reasons for advocating this plan?
Mr. Reid. I happen to be a member of the Unemployment Com-
pensation Commission in Michigan. I also was a member of the
commission that drafted the law, and I, with Professor Haber, fought
to keep merit ratmg out of the law.
STABILIZATION OF UNEMPLOYMENT
As he pointed out, that practically changes the fundamental
character of the law. Instead of a law to pay out benefits, it develops
into a tax problem. That clause supposedly is inserted for the
purpose of encouraging the employer to stabilize employment, but
there is one factor that has been developed in the surve}^ that Pro-
fessor Meyers made of merit rating in Wisconsm. You stabilize em-
ployment, but you also stabilize unemployment at the same time. In
other words, you stabilize employment as they have done m Wisconsin
for 75 percent of the population, and then you stabilize unemployment
for the other 25 percent, who never have an opportunity to work.
The employers in that State are trying to get their tax rates down.
They don't add additional employees when they require them. They
work the employees overtime and then, when the slack period comes,
they never lay them off. They reduce the hours and spread the work,
and that factor is a detriment to paying benefits and it is a detriment
to the employment of workers. I don't tliink you will ever be able
to get rid of the merit system without a Federal law.
UNEMPLOYMENT COMPENSATION FOR CONSTRUCTION WORKER
Dr. Haber pointed out many of the other tilings that could be said
about unemployment compensation and how it affects our people in
the construction industry, especially.
For instance, they are going to start a housing project here in
Detroit. It happens that a Lansing firm is the contractor. The
contract requires the completion of the project in 120 days. Now,
we may have to call in workers from other States to work on this
particular project, and if it is 120 days, many of the workers won't
work long enough in Alichigan to establish rights under the Michigan
law. They may earn sufficient money, but they won't earn it in those
quarters required to establish benefit rights. Then they may go over
to Ohio, to work on a job there, and they are up against the same
proposition. From there they move into Indiana, and the same thing
happens.
7524 DETROIT HEARINGS
Thoy may bo working practically all year, but they never establish
benefits under any State law. That is ridiculous. It is not the
intent of the law.
Under a Federal law, all those earnings could be pooled, and the
men would be entitled to benefits.
We are going to have quite a lot of trouble on those grounds when
this construction program is finished.
Mr. Sparkman. In raising the question of priorities and stating
that several Alichigan cities producing products other than auto-
mobiles may be forced to curtail operations seriously, you say that —
labor does not question the need for priorities, but it challenges the procedure-
by which they are arrived at and the lack of advance planning which results int
widespread unemployment.
Will you please elaborate on this statement?
PRIORITY UNEMPLOYMENT
Mr. Reid. I was over in Battle Creek the other day, and we have a
stove plant in Battle Creek that may have to quit making a certain
type of stove simply because they can't get a little piece of wire. I
don't think there has been any cognizance taken in Wasliington of
conditions like that. They have made blanket priorities without
finding out the local conditions.
We have the city of Dowagiac, a city where stoves are made,
principally, and they expect, if priorities are enforced, that they wilt
have a 75 percent lay-off of all the workers in Dowagiac. It might be
a ghost city. And many other industries are going to be similarly
affected, outside of the automobile industry.
The reason I didn't stress the automobile industry in my statement
was that I knew it was being stressed by other people, who are
probably closer to that picture than I am; but I am interested in it
nevertheless.
GHOST TOWNS IN MICHIGAN
Many ghost towns may develop in Michigan, unless defense orders
or materials to continue present production are made available.
We may have 16 or 17 of these ghost towns in the State of Michigan
under present priority schedules. Some consideration should be
given to those one-industry towns, especially if some small item like
wire is going to close up a factory.
The Chairman. Thank you very much, Mr. Reid.
Our next witness is Dr. Dillman, president of the Michigan College
of Mining and Technology.
TESTIMONY OF DR. GROVER C. DILLMAN, PRESIDENT, MICHIGAN
COLLEGE OF MINING AND TECHNOLOGY, HOUGHTON, MICH.
The Chairman. Dr. Dillman, Congressman Cui'tis will interrogate
you.
Mr. Curtis. Will you give your full name to the reporter, please?
Dr. Dillman. Grover C. Dillman.
Mr. Curtis. What is your position?
Dr. Dillman. President of the Michigan College of Mining and
Technology.
Mr. Curtis. Where is it located?
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7525
Dr. DiLLMAN. At Houghton, Mich.
Mr. Curtis. How long have you been m that position?
Dr. DiLLMAN. Tliis is my seventh year as president of the college.^
Mr. Curtis. Dr. Dillman, your prepared paper will be printed in
full, so at this time I am not going to try to cover every tiling in that
paper, but will only take up one or two matters.
(The paper referred to above is as follows:)
STATEMENT BY DR. GROVER C. DILLMAN, PRESIDENT, MICHIGAN
COLLEGE OF MINING AND TECHNOLOGY, HOUGHON, MICH.i
This report is confined to problems pertaining to the copper and iron industry-
of Michigan.
The copper and iron mining industries both had their beginning about the
middle of the nineteenth century.
Copper was first mined in 1845. Production increased gradually and for 40
years thereafter this State was the leading copper producer, producing four-
fifths of the total copper output of the United States. In the meantime copper
ore deposits were discovered and developed in the Western States. Montana
surpassed Michigan in the production of copper in 1887 and maintained first
position until 1907, when it was displaced by Arizona. At present the production
of copper in the United States is concentrated in six States, as follows:
Percent
Arizona (of the total in 1940) 41. 6
Utah 27.4
Montana 14. 2
Nevada 8. 6
New Mexico 7. 8
Michigan 5. 0
Copper production in Michigan reached its peak during the first World War,,
and following a slump in 1921 again resumed an upward trend to 1929, followed
by a drastic reduction in 1932.
The first shipment of iron ore was made from the Marquette Range in Michigan
in 1854; in 1877 the Menominee Range came into production and was followed
by the Gogebic Range in 1884. As with copper, iron mining gradually and
steadily increased in importance, both being given considerable impetus by the
demand caused by the Civil War. There were, of course, the usual ups and downs
with the industrial activity of the country but, except for this, both industries
were on the increase until the first World War, and this period of about 70 years
was one of in-migration.
The early miners were mostly English from the mining counties of Cornwall,
Devonshire, and Lancashire, and among them some Irish and German miners.
Many of these men moved on to the newer mining districts of the West and were
replaced about the beginning of the century by immigrants from Finland,
Sweden, and Italy and also from southeastern Europe. This in-migration con-
tinued until the time of the first World War, when restrictions were placed on
immigration.
Although these immigrants usually had large families and the sons might have-
been expected to follow in their fathers' footsteps, there was a strong tendency
on the part of the second generation, on becoming educated in our American
schools, to look for new vocations, and there was during this period a continuous
out-migration which, with the growth of the mining industry, necessitated a con-
tinuous in-migration from Europe.
Because of this, the limitation placed by Congress on immigration would have
caused a serious shortage of labor in the mining industry of Michigan if it had not
been for other factors. Up to this point tlie situation as to migration in the iron
and copper industries was about parallel, but from this point on they separate.
In both industries emploj^ment declined rapidly, but primarily from different
causes.
1 This material was prepared with the assistance of Prof. C. H. Baxter, head, department of mining engi-
neering, Michigan College of Mining and Technology; A. E. Petermann, president, Calumet & Hecla Min-
ing Co.; W. H. Schacht, president and general manager, Copper Range Co., S. R. Elliott, manager, Cleve-
land-Cliffs Iron Co.; R. L. Wahl, general superintendent, iron mining department. Inland Steel Co.; O. M.
Cannon, assistant general manager, Michigan district office, M. A. Hanna Co.; \V. G. Hansen, general
superintendent, mining department, Piekands, Mather & Co.: M. D. Harbaugh, vice-president and secre-
tary, Lake Superior Iron Ore Association; and Victor F. Lemmer, agent, Gogebic Industrial Bureau.
7526 DETROIT HEARINGS
Mechanization, Exhaustion, and Competition
The main factors in the decline of employment in the iron mining industry are:
,(o) Mechanization; (b) exhaustion; and (c) competition,
mechanization
Since the beginning of the industry there has been steady progress in methods
of mining, improvement in drilling, blasting, and handling the ore, all tending
toward greater production per man. Up to about 1920 this increase in efficiency
was more than balanced by the increase in production. The greatest technical
advance in iron mining, or rather the technical advance that has resulted in the
greatest reduction in labor, was the mechanization of underground loading,
which commenced about the time of the first World War. Prior to this hand
loading was the most laborious and time-consuming task in underground mining.
The introduction and improvement of mechanical loading greatly lightened this
task and speeded up the whole mining process. It increased the output of the
miner in the stopes from about 20 to as much as 200 percent; at the same time
it reduced the amount of maintenance and development work. The output in
tons per man-hour from the underground mines of Michigan and Wisconsin
increased from 0.367 in 1920 to 0.774 in 1937. This has been the greatest factor
in causing unemployment in the Michigan iron mines.
exhaustion
A number of mines, formerly large employers of labor, have ceased operation
because of exhaustion of reserves. This has affected some counties more seriously
than others. Dickinson County, which was formerly a large producer of iron ore,
has been most seriousl.v affected. The Chapin, Pewabic, Aragon, and Loretto
mines are all exhausted, leaving the Penn Iron Mining Co. as the only large
producer.
In Gogebic County the Norrie and Aurora mines have ceased operation.
Mining in Iron County has been seriously curtailed because of the lack of
demand for high phosphorous and high sulfiu* ores. Marquette County has been
least affected by exhaustion of ore deposits because, although many mines have
closed because of exhaustion, others have been developed to replace them.
The State must be interested not only in the efficient extraction and use of
known ores, but also in the development of sovirces of mineral to replace those
now being extracted. Continuation of the industries based on mineral resources
depends in part on the location of new deposits, and in part on the utilization of
known deposits not now merchantable. The iron-mining industry is probably
the best example of this class.
Average production of iron ore from Michigan is about 12,000,000 tons per
year — about one-fifth of the United States output.
During the past 20 years about four times as much ore has been shipped as is
represented by the decline in the amount of reserves. This difference has been
made up mostly by improvements in ore treatment by which ore has been created
from otherwise worthless iron formations. Newly discovered ore has been only
a small factor in keeping up the reserves in recent years.
Low-grade probable ore may be estimated at about 5,000,000,000 tons, and
there exists many times this tonnage of iron-rich formations which are potentional
sources of ore if suitable methods of beneficiation are developed.
In short, the high-grade iron ores in Michigan are rapidly becoming depleted
and thus the importance to the State of developing means of converting the
billions of tons of low-grade deposits into ores is apparent.
competition in mesabi range
The Mesabi Range of Minnesota, with its enormous ore bodies lying near sur-
face and easily exjjloited by open-pit mining, was opened in 1892. In 1937 the
open-pit mines of Minnesota produced 3.418 tons per man hour and the under-
ground mines 0.923, as compared with 0.774 for the Michigan underground mines.
This competition keeps the price of iron ore down to a very small profit per ton
and forces the mines to use every labor-saving device but otherwise has little
effect on employment, as the known deposits of merchantable ore in Michigan
are being worked to full capacity.
The main factors in the decline of employment in the copper-mining industry
are in order of importance: (a) Competition; (b) exhaustion; and (c) mechaniza-
tion.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7527
COMPETITION IN COPPER INDUSTRY
The main factor in the decline of the copper industry in ISIicliigan is tlie factor
of price. Prior to 1930, taking an average of any number of years you wish, the
selling price of copper averaged very close to 15 cents per pound. Since 1930
the average selling price has been much lower (about 10 cents) and is now pegged
at 12 cents per pound by the O. P. A. C. S.'
When copper was selling at 15 cents a pound, ore reserves of quite low grade
could be, and were, worked — if not at a profit, at least without loss. With the
decline in price, these mines had to be closed. The Osceola lode mines of the
Calumet & Hecla Co., which at one time accounted for a considerable production,
are examples of this. Two of the presently operating mines (namely, Quincy and
Isle Royale) cannot bring costs down to a point where they can continue to operate
if the price of copper remains at 12 cents, because both of them are producing at
an actual cost higher than that and neither of them has any substantial backing
to carry them through a long period.
The decline in price is due to world copper conditions. Prior to 1930, the United
States dominated the world's copper market. There was not enough production
abroad to satisfy foreign demand and the American mines, in addition to supply-
ing domestic consumption, were called upon to supply part of the foreign con-
sumption to the extent of approximately 200,000 tons a year for the decade
previous to 1930.
Between 1922 and 1930 there came into production the high-grade low-cost
African copper mines and the extremely high-grade low-cost Canadian mines,
the effect of which was to reverse the flow and to make the United States an actual
importer of fine copper in 1930 and 1931, rather than the exporter it had been.
At this time Congress placed a 4-cent import tax on copper. The effect of this
was not fully appreciated as we were then getting into the depths of the general
economic depression. During the last 10 years, however, the average price of
copper has been very much lower than the old average. At one time it sold for
5 cents a pound. During the entire period of the National Recovery Adminis-
tration copper sold from 8)^ to 9 cents a pound.
EXHAUSTION OF COPPER ORE RESERVES
A number of mines have suspended operations because of the lack of ore re-
serves—for example: The Mohawk and Wolverine at the north end of the range,
and the Baltic and Trimountain at the south end; and the Conglomerate lode of
Calumet and Hecla, which employed a large number of men, went out of the
picture in 1939, due to extreme depth and prohibitive costs.
As suggested under the heading of competition, ore reserves in the Michigan
copper mines are a function of price. There is no sharp delineation in the lodes
between ore and rock. All of the mines contain rock of comparatively high,
medium, and low copper content. At a low price for copper, only the best can
be mined at a profit; with a higher price, leaner rock may be mined. The mines
which have been operating in Michigan in recent years have been able to do so
only by selective mining — that is, by taking out the richest ground and leaving
the rest in the mine. In the 6 years 1925-30, the average recovery per ton of
ore taken from the mines was 26.42 pounds. In 1931, when the average price
dropped to 8.53 cents per pound, selective mining was resorted to, with the re-
sult that the recovery rose to 33.18 pounds per ton; in 1932 it rose to 47.60
pounds; in 1933, 67.20 pounds; in 1934, 68.87 pounds; and in 1935 it hit the
peak of 72.95 pounds per ton. The rate started declining as better copper prices
enabled the operators to mine leaner ore, and two mines, the Quincy and Isle
Royale, which had been closed, reopened.
When the price of copper is low and only the richest ground can be mined,
much copper is left in the ground that will never be recovered, thus entailing a
great economic loss.
MECHANIZATION OF COPPER MINING
Increased mechanization, both underground and on surface, has increased the
production per man shift and undoubtedly would have caused a decrease in em-
ployment had production remained stable. However, had it not been for me-
chanization and the resultant decrease in costs, none of the present operating
mines could have continued operation up to the present time and the net result
of mechanization has been increased employment in the district.
' Office of Price Administration and Civilian Supply.
7528 DETROIT HEARINGS
The mining and lumbering industries furnished the early job opportunities in
the iron- and copper-mining districts of Michigan, causing the in-migration of
labor. When declining production from time to time reduced the emploj^ment
in the mines or woods there was a tendency for the miners and woodsworkers to
become farmers in the neighborhood where they were living, taking up cut-over
land, selling logging timber to the mines and gradually developing the land for
agriculture, and at the same time working part of the year in the mines. Much
of this diiTicult agricultural development was done by immigrant miners who
came from northern Europe where climatic and agricultural conditions were hard,
and thus this region did not appear as formidable to them as it would to a do-
mestic farmer. In this manner most of the agricultural industry of the mining
counties of Michigan was developed. With the decline of employment many of
the employees of the mines have made a living on these farms, but the second
generation is not much interested in farming and for the most part move to the
industrial centers whenever there is the opportunity.
In 1921 when there was a complete suspension of operations in the copper
mines for a time, an employment agent for the Buick Motor Co. was given a
desk in the office of the Calumet & Hecla Mining Co. and examined and em-
ployed approximately 500 men who moved to Flint. A large number of men
also moved to Detroit at that time.
Effect of Defense Program
The defense program has increased the demand for iron ore so that all of the
iron mines producing standard merchantable grades of ore are working to capacity.
Most of the iron mining companies that were able to continue operations during
the depression, in order to employ as many men as possible, reduced their opera-
tions to 2, 3, or 4 days a week. They are now practically all working 5 or 6 days
A week.
PRODUCTION ON MARQUETTE RANGE
A large mining company on the Marquette Range reports that they have been
working on a heavy schedule from 1937 up to and including the present time. At
times during the past few years they have been short of skilled miners. They
have investigated a large number of miners from the copper country, have actually
employed 64 and now have 54 working for them.
In the soft ore mines, where less skill is necessary, they have put on a large
number of new men. Their policy has been to employ the sons of their regular
workmen, and they have developed in this manner about 1,000 miners in the
past few years.
It should be noted that only the physically fit are qualified for underground
work in the mines. Although the work is not as laborious as before the introduc-
tion of mechanical loading, it does require men in excellent physical condition to
•stand up under the work. This same company says that although there are still
a number of men out of employment on the Marquette Range, they are largely
in the class that could not get work anywhere.
Another company on the Marquette Range reports that its labor turnover is
negligible — that about 40 percent of their employees are living in small communi-
ties at some distance from the mines, many of them on small plats in the farming
areas. They have also been giving employees the opportunity of taking on sons
or brothers and breaking them in as miners.
EXHAUSTION IN GOGEBIC COUNTY
Gogebic County has suff'ered more from exhaustion and mechanization of the
mines than Marquette County. At its lieight (1916-20), the mining industry
■employed from 6,000 to 7,000 persons, and in 1940 only 2,500 persons. There is
little encouragement that new ore deposits may be developed to replace those
which have been or are becoming exhausted. Tliose thrown out of employment
generally secure for themselves Federal financial assistance in one or the other
categories of direct relief or work relief, even to the extent that the intraregional
move is twice as large as the migration from the county. With the increased
a.ctivity in the industrial centers and governmental agencies, a slight migration
of single men and women has recently been observed.
INCREASE IN IRON COUNTY OPERATIONS
Iron County has suffered severely from lack of demand for its ores which are
of inferior grade as compared witli the other counties, being of high phosphorous
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7529
content and in many cases also high in sulfur. Since the defense program the
mines have been operating on an increased scale and one large new mine is being
developed. There is undoubtedly a surplus of mine labor, though detailed figures
are not available to me now.
In Dickinson County, all but one of the larger mines have been exhausted,
though there are some small operations on silicious open-pit ores. The operations
of the Ford Motor Co. in Iron Mountain have employed some of the men formerly
employed in the mines, though there is apparently a surplus of men capable of
working in the mines.
LABOR SUPPLY FOR MICHIGAN MINES
For the iron mines of Michigan in general, I think it may safely be said that
in all counties there is a sufficient supply of labor capable of mine employment
to operate the mines to capacity for the defense program. As the wages are high
and conditions of work excellent, there is not likely to be an out-migration of
those so employed to other defense industries.
At the present time there is a great demand for copper for defense and, accord-
ing to Washington, an acute shortage. This in spite of the fact that the mines
of the United States are working at capacity, and that we are importing some-
thing like 30,000 tons a month from South America and Mexico.
Only four mines in the Michigan copper district are operating and two of these
at an actual loss, regardless of the fact that they are paying a much lower rate
of wages than is paid in the iron mines. With the general increase in the prices
of supplies and in the cost of labor, the costs of all the mines are, of course, rising
and it is difficult to see how production can increase or even continue if the
Government insists on keeping the price of copper pegged at 12 cents.
The industry of this district is primarily that of mining, milling, and smelting
copper, and the employment in this industry has been in the past over 30 percent
of its entire population. It reached a low of 3.6 percent in 1933 and is now 6.25
percent. This employment is entirely dependent on the price that is received for
the copper produced.
TREND OF MICHIGAN COPPER PRODUCTION
Although this district is a high-cost producer, it has managed to survive periods
of low prices for copper when these periods were not too long or too severe.
Production increased gradually from 100,000,000 pounds annually in 1890 to
270,000,000 pounds in 1916, and after the war in 1921 it reached a low of
100,000,000 pounds and then again increased gradually to 186,000,000 pounds
in 1929 when the depression set in and production dropped to below 50,000,000
pounds in 1933. The severity of the depression and the low price for copper
closed down most of the mines in this district; a large surplus of copper kept the
price below 10 cents until 1936 and recovery brought the production back to
95,000,000 pounds. The price increased to over 13 cents per pound in 1937
when the administration at Washington declared that it was too high. This re-
sulted in the price again receding to 10 cents for 1938, rising to 11 cents for 1939
and 11.3 cents for 1940.
It was the last 10 years of low prices (averaging 9.25 cents per pound) that
were disastrous for most of the mines of the Michigan district. Had the price
not been declared too high in 1937, it is quite probable the price during the next
2 years would have continued upward and sought its natural level at 14 to 15
cents per pound, which would have permitted other mines in the district to
resume operations.
LOW GRADE OF ORE AS HANDICAP
The district mines low-grade ores, that have no valuable mineral byproducts,
so naturally it is greatly handicapped. The average man-hour production in
pounds of copper for most of its mines is only 8.6 pounds as compared to 33.6
pounds, or its equivalent, produced by all other mines in the United States as
revealed in the United States Copper Census Report for 1939. In wartimes, the
low-cost producers cannot supply all the war demands and higher-cost produc-
tion is necessary.
All ore grades throughout the United States are continually getting lower in
value and low-cost copper reserves are getting less every year; it will not be long
when high-cost production will have to be resorted to more generally.
7530 DETROIT HEARINGS
PRICE DISCRIMINATION AGAINST COPPER
There has been grave discrimination against copper as a commodity by pegging
the price at 12 cents. The average price of copper delivered Connecticut Valley
for: Cents
10-year period before World War I (1905 to 1914, inclusive) was 15. 363
4-vear period, World War I (1915 to 1918, inclusive), was 24. 296
if-year period after World War I (1919 to 1929, inclusive) was 15. 035
7-year depression period (1930 to 1936, inclusive) was 8. 829
4-year post-depression period (1937 to 1940, inclusive) was 11. 582
The average normal price for a period of 21 years, including 10 years be-
fore the World War and 1 1 j'ears after the World War was 15. 190
And the average for the 32-year period ending with 1936 was about 15. 000
The latter figures establish the fact that the price of copper in recent years has
been held down too low to maintain a healthy condition in the industry.
Copper as a metal has been heavily discriminated against as compared with
other commodities, the average prices for the 10-year period prior to the World
War as compared to July 1941 are:
Zinc was 5.64 cents, now 7.25 cents, or an increase of 28.5 percent.
Lead was 4.55 cents, now 5.70 cents, or an increase of 25.3 percent.
Composite steel was 1.797 cents, now 2.65 cents, or an increase of 47.6 percent.
While copper was 15.36 cents, now 12 cents, or a decrease of 21.9 percent.
Copper, which is second only to steel in volume and is second to none in im-
portance, is over 50 percent out of line in price with these other metals today,
and were it allowed to rise the same as did zinc and lead it would also be selling
at its average price as established during the 32-j'ear period prior to 1936, or
15 cents per pound.
The 1939 copper census report also reveals that since 1929 there has been a
further reduction in the number of producing copper mines in the United States;
49 producing mines were reported in 1939 compared to 180 in 1929 and 226 in 1919.
Had the price of copper been allowed to seek its normal level in 1937 and
thereafter, this district would now be back to a production of over 150 million
pounds per year and the opening of new mines would have been under way.
RECENT EXPLORATIONS IN MICHIGAN AREA
This district has been only partly explored. Recent explorations have de-
veloped one large ore body capable of profitable operation at 15-cent copper with
a life of 50 years or more, and capable of employing 1,000 men or more. Extension
of other deposits are also known to exist and new shafts would be required to
reach them.
There are still other deposits which can reasonably be expected to be found in
favorable territory that has not as yet been drilled. Just a few days ago it was
announced that "the Calumet & Hecla Consolidated Copper Co. will immediately
start an extensive campaign of development and exploration work, through its
present operating shafts, on a 440-acre tract on the Kearsarge lode which it has
leased from the Copper Range Co. In the event this work proves favorable it
will greatly prolong the life of these shafts, now the most important producing
units of the Calumet & Hecla Consolidated Copper Co., and will mean the con-
tinuation of mining in their Ahmeek branch for a long period of years."
One of the larger operating companies says that if the price were permitted to
advance to 14 or 15 cents a pound, with some assurance that it would stay there
long enough to pay for any additional investment in rehabilitation, it would
attempt to open up some of the sources of production (mines now closed) even
though the operation did not yield much of a profit. In other words, if assured
that they could get back their investment, they would be willing to add this
prodtiction.
Michigan has one great advantage in that the metal appears here as free, or
native, copper which is separated from the rock by comparatively simple pro-
cesses. More than offsetting this advantage, at present, is the fact that the
producing mines have reached a great depth, some more than a mile below sur-
face. Much of the copper-bearing formations are unexplored and, if new deposits
comparable to the deposits that have been mined in the past are discovered,
copper can be produced from the upper portion to a depth of several thousand
feet at a price that will compete with the mines of western United States. "
All these developments are now only waiting to be assured of a normal price
for copper and with it the district would have every reason to expect to perpetuate
itself for manv vears to come.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7531
A fair price policy toward copper is therefore the all-important factor to bring
this district and its industry back to its former health}- condition.
In addition to the production of newly mined copper in this district, a 15-cent
price for copper would permit reclamation operations on millions of tons of waste
amygdaloid tailings produced from earlier operations by the mines in this district.
These sands can now be treated profitably only when low-priced electric energy
is available in the form of dump power from hydroelectric generation, but were a
higher price for copper reasonably assured, additional generating capacity could
be installed to produce the necessary firm energy required (at the normal price)
to make such reclamation operations continuous and i^ossible, and such reclama-
tion operations would employ regularly several hundred of the district's idle men.
EMPLOYMENT IN COPPER MINES
The employment of men by the mines from 1890 to 1917 was without any
marked variation increasing gradually up to 1905 and holding there until 1917.
Following the war there was a large accumulated surplus of copper which took
6 or 7 years to absorb and the price dropped and remained below 15 cents which
resulted in the closing of a number of its mines and employment fell to about 27
percent of its former rate and continued at that rate or slightly higher for a period
of 10 3rears when the depression of 1929 and its near stagnation of all business
closed down all but two mines in 1933 and reduced the employment to less than
10 percent of its former normal rate prior to the war, and there it has remained
or slightly improved up to the present time.
In the past years many of the men that worked in the mines have cleared land
and started farms which they would work during the summer months but contin-
ued their employment at the mines during the rest of the year. A large farming
community has thus been built up and the sons of these farmers of today and of
the miners in the mines are the ones that are left stranded without jobs today unless
the mines can be rehabilitated in the district. There has been some exodus to
other mining districts, but as a rule many of the men return on the first provoca-
tion because it is their home and they like the country, the climate, and the work-
ing conditions.
In 1934 the poj)ulation census increased at a time when production from the
district had reached its low for over 50 years. Men who had formerly gone to the
automobile centers had returned to their folks in the copper district to live out
the storm of the depression because they could live for less in this district than in
the cities.
Although 30 percent of the entire population were employed during the hey-
days and only 4 percent recently, it does not follow that the mines would have to
absorb the remaining 26 percent to reestablish this balance because at that time
there were a very great number of single men in the district and also a large num-
ber of married men with families in the old country, so that now with many of the
population on farms, in business, and a majority being married men, a 15 percent
employment of the population in the mines would absorb most of the unemployed.
At the present time there is a surplus of labor for any production of copper that
we can forsee from the copper mines of Michigan. With an increase in demand for
labor, there might be a shortage of skilled miners, as good hard-rock miners are
always hard to get, but they can be developed from resident labor.
There are millions of dollars invested in homes and plants in this district and
there are known reserves of copper that will last for years.
The Federal Government has spent over $20,000,000 in this district during the
past 10 years for relief, and other governmental agencies several million dollars
more. This can largely be avoided. Homes and plants can be saved and men
put back at theii former employment, provided the normal price for copper again
prevails.
7532
DETROIT HEARINGS
Table A. — Primary copper production of Michigan
Source: Mineral Resources and Minerals Yearbook, published by U. S. Geological Survey and Bureau of
Mines, 1901-40.
Year
Production,
pounds
Year
Production,
pounds
Year
Production,
pounds
1901
156, 289, 481
170, 609, 228
192, 400, 577
208,309, 130
230, 287, 992
229, 695, 730
219, 131. .503
222, 289, 584
227, 005, 923
221, 462, 984
218, 185, 2.36
231,112,228
155, 71.5, 286
158, 009, 748
1915
1916^..
1917
1918 :
1919
238, 956, 410
269, 794, 531
268, 508, 091
231,096,158
177, 594, 135
15.3,483,952
100,918,001
122, 54,5, 126
137,691,306
145, 333, 227
138, 029. 764
174,778,884
195, 135, 199
1928
1929.
1930
1931
19.32
1933
19.34
1935
1936 .
179,104,311
1902 ---
1903
185,300,917
142, 985, 522
1904 .--
105, 222, 177
1905
63, 898, 656
1906 --- --
1920..
1921
72, 340, 852
1907
51,681,901
1908
1922
73,811,562
1909
1923
91 105 431
1910
1924
19.37
19.38
1939
1940
84, 751, 478
1911
1925
1926
75, 281, 469
1912
89, 402, 464
1913
1927
90, 200, OOO
1914
Table B. — Iron ore production of Michigan
1901
1902
1903
1904
1905
1906
1907
Production,
long tons
9, 654, 067
11,135,215
10, 600, 330
7, 089, 887
1(1, 885, 902
11,822,874
11,8.30,342
Year
1908
1909
1910
1911
1912
1913
1914
Production,
long tons
8, 839, 199
11,900,384
13, 303. 906
10, 329, 039
11, 191,430
12, 841, 093
10, 796, 200
1915.
1916.
1917.
1918.
1919
1920
Production,
long tons
12, 514, 515
18,071,016
17, 868, 601
16,899,341
15, 438, 930
17, 510, 742
Year
1921-
1922.
1923-
1924.
1925-
1926-
1927.
1928-
1929-
1930.
Men em-
ployed
12, 046
12,418
11,463
11,088
10, 691
9,116
9,308
9,466
Produc-
tion, long
tons
7, 283, 492
10, 453, 578
14, 174, 468
12, 3,50, 755
14, 490, 529
15, 248, 254
15, 075, 079
13, 676, 984
15, 456, 397
13, 544, 277
Tons
man per
day
3.848
3.670
4.471
4.884
5.084
5.604
5.732
5.293
Year
1931
1932
1933
1934
1935
1936
1937
1938
1939
1940
Men em-
ployed
7,570
4,697
4,822
4,885
4,391
5,397
6,838
5,712
5,818
6,743
Produc-
tion, long
tons
7, 552, 581
2, 554, 996
2, 433, 949
5, 039, 114
5, 205, 531
9, 177, 629
12, 085, 048
6, 004, 311
9, 159, 222
12, 472, 448
Tons per
man per
day
5.052
3.920
4.168
5.372
5.593
6.794
7.006
5.533
Source: Mineral Resources and Minerals Yearbook, published by U. S. Geological Survey and Bureau of
Mines.
Table C- — Production of copper from Michigan, men employed and output per
man-shift, 1917-36
Year
Production,
pounds
Men em-
ployed,
average
Output
per man-
shift
Year
Production,
pounds
Men em-
ployed,
average
Output pel
per man-
shift
1917
225, 429, 511
201,974,025
173, 471, 988
146, 530, 860
82, 007, 484
117,970,861
134,996,517
134, 193, 797
154,-583,404
175, 381, 565
11,886
12, 372
9,245
6, 534
4,910
6, 480
5,243
5,639
5, 894
0,311
61. 255
52. 828
63. 395
73. 996
69. 722
66 974
82. 484
83.206
89. 945
88. 727
1927
177, 537, 775
178, 442, 704
186, 402, 218
169.381,413
118, 0.59, 491
54, 396, 108
46, 853, 130
48, 215, 859
64, 108, 689
95, 968, 019
6,370
5,852
6,660
6,600
5,814
2,491
1,235
1,423
1, 547
1,838
93 552
1918
1928
98. 792
1919
1929
89. 188
1920
1930- -
88.290
1921
1931-..
97. 415
1922
1932
78. 757
1923
1933
133. 642
1924
1934 -
125.660
1925
1935- -.
156. 270
1926
1936 .--
168. 883
Source: Table A-8, Copper Mining, Work Projects Administration, National Research Project, Report
No. E-12. Note.— These production figures do not agree with those from Minerals Yearbook and Mineral
Resources.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7533
Table D. — Production of iron ore from Michigan, men employed and output per
man-shift
Year
Produc-
tion, long
tons
Men
employed,
average
Output
per man-
shift
Year
Produc-
tion, long
tons
Men
employed,
average
Output
per man-
shift
1880 —
1, 640, 814
5, 856, 169
11, 135, 215
12, 514, 516
18,071,016
17, 868, 601
16, 899, 341
15, 438, 930
17, 510, 742
7, 283, 492
10, 453, 578
14, 174, 468
12, 350, 755
5,350
12, 496
1.121
1.736
2.568
3.120
3.201
3.214
3.212
3.053
3.399
3.212
3.630
3.849
3.670
1925
1926..._ -
1927
1928
1929
1930
1931
1932
1933- - .
14, 490, 529
15, 248, 254
15, 075, 079
13, 676, 984
15, 456, 397
13, 544, 277
7, 552, 581
2, 554, 996
2, 433, 949
5, 039, 144
5, 205, 531
9, 177, 629
12,085,048
11, 463
11, 088
10, 691
9,116
9,308
9,446
7,570
4,697
4, 822
4,885
4,391
5,397
6,838
4 471'
1889 -.-
4.884
1902
5.084
1915
1916
1917
1918
1919
14,411
19, 331
19, 448
17, 846
17, 709
17, 507
10, 586
10, 828
12, 046
12, 418
5.604
5.732
5. 293
5.052
3. 920
1920
4. 16&.
1921
1922
1923
1934
1935
1936
5.372
5.593
6 794
1924
1937.-.-
7 006
Source: Table A-4, Iron Mining, Work Projects Administration national research project.
No. E-13.
Table E.- — Annual average of copper price
Report
Year
Price per
pound
Year
Price per
pound
Year
Price per
pound
1898
12.03
16.67
1913..
1914
15. 269
13. 602
1927
12.920
1899
1928
14. 570
1900-...
16.19
1915
17. 275
1929-
18. 107
1901
16.11
1916
27. 202
1930
12. 982
1902
11.626
1917-..-
27. 180
1931
8.116
1903
13.235
1918
24. 628
1932
5.555
1904
12. 823
1919
18. 691
1933
7.025
1905
15.590
1920
17.456
1934
8.428
1906
19. 278
1921
12.502
1935
8.649
1907
20.004
13. 208
1922
1923
13. 382
14.421
1936 - .
9 474
1908
1937
13. 167
1909
12. 982
1924
13.024
1938
10. OOO
1910
12. 738
12. 376
1925
1926 --
14. 042
13. 795
1939
10. 966
1911
1940-
11.296
1912
16. 341
Source: Engineering and Mining Journal, February 1941.
Table F. — Keweenaw County, Mich.: Men employed in copper mining, milling,
and smelting
Year
Employees
Year
Employees
Year
Employees
1920 . -
1,407
883
937
1,083
1,169
1,428
1,618
1927
1928-.--
1929
1930
1931
1932
1933
1,400
1,463
1,598
1,388
1,052
84
49
1934
1935
37
1921
63
1922
1923
1936-..- ---.
1937
303
314
1924
1925
1938
1939
339
388
1926
1940-
410
Source: Reports of county mine inspectors.
7534
Table G.
DETROIT H
xNGS
-Houghton Cotinty, Mich.: Men employed in copper mining, milling,
and smeltt g
Year
Employees
Year
nployees
16,506
17, 579
17, 224
17.974
16, 250
15,361
15, 554
13,813
12, 954
16,005
16, 520
16, 432
12, 650
'7,865
' 6, 082
'3,910
' 4, 343
• 4, 153
Year
Employees
1888
6,310
6,480
7,310
7,702
7,640
7,591
7,343
7,249
8,170
8,726
10. 467
13.0.J7
13, 971
13, 498
14, 130
13, 629
14, 321
15, 355
1906
1924....
1925
" 4, 267
1889
1907
1908
1909
7,054
1890
1926
1927
1928
7,724
1891
7,832
1892
1910
7,724
1893
1911
1929
6,258
1894
1912
1930....
1931
6,750
1895
1913
5,400
1896 .
1914
1932
1933
2,716
1897
1915
2.011
1898
1916
1934
1935
2,093
1899
1917
1918
'975
1900
1936
2,174
1901
1919
1920
1921
1922
1923
1937
1938
1939
1940
2,705
1902..
3,125
1903
3,099
1904
2,997
1905
• In these years it seems that only those men working in the mines were reported.
Source: Reports of county mine inspectors.
Table H. — Marquette County, Mich.: Average number of men employed by the
mining industry for the calendar years ending Sept. 30, 1898 to 1940, inclusive ■
Year
Men em-
ployed
Year
Men em-
ployed
Year
Men em-
ployed
1898
4,389
5,655
6,627
5,200
5, 518
6,000
4,024
5,060
5,840
6,744
5,362
5,682
6,549
6,385
5,292
1913
1914
5,709
4,969
3,773
5.045
5, 569
4,929
5, 265
4,799
3,714
2,276
3,851
3,312
3,361
3,931
3,468
1928
1929
1930
1931
1932
1933
3,456
1899
2,957
1900
1901
1915
1916
1917...
1918..
1919
1920
1921
2,950
2,323
1902 -.
1,208
1903 -
1, 7-43
1904
1934
1935
2, 365
1905
2,239
1906
1936
2,674
1907
1922
1937
1938
3,153
1908
1923
2,840
1909
1924...
1939
2,846
1910
1925
1940 -
3,007
1911
1912
1926
1927
Source: County mine inspectors' reports.
Table I. — Dickinson County, Alich., iron ore production and emplorjment
Year
Tons mined
Men
employed
Year
Tons mined
Men
employed
1920 -
1, 696, 740
988, 905
651, 895
1, 003, 523
958, 062
1, 084, 249
1, 130. 348
1. 126, 113
1, 121, 724
1, 288, 862
' 1,214,357
2,336
1,502
1. 1.52
1,340
1,373
1,276
1,242
1,286
1,256
1,212
1, 174
1931 -
807, 567
292, 522
855
1921
1932
463
1922 .
1933
(•)
1923
1934 -
(•)
1924
1935
(')
1925
1936
(')
1926 . - .
1937
1938
457, 084
315, 132
359, 739
685, 915
347
1927
332
1928
1939
386
1929
1940
451
1930
' Reports not available.
Source: County mine inspectors' reports.
NATIONAL, ^B^ENSE MIGRATION
7535
Table J. — Iron County, Mich., iron-ore production, shiptnents, and emploijnient
^v»
Year
Production
Shipments
Men employed
1921
2, 042, 541
1, 680, 429
2 296
1922 . _
(0
1923
1924..
1925 ... ...
3, 196, 446
2, 844, 656
3, 412, 046
4,077,701
4, 357, 603
4, 126, 198
3, 772, 288
3, 800, 098
1,962,107
837,811
480, 280
710, 646
455, 551
1,056,940
1, 638, 091
1,411,4.57
1,168,409
1,481,331
3, 255, 499
2,174,794
3,764,412
4. 009, 798
4, 385, 906
3, 708, 868
4, 209, 103
3,1.53,006
1, 327, 614
461,388
781, 195
1,196. ,5.53
998, 702
1,721,322
2, 274, 568
1,035,744
1,309,597
1, 556, 866
3, 323
2,820
2,695
1926
1927
1928
1929 ... .
2, 655
2,611
2,452
2,287
1930
2,265
1931
1932
1933
1934
1935
1936 ..._ .. _ _
1,5,59
1,271
(2)
(2)
(2)
(2)
1937
1938
1939
(2)
867
1,145
1940...
1,167
■ Report missinp;.
2 Work staggered, mines working intermittently.
Source; Reports of county mine inspectors.
Table K. — Gogehic County, Mich.
Iron-ore production and employment
Year
Production
Men em-
ployed
Year
Production
Men cm-
ployed
1917
6, 100, 000
6, 100, 000
5, 700. 000
7, 250, 000
4, 500, 000
3, 400, 000
5, 600, 000
5, 200, 000
5, 350, 000
5, 800, 000
5, 700, 000
5, 050, 000
6,700
6,900
6,800
6,000
4,500
3.400
5, 600
5,200
5, 3.50
5,900
5,800
5,050
1929
1930
1931 •.
1932
19.33
1934
1935
1936
1937
5, 500, 000
5, 100, 000
3, 400, 000
1, 200, 000
900, 000
1, 750, 000
1, 600, 000
2, 800, 000
4, 100, 000
2, 250, 000
2, 800, 000
4, 300, 000
5 500
1918
1919
5,100
3,200
1920
1921
1922
1923
1924
1925
1,200
950
1,800
1,600
2,800
4, 150
1926
1927 -
1938__..
1939
1940
2,500
2 750
1928
4,300
Source: Gogebic Industrial Bureau.
Table L. — Population of, counties of Michigan producing copper and iron ore
COPPER
Coimty
1880
1890
1900
66, 063
3,217
6,197
1910
1920
1930
1940
Houghton... .. ..
22, 473
4,270
2,565
35, 389
2,894
3,756
88, 098
7,156
8, 650
71, 930
6,322
12, 428
52, 851
5,076
11, 114
47 631
Keweenaw
4, 004
Ontonagon
11 3.59
IRON ORE
Dickinson..
Gogebic
Iron
Marquette.
13, 166
4,432
39, 521
17, 890
16, 738
41, 239
20,
524
23,
333
15.
164
46,
739
19, 456
33, 225
22, 107
45, 786
29. 941
31, 577
20, 805
44, 076
28.731
31,797
20, 243
47, 144
Source: United States census.
60896 — 41- -pt. IS 31
7536
DETROIT HEARINGS
1
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NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7539
COPPER STATISTICS OF MICHIGAN
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7540 DETROIT HEARINGS
TESTIMONY OF DR. GROVER C. DILLMAN— Resumed
Mr. Curtis. We are interested iu 'what you have to say, and we
know you have come quite a distance to attend the hearing.
EFFECT OF DEFENSE PROGRAM ON UPPER PENINSULA
From several witnesses at these hearings the committee has heard
that the defense program is causing the Upper Peninsula of Michigan
to lose large numbers of people because of lack of economic oppor-
tunity. Can you indicate for the committee the principal industries
of the Upper Peninsula and how they have been affected by the defense
program?
Dr. DiLLMAN. The principal industries of the Upper Peninsula of
Michigan include quite a number of iron mines, mining plants — sur-
face and undergound workings — and copper mines, mills, and smelters.
There are also quite a number of saw mills, flooring mills, and a
number of paper mills. There is a large plant of the Carbide Co.
located at the Soo, and there is a rather large shop making heavy
equipment at Marquette. There are any number of small industries,
more or less tied into those that I have mentioned.
Mr. Curtis. Which ones have been affected by the defense program?
Dr. DiLLMAN. The ones affected most have to do with the mining
of copper and iron ore. These two types of industries are now strain-
ing every resource to produce more and that has called for an increased
use of labor, which is largely of local sources — that is, labor from within
the peninsula. I would say it is almost entirely from the" peninsula.
The effect of the defense program, outside of the mining industry,
has not been appreciable in building up pay rolls or utilizing any great
number of employees.
COPPER PRODUCTION
Mr. Curtis. What is the situation in regard to your copper pro-
duction up there? Is it a high-cost of low-cost area?
Dr. DiLLMAN. For a great many years the copper industry in
Michigan was the heaviest producer in this country, but now I
beUeve it is sixth in rank. Michigan's production will run somewhere
between 90,000,000 and 100,000,000 pounds this year.
Everything is being done by the operating companies in the copper
districts of Michigan to increase production. However, they have one
handicap which is very, very serious — the fact that they have to go
to a great depth for the copper. Those mines run anywhere from
3,000 to 9,300 feet.
That means expensive operation. They must go through very
hard rock. The milling procedure is comparatively simple, because
our copper production is entirely a native metallic copper.
With the increased cost and with the price of copper pegged at
12 cents, these mines could not continue to operate. I am referring
now to the three mines which have insufficient backing to withstand
any long siege of market prices below production cost. That is now
the case with two of the mining companies there. Prior to this period
the price has been around an average of 15 cents, for about 30 or 32
years; and unless the old relationship l3etween price and production
cost is restored, the mines caimot continue.
Mr. Curtis. Is the price fixed at this time?
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7541
Dr. DiLLMAN. The price has been pegged at 12 cents.
Mr. Curtis. By the Government?
Dr. DiLLMAN. That is the Government price.
Mr. Curtis. What was it at the time it was pegged?
Dr. DiLLMAN. In 1937 the price had reached 13 cents, and that
price was declared too high, and the present ceiling of 12 cents was
established.
Mr. Curtis. By what authority?
Dr. DiLLMAN. It was established through the influence of Wash-
ington authorities.^ The President had declared himself opposed to
prices rising without limit. I presume copper, along with other
metals, was included. However, the price has not gone beyond that
point, and if you will look back at the record prior to the depression,
you will find that the average price of copper all durijig the period of
30 or 32 years was almost exactly 15 cents.
At 12 cents the majority of the Michigan mines cannot operate and
make a profit sufficient to carry through a lean period, such as no
doubt will follow our defense program, as it followed the last World
War, when there was a lowering of the price. Because of that situa-
tion, it isn't a matter so much of providing increased production at
this time, as of making it possible for the existing properties to con-
tinue operating.
Now, with an average price of around 15 cents, without question
Michigan production would be stepped up very considerably through
the reopening of properties that cannot operate at this time on 12-cent
copper.
Mr. Curtis. Is there a copper shortage now?
Dr. DiLLMAN. According to word that comes to us, there is a copper
shortage, and that, I presume, is a good reason why copper is on the
list of metals that you are not able to go out into the market today and
buy except by priority order.
Mr. Curtis. Would you be able to tell us by what authority copper
was pegged at 12 cents? Of course, that can be ascertained in Wash-
ington, but do you have in your files anything that would show by
what act of Congress or other authority a ceiling was placed on copper
in 1937?
EFFORTS TO HAVE COPPER CEILING RAISED
Dr. DiLLMAN. I do not have that information with me. All I know
is that the copper companies have been trying for many months to
interest the Federal authorities in removing that ceiling. They have
appealed to the Tariff Commission and to the defense agencies to use
their influence in raising the price above the 12-cent figure.
In fact, along in February or March 1941 a delegation of five men
representing the Federal Tariff Commission and agencies of the
national-defense program from Washington spent several days study-
ing the cost of production, the amount of copper produced, labor rates,
and so on; and a strong appeal was made to them to help bring about a
freedom of price movement in copper.
A great many attempts have been made through the office of Leon
Henderson to bring about a substantial increase in that price, and
much has been published in the press about it.
' The Office of Price Administration and Civilian Supply, on August 12, 1941, established a "ceiling" of
12 cents a pound for copper (Price Schedule No. 15, Executive Order 8734).
7^42 DETROIT HEARINGS
In fact, several delegations have gone to Washington. A release
came from Mr. Henderson's office within the last 3 weeks, advising the
thi-ee mines having the highest cost of production that sufficient
mcrease would be gi'anted to permit the payment of $1 per day addi-
tional to the employees and possibily a 1-cent increase to the com-
panies above their actual operating costs would be accorded them.^
With respect to cost, it is interesting to note that during the depres-
sion of the copper market just prior to the entiy of this country in the
World War, the price of zinc, one of these strategic metals, was 5.6
cents, and at present it is 7.25 cents — an increase of 28}^ percent.
Lead has increased as between those two periods from 4.55 to 5.70,
an increase of ,25.3 percent. Steel, at 1.79, has increased to 2.65, or an
increase of 47.6 percent. However, copper now at 12 cents shows a
decrease for that period of 21.9 percent, the only one of these strategic
metals to show a decline in price.
In other words, there is a very radical lack of adjustment there,
which has thrown the burden on copper production, and as a result,
these high cost producing mines find themselves in a very difficult
situation. As a result, labor is not adequately compensated.
The wages paid labor today in the Michigan copper mining country
are not sufficient, and are far out of line with those paid in more
prosperous sections, or in the iron-mining country of Michigan.
Mr. Curtis. Dr. Dillman, I wonder if it is possible that the Tariff
Commission is responsible for that 12-cent price, by so adjusting the
tariffs and the import duties on foreign copper that it made copper
available in this country at 12 cents, and thus, in a practical sense,
fixed it at that level. Is that what happened?
Dr. Dillman. No, I believe you are wrong there.
From 1890 to the World War, the price of copper gradually in-
creased. During recent years, other metals continued to increase and
copper dropped ofl". I feel sure that in this case it was deliberately
held down to a price of 12 cents.
Now, as to the effects. We have today in the Michigan copper
country a situation which involves all the mines in that territory,
with a production of 90,000,000 to 100,000,000 pounds, where labor is
struggling desperately to live. There is no question, that unless the
price can be adjusted, the production of at least two and probably three
of the mines will have to discontinue operations.
Mr. Curtis. The committee's experience indicates that the smaller
the chances for jobs in a given locality, the greater are the chances
of movement of population from that locality.
Applying this to the Upper Peninsula, have you any recommenda-
tions to offer to this committee, to deal with these problems from the
Committee's point of view?
Dr. Dillman. As long as we are discussing the copper situation,
the problem might be brought up in two ways. You are referring
especially to employment of people resident of a particular section.
Mr. Curtis. Yes.
Dr. Dillman. Most of these people own their homes, and there is
still a vast unemployment in the copper country of Michigan.
1 It was announced on November 5, 1941, that the OfTicc of Price Administration had granted exceptions
to the price "ceiling" of 12 cents a pound for 3 Michigan "high-cost" copper producers. Maxima 9f
15 and 16 cents a pound were permitted in agreements between these producers and the Procurement Divi-
sion of the U. S. Treasui-y Department, arranging for purchase of the entire copper output of the companies
for a limited period at prices above the previously set ceiling.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7543
I think today there are m the neighborhood of 2,500 or 3,000 men
on W. P. A. in Houghton County alone, which has population of
somewhere around 45,000. The employment in that rather large
district can be increased through activity in the mines, if the mines
can increase their production and reopen some of the other properties,
which the companies will do if they can get only their money back.
They are not asking for a profit on the increase. I am sure they
could operate to the very limit in that respect.
Mr. Curtis. In other words, if something could be done about this
price situation that you discussed, to raise the ceiling, it would stabilize
the population up there, which otherwise can't hold out much longer
and will have to add itself to our army of migrants?
NO LABOR PROBLEMS IN IRON DISTRICTS
Dr. DiLLMAN. That is true.
Now, with respect to the iron country of Michigan, the Marquette
Range, and the Menominee Range this year will probably produce
somewhere between 12,000,000 and 15,000,000 tons of iron ore.
There is no serious problem there. These mines are all operating to
capacity. I don't think they could utilize any additional employees,
and the men are adec^uately paid. The rates are mucli higher than
in the copper country, and there is no problem of labor in those
districts.
Mr. Curtis. Dr. Dillman, I want to thank you for your^contribu-
tion here, and I expect to look into the matter a little further and find
out by what authority the copper price was fixed back in 1937.
Maybe some of the Democrats on this committee can tell us.
The Chairman. In 1927 there was an international agreement
among copper producers. They got together and fixed the tariffs
and arrived at a price of 13 cents. They call such agreement a cartel,
and I think that is how it came about, Doctor. I don't think we
passed any law on it.
Dr. Dillman. There was no law, but the President did issue a
public statement to the effect that the price of copper was, in his
judgment, too high. As I recall it, he said copper should be procured
for 5 cents.
Mr. Curtis. Then the Tariff Commission adjusted the tariff in
conformity with the international agreement?
The Chairman. That is right.
Dr. Dillman, if your copper mines were working on a normal basis,
how many men would they employ?
Dr. Dillman. The copper mines in Michigan today are employing
at this time somewhere between 3,500 and 4,000 men. It is nearer
3,500.
INCREASE IN EMPLOYMENT IF COPPER MINES WERE OPERATED
If the price was such that they could produce profitably, and if the
Michigan mining operations in the copper districts could be extended
so as to reopen some of the properties which have been down for some
time, I would say there would be an increase of from 25 to 30 percent
in production, and in the matter of employment.
The Chairman. Are the closed-down mines the ones of greatest
depth?
7544 DETROIT HEARINGS
Dr. DiLLMAN. All the mines are of considerable depth, as compared
to western mines. They are all being mined from three to four
thousand feet.
The Chairman. Is there still a great supply of copper yet to be
mined?
Dr. DiLLMAN. Yes; here is a district where the copper-bearing sec-
tion runs about 100 miles in length. It runs in a northeasterly-south-
westerly direction, and is about 2 to 6 miles in width. The copper
bearing portion of that district is practically all mineralized, anywhere
from lean to rich ore, and the ore may be found from the surface down
to around 9,300 feet. Wlien the price is as low as it is at this time,
the mines select the sections in which to produce the ore. They
mine only portions of stopes or parts of the mine which carry the rich-
est copper. They have to mine ore that will run probably anywhere
from 27 to 40 pounds of copper to the ton, whereas, if the producing
costs are lower or the price higher, they will mine much further than
that, and take the leaner ore, which goes down to as low as 20 pounds
of copper to the ton.
In other words, the mining today is economically bad, for the reason
that they are going through these mines and working drifts and stopes
and leaving vast tonnages of mineralized rock or ore, which is for all
times lost because they can't afford to bring that up to the surface.
That is the economic side of the story.
The Chairman. Thank you very much. Doctor. We appreciate
your coming here, and your testimony has been a very interesting
contribution.
Dr. DiLLMAN. I am glad to have been of help.
INTRODUCTION OF EXHIBITS
Mr. Abbott. Mr. Chairman, at this time I should like to introduce
into the record a number of exhibits received from sources not repre-
sented by witnesses at this hearing.
The Chairman. That will be permitted.
Mr. Abbott. The exhibits have been numbered and arranged, as
closely as the subject matter permits, in groups presenting the various
important aspects of national defense migration into this area, first on
a State-wide basis, then as observed in the city of Detroit, and finally
in other communities in this defense area. The general order of sub-
ject matter is repeated insofar as possible in each community with
such material as has come to hand— namely, community finances, in-
dustry and employment, health, housing, and education. Exhibit
numbers liave beeii reserved for certain anticipated material which
has not yet come to hand, but which will be received within a few days.
With this in mind, Mr. Chairman, I now offer for the record those
exhibits which have been received to date.
The Chairman. They are accepted, and the record will be held open
for additional exhibits "which you expect to receive within the next
few days.
(The material referred to above, including exhibits which were re-
ceived subsequent to the hearing, appear on following pages.)
The Chairman. If there is nothing further, the committee will
stand adjourned.
(Whereupon, at 4:40 p. m., the committee adjourned.)
EXHIBITS
Exhibit 1. — Revenues and Expenditures, State of Michigan
report by vernon j. brown. attditor general, lansing, mich.
September 18, 1941.
Michigan may be divided into three distinct, areas, so far as social and economic
conditions are concerned. These respective areas differ widely as to their natural
resources, the income of the people and the ability of local taxing units to provide
revenues for support of necessary governmental functions.
First, there is the so-called metropolitan-industrial area which includes the larger
portion of the population of the State and where is found much of its business and
commercial activities. This area may be described roughly as embracing Wayne,
Oakland, Genesee, Macomb, St. Clair, Washtenaw, and Monroe Counties.
Included in what might be called district No. 2 is the remainder of the lower
peninsula which lies south of a line drawn directly west from Bay City. This area
is representative of the rich agricultural and fruit land with substantial smaller
cities enjoying a normal developemnt of industry and commerce.
The third district would include that area in the northern portion of the lower
peninsula and all the Upper Peninsula wherein such agricultural and fruit lands as
exist are found in comparatively small areas isolated one from the other by larger
areas of cut-over lands which have resulted from the lumbering operations of ear-
lier years. This land is quite unproductive and is valued largely for its recreational
facilities. Other sections once contained rich mines which provided profitable,
employment to thousands of people. Today many of these mines have become
exhausted and have been closed or their operations found exceedingly unprofitable.
Over a long period of time this last-mentioned area has sufl'ered from migration
of its younger people who have left for sections where employment is available.
Meanwhile, much of the denuded forest lands has reverted to public ownership
through failure or inabili y of the owners to pay their taxes.
Because of new demands made upon government for social aids, health protec-
tion, and other recent ventures into new types of governmental activities, local
taxing units for the past decade or more have found it exceedingly difficult to
provide sufficient revenues to meet the demands made upon them. Contribut-
ing to this situation was the adoption in 1932 of an amendment to the Constitu-
tion which limits the amount of tax spread against property to $15 on each $1,000
of assessed valuation.
The adoption of this amendment forced the State to abandon the property tax
for its own support and to seek new forms of revenue from which its own expenses
could be met and substantial sums made available to support certain functions
administered by local agencies and theretofore supported entirely from local prop-
erty taxes. Since the adoption of this amendment the State government has
provided from twelve to forty million dollars a year for welfare and social-aid
support and from twelve to fifty million dollars a year for State aid to the public
schools.
During the fiscal year which ended June 30, 1939, the State of Michigan out
of revenues collected at large returned to local units of government a total of
$123,108,773.22.
For the fiscal year ended June 30, 1940, the aggregate of grants to local units
of government amounted to $109,897,428.25.
An illustration of what has happened in northern Michigan may be found in
the latest available figures from Antrim County which are taken because it is a
semiagricultural county with considerable tourist and resort development. In
1940 the total tax assessed for county purposes was $52,887.50 of which there
was collected $41,225.96.
During the fiscal year which ended June 30, 1940, this county received $244,-
714.81 from the State for purposes other than highways. Grants to the county
for highway purposes amounted to $118,242.91, making a total of $362,957.72.
In other words, approximately $400,000 was required to carry on the normal
functions of government in Antrim County to which the property owners of that
county contributed approximately 10 percent.
7545
7546
DETROIT HEARINGS
Similar conditions prevail in many of the counties of Michigan. Within a day
or two there will be available more complete figures covering grants in aid to local
units of government for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1941, which will be placed
at your disposal.
Condensed Comparative Summary of Aid to Local Units of Government,
State of Michigan
fiscal years ended june 30, 1941, and 1940
(Supplementary to next previous report)
report by harold w, h. barrows, comptroller, lansing, mich.
September 15, 1941.
State aid to local units of government aggregated $121,363,956.50 for the fiscal
year ended June 30, 1941, representing an increase of $11,461,840.25, or 10.4
percent, over the total of $109,902,116.25 for the previous fiscal year ended
June 30, 1940.
Perhaps the relative magnitude of State expenditures for aid to local units of
government may best be emphasized by pointing out that approximately $60 out
of each $100 spent by the State for operating costs represents grants and aid to
local units. The remaining $40 covers all other State governmental costs.
These include debt service, construction and maintenance of highways, grants to
or operation of the State colleges, the University of Michigan, prisons, training
schools, tuberculosis hospitals, mental hospitals, the soldiers' home, and all
administrative activities such as the legislature, the courts, the departments of
each elected State officer and all remaining State departments, boards, and
commissions.
Following is a comparative summary showing the extent to which major local
unit governmental functions benefited from State aid during the 2-year period:
Fiscal year ended June 30—
Increase
1941
1940
General government - ..- -
$7, 741, 665. 25
45. 392, 018. 29
3, 697, 708. 10
34, 024, 166. 75
30, 508, 398. 11
$2, 390, 438. 51
42, 827, 615. 53
2, 968, 805. 65
32, 680, 769. 37
29, 034, 487. 19
$5, 351, 226. 74
Education
2, 564, 402. 76
Public health and medical assistance -. --
728, 902. 45
Pubic welfare service - - --
1, 343. 397. 38
Highways _ -
1, 473, 910. 92
Total .
121, 363, 956. 50
109, 902, 116. 25
11,461,840.25
The individual types of State aid comprising the foregoing totals are set forth
in the accompanying schedules from which the following condensed summary
has been prepared:
Fiscal year ended June 30—
1941
Increase or
decrease
Land office board revenue distributions
Intangibles tax distributions
Liquor retailers' license distributions -
Basic grants to school districts
Regular and special vocational education grants and aid
Defense vocational education grants and aid
Aid in care of tuberculosis patients
Medical treatment of crippled and aflBicted children:
Current's year's program
Priors years' charges -
General public relief
Aid to dependent children
Old-age assistance -
Grants for county highway systems
Motor vehicle annual license (weight ta.\) distributions
All other distributions and aid
Total
$2, 256, 968. 84
1, 584, 495. 20
3, 072, 107. 52
41, 000, 000. 00
1, 762, 994. 74
1, 724, 142. 27
2, 063, 800. 50
1, 081, 252. 16
434,155.44
7, 860, 065. 00
9, 650, 978. 51
16, 145, 816. 62
6, 550, 000. 00
23,758,398.11
2, 412, 781. 59
$4, 688. 00
0
1. 850, 997. 19
41, 000, 000. 00
884, 274. 50
0
2, 1.36, 318. 93
717, 736. 72
0
9, 899, 014. 38
7, 052, 959. 33
15,511,520.70
6, 550, 000. 00
22, 284, 487. 19
2,010,119.31
$2, 252, 280. 84
1, 584, 495. 20
1, 221, 110. 33
0
878, 720. 24
1,724,142.27
7^, 5!8. 4S
363, 515. 44
434, 155. 44
2, 038, 9i9. 38
2, 604, 019. 18
634, 295. 92
0
1, 473, 910. 92
402, 662. 28
121, 363, 956. 50
109,902,116.25
11,461,840.25
Note. — Italic figures indicate decrease.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7547
The total State aid for each of the 2 years was financed partly from Federal
grants and partly from taxes and other State revenue, the extent of each for the
mdividual types of aid being indicated in the accompanying schedules from which
the following recapitulation has been made:
Fiscal year ended June 30 —
Increase
1941
1940
Portion of State aid financed from:
Taxes and other State revenue . -- -
$106, 438, 897. 59
14, 925, 058. 91
$98, 938, 712. 47
10, 963, 403. 78
$7, 500, 185. 12
Federal grants
3,961,655.13
Total - -
121, 363. 956. 50
109, 902, 116. 25
11, 461, 840. 25
The amount of $121,363,956.50 classified as aid to local units of government for
the fiscal year ended June 30, 1941, is $1,744,816.72 lower than the peak State-aid
distribution of $123,108,773.22 recorded for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1939.
The 1941 and the 1939 fiscal years are compared in the following functional sum-
mary:
Fiscal year ended June 30—
Increase or
1941
1939
decrease
$7,741,665.25
45, 392, 018. 29
3, 697, 708. 10
34, 024, 166. 75
30,508,398.11
$3, 104, 402. 31
45, 726, 894. 17
6,117.520.80
38, 153, 015. 44
30, 006, 940. 50
$4, 637, 262. 94
331 S75. 88
Public health and medical assistance
2, 419, 812. 70
4, 128, 848. 69
Highways
501,457.61
Total
121, 363, 956. 50
123, 108, 773. 22
1, 744, 816. 7Z
The largest single decrease between the 1941 and the 1939 fiscal years is found
in the item of grants for general public relief which aggregated $7,860,065 for the
1941 year as compared with $17,373,990.07 for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1939.
Partially offsetting this decrease are certain items in the 1941 year which were not
present in the 1939 year, including land office board revenue distributions, $2,256,-
968.84; intangibles tax distributions, $1,584,495.20; and defense vocational
education grants and aid, $1,724,142.27.
Comparative summary of aid to local units of government
Purpose and description
Total for fiscal year ended
June 30—
1941
19401
Increase or
decrease
For general governmental purposes:
Steamship tonnage tax distributed to counties
Land office board revenue distributed to local units
of government
Intangibles tax distributed to local units of govern-
ment
Severance tax distributed to local units of govern-
ment .
Liquor retailers' license revenue distributed to local
units of government, 85 percent - _
Commercial forest reserve grants to counties, 10
cents per acre
National forest reserve revenue distributed to
counties
Grants to counties on lands reserved for conserva-
tion purposes, 25 cents per acre
Grants to counties on State-owned swamp and tax-
reverted lands. 10 cents per acre
Grants to counties on State-owned game lands, 10
cents per acre ,
Total for general government
$13, 303. 50
2, 256, 968. 84
1, 584, 495. 20
383, 557. 83
3, 072, 107. 52
9, 000. 00
14, 374. 25
1, 057. 18
368, 891. 50
37, 909. 43
$15, 337. 50
4, 688. 00
0
268, 017. 45
1, 850, 997. 19
9, 000. 00
5, 782. 22
649. 25
201, 108. 50
34, 858. 40
$2, 034. 00
2 2, 252, 280. 84
1, 584, 495. 20
115, 540. 38
1,221,110.33
0
8, 592. 03
407. 93
167, 783. 00
3, 051. 03
7, 741, 665. 25
2, 390, 438. 51
5, 351, 226. 74
1 As revised on a basis comparable with the classifications for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1941.
7548 DETROIT HEMilNGS
Comparative summary of aid to local units of government — Continued
Purpose and description
Total for fiscal year ended
June 30—
1941
1940
Increase or
decrease
Foi education:
Grants to school districts from specific taxes
Supplementation grants to school districts
Equalization grants to school districts
Grants to rural agricultural schools for transporta-
tion of pupils
Grants to county normal training classes
Grants to day schools for deaf, blind, epileptic and
crippled children...
Grants for regular vocational education
Grants for special vocational education
Grants for defense vocational education:
Plan A
PlanB
Plane ,
Grants for instructional machinery and equipment
required for defense programs in schools
Grants to Detroit teachers' retirement fund
Total for education
For public health and medical assistance:
Grants to counties for public health service
Grants to counties for aid in care of tuberculosis
patients
Medical treatment of afflicted children..
Medical treatment of afflicted children — prior year's
charges-
Medical treatment of crippled children
Medical treatment of crippled children — prior year's
charges
Total for public health and medical assistance - . .
For public welfare service:
Grants for general public relief
Distribution to local units of government of divi-
dends received on Federal emergency relief closed
bank claims
Grants for aid to dependent children
Grants for old-age assistance
Grants for old-age assistance — burials
Grants for aid to the blind
Total for public welfare service
For highways:
Grants to counties for county highway systems
(allocation from gasoline tax)
Payment of motor vehicle annual licenses (weight
tax) collected for distribution to counties
Grants to. counties for aid in snow removal.
Total for highways
Total for all purposes...
$16, 265, 778. 46
14, 739, 394. 82
9, 994, 826. 72
249,999.11
55, 000. 00
560, 000. 00
731, 483. 22
1,031,511.52
1, 408, 639. 37
107, 689. 84
122, 497. 36
85. 315. 70
39, 882. 17
15, 664, 129. 17
15, 663, 478. 49
9, 672, 392. 34
250, 000. 00
55, 000. 00
597, 914. 44
345, 755. 07
538, 619. 43
0
0
0
0
40, 426. 59
45, 392, 018. 29
118,500.00
2, 063, 800. 50
583, 696. 93
355, 607. 29
497, 555. 23
78, 548. 15
42, 827, 615. 53
114,750.00
2, 136, 318. 93
417, 449. 58
.300, 287. 14
0
3, 697, 708. 10
7, 860, 065. 00
59, 347. 12
9, 656, 978. 51
15, 822, 200. 50
323, 616. 12
301, 959. 50
2, 968, 805. 65
13, 221. 41
7, 052, 959. 33
15, 195, 436. 00
316, 084. 70
204, 053. 55
34, 024, 166. 75
32, 680, 769. 37
6, 550, 000. 00
23,758,398.11
200, 000. 00
6, 550, 000. 00
22, 284, 487. 19
200, 000. 00
30, 508, 398. 1 1 29, 034, 487. 19
121,363,956.50 109,902,116.25
$601, 649. 29
9U, 083. 67
322, 434. 38
37, 9 1 4.. U
385,728.15
492, 992. 09
1,408,639.37
107, 689. 84
122, 497. 36
85, 315. 70
544- 4^
2, 564, 402. 76
3, 750. GO
7S, 518. 43
166,247.35
355, 607. 29
197, 268. 09
78, 548. 15
728, 902. 45
S, 038, 949. 38
46, 125. 71
2, 604, 019. 18
626, 764. 50
7, 531. 42
97, 905. 95
1, 343, 397. 38
1,473,910.92
0
1, 473, 910. 92
11, 461, 840. 25
' This item was not classified as aid to local units of government in the published report for the fiscal year
ended June 30, 1940. Included herein for comparativepurposes.
NATIONAL DEfi^ENSE MIGRATION
7549
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DETROIT HEARINGS
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NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7551
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60396 — 41 — pt. 18-
-32
7552 DETROIT HEARINGS
Exhibit 2. — Health Problems Created by Defense Migration
IN Michigan
report by h. allen mover, m. d., commissioner, michigan department of
health, lansing, mich.
September 12, 1941.
We feel that important problems of health are created bj' national-defense
migration.
Jobs in defense industries in our State are responsible for two movements of
population:
1. From available information it appears that workers and their families are
being attracted to Michigan from other States.
2. Michigan families are leaving home to move into defense areas elsewhere in
the State.
In some instances, these population movements are under full swing; in others,
they seem bound to follow the opening of defense plants now under construction.
No local community is equipped to withstand the entire shock and strain of
these large migrations, and it is unfair that the national necessity should place
excessive burdens upon particular localities. State and Federal funds must be
used to meet health problems which are created or greatly aggravated by the
movement cf workers and their families into industrial defense areas.
There are two ways of using State and Federal funds in local health protections.
The funds may be allocated to local full-time city, county, or district health de-
partments. Where there is no full-time health unit only limited services can be
given by State staff personnel.
The principle of extending financial aid to local health de])artments has been
followed in Michigan from the beginning of organized county and district units
in 1927. At present, 65 counties out of 83 in the State have full-time health pro-
tection, either from single county units or from district health departments. Finan-
cial aid to local health units is discussed in more detail elsewhere in this statement.
Turning again to the immediate and the prospective health problems related
to national-defense migration, we would like to have you consider them in two
divisions:
First. Those problems related directly to sanitation.
Second. Other problems due to communicable diseases resulting from contacts
among people.
SANITATION
Some of the important expansions of defense industry in Michigan are taking
place in territory where the sanitation situation was luisatisfactory anyway.
As a consequence, the defense migration has simply overwhelmed sanitary facilities,
some of which were already inadequate, and has created new sanitation prol)lems
where none existed before.
Mainly, this is occurring in the Detroit area, particularly in the bordering
countiesof Oakland and Macomb to the north and in the western part of Wayne
County (in which Detroit is located).
Briefly the conditions are these: The land is mostly flat, the soil is mostly heavy
clay, and thousands of families have their own water supi)lies and sewage disposal
facilities, such as they are.
Sewage is running in open roadside ditches, recreational waters are being
polluted, water supplies are contaminated or open to pollution (many of them are
shallow dug wells), and while no outbreaks of water-borne disease have yet been
reported in these areas, we consider that an emergency may l)e in the making.
Some residents worry about the odors. They're often bad enough (for example
sewage flows along a road which boys and girls travel in reaching one schoolhouse),
but in the State health department we worry not about the smells but about the
threat of disease and death.
Newspapers have described the conditions repeatedly, by word and by picture.
Everyone who is informed on the matter agrees that the situation is bad and
getting worse. For jobs continue to multiply and therefore families continue to
move in, and just by living there add to the problem.
In spite of the fact that in this area are some of the key arsenals of our national
defense, not a shovel has been turned to lay a line of sewer to serve the growing
population. Some water mains have been extended from the Detroit system,
just north of the city, but nothing more. After months of studies and conferences,
we still are without a broad ])rogram of action.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7553
As this is written, it is not clear how action will come. There are many com-
munities concerned — townships, villages, cities, counties. There is no central
authority or organization. Consequently, there is no ready way of arranging for
finances.
Without any hesitation, we put this problem down as the No. 1 sanitation prob-
lem of the State. And even as w^e say that, it appears that conditions just as
intolerable may develop elsewhere; for instance, as the huge bomber plant near
Ypsilanti attracts possibly tens of thousands of workers.
Pending an adequate program, the Michigan Department of Health has joined
with the Michigan Council of Defense in putting the facts squarely before defense
workers living in these areas. A folder has been prepared for distribution by the
Michigan Council of Defense and its count}' councils, and a copy is attached as a
part of this statement. ^
In another part of the State, the sanitation problem connected with migrant
labor is well shown in an outbreak of bacillary dysentery. An epidemiological
report made b}' one of our staff is enclosed, but in summary this is what happened. ^
A camp for migrant farm laborers, operated by the farmer who employed
them, was the scene of an outbreak in June of this year in which 11 cases of Flexner
bacillary dysentery were reported, with 1 death. Toilet facilities were so inade-
quate that the fields were used as much as privies for excreta disposal.
The single well serving 20 families was a dug well 17 feet deep. It had a board
platform and excess water drained back into the well. Our investigation showed
that the whole colony washed dishes, clothes, and diapers and themselves at the
well.
Our mobile laboratory unit was sent to the colony, and culture studies showed
so many possible avenues of infection that no one factor could be singled out as
the prime means by which the outbreak developed. Inquiry showed, also, that
diarrhea had been prevalent in the nearby village of Keeler during the summer.
While in this particular case, the farmer who runs the colony agreed to repair the
privies and provide a suitable concrete top for the well, the improvements affect
the living of only a few migrant farm laborers and their families. Other situa-
tions with the same health hazards are thought to exist in many other localities
where truck farmers depend upon migrant labor for field workers.
If employment of migrant labor continues as a part of the agricultural methods
of Michigan, something must be done to prevent such conditions as those found in
Van Buren County. The migrant laborers themselves are relatively helpless to
protect themselves and being unable to prevent disease in their own ranks they
are a threat to whatever community they work in.
The Farm Security Administration is willing to help meet this problem, and it
seems that new consideration should be given to the erection of Federal labor
camps where needed in Michigan.
Summarizing the position of the Michigan Department of Health on sanitation:
The department does not have and never has had funds for construction of water
or sew^erage systems. No State agency has had such spending powers since the
1830's and the bankruptcies of those days of "internal improvements." Pro-
viding water and sewerage facilities is the normal responsibility of local com-
munities; in approving plans for these facilities, it is the responsibility of the State
health department to see that they provide adequately for health protection.
In this situation, and with an emergency in prospect, ways must be found for
stimulating and aiding the local communities to provide the necessary sanitary
facilities.
OTHER COMMUNICABLE-DISEASE PROBLEMS
Aside from such infections as dysentery and typhoid fever which are directly
related to faults in sanitation, migrant labor gives rise to other communicable-
disease problems.
For example, two diphtheria outbreaks occurred in August in Mexican families
who came from Texas for a summer of work with sugar beet, pickle, tomato, berry,
and other crops.
As it happened, with good luck and quick preventive work, neither outbreak
spread to nearby farm or village populations, and both were brought under
control in a matter of days. The deaths totaled three — one baby and two chil-
dren aged 5 and 3.
1 Held in committee files.
2 This report appears in pt. 19 with other material on the subject of agricultural migration into the State of
Michigan.
7554 DETROIT HEARINGS
One of the diphtheria outbreaks occurred in a colony of 246 persons (inckiding
more than 100 children), at Blissfield, in Lenawee County where there is no full-
time health service.
The mobile laboratory of the Michigan Department of Health was rushed to
the codonj^ and throat cultures were made of every man, woman, and chifd. ' Anti-
toxin was used freely where the diphtheria germ was found, and children were
given toxoid as a preventive measure. A camp quarantine was enforced by State
police and sheriff's deputies. In the nearby village of Blissfield, toxoid was given
to children.
In the other outbreak, diphtheria was discovered in four families in Saginaw
County, which was a full-time county health unit. The entire group was isolated
in emergency quarters in the Saginaw County Hospital, and there was no further
spread of the disease.
Epidemiological reports of both these diphtheria outbreaks are submitted with
this statement.' The photographs attached to the studies show in part the
crowded conditions in which these Mexican field laborers and their families lived.
For example, at Saginaw the 4 families were living in a 1-room house. At Bliss-
field, 18 families lived in a barn partitioned into 12 apartments.
The Blissfield and the Saginaw County diphtheria outbreaks show what can
happen and what is necessary to control a communicable disease epidemic among
migratory laborers. As you know, the Michigan Department of Health has also
had experience in trying to eliminate certain sources of d'sease among these same
Mexican migratory workers before thej' come to Mighigan.
This is the program supported by the sugar beet growers of Michigan, and aimed
at screening out individuals with tuberculosis and venereal disease from among
those applying for jobs in this State. ^
You have had testimony on this preventive program before the House Com-
mittee on Interstate Migration of Destitute Citizens. Dr. Koppa testified at
Chicago in August of 1940 and gave you figures on the number of persons examined
and number rejected for health reasons. The following table will bring the
results down to date:
Preemployment examinations for Mexican sugar-beet workers
1939
1940
Persons examined in Texas
Persons rejected for tuberculosis
Percentage of active cases of tuberculosis.
4,271
81
1.89
5,753
121
2.10
7.597
197
2.59
We wish to point out that these rates of tuberculosis infection among the
Mexican migratory workers are four or five times the rates for industrial groups
in Michigan where preemployment examinations are made and also four or five
times the tuberculosis rates being found among men called for selective service
examinations. We are especially concerned with screening out tuberculous
workers migrating to Michigan because our own tuberculosis control program is
already burdened. We undertake to hospitalize every person who carries tuber-
culosis infection, and we have a vigorous case-finding program by X-ray exami-
nation to discover such persons even before symptoms are otherwise apparent and
before they realize they are ill.
All this costs money, although we are satisfied that it is worth all it costs and
more. However, when you consider that in matching county funds for the care of
tuberculosis patients, the State of Michigan appropriates more than $2,000,000
a year, you appreciate the fact that we are glad to be spared the expense of caring
for tuberculous men and women among the Mexican migratory workers.
In other areas of public health, the migratory worker makes admittedly difficult
problems even more difficult — simply because he is so much on the move. If he
is carrying a communicable disease, he may spread infections from one end of the
State to the other; for example, from the onion fields in the South to the cherry
orchards in the North.
We need reinforcements all along the line to meet these health dangers. In the
control of venereal disease, we are making the best use we can of Federal funds
' See pt. 19, Detroit hearings, for both reports and photographs.
2 See Chicago hearings, pp. 1271-1304; Oklahoma Cil v hearings, pp. 187S-1S83, and Washington hearings,
pt. 11, pp. 4771-4822.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7555
granted to us for this purpose. We are paying for special nurses to aid in follow-up
work in order to keep men and women under treatment, and we are supplying
drugs out of State funds free to physicians for treatment of syphilis and gonorrhea
patients. The treatment can be arranged anywhere in Michigan, for if the patient
is unable to pay for his treatment, the cost becomes a county charge.
We would like briefly to mention the recent work being done in Michigan on
the so-called 5-day (intensive) treatment for sy]:)hilis. As you know, this treat-
ment with massive dosage of drugs is a hospital procedure, and is available only
in designated centers. This treatment is proving a great help in the control of
infectious cases. This type of treatment is especially adapted to transients,
therefore is the treatment of choice for this group.
In reviewing for you instances of communicable disease outbreaks among
migratory workers, we have given you recent experiences with agricultural labor.
A migration of industrial workers has similar potential hazards, although the
continual watchfulness of city health departments helps to hold these dangers in
check.
Certain questions on the operation of the Michigan Department of Health
have been raised with us by your committee staff, and we are submitting brief
answers.
The financial resources of the department are shown in the following table:
Sources of funds for Michigan Department of Health, fiscal year ending June SO, 1941
Title VI of
Social Secur-
ity Act
Venereal dis-
ease control
Title V of
Social Secur-
ity Act
Available
State funds
Federal grants, 1941-42
Balances from 1940-41.
Available for 1941-42..
$344, 300. 00
32, 740. 30
377, 040. 30
$142,200.00
14, 962. 37
157, 162. 37
$164, 205. 58
90, 460. 53
2,54,666.11
$2, 977, 200. 00
The total of $2,977,200 in State funds is allocated as follows:
Departro.ent $247,500
Laboratories 452, 200
Aid to county health units 127, 500
Tuberculosis subsidy to counties 2, 150, 000
Allocation of Federal funds by sources follows:
Title VI of
Social Secur-
ity Act
Venereal
disease con-
control
Title V of
Social Secur-
ity Act
Available
State funds
County and city health units
University of Michigan
Bureaus of the Department..
Total
$135, 210. 00
22, 500. 00
196, 860. 00
$68, 390. 00
3, 000. 00
83, 310. 00
$100,834.11
125, 049. 88
354, 570. 00
154, 700. 00
225, 883. 99
Note. — Local health services of one sort or another are provided through funds allocated to bureaus of the
Michigan Department of Health. These services include consultation, nursing and other services. The
same holds true for State funds; for example, the services of the laboratory reach every part of the State in
the furnishing of biologies and in making laboratory examinations. ■
Operation of selective service and calling to service of Reserve officers. — Some of
our key technical men have been lost, and our bureau heads are apprehensive
of more losses from our staff because of military service. It is very difficult to
find engineers trained in industrial hygiene, for example, and there is a shortage
of trained personnel in tuberculosis hospitals, for another example.
Our feeling is that the military services should leave us the personnel needed to
carry on health jirotection services so far as they possibly can. Some of the
civilian public health services have military importance, as in training camp
areas and in defense-industry areas.
You will want to know, too, that for the first time in years, we recently have
been unable to find public health nurses to refer to local health departments
for permanent positions. In the past, nurses have been obtained from schools of
])ublic health at Wayne University, the University of Michigan, and from other
universities; from the nurse placement service in Chicago; and from the ranks of
nurses who inquire about positions.
7556 DETROIT HEARINGS
Effect of Michigan's civil service. — Our bureaus find that civil service is working
well, but, of course, if trained personnel is not available, civil service can't refer
them to us. We have no suggestions to make so far as civil service is concerned.
Some delays in appointments have been experienced, but allowance must be made
for the huge job the civil service commission of the State has had in putting the
entire State personnel on a merit basis.
Industrial hygiene. — The staff of our bureau of industrial hygiene includes one
physician, six engineers, and one secretary. We are adding an analytical chemist.
The budget for the bureau is $48,630 for which Federal funds total $38,630.
At present 80 percent of the work of the bureau is connected with plants having
national-defense contracts, either direct contracts or subcontracts.
Our bureau now has work ahead for several months, and you will be interested
to know that during the past year, Michigan industry spent $400,000 in carrying
into effect recommendations of the bureau.
Health departments. — State aid up to a maximum of $3,000 per unit is given to
county or district health departments. Two, three, or four counties are in district
units. Organization of such health units is voluntary, and 65 of the State's 83
counties now have full-time services from county or district health departments.
Grants from 2 foundations, the children's fund of Michigan and the W. K.
Kellogg Foundation, have been of great assistance to local health departments.
The plan of organization of county health departments must be approved by the
State health commissioner, and staff members must be approved by the State
health commissioner. Cities may elect to join with a county unit, and in 1
instance (Kalamazoo City and Kalamazoo County) this has been done. There are
12 city health departments with full-time services.
Hospitals. — The Michigan Department of Health has official connections only
with tuberculosis sanatoria. We have supervision over 4,891 beds for tuberculosis
care in 23 approved sanatoria (State county, city, and private) and 7 subsidiary
hospitals in the Detroit system.
Exhibit 3. — Michigan's Direct Kelief Problem
REPORT BY JOHN D. O'CONNELL, DIRECTOR, STATE DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL
WELFARE, LANSING, MICH.
Under the Michigan Social Welfare Act (P. A. 280, 1939), Michigan's direct
relief responsibilities are shared by both the State and local governmental units.
The State Commission allocates to the various counties funds appropriated by
the legislature for direct relief purposes, exercises supervision over fiscal policies,
and arbitrates disputes among the various counties with respect to matters of
legal settlement.
The final determination with respect to the granting, form, and amount of
direct relief, rests with county social welfare boards. In addition to these direct-
relief responsibilities, the county boards provide hospitalization for afflicted adults
and operate county infirmaries.
VOLUME AND COSTS OF DIRECT RELIEF
In table I, trends in direct relief caseloads and assistance costs over an 8-year
period are presented. During this period, expenditures for direct relief purposes
were incurred in an aggregate sum exceeding $235,000,000.
Whereas the volume of direct relief recipients appears to have followed a down-
ward trend, it must be borne in mind that a large part of the apparent reductions
are due to the inauguration of other public-relief programs such as Work Projects
Administration, old-age assistance, aid to dependent children, and aid to the
blind. With the inception of the Work Projects Administration program in
1935, employable persons were removed from direct relief rolls as rapidly as
possible. The effects of Work Projects Administration employment were evi-
dent in a decrease in the average monthly caseload of from 111,273 cases during
the fiscal year 1935-36 to 59,826 cases during the fiscal year 1936-37. This re-
duction in the volume of direct-relief cases was accompanied by a decrease of
more than $13,000,000 in the amount of assistance extended.
The present State direct relief caseload of 33,232 cases (August 1941) repre-
sents the lowest direct relief load since State-wide data have been available.
This low level can be attributed in large part to the present increased industrial
activity. The probable effects which industrial dislocation attendant to the
defense program will have ui^on direct relief rolls is discussed later.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7557
T^^BLE I. — Average monthly direct relief caseload and total annual assistance costs
of direct relief, 19S3-U
Fiscal year July 1 to
June 30
Average
monthly
case load
Total annual
assistance
costs 1
Fiscal year July 1 to
June 30
Average
monthly
case load
Total annual
assistance
costs '
1933-34
160,348
187, 758
111,273
59, 826
$38, 479, 484
65, 163, 219
32, 805, 290
19,154,353
1937-38
88,880
76,710
64, 309
50, 942
$30, 262, 720
1934-35
1938-39 -
19, 093, 715
1935-36
1939^0.-
16,553,042
1936-37
1940-41
13, 535, 838
' Excludes costs of administration, materials, plant and equipment.
It will be noticed that the average monthly caseload during the fiscal j^ear
1937-38 was 48.6 percent above that of the preceding fiscal year. This marked
increase reflects both a period of widespread industrial strikes and the general
economic depression of 1938. The curtailment of industrial activity at that
time was so severe that the number of direct relief recipients rose to a peak of
161,213 cases in March 1938, and did not fall below the 100,000 mark until Sep-
tember. The industrial counties of the State such as Genesee, Ingham, Oakland,
and Wayne, whose basic economy is dominated by the automotive industry,
were particularly affected at that time.
The degree to which the direct relief load in industrial counties reflects fluctua-
tions in industrial employment and the influence which such counties exert upon
the entire State direct relief load is presented in table II. During the 1937-38
recession period, the State direct relief load varied from a low of 37,530 cases in
September to 161,213 cases 6 months later. During the same fiscal year, the
number of direct relief recipients in Wayne County varied from a minimum of
12,853 to a maximum of 74,966 — a fluctuation of more than 62,000 cases repre-
senting an increase in Wayne County alone of nearlj^ 500 percent.
Table II. — Fluctuations in the direct relief case load, entire State and Wayne County
Entire State
Wayne County i
Fiscal year, July 1 to June 30
Maximum
monthly
load
Minimum
monthly
load
Maximum
monthly
load
Minimum
monthly
load
1933-34
202, 128
223, 902
164, 266
76. 525
161.213
109, 562
73, 074
55, 584
126,811
149,838
67.957
43, 771
37, 530
58, 107
53. 869
36, 251
71, 495
72, 640
53, 105
22, 248
74, 966
52, 795
27, 568
25, 745
31,435
1934-35 -.. -.
43, 229
1935-36 2
22,590
1936-37
12, 720
1937-38
12. 853
1938-39
19. 839
1939-40
20, 326
1940-41
16, 233
' Includes both city of Detroit and Wayne out-county.
2 Extreme variation between maximum and minimum due in large part to absorption by Work Piojects
Administration.
The data presented in this table indicates that it is the industrial counties which
are most subject to sudden and extreme variations in the volume and cost of
direct relief. The cut-over counties of both the Upper and Lower Peninsulas are
inclined toward relative stability and care for a case load largely composed of
unemployable persons. Fluctuations in Work Projects Administratioii employ-
ment affect direct relief loads in these counties somewhat as variations in industrial
activity affect the direct relief load of the industrial counties, though to a lesser
extent. When industrial activity is curtailed, the industrial counties are directly
affected. The cut-over and Upper Peninsula counties .soon reflect these conditions
of general economic decline.
FINANCING DIRECT RELIEF
Both the State and counties share in the financial responsibilities of administer-
ing direct relief. It is one of the provisions of the Social Welfare Act that the
State must allocate to each county, funds sufficient to meet at least 50 percent of
7558
DETROIT HEARIJSGS
the county costs of direct relief in each county. The allocation of State funds is
based upon actual relief requirements with due consideration given to the financial
resources of the respective counties. State funds are used locally for direct relief
payments, medical care, burials for deceased recipients, and to offset a portion of
the costs incurred in the distribution of Federal sur])lus commodities and the spon-
soring of Work Projects Administration sewing projects. The financing of local
administrative costs, hospitalization, infirmary care, the operation of county farms,
and the purchase of essential plant and equipment is entirely a local responsibility.
Table III. — Comparative statement, assessed valuation of counties and net dis-
bursements for direct relief charged against local funds on basis of percentages
fixed by State Social Welfare Commission, July 1, 1940 to June 30, 1941
County
Assessed valua-
tion 1940
Net disbursements for direct
relief charged to local funds
Millage of
assessed
valuation
Wayne
Kent
Genesee
Oakland
Ingham
Saginaw
Kalamazoo
Jackson
Calhoun
St. Clair
Washtenaw
Muskegon
Macomb
Berrien
Bay
Monroe
Lenawee
Marquette
Ottawa
Allegan
Gogebic
Gratiot
Van Buren
Eaton
St. Joseph
Huron
Ionia
Shiawassee
Midland
Montcalm
Tuscola-
Lapeer
Clinton
Livingston
Hillsdale
Sanilac
Branch
Chippewa
Iron
Isabella
Barry
Cass
Menominee
Houghton
Alpena
Delta
Grand Traverse
Dickinson
Mason
Newaygo
, 082, 964, 055
256, 979, 545
238, 393, 480
223, 529, 703
145, 928, 814
135, 199, 525
120, 553, 500
99, 872, 055
98, 188, 420
91, 731, 436
86, 729, 714
85, 292, 075
84, 749, 068
75, 479, 663
67, 275, 369
62, 793, 504
56,611,475
50, 884, 042
45, 652, 120
37, 923, 365
35, 019, 585
30, 323, 999
29, 554, 333
28, 567, 744
28, 527, 195
27, 799, 865
27, 697, 810
27, 323. 702
26, 272, 807
25, 047, 264
24, 834, 933
24, 035, 630
23, 655, 537
23, 626, 012
23, 567, 695
23, 259, 465
22, 331, 799
21, 434, 965
20,512,615
20, 139, 606
19, 807, 535
18, 453, 519
17,802,720
16, 990, 262
16, 695, 500
15, 709, 802
15, 304, 822
15, 180, 190
14, 510, 782
14, 235, 977
, 082, 926. 94
286, 424. 18
168, 655, 99
104, 785. 49
176, 905. 05
87, 169. 07
102, 428. 19
64, 232. 29
35, 470. 23
75, 454. 20
33, 376. 86
107, 041. 57
42, 866. 21
49, 718. 57
58, 227. 55
87, 726. 78
39, 141. 89
40, 341. 64
28, 649. 83
20, 407. 52
68, 301. 78
24, 910. 15
31, 803. 87
17, 292. 70
26, 496. 95
10, 654. 52
18, 137. 86
34, 575. 18
7, 185. 57
16, 060. 67
14, 399. 70
24, 268. 93
16, 387. 00
13, 615. 26
12, 258. 20
18, 214. 77
14, 599. 06
27, 701. 42
17, 038, 57
14, 367. 24
10, 336. 21
12, 783. 30
23, 4.54. 95
21, 933. 56
16, 733. 94
13, 274. 51
11,509.68
13, 639. 97
9, 686. 05
15,219.12
1.3
1.1
.7
.5
1.2
.6
.8
.6
.4
.4
1.3
.5
.7
1.4
.7
2.0
1.1
.6
1.3
.3
.6
.6
1.0
.7
.6
.5
1.3
.8
.7
.5
.7
1.3
1.3
1.0
.7
1.1
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7559
Table III. — Comparative statement, assessed valuation of comities and net dis-
bursements for direct relief charged against local funds on basis of percentages
fixed by State Social Welfare Commission, July 1, 1940 to Jxtne 30, 1941 — Con.
Assessed valua-
tion 1940
Net disbursements for direct
relief charged to local funds
County
Amount
Millage of
assessed
valuation
$12, 692, 886
12, 095, 877
11,890,271
10, 287, 554
10, 103, 983
8, 829, 947
8, 647, 160
8, 149, 818
7, 769, 877
7, 415, 073
6, 740, 029
6, 720, 265
6, 698, 892
6, 417, 005
5, 921, 601
5, 903, 814
5, 873, 564
5, 826, 290
5, 733, 477
5, 506, 305
0, 492, 789
4, 883, 830
4, 284, 370
4, 106, 510
3, 436, 325
3, 291, 050
3, 289, 335
3, 196, 453
2, 737, 970
2, 520, 780
2, 269, 705
2, 173, 256
2, 148, 095
$13, 950. 76
11,774.75
5, 092. 35
11,206.44
6, 446. 83
17,439.26
1, 947. 47
6, 760. 44
3, 713. 14
3,459.53
3, 518. 61
1, 695. 09
962. 09
2, 431. 23
2, 410. 93
4, 127. 52
4, 830. 42
2, 289. 39
874. 95
1, 247. 70
3, 763. 31
835. 78
1, 864. 75
2, 124. 46
2, 223. 54
474. 85
3, 584. 20
1, 117. 52
771. 18
0
287.78
430. 50
564. 36
1.1
Emmet -
1.0
.4
1.1
.6
2.0
.2
.8
.5
.5
.5
.3
Alger ,
.1
.4
Clare . -
.4
Gladwin . ._ -_
.7
.8
Mackinac - .
.4
.2
.2
Ogemaw . _ -_. .-. - _
.7
.2
Benzie . _-
.4
Alcona ._ ._- _ _-- .- . --.
.5
Missaukee . - -
.6
Otsego-. - - -
.1
1.1
Roscommon
.3
Crawford . _.
.3
Lake .-, .-. .-. ... .... ._
0
Montmorency _ _ ..... .
.1
.2
Kalkaska...
.3
Total .
6, 028, 028, 754
6,393,011.87
1.1
LOCAL DIFFICULTIES IN FINANCING DIRECT RELIEF
Although a number of counties have been able to finance 50 percent of their
direct relief costs, other counties have been forced to request that the State
furnish a major portion of the funds required for direct relief.
In the cut-over counties of both the Upper and Lower Peninsula large tracts of
once taxalile land have reverted to the State because of unpaid assessments and
delinquent moratorium installments. As of November 1939, more than 30 per-
cent of the entire acreage in 4 of the 32 counties north of the Bay-Muskegon line
was held by the State. Additional acreage has since reverted to State ownership.
Assessed valuations in the cut-over counties have fallen to a surprisingly low
level. In only 3 of the 32 counties was the 1940 as.sessed valuation in excess of
$50 an acre. In 9 of these counties the 1940 assessed valuation was below $10
an acre, as compared with an average of $163.89 for the State as a whole.
Since almost all county funds are rai.sed by property taxes, these losses of
revenue sources have seriously curtailed the financial abilities of the cut-over
counties.
The necessity for extending direct relief as a .supplement to other types of
public relief has imposed an additional financial strain upon these counties.
Expenditures incurred for afflicted adult hospitalization approximate one-quarter
of a million dollars per month and impose an additional local financial problem.
In order that State fimds available for direct-relief purposes might be allocated
to the various counties equitably and with due regard to relief needs and local
7560
DETROIT HEARINGS
financial abilities, the Commission has found it necessary to meet considerably
more than 50 percent of the direct relief costs of some counties. In some instances
the ratio of State to local funds employed for direct-relief purposes has been con-
siderably in excess of 90 percent.
Table IV. — Direct-relief cases and costs by fiscal years, 1933-40
Average monthly case-
load
State and Federal lunds,
total amount.- _._
Average per month
Local funds, total amount
Average per month
AH lunds, total amount..
Average per month
1933-34
160, 348
$.39,031,111
3, 252. 593
2 2, 612, 723
217, 727
41.643,834
3, 470, 320
187, 758
$63, 807, 381
5, 317, 282
210,361,540
836, 462
74, 168, 922
6, 180, 743
1935-36
111,273
$29, 246, 742
2, 437, 229
2 7, 478, 581
623, 215
36, 725, 323
3, 060, 444
1936-37
59, 826
$14, 094, 339
1, 174, 528
$17, 400, 440
1, 450, 037
2 7,026.2361210,635,003
585, 520 886, 250
21,120,575 28,035,444
1, 760, 048 2, 336, 287
1938-39 «
76, 710
$16, 675, 281
1, 389, 607
10, 042, 389
836, 866
26, 717, 670
2, 226, 472
1939-101
64, 309
386. 322
782, 194
297, 408
774, 789
683. 790
556, 982
1 Compiled on basis of funds received.
' Compiled on basis of obligations incurred.
In table IV, direct-relief expenditures are shown by source of funds for each of
the fiscal years from 1933-34 through 1939-40. The entire net disbursements for
direct-relief and sponsor's contributions to Work Projects Administration sewing
projects for the fiscal year 1940-41 are shown in table V. It may be seen that
of a total expenditure of $13,662,667, State funds constituted 53 percent. This
tabulation also shows that within individual counties the percentage of State funds
varied from 50 to 100 percent. In addition to these direct-relief expenditures, an
aggregate amount of only $200,000 was made available from State funds during
the fiscal year 1940-41 for the operation of shelter bureaus and camps for the
homeless and unattached. During slack periods of employment, shelter costs are
subject to sudden increases.
Table V.- — Source of funds— Net disbursements for direct relief and sponsor's contri-
butions to Work Projects Administration seiving and surplus commodity projects,
July 1, 1940 to June 30, 1941
State funds
Local funds
Total funds
Amount
Percent
Amount
Percent
Alcona
$7, 072. 63
18, 279. 67
20, 407. 51
20, 670. 21
23, 353. 84
8,090.87
32, 206. 62
10, 336. 21
58, 227. 54
25, 586. 75
49, 718. 58
14, 599. 07
35, 470. 24
12, 783. 31
15, 774. 35
29, 251. 58
27, 701. 43
9, 643. 71
16, 387. 01
6, 940. 66
119,470.59
54, 559. 87
17, 292. 71
11,774.75
168, 655. 99
8,490.38
68, 301. 78
14,067.39
77
95
50
55
83
87
95
50
50
93
50
50
50
50
70
89
50
80
50
90
90
80
50
50
50
67
50
55
$2, 124. 46
962. 09
20. 407. 52
16, 733. 94
4, 830. 42
1, 247. 70
1, 695. 09
10. 336. 21
58, 227. 55
1, 864. 75
49, 718. 57
14, 599. 06
35. 470. 23
12,783.30
6, 760. 44
3,518.61
27.701.42
2, 410. 93
16, 387. 00
771. 18
13, 274. 51
13, 639. 97
17, 292. 70
11,774.75
168, 655. 99
4, 127. 52
68, 301. 78
11,509.08
23
5
50
45
17
13
5
50
50
7
50
50
50
50
30
11
50
20
50
10
10
20
50
50
50
33
50
45
$9 197 09
Alger
19, 241. 76
40,815.03
Allegan
Alpena
37, 404. 15
28 184 26
Antrim..
Arenac _
9, 338. 57
33,901.71
Baraga .
Barry .
20, 672. 42
116 455.09
Bay
Benzie
27, 451. 50
99. 437. 15
Berrien
Branch
29 198 13
Calhoun
70, 940. 47
Cass
25, 566. 61
Charlevoix
22, 534. 79
Cheboygan .
32 770. 19
Chippewa.
55, 402. 85
Clare .
12, 054. 64
Clinton
32, 774. 01
Crawford .
7,711.84
Delta
132,745.10
Dickinson
68, 199. 84
Eaton
34 585.41
Emmet
23. 549. 50
Genesee
337,311.98
Gladwin . .
12,617.90
136, 603. 56
Gogebic
Grand Traverse...
25, 577. 07
NATIONAL DEFP:NSE MIGRATION
7561
Table V. — Source of funds — Net disbursements for direct relief and sponsor's contri-
butions to Work Projects Administration sewing and surplus commodity projects,
July 1, 1940 to June 30, 1941 — Continued
State funds
Local funds
Total funds
Amount
Percent
Amount
Percent
$24, 910. 15
12, 258. 21
197, 402. 08
10, 654. 52
176, 905. 06
20,991.11
5, 842. 40
51,115.70
14, 367. 24
64, 232. 28
102,428.19
10, 722. 76
286, 424. 19
27,613.14
41, 293. 50
24, 268. 94
16, 624. 05
39, 141. 90
13, 615. 26
15, 879. 81
43, 498. 31
42. 866. 21
32, .551. 78
40,341.65
20. 453. 89
5, 092. 36
28, 205. 70
7, 185. 57
20.011.81
87, 726. 78
16, 060. 67
5, 467. 87
107,041.57
25, 696. 82
104, 785. 49
13, 695. 45
15, 053. 26
31, 135. 78
14, 852. 56
8, 179. 52
9,022.11
28, 649. 83
26, 158. 89
10, 057. 68
87, 169. 08
75, 4,54. 21
26, 496. 95
18,214.78
26, 020. 96
34, 575. 18
14. 399. 71
31, 803. 88
33, 376. 86
713,464.04
33, 619. 30
3, 369, 462. 91
50
50
90
50
50
54
75
75
50
50
50 ■
95
50
89
100
50
95
50
50
95
95
50
70
50
68
50
55
50
90
50
50
95
50
63
50
68
80
90
80
95
95
50
60
90
50
50
50
50
91
50
50
50
50
50
75
50
$24, 910. 15
12. 258. 20
21, 933. 56
10, 654. 52
176. 905. 05
18,137.86
1,947.47
17, 038. 57
14, 367. 24
64, 232. 29
102, 428. 19
564.36
286, 424. 18
3,.584. 20
50
50
10
50
50
46
25
25
50
50
50
5
50
11
$49, 820. 30
Hillsdale
24,516.41
219, 335. 64
Huron . .
21, 309. 04
353,810.11
Ionia
39. 128. 97
Iosco -
Iron :
Isabella
Jackson
Kalamazoo
Kalkaska
Kent
7, 789. 87
68. 154. 27
28, 734. 48
128, 464. 57
204, 856. 38
11.287.12
572, 848. 37
31,197.34
41. 293. 50
Lapeer
Leelanau _-_
24, 268. 93
874. 95
39,141.89
13, 615. 26
835. 78
2, 289. 39
42, 866. 21
13, 950. 76
40, 341. 64
9, 686. 05
5. 092. 35
23, 454. 95
7, 185. 57
2. 223. 54
87, 726. 78
16, 060. 67
287. 78
107, 041. 57
15,219.12
104, 785. 49
6. 446. 83
3, 763. 31
3, 4,59. 53
3,713.14
430. 50
474. 85
28, 649. 83
17, 439 26
1,117.52
87, 169. 07
75, 454. 20
26, 496. 95
18, 214. 77
2. 431. 23
34. 575. 18
14, 399. 70
31.803.87
33, 376. 86
713, 464. 04
11, 206. 44
3, 369, 462. 90
50
6
50
50
5
5
50
30
50
32
50
45
50
10
50
50
5
50
37
50
32
20
10
20
5
5
50
40
10
■ 50
50
50
50
9
50
50
50
50
50
25
50
48. 537. 87
17, 499. 00
78, 283. 79
Livingston . -
27, 230. 52
16, 715. 59
Mackinac
45, 787. 70
Macomb ...
85, 732 42
Manistee
Marquette
46, 502. 54
80, 683. 29
30, 139. 94
Mecosta. . _.
10. 184. 71
51.660.65
Midland
14.371.14
22. 235. 35
175. 453. 56
Montcalm.- . _ . -.._
32.121.34
Montmorency .
■ 5,755.65
Muskegon
214. 083. 14
Newaygo . . . .
40.915.94
Oakland
209. 570. 98
Oceana .
20. 142. 28
Ogemaw . ... . ... .1
18,816.57
Ontonagon ... .
34. 595. 31
18, 565. 70
Oscoda... .
8.610.02
Otsego
9. 496. 96
Ottawa .. . .. .
57. 299. 66
Presque Isle
43, 598. 15
Roscommon
Saginaw.. .. . .
11.175.20
174. 338. 15
St. Clair . .
150. 908. 41
St. Joseph ... . .
52. 993. 90
Sanilac
Schoolcraft
Shiawassee.. .. .. ...
36, 429. 55
28, 452. 19
69. 150. 36
Tuscola
Van Buren.
28, 799. 41
63, 607. 75
66, 753. 72
Wayne
Wexford
Detroit
1, 426. 928. 08
44, 825. 74
6, 738, 925. 81
Total.
7, 269, 655. 16
53
6,393,011.87
47
13, 662, 667. 03
Note.— Subject to audit revision.
A more comprehensive analysis of funds disbursed from. Stale and local sources
is presented in table VI. Although 53 percent ot direct relief assistance payments
during 1940-41 were met from State funds, disbursements by the county depart-
ments of social welfare were in an aggregate amount of $21,276,495- — nearly three
times the amount of State funds disbursed through county departments of social
welfare.
7562
DETROIT HEARINGS
Table VI. — Source of funds disbursed by State and local public assistance agencies,
July 1, 1940-June SO, 1941
Classification
Federal
State
Local
Total
Bureau of social security:
0 A. A. payments
$7,911,100.25
.$7,911,100.25
323, 3.38. 63
5,044,481.10
150, 977. 75
105, 340. 10
266. 146. 13
638, 967. 36
$15, 822, 200. 50
0. A. A. burials
323, 338. 63
A. D. C. payments _
3,778,411.95
150, 977. 75
.$834, 065. 09
9, 656, 958. 14
301, 955. 50
Surplus commodity distribution
. . . .
105, 340. 10
Administration:
82, 894. 28
581,983.38
349,040.41
1, 220, 950. 74
Subtotal
12, 505, 367. 61
14, 440. 351. 32
834, 065. 09
27, 779, 784. 02
County departments of social welfare:
Direct relief payments 1 ___ .
7, 476, 135. 83
6,393,011.87
1, 084, 565. 28
2, 716. 329. 43
3, 428, 053. 13
178,400.11
13, 869, 147. 70
County infirmary and farm ..
1, 084, .565. 28
Afflicted adult hospitalization
2, 716, 329. 43
Administration
3, 428, 053. 13
178,400.11
Subtotal
7, 476, 135. 83
13, 800, 359. 82
21, 276, 495. 65
State department of social welfare:
42, 480. 48
3, 845. 28
112,369.59
26, 420. 89
55, 668. 07
170, 767. 75
154, 850. 07
Surplus commodity distribution...
Employment institution for blind
30,266.17
55, 668. 07
170, 767. 75
Subtotal
46. 325. 76
365, 226. 30
411,552.06
Grand total
12, 551, 693. 37
25.4
22, 281, 713, 45
45.0
14, 634, 424. 91
29.6
49, 467, 831. 73
Percent -..
100.0
' Includes assistance payments, sponsor's contributions to Work Projects Administration surplus com-
modity and sewing projects, and operation expense of shelter for single unattached men.
CHARACTERISTICS OF THE DIRECT RELIEF POPULATION
In December 1940, the Commission conducted a survey of 10 percent of the
State's direct relief population. The information obtained appears to be repre-
sentative of the entire State direct relief load of 53,242 cases during the month in
which the survey was conducted.
From the results of the survey, it was evident that the greater portion of direct
relief cases are either lacking an employable wage earner or are dependent because
of the physical or mental incapacity of the normally employable wage earner.
Of the .53,242 cases receiving relief, 29 percent were dependent because of loss of
Work Projects Administration or private employment. Direct relief was extended
as supplementation to insufficient earnings from private employment in 7.5
percent of all cases and as supplementation to Work Projects Administration
employment in 8.1 percent. Approximately 29,000 cases, or 54.7 percent, were
either completely lacking an available wage earner or the normally employable
wage earner was physically or mentally incapable of accepting employment.
Since the direct relief case load at the present lime is at the extremely low level
of 33,000 cases, it appears highly improbable that any additional extreme reduc-
tions can be affected through increases in private employment. However, any
employment decline will result in an immediate increase in direct relief rolls.
Approximately 10.9 percent of the family heads of direct relief cases were found
to be lacking citizenshiji status. Although no exact information has been
obtained, it is possible that a number of the aliens now receiving direct relief are
potentially employable. Unfortunately, a number of industrial concerns have
been operating under the mistaken impression that legal limitations regarding
the employment of aliens are much more restrictive than is actually true.
While but 16.7 percent of the total direct relief cases were found to be Negroes,
within the city of Detroit, Negroes comprised 44.6 percent of all direct relief cases.
In the months which have elapsed since the survey was conducted, it is probable
that some Negro cases have been removed from direct relief rolls through private
employment, but not as extensively as might have occurred were it not for racial
discrimination.
Further evidence of the unemployability of the basic direct relief load is evident
in the fact that of a total of 157,867 persons represented in direct relief cases,
40 percent were under the age of 16 years.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7563
While local relief administrations were required to meet rental payments for
one-third of the State's total direct relief load, in cities of 100,000 population or
more, nearly two-thirds of all direct relief cases were required to seek rental pay-
ments from local relief offices. Rental payments in the larger cities averaged
$17.16 for each case in behalf of whom such payments were extended as compared
with an average of $7.70 in rural nonfarm areas and $8.38 in rural farm areas.
It appears, therefore, that the major problems of meeting rental paymeiits are
confined to urban areas.
The above facts bear out the contention that the direct relief load is composed
of a large number of cases who are permanently unemployable, most of whom
will remain dependent upon public assistance regardless of economic conditions.
NONSETTLEMENT AND MIGRATORY LABOR
The problem of })roviding direct relief to cases lacking legal settlement has
long been irritating relief officials. While the exact extent of such cases in
Michigan is not known, the December survey indicated that approximately 9
percent of the cases who were recejvjng direct relief did not have legal settlement
in the county in which tliey received aid.
In addition to intercounty migration, Michigan is subject to a periodic influx
of migratory laborers. Primarily, four geographical areas are affected by such
migration: (1) The vegetable and fruit belt of the east shore of Lake Michigan;
(2) the sugar-beet areas of the central, south central, and thumb district; (3)
the lumbering regions of both the Upper and Lower Peninsulas, and (4) the large
industrial centers where seasonal and cyclical fluctuations in employment serve
to attract and expel a mobile labor supply.
With the exception of the industrial worker, these other migratory laborers long
have been considered essential to the basic economy of the industries by which
they are employed. In general, they are trained, efficient workers and seldom
constitute a serious relief problem. Although the volume of these workers in
Michigan is not known with any degree of exactness, it has been estimated that
between 30,000 and 40,000 migratory workers enter the Michigan fruit belts each
year and that approximately 2,000 itinerant timber workers are continuously in
the lumber regions.
More exact data are available regarding migratory workers in the Michigan
beet fields. Sugar beets constitute one of the principal cash crops in 46 of the
68 counties of the Lower Peninsula. In 1939, approximately 14,000 farmers in
these counties were engaged in growing sugar l^eets. Approximately 90 percent
of all beet growers in the State employ contract labor, two-thirds of which is
migratory.
Although a migratory labor supply appears to be essential to agricultural
economy, areas occupied by migrant workers frequently present problems of
sanitation, ill-housing, and lowered educational standards.
One of the greatest fears of relief officials is that such cases are apt to require
hospitalization at county expense. The welfare boards are particularly con-
cerned over this matter, since by nature hospitalization care is particularly
expensive. Even though migratory workers may be entirely self-supporting in
ordinary needs, they are rarely able to meet hospitalization costs and in cases of
severe illness, frequently become a local charge.
DIRECT RELIEF AND THE NATIONAL-DEFENSE PROGRAM
Industrial expansion because of defense demands has served to attract a large
luimber of workers to industrial areas: In most areas housing facilities have not
been adequate to accommodate this additional labor supply and poor housing
conditions have resulted, with attendant problems of sanitation and juvenile
delinquency.
With increased employment accompnying the national-defense program, a
number of youpg men with little or no training have been able to obtain employ-
ment at relatively high rates of pay. Such employment has induced many young
men to marry and assume family responsibilities. Lacking seniority rights, these
>oung men will be the first to be laid off when employment is curtailed and many
will be forced to seek recourse to public relief. Observations indicate that many
young men may have married to evade induction under the Selective Service
Act, and it is feared that some of these marriages may be unsound and result in
broken families with ultimately increased public relief problems.
7564 DETROIT HEARINGS
Indications of some of the more important problems which exist in some of the
specific defense areas are briefly mentioned as follows:
Muskegon County. — Housing facilities appear to be wholly inadequate. Of an
employment increase of approximately 8,000 workers in the last year, 6,000 have
come from areas outside Muskegon. A marked increase in the occupancy of
trailer camps, basement dwellings, and shacks is also evident. A Federal housing
project is expected to provide residence for approximately 300 families in the
immediate future.
Washtenaw Countrj. — A new bomber plant now under construction in Ypsilanti
is expected to begin operations early in 1942 and employ in the neighborhood of
40,000 men. Ypsilanti officials feel that present school facilities will not be
adequate to meet this increase of worker families. Owing to tax delinquency, it
is probable that the township will be unable to borrow money for construction of
new school buildings.
Oakland Count u. — The total number of persons employed in all industries in
the city of Pontiac has increased by approximately 6,000 within the past year.
One-half of this increase is believed to have come from direct relief and Work
Projects Administration rolls. The presence of migratory workers has been more
evident in the Royal Oak area than in the city of Pontiac. A serious housing
shortage is already apparent. Within the past year rents have increased from
20 to 30 percent and relief officials are having difficulty in obtaining places of
residence for relief clients.
Macomb Cowni?/.— W^ith two large plants being erected for defense manufactur-
ing in the southern part of this county, an influx of industrial workers is already
presenting serious problems. This is one of the defense areas, in which problems
of poor housing, sanitation, delinquency, and inadequate school facilities are most
serious, and in which the repercussions of reduced emploj'ment will be immediatey
felt b.v relief officials.
Berrien County. — It is estimated by one of the members of the county social
welfare board that $10,000 a year is spent in providing hospitalization and medical
care to migratorv workers. Additional expenditures are incurred by the county
in transporting these people back to their place of legal settlement during periods
of sli,ck erpplovment.
Waijne County. — The relationship of relief needs to industrial employment in
Wayne County has already been pointed out in this report. The first impact of
curtailed industrial activity will be felt here. The problems in this area are of
such magnitude and complexity that time will not permit their coverage here.
Reference is made to reports submitted by Wayne County and Detroit officials.
PROBABLE EFFECTS OF CURTAILED AtJTOMOTIVE PRODUCTION
It has been estimated that an automotive cut of 50 percent would result in the
unemployment of between 150,000 and 173,000 workers. This curtailment would
probably necessitate the addition of 25,000 cases to the direct relief rolls by
November, at an added monthly cost of $700,000. By January 1942, 80,000
or more of these workers would probably still be unemployed and would have
exhausted their unemployment compensation benefits. These cases would con-
stitute an additional potential public relief problem.
Any such increase in direct relief costs could not be financied by the present
appropriations. The lesislative appropriation for the fiscal year 1941-42 of
$6,250,000 is $1,000,000 less than the amount expended by the State for direct
relief purposes during 1940-41. The appropriation for the fiscal year 1942-43
is $5,750,000.
Should the State be required to finance 53 percent of the State's direct relief
costs again in 1941-42, the legislative appropriation which is based on relief needs
16 percent below that of the preceding vear, will be adequate to meet a program of
$11,500,000 as compared with $13,662,667 expended during 1940-41. It is evi-
dent, therefore, that any increase in direct relief loads resulting from a protracted
curtailment of production would necessitate additional funds being tnade available
for relief purposes.
The ability of the State to provide funds for relief purposes to a large degree is
contingent upon income derived from taxes applied to the retail sales of consumers'
goods. Any marked decrease in industrial employment would unquestionably
be reflected in the voIum.b of retail trade with resultant reductions in sales tax
revenue. Curtailm.ent in the production of consumers' goods also will affect sales
tax revenue to a considerable extent. It is possible the State legislature might
be able to make an additional appropriation for relief purposes, but this will be
dependent upon the State's financial position. It is feared that not only will the
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7565
unemployed man be unable to purchase such articles as automobiles, refrigerators,
and other consumer articles, but the earner of relatively high wages to some extent
will find such articles unobtainable. Consequently, an additional portion of the
State's sales tax revenue will be seriously curtailed.
The State may then find itself in a position in which it is confronted with a
serious relief problem due to lay-offs in nondefense industries. The problem may
be m.ore serious by reason of reduced State income. As a consequence of this
disruption of its economy, it is feared Michigan may be financially unable to
meet this problem. "
Since the ability of the various counties to provide funds for relief purposes is
restricted because of hmited revenue sources and the necessity of meeting other
governmental expenses, it is improbable that county boards of supervisors would
be able to raise sufficient additional funds to meet any appreciable increase in
direct relief costs.
In view of the fact that the sources of revenue available to the Federal Govern-
ment are so much more elastic than either those of the State or local units of
government, it may be necessary that the Federal Government assist in financing
relief expenditures arising out of activities essential to the national-defense
program.
Exhibit 4 — Categorical Assistance in Michigan
REPORT BY F. F. FAURl, SUPERVISOR, STATE BUREAU OF SOCIAL SECURITY, LAN-
SING, MICH.
Old-age assistance, aid to dependent children, and aid to the blind — the public-
assistance programs established under titles T, IV, and X, respectively, of the
Social Security Act — are administered in Michigan by the State bureau of social
security and coimty bureaus of social aid under the jurisdiction of the Michigan
Social Welfare Commission pursuant to the provisions of act 280, P. A. 1939.
The following table sets forth State, Federal, and local funds available for
assistance payments (not including administration and burial costs) on the three
programs for the biennium ending June 30, 1943:
Table I. — Funds available for assistance payments
FISCAL YEAR 1941-42
Program
State
Federal '
Local 2
Total
Old-age assistance
Aid to dependent children
Aid to the blind...
Total, all programs. -
$9. 636. 000
5, 620, 000
200, 000
$9, 636, 000
4,116,000
200, 000
$976, 000
$19, 272, 000
10, 712. 000
400, 000
15, 456, 000
13, 952, 000
976, 000
30, 384, 000
fiscal year 1942-43
Program
State
Federal '
Local 2
Total
Old-age assistance
$10, 200, 000
5, 620, 000
200, 000
$10, 200, 000
4,116,000
200,000
$20 400 000
Aid to dependent children
$976, 000
10, 712' 000
Aid to the blind
400, 000
Total, all programs..
16,020,000
14, 516, 000
976, 000
31, 512, 000
» Estimated.
' Estimate contributed by Wayne County Board of Supervisors.
OLD-AGE ASSISTANCE
For the fiscal year 1940-41 the Bureau of Social Security expended $15,822,200
in State and Federal funds for old-age assistance. The funds available for the
present biennium show possible increased expenditures for old-age assistance of
$3,449,800 for the fiscal year 1941-42 and of $4,577,800 for the fiscal year 1942-43
as compared to 1940-41. These increases were made available primarily to make
7566
DETROIT HEARINGS
l)Ossible more ]n-oiupt apjiroval of applications so as to avoid the long waiting
period to which apjjlicants had been subjected. In the early months of 1940 no
application on file for less than 2 years could be approved for i)ayment. The
following table illustrates the changes that have occurred since July 1, 1940, with
respect to pending applications and active caseloads:
Table IT. — Old-age assistance applications pending and number of recipients
Applicaiions
pending
Recipients
July 1940-.--
January 1941
July 1941. __.
August 1941 .
32, 009
24, 631
7,771
5,508
73, 778
78, 721
90, 382
91, 373
It was estimated that the increased funds made availat)le for old-age assistance
payments would permit the stabilizing of the caseload at approximately 95,000
cases during the present fiscal year with applications being approved for jjayment
within 60 days of the date received. However, because of a continuing increase
in the average monthly grant it may not be possible to proceed with a program
of caring for all eligible applicants until additional funds are made available.
The following table indicates the increase in the a\-erage monthly grant since
January 1, 1941:
Table III.
-Old-age assistance monthly average grant, January 1941 to September
1941
January 1941
February . _ _
March
April
May
June
July
August
September-.
Recipients
78, 721
79, 738
81,160
82, 673
85, 515
88, 768
90, 382
91,373
91,937
A^■erage grant
$16.80
16.85
16.90
16.98
17.06
17.13
17.27
17.40
17.54
Increase per
recipient
.$0. 05
.05
.07
.14
.13
.14
Although the monthly average grant has increased since January 1941 it
should be noted that the increase for the months of July, August, and September
was substantially greater than during the previous 5 months. No new policies
have been adopted which would cause the sharp increase in the average grant
paid during the last 3 months. To date the Bureau has not revised food and
clothing allowances to corres))ond with increased ]jrices. Therefore the sharp
increase in the average grant appears to be due to increased housing costs.
The current increase in housing costs Ijeing absorljed by the Bureau of Social
Security becomes more apparent when we consider that although the average
grant increased 14 cents in July and 13 cents in August only 10,281 cases were
investigated in the former month and 10,489 cases were investigated during the
latter month. (Number of cases investigated in Se]jteml)er not available.)
Each case investigated in the month of July resulted in increasing the average
grant paid to investigated cases, $1.23. For the month of August this increase
was $1.13 per investigated case. If the trend established during the last 3
months continues and increased housing costs are absorbed by the I3ureau it will
be impossible to care for all eligible apijlicants Avith the funds available for the
bienniuin. When it is considered that costs of food, clothing, fuel, and other
items of need are increasing and that such increased costs will have to he recog-
nized in determining budgetary allowances, if standards are not to be lowered,
the problem of caring for all eligible individuals becomes more acute.
AID TO THE BLIND
The conclusion set forth above is also applicable to the aid to the blind pro-
gram, which provides aid to 1,308 needy blind individuals. The average monthly
grant in this [)rogram is shown in the following table:
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7567
Table IV. — Aid to blind monthly average grant, January 1941 to September 1941
January 1941
February
March
April
May. _
June
July
August
September _.
Recipients
1, 123
1,150
1,181
1,206
1,221
1,224
1,251
1,289
1,308
Average grant
$23. f.l
23.59
23.75
23.81
23.91
23.93
23.98
24.10
24.36
Increase
.16
.06
.10
.02
.05
.12
.26
AID TO DEPENDENT CHILDREN
For the fiscal year 1940-41 the Biireavi of Social Security expended $9,656,958
in State, Federal, and local funds for aid to dependent children. The funds
available for the present biennium, i. e., $10,712,000 for each fiscal year, make
possible an increase in expenditure of $1,055,042 for each fiscal year of the bien-
nium when compared to the expenditures in 1940-41. These increases were
made available to the Bureau primarily to eliminate the necessity of subjecting
applicants to a waiting period.
The aid to dependent children grants, except in Wayne County, have not been
issued on a minimum adequate standard because of the establishment of maximum
grants in 1939 which are still controlling. These maximum grants were estab-
lished to correspond to Federal allowances for dependent children except in one-
child families and families of six or more children. The following table sets forth
the maximum grants being paid in counties in the State other than Wayne:
Table V. — Maximum aid to dependent children grants exclusive of Wayne County
Maximum grant
Number of children
State
share
Federal
share
Total
1
$15
15
21
27
33
$9
15
21
27
33
$24
30
2 ..
3
42
4
54
5
66
tioroveri
1 Maximum grant of $70 subject to increase with approval of State office.
The Wayne County Board of Supervisors is contributing approximately
$81,000 per month which is matched with State aid to dependent children funds
to make possible additional expenditure of approximately $162,000 per month
to Wayne County recipients. The adequacy of the Wayne County grants as
compared with those in the other 82 counties is .shown by the following table:
Table VI. — Comparison of aid to dependent children grants for month of September
1941
^Vayne County
State exclusive of Wayne County
N'umber of children
Number
of families
Average
per family
Average
per child
Number
of families
Average
per family
Average
per child
1
2,862
2,190
1,277
631
310
124
48
27
11
2
$42.75
53.33
62.07
72.00
77.67
83.74
95.33
101.61
97.38
94.00
$42. 75
26.67
20.69
18.00
15.53
13.96
13.62
12.70
10.82
9.40
4,649
3,530
2,290
1.326
770
383
203
78
25
9
2
1
$21.25
27.73
38.27
48.37
57. 64
62.88
64.90
66.63
70.04
71.11
67.50
70.00
$21. 25
13.87
12.76
12.09
11.53
10.48
9.27
8.33
7.78
7.11
■2
3
4
5
€
8.... ...
•9. . . *
10 .
11
14
5 00
Total
7.482
13, 266
60396 41— pt. 18-
-33
7568 Dl TROIT HEAP'
Aid to dependent children recipients are con<" 'i-ited with increased shelter costs
in the same manner as old-age assistance and 'd to the blind recipients. How-
ever, because of the aid to dependent childn aximum grants in all counties,
except Wayne, these increased costs are not lly reflected in the State-wide
average monthly grant. (Wayne County avf te grant increased 34 cents per
case in August and 15 cents per case in SeptLJuber.) The maximum, grants do
not meet the budgetary deficiencies of most of the cases. This is illustrated by
the following comm.ent m.ade by the Administrative Review staff of the Social
Security Board after conducting a review in Jackson, Genesse, and Saginaw
Counties in the early months of 1941 : "It is noted that the amount of payment
in the aid to the blind and old-age assistance programs was closely related to need
as established by the agency. Large deficits arose in the aid to dependent chil-
dren program, because the maximum payments imposed by regulation of the State
agency do not allow for adequate assistance unless there is incom_e in the home."
The inadequate assistance provided aid to dependent children cases, as mentioned
in the statem.ent quoted above from the report of the Administrative Review
staff, will become more inadequate if the present trend of increased living costs
continues. Without additional funds being made available from State or Federal
sources the inadequacy of the ni.aximum. grants will increase further the discrep-
ancy between assistance pa.yments and actual needs.
Exhibit 5. — Defense Housing in Michigan
REPORT BY THE DIVISION OF DEFENSE HOUSING COORDINATION, EXECUTIVE OFFICE
OF THE PRESIDENT, WASHINGTON, D. C.
Defense activities in the greater Detroit area are spread out as far as 35 to 40
miles from downtown Detroit. Included in its conMruting fringe are all of Waj'ne
County as well as parts of Macomb, Oakland, and Washtenaw Counties. In addi-
tion to the Detroit -Highland Park-Hamtramck sector at the hub of the area, other
important defense centers are Pontiac and Ypsilanti. Further examination of the
labor, transportation, and housing characteristics of these two communities in
relation to Detroit may lead to the treatment of the housing situation in these
centers separately from, that in Detroit. The Coordinator of Defense Housing
has obtained as much information as is available in regard to the following factors:
1. Amount and type of prospective additions to the labor force.
2. The supply of suitable labor already resident in the area.
3. In the case of Army and Navy establishments the War or Navy Depart-
ments have provided information on the number of enlisted personnel who will
be brought into the area and who will require dwellings for their families.
4. The supply of vacant dwellings.
5. The ability of private enterprise to provide dwellings.
11,000 DWELLING UNITS RECOMMENDED
In the defense-housing program for the Detroit locality, the Coordinator of
Defense Housing has recom.mended that 11,000 dwelling units be built to accom-
modate the families of defense workers. Of these, the Coordinator has recom-
mended that 10,000 be provided by private enterprise at rentals from $30 to $60
per month. This recommendation for private construction was not considered
adequate for the entire need at the time it was issued, but the rapid development
of unemployment as a result of automobile production curtailment and material
shortages have warranted a reexamination of the situation. Such a study is under
way at the present time. The financing provisions of title VI of the National
Housing Act are available in Detroit, Pontiac, and Ypsilanti and will assist private
builders in their effort to meet a large part of the defense housing need in the area.
The remaining 1,000 units to be constructed by the Federal Works Agency have
been divided into a number of projects. It has been reconmiended that 200 dwell-
ing units for colored workers in industrial defense emploj^ment be constructed at
Detroit to rent for $20 to $30 a month. It has been recommended that 500
dwelling units for workers employed in defense industry be constructed at Center-
line in Macomb County, north of Detroit, to rent for $20 to $35 per month. The
construction of 300 units to rent for $20 to $30 per month has been recom.mended
for workers in defense industry' living at Wayne, west of Detroit. In addition to
the housing program for industrial defense workers, upon the recommendation of
the War Department, the Coordinator has programmed 130 dwelling units at
Mount Clemens for enlisted personnel of the Army air base at Selfridge Field;
construction on this project is complete and occupany is nearly complete.
The defense activities which make this i)rogram of housing in the greater
Detroit area necessary consist of about $800,000,000 of prime defense contracts.
NATIONAL r/.7EENSE MIGRSTION 7569
Of this amount, about $350,000,00Ci»"'for airplanes, engine parts, and equipment.
Other important products of this a for national defense are tanks, trucks,
ammunition, and machine guns. 1 'largest defense plant in the greater Detroit
area is the Ford bomber plant noV mder construction on Ecorse Road east of
Ypsilanti; ultimately the plant m|- ' employ as many as 7.5,000 workers. At
Pontiac, General Motors is manufsieturing military trucks on a large scale; and
in Warren Township just north of Detroit, the Chrysler Corporation is establishing
a new tank plant. At Dearborn and in the Detroit-Highland Park-Hamtramck
sector, established plants and new plants are being used to produce a variety of
defense products.
The employment situation in Detroit has become somewhat confused by the
rapid development of unemployment resulting from the automobile curtailment.
This factor has caused a rapid scaling down of original estimates of a very heavy
in-migration. Only a few months ago it appeared from surveys made by the
Bureau of Employment Security and other governmental agencies that a shortage
of 83,000 workers in the greater Detroit area would have to be met by in-migration.
It now appears, however, that at least a substantial proportion of this need can
be met locally from among the rapidly growing number of automobile workers to
be released through priority unemployment. While no definite figure can be
stated, the number of in-migrants to be needed in Detroit is but a small fraction
of the apparent need a few months ago. However, the allotment of additional
defense contracts might cause a rapid change in the picture during 1942.
In the I)etroit housing market area, which has been defined by the Federal
Housing Administration to include all the greater Detroit area except that part
around Mount Clemens, Pontiac, Plymouth, and Ypsilanti, there were 606,000
dwelling units on .July 1, 1941. Of these about 12,000 or roughly 2 percent were
vacant. In Pontiac, according to a special study of the Work Projects Admin-
istration, the percentage of vacant dwelling units had fallen to 1.6 as early as
February 1941. Ypsilanti is such a small town compared to the magnitude of
the Ford bomber plant which is being erected there that vacancies are already
nonexistent.
HOME REGISTRATION OFFICES
Homes registration offices are already operating in Detroit and Pontiac and
one is being organized in Ypsilanti. They will serve to provide in-migrant defense
workers with knowledge of available vacancies within their means.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics index of rents in Detroit rose from 67.6 in
December 1933 (1935-39 equals 100.0) to 114.8 in December 1937; but fell back
to 109.6 in September 1938. Since that time the index has remained relatively
stable. In July 1941 the index was 112.1. Since the beginning of the defense
emergency, rent levels have been relatively stable in all rent classes from the
lowest to the highest studied by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Local experts
say that new tenants are asked to pay $2.50 to $5 more than their predecessors,
but that rents are not being raised on present tenants. A special study of rents in
Pontiac by the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates that between October 1939
and April 1941 an increase of 7.0 percent in the total rent bill was effected. This
resulted from an average increase of 16.1 percent in the rentals paid on 50 percent
of the rented dwellings; rents remained unchanged or decreased for the other half
of the rented dwelUngs. The increase was most severe, both in amount and in
extent, for the lowest-rent brackets.
The Federal Housing Administration estimates that approximately 23,000
dwelling units were provided in the Detroit housing market area between April 1, '
1940, and April 1, 1941. It has been estimated that on the basis of the present
rate of construction in the area as many as 30,000 or 35,000 dwelling units would
be constructed between April 1, 1941, and April 1, 1942. However, it is quite
likely that the current shortage of building materials and the need for defense
housing priorities will substantially reduce this estimated volume of construction.
In the area discussed above, as elsewhere throughout the country, the defense-
housing program is necessarily flexible and subject to change in accordance with
changes in the nature and direction of the defense program as a whole. Further
expansion of defense industry beyond that now anticipated, or more rapid ex-
haustion of resident labor supplies than is believed likely, would necessitate revi-
sion of the housing program. This is particularly true in cities such as Detroit
where the complexity of the industrial organization and of the residential areas
makes the labor and housing analysis very difficult. Continuing reinvestigation
of these areas and especially of Detroit is therefore regularly carried on, so that
changes in the local housing requirements may be met by corresponding changes in
the programs for defense housing.
7570 DETROIT HEARINGS
Exhibit 6.^ — Problem of School Housing in Michigan
report by eugene b. elliott, superintendent, state of michigan depart-
ment of public instruction, lansing, mich.
September 12, 1941.
The problem of school housing in Michigan goes back to the adoption of the
15-mill tax limitation by constitutional provision effective December 8, 1932.
Since that time State, county, township, and school district taxes may not exceed
15 mills. A subsequent Supreme Court decision relative to the effective date of
the constitutional provision excluded city governments unless they, by a vote of
the people, chose to come within the provisions of the 15-mill limitation. To
date 11 cities have voted favorably to include themselves within the 15-mill
limitation. To escape from the provisions of this limitation requires two-thirds
vote of the people and then may be for a 5-year period only. At the time of the
adoption of this amendment "the State-wide indebtedness was approximately
$175,000,000. Most of it was for public enterprises in the crowded areas. Even
today many of these areas are further limited in their taxing ability by debt limits.
Because of the difficultv of further increasing their indebtedness the school-
housing problem has become increasingly difficult. The problem has been
accentuated by the fact that we have many small districts which are unable to
provide satisfactorv housing even though they secure a two-thirds majority vote
to do so. There are more than 6,000 school districts in the State. The highly
decentralized system has resulted in many small and inefficient high schools.
The problems of the Upper Peninsula are not quite as acute since school dis-
tricts have very generally reorganized into larger units although the tax limitations
limit their ability to provide satisfactory programs without assistance from the
State. ^ , , . , . . J
To meet the problem of current operation the State has been providmg mcreased
funds each vear since the adoption of the limitation until at the present time nearly
-$45,000,000 is provided. This represents approximately 50 percent of the total
school-operating costs.
School districts alreadv threatened with acute housing problems have been
greatlv worried over the. placement of many defense projects. The critical
areas 'include the territory about Battle Creek, Muskegon, the Chrysler Tank
Plant in Macomb County, Saginaw, Flint, Detroit, and Ypsilanti. A rapid
survey indicates school enrollments in the immediate areas of these defense
projects to be increased approximately 10 percent, although State-wide data
growing
" The real need is for housing facilities. We have felt that as far as possible and
consistent with good policv, funds should be provided so as to encourage sound
reorganization of small districts. This reorganization should come in such a way
that as far as possible the districts will become self-supporting. It was our
opinion that if a Federal board was so organized, that our office could work with
it in a consulting capacity which would materially improve he possibility of
.securing sound reorganization.
We have greatly appreciated the splendid cooperation which we have already
had from Federal officials.
Exhibit 7. — Training-Within-Industry in Michigan
report BY MILTON M. OLA.NDER, DISTRICT REPRESENTATIVE) O. F. CARPENTER.
ASSOCIATE DISTRICT REPRESENT.\TIVE; CA.RL D. WHEATON, ASSISTANT DISTRICT
REPRESENTATIVE, DISTRICT NO. 13, MICHIGAN AND LUCAS COUNTY, OHIO; TRAIN-
ING-WITHIN-IXDUSTRY BRANCH, LABOR DIVISION, OFFICE OF PRODUCTION
MANAGEMENT
District No. 13, Training-Within-Industry, Labor Division, Office of Produc-
tion Management, comprising the State of Michigan and Lucas County in Ohio,
is one of the 22 areas into which the United States has been divided.
' The functions of these districts is to administer training-within-industry infor-
mation, set up training programs, advise on general training practices already
set up, and promote the training idea in our national-defense plants. Detroit is
a particularlv vital spot because of its concentrated automotive industries whicli
are being converted to the manufacture of defense materials. Another phase
of this prol)lem is that this area has not been especially active in the maiuifacturc
of aircraft, and since the defense program has been in effect large numbers ot
XATIOXAL DEFE^'SB MIGRATION 7571
planes of varioiLs types are to be built here. This necessitates two factors: P'irst,
men must be trained for this new work ; second, men must be brought to this area
to fill these jobs.
Before going into the various phases of this paper, it might be well to view the
set-up of District No. 13, Training- Within-Industry, Labor Division, Office of
Production Management, from an organizational point of view. In order to facili-
tate the reading of this, perhaps, a chart will suffice.
OFFICE OF PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT
Labor Division
training-within-industry branch
C. R. Dooley, Director; Walter Dietz, Associate Director. Headquarters at
Washington, headquarters staff.
DISTRICT NO. 13, STAFF, MICHIGAN AND LUCAS COUNTY, OHIO
M. M. Olander, district representative.
O. F. Carpenter, associate district representative.
Carl D. Wheaton, assistant district representative.
Doris M. Cochran, stenographer-clerk.
Eva L. Jackson, stenographer-clerk.
DISTRICT NO. 13, ADVISERS, MICHIGAN AND LUCAS COUNTY, OHIO
WiUis H. Hall, manager, industrial division, Detroit Board of Commerce.
John Reid, secretary, Michigan State Federation of Labor.
Walter Reuther, regional director, United Automobile Workers of America.
Frank Rising, general manager. Automotive Parts & Equipment Manufacturers.
DISTRICT NO. 13, DETROIT CONSULTANTS, MICHIGAN AND LUCAS COUNTY, OHIO
Earl Bedell, Director of Vocational Education, Board of Education.
Chester A. Cahn, secretary. Automotive Tool & Die Manufacturers.
Edward L. Cushman, Chief of Occupational Adjustment Service, Michigan Un-
employment Compensation Commission.
Cy Newcomb, manager. Central Placement Office, Michigan jState Employment
Service.
W. E. Stirton, director. Vocational Education Program for National Defense.
John_j Wagner, district director. National Youth Administration.
DISTRICT NO. 13, DETROIT PANEL MEMBERS, MICHIGAN AND LUCAS COUNTY, OHIO
John M. Amiss, director of industrial education, Chr^-sler Corporation.
Carl S. Carlson, international representative, International Association of Ma-
chinists.
M. A. Clark, manager, industrial and public relations. United States Rubber Co.
Foster L. Frahck, vice president and general manager, Koestlin Tool & Die Cor-
poration.
James K. Fulks, factory manager, Ex-Cell-0 Corporation.
Albert Goodwin, educational director, Murray Corporation of America.
Inez Hooper, secretary, operations committee, Chrysler Corporation.
Violet Merrill, employment secretary. Young Women's Christian Association.
George W. Miller, defense coordinator. United Automobile Workers of America.
H. W. Roberts, educational director, Fisher Body Division, General Motors Cor-
poration.
H. J. Roesch, director of industrial relations, Briggs Manufacturing Co.
Thomas P. Ross, Federal Committee on Apprenticeship.
F. E. Searle, superintendent, Henry Ford Trade School.
Mattiegrace Sharpe, assistant employment manager, the Detroit Edi.«on Co.
Albert Sobe}', director. General Motors Institute.
Wayne Stettbacher, director of apprentice training. Employers Association of
Detroit.
Blair K. Swartz, supervisor of personnel research, the Detroit Edison Co.
Ruth Trowbridge, supervisor of supervisors, Ternstedt Manufacturing Co.
Robert G. Waldron, personnel director, Hudson Motor Car Co.
Clarence E. Weiss, industrial relations manager, Packard Motor Car Co.
DISTRICT NO. II, TOLEDO PANEL MEMBERS, MICHIGAN AND LUCAS COUNTY, OHIO
C. T. Black, Libbey Glass Co.
E. J. Bodette, Ohio State Employment Service.
F. M. Dannenfelser, Vocational High School.
7572 DETROIT HEARINGS
A. M. Degner, Surface Combustion Corporation.
J. M. Froehlich, Toledo Central Labor Union.
Stanley Grove, Chamber of Commerce.
B. A. Hart, Ohio Bell Telephone Co.
Fred Hoeft, Doehler Die Casting Co.
John Jones, Spicer Manufacturing Corporation.
Claude Pound, Electric Auto-Lite Co.
F. J. Sanders, Standard Oil Co.
0. C. Schultz, National Supply Co.
1. P. Smith, Hettrick Manufacturing Co.
J. C. W. Smith, WiUys-Overland Motors, Inc.
Clifford L. Wade, apprentice field representative.
H. J. Weyrich, DeVilbiss Co.
The objectives of the organization in this District are training-on-the job of
personnel to cover these three classifications: L Production workers (machine
operators); 2. Supervision (foremen, etc.); 3. Skilled men (apprentices), and to
aid in all matters pertaining to labor supply.
The entire organization is calculated to enhance defense-production schedules
by assisting in the development of skilled workmen through training. Panel
members are given definite plants to survey and make recommendations in train-
ing programs. The advisers, two from labor and two from management, are
used to steer the poUcies of the district office. If these policies come from Wash-
ington, they assist in the interpretation of them. The consultants are called on
for informa'tion of various types as indicated by their titles. This office does not
necessarily stop with these persons fisted as consultants if it feels that the informa-
tion might be secured from unlisted governmental agencies.
In an area like Detroit, there are many plants that have had training policies
and programs established for years past. These plants can enrich the field of
ideas handed down by the headquarters office in the training-within-industry
bulletins. This is one reason why many men and women are selected from large
industries. Another reason is that these people are able to work out programs for
smaller companies due to their previous success and experience.
The district office is able to bring to the attention of defense contractors the
availability of manpoM-er needs, governmental agencies, such as the vocational
education program for national defense. Civilian Conservation Corps, Work
Projects Administration, National Youth Administration, the State Employment
Service, and other relationships that might aid in their training program.
The discussion of the various types of skilled and semiskilled classifications is
best stated bv using generalities. Tool makers are tool makers whether in
defense work 'or nondefense work. Materials produced on screw machines,
lathes, milling machines, etc., do not change very much in the defense field from
what they were in the nondefense field. The main changes probably lie in the
assembly" of aircraft, the whole field of riveting, and in some of the welding.
The problem of conversion in the fields of machine tools is one thing and the train-
ing of new workers in the aircraft field is another. The larger plants in this area
are tackling this conversion training program on their own initiative in anticipa-
tion of the reduction of automobile production and the building up of airplane
production. Due to the fact that the technological developments in the auto-
motive field have covered many years, the switching to airplane production pre-
sents a sudden specific series of problems. Inasmuch as it is impossible to import
employees for airplane construction, training programs necessarily become
vitally important.
The local training-within-industry office was set up early in February 1941
under the direction of a district representative, associate district representative,
assistant district representative and one stenographer-clerk. A short time later
another stenographer-clerk was added. Lists of manufacturers had to be built
up. Manpower was not in its cramped position as it is today. Facilities wih
which to acquaint contractors had to be worked out. A local panel with advisers
and consultants had to be selected. All of these details took time. Much dis-
cussion arose as to how this oflRce could best contact local defen.se contractors. _
At one of the early panel meetings, the material listed in the training-within-
industry bulletins and the experiences of many of the panel men were broken
down into a series of charts. These charts are titled as follows :
I. The training-within-indu.stry organization and program:
A. Preemploynvent and supplementary training program for national-
defense" industries carried out by the vocational-education
program for national defense.
II. General analysis of training problem in national-defense industries.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7573
III. The company's training problem:
Aid:
Check questions.
General plan for plant sheet.
IV. Induction of new workers:
Aid:
Sample induction outline.
Induction procedure outline.
V. Training of trainers or job trainers:
Aid:
(a) Job requii-ement chart.
(6) Training record.
(c) Reminder sheet.
(d) Instructor's planning sheet.
VI. Developing supervision:
Aid: Starting supervisory training.
VII. Trade apprenticeship:
Aid: Trade apprenticeship.
VIII. Sources of new employees:
Aid:
Defense employers.
Local sources of employees.
IX. Summary and discussion:
Aid: Developing your manpower needs.
These were used in the following manner: A series of three weekly meetings
were scheduled to which about 50 defense contractors had been invited. Our
experience has been that about three-fifths of these people came to the meetings.
The first night was devoted to the first three sections of chart material including
such discussion and questions as might arise. The second meeting was devoted to
the next three sections of the chart material; and the third meeting, the last three
sections of the chart material. Those presentations were given by members of
the local staff and panel men who were best suited for this work. Some 250
invitations have been sent out to date with approximately 175 responses to the
invitations. In addition to these conferences, there has been in the neighborhood
of 100 contacts made otherwise. The local panel feels that the conference method
is a speedy and successful way of acquainting plants with the program and work-
ing out training problems. As to the exact number of men this program has
reached, we can only guess, because many of those ideas on training have been
received and introduced into the plants of defense contractors, and no reply has
ever been obtained as to how manj' men were reached. There are representatives
of all the agencies and plants at all sessions including National Youth Adminis-
tration, Work Projects Administration, State Employment Service and Federal
Committee on Apprenticeship. Representatives from the Defense Contracts
Service and Priorities Division of the Office of Production Management are asked
to attend for special occasions where they can be of assistance. After these ses-
sions are completed a careful follow-up is made to ascertain if further assistance is
needed, and where requests are made, a personal survey is conducted to assist in
establishment of personnel standards and to check on the efficiency of the entire
program of training-within-industry within the organization.
This district has long had a large number of employers who have been training-
conscious, and many of the best in-plant training plans are in operation at all
times. These firms have given liberally of the training experts' time to further
the training-within-industry program.
In normal times the area included in district No. 13 builds transportation
units, power plants and precision parts, as well as many other articles in metal.
Under the present emergency, adjustment to meet the new demands has been
made without throwing the organization out of gear.
Obviously, building tanks, aircraft, and ordnance is quite different from build-
ing automobiles. It was discovered early that aircraft production required a
specific training in order to produce men who could build aircraft assemblies to
meet Army and Navy specifications.
There is also a definite relation between the training-within-industry office
and the vocational education for national defense office. Sometimes training
problems are carried on out of the plant and sometimes in the plant, but the plan
of this program has been the result of cooperation between the two offices. The
data submitted by some of the other informants may be useful in arriving at this
figure.
7574 DETROIT HEARINGS
The proposed automobile curtailment will affect this office as our facilities will
be in greater demand due to the additional training necessary to complet(> the
conversion. Many of the skills used in automobile construction can be quickly
converted into defense construction as has been stated before. There are many
remaining skills in which training programs must be made available.
The cooperation we are receiving from both management and labor is verj* good.
Our advisory group, which has been explained and presented previously, has given
us their best in cooperation. We not only call them together for discussion, but
we feel free to call them on the telephone at any time when a problem arises that
we think demands their attention.
This office feels that training-within-industry is playing a definite part in the
defense program in Michigan and Lucas County, Ohio. If nothing further is
done than to make the industries of this area training-conscious, a much-needed
job has been accomplished.
Before the cut in automobile production became effective, it was estimated that
the Detroit area alone would require by June 1, 1942, approximately 200,000 men
in addition to those on the pay roll June 1, 1941, in order to carry through the
projected program of defense material. At present it appears that with a 20 to
30 percent reduction soon, and a 50 percent ultimate reduction in automotive
production, from 60,000 to 90,000 men may be released to go into defense produc-
tion, and a large part of these will be retrained to do the job in a comparatively
short time. This would leave approximately 100,000 to be trained, who have had
little or no experience in the metal working trades.
The classification of jobs required for normal production in the area might be
briefly stated as follows in order of their numbers:
(1) Assemblers.
(2) Machine operators.
(3) Service and maintenance.
(4) Tool makers.
(5) Die makers (model makers and pattern makers) .
(6) Designers, engineers, and draftsmen.
Under the defense program there should be a reduction ip (1) and an increase
in most of the other groups which might reclassify thus:
(1) Operators (hand tools, welders, riveters, and single-purpose machines).
(2) Assemblers.
(3) Die makers.
(4) Tool makers.
(5) Service and maintenance.
(6) Designers, engineers, and draftsmen.
The difference in requirements of the two jobs of normal and defense produc-
tion might be stated thus, in defense production the limits of tolerances and in-
spection are stepped up and more rigid, although, in the production of auto-
mobiles and automobile parts, these are held very closely, and the tightening up
will be a lesser problem.
The main difficulty will be the training of assemblers to do machine operation
and to provide enough skilled men to produce the tools, jigs and fixtures, dies
and gages, and to make designs to keep up with engineering and specification
changes.
Training welders and riveters to build aircraft, and inspectors for parts and
equipment in addition to the above, together with supervisors and foremen about
completes the picture. Of course, in addition, the apprentice program must be
carried on and augmented. Trainers must be trained, and all of the factors
which go to make up a balanced production schedule to meet and beat contract
dates must be maintained.
The only problem that faces the training within industry organization in
district No. 13 is the magnitude of the program and the progress which is being
made in developing new subcontractors. There is no problem of selling this idea
except to get to the contractors which number 12,500 now and are ever on the
increase.
There is a complete understanding between training-within-industry and all
the agencies, especially the State board of control for vocational education and
the local vocational offices.
Contacts are made where the vocational education training for defense pro-
gram can step in and provide instructors for both preemployment and supple-
mentary groups. Labor and management in the area are cooperating 100 percent
as far as the training programs are concerned.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7575
The success of the tramnig-within-mdustry program to date indicates that there
is a need for a permanent organization of this type which would function in
normal times stressing training and acting as a liaison office between existing
agencies. The labor supply and its adjustment to meet the variations of the
economic world of the future indicates a need for just this type of organization.
Exhibit 8. — Program of Vocational Training for Defense
Workers in Michigan
REPORT BY GEORGE H. FERN, DIRECTOR, MICHIGAN STATE BOARD OF CONTROL
FOR VOCATIONAL EDUCATION, LANSING, MICH.
On July 1, 1940, the Michigan State Board of Control for Vocational Education
submitted to the United States Office of Education, Federal Security Agency, the
first State plan for vocational training of defense workers. The purpose of this
plan was to provide a cooperative relationship with the United States Govern-
ment, through the Office of Education, for the establishment and operation of
vocational education programs to supply trained workers for industries essential
to the national defense. The plan was also for the purpose of establishing an
administrative organization and procedure for the expenditure of funds appropri-
ated bv the United States Congress for this program.
On julv 8, the State director was notified by telegram that the Michigan plan
had been" approved, and the first training program in Michigan was in operation
that night in the Flint public schools.
Subsequentlv two separate, additional State plans were drawn up, submitted
to the United" States Office of p]ducation, approved and put into operation in
Michigan. One provided for the training of out-of-school rural and nonrural
youth, and the other for vocational training of youth employed on National Youth
Administration work projects.
FEDERAL APPROPRIATIONS
The Federal Government allocated $1,942,253.83 to Michigan for the operations
of plan 1 training programs; $216,852 for plan 2 (out-of-school rural and nonrural
voiith) training programs; and $276,000 for plan 3 (vocational training of youth
employed on National Youth Administration work projects) training programs.
Provision was made also for necessary equipment. There was no matching of
these funds by State or local funds.
EXTENT OF THE TRAINING
The United States Office of Education and the State boards for vocational edu-
cation in the several States assumed the responsibility for training 1,000,000 men
during the year July 1, 1940, to June 30, 1941. One million five hundred thousand
men were trained during that period, within the operating budgets prescribed by
Congress. In Michigan approximately 75,000 men were trained for jobs within
the industries essential to or related to the national defense during the first year
of the program for vocational training for defense workers.
ADMINISTRATION OF THE PROGRAM
The vocational education program for national defense was developed and ad-
ministered bv the State board of control for vocational education through the
staff of this board, with the director of the State board responsible for the program.
The training courses described in plan 1 — preemployment refresher training and
supplementary training — were administered through the trade and industrial
education division of the State board. Courses operating under the provisions of
plan 2 were administered through the agricultural education division of the State
board; courses operating under plan 3 were administered by the trade and indus-
trial education division, the business education division, or the homemaking educa-
tion division, according to the nature of the instruction.
7576 DETROIT HEARINGS
While the State board utilized the supervisory staff of these divisions in in-
augurating the program, it was soon necessary to employ additional State super-
visory and other personnel in order to efficiently carry out the provisions of the
State plan. The qualifications and duties of the State supervisory staff were out-
lined in the State plans, and were in accordance with qualifications and duties
prescribed for the State supervisory staff in the general program of vocational
education. (See Bull. 201, Michigan State Board of Control for Vocational
Education.) The State supervisory staff for national defense training programs
was charged with the additional duty of assisting in preparation of local plans;
assisting in organizing local representative advisory committees when necessarj'^;
recommending to the State director the approval of local statistical and financial
reports; recommending for approval the qualifications of local supervisors and
teachers; exercising supervision over the program of vocational training for defense
workers; cooperating with the State and local employment services; and super-
vising the improvement of teachers. The accompanying administrative chart
shows the State administrative organization.
REPRESENTATIVE ADVISORY COMMITTEES
Each State plan, as described herein, operated with the advice and council of a
State representative advisory committee, appointed by the director. Members of
these committees were representative of employers, organized labor, education,
and such other agencies as are vitally concerned with the program of vocational
education for defense workers. Members of these committees rendered service
without cost, other than approved travel allowances necessary for attending meet-
ings called by the State director. These committees counseled with staff members
on matters pertaining to the organization, promotion, technical details, and im-
provement of programs operated under their respective plans. Members of the
State representative advisory committee for plan 1 were as follows:
Chairman. — George H. Fern, director, State board of control for vocational
education.
Employers. — Harrv J. Kelley, American Seating Co., Grand Rapids; George
Julian, Olds Motor Works, Lansing; Henry J. Roesch, Briggs Manufacturing Co.,
Detroit; and William J. Cronin, Michigan Auto Manufacturers Association,
Detroit.
Labor. — John Reid, secretary, Michigan Federation of Labor, Lansmg; August
Scholle, regional director. Congress of Industrial Organizations, 803 Hofmann
Building, Detroit; George Grosser, Michigan Federation of Labor, Kalamazoo;
George W. Dean, Michigan Federation of Labor, Lansing; Ben Probe, executive
secretary, State Industrial Union Council, 803 Hofmann Building, Detroit; and
Tracy Doll, president of the Wayne County Union Council, 803 Hofmann Build-
ing, Detroit.
School. — Earl L. Bedell, director of vocational education, 1354 Broadway,
Detroit; Chester F. Miller, superintendent of schools, Saginaw; and F. W. Dalton,
chief, trade and industrial education division, Lansing.
State department of labor and industry. — John Gibson, commissioner of labor,
department of labor and industry, Lansing.
National Youth Administration. — Orin Kaye, State director, National Youth
Administration, Lansing.
Michigan State Employment Service. — Edward L. Cushman, chief of special
services, Michigan State Employment Service, 14320 Woodward, 'Detroit.
Work Projecis Administradon. — Abner Larned, State director. Work Projects
Administration, Lansing.
Civilian Conservation Corps. — Sam Hill, Civilian Conservation Corps, Ludington
Camp, Walhalla, Ludington.
Negro. — Lewis C. Blount, vice president and secretary, the Great Lakes Mutual
Insurance Co., 301 E. Warren, Detroit.
Members of the State representative advisory committee for plan 2 were as
follows: W. G. Armstrong, master, Michigan State Grange; R. J. Baldwin,
director, extension department, Michigan State College; C. L. Brody, secretary,
Michigan State Farm Bureau; Edward L. Cushman, chief of special services;
George Grosser, Michigan Federation of Labor; R. V. Hanchett, Hanchett
Manufacturing Co.; Sam Hill, Camp Walhalla, Civilian Conservation Corps;
Charles King, factory manager, Clark Equipment Co.; S. P. Martin, president,
Farmers Union; and Ben Probe, executive secretary, State Industrial Union
Council. ^
The State representative advisory committee for plan 1 served as the State
representative advisory committee for plan 3.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7577
The State plans specified that each local community should organize a repre-
sentative advisory comnaittee composed of representatives of employers, organ-
ized labor, education, and such other agencies as are definitely concerned with
the training program. These local committees were limited in their functions
to counseling and advising with the school officials in other than supervisory or
administrative matters. They assisted in determining the occupations or jobs
for which training should ge given; determining the number of persons to be
trained; assisting in selection of trainees; helping to determine the length of
training periods; developing, with school officials, the content of courses; and
as.sisting in placement of students, although this was the responsibility of the
Michigan State Employment Service.
SUPERVISION AND CONTROL
State plans specified that all instructional programs of vocational education
for defense workers should be under public supervision and control, and that all
programs confered by these plans should be of less than college grade, as defined
in the United States Office of Education policies. No boundary lines of public-
school jurisdiction were observed in making defense- training courses available
to trainees.
QUALIFICATIONS OF TEACHERS
Teachers qualified under the provisions of the Michigan State plan for vocational
education (Bulletin 201) were eligible for teaching positions in the national-
defense program. All teachers were required to meet the standards for either shop
or related subject teachers, and to be certified by the State board of control for
vocational education. Provisions were made for improvement of instruction,
and for in-service teacher training. Such training conferences were called by the
State director and were under the -supervision of the division concerned with the
training program involved.
SELECTION OP TRAINEES
In the selection of persons for training, the Michigan State Employment Service,
the Works Projects Administration, and the National Yough Administration were
accredited referral agencies, except for the supplementary training courses under
plan 1. Trainees for these courses were referred to the school by their employers
and labor organization. Local communities were encouraged also to make the
training program known through all other media at their command. Newspaper
articles, radio broadcasts, school and organizational publications, club news let-
ters, churches, civic groups, etc., were all asked to cooperate in making the training
program generally known. The State board of control for vocational education
assisted local communities, as far as possible, in advertising the availability of
national-defense training courses.
It was mandatory that prospective trainees should register with the Michigan
State Employment Service, if they were not already registered.
To enter plan 1 training courses, trainees were required to be 18 years of age;
plan 2 and plan 3 trainees were restricted to the ages of 17 to 24, inclusive.
Selection of trainees was made the responsibility of the local school officials.
Only those who were phj'sieally and mentally capable of benefiting from the
training, and capable of satisfactorily filling jobs within the defense industries,
eligible. Representative advisor.y committees were charged with the responsi-
bility of working with school officials in interviewing and selecting trainees, and
instructors were asked to be constantly on the alert to determine whether students
were profiting by the instruction given, and could be adjusted to employment.
Students were dropped if it was ascertained that they could not be fitted for em-
ployment, and their places filled by other trainees, requisitioned from the accepted
referral agencies.
Local school authorities, with the help of representative advisory committees
and assistance of the State board of control for vocational education, were in-
structed to provide a vocational guidance service and tests to determine the stu-
dent's ability to profit by the instruction given, in accordance with the employment
standards of the occupations concerned.
NO SEX OR RACIAL DISCRIMINATION ALLOWED
It was written into the State plans that "no trainee under the foregoing appro-
priations shall be discriminated against because of sex, race, or color; and where
separate schools are required by law for separate population groups, to the extent
7578 DETROIT HEARINGS
needed for trainees of each such group, equitable provision shall be made for facili-
ties and training of like quality.
TYPES OF COURSES
Two tj'pes of instruction were given in practically all national-defense training
courses- — shop work and related instruction. Both were of intensely practical
nature, and instructors were required to have had actual trade experience, unless
they were giving certain related instructional courses. The instruction was or-
ganized and conducted on a short, intensified unit basis, designed to fit trainees
for specific pay-roll jobs, in accordance with standard practices. No tuition,
laboratory, or registration fees of any kind were charged.
PROVISIONS FOR PLAN 1 COURSES
Training for national defense was seen in the initial planning as essential on
two main levels. Men already employed should be up-graded and enabled to
advance to more important work within their present employing organizations.
For these, supplementary courses were provided. Unemployed men would
require training, or retraining in cases where through long periods of unemploy-
ment they had lost their skills and abilities, and their knowledge of modern
methods and technological processes. For these two groups of unemployed, a
preemployment refresher type of instruction was developed.
SUPPLEMENTARY COURSES
The State board of control for vocational education was authorized to use
Federal funds appropriated for vocational education for defense workers to pay
in full, either directh" or through reimbursement, the cost of operating courses
in local commiuiities which were definitely supplementary to employment.
These courses were conducted in the local communities as evening and part-time
trade extension classes for persons employed in industries essential to national
defense. Classes were conducted for any length or period of time necessary to
meet the needs of the "\a orkers in the industries concerned, and could be conducted
at any time duriiig the 24 hours of the day.
PREEMPLOYMENT REFRESHER COURSES
These courses were conducted under the same administrative policy as supple-
mentary courses. They were organized for individuals who needed training
before they could qualify for employment. Such courses were also held at any
time during the day or night, and for periods varying from 6 to 8 hours in length
per day, for any period of weeks necessary to prepare persons for specific pay-roll
jobs. The usual length of such courses was 10 to 12 weeks.
PROVISIONS FOR PLAN 2 COURSES
During the first year of national-defense training, two types of instruction were
possible under plan 2, general preemployment courses and specific preemployment
preparatory. The controlling pur])ose was to provide courses designed to meet
the needs of out-of-school rural and nonrural youth, which would serve as basic
vocational instruction to increase their employability as defense workers. Specific
preemployment preparatory courses were designed to prepare these youth for
employment for specific jobs in the occupations essential to the national defense.
GENERAL PREEMPLOYMENT COURSES
General preemployment courses were organized in the following areas: (1)
Operation, care, and repair of tractors, trucks, and automobiles including both
gas and Diesel engines; (2) metal work including simple welds, tempering, drilling,
shaping, and machinery repair; (3) woodworking; and (4) elementary electricity,
including operation, care, and repair of electrical equii^ment.
SPECIFIC PREEMPLOYMENT PREPARATORY COURSES
Specific preemployment preparatory courses were organized in the following
areas: (1) Riveting; (2) welding; (3) machine shop jobs, such as lathe work,
drill press operation, bench work; (4) aircraft sheet metal work; and (5) radio
service and rei)air.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7579
Plan 2 courses, as all others, could be organized at any time during the 24 hours
of the day whenever facilities were available. No course could be approved for
less than 15 clock-hours of instruction except in the case of courses for Civilian
Conservation Corps enrollees who were considered "rural youth." In the case of
Civilian Conservation Corps enrollees, courses could not be approved for less than
8 clock-hours of instruction per week, and these courses were limited to Civilian
Conservation Corps enrollees only. Specific preemployment preparatory courses
could not be operated for less than a minimum of 30 clock-hours per week, or for
less than 8 weeks in length. Courses could be organized for National Youth
Administration project workers provided the instruction was offered for not less
than 15 clock-hours per week and the course was at least 8 weeks in length.
It was contemplated that at least 75 percent of all youths enrolled in plan 2
courses should be bona fide rural youth and that this percentage should not be
allowed to drop below 65 percent.
PROVISIONS OF PLAN 3 COURSES
The controlling purpose of vocational education courses for youth employed
on National Youth Administration work projects was to provide training courses
and related or other necessary instruction which would serve to increase the
employability of these 3'ouths as defense workers. Courses offered under this
plan were to provide instruction in preparation for, or related to, the production
of equipment and supplies needed for defense, and also instruction related to or
in preparation for services which provide for the food, clothing, shelter, and
morale of the worker. The director of the State board of control for vocational
education conferred with the State administrator of the National Youth Adminis-
tration on the program of work projects including the nature and location of the
projects, as they related to the instructional program. The State board of control
for vocational education was made responsible for the control and supervision of
all training or additional programs for youth employed by the National Youth
Administration on work projects. In cases where it was impossible for the in-
struction and the work which these people were doing on the project to be corre-
lated, every effort was made to vitalize instruction in terms of the abilities, needs,
and interests of these trainees. The following types of courses were operative
under this plan: (1) Courses organized to give extension training supplementary
to the work experience provided by the National Youth Administration work
project; (2) courses organized to give preparatory training as an aid in the occu-
pational adjustment of National Youth Administration workers; and (3) other
necessary instruction designed to enlarge the civic or vocational intelligence of
young people employed on National Youth Administration work projects.
Only young people employed by the National Youth Administration on work
projects were eligible for enrollment in these courses. The minimum enrollment,
was established as 10 and the minimum clock-hours for workers on resident work
projects was 15 hours per week. For workers on nonresident work projects the
number of hours of training per week was determined by the needs or interests of
the group to be served, but in no case, less than 8 hours per week.
RECOGNITION OF TRAINING
All persons who completed satisfactorily one or more uni^s of instruction were
entitled to receive vocational training record cards signed by the proper school offi-
cials. These cards certified the units or courses of instruction completed. Ap-
proved record cards were available from the United States Office of Education
to the State board of control for vocational education, and through the State
board to the local schools.
PLACEMENT
Upon completion of a course, the local school provided the Michigan State
Employment Service with a complete list of trainees who had satisfactorily com-
pleted the courses, including information concerning the skills acquired by each
trainee, for the use of the employment office in placing these trainees on jobs in
the defense industries. Placement was the responsibility of the Michigan State
Employment Office, and the placement records of the local schools were incidental
only. Some of these reports were made to the schools by the employers; others
by the trainees. School placement records, therefore, are not complete.
7580 DETROIT HEARINGS
EQUIPMENT FOR NATIONAL DEFENSE TRAINING
It was recognized at tlie outset that the public school shops were not equipped
with the necessary machines and tools to give an adequate course of instruction
in Defense training. The State plans accordingly provided that Federal funds
could be used by the director of the State board for the cost of necessary equip-
ment, either purchase or rental, and the installation of this equipment. These
funds could be used only for the purpose of completing the instructional equip-
ment of a school shop already partially equipped, and the only equipment approved
was that necessary to accommodate the number of trainees for whom it was desir-
able to provide instruction. The Federal Government allowed Michigan to spend
$196,324 for equipment for plan 1 programs during the first year of administration
of the program. In plan 2, the State board was authorized to spend not in excess
of 40 percent of the total allotment for equijiment. In plan 3, the State board
could spend up to 25 percent of the total allotment for equipment.
Title to all equipment purchased by the State board of control for vocational
education from Federal defense training funds, was retained by the State board
for the Federal Government. This equipment could be assigned or loaned to
other communities as training needs changed or new needs developed.
INSTRUCTIONAL SERVICES
Many of the instructors in national-defense training courses have been men
recruited from industry who have had little or no previous teaching experience.
To assist these men, the State board of control for vocational education has issued
teaching guides and hints through the regular, periodical official releases, has
provided instructional manuals, and has held teacher training conferences and
staff meetings. A visual aids service has also been provided, whereby instructors
could procure, without cost, training and instructional films from the film library
of the State board. At all teacher-training conferences and stafiF meetings, ample
opportunity has been given these instructors to raise questions and to introduce
problems, and every effort has been made to assist them in arriving at sound
solutions.
COOPERATION WITH OTHER AGENCIES
The state board of control for vocational education has enjoyed the fullest
cooperation of other agencies interested in national-defense training. The Michi-
gan State Employment Service has made available their information concerning
labor needs and available untrained labor supply. This organization has also
made every effort both to refer unemployed, untrained men to the training classes
conducted by the local schools, and to place trainees in defense jobs as soon as
they have satisfactorily completed their training courses. The Work Projects
Administration has acted also as a major referral agency, cooperating with local
schools in supplying employable trainees for courses. Both agencies have stood
ready to refere employable persons to these courses both at the beginning of
training periods, and at any time during a training period when other trainees
dropped out thus leaving vacancies in the class enrollment ranks.
Industrialists have been no less cooperative. There has been growing evidence
of inutual understanding between industrialists and school officials during the
past year, and in some instances special training courses were established with a
definite job guaranty by an industry in advance of enrollment, for all trainees
who were referred to them by the school at the close of a training period. This
interworking has been accomplished most readily in communities where there was
a strong, functioning representative advisory committee.
Organized labor has worked with the State board, the local schools, and all of
the foregoing agencies, in furthering and strengthening the training program.
TRAINING FOR NEGROES
The Michigan State Board of Control for Vocational Education has maintained
no separate service for Negro trainees. Negroes have been referred to the train-
ing courses by both the Michigan State Employment Service and the Work
Projects Administration, and have been accepted for training on the same basis
as applicants for training from any other race. Employability has been the
determining factor. The State board has, however, engaged one Negro supervisor
who first worked in Detroit to explain the program to members of the Negro race,
encourage them to enroll, and to alleviate any problems which might arise. This
supervisor has assisted also in other cities whenever it appeared that his services
would be of value.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7581
The State board has also held conferences with Negro leaders, both to encourage
them to direct their unemployed and employable men to these courses, and to
answer their questions.
As of September 1, 1941, 3,056 Negroes had taken training in preemployment
courses since the beginning of the training program. Of these, 210 were known
to have secured employment and 514 were still enrolled in preemployment training
courses. These figures do not include the Work Projects Administration or
Michigan State Employment Service placement figures.
Michigan cities which had enrolled Negroes were Allegan, Battle Creek, Bay
City, Detroit, Ecorse, Fhnt, Grand Rapids, Hamtramck, Highland Park, Jackson,
Kalamazoo (and Western Michigan College of Education at Kalamazoo), Lansing,
Lincoln Park, Muskegon, Niles, Pontiac, River Rouge, Saginaw, Wayne, and
Ypsilanti.
PERSONS TRAINED IN MICHIGAN
Each month the State board of control for vocational education has compiled
a statistical report on enrollments, from the enrollment figures submitted by the
local schools. To take a total from these monthlv statistical reports as the num-
ber trained would be misleading. Some courses were conducted for 2 to 4 weeks
longer than others; 10 to 12 weeks was the usual course period, but there were
exceptions to even this fluctuating course length. There were also drop-outs
to be considered in each training period. These were the trainees who remained
in the course until they had accjuired the specific knowledge or skill for which they
enrolled and then discontinued the course; the trainees who were called to em-
ployment before finishing their course; and the trainees whom the schools rejected
when they were convinced that these persons could not be made employable.
The State board estimates that at least 75,000 persons were trained, including
the drop-outs who left for reasons other than dismissal. The monthly statistical
report would indicate a much higher number.
Monthly enrollment reports
[Plan 2 and Plan 3 courses did not start until late in December or in January]
Planl
Plan 2
Plans
Planl
Plan 2
Plana
July 1940
1,756
3,815
5,279
5,138
6,037
6,783
January 1941
February
7,277
8,880
10, 413
11, 637
12, 944
14, 038
1,068
1,589
2,692
2,439
1,398
538
1,833
2,713
March ._. .
2,635
April
3,895
November
May.-
2,366
June --- -
1,057
THE PROGRAM, 1941-42
With the beginning of the present fiscal year (July 1, 1941, to June 20, 1942),
the three State plans under which national-defense training has been administered
were slightly changed, in order to facilitate procedures in the light of experience
and knowledge. The three revised State plans are now in process of publication.
None of the changes were of major significance. In plan 2, only one type of
training is now being offered — General pre-employment. Plan 1 was expanded to
include provision for training of youth employed on National Youth Administra-
tion defense work projects, and plan 3 was restricted to training of other young
people employed by the National Youth Administration on other than defense
work projects. Special provision was also made in plan 1 for training of men in
military service.
The State board and local communities are now standing ready to swing into
the retraining program necessitated by curtailment of the automotive industry
and expansion of defense production. In cities where there will be transfers of
workers from automotive jobs to other jobs, in the defense industries, training
programs are to be initiated prior to the lay-off's which will fit these workmen for
the new jobs to which they will be assigned. The local schools stand ready to
initiate these training courses in the areas required and in the numbers required,
as soon as the automotive industry makes the information available to the schools
through the Michigan State Employment Service. This training program, as
organized, will make the transfer and adjustment possible with the least possible
loss in working hours and attendant loss in compensation to the workmen.
ADMINISTRATION CHART OF THE MlCHlQ
VOCATIONAL EDUCATION -VOCATIONAL REHABILITA
.iv:l"]:s.;:
lTe« and Inltructionol , , Property Co«t„l ,j
I Lobwototr , I InslruclionolFodino-
_l INDUSTRIES ESSENTIAL TO AND ALLIED TO THE NATIONAL DEFENSE
7582
CONTROL FOR VOCATIONAL EDUCATION
, oEFENSE WORKERS -
YOUTH TRAINING .PROGRAM
Duplicoting
Binding
3
SCHOOLS COLLEGES BUSINESS INDUSTRY GOVERNMENT PUBLIC
"■»«-41-pt. 18-
7584 DETROIT HEARINGS
The July 1941 monthly statistical report showed that more than 7,500 new
enrollees were included in the 24,659 who received training in national-defense
courses in Michigan public schools during the first month of the second year of
the defense-training program. There was a total of 6,302 enrolled in 200 pre-
employment courses in July; 14,374 in 592 supplementary courses; 742 in 37
courses for the Army and Navy; 646 enrolled in 27 courses for youth employed on
National Youth Administration defense-work projects; 762 in 62 courses for rural
and nonrural out-of-school youth; 957 in 71 trade and industrial education courses
for youth employed on National Youth Administration work projects; 569 in
25 business education courses for National Youth Administration youth; and 307
in 16 homemaking courses for National Youth Administration youth.
Machine-tool operations courses lead the list in enrollments, with welding
courses second in demand, blueprint reading, third, and shop mathematics,
fourth, in the supplementary classification of plan 1. In preemployment courses,
machine-tool operations and welding were first and second in enrollments respec-
tively, with airplane wing construction, third, and aircraft riveting, fourth.
The combined enrollments in aircraft instruction courses would have placed
aircraft training second in enrollment in preemployment courses.
Conversion Training for Automotive Workers
supplement to report by george h. pern, director, michigan state board
of control for vocational education, lansing, mich.
In an effort to avoid loss of productive time and loss of employment, as Michigan
automotive production is curtailed and automobile factories are converted to the
manufacture of defense materials, the Michigan State Board of Control for
Vocational Education and the public schools of the State are now preparing to
train automotive workers in advance of shut-downs and lay-offs. This con-
version training program devolves upon directors of vocational training for
defense workers in cities where there are automotive plants, automobile accessory
plants, or subcontracting plants which are affected by the curtailment of auto-
motive output.
The State board of control for vocational education has advised local directors
of vocational training for defense workers to cooperate with employers, organized
labor, and the Michigan State Employment Service to the fullest extent, in
preparing for this conversion training program. Directors have been advised,
however, not to rely entirely upon other agencies in the formulation of their plans.
Directors of vocational training for defense workers should attempt to secure
information on the following points:
1. What factories or departments will be forced to curtail automotive pro-
duction?
2. When will such factories be forced to shut down departments and discontinue
specific jobs?
3. How man}^ men will be thrown out of employment?
4. What types of work are these men now equipped to do? (Obtain job
break-downs — What skills do these workers now possess which can be used in
defense jobs?)
5. What defense contracts have been awarded to these factories, or to other
industrial concerns in the community?
6. When will these plants be ready to start production on defense contracts?
7. What is the total number of workmen these plants will need?
8. What are the job break-downs or job classification requirements for these
defense contracts and the numbers of workmen needed for each such classification?
9. For what change-over skills must training be provided?
It is possible that many of the workmen forced out of employment by curtail-
ment of automotive production already possess the skills which will be needed
for the new defense production jobs. Such workers can be transferred, without
unnecessary delay, to the defense jobs without retraining. Others, however, are
not equipped to step into these defense jobs without preliminary job training.
These workmen must be trained for the jobs they will be called upon to perform
in the manufacture of defense materials.
The State board of control for vocational education proposes to start training
courses in the cities affected l)y this conversion, well in advance of shut-downs and
lay-offs. It is projiosed to train workers while they are still employed, so they
may be ready to take the new jobs just as soon as such jobs are open, and without
any needless delay. If conversion training programs are timed to production
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7585
schedules, and the required number of workmen are trained for the actual job
specifications of the defense production contracts, it should be possible to make the
work transfer without loss of time and wages to the workmen, or delay in starting
the defense production.
If directors of vocational education for defense workers find it necessary to
curtail other courses, such as training programs for youth employed on National
Youth Administration work projects, or preemployment refresher courses enrolling
Work Projects Administration men, in order to train workers now employed in
automotive production for defense production, they have been instructed by the
director of the State board of control for vocational education to adjust their
training program accordingly. The conversion training program has been given
priority, in Michigan, over other vocational training programs during the present
emergency. . . ^ j
Directors of vocational training for defense workers have also been instructed
to take the initiative in obtaining the information necessary in order to launch
these conversion training courses well in advance of lay-off dates.
The question of the number of hours which must be devoted to conversion
training courses, types of courses, and the time of day when courses are to be
given, has been left with the local directors. Such requirements may vary in
different communities according to the type of work in which men have been
engaged, shifts which are now being operated, the job requirements of the new
defense contracts awarded in the different communities, and the total number to
be retrained. It is proposed however that in cases where workers now employed
are to be given conversion training such training will be on the basis of from
10 to 15 hours per week. Where workers are already unemployed the training
will be 30 hours per week.
Exhibit 9. — Priorities Unemployment and Need in Michigan^
report by labor division, work projects administration, federal works
AGENCY, WASHINGTON, D. C.
Net emplovment losses in Michigan are expected to total 115,000 jobs by the
end of January 1942 as a result of the 48.4-percent curtailment of automobile
production which goes into effect in December 1941. Even with no further cuts
in civilian production there is little prospect that these workers will be absorbed
in defense plants before the summer of 1942. If production quotas are lowered
still further, as seems likely, the lag in the absorption of auto workers is expected
to extend to the end of 1942.
More than 400,000 workers— 75 percent of the national total for the industry-
were emploved in the automotive industry in Michigan in July 1941. The curtail-
ment of output ordered for December 1941 will cause 175,000 auto workers to
lose their jobs by January 1942 according to estimates of the Michigan Unem-
ployment Compensation Commission. This figure is based on the assumption
that in many plants hours will be cut before lay-offs occur so that a 48-percent cut
in production will mean only a 40-percent cut in employment. In addition, it is
expected that the indirect effects of a cut in automotive production of this size on
trade and service industries will result in the loss of jobs for at least 30,000 non-
manufacturing workers. Thus, displacements will total 205,000 by the end of
January.
To offset this decline the Michigan Employment Service estimates that defense
employment during the same period (July-January) will increase about 90,000,
leaving a net increase in unemployment of 115,000 at the end of January 1942.
The estimates of additional workers needed in defense industries are somewhat
more optimistic than those of the Bureau cf Labor Statistics which indicate that
the number of workers who will be absorbed in defense production, by January 1942
is not likely to exceed 70,000 to 80,000. In the latter event net unemployment
in Michigan as a result of the curtailment of automobile production will be greater
and its duration longer.
Although the impact of the automobile curtailment will be felt in all parts of
Michigan, certain industrial centers will be particularly hard hit. Besides Detroit,
for which a separate report has been written, the main automobile centers in
order of importance are Flint, Pontiac, Lansing, and Saginaw.
The scheduled curtailment in automobile production in Flint is expected to
result in an emj^loyment figure for January 1942, some 19,500 below the June
peak if a 40-hour week is maintained, or 14,500 below if a 32-hour week is estab-
lished. During the same period defense employment will increase by only 2,800
' A pauer on Prioiitios ITnempIoyment and Need in Detroit, from the same source, appears in this vol-
ume as Exhibit 17, p. 7663.
7586 DETROIT HEARINGS
jobs, leaving a net loss in employment of from 12,000 to 17,000 workers by Janu-
ary 1942. I'nless additional defense ])rodiiction in substantial amounts is allo-
cated to the Plint area in the near future, a large proportion of these workers will
remain unemployed throughout 1942 or will have to migrate to other areas in
search of jobs.
SITUATION IN OTHER AUTOMOTIVE CENTERS
The situation in the other automotive centers is relatively less serious than in
Flint, chiefly because defense production has developed further in most of them.
Nevertheless, net losses in employment between the May-June peak and January
1942 are expected iu each of the main automobile cities. Depending on the num-
ber of hours worked, it is estimated by the Michigan Unemployment Compensa-
tion Commission that the net losses in employment will range between 1,700 and
5,500 in Pontiac, between 2,700 and 4,700 in Lansing, and between 2,700 and 4,000
in Saginaw.
The automobile industry will affect employment to a lesser extent in Grand
Rapids and Muskegon, but the expected curtailment of production of refrigerators
in both of these cities will throw many workers out of jobs who cannot now" be
absorbed in defense plants. Some concern was also expressed over the conse-
quences of a general decline in consumer production in a number of smaller cities,
of which Dowagiac, which depends mainly on the stove industry, is an example.
No eflfort has been made to measure the probable effects of materials shortages
and priorities on nonautomotive manufacturing industries, although local sources
indicated that shortages and delays in the delivery of materials have already
caused temporary lay-offs in a number of industries. It is reported that some
irdiistries anticipate difficulty in maintaining even the curtailed production
schedules allowed under present regulations.
The im])act of the curtailed schedule of automobile production is expected to
fall heavily on the unemployment compensation system and on the general relief
and Work Projects Administration programs. The Michigan Unemployment
Compensation Commission estimates that 80 percent of the displaced workers will
be eligible for unemployment compensation l^enefits for an average of 14 weeks.
Of the remaining unemployed workers the State social welfare commission expects
20,000-25,000 to apply for relief almost immediately. Although the State relief
load on September 12, 1941, numbered 29,071 cases as compared with 50,287 a
year ago, the general downward trend has already been reversed and small increases
have been recorded each week for the past 4 weeks.
Work Projects Administration emplovment also declined sharply during the
year— from 60,201 in September 1940 to"33,210 on September 10, 1941. Most of
the displaced W'Orkers who are eligible for general relief will also be eligible for
Work Projects Administration and probably will be certified to Work Projects
Administration almost immediately. However, under existing employment
quotas few of them can be assigned to projects.
Except for some near shortages in highly skilled occupations, the labor supply
in Michigan has at all times been adequate for all industrial needs. At the end
of August 1941 there were about 138,000 active registrants at the State employ-
ment service, of which approximately 37,000 were in skilled and semiskilled manu-
facturing occupations. There has been little change in this figure in the past few
months, although it is substantially lower than the number seeking jobs a year
ago. During recent months, the State employment service reports a significant
inflow to the labor market of students and other nonworkers and of workers
migrating from other States, particularly from the South. The existence of an
adequate labor supply has enabled employers to maintain hiring standards which
tend to exclude Negroes, women, noncitizens, and older workers (except in skilled
classifications) from emploj'ment opi^ortunities.
W. p. A. TRAINING QUOTAS INADEQUATE
The majority of the displaced automboile workers will need some retraining to
facilitate their transfer to defense jobs. Present training programs are inadequate
to meet the demands that will be placed upon them within the next few months.
This applies with particular force to the Works Projects Administration defense
training program unless quotas are raised. Up to August 27, 1941, 11,562 Work
Projects Administration workers had been enrolled in defense training courses.
Of this number 1,933 were currently assigned to classes. Of the remaining 9,625,
4,748, or almost half, were known to have obtained private employment. In
addition, more than 1,200 trainees left Work Projects Administration without
stating a reason. It is believed that most of these also had found jobs.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7587
The farm laV:>or market has been somewhat tighter than in previous years, but
there has been no real shortage of farm workers, and no crops have been damaged
or left unharvested. Wages have risen, but as far as can be determined, farm
employment has been maintained at the levels of the past 4 years. There was no
significant decline in either the quantity or quality of migrant workers in the fruit
orchards of western Michigan or the sugar beet fields south of Saginaw. The
•decline in farm and resort emplovment beginning in September will further augment
the labor supply and will serve" to intensify the competition for available defense
The effects of the decline in nondefense employment will not be confined entirely
to the automotive centers. In the past year there has been a sizable migration of
workers from rural areas and small towns, particularly from the Upper Pen,insula
and the cut-over area of the Lower Peninsula. Past experience indicates that
these workers tend to return home when they lose their jobs. There is no evidence,
however, that employment opportunities have increased appreciably in these
inactive areas during the past year. This fact, together with the seasonal declme
in agricultural and resort emplovment, will serve to spread the increase in need
pretty generally throughout the State. Altogether, the employment outlook m
Michigan during the coming winter is serious. Local Work Projects Adminis-
tration and relief officials agree that present Work Projects Administration quotas
will be quite inadequate to meet the sharply increased needs expected during the
coming months.
Exhibit 10. — In-.migrant Applications for Michigan Aitomobile
Licenses
eeport by michigan historical records survey project, work projects
ADMINISTRATION, FEDERAL WORKS AGENCY, DETROIT, MICH.
In an effort to obtain information for the Select Committee Investigating Na-
tional Defense Migration, the W. P. A. Michigan historical records survey, during
the period September S to October 7, 1941, made an analysis of 522,250 applica-
tions for automobile operators' licenses. Through the assistance of Harry F.
Kelly, secretarv of State of Michigan, the Lansing unit of the project, augmented
bv three workers from the C. W. A. records and health projects, reviewed appli-
cations for the months of February and May to September 1940 and March to
Mav 1941 to obtain comparative statistics.
I'he purpose of this survey was the determination of the number of applicants
for operators' licenses who had held licenses in a State other than Michigan during
the previous year. In order to obtain the desired information, field workers of the
Michigan historical records survey reviewed applications, recorded the Michigan
countv in whicli application was made, and also noted the State or country in
whicl^ applicant held license the previous year. Both items were to be found on
the reverse side of the application. A complete study of the a]iplications for a
single year was not possible, due to the unavailability of personnel.
The analvsis substantially corroborated other indices concerning migration
to Michigan. Applicants for Michigan State automobile operators' licenses who
held licenses in another State or country the previous year showed little increase
during 1940. For Februarv 1940, 980, or 3.8 percent of the total were persons
who held licenses in another State the previous year; May, 1,417 or 2.9 percent;
June, 1,319 or 2.5 percent; Julv 1,520 or 2.2 percent; August, 1,564 or 2.2 percent;
September, 1,620 or 2.4 percent. For March 1941 the total number of applicants
for operators' licenses was 66,000, of which 3,0i'6, or 4.6 percent were made by
applicants who held licenses in another State or country the previous year. For
April 1941 applications made by persons who held licenses out-State the previous
vear totaled 3,099 or 4.2 percent of the total applications. May 1941 records
were not completely available at the time of the survey, but a review of available
applications revealed that 1,213, or 2.1 percent of records survej'ed, were appli-
cations of out-State residents.
7588
DETROIT HEARINGS
Summary
1940
February
May
June
July
August
September..
Total
applica-
tions
25, 500
47, 500
50, 750
66, 500
68, 500
67, 500
Out-Statt
applica-
tions
980
1,417
1,319
1,520
1,564
1,620
Percent
out-State
3.8
2.9
2.5
2.2
2.2
2.4
1941
March
April _
May'
Total
applica-
tions
66, 000
72,500
57, 250
Out-State
applica-
tions
3,076
3,099
1, 213
Percent
out-State
4.6
4.2
2.1
• Incomplete.
The States from which came the greatest number of applicants were Ohio,
Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota, California, Pennsylvania, and New
York. Statistics on all States follow:
Applicants for Michigan State aidomohile operators' licenses xoho held licenses in
another State the previous year
1940
1941
Total
Feb.
May
Jime
July
Aug.
Sept.
Mar.
Apr.
May
Alabama
2
0
7
30
7
1
4
2
13
9
2
126
141
16
20
22
2
5
4
10
34
5
39
10
12
2
0
1
17
95
23
5
130
19
6
42
1
1
2
18
19
0
7
1
4
0
48
0
7
8
14
84
6
10
10
1
19
9
6
144
119
38
16
7
14
2
12
15
50
5
40
6
16
0
0
3
28
104
7
3
276
10
6
83
2
4
1
30
32
0
6
3
9
14
92
0
9
5
10
79
7
4
9
2
22
13
5
162
119
22
17
26
2
5
3
20
26
7
33
3
15
3
2
2
7
126
8
5
223
31
0
64
6
5
4
35
45
3
5
1
10
14
54
0
14
6
17
89
8
7
6
1
30
20
3
178
100
32
20
39
2
10
11
29
36
10
50
4
13
0
1
1
19
127
15
3
240
21
9
92
3
0
10
31
36
2
5
1
13
32
72
0
15
10
16
113
10
14
14
0
33
18
3
155
114
21
17
70
11
1
15
14
44
6
46
4
25
1
2
3
18
125
14
8
235
14
1
71
5
1
4
35
36
2
11
4
14
15
77
4
15
4
18
74
9
5
8
0
27
10
1
180
132
26
20
64
4
3
16
29
57
6
48
2
19
1
2
3
17
148
9
11
282
20
3
84
3
3
1
37
44
3
10
1
4
17
83
1
16
7
58
126
26
16
25
2
35
33
4
375
343
66
44
118
10
6
19
29
100
16
112
13
25
0
5
5
45
172
22
20
530
37
13
196
8
4
7
84
48
3
13
3
13
23
163
3
17
2
30
72
17
35
23
7
41
21
9
373
232
52
34
118
3
7
25
30
93
15
83
8
24
2
5
10
87
141
8
22
778
36
7
227
7
9
3
90
55
3
20
11
16
36
154
1
38
8
17
55
8
3
6
1
32
10
0
125
113
39
9
28
3
2
ii"
63
15
48
0
18
0
4
2
16
42
4
14
196
20
2
66
2
1
0
36
18
3
11
4
7
11
92
0
133
Arizona.. ... _ .
50
Arkansas
California
Colorado
District of Columbia
Connecticut
187
722
98
95
HI
Delaware - -
16
Florida _
252
Georgia . .
143
Idaho.- ...
33
Illinois
1,818
Indiana . - .
1,413
Iowa.
312
Kansas
197
Kentucky .
492
Lousiana
51
Maine .. .
41
Maryland
105
Massachusetts
Minnesota
Mississippi
187
503
85
M issouri
499
.50
Nebraska _ .
167
Nevada
9
New Mexico ..
21
New Hampshire
30
New Jersey . ...
254
New York
1,080
North Carolina. -
110
North Dakota
91
Ohio
2,890
Oklahoma .
208
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
47
925
40
South Carolina
27
South Dakota
32
Tennessee.
Texas
506
333
Utah
Virginia .
25
88
Vermont
29
Washington
90
West Virginia
162
Wisconsin .. .
835
Wyoming
9
Total
964
1,383
1,278
1,468
1,489
1,564
3,041
3,099
1,203
15,611
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7589
Applicants for Michigan State automobile operators' licenses who held licenses in
another State the previous year — Continued
OUTSIDE CONTINENTAL UNITED STATES
1940
1941
Total
Feb.
May
June
July
Aug.
Sept.
Mar.
Apr.
May
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
1
1
21
1
Brazil
1
15
1
47
--
3
12
27
2
3
43
39
,33
244
2
2
1
1
1
_-
7
1
Cuba
2
2
2
1
3
2
2
1
1
4
1
2
3
4
8
1
2
2
2
1
4
8
5
Germany
3
5
..
12
24
5
Italy
I
1
1
1
1
1
2
1
.-
2
2
7
1
Peru
1
1
2
i
1
4
2
1
3
Europe (no country re-
1
6
7
1
3
4
Total.
16
2
42
2
32
6
52
30
59
16
46
7
32
5
63
6
9
2
349
18
44
38
82
75
53
37
69
11
349
The greatest number of applications by out-State registrants were made in the
industrial communities, Wayne, Genesee, Muskegon, Calhoun, Oakland, Wash-
tenaw, and Kent Counties.
Out-of-State registrants in Michigan by cc
unties
1940
1941
Total
Feb.
May
Jime
July
Aug.
Sept.
Mar.
Apr.
May
1
4
9
..
1
1
5
4
1
Alger _ ...
1
10
3
9
2
14
1
15
1
1
2
18
4
3
1
1
12
3
1
2
'""29"
2
5
12
4
2
2
19
Allegan
128
14
Antrim . .
1
1
10
7
2
4
1
-.
1
5
1
4
3
I
1
1
19
15
23
17
1
7
__
3
4
-.
24
18
32
20
1
2
7
5
4
5
1
3
30
Bay
9
2
Berrien
29
11
21
5
1
22
12
23
3
9
15
15
5
9
14
26
4
3
46
38
151
37
1
1
12
12
4
1
10
7
12
41
24
115
13
2"
4
1
3
13
14
39
13
1
9'
2
5
212
161
Calhoun
445
Cass
117
8
12
1
1
1
2'
4
2
2
2
12
3
7
6
2
7
87
Clare
26
Clinton
30
2
Delta
3
5
5
1
5
1
5
5
8
6
5
10
3
1
4
7
I
4
2
5
49
37
Eaton -
51
7590 DETROIT HEARINGS
Out-of-State registrants in Michigan by counties — Continued
1940
1941
Total
Feb.
May
June
July
Aug.
Sept.
Mar.
Apr.
May
Emmet --
1
30
2
4
3
2
15
2
" "64"
2
20
4
1
19
2
3
. 28
3
..
3
19
"l
77
5
49
2
13
1
4
8
4
"■"76"
2
75
"'"'77"
4
67
1
16
5
7
16
7
1
125
3
23
1
8
42
1
1
91
5
8
14
4
1
43
4
14
Genesee
654
10
12
7
""17"
4
10
3
4
9
4
12
7
1
25
4
2
68
6
3
3
7
20
18
3
72
124
Qd. Traverse - -
36
Gratiot
35
Hillsdale
165
Houghton
32
6
Ingham _
33
51
4
2
5'
16
37
1
64
44
1
1
7
5
13
23
"" "88'
2
3
4
'"""23"
5
2
5
26
3
8
4
3
3
9
1
24
2
1
35
5
58
4
--
3
42
6
2
6
2
23
41
3
59
2
1
1
2
17
6
1
'"'17'
2
5
1
1
11
13
87
3
4
2
4
40
60
1
96
79
6
475
Ionia
33
1
13
Iron
39
52
1
71
1
'"'17'
28
"'eo'
20
Isabella
11
30
23
48
Jackson .
217
Kalamazoo .. .. - _
309
Kalkaska
10
89
1
1
3
676
5
--
1
9
6
Lapeer _ . .
4
32
2
5
31
3
Lenawee
11
2
23
2
30
2
--
12
1
6
1
2
3
6
59
10
2
""'88"
1
14
2
2
11
14
80
9
35
5
310
Livingston - ..
. 43
5
Mackinac ... _-. .
1
3
1
6
1
7
3
7
2
1
5
7
1
14
1
4
2
6
4
1
86
5
10
1
3
10
16
1
21
1
1
44
175
1
""""54"
1
16
5
2
4
12
""'23"
3
"""37"
""""91"
2
10
Macomb . ...
307
Manistee . . . .
18
Marquette... -.
76
Mason . . ..
18
Mecosta . -. .
16
Menominee.
3
5
1
15
56
Midland
86
3
Monroe . .-. ...
28
1
23
2
30
3
"ie"
3
84
4
2
3
. 1
35
1
1
33
5
50
4
1
2"
72
7
""'46'
5
186
3
271
20
3
Muskegon .. .
17
1
33
3
8
"""43'
1
1
2
2
11
6
40
3-
1
3
241
Newaygo
32
Oakland
760
Oceana .-. ...
22
7
Ontonagon
6
1
1
1
9
8
2
2
..
24
Osceola ..-
15
3
1
Ottawa - - .
11
15
1
1
13
2
1
4
5
10
2
5
55
593
3
4
7
15
7
16
7
91
1
1
16
22
2
8
5
27
4
4
96
602
3
1
23
6
1
11
2
21
3
10
80
721
9
2
16
2
1
12
2
14
9
17
66
722
2
2
28
8
3
4
4
19
4
23
56
781
3
7
Saginaw . .-.
26
1
66
3
3
10
120
6
25
90
1,479
6
59
2
5
6
6
29
4
15
83
1,648
4
28
1
--
5
38
2
9
111
274
4
275
Sanilac
47
Schoolcraft .
16
Shiwassee . .. _ ...
4
10
16
4
5
69
376
3
66
St. Clair
46
St. Joseph .
294
Tuscola .
38
Van Buren..
113
Washtenaw .
844
Wayne .
6,474
Wexford
37
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7591
states of origin, and Michigan counties of present residence, of in-7nigrant applicants
for Michigan axdomohile operators' licenses ^ during March and April, 1941
MARCH 1941
Alabama, total 16
County: '
Calhoun.. -
Jackson
Lapeer
Montcalm-
Oakland.
1
1
1
1
1
Wayne H
Arizona, total 7
County: ^
Kalamazoo.
Monroe
Oakland
Wavne
Arkansas, total 58
County: '
Berrien 1
Calhoun 3
Genesee 3
Ingham 2
Kalamazoo 1
Kalkaska 1
Kent 1
Macomb 3
Muskegon 3
Oakland 9
Saginaw 1
St. Joseph 1
Van Buren 1
Washtenaw 1
Wayne 26
Wexford 1
California — Continued.
County — Continued.
W ashtenaw 6
Wayne 84
Colorado, total 26
County: ^
Branch 2
Calhoun 2
Eaton 1
Ingham 2
Jackson 1
Kalamazoo 1
Kent i
Macomb 1
Saginaw 1
St. Joseph 1
Wavne 13
Cahfornia, total.. ._ 126
County: ^
Allegan 2
Barry 1
Branch 1
Chippewa 1
Genesee 4
Houghton 1
Ingham 2
Jackson 1
Kalamazoo 2
Kent : 5
Lenawee 1
Livingston 1
Macomb 2
Marquette 1
Monroe 2
Muskegon 1
Newaygo 1
Oakland 4
Saginaw. 3
' Michigan county in which application was made
Columbia, District of, total 16
County: ^
Calhoun
Kent
Macomb
Oakland
Weshtenaw.
Wayne
Connecticut, total 25
County: ^
Kent 6
Washtenaw 2
Wayne 17
Delaware, total 2
County: '
Muskegon.
Wavne
Florida, total 35
County: ^
Allegan
Berrien
Branch
Calhoun
Cass
Emmet
Genesee
Lenawee . _
Macomb. _
Oakland...
Oceana
Saginaw. _ _
St. Joseph-
Washtenaw.
Wayne 17
7592
DETROIT HEARINGS
States of origin, and Michigan counties of present residence, of in-migrant applicants
for Michigan automobile operators' licenses during March and April, 1941- — •
Continued
MARCH 1941 — continued
Georgia, total 1 33 Indiana, total 343
County: '
Berrien _ .
Calhoun.
Delta
Ingham..
Kent
Macomb.
Oakland.
1
7
1
1
1
1
2
Wayne 19
Idaho, total 4
County: ^
Calhoun..
Cass
Chippewa.
Wayne
Illinois, total 375
County : i
Allegan 7
Berrien 8
Branch 6
Calhoun 23
Cass 9
Chippewa 3
Clare 3
Crawford 1
Delta 1
Eaton 1
Genesee 8
Gogebic 2
Grand Traverse 1
Houghton 1
Ingham 10
Ionia 1
Jackson 2
Kalamazoo 9
Kent 13
Lapeer 1
Lenawee 2
Macomb 11
Marquette 1
Menominee 1
Monroe 4
Muskegon 9
Newaygo 1
Oakland 26
Osceola 1
Oscoda 1
Ottawa 1
Saginaw 10
St. Clair 1
St. Joseph 13
Shiawassee 1
Van Buren 13
Washtenaw 11
Wayne 157
Wexford 1
County : ^
Allegan 3
Barry 1
Berrien 25
Branch 17
Calhoun 26
Cass 22
Chippewa 1
Clare 1
Delta 1
Eaton 2
Emmet 1
Genesee 12
Gratiot 2
Hillsdale 5
Houghton 1
Ingham 8
Jackson 10
Kalamazoo 12
Kent 16
Lake 1
Lapeer 1
Lenawee 8
Livingston 1
Macomb 15
Mason 1
Monroe 1
Muskegon 4
Newaygo 1
Oakland 7
Ottawa 2
Saginaw 15
St. Clair 1
St. Joseph 26
Schoolcraft 1
Shiawassee 1
Van Buren 4
Washtenaw 6
Wayne 89
Wexford 2
Iowa, total 66
County:'
Allegan 2
Barry 1
Berrien 3
Calhoun 4
Gladwin 1
Gogebic 2
Ingham 3
Kent 6
Lenawee 1
Marquette 1
Monroe 2
Muskegon 2
Oakland 6
Ontonagon 2
Saginaw 3
Washtenaw 4
Wayne 22
Wexford 1
« Michigan county in which application was made.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7593
^States of origin, and Michigan counties of present residence, of in-migrant applicants
for Michigan automobile operators' licenses during March and April, 1941 —
Continued
MARCH 1941 — continued
Kansas, total 44
County:'
Allegan 1
Calhoun 4
Clare 3
Clinton 1
Genesee 4
Ionia 1
Jackson 1
Kent 1
Lapeer 1
Muskegon 2
Oakland 3
Saginaw 1
St. Joseph 2
Shiawassee 2
Van Buren 1
Washtenaw 3
Wayne 13
Kentucky, total 118
County: i
Branch 2
Calhoun 25
Hillsdale
Jackson
Kent
Lenawee
Macomb
Monroe
Oakland
Ottawa
Saginaw
Washtenaw.
1
1
2
3
5
1
7
1
1
2
Wayne 67
Xouisiana, total 10
County: i
Washtenaw 2
Wayne 8
Maine, total 6
County: 1 Wayne 6
Maryland, total 19
County: '
Barry 1
Calhoun 3
Kalamazoo 1
Kent 1
Lenawee 1
Wayne 12
Massachusetts, total 29
County: '
Allegan 1
Genesee 2
' Michigan county in which application was made.
Massachusetts — Continued.
County — Continued.
Kalamazoo
2
Livingston
1
Macomb
_- 3
Monroe
1
Oakland
2
Washtenaw
._ 1
Wayne 16
Minnesota, total 100
County: '
Allegan
Calhoun _ _
Chippewa.
Delta
Dickinson.
Genesee. _ .
1
2
1
3
2
2
Gogebic 2
Houghton 1
Ingham 10
Kalamazoo 4
Kent 4
Livingston 1
Macomb 1
Marquette 2
Mason 1
Monroe 1
Muskegon 2
Oakland 4
Saginaw 1
Schoolcraft 1
Shiawassee 1
Tuscola 2
Washtenaw 2
Wayne 48
Wexford 1
Mississippi, total 16
County: '
Calhoun.
Genesee..
Macomb.
Midland.
Oakland.
1
1
1
1
2
Wayne 10
Missouri, total 112
County: '
Allegan
Barry
Berrien
Branch
Calhoun
Cass
Clinton
Genesee
7594
DETROIT HEARINGS
States of origin, and Michigan counties of present residence, of in-migrant applicants
for Michigan antomohile operators' licenses during March and April, 1941 —
Continued
MARCH 1941— continued
Missouri — Coni inued.
County — Continued .
Ingham
Iosco
Jackson
Kalamazoo
Kent
Lenawee
Livingston
Macomb
Monroe
Muskegon
Oakland
Saginaw
Shiawassee
Van Buren
Washtenaw
Wayne -
1
2
3
2
1
2
1
3
1
1
20
3
1
3
4
54
Montana, total 13
County: '
Allegan 1
Branch 1
Emmet 1
Ingham 2
Macomb 1
Oakland 1
Wayne 6
Nebraska, total 25
County : ^
Calhoun 1
Chippewa 1
Ingham 3
Kalamazoo 1
Lenawee 2
Oakland 2
Ottawa 1
Van Buren 1
Washtenaw 5
Wayne 8
New Mexico, total.
County: '
Allegan 1
Ingham 1 1
Kent 1
Wayne 2
New Hampshire, total.
County: ^
Clare
Washtenaw..
Wavne
New Jersey, total 45
County: ^
Calhoun 1
Genesee 1
Ingham 3
Kalamazoo 1
Kent 2
Macomb 5
Marquette 1
Oakland 3
Saginaw 1
Sanilac 1
Washtenaw 3
Wavne 23
New York, total 172
County : i
Allegan
Calhoun
Chippewa
Eaton
Genesee
Grand Traverse.
Hillsdale
1
4
1
1
4
I
2
Ingham 6
Iosco 1
Isabella 1
Kalamazoo 2
Kent 5
Lapeer 1
Lenawee 1
Macomb 2
Marquette 3
Midland 1
Monroe 1
Muskegon 1
Oakland 5
Otsego 1
Saginaw 5
St. Clair 2
St. Joseph 1
Schoolcraft 1
Shiawasse 1
Van Buren 1
Washtenaw 9
Wavne 107
North Carolina, total 22
County :'
Calhoun
Ingham
Kent
Macomb
Oakland
Washtenaw
Wavne 16
I Michican county in which application was made.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7595
states of origin, and Michigan counties of present residence, of in-migrant applicants
for Michigan axdomobile operators' licenses during March and April, 194-1 —
Continued
MARCH 1941 — continued
North Dakota, total 20
County : i
Eaton 2
Genesee 1
Ingham 2
Lenawee 1
Macomb 1
Oakland 1
Wavne 12
Ohio, total 530
County: '
Allegan 3
Alpena 2
Berrien 1
Branch 6
Calhoun 14
Charlevoix 1
Chippewa 1
Clare 1
Eaton 2
Genesee 6
Gratiot 1
Hillsdale 7
Ingham 9
Ionia 1
Isabella 2
Jackson 15
Kalamazoo 6
Kent 5
Lapeer 2
Lenawee 31
Livingston 1
Macomb 6
Marquette 1
Midland 8
Monroe 45
Montcalm 4
Muskegon 4
Newaygo 2
■ Oakland 26
Ottawa 1
Saginaw 12
St. Joseph 7
Tuscola 3
Washtenaw 12
Wavne 282
Oklahoma — Continued.
County — Continued.
Macomb
Oakland
Oceana
St. Clair
1
6
1
1
Wayne 12
Oregon, total 13
County: ^
Arenac
Cass
Ingham
Luce
Midland
Oakland
St. Joseph 4
Wayne 3
Pennsylvania, total 196
County :'
Berrien
Calhoun
Chippewa- -
Eaton
Genesee
Gratiot
Ingham
Jackson
Kalamazoo _
Kent
Lenawee
Macomb
Menominee -
Monroe
Muskegon.
2
2
1
1
4
]
4
1
6
5
1
6
2
2
4
Oakland 17
Ottawa 1
Saginaw 4
Shiawassee 1
Washtenaw 2
Wavne___- 129
Oklahoma, total 37
County: •
Allegan 1
Cass 1
Clare 3
Clinton 1
Grand Tarvers 1
Ingham 2
Kent 4
Lapeer 2
Van Buren 1
• Michigan county in which application was made.
Rhode Island, total.
County: ^
Shiawassee.
Washtenaw
Wavne
South Carolina, total.
County: ^ Wayne.
South Dakota, total _.
County :»
Mecosta.
Wavne __
7596 DETROIT HEARINGS
States of origin, and Michigan counties of present residence, of in-migrant applicants
for Michigan automobile operators' licenses during March and April, 1941 —
Continued
MARCH 1941 — continued
Tennessee, total 84
County: ^
Allegan-
Berrien-
Calhoun.
Genesee -
Gratiot .
Ingham • 3
3
1
4
1
3
2
4
1
1
2
Wavne oO
Jackson.
Kent
Macomb
Menominee.
Monroe
Montcalm __
Oakland
St. Clair- _-
Shiawassee.
Washtenaw.
Texas, total 48
County: ^
Calhoun 7
Clinton 1
Genesee 2
Gratiot 2
Ingham I
Isabella 1
Lenawee 1
Macomb 4
Manistee 1
Midland 2
Oakland 3
St. Clair 1
Sanilac 1
Tuscola 1
Wayne 20
Utah, total.
County: *
Kalamazoo .
Wavne
Vermont, total 3
County: '
Ml'onroe-
Oakland .
Virginia, total 13
Countv: ^
Delta
Genesee _.
Macomb.
Oakland -
Sanilac--.
Wayne--.
W^ashington, total 13
County: '
Allegan
Calhoun-..
Ingham
Kent
Macomb- -
Muskegon-
Wayne
West Virginia, total 23
County: ^
Calhoun 1
Ingham 2
Genesee 2
Kalamazoo 1
Livingston 1
Monroe 2
Muskegon 3
Oakland 1
Washtenaw 1
Wayne 9
Wisconsin, total 163
County: '
Allegan :.-- 1
Bay 1
Branch 1
Calhoun 10
1
1
3
5
2
1
5
Cheboygan
Chippewa-
Delta
Dickinson.
Eaton
Emmet
Genesee
Gogebic 10
Grand Traverse 1
Hillsdale 1
Houghton 3
Ingham 6
Iosco 1
Kalamazoo 7
Kent 10
Lenawee 3
Livingston 3
Marquette 4
Menominee 7
Midland 1
Monroe 2
Muskegon 2
Oakland
Oceana
Ontonagon.
Ottawa
Saginaw
St. Joseph- -
Washtenaw-
9
1
4
2
4
1
3
W'avne 47
' Michigan county in which application was made.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7597
States of origin, and Michigan counties of present residence, of in-migrant applicants
for Michigan automobile operators' licenses during March and April, 1941 —
Continued
MARCH 1941— continued
Wyoming, total 3
County: ^
Grand Traverse -
Kent
Wayne
Miscellaneous (out State to), total-
County: 1
Iron
Macomb
Oakland
Wayne
France, total.
FOREIGN COUNTRIES— TOTAL, 30
1
County:* Jackson 1
Brazil, total 1
County:* Washtenaw 1
Canada, total 15
County : *
Luce 1
Oakland 1
Wayne 13
Germany, total 4
County: *
Washtenaw 2
Wayne 2
Hawaii, total 8
County: *
Calhoun
Kent
Macomb
Wayne
Panama, total
County:* Macomb
APRIL 1941
Alabama, total 17
County: *
Calhoun
Macomb
Menominee.
Oakland
St. Joseph.
2
2
1
1
1
Wavne 10
Arizona, total.
County: * Wavne.
Arkansas, total 30
County : *
Alpena 1
Berrien 1
Clinton 1
Genesee 6
Ingham 1
Livingston 2
Macomb 1
Oakland 2
Washtenaw 1
Wayne 14
California, total 72
County: *
Allegan 1
Calhoun 1
Genesee 4
Gratiot 1
Ingham 1
Kalamazoo 3
Kent 1
Midland 2
Oakland 2
Ottawa 1
Saginaw 4
St. Clair 1
Washtenaw 5
Wayne 45
Colorado, total 17
County : *
Arenac
Calhoun
Ingham
Macomb
Shiawassee -
Washtenaw.
1
3
1
1
1
1
Wayne 9
Michigan county in which application was made.
7598
DETROIT HEARINGS
States of origin, and Michigan counties of present residence, of in-migrant applica7iis
for Michigan automobile operators' licenses during March and April, 1941 —
Continued
APRIL 1941 — continued
Columbia, District of, total.
County: *
Calhoun .
Genesee.
Ingham _
Kent
35
Macomb 13
Monroe. 2
Washtenaw- - 1
Wavne 14
Connecticut, total 23
County: 1
Macomb
Midland
Monroe
Muskegon. _
Oakland
Washtenaw.
1
1
1
3
1
2
Wayne 14
Delaware, total
County: ^
Hillsdale...
Kalamazoo _
Wayne
Florida, total 41
County: '
Berrien
Branch
Calhoun
Genesee
Gratiot
Ingham
Kalamazoo _
Kent
Macomb
Mason.. . _ _
Monroe
Oakland
Oscoda
Van Buren.
Washtenaw.
2
1
1
1
1
4
1
1
1
1
1
4
1
2
1
Wayne 18
Georgia, total 21
County: ^
Calhoun.
Delta
lona
Macomb.
Idaho, total 9
County: i
Alpena. -
Berrien.
Calhoun.
Genesee-
Tuscola -
Wayne. .
Illinois, total 373
County: ^
Alger 4
Allegan 2
Antrim 2
Berrien 10
Branch 1
Calhoun 18
Cass 5
Chippewa 1
Emmet 1
Genesee 16
Gogebic 3
Grand Tray erse 1
Hillsdale 4
Ingham 3
Ionia 1
Jackson . — 5
Kalamazoo 6
Kent 12
Lapeer 1
Lenawee 2
Livingston 1
Macomb 12
Marquette 5
Menominee 1
Montmorency 1
Muskegon 11
Newaygo 2
Oakland 16
Ottawa 6
Saginaw 6
St. Joseph 9
Shiawassee 1
Van Buren 4
Washtenaw 10
Wayne 189
Wexford 1
Wayne 17
Michigan county in which application was made.
Indiana, total 232
County:!
Allegan 6
Alpena 1
Barry 1
Berrien 15
Branch 8
Calhoun 17
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7599
States of origin, and Michigan counties of present residence, of in-migrant applicants
for Michigan automobile operators' licenses during March and April, 1941 —
Continued
APRIL 1941 — continued
Indiana — Continued.
County — Continued.
Cass
Clinton
Delta
Eaton
Genesee
Hillsdale
Ingham
Jackson
6
Kalamazoo 13
Kent 4
Lenawee 2
Macomb 6
Manistee 1
Midland 1
Missaukee 1
Monroe 2
Muskegon 5
Oakland 12
Ottawa 1
Saginaw 11
St. Joseph 11
Shiawassee 1
Van Buren 4
Washtenaw 5
Wayne 70
Iowa, total 52
County:*
Calhoun 4
Genesee 2
Gratiot 1
Ingham 2
1
6
6
1
2
1
3
Kalamazoo .
Kent
Oakland
Osceola
St. Joseph--
Shiawassee -
Washtenaw-
Wavne 23
Kansas, total 34
County:*
Calhoun 3
Cass 1
Clinton 1
Genesee 1
Ingham 3
Isabella 2
Lapeer 1
Livingston 1
Midland 2
Oakland 1
Wayne 18
' Michigan county in which application was made.
Kentucky, total 118
County : *
Calhoun
Genesee __ - ^
9
1
Gogebic -_ __ _- 1
Ingham. _ -- 1
Kent -_- 1
Livingston
Macomb
Muskegon
Oakland
Saginaw
V/avne
1
3
1
6
2
92
Louisiana, total. _
County : *
Oakland.
Wayne - -
Maine, total-
County : *
Macomb.
Wayne--.
Maryland, total 25
County:*
Genesee 1
Ingham 3
Monroe 1
St. Joseph 1
\ '-ashtenaw 2
•W^ -ne 17
Massachusetts, total 30
County: *
Branch- -
Calhoun -
Genesee-
Ingham-
Jackson-
Oakland.
2
1
1
1
1
2
Wavne 22
Minnesota, total 93
County : *
Delta
Genesee
Gogebic
Hillsdale
Ingham
Kalamazoo .
Kalkaska . _ .
Kent
60396 — 41— pt. 18-
-35
7600
DETROIT HEARINGS
States of origin, and Michigan counties of present residence, of in-migrant applicants
for Michigan automobile operators' licenses during March and April, 1941 —
Continued
APRIL 1941 — continued
Minnesota — Continued.
County — Continued.
Macomb 3
Muskegon 3
Oakland.
St. Clair. __
Sanilac
Schoolcraft.
Washtenaw.
9
1
1
1
4
Wayne 52
Mississippi, total 15
County: *
Branch 1
Genesee 3
Kalamazoo 2
Lenawee 1
Macomb 1
Muskegon 1
Washtenaw... 1
Wayne 5
Missouri, total 83
County: ^
Branch 2
Calhoun 1
Genesee 8
Gogebic
Ionia
Isabella
Kent
Macomb
Muskegon
Oakland 14
Ottawa
Shiawassee
Van Buren 2
Washtenaw 3
Wayne 42
Montana, total
County: ^
Ingham
Lenawee- -
Macomb _ _
Muskegon.
Oakland--.
Nebraska, total 24
County: '
Branch 1
Calhoun 1
Lapeer 2
Macomb 1
Midland 3
Muskegon 1
Oakland 4
St. Clair 1
Washtenaw 1
Wayne 9
Nevada, total 2
County: *
M'acomb 1
Wayne 1
New Mexico, total. _
County: ^
Genesee
Kent
Mecosta
Washtenaw
Wayne
New Hampshire, total 10
County: '
Genesee 1
Menominee 1
Wayne 8
New Jersey, total 87
County: i
Berrien
Calhoun
Genesee
Ingham
Jackson
Kent
Lenawee
Macomb
Muskegon- _
Oakland
Ottawa
Saginaw
Washtenaw-
3
4
5
7
1
9
1
1
2
6
1
2
6
Wayne 39
New York, total 141
County: '
Calhoun
Genesee
Ingham
Ionia
Jackson
Kalamazoo.
Kent
Lapeer
Lenawee
Livingston -
Macomb
2
1
2
1
1
2
2
1
2
1
1
Newaygo 4
Oakland 3
Saginaw 3
St. Clair 2
Washtenaw 10
Wayne 103
North Carolina, total.
County: '■
Wayne
« Michigan county in which application was made.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7601
States of origin, and Michigan counties of present residence, of in-migrant applicants
for Michigan automobile operators' licenses during March and April, 194-1 —
Continued
APRIL 1941 — continued
North Dakota, total 22
County : ^
Berrien 2
Genesee 1
Ingham 2
Ionia 1
Kent 1
Lenawee 2
Oceana - 1
St. Clair 1
Washtenaw 2
Wayne 9
Ohio, total 778
County : '
Allegan 2
Arenac 1
Barry 1
Berrien 1
Branch 6
Calhoun 21
Cass 1
Cheboygan 2
Clare.' 1
Eaton 2
Genesee 23
Gladwin 1
Gratiot 1
Hillsdale 31
Ingham 18
Ionia 1
Isabella 3
Jackson 20
Kalamazoo 10
Kent 12
Lenawee 63
Macomb 11
Manistee 3
Mecosta 1
Midland 4
Monroe 84
Montcalm 1
Muskegon 3
Oakland 44
Osceola 1
Oscoda 1
Ottawa 1
Saginaw 9
St. Joseph 2
Tuscola 2
Van Buren 2
Washtenaw 22
Wayne 364
Wexford 2
Oklahoma, total 36
County: '
Chippewa 1
Genesee 2
• Michigan county in which application was made.
Oklahoma — Continued.
County — Continued.
Gladwin
Gratiot
Kent
Lenawee
Macomb
Midland
Monroe
Oakland
Van Buren
Washtenaw
2
2
1
1
. 1
1
..._. 1
3
I
1
Wayne IS"
Oregon, total 37
County: '
Branch
Kalamazoo .
Newaygo. _.
Oakland
1
1
1
2
Wayne 2
Pennsylvania, total 227
County: ^
Allegan 1
Dickerson 1
Genesee 8
Ingham 6
Jackson 5
Kalamazoo 3
Kent 1
Lenawee 2
Livingston 3
Macomb 7
Marquette 4
Menominee 1
Oakland 15
Ottawa 1
Saginaw 10
St. Joseph 2
Washtenaw 1
Wayne 155
Wexford 1
Rhode Island, totaL
County: '
Macomb
Muskegon. -
Washtenaw.
Wayne
South Carolina, total 9
County: >
Kent
Midland.
Wayne..
7602 DETROIT HEARINGS
States of origin, and Michigan counties of present residence, of in-migrant ap-
\^^ plicants for Michigan automobile operators' licenses during March and April,
1941 — Continued
APRIL 1941 — continued
South Dakota, total 3
County: ^
Lenawee
Washtenaw.
Wayne
Tennessee, total.
90
County: ^
Calhoun 1
Eaton 1
Genesee 3
Ingham 4
Kalamazoo 1
Kent 1
Menominee 1
Monroe 1
Muskegon 1
Oakland 3
Saginaw 1
Washtenaw 4
Wayne 68
Texas, total 55
County: *
Berrien..
Calhoun.
Genesee.
Gratiot -
1
6
1
2
Ingham 2
Isabella 5
Kalamazoo 1
Kent 6
Macomb 1
Muskegon 4
Saginaw 1
Sanilac 1
Washtenaw 1
Wayne 24
Utah, total 3
County: ^
Washtenaw 1
Wayne 2
Vermont, total 11
County: ^
Hillsdale 1
Ingham 1
Oakland 2
Wayne 7
Virginia, total 20
County: '
Berrien. ,
Calhoun.
Ingham.
Virginia — Continued
County — Continued
Kalamazoo
Kent
Macomb
Muskegon
Oakland
Washtenaw
1
I
1
1
1
1
Wayne 10
Washington, total 16
County : *
Genesee 1
Gratiot 1
Ingham 2.
Mecosta 1
Muskegon 1
Ottawa 1
Saginaw 1
Washtenaw 1
Wayne 7
West Virginia, total 36
County:^
Calhoun.
Genesee..
Macomb.
Oakland -
3
1
1
4
Saginaw 3
Van Buren 1
Wayne 23
Wisconsin, total 154
County : ^
Alger
Alpena. -
Barry
Berrien.,
Branch..
Calhoun.
1
2
1
> Michigan county in which application was made.
1
1
1
2
1
9
Chippewa 2
Delta 3
Genesee 4
Gogebic 17
Hillsdale 1
Houghton 1
Ingham 2
Kalamazoo 4
Kent 3
Lenawee 2
Mackinac 1
Macomb 7
Manistee 1
Marquette 1
Menominee 5
Midland 1
Muskegon 3
Oakland 4
Ontonagon 8
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7603
States'^of origin,'' and'^ Michigan counties of present residence, of in-migrant ap-
^ plicants for Michigan automobile operators' licenses during March and April,
^ 1941 — Continued
APRIL 1941 — continued
Wisconsin — Continued
County — Continued
Ottawa 3
Saginaw 6
St. Joseph 1
Schoolcraft 4
Shiawassee 1
Washtenaw 4
Wayne 50
Wyoming, total -
County ;! Kent 1
Miscellaneous, total 6
County :'
Midland.. 1
Wayne 2
Oakland 3
FOREIGN COUNTRIES — TOTAL 64
Argentina, total
County :i Washtenaw.
Brazil, total
County :i Washtenaw.
Canada, total 47
County :'
Berrien . .
Branch..
Macomb.
Oakland.
1
1
1
1
Wayne 43
Colombia, total 1
County:' Wayne 1
China, total 1
County :' Washtenaw 1
Hawaii, total 5
County •.!
Calhoun 1
Macomb 1
Wayne 3
Italy, total.
1
County:' Wayne 1
Mexico, total 2
County:'
Genesee
Washtenaw _
Puerto Rico, total 1
County:' Wayne 1
Panama Canal, total 1
County:' Berrien 1
Germany, total 3
County:'
Washtenaw.
Wayne
1 Michigan county in which application was made.
Exhibit U. — Health Problems Created by Defense Migration
IN Detroit
report by bruce h. douglas, m. d., commissioner, department of health
detroit, mich.
September 17, 1941.
The Detroit Department of Health is a branch of the municipal government
and is financed largely through taxation. There are four board members
appointed by the mayor for 4-year terms each on a 4-year staggering basis. This
obviously results in a termination of services of one board member each year.
The board is composed of two medical men and two lay persons. The senior
member of the board is the president and the next man by seniority is vice presi-
dent of the board. The board of health is the policy-forming body of the depart-
ment of health. The commissioner of health, or the executive officer, is appointed
by the board of health for an indefinite period of time.
7^04 DETROIT HEARINGS
A brief financial statement for the Detroit Department of Health for the
fiscal year 1941-42 is as follows:
Total budget $4, 312, 203
Expected revenues from various sources:
(1) County reimbursement for the care of tuberculosis patients. 1, 980, 000
(2) County reimbursement for the care of contagious-disease
^ ^ patients 200,000
(3) Federal Government reimbursement for mdustrial-hygiene
services ^> ^^^
(4) Federal Government reimbursement for social-hygiene
service ^ 27, 200
(5) Children's Fund of Michigan reimbursement for dental
sprvicG *" ' ouu
(6) County reimbursement for care of maternity cases 50, 000
(7) License receipts 140, 000
(8) Certified copies of birth and death records o, 000
(9) Reimbursement — poultry inspection 18, 000
(10) Herman Kiefer Hospital pay patients 20, 000
(11) Miscellaneous revenues H. ^00
(12) Sale of meals— Herman Kiefer Hospital, William H. May-
bury Sanatorium 165, 100
Total expected revenue 2, 636, 320
Net total, tax dependent budget 1, 675, 883
1 This amount reduced by $1,000.
2 This figure has been augmented by $4,000.
3 Now transferred to Department of Public Welfare.
It is difficult to estimate whether an appropriation as herein presented shall be
sufficient to maintain an adequate health service if there are marked changes m
population, particularlv so if such changes are largely due to a shift in population.
It seems apparent that an increase in population of the community is definitely
to be expected. Crude death rates during recent years have decreased. The
birth rate has increased last vear and is showing evidence of an additional increase
during the current year. Although the department has not had marked actual
experience with migratorv problems it is quite evident that migration of industrial
workers to the city and inore particularly neighboring communities is becoming a
matter of concern. . ,, .i t
With this increase and shift in population, an increase m the problem ot com-
municable diseases might be expected and with an increase in the industrial
problem, it is quite likely that an increase in appropriation for health purposes
will be necessary.
INSPECTION OF SUBSTANDARD HOUSING
Housing is a health program and the health department is actively engaged
at the present time in inspecting substandard dwellings. The Common Council
of the City of Detroit on March 1, 1940, granted an appropriation to the Detroit
Department of Health for the conduction of a special survey of substandard
dwellings with instructions to curtail and eliminate all such undesirable conditions
as may be encountered. On this special survey the department of health at the
present time has provisions for the employment of 3 senior health inspectors,
12 junior health inspectors, and 6 stenographers and clerks. A commendable
inroad is being made into the elimination of substandard housing conditions
through these endeavors. . , , , ^^ j j i.
It is to be admitted that there is a relationship between substandard housing
and disease. The problem of infestation with rodents becomes a practical
problem in substandard dwellings since the spread of certain diseases which are
transmissible from animals to humans is a possibility. Even more important is
the crowding of persons under such conditions, since it enhances the development
of practicallv all communicable diseases, particularly the common diseases which
are transmissible from person to person as for example: tuberculosis, diphtheria,
scarlet fever, smallpox, etc. .■ . ■ t^ 4. -t.
A recent survey of the facilities for the care of venereal-disease patients in iJetroit
showed 14 free or part-pay clinics available, of which the social-hygiene clinic of
the Detroit Department of Health was by far the largest. A program for lay
education has been under way for some time, utilizing the various health centers,
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7605
prenatal clinics, and interested nonofficial conaniunity groups as sources for dis-
pensing valuable information concerning these diseases.
As employment in Detroit has increased, more and more patients have been
referred to their family physicians. Participation of the private physicians has
been sought and obtained by personal contact and through the Wayne County
Medical Society. Postgraduate credit courses in cooperation with Wayne
University, College of Medicine, have been given physicians in order that they
may be better acquainted with venereal-disease problems, the diagnoses, and the
treatment of these conditions. The field service of the Detroit Department of
Health social-hvgiene division makes an average of 700 calls monthly on contacts
to infectious cases and lapsed treatment cases. Infectious cases which are likely
to be spreaders of the disease, and more particularly prostitutes, are quarantined
at Herman Kiefer Hospital until they are no longer infectious.
Since January 1940, the social-hygiene clinic has cooperated with the United
States Public "Health Service central tabulating unit in collecting statistical
information about venereal diseases. This cooperative endeavor has enabled this
department to maintain more accurate statistics on social diseases. Recently,
an additional problem has been assumed by the social-hygiene division of the
Detroit Department of Health in the follow-up of military service inductees who
were found to be afflicted with venereal disease. In the future plans are afoot
to further experiment with the 5-day intensive treatment of syphilis, wider use
of diagnostic facilities available through the department of health by private
phvsicians and other clinics, improvement in reporting of disease, the extension
of Venereal-disease service into the field of industrial hygiene, and the use of
visual education facilities.
Within the very near future it is hoped that new and more adequate facilities
for the housing of the venereal-disease division of the t)etroit Department of
Health will be available at Receiving Hospital, where it is planned that the city
shall construct a new building.
CLASSIFICATION OF TECHNICAL PERSONNEL
A list of the various classifications of technical personnel employed by the
Detroit Department of Health is as follows:
Assistant dietitian. Male venereal disease nurse.
Assistant industrial hygienist. Medical director.
Associate industrial hygienist. Medical laboratory aide.
Associate physician, grade I. Medical laboratory helper.
Associate physician, grade II. Nutrition director.
Dental clinic assistant. Nutritionist.
Dietitian. Principal health complaint officer.
Director of dental service. Principal health inspector.
Director of health laboratories. Principal medical technologist.
Head dietitian. Public health nurse, grade I.
Head 1 ealch complaint officer. Public health nurse, grade II.
Head health inspector. Resident physician.
Head hospital nurse. Senior general staff nurse.
Head merdi-al technologist. Senior health inspector.
Head public health nurse. Senior industrial hygiene aide.
Intern. Senior medical technologist.
Junior dentist. Senior physician.
Junior health inspector. Senior veterinary inspector.
Junior industrial hvgienist. Supervisor of hospital nurses.
Junior medical technologist. Supervisor of public health nurses.
Junior physician. Superintendent of public health nurses.
Junior sanitary chemist,
and certain allied groups present a list as follows:
Institutional attendant (female). Medical attendant (male).
Institutional attendant (male). Senior medical attendant.
Medical attendant (female). Trained nursing attendant.
Due largely to an increase in available employment which apparently has been
caused bv a marked increase in industrial activity and probably in part by the
induction of voung men into the military service and by the voluntary enlistment
of certain professional and technical people, notable among which is the enlist-
ment of nurses, physicians, dentists, veterinarians, engineers, and laboratory
workers, some difficulty has been encountered in the replacement of professional
7606 DETROIT HEARINGS
and technical personnel after incumbents had left the service. This has been
particularly true in the replacement of hospital nurses, physicians, engineers, and
laboratory technicians.
PROBLEM OF OBTAINING PERSONNEL
Personnel for service with the department of health, except physicians, are
requisitioned and supplied through the Detroit Civil Service Commission. This
problem of securing personnel has, we believe, become a major problem with the
civil service commission. The delay in securing adequate and competent per-
sonnel has become a material handicap to the functioning of the department.
It has become necessary for the administrators of the health department to turn
to the common council for assistance in this problem. Through this assistance
there was created in the health department budget, provision for additional
so-called medical attendants, both male and female positions, to assist in the
care of patients at the Herman Kiefer Hospital and at the William H. Maybury
Sanatorium. These persons, whose work is semitechnical in nature, may under
adverse situations be trained to assume in part the responsibilities of nurses,
thereby releasing for more technical work the few nurses which are available.
In these endeavors the full cooperation of the honorable common council and the
civil service commission has been received.
Employees are required to pass civil-service examinations before certification
to the health department for employment, that is, all classifications of employees,
with the exception of physicians. If. however, certain classifications of employees
are not available through the eligible list of the civil service commission, the
commission will grant permission to departments for the employment of tem-
porary employees, who'are placed on the pay roll as non-civil-service people, but
who when civil-service examinations are given for the particular position which
they occupy, are given the opportunity to take the examination with other appli-
cants. Although not fully satisfactory, no great disadvantages have been
experienced by the health department through these practices.
It is difficult to say how many nurses are available in Detroit or the metropolitan
area. This question can best be answered by the Detroit Council of Community
Nurses of which organization Miss Edna White, of the Merrill-Palmer School is
president.
It is known to this department that during the current year approximately
200 additional persons will be admitted to nurses' training schools and further
that through Federal and private subsidy refresher courses are available to older
nurses in order that they may become better acquainted with the more modern
methods and techniques of both hospital and public health nursing. It is expected
that these persons taking refresher courses will be available for service with
various public and nonoflBcial agencies.
TWO HOSPITALS
The health department operates two hospitals: the Herman Kiefer Hospital
which cares for acute communicable diseases, tuberculosis, and obstetrics, and the
William H. Maybury Sanatorium at Northville, Mich., 25 miles northwest of
the city, for tuberculosis only. At the Herman Kiefer Hospital there are 810
beds for tuberculosis, 65 beds for maternity with the appropriate number of
bassinets, and the balance of the total of 1,400 beds are available for various types
of acute communicable diseases. The Maybury Sanatorium has 845 beds for
tuberculosis only, making 1,655 beds available under the department of health
in their own institutions for care of patients with this disease.
In addition to these beds, however, there are subsidized in 12 other institutions
beds as needed for the care of tuberculosis patients, at the present time approxi-
mately 600 beds being in use. These are privately owned institutions. Some of
them care only for tuberculosis; others are special wards in general hospitals.
There has been no serious shortage of beds in this field in Detroit for some
time. At the present time we have a number of vacancies. Patients are ad-
mitted to the tuberculosis service on the authority of the health officer of any
jurisdiction within the county of Wayne. If they are able in part to pay for
these services they are expected to pay the county of Wayne. If they are indigent
the county meets the full hospital cost.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7607
Although Herman Kiefer Hospital and William H. Maybury Sanatorium are
owned by the citv of Detroit, the county of Wayne is by State law the responsible
agency financiaUy and pavs the city a per diem rate for the care of tuberculosis
patients, this rate for some time past having been $3.35 per day, but which will
probably have to be increased owing to increased costs of operation prevailing at
present. The county in turn receives $1.50 per day subsidy from the State of
Michigan for tuberculosis patients.
Any patient found with active tuberculosis and needing hospital care is hos-
pitalized on authority of the health officer and determination of settlement made
later. If the patient is a resident of another county in Michigan his settlement
is arrived at by correspondence between the two counties and if agreement cannot
be reached the matter is referred to the State welfare board. In the case of
persons coming from outside the State who have not established settlement in
Wayne County, the county authorities attempt to arrange for the return of the
patient to his former place of residence; this is frequently done at county expense —
the patient being hospitalized during determination of the settlement.
In the case of patients with acute cqntagious diseases admitted to Herman
Kiefer Hospital, these again are paid for by the county on a per diem basis but it
is also possible to admit private full-pay cases who may be cared for by private
physicians during their stay in the hdspital. Those who are unable to pay the
full rate or nothing at all are cared for by the staff of the hospital.
The beds available for acute contagious diseases have been quite adequate in
recent years owing to the fact that preventive programs have cut down sharply
on the numbers of diphtheria cases and certain other contagious diseases that
formerly occurred in far greater number than they do now.
Because of the public health implications any acute contagious disease found
in Wayne County may be admitted by the authority of the health officer at once
to Herman Kiefer Hospital contagious division. The city of Highland Park
maintains its own contagious disease hospital— otherwise the Herman Kiefer
Hospital is the only one serving this area.
In the obstetrical division patients are all indigent and are admitted on the
authority of the Detroit Welfare Department.
The Herman Kiefer Hospital employs approximately 820 employees at peak
operation. The average occupancy of the hospital is around 1,100 patients.
The William H. Maybury Sanatorium has 425 employees and has an average
occupancy of slightly over 800 patients.
NO INCREASE IN HOSPITAL BEDS PLANNED
As far as the services for tuberculosis and contagious diseases are concerned
in the Department of Health hospitals there has been no plan for any increase
in hospital beds. The obstetrical service, however, at Herman Kiefer Hospital
has been pushed to capacity for many years. Owing to the fact that the maternity
divisions of all hospitals of the city of Detroit have been pushed practically to
capacity for some months past it would appear that there may be a necessity for
relief in the form of additional beds in this field. This increase has apparently
not been so much for indigent persons, however, as most of the hospitals report
that they are receiving either insurance payments for obstetrical cases or employed
persons able to pay their expenses. We have also noted that the maternity
services of the Detroit hospitals other than Herman Kiefer are being used by a
number of nonresidents who come in to avail themselves of these services through
payment of their own expenses.
A comparative study of the births in Detroit during June 1941, with June 1940,
reveals that there were 162 more births in June 1941, than in June 1940, but of
this increase 115 were nonresidents who came into the city for this service only.
It is also interesting to note that there were 176 fewer births in the home during
June 1941, than during June 1940— another indication that more persons are
able to finance their care in the hospital inasmuch as the indigent service was not
so sharply increased.
7608 DETROIT HEARINGS
Office building and clinics — Detroit Department of Health — Areas in square feet of
floor space
Square feet
A. Offices: Main office: 3919 John R. St 16,884
1. Gratiot Health Center, 3506 Gratiot Ave 5,493
2. St. Antoine Health Center, 1415 St. Antoine St. (2 floors) 5, 040
3. Davison Health Center, southwest corner Joseph Campau and
Davison Ave 4, 800
4. Herman Kiefer Health Center, Herman Kiefer Hospital 4, 073
5. Grand River Health Center, 20641 Puritan Ave 2, 016
6. Michigan Health Center, southwest corner Junction and Rich
Aves 2,016
7. Delray Health Center, 1981 McKinstry Ave 2, 016
Health centers, subtotal 25. 454
C. Clinics (child welfare and prenatal) :
1. St Antoine, 1415 St. Antoine St (0
2. Gratiot, 3506 Gratiot (2,380 square feet) (0
3. Davison, southwest corner Joseph Campau and Davison Aves_ Q)
4. Grand River, 20641 Puritan Ave (i)
5. Michigan, southwest corner Junction and Rich (i)
6. Delray, 1981 McKinstry Ave C)
7. Chestnut St. (Urban League Community House, colored) ^ 200
8. Cottrell (Presbyterian Community House) ^ — 2 250
9. Brightmoor (Brightmoor Community House) 2 150
10. North End (Jewish Community Center, 936 Holbrook) 2 150
D. Venereal Disease Clinic: 1. 555 Clinton St 6, 958
E. Tuberculosis clinics:
1. Herman Kiefer Hospital (not including hospital X-ray service
space) 6. 050
2. 3521-25 Hastings St. (X-ray clinic) 2, 050
Subtotal 8, 100
Pertinent data:
Office space tentatively allocated to board of health in Barium Hotel. 23, 500
Office building as tentatively proposed on Herman Kiefer Hospital
grounds 40,000
Proposed health-center buildings, approximate area of each unit 4, 850
Venereal clinic as planned in new addition to Receiving Hospital 10, 200
1 Included in health center.
' Approximately.
Exhibit 12. — Migration and Public Welfare in Detroit
report by g. r. harris, general superintendent, department of public
welfare, detroit, mich.
September 22, 1941.
With three brief exceptions, migration into the city of Detroit seemed to parallel
the gradual and steady migration process toward urban centers which has been
going on throughout the United States since the Civil War. These three excep-
tions were (1) the period of granting of free land by the Federal Government in
1836 when Detroit population tripled in 3 years; (2) the period of industrial
growth just prior to the World War; (3) and the period of growth of the great
automotive industry immediately prior to 1929. The defense program marks a
fourth period of this kind.
While migrant workers are attracted to Michigan to satisfy the seasonal labor
demand in the (1) fruit orchards, (2) sugar-beet fields, (3) onion fields, (4) pulp-
wood camps, and (5) automotive factories, only the automobile worker stops in
Detroit.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7609
This migration has, in general, been individual in character — i. e., of individual
families and individual workers— except perhaps during the period of recruiting
industrial workers in other cities in the 1920's. Migration has been principally of
young families and of young workers who were particularly adaptable for the
streamlined type of industrial employment which was developing in Detroit faster
than in any other community in the United States. One had only to walk along
the streets of Detroit to notice how young was this city's population.
This problem of the migratory worker in Detroit is bound up inseparably and
unmistakably with employment opportunities. "I heard there were jobs" is
the universal reply to your inquiry "why did you come here?" Not only the
fluctuating index of employment but also the practice of "hiring out of the line"
at the factory gate makes it imperatrve that a worker present himself to be
evaluated for the labor market at numerous factory employment offices throughout
the city.
LEGAL AND FISCAL PROVISIONS FOR MIGRANT INDIGENT
Following the seasonal peaks of employment and during periods of mass
lay-off in private industry, applications for relief are made by some of these
famiUes who have migrated to the city.
The earliest Michigan poor laws made it permissible for the township overseer
of the poor and later for the superintendent of the poor, to assist migrant non-
settled families. Until December 1, 1939, legal settlement in Michigan was
considered to be 12 months' uninterrupted residence without acceptance of public
relief. At no time did the law cause a family to lose settlement in Michigan before
gaining legal settlement elsewhere.
In the city of Detroit, the policy of accepting families for relief on the basis of
need, irrespective of their place of legal settlement, has been outlined in the
Manual of Policy of the department of public welfare:
"The department of public welfare provides financial assistance and service
to needy families and to unattached and homeless persons over 16 years of age.
Because of the broad responsibility placed upon the department by the charter
and the expectation of the community that the department will fulfill these
responsibihties, a liberal interpretation has been placed upon the eligibility for
care. Need has been considered the sole test of eligibility for those facilities which
are available."
The department did not resort to undue restrictive pohcies at any time but
followed the general practice of accepting the application on the basis of need,
determining the place of legal settlement of the family, securing permission from
the authorities in that community to return the family to its place of legal settle-
ment, the furnishing of transportation to the place of legal settlement, and, if
necessary, accompanying the family with necessary medical or social attendant.
While" the city of Detroit, prior "to 1932. assumed sole financial responsibility
for care of resident indigents regardless of their place of legal settlement, it was
the practice to "charge back" to other Michigan counties the amount expended
for relief in Detroit to families whose legal settlement was acknowledged to be in
those counties.
In 1932 local funds could no longer meet the relief demand, and Reconstruction
Finance Corporation loans and grants were made, followed later by State and
Federal participation through State Emergency Relief Administration and Federal
Emergency Relief Administration.
This sharing of financial responsibility is illustrated by the following chart:
7610
DETROIT HEARINGS
6
o
D
E B
. NATIONAL DEFENSE MIORATION 7611
Federal carejor transients. — In August 1934 the State emergency relief adminis-
tration organized a special bureau in Wayne County for the care of transient fami-
lies and homeless men. Funds for the care of these individuals and families
came as a grant to the State emergency relief administration from the Federal
Emergency Relief Administration. A study of 157 families referred to that
division by the department of public welfare in 1935 brought out the following
conclusions.
Suitahility of migrants for labor market. — " only 3 percent of the total
number of family relief cases in the city of Detroit Department of Public Welfare,
were "transients," i. e., had legal settlement outside the city of Detroit. In the
study of 157 cases of nonsettled families who were receiving relief and who were
referred to the Federal transient bureau at the time of its organization, 129 men
who constituted the heads of these families show a high percentage of those
elements which should indicate potential desirability as members of a community;
63, or 48.8 percent of these men were between the ages of 19 and 34— a period in
life at which they can most readily adapt themselves to the modes of life of an
industrial community and learn the skills necessary for economic adjustment;
39 men, or 30 percent, of the group were between the ages of 35 and 44." i
A study of the usual occupations or skills of the principal wage earners in these
transient families showed in general a slightly higher percentage of skilled workers
and foremen than did the general relief load at that time. Of these wage earners,
7 percent were white-collared workers; 29.3 percent were skilled workers and
foremen; 21.6 percent were semiskilled workers; 31.2 percent were unskilled
(including domestic and inexperienced), and only 10, or 0.8 percent, of these
families had no wage earner or the skill of the wage earner could not be deter-
mined.
The foregoing study indicates that the workers m most of these nonsettled
families were young, and skilled or semiskilled.
"The possession of industrial skills evident among this group of persons indi-
cates that these migrants were not improvident wanderers from backwoods
regions. This assumption is borne out in a study of their backgrounds and their
root in the community. More than half of these families (52.2 percent) were
original Detroit residents, most of whom had left Detroit at the beginning of the
depression hoping to be able to weather a short period of unemployment by
returning to farms or to the homes of relatives. Eight had purchased farms with
savings or by trading their Detroit homes only to find it impossible to meet pay-
ments, 3 rented farms but were unable to maintain themselves, 8 returned to the
old home farm while 6 secured farm employment, 2 found other kinds of work
outside of Wayne (bounty, 20 went to live with relatives until conditions should
improve, and 11 looked for work from State to State." '
Of these 157 famihes, 51.6 percent were originally Detroit residents; 57.3 percent
had relatives in Detroit, and in 17.8 percent of the families, the wage earner had a
job in Detroit before sending for his family. Only 1 7 percent of these 157 families
were strangers to Detroit before coming into the city to secure employment.
Their place of origin indicates that for the most part, these migrant workers
came to Detroit from other industrial centers, i. e., that migration was in general
not direct from rural life to Detroit but through the intermediate stage of life in
an industrial coinmunity.
LOCAL CARE OF MIGRANT FAMILIES
When the Federal Emergency Relief Administration was discontinued in 1936,
the Detroit Department of Public Welfare continued its responsibility for non-
settled famines who were in need in the city of Detroit as it had done prior to the
organization of the Federal Emergency Relief Administration. Not only did the
department accept responsibility for those nonsettled families who made applica-
tion for assistance but it was also the official agency for furnishing transportation
to the place of legal settlement for clients of any public or private agency within
the city of Detroit.
During the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1937, and ending June 30, 1938, the
Detroit Department of Public Welfare furnished transportation to the place of
legal settlement for 1,052 families. The point of destination of these 1,052 cases
is listed as follows:
1 Taken from thesis by Helen Gibson La Croix, the Adjustment of Transient Families in Detroit.
7612
DETROIT HEAUINGS
States to which families were given transportation by the Department of Public
Welfare, Detroit
States:
Alabama
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
District of Columbia-
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kan sas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Mflissachusetts
Michigan
M innesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Number
of cases
83
2
41
27
3
3
4
0
20
48
3
48
29
11
4
56
14
3
6
12
83
19
14
63
3
3
States — Continued.
Nevada -
Number
of cases
0
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio - _____
4
11
1
50
17
5
77
Oklahoma
Oregon
9
2
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
65
2
South Carolina __
15
South Dakota _ _
- - 3
Tennessee
Texas _ _ _ _
89
29
Utah
3
Vermont
Virginia _ _
0
11
Washington
W^est Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming i
Canada _ __ -
7
26
20
1
4
Total 1,052
The following chart indicates the destination of the 1,052 families who were
given transportation to their place of legal residence by the Detroit Department
of Public Welfare during the fiscal year 1937-38.
The policy of the department of accepting applications of families on the
basis of need without discrimination because of legal settlement made it possible
to study the ratio of such families to the total number of families receiving relief.
For this study, the month of August 1938 was selected since during that month
1>here was a sharp drop in employment in Detroit industry following what had
been a "good" year, initial unemployment compensation benefits were being
paid in Michigan, and Works Progress Administration employment quotas re-
mained at about the same level. This month, August 1938, would seem to give
a more complete picture of needy migrant families in relation to the total num-
ber of families receiving relief. This was also a month in which many of the
conditions were similar to those which Detroit faces at the present time.
The huge lay-off in industry resulted in a relief case load of 50,602 families
in August 1938. In 39,482 (78 percent) of these families, the principal wage
ea.rner was Detroit born, or had come to Detroit prior to 1930. In only 302
families had the wage earner arrived in Detroit in 1938, and 1,722 had come in
1937, a year of stimulated employment.
A study of the ages of these workers, heads of families, male or female, shows
that 518 were under 20 years of age; 9,412 were between 20 and 29; 14,580 were
between 30 and 39; while 26,092 (51 percent) of these wage earners were 40
years of age or older. (See charts attached.)
Many of these heads of families who were 65 years of age were to be eligible
for old-age assistance as soon as applications were current, and some were to be
eligible for social security and survivors' benefits.
It was not possible to study the place in which each of these families lived
just prior to their coming to Detroit. However, the place of birth of the heads
of each familv was recorded and showed that of 50,602 families receiving relief
in August 1938, 14,547 were foreign-born; and 9,880 were born in Detroit or
elsewhere in Michigan.
The neighboring States of Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana were the place of birth
of 2,148 family heads; New York or Pennsylvania was the birth place of 3,478,
while the Southern States of Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, and
Mississippi were the States of origin of many hundreds more, (See attached
chart.)
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7613
7614 DETROIT HEARINGS
The place of last employment of the principal male wage earners in these 50,602
families was, of course, closely associated with manufacturing.
I. Male heads of families:
(1) From auto manufacturing 10,773
(2) From body manufacturing 3, 337
(3) From other manufacturing 19, 939
(4) No recent employment (iUness, etc.) 2, 938
II. Female heads of families 13, 615
While the relief load was high, the intake and suspension chart of August 1938
shows that the number of wage earners leaving relief rolls to be absorbed by the
automotive industry was almost identical with the number of workers who were
accepted for relief coming from the automotive industry.
Wayne County care for migrant families.— On December 1, 1939, Act No. 280
of the Michigan Public Acts of 1939 removed the responsibility for the care of
nonsettled families who were in need from the Detroit Department of Public Wel-
fare to the newly organized Wayne County Department of Social Welfare. Since
that time all nonsettled families making application for assistance are referred to
the Wayne County Department of Social Welfare.
Care of homeless men {State and city) . — The bureau of homeless and unattached
continued as it was organized in 1935 to be operated by the Detroit Department
of Public Welfare. At the present time, this bureau is financed entirely with con-
tributions from the State Department of social welfare excepting a small adminis-
trative expense.
The number of men under care and their legal settlement classification is shown
in the following chart:
Legal settlement of men at the bureau of homeless and unattached, Jan. 1, 1937, to ^
June SO, 1941
Calendar year
Local
settle-
ment
State
settle-
ment
Federal
tran-
sients
Total
1937 _ .
11,619
20, 291
14, 404
19, 426
7,420
872
353
262
305
215
6,963
1,793
913
1,483
848
19,454
193g ...
22, 437
1939 . .
15, 579
1940
21,214
1941 (6 months) -
8,483
Total -- -
73, 160
2,007
12, 000
87, 167
Place of legal settlement of transient men in shelter, bureau of homeless and unattached
Sept. 18, 1941
6
9
8
6
4
3
West Virginia 2
Michigan
Illinois
Ohio
Tennessee
Pennsylvania.
Oklahoma-
Alabama.
Colorado..
California.
Connecticut
Texas
Missouri
New Jersey
New York
Massachusetts.
Mississippi
Wisconsin
Total 52
Mr. T. K. Fortney, director of .the bureau of homeless and unattached, has
made the following observations; in general, 75 percent of the nonsettled single
men who make application at the lodge, hitchhike in by highway or by railroad.
Most of the colored transients travel by rail. Of these transient workers, only
about 10 percent of those who hitchhike are skilled or semiskilled, and the majority
of them are either under 25 or over 50 years of age. These hitchhikers have poor
industrial employment records; 95 percent have no birth certificates which are
important to secure employment; and the majority of them apply for relief
immediately upon arriving in the city. The above indicates that the hitchhikers
are seeking employment with no reserve of capital or employment history or skill.
Of those 25 percent of the applicants who paid for their tiansportation, 40
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7515
percent are skilled or semiskilled; the majority are about 40 years of age; they have
fair employment history; and about 50 percent have birth records. These men
apply for assistance from 3 days to 5 weeks after their arrival in Detroit, which
indicates that they have more reserve in capital, in skill and employment histor}',
and have more knowledge of the requirements for industrial employment,
MEDICAL AND HOSPITAL CARE (CITT OF DETROIT)
In accordance with the policy of granting relief on the basis of need, irrespective
of legal settlement, the city of Detroit meets the medical needs on the same basis
through the following hospitals: Receiving (emergency, mental, and general);
Herman Kiefer (communicable diseases, acute tuberculosis, maternity); May-
bury Sanatorium (tuberculosis sanatorium) ; Eloise Hospital (Wayne County
institution, accepts transfers from city of Detroit).
Receiving Hospital is a 650-bed hospital, 200 beds of which are segregated for
services to mental patients and police prisoners. The remainder consists of
general medical and surgical beds, of which 39 are assigned to children, 13 to
24-hour emergency service, and the balance divided approximately equally between
medicine and surgery.
Emergency service is given to any patient, regardless of settlement or financial
ability to pay. If the patient is found to be financially competent, he is billed
for the services rendered. If the patient is a minor indigent resident, the cost of
his care is assumed by the city of Detroit. If the patient is an adult indigent
resident, the city of Detroit is reimbursed for services rendered in accordance
with the Afflicted Adult Act of the State of Michigan. Reimbursement is made
by the county of Wayne. Emergency nonsettled patients are provided for at city
of Detroit expense.
The following statement was furnished by Dr. Bruce H. Douglas, health com-
missioner of the city of Detroit.
The health department operates two hospitals: The Herman Kiefer Hospital
which cares for acute communicable diseases, tuberculosis, and obstetrics, and
the William H. Maybury Sanatorium at Northville, Mich., 25 miles northwest of
the city, for tuberculosis only. At the Herman Kiefer Hospital there are 810
beds for tuberculosis, 65 beds for maternity with the appropriate number of bas-
sinets, and the balance of the total of 1,400 beds are available for various types of
acute communicable diseases. The Maybury Sanatorium has 845 beds for tuber-
culosis only, making 1,655 beds available under the department of health in their
own institutions for care of patients with this disease.
In addition to these beds, however, there are subsidized in 12 other institutions
beds as needed for the care of tuberculosis patients; at the present time approxi-
mately 600 beds being in use. These are privately owned institutions. Some of
them care only for tuberculosis; others are special wards in general hospitals.
There has been no serious shortage of beds in this field in Detroit for some time.
At the present time we have a number of vacancies. Patients are admitted to the
tuberculosis service on the authority of the health officer of any jurisdiction within
the county of Wayne. If they are able in part to pay for these services they are
expected to pay the county of Wayne. If they are indigent the county meets the
full hospital cost.
Although Herman Kiefer Hospital and William H. Maybury Sanatorium are
owned by the city of Detroit, the county of Wayne is by State law the responsible
agency financially and pays the city a per diem rate for the care of tuberculosis
patients, this rate for some time past having been $3.35 per day, but which will
probably have to be increased owning to increased costs of operation prevailing
at present. The county in turn receives $1.50 per day subsidy from the State of
Michigan for tuberculosis patients.
Any patient found with active tuberculosis and needing hospital care is hospital-
ized on authority of the health officer and determination of settlement made later.
If the patient is a resident of another county in Michigan his settlement is arrived
at by correspondence between the two counties and if agreement cannot be reached
the matter is referred to the State welfare board. In the case of persons coming
from outside the State who have not established settlement in Wayne County,
the county authorities attempt to arrange for the return of the patient to his
former place of residence; this is frequently done at county expense — the patient
being hospitalized during determination of the settlement.
In the case of patients with acute contagious diseases admitted to Herman
Kiefer Hospital, these again are paid for by the county on a per diem basis but it is
also possible to admit private full-pay cases who may be cared for by private
phvsicians during their stay in the hospital. Those who are unable to pay the
full rate or nothing at all are cared for by the staff of the hospital.
60396—41 — pt. 18 36
'JQIQ DETROIT HEARINGS
The beds available for acute contagious diseases have been quite adequate
in recent years owing to the fact that preventive programs have cut down sharply
on the number of diphtheria cases and certain other contagious diseases that
formerlv occurred in far greater number than they do now.
Because of the public-health implications any acute contagious disease found
in Wayne County may be admitted by the authority of the health officer at once
to Herman Kiefer Hospital contagious division. The city of Highland Park
maintains its own contagious-disease hospital — otherwise the Herman Kiefer
Hospital is the only one serving this area.
In the obstetrical division patients are all indigent and are admitted on the
authority of the Detroit Welfare Department.
The Herman Kiefer Hospital employs approximately 820 employees at peak
operation. The average occupancy of the hospital is around 1,100 patients.
The William H. Maybury Sanatorium has 425 employees and has an average
occupancv of slightly over 800 patients.
As far as the services for tuberculosis and contagious diseases are concerned in
the department of health hospitals there has been no plan for any increase in
hospital beds. The obstetrical service, how^ever, at Herman Kiefer Hospital has
been pushed to capacitv for many years. Owing to the fact that the maternity
divisions of all hospitals of the city of Detroit have been pushed practically to
capacity for some months past it would appear that there may be a necessity for
relief in the form of additional beds in this field. This increase has apparently
not been so much for indigent persons, however, as most of the hospitals report
that they are receiving either insurance payments for obstetrical cases or employed
persons able to pav their expenses. We have also noted that the maternity serv-
ices of the Detroit hospitals other than Herman Kiefer are l)eing used by a num-
ber of nonresidents who come in to avail themselves of these services through
payment of their own expenses.
A comparative study of the births in Detroit during June 1941 with June 1940,
reveals that there were 162 more births in June 1941 than in June 1940, but of
this increase 115 were nonresidents who came into the city for this service only.
It is also interesting to note that there were 176 less births in the home during
June 1941 than during June 1940 — another indication that more persons are
able to finance their care in the hospital inasmuch as the indigent service was not
so sharply increased.
HOUSING
With peak periods of employment, it has been the experience of the department
of public w^elfare that the securing and maintaining of proper housing for its clients
becomes extremely difficult. This w^as true in 1918, 1929, 1935, and there is a
comparable situation today.
In 1937 and 1938 the vacancy ratio of dwellings in Detroit was well over 5
percent, and the welfare clients were able to find and to maintain dwelling accom-
modations. During 1939 and 1940 there were few evictions and clients were in
a position to negotiate with landlords for rentals without the assistance of the
department. At present, the Detroit Real Estate Board estimates the vacancy
ratio at approximatelv 1 percent.
During the years of 1937, li'SS, 1939, and 1940 the average shelter allowance
granted by the department ranged from $21 to $22.50 with little variation being
shown through the years. This average rental covered all types of dwelling
units — single, multidwellings, furnished rooms, and apartments.
However, within the past 6 months, numerous demands have been made by
landlords for rental increases from 10 to 25 percent covering all types of dwellings,
but particularly single dwellings housing individual families.
In the past, 'a greater percentage of relief families occupied multiple dwelhngs
and single dwellings, but today, because of the shortage of such dwellings relief
families are forced to occupy rooms and apartments.
There is a marked increase in the number of evictions being served on welfare
families. At the present time, it appears that the reason for this increase in
evictions is that the landlords prefer nonrelief families as tenants, even though
the department of public welfare will pay the rent asked by the landlord.
The Detroit Housing Commission has set up a homes registration division, msti-
tuted primarily to obtain housing for defense workers and those in allied industries.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7617
Recent reports of this division indicate that the majority of accommodations
offered are of the single furnished-room type, with little accommodation being
available for family units.
The lack of suitable housing for families of limited income, the continued activity
of the department of health and the department of building and safety engineer-
ing in razing substandard dwellings, increases the problem of maintaining relief
families in any type of dwelling accommodation. In those buildings not razed,
extensive repairs have been made by landlords and the cost of these repairs is
met bv an increase in the rental.
In the past, it has been the policy of the department of public welfare to main-
tain emergency shelters to provide for evicted families. At the present time,
these emergencv shelters are taxed to the limit of their capacity.
One source of housing, however, that has been made available to the department
is that offered by the Detroit housing committee in the Detroit housing projects
throughout the citv. Allowance is made up to 15 percent of the occupancy for
relief families in all categories of relief, including aid to dependent children, aid
to the blind, old-age assistance, general relief, and Work Projects Administration.
EMPLOYMENT SERVICE
Since 1918, the welfare department maintained an employment service for its
clients. Everv employable applicant for relief registered at this office at regular
intervals and jarospective employers called the office offering jobs. This service
was replaced in 1938 by the Michigan State Employment Service.
All applicants for relief (since 1938) were required to register for employment
at the Michigan State Employment Service office and upon registering, were
directed to whatever jobs were available in private industry.
However, the practice of "hiring out of the line" in industry seems to short
circuit Michigan State Employment Service in a great many instances. For
this reason, the Department of Public Welfare has found it necessary to continue
on a smaller scale its direct contact with individual employment offices. It is
believed at this time that this service in the department will be considerably
expanded in the near future. At the present time, the employment service con-
sists of (o) personal contacts with industrial management, as well as utilities,
retail stores, and other commercial enterprises; (b) lists of all persons who have
obtained emplovment or reemployment from the employers so that they can be
checked to the" welfare records; (c) employment lay-offs can be anticipated in
advance through information obtained from these contacts to assist the depart-
ment in intelligently planning for the financial reciuirements of the future; (d)
emplovment service acts as a liaison between the Michigan State Employment
Service, National Youth Administration, private employers, and other agencies
on all matters of employment.
CONCLUSIONS
Migration is a problem of unemployment. So eager are migrants for work that
they will leave all home ties and strike out across the miles at the mere rumor of
jobs. . TA • ij
Any practice which would restrain or depress free migration mto Detroit would
involve the free labor market.
Migration to Detroit coincides with high index of employment in the auto-
motive industry. Migrants leave Detroit in great numbers when automobile
factories close.
The national patchwork of laws which relate to legal settlement are confusing
and conflicting. Efforts directed toward uniformity among States in their
nonsettlement laws would be of great assistance in meeting the migration problem.
Migration to Detroit is individual in character, is "young"; is semiskilled;
and originates in nearby States of small industrial centers and in Eastern and
Southern States.
The migrant worker takes the "shock" of a shifting labor market with little or
no help or protection from the labor market or the community which needs his
labor.
Local industrial centers cannot bear the burden of expense during heavy indus-
trial lay-off periods without the provision of financial assistance from Federal
sources.
7518 DETROIT HEARINGS
August 1938 — Case load — Intake and suspensions — Year came to city by employ-
ment group
Intake
Suspensions
Auto
man-
ufac-
tur-
ing
Auto
body
man-
ufac-
tur-
ing
Other
em-
ploy-
ment
Other
Total
Auto
man-
ufac-
tur-
ing
Auto
body
man-
ufac-
tur-
ing
Other
em-
ploy
ment
Work
Pro-
jects
Ad-
min-
istra-
tion
Other
Total
Year came to city:
Born or came prior to 1930. -
Born or came in 1930 -.
Born or came in 1931. _
Born or came in 1932
Born or came in 1933
Born or came in 1934
Born or came in 1935
Born or came in 1936
Born or came in 1937
Born or came in 1938
Not stated
1,156
10
9
14
32
27
38
27
19
12
1
420
3
4
10
8
15
13
10
3
1
2,232
56
33
37
57
102
132
225
251
46
4
472
6
6
7
14
7
27
30
39
20
83
4,280
75
52
68
111
151
210
292
312
79
88
1,003
9
8
4
18
23
15
20
13
6
7
220
2
4
7
8
7
5
2
1,159
17
13
22
26
62
64
72
88
7
4,314
108
61
84
129
175
279
419
320
48
36
11,497
187
149
216
359
566
501
669
394
76
987
18, 193
321
233
330
539
834
866
1,185
817
137
1,033
Total
1,345
487
3,175
711
5,718
1,126
258
1,630
5,973
> 15, 601
24,488
' Includes suspensions due to "Receiving unemployment compensation benefits."
Prepared by statistical division, department of public welfare, city of Detroit, Sept. 22, 1941.
Cases under care August 1938 by year came to city; by employment group; by State
or country of birth
Year to city..
Came prior to 1930
1
2
3
4
Total
Women 2
Total
291
1
71
11
9
15
3
3
40
411
64
1
18
2
2
9
550
1
151
16
13
37
7
15
97
793
1
354
213
67
46
348
111
19
38
105
3,644
61
218
212
8
17
1
15
47
6
338
162
12
524
38
6
656
8
286
7
446
110
2
10
114
89
4
16
4
3
4
994
7
256
33
27
65
10
20
170
1,457
3
674
458
130
79
696
188
30
70
185
6,220
114
442
356
21
27
1
32
92
11
648
266
29
908
80
8
1,332
18
489
17
823
194
4
22
207
780
1,774
7
181
7
11
14
2
7
119
1,307
437
40
38
79
12
D istrict of Columbia
1
17
99
1
55
51
11
6
77
9
2
2
17
653
8
34
26
3
2
1
16
154
1
56
33
10
5
67
14
1
9
15
448
10
54
19
4
1
27
Florida . ---
289
2,764
3
209
161
42
22
204
54
8
21
48
1,475
35
136
99
6
7
235
167
43
31
327
103
10
20
41
2,169
29
338
134
8
9
909
625
173
110
1,023
291
40
90
226
8,389
143
780
490
29
Nebraska
36
1
12
21
2
170
69
11
232
30
1
476
7
143
8
241
53
2
8
55
—Body m£
3
12
2
12
3
80
21
3
83
5
5
23
3
189
123
7
374
40
37
115
14
60
14
3
69
7
1
135
1
27
2
86
15
837
389
North Dakota
36
Ohio
1,282
120
8
65
2
33
345
8
312
6
455
91
1,677
Rhode Island
26
801
South Dakota
23
50
16
1,278
Texas -
285
Utah
4
3
16
inufacturir
1
22
4
106
id employ
26
313
1 Code: 1— Auto industry. 2
Other.
2 Heads of families.
ig. 3— Other manufacturing ar
ment. 4 —
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7619
Cases under care August 1938 by year came to city; by employment group; by State
or country of birth — Continued
Came prioi
to 1930— Continued
1
2
3
4
Total
Women
Total
4
45
47.
4
16
11
1
10
75
83
2
2
4,956
23
18
155
153
3
2
10, 641
94
1
88
50
4
19
19
12
243
203
7
2
3,805
11
905
5
975
55
2,153
24
12, 794
118
Total -
8,835
2,566
15, 081
2,497
28, 979
10, 503
39, 482
C
ame in 1930
1
2
3
4
Total
Women
Total
10
2
2
19
9
1
2
33
11
1
25
13
1
1
1
58
24
2
1
1
2
1
6
4
4
1
1
2
3
1
40
28
11
1
1
8
6
2
3
57
3
12
4
1
3
3
5
33
4
4
2
6
Georgia --
4
5
2
27
17
5
1
1
8
2
2
3
31
1
7
2
3
2
73
32
15
3
1
15
2
1
4
33
3
13
4
23
2
2
8
3
7
18
4
1
2
1
4
1
90
6
Mississippi
3
1
1
25
8
1
1
4
5
9
1
1
5
2
6
2
1
8
2
2
3
10
4
16
2
1
4
19
9
29
2
4
36
11
18
4
7
1
4
2
149
23
14
Ohio .-- - -
38
3
3
21
9
12
2
4
1
1
4
Pennsylvania
6
1
4
1
1
1
1
9
6
17
1
5
1
42
2
45
16
1
1
2
35
5
1
12
1
West Virginia
3
2
49
7
3
11
73
16
119
2
Total -
137
51
294
41
523
269
792
C
3amc in 19
51
1
2
3
4
Total
Women
Total
^.
3
4
9
4
1
13
8
10
6
1
23
14
1
1
2
1
1
1
2
1
1
1
24
12
14
5
2
15
2
1
1
1
3
1
1
1
6
4
5
1
3
29
9
8
2
2
5
1
4
2
2
14
5
6
2
2
9
2
2
1
3
1
53
21
22
1
7
4
3
1
2
20
3
1
1
'JQ20 DETROIT HEARINGS
Cases under care August 1938 by year came to city; by employment group; by State
or country of birth — Continued
Came ii
1 1931— Continued
1
2
3
4
Total
Women
Total
1
12
1
4
2
5
23
1
1
6
1
1
6
45
2
6
8
1
1
1
1
14
4
2
19
8
4
6
64
2
i
io
3
1
1
16
11
2
2
1
1
1
1
4
6
1
10
3
12
16
2
7
6
4
1
18
10
1
Ohio
4
1
12
6
9
1
20
1
32
8
1
13
5
i
5
2
101
30
4
2
2
1
16
4
2
2
44
24
1
3
10
4
3
2
1
36
12
3
1
1
1
27
25
1
1
1
8
5
2
6
1
18
3
Foreign-born
38
9
128
Totil - --- -
115
34
191
43
383
211
594
Came in 1932
1
2
3
4
Total
Women
Total
3
3
19
1
8
25
2
11
1
2
1
1
18
43
2
3
6
1
17
2
1
1
1
2
1
1
1
3
33
14
3
2
1
11
5
1
1
5
5
6
3
1
6
1
1
4
9
16
6
2
1
8
2
6
18
23
13
7
2
19
4
2
1
9
2
1
51
37
16
2
9
3
1
1
30
2
1
1
1
26
1
17
6
2
1
29
14
30
3
10
5
2
6
1
1
79
4
11
7
2
105
5
28
1
13
2
3
3
1
3
i
6
3
1
15
1
9
3
12
5
2
1
3
2
50
3
13
4
1
24
2
33
8
23
5
4
1
1
111
3
3
1
5
4
18
8
1
Ohio
6
1
21
3
7
1
14
3
17
9
12
5
1
38
5
2
2
50
35
10
1
5
5
4
35
8
1
15
3
32
1
10
11
143
Not stated.
Total --
152
52
243
41
488
259
747
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7621
Cases under care August 1938 by year came to city; by employment group: by State
or country of birth — Continued
Came in 193
3
Employment group
1
2
3
4
Total
Women
Total
Alabama --
8
1
27
1
9
1
4
40
1
17
1
29
69
1
5
1
2
5
22
1
2
6
28
3
10
3
1
11
3
2
Florida
1
13
16
8
2
2
18
1
4
8
1
1
4
IG
17
16
1
3
15
1
1
1
5
47
2
11
6
1
6
35
44
27
4
5
38
3
1
1
7
111
6
16
14
1
12
2
3
2
63
Illinois - - --
47
37
7
6
4
2
1
49
6
1
2
1
47
3
1
49
3
2
4
1
6
8
9
1
2
3
158
6
1
1
19
6
35
20
1
2
1
1
2
1
1
1
4
1
10
5
1
6
1
20
8
2
44
8
67
1
18
1
49
7
1
1
11
8
7
134
6
1
3
1
2
15
2
22
7
2
7
6
27
14
2
Ohio ---
6
1
11
21
4
30
1
13
1
28
4
1
2
1
4
24
68
8
18
1
7
1
13
6
85
2
3
2
25
2
15
3
5
1
62
13
Utah
1
1
1
3
5
7
2
6
61
1
3
4
1
21
14
1
1
13
12
---
8
44
155
Total
251
88
384
49
772
292
1,064
Year to city -
Came in 193
4
1
2
3
4
Total
Women
Total
Alabama
13
10
6
5
37
14
3
3
2
2
1
58
30
3
5
2
42
16
i'
" 2
3
44
15
8
3
2
30
3
1
1
62
5
21
5
2
_.
5
9
100
Arkansas --
46
3
2
6
2
District of Columbia
2
4
4
9
9
2
2
23
6
33
32
17
2
8
28
6
1
5
1
1
11
50
65
38
4
14
87
8
14
Georgia
8
23
11
94
80
Indiana -_
46
7
Kansas
4
32
1
16
Kentucky . _
4
1
117
11
1
Maryland
1
2
55
3
5
9
1
3
79
2
10
172
6
28
26
1
1
2
Massachusetts
4
29
3
2
7
1
9
11
Michigan .
234
11
17
8
1
4
2
49
Missouri
31
3
1
1
New Hampshire
1
1
5
2
1
33
15
6
New York .-
12
2
15
9
1
2
42
North Carolina
22
7622
DETROIT HEARINGS
Cases under care August 19S8 by year came to city; by employment group; by State
or country of birth — Continued
Year to city
Came ii
1 1934— Continued
1
2
3
4
Total
Women
Total
2
14
1
...
2
36
1
2
39
1
13
4
72
2
2
84
2
19
1
63
11
1
1
5
3
15
12
182
24"
1
_._
is"
2
21
10
4
Ohio
3
96
3
2
25
1
6
1
15
4
18
2
98
2
32
3
10
3
4
28
34
6
4
84
21
Utah
1
1
1
4
1
43
1
2
2
1
10
3
46
2
1
1
5
96
12
4
1
19
13
12
225
1
Total
325
204
563
57
1,149
431
1,580
Came in 1935
Employment group
1
2
3
4
Total
Women
Total
Alabama
10
8
1
2
2
4
3
69
22
3
6
89
33
4
2
3
3
1
10
81
64
23
1
1
2
153
56
5
3
1
3
5
3
1
i
5
77
1
12
9
5
6
27
8
2
Florida -
1
9
7
63
2
2
15
7
158
1
11
5
2
1
16
2
6
8
29
20
5
7
32
19
1
2
8
72
9
25
23
1
1
47
34
7
8
54
23
1
4
11
159
19
43
35
1
3
1
4
59
43
12
14
5
1
2
81
31
1
1
2
56
4
12
3
1
4
1
21
5
5
6
5
61
16
10
1
1
3
1
220
19
24
10
67
45
1
1
2
1
2
3
1
2
2
1
5
5
6
1
6
2
1
2
23
7
3
40
9
46
1
18
42
14
2
32
11
3
70
13
82
1
27
63
14
1
1
10
1
20
8
1
191
37
16
North Dakota
3
Ohio
15
1
26
9
3
9
6
13
7
19
83
20
1
101
1
South Carolina
6
14
2
5
1
2
13
43
6
40
106
20
Utah
I
1
1
1
1
6
2
9
16
1
2
2
1
5
2
13
3
1
102
6
5
26
1
13
1
51
27
11
34
225
Total .
281
135
756
57
1,229
508
1,737
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7623
Cases under care August 1938 by year came to city; by employment group; by State
or country of birth — Continued
Year to city -
C
ame in 193
6
Employment group
1
2
3
4
Total
Women
Total
11
3
125
1
51
1
3
1
1
140
1
63
1
5
2
2
16
125
86
48
17
17
87
21
4
3
13
204
22
72
45
4
4
1
6
2
28
22
4
87
12
133
33
4
119
15
2
1
24
3
20
13
1
237
66
206
1
8
4
23
86
1
2
1
2
1
11
22
11
2
3
22
3
3
5
2
2
Florida
14
107
55
30
13
14
58
16
1
3
6
112
12
56
31
1
2
1
2
11
68
24
16
2
5
25
7
1
27
5
8
5
2
193
Illinois
110
64
19
22
3
1
4
1
112
28
5
3
5
64
4
9
10
1
2
17
5
5
3
2
2
1
2
66
5
33
16
15
11
1
2
1
1
269
27
105
61
4
2
1
5
1
2
4
2
16
16
2
57
8
80
30
1
94
6
2
1
17
3
11
11
1
148
1
7
2
10
2
2
17
4
37
1
1
13
8
2
3
7
8
35
Nortli Carolina
1
30
4
Ohio
10
3
15
6
21
16
102
18
Pennsylvania
14
2
2
154
49
2
8
4
4
1
41
8
160
Texas
23
2
1
4
1
2
8
32
3
8
1
1
1
9
6
29
19
1
Foreisn-bom
69
9
11
50
2
287
2
Total
374
119
1,222
54
1,769
568
2,337
Year to city
C
ame in 193
7
1
2
3
4
Total
Women
Total
2
1
94
1
33
1
2
1
1
2
99
1
37
2
4
1
1
37
136
3
1
1
1
14
2
61
1
1
2
39
9
6
5
2
18
6
2
2
12
4
2
2
6
10
76
33
27
8
5
62
18
1
3
5
101
13
43
25
12
79
51
38
11
8
62
19
1
3
5
168
14
44
30
14
1
1
4
118
5
3
1
60
Indiana . .
44
16
1
1
1
10
3
80
25
1
2
2
56
2
15
13
5
7
45
1
1
1
12
10
224
16
60
Missouri
2
2
43
7624
DETROIT HEARINGS
Cases under care August 1938 by year came to city: by employment group: by State
of country of birth — Continued
Camel
Q 1937— Continued
Emplovmeiit group . .
1
2
3
4
Total
Women
Total
Montana.. -.-.
1
1
5
6
1
24
9
2
68
17
104
3
35
3
78
17
1
16
1
f
1
6
5
1
12
2
11
1
10
2
Nebraska .
5
4
1
15
9
1
55
17
68
1
32
2
63
15
1
15
5
1
1
7
New Mexico
2
New York.
North Carolina
4
2
3
30
14
North Dakota... .
1
7
3
Ohio - -
4
2
80
19
Pennsylvania- .
23
1
1
1
10
1
6
1
7
115
Rhode Island -
4
South Carolina
2
45
South Dakota
3
Tennessee
Texas .. ..
4
1
1
27
8
105
25
Vermont .....
1
Virginia
1
6
1
3
3
53
22
Washington
1
2
16
5
141
18
6
234
21
Wisconsin .. .
1
f.7
9
Foreign-born.
14
12
287
Total.
204
62
1,019
53
1,338
384
1,722
Year to city
Came in 193S i
Employment group . ...
1
2
3
4
Total
Women
Total
Alabama
1
2
2
3
5
2
1
1
2
5
3
2
1
1
5
2
7
Arkansas
5
California
1
Colorado
1
1
2
Florida
2
Georgia
Illinois
1
6
1
..
3
8
4
4
4
17
6
4
9
20
8
Iowa . -. ..
5
1
Kentucky
3
1
3
1
7
1
1
2
55
2
3
8
1
5
1
12
Louisiana
c
3
1
1
28
2
2
5
1
1
2
24
r
4
MichiL'an
18
3
79
Minnesota
2
Mississippi
7
2
8
New Hampshire
1
New York
1
2
2
7
1
1
6
1
6
I
2
1
..
2
1
Ohio
2
1
11
1
8
11
1
17
20
Oklahoma
2
Pennsylvania
8
1
23
1
Tennessee.
2
7
4
2
11
4
1
1
3
1
33
13
Texas
5
Vermont
1
1
Virginia
1
3
1
17
2
West Virginia
5
1
Foreien-bom
9
2
5
10
43
Total
53
12
121
23
209
93
302
Year to city..
Year not stated
Employment group
1
2
3
4
Total
Women
Total
2
1
2
2
1
4
6
4
8
1
1
6
1
Georgia..
i
3
10
14
• Part ofyeflr only.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7625
Cases under care August 1938 by year came to city; by employment group; by State
or country of birth — Continued
Year to city.
Year not stated— Continued
1
2
3
4
Total
Women
Total
2
1
3
3
1
3
1
4
1
1
3
4
1
21
1
3
1
7
2
1
1
2
1
8
27
6
9
5
5
Massachusetts
12
3
10
2
3
3
3
1
1
9
Michigan
Mississippi
Missouri --- -
48
7
12
1
2
1
1
3
2
1
1
1
2
2
1
6
5
2
i
1
1
1
5
3
1
4
1
2
1
52
2
Ohio
7
1
1
4
1
5
1
1
3
4
1
7
2
1
4
1
2
1
1
17
2
3
1
6
2
14
3
29
69
2
Total - ---
47
13
65
23
148
97
245
Grand tota
Employment group .
1
2
3
4
Total
Women
Total
Alabama .. ._
351
1
114
84
2
32
952
5
304
108
4
21
1,495
12
471
1,082
2, 577
12
Arkansas
293
764
California
13
3
26
4
46
14
00
Colorado
18
2
23
4
47
17
64
Connecticut -._ --. _
19
9
46
4
78
18
96
5
1
12
18
2
20
District of Columbia...,
5
2
17
2
26
12
38
Florida
48
23
142
20
233
159
392
Georgia
473
127
1,144
173
1,917
1, 673
3,590
Idaho -
2
1
1
2
6
1
7
IlHnois - -
313
216
54
35
102
81
18
8
567
344
105
87
68
47
13
6
1, 050
688
190
136
332
234
68
52
1,382
922
Iowa _
258
Kansas
188
311
63
121
13
562
178
81
22
1,075
276
477
144
1,552
Louisiana
420
Maine
12
3
23
2
40
12
52
Maryland. . . ...
23
60
2
25
51
144
11
21
87
250
26
62
113
Massachusetts
312
Michigan
1,833
768
4,177
519
7,297
2,583
9.880
Minnesota
51
23
104
14
192
45
237
Mississippi
175
50
392
66
683
496
1,179
Missouri
134
52
326
30
542
200
742
Montana
9
5
13
6
33
13
46
Nebraska .
9
4
27
1
41
17
58
2
13
1
17
3
37
1
7
4
New Hampshire
5
2
44
New Jersey
29
15
62
14
120
33
153
New Mexico
2
222
10
442
3
94
15
839
5
240
20
New York_
81
1,079
North Carolina
7h
25
220
26
349
171
520
North Dakota _._
18
319
3
129
22
784
3
105
46
1,337
11
507
57
Ohio
1,844
Oklahoma
43
11
79
6
139
64
203
Oregon
Pennsylvania ...
2
2
15
19
19
659
t ^
163
203
2
34
974
12
408
87
2
44
1,923
25
649
476
10
403
2,399
Rhode Island
35
South Carolina
1,052
South Dakota
1 11
321
5
126
11
749
27
1,264
9
643
36
Tennessee _ . .
68
1,907
7626
DETROIT HEARINGS
Cases under care August 1938 by year came to city; by employment group; by State
or country of birth — Continued
Year to city
Came prior to 1931—
Continued
Employment group
1
2
3
4
Total
Women
Total
71
2
10
67
5
83
60
18
1
21
6
26
19
1
170
5
12
176
16
127
117
4
2
5,709
23
18
1
1
27
277
9
28
291
27
256
212
5
2
12, 065
94
139
416
Utah
9
Vermont . .
6
145
3
120
72
4
34
436
Washington
30
West Virginia - .
20
16
376
Wisconsin .
284
9
State not stated
2
Foreign-born
4,227
11
1,032
5
1,097
55
2,482
32
14, 547
Not stated ..
126
Total.
10, 771
3.336
19, 939
2,938
36, 987
13, 615
50, 602
Prepared by statistical division, department of public welfare, city of Detroit, Sept. 22, 1941.
Cases under care August 1938 by age oj head; by employment group; by State or
country of birth
Age of head -
60 and over
Employment group . .-
1
2
3
4
Total
Women
Total
Alabama
7
2
43
39
1
7
3
1
91
1
21
5
4
1
64
155
1
Arkansas
14
2
1
1
16
3
2
37
California
8
Connecticut
2
6
1
District of Columbia
1
8
113
1
Florida
3
53
7
69
1
34
23
4
6
40
• 6
2
5
8
213
6
31
10
1
10
132
1
70
60
10
9
87
18
7
9
16
426
9
48
23
1
3
1
3
10
1
87
24
1
133
5
87
1
44
66
7
1
30
16
21
18
Georgia
9
1
246
Idaho
1
Illinois .
6
13
1
30
23
5
3
36
12
4
3
7
162
3
14
11
22
28
7
4
30
3
2
8
6
269
3
29
12
92
Indiana
1
88
Iowa
17
Kansas
13
7
4
117
21
Maine
1
1
1
40
9
Maryland ..
17
Massachusetts
22
Michigan
11
695
Minnesota--
12
2
2
1
77
35
Montana .
1
3
1
1
2
2
6
1
New Hampshire ,
1
1
8
1
49
11
1
4
10
New Mexico
1
New York .. ...
3
2
1
11
2
1
33
10
39
11
126
North Carolina.
35
North Dakota
1
Ohio
3
57
4
38
62
1
31
1
16
35
3
61
1
40
1
25
40
6
194
Oklahoma.
6
Pennsylvania
14
4
127
Rhode Island-.
2
South Carolina
4
4
1
2
23
25
4
1
14
2
8
69
Tennessee
106
Texas
13
1
Virginia
2
1
4
14
12
9
17
8
7
1
456
47
West Virginia. . ...
1
24
28
Wyoming . .
1
Foreign-born.. . . . ..
203
49
694
3
693
7
1,439
10
1,896
Not stated
10
342
83
1,253
1,371
3,049
1,346
4,395
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7627
Cases under care August 1988 by age of head; by employment group; by State or
country of birth — Continued
50 to 59
1
2
3
4
Total
Women
Total
40
8
1
88
27
4
3
3
3
2
13
114
83
39
14
8
75
21
6
6
24
524
15
53
48
3
7
2
8
1
74
28
1
136
5
1
103
4
42
1
71
23
2
34
3
15
10
2
1,817
5
25
4
154
39
5
4
6
3
5
21
203
123
73
26
15
122
34
7
11
33
■ 822
19
89
59
5
8
2
10
1
125
43
3
187
9
1
179
5
69
2
115
31
2
51
3
23
19
2
3,193
20
143
28
1
297
67
1
6
1
4
1
2
3
9
3
2
4
46
28
18
9
7
21
7
1
3
7
160
2
18
7
1
3
38
10
10
3
1
13
219
31
36
12
4
79
27
2
4
10
409
7
71
34
2
5
2
6
6
Florida
1
5
2
6
34
422
154
109
38
19
11
1
15
6
201
61
9
2
1
98
1
16
3
2
15
1
40
1
2
1
43
1,231
26
160
93
7
1
13
4
1
1
16
1
28
8
1
28
2
5
1
18
6
1
13
1
45
25
2
89
3
170
North Carolina
68
5
Ohio -
10
1
276
12
1
51
1
17
1
28
4
10
15
60
1
57
239
6
2
8
126
2
3
13
4
75
17
1
27
190
Texas --
48
3
9
3
5
78
3
6
2
2
2
14
10
37
6
29
2
949
3
187
240
12
634
1
3,827
21
Total
1,530
302
3,569
580
5,981
2,211
8,192
Age of head
40 to 49
Employment group
1
2
3
4
Total
Women
Total
117
11
208
1
62
5
2
15
17
3
3
1
353
4
100
12
6
25
1
10
64
469
1
227
165
44
25
239
80
10
31
67
234
587
4
31
5
4
7
1
1
18
146
1
85
65
15
7
89
26
3
10
23
4
1
52
4
6
3
2
3
38
386
152
California
16
12
3
28
3
1
5
19
8
36
277
13
Florida _ _
5
27
102
Georgia . _ .
855
1
Illinois - - -
17
14
3
3
15
1
1
2
4
112
80
24
15
121
48
6
17
35
13
6
2
...
5
79
39
15
12
131
33
3
8
15
306
Indiana
204
Iowa . - . - -
59
Kansas ... . ._-
37
Kentucky _. - . .
370
Louisiana
113
13
Maryland— -
2
5
39
Massachusetts..
82
7528 DETROIT HEARINGS
Cases under care August 1938 by age of head; by employment group; by State or
country of birth — Continued
40 to'
19— Continued
1
2
3
4
Total
Women
Total
528
15
55
46
2
2
6
9
1
67
27
6
104
12
121
3
11
6
1
816
17
102
60
2
8
6
12
2
108
55
4
167
15
4
180
2
100
1
189
48
82
4
7
4
1
1
1
1,547
39
175
116
6
11
14
26
4
206
90
11
307
30
534
12
117
39
4
3
2,081
51
292
155
10
14
1
5
14
6
3
60
28
1
103
11
32
1
14
3
1
16
3
7
17
5
266
118
12
Ohio -- ---
20
410
41
4
15 382
4
159
3
62
4
96
22
3
3
19
2
20
20
28
1
9
1
20
4
97
2
95
3
139
39
479
6
182
6
8
11
277
9
8
7
313
81
3
9
80
11
57
54
1
4.555
30
462
Texas
120
Utah
3
3
4
1
2
4
3
52
8
33
28
1
1,945
8
1
36
1
20
25
10
5
116
12
2
2
77
79
1
1,974
5
441
2
195
15
770
10
5,325
40
Total
3,926
811
5,042
504 1 10,283
3,222
13, 505
30 to 39
1
2
3
4
Total
Women
Total
156
1
56
8
8
8
4
2
23
243
39
2
16
1
1
332
14
541
3
175
20
23
15
9
6
73
687
367
908
3
99
11
13
7
4
4
42
370
4
106
1
7
4
281
21
1
30
19
1
9
1
49
535
104
84
23
16
138
46
5
6
19
625
11
165
56
2
i
9
1
53
61
6
139
35
5
152
1
7
5
50
3
24
122
1,222
1
163
108
29
17
151
29
7
9
27
910
25
90
65
5
6
6
10
1
109
39
7
144
26
11
360
5
47
47
5
3
59
8
2
164
108
32
34
187
67
5
18
40
921
31
108
95
4
5
5
17
2
114
81
7
198
27
14
287
3
11
5
3
385
268
69
54
403
107
14
28
86
2,145
71
226
190
12
14
14
37
4
255
134
16
406
63
31
746
9
489
352
92
70
6
3
541
153
19
1
7
51
3
S
3
34
12
263
12
20
27
3
3
3
4
105
2,770
82
391
246
14
18
16
46
1
7
4
5
25
10
2
58
9
6
82
1
308
195
22
Ohio
6
1
"" 17'
545
98
36
898
Rhode Island
10
NATIONAL DEP^ENSE MIGRATION
7629
Cases under care August 1938 by age of head; by employment group; by State or
country of birth — Continued
Age of head ..
30 to 39— Continued
Employment eroup- _..
1
2
3
4
Total
Women
Total
South Carolina .
73
4
169
38
1
5
36
3
34
30
14
1
70
13
135
5
270
62
2
2
49
3
33
' 38
6
228
10
512
117
4
8
95
8
82
74
137
4
218
47
365
14
730
164
4
10
136
8
118
92
2
2,723
33
South Dakota
Tennessee—-
3
4
1
1
2
Texas .
Utah
Vermont
2
41
Virginia.
8
2
12
3
Washington.
West Virginia . _ ..
3
3
36
18
2
460
10
Wisconsin
Wyoming
Foreign-born
1,040
3
267
3
898
3
58
14
2,263
23
Not stated
TotaL..
4,314
1,215
4,962
274
10, 765
3,815
14,580
Age of head .
1
31
2
20 to 29
Employment group.
3
4
Total
Women
Total
Alabama ...
31
275
3
100
4
20
4
3
47
318
1
171
91
29
26
140
30
2
7
50
1,660
37
111
108
4
4
9
346
3
132
4
13
29
4
4
63
409
4
239
117
40
32
220
36
3
76
2,191
53
143
146
9
5
2
4
31
6
160
54
18
294
31
14
490
4
125
10
247
36
4
7
35
73
43
4
608
10
256
602
3
214
7
16
37
4
10
108
797
4
Arizona..
Arkansas .
19
12
1
82
3
3
8
California .
Colorado. .. .
5
2
1
7
2
Connecticut . .. .. ..
Delaware.
District of Columbia
3"
29
1
26
12
1
12
50
1
40
13
10
2
32
3
6
45
388
Florida
Georgia. .
1
12
1
2
1
1
Idaho
Illinois
82
46
11
13
92
32
V
19
655
13
106
53
5
3
1
2
7
1
43
41
6
106
13
2
112
5
78
4
158
27
1
2
22
2
36
12
321
163
51
45
312
68
3
8
95
2. 846
66
249
199
14
8
3
6
41
7
203
95
24
400
44
Indiana
Iowa
Fvansas...
4
42
]
Kentucky.
6
2
1
l/ouisiana
Maine
Maryland
Masra chusetts
12
174
9
10
14
2
11
329
7
17
16
1
1
3
28
Michigan
Minnesota.. ...
Mississippi
5
8
2
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska.
Nevada
2
3
New Hampshire ....
1
6
3
20
0
111
43
12
220
27
9
350
3
106
5
186
29
3
4
28
2
41
33
3
451
3
New Jersey
5
4'
1
1
6
New Mexico..
NewYork
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
14
2
3
30
3
4
61
31
8
2
38
1
1
73
Oklahoma .
Oregon..
Pennsylvania
6
1
4
602
9
203
14
405
63
Rhode Island ..
South "^arL-lina
7
2
24
5
8
3
31
2
1
2
6
3
10
7
1
88
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
6
Utah
Vermont. .
1
1
9
57
7
109
55
Virginia
Washington
'West Vircfinia.
21
3
1
Wisconsin..
Wyoming
4
756
19
Forei?n-born .
60
9
7
14S
9
Not stated..
Total
642
920
4.948
137
6,647
2, 765
9,412
7630
DETROIT HEARINGS
Cases under care August 1938 by age of head; by employment group; by State or
country of birth — Continued
Age of head
Under 20
1
2
3
4
Total
Women
Total
Alabama
6
2
1
1
13
2
3
1
1
3
4
2
10
4
1
2
18
6
S
1
1
4
1
140
1
5
2
3
5
4
8
18
9
1
6
31
14
1
28
Arkansas
13
California . .
2
Florida
1
3
3
2
8
2
49
Dlinois . -
1
20
Indiana .
6
Iowa .- ...
1
Kansas
3
7
3
80
2
7
6
1
1
4
5
1
8
12
12
3
1
4
1
14
1
4
Kentucky
1
11
Louisiana . - -
1
44
4
Michigan . . -
11
1
84
1
4
1
3
1
3
5
220
3
Mississippi
1
12
Missouri
1
8
4
New York ...
1
1
2
1
2
6
North Carolina
8
Ohio
1
13
1
Pennsylvania
1
4
4
5
2
2
3
8
4
6
3
3
1
2
13
1
16
South Carolina
16
Tennessee . ..
1
18
Texas ...... ..
1
6
1
4
1
1
1
5
West Virginia
1
10
1
3
Foreign- bom . ...
2
27
2
Total
19
6
164
73
262
256
518
Under care case load August 1938 — heads of families by age group, by employment
group, by year came to city
Age 60 and over
1
2
3
4
Total
Women '
Total
Year came to city:
Born or came to Detroit
prior to 1930..
• 322
2
3
2
2
1
1
4
3
1
1
77
.
1
1
' "2
1
1,087
22
10
14
11
14
19
30
31
5
10
1,215
13
17
25
17
28
16
22
11
5
2
2,701
37
31
42
31
43
38
57
45
11
13
1,09S
25
29
27
26
33
32
36
24
11
6
3,799
Came in 1930
Came in 1931..
Came in 1932
62
60
69
Came in 1933
Came in 1934
57
76
Cnmein 1935
70
Came in 1936..
93
Came in 1937
69
Came in 1938
22
Not =tated
18
Total -
342
83
1,253
1,371
3,049
1,346
4,395
' For code see p. 7618.
■ Heads of families.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7631
Under care case load August 193S — heads of families h age group, by employment
group, by year came to city — Continued
Age 50 to 59
1
1,419
11
7
4
12
22
10
22
20
2
1
1,530
2
3
4
Total
Women
1. 863
39
30
37
37
45
48
44
43
9
Total
^ .
Year came to dty:
Born or pame to Detroit
prior to 1930 - ...
262
3
3
6
3
9
6
4
1
302
3,106
36
32
30
34
50
62
103
97
S
12
508
10
10
8
8
7
14
5
5
5,295
60
52
48
57
88
92
134
127
11
17
7, 158
Cam" in 1930
99
Came in 1931
82
Came in 1932 -
85
Came in 1933
94
Came in 1934... ...
Came in 1935
133
140
Came in 1936 .. .
178
Came in 1937.
KG
20
Not stated-..
4
33
Total
3, 570
579
5.981
2,211
8,192
Age 40 to 49
Employment group .
1
2
3
4
Total
Women
2,685
33
46
45
69
89
92
69
17
20
Total
Year came to city:
Born or came to 'Dotrcit
prior to 1930
Cnmein 1930
Came in 1931
3,507
40
31
35
35
54
58
86
56
9
15
700
8
3
17
11
32
22
ii
4"
4,113
6b
41
51
71
119
128
224
J86
23
18
434
12
6
3
10
7
7
10
7
2
6
8, 754
128
81
106
127
212
215
320
263
34
43
11,439
185
114
Came in 1932....
Came in 1933
Came in 1934 .
Came in 1935
Came in 1936
Came in 1937
Came in 1938
Not .stated
152
172
281
304
412
332
51
63
Total -
3,926
811
5,042
504
10, 283
3,222
13, 505
\ge3nto39
1
3,517
44
53
73
124
146
105
144
70
21
17
2
891
22
13
15
47
S4
57
55
25
4
2
3
3,377
102
62
81
147
194
242
402
310
33
12
4
217
6
7
3
5
5
8
3
13
2
5
Total
Women
Total
Year crm<^ to city:
Born or came to Detroit
P'-ior to 1930 - ..
8,002
174
135
172
323
429
412
604
418
60
36
2,922
72
64
83
86
133
151
164
91
22
27
10,924
Came in 1930
216
Came in 1931
Came m 1932 ...
199
255
Came in 1933
409
Came in 1934
Came in 1935
f62
563
Cam'' in 1936
768
Came in 1937
Came in 1938
509
82
Not stated
63
Total
4,314
1,215
4,962
274
10, 765
3,815
14, 580
60396—41 — pt. 18-
-37
7632
DETROIT HEARINGS
Under care case load August 1938 — heads of families by age group, by employment
group, by year came to city — Continued
Age 20 to 29
1
2
3
4
Total
Women
1,760
73
53
62
91
147
177
210
136
29
27
Total
Year came to city:
Born or came to Detroit
prior to 1930
56
40
20
38
77
101
107
118
54
18
13
631
18
14
13
26
79
48
58
19
7
7
3,288
63
44
65
115
184
299
452
381
44
13
71
4,046
121
80
118
227
373
466
637
464
76
39
5,806
Came in 1930
194
Came in 1931
2
2
9
9
12
9
10
7
6
133
Came in 1932
Came in 1933
18a
318
Came in 1934 .. ..
520
Came in 1935
643
Came in 1936
847
Came in 1937 . .. -.
600'
Came in 1938 -. -
105
Not stated..
6&
Total -
642
920
4,948
137
6,647
2,765
9,412
Under 20
Employment group
1
2
3
4
Total
Women
Total
Year came to city:
Born or came to Detroit
prior to 1930 .-. .. .
14
5
110
3
2
2
6
2
6
11
14
8
52
181
3
4
2
7
4
6
17
21
17
175
3
2
4
7
4
11
22
21
5
2
35&
Came in 1930 .
6
Came in 1931
1
1
6
Came in 1932
6
Came in 1933
1
1
14
Came in 1934
Came in 1935
1
5
7
7
8
17
Came in 1936
1
39
Came in 1937
42
Came in 1938
2
22
Not stated -.
2
Total
19
6
164
73
262
256
51&
Grand total
Employment group
1
2
3
4
Total
Women
Grand
total
Year came to city:
Born or came to Detroit
prior to 1930
8,835
137
115
152
251
325
281
374
203
53
47
2,566
51
34
52
88
204
135
119
63
12
13
15, 081
294
191
243
384
563
756
1,222
1,019
121
65
2,497
41
43
41
49
57
57
54
53
23
23
28,979
523
383
488
772
1,149
1,229
1,769
1,338
209
148
10, 503
269
211
259
292
431
508
568
384
93
97
39,482
Came in 1930
792
Came in 1931 .
594
Came in 1932
Came in 1933
Came in 1934
Came in 1935
Came in 1936
747
1,064
1,580
1,737
2, 337
Came in 1937
Came in 1938
Not stated --
1,722
302
245.
Total---
10, 773
3,337
19, 939
2.938
36, 987
13, 615
50, 602
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7633
Under care case— Intake by month — Year of 1938 — Year came to city and reason for
intake
Period ending
Week
ending
Jan. 6
Jan. 13
Jan. 20
Jan. 27
Feb. 3
Feb. 10
Feb. 17
Intake:
Born in Detroit or came to
Detroit prior to 1930
2,493
52
33
60
84
141
161
245
116
6
53
2,934
38
36
56
81
141
173
255
109
2
3,633
Came to Detroit in 1930--.
57
Came to Detroit in 1931
50
Came to Detroit in 1932 .
64
Came to Detroit in 1933
116
Came to Detroit in 1934 .
181
Came to Detroit in 1935
239
263
Came to Detroit in 1937
108
Came to Detroit in 1938 -.
3
Not stated
2,036
2,317
2,612
5,634
Total intake
2,036
908
949
1,857
37
1,894
142
2,036
22, 842
2,317
1,083
1,045
2,128
42
2,170
147
2,317
23, 146
2,612
1,290
1,099
2,389
74
2,463
149
2,612
24, 555
5,634
3,053
2, 046
5.099
114
5,213
421
5,634
29, 622
3,444
1,933
1,240
3,173
100
3,273
171
3,444
32, 759
3,825
2,412
1,198
3,610
86
3,696
129
3,825
35, 774
4,714
Intake from auto and allied
2,852
Intake from other industry
Total from private industry
Total from Work Projects Ad-
1,608
4,460
63
Total unemployment
4,523
Total other than unemploy-
ment
191
Total intake
4,714
Caseload, end of period
39, 075
Period ending
Feb. 24
Mar. 3
Mar. 10
Mar. 17
Mar. 24
Mar. 31
Apr. 7
Intake:
Born in Detroit or came to
Detroit prior to 1930
3.288
3,082
2,563
3, 043
3,103
2,912
2,906
Came to Detroit in 1930
71
59
51
55
63
62
54
Came to Detroit in 1931
53
49
44
37
42
38
35
Came to Detroit in 1932
53
62
56
58
53
55
64
Came to Detroit in 1933
106
100
101
96
115
86
79
Came to Detroit in 1934
157
144
101
135
129
171
136
Came to Detroit in 1935
177
149
131
168
150
161
172'
Came to Detroit in 1936
277
249
218
242
269
248
216.
Came to Detroit in 1937
121
109
92
135
126
134
139
Came to Detroit in 1938
3
4
8
9
10
10
9
Not stated
Total intake - - - - -
4,306
4,007
3,365
3,978
4,060
3,877
3,810'
Intake from auto and allied
industry
2,418
2,011
1,521
1,808
1, 943
1,934
1,89a
Intake from other industry
1,634
1, 662
1,404
1,631
1, 653
1,550
1,515
Total from private industry
4, 052
3,673
2, 925
3,439
3,596
3,484
3, 405.
Total from Work Projects Ad-
ministration
99
154
234
315
289
219
224
Total unemployment
4,151
3.827
3,159
3,754
3,885
3,703
3,629
Total other than unemploy-
ment
155
180
206
224
175
174
181
Total intake
4,306
4,007
3,365
3,978
4,060
•3,877
3,810
Case load, end of period - -.
37, 267
36, 336
33. 026
33, 306
34, 332
34, 916
36, 17L
7534 DETROIT HEARINGS
Under care case — Intake by month — Year of 1938 — Year came to city and reason for
intake — Continued
Period ending
Apr. 14
Apr. 21
2,435
46
39
43
77
130
147
203
116
18
Apr. 28
Month
of May
1938
June
1938
July
1938
Intake:
Born in Detroit or came to Detroit
prior to 1930
3,216
61
51
5i
91
170
170
245
147
23
2,385
54
32
39
79
134
127
200
132
15
8,157
179
97
156
237
422
446
634
474
92
216
14, 501
248
194
268
447
699
683
9.'^9
712
137
233
7,777
Can e to Detroit in 1930
148
Came to Detroit in 1931
91
Came to Detroit in 1932
135
Came to Detroit in 1933
224
Came to Detroit in 1934
335
Came to Detroit in 1935
379
Came to Detroit in 1936
532
Came to Detroit in 1937 . -..
481
Came to Detroit in 1938
87
73
Total intake
4,229
2,099
1, 691
3,790
243
4,033
196
4,229
37, 818
3,254
1,645
1,289
2,934
156
3,090
164
3, 254
39. 247
3,197
1, 569
1,340
2,909
140
3,049
148
3,197
40, 359
11,110
5,140
4.682
9,822
715
10, 537
573
11,110
32, 582
19,081
10. 074
7,524
17, 598
702
18, 300
781
19.081
40. 651
10, 262
Intake from auto and allied industries
Intake from other ind ustrv
3,704
5.156
8,860
Total from Work Projects Administration.
Total unemployment
Total other than unemployment
718
9,578
684
Total intake -
10, 262
46, 079
Period ending
August
1938
Septem-
ber 1938
October
1938
Novem-
ber 1938
Decem-
ber 1938
Total
Intake:
Born in Detroit or came to Detroit
prior to 1930
Can e to Detroit in 1930
Came to Detroit in 1931_.
Came to Detroit in 1932
Came to Detroit in 1933
Came to Detroit in 1934
Came to Detroit in 1935 _..
4,245
75
52
68
111
151
210
292
312
79
123
2,471
48
26
42
58
91
118
216
218
52
1,648
35
20
38
51
69
109
163
159
61
1,652
40
26
32
49
68
88
142
144
59
2,753
£8
35
56
77
112
134
212
164
75
81, 197
1,554
1.080
1. 513
2.465
3.817
4.292
Came to Detroit in 1936
6,280
Came to Detroit in 1937 . -
4.248
Came to Detroit in 1938
762
13, 297
Total intake
.5, 718
1,707
2,826
4,533
497
5,030
688
5,718
27, 309
3,340
726
1,829
2,555
383
2,938
402
3,340
21, 389
2,353
294
1,349
1,643
354
1,997
356
2,353
18, 896
2,300
344
1,232
1, 556
364
1,940
.•^60
2,300
17, 791
3,676
1,013
1,676
2,689
551
3,240
436
3.676
19, 412
120, 505
Intake from auto and allied industries
Intake from other industry
55.371
50, 828
Total from private industry
106, 199
Total from Work Projects Administration.
6,873
113,072
Total other than unemployment
7,433
Total intake
120, 505
Prepared by statistical department, department of public welfare, city of Detroit, Sept. 22, 1941.
Applications received, month of August 1941, Department of Public Welfare, City of
Detroit
Week ending
Aug. 7
Aug. 14
Aug. 21
Aug. 28
Total
Reason for application:
Loss of private employment
48
125
78
122
4
37
16
49
68
5
1391
130
115
1
68
18
64
74
3
60
2
103
68
359
Loss of W. P. A. employment.-
Cessation of unemployment-compensation bene-
fits
430
5
Health problem
Old-age problem .
15
2
13
12
60
11
47
68
2
72
2
180
47
Marital problem
173
Insuflicient-income problem
Selective service . .
222
10
Other reason
1454
977
Service only .
4
Total
669
770
535
433
2,407
1 Reason "not stated" included.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7635
Exhibit 13. — Survey on Migration to Detroit, September 3-16,
1941
report by john f. ballenger, manager, bureau of old-age assistance,
social security board, federal security agency, detroit, mich.
September 17, 1941.
The results of the survey conducted in this office relative to the above subject
shows the following:
Total number of over-the-counter applicants 3, 865
Total number of applicants who came to Detroit since July 1,
1941 381 or 9.8 percent
The attached list shows the number of applicants who have migrated to Detroit
from each State.
Origins of in-migrating applicants for old-age and survivors insurance, Detroit^
Mich., Sept. 3-16, 1941
Alabama 19
Arizona 0
Arkansas 8
California 6
Colorado 0
Connecticut 1
Delaware 0
Florida 7
Georgia 15
Idaho 0
Illinois 23
Indiana 8
Iowa 2
Kansas 3
Kentucky 25
Louisiana 3
Maine 1
Maryland 1
Massachusetts 2
Michigan 80
Minnesota 11
Mississippi 5
Missouri 9
Montana 2
Nebraska 1
Nevada 0
New Hampshire 0
New Jersey 2
New Mexico 4
New York 12
North Carolina 4
North Dakota 3
Ohio 33
Oklahoma 7
Oregon 0
Pennsylvania 20
Rhode Island 0
South Carolina 3
South Dakota 3
Tennessee 24
Texas 4
Utah 1
Vermont 1
Virginia 0
Washington 0
West Virginia 7
Wisconsin 2
Wyoming Q
Canada and foreign countries 19
Total 381
Exhibit 14. — Purpose and Activities of the Homes Registration
Office, Detroit, Mich.
report BY STUART E. WALKER, SUPERVISOR HOMES REGISTRATION, OFFICE OF THE
HOUSING COMMISSION, DETROIT, MICH.
One of the many problems bearing upon the efficiency of defense production is
adequate housing for defense and related workers and their dependents. If satis-
factory dwelhng places are not available within reasonable commuting distance
of employment, production efficiency will be reduced materially.
To cope with this housing problem, there has been established in the city of
Detroit, as a unit of the Detroit Housing Commission, a homes registration office.
This office operates in conjunction with the Division of Defense Housing Coordina-
tion, Homes Registration Division, in Washington, D. C. It is operated for the
following principal purposes:
(a) To secure and maintain current, in a central file, information on all available
vacant dwelling accommodations, by location, type, rent, and condition; and to
refer thereto applicants in need of dwelling accommodations, either directlv, or
through realtors, with whom listed.
7636
DETROIT HEARINGS
(6) To furnish information and regular reports to the Division of Defense
Housing Coordination through the Division of Homes Registration in Washington,
D. C, as well as to local governmental units and other agencies which will result
in the development of every dwelling place which can be made available either
for temporary or permanent use. This will also enable the development of what-
ever necessary action needed to assure the construction of additional dwelling
units, if same may be determined to be essential.
Registrations and applications for referrals are accepted from any person, but
priorities have been established on referrals as follows:
1. Defense-industry workers and military and naval personnel.
2. Workers in service industries essential to the maintenance, health, and com-
fort of defense workers and to normal community life.
3. General applicants whose presence in the community does not seem to be
essential.
In addition, it is the policy of this office to make no referrals of any dwelling
accommodations that investigation proves to be substandard. At the present
time this office is operating only within the corporate limits of the city of Detroit
and has conducted no campaign for registrations or referrals outside the city limits.
However, plans are being formulated to expand the activities in the near future
to include all of Wayne County.
The zoning ordinance of the city of Detroit prohibits the rental of rooms, light-
housekeeping units, and the sharing of dwelling units, in approximately 70 percent
of the area of the entire city unless the use was in existence at the effective date
of the ordinance. The effect of this restriction on registrations of this nature are
illustrated as follows:
As of August 20, 1941, this office had received 3,633 room, etc., registrations,
of which 1,819 were apparently in conflict with the zoning ordinance. To make
these units available it would be necessary to amend or suspend the zoning ordi-
nance. However, as of this date, there were less than 100 appUcations for referral
to the 1,844 available registrations.
A visual vacancy survey in the city of Detroit was conducted by this office,
with the assistance of the Detroit chapter of the American Red Cross, on July
17, 1941. Briefly, this report indicated that vacancy had decreased from 5.1
percent in 1938, according to the real-property survey; to 3.5 percent in 1940,
according to the Federal census of housing; to 2.2 percent in January 1941,
According to the Work Projects Administration sample vacancy survey; to
0.9 percent as of July 17, 1941.
While there is a certain potential value in over-all vacancy figures or per-
centages, it does not always follow that it presents a complete housing picture.
Although it is realized that the value of any analysis of figures covering the opera-
tions of the homes registration office has its limitations, due to the fact that it has
only been in existence since June 30, 1941, nevertheless the following data may be
a guiding factor in any analysis of the housing problems.
The following tabulation of 809 applications for dwelling units received by this
office through September 10, 1941, shows the demand picture by rental, by size of
unit :
Rental interval
TotaL..
$14.99 and less
$15 to $19.99—
$20 to $24.99...
$25 to $29.99...
$30 to $34.99...
$35 to $39.99...
$40 to $44.99...
$45 to $49.99...
$50 and over..
Total
809
0
1
28
91
151
173
149
72
144
Size of desired unit
1 room
2 rooms
3 rooms
152
0
0
9
17
25
33
34
23
11
4 rooms
163
0
0
10
30
33
33
23
12
22
5 rooms
229
0
0
1
21
55
56
40
13
43
6 rooms
8 rooms
and
over
25
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7637
The following tabulation of 721 dwelling units registered with this office through
September 10, 1941, shows the supply picture by asked rental, by size of unit;
Total
Size of desired unit
Rental interval
1 room
2 rooms
3 rooms
4 rooms
5 rooms
6 rooms
7 rooms
8 rooms
and over
Total
721
10
66
139
105
224
112
34
31
$14.99 and less
$15 to $19.99...
.$20 to $24.99
$25 to $99.99
$30 to .$34.99
$35 to $39.99
$40 to $44.99
$45 to $49.99
$50 and over
1
1
12
40
84
139
143
94
207
0
0
0
0
3
3
4
0
0
0
1
7
4
14
13
14
8
5
1
0
2
9
12
26
45
20
24
0
0
2
15
27
16
11
13
21
0
0
0
10
24
55
47
28
60
0
0
0
2
4
20
19
21
46
0
0
1
0
0
6
2
4
21
0
0
0
0
0
0
1
0
30
Two questions on the application which this office uses for referral to dwelling
units are as follows:
"Residence in city since."
"Does applicant now have local accommodations comparable in size to those
desired?"
There were 674 applications in this office as of August 20, 1941, and an analysis
of these by date of establishing residence by comparable or noncomparable accom-
modations follows:
Number of applications, by race
, by accommodations
Date of establishing residence
in Detroit
Total
White applicants
Nonwhite applicants
Total
Compar-
able
Noncom-
parable
Total
Compar-
able
Noncom-
parable
Total
674
583
266
317
91
41
50
1941, total
128
128
20
108
0
0
0
January
February
2
2
12
11
11
19
40
31
2
2
12
11
11
19
40
31
1
0
3
1
2
4
4
5
1
2
9
10
9
15
36
26
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
March
April
May
.TllTlA
0
0
0
0
July ... - .
0
0
1940
29
25
25
50
417
25
20
22
37
351
8
8
14
20
196
17
12
8
17
155
4
5
3
13
66
2
1
2
7
29
2
1939
4
1938
1935-37 . .
1
6
1934 and before
37
7638
DETROIT HEARINGS
As of August 20, 1941, there were 378 applications on which this office was
unable to make referrals for various reasons. A summary of these by type of
employment, by presence or absence of children, by comparable or noncomparable
housing, follows:
Total
Compar-
able hous-
ing
Noncom-
parable
housing
ALL RACES
Total
378
181
197
Military, total ....
0
0
Q
With children
0
0
0
0
0
0
Q
Without children .
Q
Unknown ...
0
Civilian military, total ...
1
0
1
With children . .
1
0
0
0
0
0
I
Without children . ... . .
0
Unknown .....
0
Defense industry, total
119
65
54
With children . . .
88
22
9
40
16
9
48
Without children . . .
g
Unknown ......
0
Nondefense, total . . ...
258
116
142
164
62
32
81
20
15
83
Without children ._.._.
42
Unknown
17
■WHITE RACE
Total
297
145
152
Military, total
0
0
0
With children
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Without children ...
0
Unknown
0
Civilian military, total
1
0
1
With children
1
0
0
0
0
0
1
Without children ...
0
Unknown
0
Defense industry, total
104
57
47
With children
75
20
9
33
15
9
42
Without children . .
5
Unknown ...
0
Nondefense, total . .
192
88
104
With children
118
42
32
58
15
15
60
Without children
27
Unknown.
17
COLORED RACE
Total . . .
81
36
45
Military, total
0
0
0
With children.
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Without children .. .
0
Unknown
0
Civilian military, total
0
0
0
With children .. ..
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
Without children ... .
0
Unknown .
0
15
8
7
With children..
13
2
0
7
1
0
6
Without children
1
Unknown _ _
0
Nondefense, total
66
28
38
With children
46
20
0
23
5
0
23
Without children
15
Unknown ...
0
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7639
None of the 332 dwelling units available for use as of August 20, 1941, met the
desires of these 378 applicants. They were either in the wrong location, wrong
size, restricted as to children, or the asked rent was not within the income.
An examination of these 332 dwelling unit registrations revealed that only 53
owners specified that they would accept families with children. There were 161
owners who specified they would not accept families with children. However,
there were 118 owners who did not specify any preference, it being their desire
to evaluate the applicant's family and then make the decision.
From the figure of 378 applications and 332 available registrations, it is readily
discernible that there was a net excess of demand over supply of 13.9 percent.
This picture takes on a different aspect when you compare it on a racial basis.
There were 297 white applicants, and 332 available registrations.
There were 81 nonwhite applications and no available registrations.
There has been considerable public discussion on the extent of rental increases.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics show a rental increase in Detroit between Decem-
ber 1938 and July 31, 1941, of approximately 3 percent. A comparison made in
August of the asked rent on 431 dwellings registered with this office, and the
asked rent at these same locations, as disclosed by the field schedules of the 1938
real property survey, produced an increased average rental of from $40 per
month to $46 per month, or 15 percent.
A very intensive publicity program for both registrations and applications is
being started. Inasmuch as this is a going operation, the picture changes con-
stantlv and the next analysis of operations will, no doubt, produce a different
set of "figures. But it is the writer's personal opinion that whenever the margin
between supply and demand drops below 5 percent the housing problem becomes
correspondingly acute, not only from a supply standpoint, but from an asked
rental standpoint.
U. S. Post Office count of vacancies,
Detroit postal area, February 1941
Station or branch
Single
resi-
dences
Apart-
ments
above
4-family
Flats,
2-, 3-,
and 4-
family
Stores
Factory
build-
ings
Offices
in build-
ings
Total
1941
Alfred
49
59
314
10
30
3
77
28
38
47
15
58
378
32
95
89
5
4
111
40
91
106
30
40
2
7
35
60
39
10
88
0
10
0
0
0
32
0
54
19
5
1
6
76
99
105
0
0
244
14
145
69
16
0
0
0
13
8
8
15
49
2
114
24
6
11
91
18
125
84
19
17
180
35
37
123
3
3
384
103
94
208
56
3
0
0
48
54
48
24
119
11
57
27
8
0
71
10
54
139
43
28
80
55
27
110
5
2
121
129
66
97
38
6
5
3
66
36
79
149
7
1
1
2
0
0
1
0
10
30
2
2
0
0
0
3
0
1
0
12
6
3
2
0
0
0
8
0
4
62
375
0
3
3
4
0
17
5
10
27
1
3
11
6
1
9
2
0
6
7
489
49
8
0
0
0
45
7
12
2,676
687
73
College Park
499
66
48
14
Fox Creek
289
61
Grand River
291
346
Hamtramck. _ -..
85
Detroit section
109
655
Highland Park
204
Detroit section
259
439
Lincoln Park .
15
Detroit section
10
866
Milwaukee Junction
305
North End
891
532
Porter
150
Redford
49
River Rouge
7
10
215
Strathmoor
165
Thirtv-first St
190
General Post Office
2,936
Total 1941 -
1,902
1,027
1,963
1,641
157
3,776
10, 466
1940 - --
2,644
2.915
1,987
1,876
2,294
1,693
3,031
3,669
1,951
1,668
1,697
1,412
170
118
79
4.405
4,394
4,236
13, 794
1939
15,087
1938
11, 358
1937 1
1936
2,025
3.024
6,196
9,182
8,076
650
1,122
4,353
12, 148
12, 559
1,536
3,184
11, 363
19, 326
16, 843
1.996
3,350
5.112
5,760
5,777
108
230
296
364
328
4,733
5.972
6.486
6,514
6,541
11, 048
1935 ..-
16. 882
1934
33. 806
1933 - ..
53, 294
1932
50, 124
I No count made.
yg^rO DETROIT HEARINGS
U. S. Post Office count of vacancies, city of Detroit only, February 1941
Station
Single
residences
Apart-
ments,
over
4-family
Flats, 2-,
3-, and 4-
family
Total
dwelling
units
Alfred -
Brightmoor
College Park.,-
Delray
Ferndale (Detroit section)
Fox Creek:__.
Grand River
Gratiot
Hamtramck (Detroit section) —
Harper
Highland Park (Detroit section):
Jefferson
Lincoln Park (Detroit section)..
Linwood
Milwaukee Junction
North End
Northwestern
Porter
Bedford
Roosevelt Park
Strathmoor
Thirty-first St -
General Post Office..
Total.
49
59
314
10
3
77
38
47
58
378
95
89
4
111
40
91
106
30
40
35
60
39
10
0
10
0
0
32
54
19
1
6
99
105
0
244
14
145
69
16
0
13
1,783
946
49
2
114
24
11
91
125
84
17
180
37
123
3
384
103
94
208
56
3
48
54
48
24
1,882
186
61
438
34
14
200
217
150
76
564
231
317
7
739
157
330
383
102
43
96
122
95
49
Vacancy ratio: ' =1.05 percent.
Percent of
Number of vacant dwelling units, city of Detroit housing
units
February 1932 34,000
February 1933 37,000
February 1934 20,000
February 1935 6, 860 1. 6
February 1936 3, 912 .9
February 1938 5, 125 1. 2
Source: U. S. Post Office count of vacancies. No count taken in 1937.
Method- For years 1932, 1933, 1934— Vacancies in the city estimated from totals given for entire Detroit
postal area. For years 1935, 1936, 1938— Actual count of vacancies in the city of Detroit.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7641
Complete low-rent public. housing program in Detroit as of July 24, 1941
m
Estimated
'5
3
i
cost
^
o
u,
be
'R
o
n
c ^
Ct3
Oi
O w
a
o
Project
Kind
a>
Type
a
Total
1
"8
Status
Q>
S
■O+J
n5
^
O
>£
bo
!r! S
b£ u
>>
3
.s
1
a
.3 2
W
Z
<
Q
K?
Q
1
Brewster. _
P.W.A...
701
Slum..
22
32
$4, 800, 000
.$1, 621
Project completed
September 1938.
2
Parkside..
...do
775
Vacant
31
25
4, 200, 000
220
Do.
1
Brewster
Addition.
U. S.H.A.
240
Slum..
7
34.3
1, 397, 739
707
$4,165"
148 units completed
in January 1940.
Balance of 92
completed July
23, 1941; families
will move in im-
mediately.
2
Parkside
Addition.
...do
355
Vacant
18.5
19.2
2, 043, 272
256
3,816
172 units completed
in January 1941;
balance of 183 to
be completed
about Sept. 1,
1941.
4
Herman
Gardens.
..do
2,150
...do_..
142.5
15.1
11,454,145
170
3,611
Under construc-
tion; to be com-
pleted about Sep-
tember 1942.
3
Charles..
...do
440
...do...
25.4
17.3
2, 248, 063
280
3,350
192 units completed
July 24, 1941;
families will
move in imme-
diately; balance
under construc-
tion, to be com-
pleted about Oct.
1.
Acquiring site; pre-
5
Bright-
...do
210
...do...
20
10.5
971,000
147
2,992
moor.
liminary acrhi-
tectural stage.
6
Jefiries
...do
1,704
Slum..
59
28.9
9, 998, 000
1,100
3,428
Do.
1
Douglass..
...do
706
...do...
21.7
32.5
4, 131, 000
1,020
3,458
Do.
Land: Includes condemnation cost of land and existing buildings, surveys, appraisal fees and legal ex-
penses, costs for relocation of tenants.
Dwellings: Net construction cost, includes dwelline; construction, heating plant, distribution and radia-
tion, and plumbing and electrical work within building lines; does not include site improvement, utility
lines, landscaping and nondwelling building, spaces, and equipment: also movable dwelling equipment
architectural and engineering costs, preoccupancy charges, administrative costs, carrying charges, and
an allowance for changes and extras during construction.
7642
DETROIT HEARINGS
ill
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7643
CxHiBiT 15. — Detroit School Needs Created by Defense
Migration
report by dr. frank cody, superintendent of public schools, board of
education, detroit, mich.
Enrollments and Personnel
initial reports of school membership september 1941
"!lementarv school.s :
Sept. 5, 1941 146,767
Sept. 6, 1940 151,521
. iitermediate schools :
Sept. 4. 1941 31,303
) Sept. 10, 1940 30,992
High schools and vocational schools:
Sept. 8, 1941 55,500
Sept. 6, 1940 54,780
The initial report of total school membership is 233,570, which indicates ap-
proximately 3,500 less pupils enrolled than a year ago as of this date. A compari-
son of this figure with tliat of June 1940 shows a substantial decrease, but this will
be offset in part by the large anticipated increase during the month of September.
The decrease in the elementary division is accounted for in part by the fact that
approximately 2.800 pupils formerly housed in the seventh and eighth grades in
elementary buildings were transferred to intermediate schools. Approximately
the same number formerly reported in the intermediate schools are now being,
accounted for in the high-school division.
This is not a true picture of the enrollments because the population shift ha&
both become greatlv accelerated and has shifted direction. This information is
contained in a latt^er part of the report, "School buildings needed in Detroit
because of national-defense program."
School enrollment for 1937 and 1940
!
i Total
!
Kinder-
garten
Ele-
men-
tary
Special
educa-
tion
Inter-
medi-
ate
Com-
prehen-
sive
high
Com-
mercial
high
Voca-
tional
Wayne
Uni-
ver-
sity
September 1937
265, 428
255, 647
17, 453
17. 478
145, 936
133, 917
8,473
8,491
35, 010
31, 003
42, 314
47, 151
2,440
1,619
- 7, 463
9,157
6, 339'
September 1940 - -
6.831
Supply of and demand for teachers. — Placement and eligibility lists of qualified
available teachers in most subjects are adequate. Exceptions are: Industrial
arts men, especially those who have had experience in industry, and home
economics candidates who hold a master's degree. During the past year eligibility
lists were compiled in industrial arts, home economics for intermediate and high
school, and vocal music. There is a possibility that during the coming school
year we may select additional teachers for September 1942 placement m kinder-
garten and 'early elementary, mathematics, science, commercial, vocal music,
and health education.
When the need arises, it is our policy to formulate an eligibility or placement
list. All candidates who have filed applications are invited to participate m our
selective process. This selective process includes analysis of scholastic and
experience records — experience to include experiences with children and experi-
ences in community analvsis or participation in community affairs, experience in
curriculum building, child study, and work other than teaching; health aiid phy-
sical examinations; speech, hearing, and vision tests; examinations in English
usage and contemporary affairs; performance tests; psychological examination
and interview; and interviews with administrators, supervisors, and the per-
sonnel committee. We also notify teacher training institutions to inform pros-
pective teachers concerning the necessity for filing application blanks.
7644 DETROIT HEARINGS
Monthly changes in educational personnel during the j/ear I94O-4I
0
■0
a
« 9
Accessions
Separations
0
T3
a
J3
0
i
0
At end of pay-roll month
11
c
0 w
sg
0
a
0
og
0
ll
I
£ IB
0
0
a H
32
S3
03
a
"0.2
>
le
0
0
0
e
'A
H
PL,
«
t-'
(-1
«
H
h-)
H
e
Sept. 13, liMO . ---
7,724
7,593
7,676
7,685
7,693
7,678
7,706
7,707
7,715
7,720
42
105
23
23
14
76
28
20
44
8
117
28
43
11
8
37
5
4
2
54
8
2
3
4
27
4
3
3
32
10
5
16
8
11
7
245
151
68
41
31
156
45
34
60
15
6
3
3
1
4
"2
2
1
71
6
1
1
6
9
6
1
3
4
171
36
45
14
12
64
9
5
128
23
10
17
24
55
.29
16
45
20
376
68
59
33
46
128
44
26
55
25
7,593
Oct. 11, 1940
7,676
Nov. 8, 1940
7,685
Dec 6, 1940
7,693
Jan. 17, 1941
7,678
Feb. 14, 1941
7,706
Mar. 14, 1941
7,707
Apr. 11, 1941
7,715
May 16, 1941 _
7,720
June 13, 1941
7,715
Year 1940-41
' 7, 724
383
255
108
100
846
22
108
363
367
860
I 7,710
1 These totals include respectively 159 and 247 assigned substitutes and emergency substitutes in regular
positions, as well as 4 and 17 employees foi the vocational education program for national defense.
Changes in educational personnel during the year 19 40-4 i
Division
C3 >>
Accessions
as
03 O
d
i^ a) a
Separations
0.2
73 >.
a 3
Administrative education:
Executive -
Psychological clinic
Attendance-
Miscellaneous
Supervisory.-
Kindergarten -
Elementary .-.
Special education:
Anemic
Blind
Crippled
Deaf --..
Special A
Specials
Speech -
Ungraded
Preparatory
Epileptic
Intermediate
High:
Comprehensive -
Technical -.
Commercial
Vocational, boys:
Building trades
George.-.
Munger trade
Wright -
32
29
76
14
"53
262
3,760
101
40
55
36
63
96
38
31
12
8
1,014
1,327
155
57
9
21
10
41
24
236
1
1
4
3
5
5
4
4
6
2
23
33
3S1
2
3
7
3
7
11
3
11
1
2
49
137
17
6
2
6
2
16
230
2
3
1
1
1
3
1
1
2
5 I
4
7 I 6
7
5
5
2
8
28
401
6
4
5
1
7
15
3
2
1
120
93
15
7
2
5
4
14
29
28
77
14
168
267
3,740
97
39
57
38
63
92
38
35
11
1,371
157
56
9
22
15
41
' These totals include respectively 4 and 17 employees for the vocational education program for national
defense.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7645
Changes in educational personnel during the year 1940-4-1 — Continued
,_
.«
Accessions
Separations
■c
a
» t.
Ui
^
<s
^ 03
J3
^ o
,G
ta 03
o^
TJO.
Division
o
a
o o
3
32
"3
1
s ft
o
n
M a
3^
'S
1
a
6jO
"3
■3
o
o
«
tx
O
o
b^
'4,
H
f^
«o
H
(-1
rt
H
h-l
H
e
Vocational, girls:
19
26
1
1
_....
2
1
4
2
1
1
2
1
1
1
4
3
19
Goldberg
25
Wayne University:
30
2
2
3
1
3
20
8
21
1
2
2
22
2
5
11
18
4
18
28
1
1
2
31
College, liberal arts
195
?0
5
11
4
40
1
12
14
7
34
201
College, medicine.-
52
14
1
1
1
17
?
16
18
51
College, pharmacy
5
5
College, engineering
24
fi
1
1
8
1
1
1
3
29
5
1
1
2
2
4
Total
2 7,724
383
255
108
100
846
22
108
363
367
860
2 7,710
' These totals include respectively 159 and 247 assigned substitutes and emergency substitutes in regular
positions.
Increased industrial-arts program. — Our concern with the problem of securing
available industrially trained teachers is heightened at present by the extensive
defense training program in Detroit. Outstanding men in our regular school
system have been loaned for the duration and suitable material is not readily
available for the temporary replacements.
In addition, it is the belief of our industrial education department that this
need is not of a temporary nature. The objective of our secondary school pro-
gram must be to meet the needs of our youth. Education should aim to supply
the kind of abilities in demand. Since for most boys secondary education now
ends at 18 years of age, there must be organized for these pupils courses which
terminate with the end of their secondary school careers, preparing them for
occupations which they will enter equipped with a truly salable skill. In a highly
industrialized area such as Detroit there are possibilities for youth who are prop-
erly trained to go into larger general employment areas.
At the present time the ratio of vocational teachers in the secondary schools is
15 to 85. This r^tio has been steadily increasing and, as it shifts, it will necessi-
tate an expanding program from the standpoint of training more industrial arts
teachers and from the standpoint of equipment in buildings. Adjustments wiU
be necessary in adapting present school buildings, in planning new buildings, and
selection of equipment.
School Buildings Needed in Detroit Because of the National-Defense
Program
The national-defense program has already caused and will continue to cause an
emergency situation with respect to providing school-building facilities for children
of defense workers in Detroit. This emergency arises because the population
shift has both become greatly accelerated and has changed direction.
The location of national-defense training programs and national-defense indus-
tries in Detroit has created and is now creating an emergency housing situation
in the outlying areas of the city. In these areas school facilities are not now
and cannot, locally, be adequately developed to meet the greatly increased need.
Lack of facilities will be reflected in overcrowding half-day sessions, and inadequate
school programs for children from these homes.
7646
DETROIT HEARINGS
The present school budget provides for the following school buildings to be
constructed in the area in which the school-building emergency is acute:
Name of school
Elementary:
Ohio-Esper (first unit)
Coolidse (addition)
Vetal (addition). --.
Wavne (addition)... .-
Greenfield No. 2 (first unit).
Secondary:
Redford High (addition)
Mumford High (first unit). .
Total.
Capacity
320
440
420
320
240
150
900
Cost
$113, 156
119,974
192, 169
141,392
75, 944
202, 100
450,518
1, 295, 253.
In addition to these school buildings an emergency need exists or will e.xist for-
the following school buildings:
Name of school
Present
capacity
Added
capacity
Estimated
cost
Elementary:
420
240
560
(0
560
260
980
(')
(')
400
360
280
240
520
400
280
240
240
840
120
120
200
,$186,615-
132, 308
114,620
Trix - - -
75, 944
213,840
186,615
52, 910
Pulaski . . -
75, 944
75, 944
267, 905
Secondary:
2,600
1,666
500
101, 20O
101, 200
Wavne University College of Engineering
102, 960
Total
1, 688, 005
2, 983, 258
' Temporary rooms only, at present.
Membership and census data in the outlying areas of Detroit show the emer-
gency situation creating the need for the school-building facilities which are
requested above. Estimated membership indicates that during the 2-year period
there has been an approximate increase of 6,400 children in the outlying area?.
Estimated census data indicate an increase of approximately 8,466 persons be-
tween 5 and 19 years of age in these outlying areas, of whom 7,710 are located in
school districts which would be served by the school facilities proposed in the
above list. (Data to support this information, entitled "Estimated Membership
Trends for September 1941 in Areas Affected by the National Defense Program"
and "Persons 5-19 Years in Census Areas Affected by the National Defense
Program," are attached.)
The national defense program has greatly increased the need for school shops in
Detroit. This need is created because of the necessity for training workers in
defense industries and for participants in defense activities. The facilities for
vocational education and industrial training would be partially met by the pro-
posed additional high-school and university-shop vuiits.
The population shift in Detroit has become accelerated and has changed direc-
tion due to two phases of the national-defense program. The two factors are:
(a) Location of new defense industries, and (b) increased money for workers.
Defense industries have located in the outlying areas (on the west, north, and
northeast), thus attracting home builders to these areas. Better incomes make it
possible for an increasing number of defense workers to purchase propertj' and
build homes. Persons formerly in the lower-income brackets now find it possible
to purchase homes in the outlying districts.
It is estimated that approximately 75 percent of this population shift is due to
defense industries and defense pay rolls. Consequently, it becomes necessary
to provide school l)uildings to serve the needs of approximately 5,000 children of
defense workers who are in, or will be in, areas not now adequately served by-
present school facilities.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7647
Estimated membership trends for September 1941 in areas affected by the national-
defense program
School buildings needed
Membership data
Member-
ship,
June 1939
Estimated i
probable
member-
ship, Sep-
tember 1941
Census data (persons 5-19 years)
1940
Esti-
mated,2
1941
Ohio-Esper:
Mackenzie Elementary
Mackenzie High
Coolidge
Vetal
Wayne
Greenfield No. 2
Van Zile^___
Von Steuben
Trix
Burbank
Law
Pulaski
Mann
Herman Gardens
Redford High
Mmnlord High...
Denby High
Pershing High
Total..
Total estimated increase.
325
2,978
1,064
794
560
371
572
23
354
255
22
44
2,773
3,456
2,386
324
3,610
1,371
884
1,176
240
590
699
200
500
470
150
140
800
3,640
800
4,695
2,123
1,283
16, 704
1,593
1,278
1,621
3,507
622
1,201
638
89S
569
448
85
382
16, 648
6,759
14, 273
20, 351
1,375
17, 062
1,848
1,391
2,147
4,336
630
1,206
645
966
613
468
84
415
17, 746
7,487
15, 171
19, 775
1,400
17, 500
2,100
1,900
2,600
5,300
750
1,400
775
1,150
850
600
200
850
19, 000
8,300
16, 550
19, 850
+6,435
22, 412
88, 855
-f4,510
93, 365
+■
101,075
1 Based on principals' estimates as of April 1941.
2 Based on attendance department preliminary estimate and on housing survey information.
Persons 5 to 19 years in Census areas affected by the national-defense program
Census area
1939
1940
Estimated
1941
E -
11, 594
5,110
12, 747
3,901
6,759
1,909
8,975
14. 273
11, 642
5,420
13, 577
4,169
7,487
1,980
9,288
15, 171
12,000
H
6,600
I
14,600
J
5,600
G - . - -
8,600
M (tract 614, 615, 616)
N (tract 651, 652, 653, 654, 656, 660, 666, 667, 668, 669, 671)
3,100
9,900
0
16,800
Total
65, 268
68, 734
+3, 466
77,200
-1-8, 466
Summary of residential building permits issued, department of buildings and safety
engineering, years 1938, 1939, 1940, 1941
Month
Number
Valuation
1938
1939
1940
1941
1938
1939
1940
1941
January
147
268
519
509
621
597
560
554
1,139
1 763
934
944
393
651
1, 085
1,331
2 1, 106
919
659
901
1,268
1,264
983
1,179
$523, 400
1, 045, 126
2, 371, 265
2, 334, 645
2, 808, 466
2,781,343
$2, 615, 184
2, 651, 740
5, 076, 657
1 3, 573, 800
4, 252, 120
4,050,610
$1, 695, 575
2, 699, 527
4,510,982
5, 777, 385
2 4, 752, 464
3, 903, 595
$2, 932, 615
4, 004, 515
March
6, 148, 356
6.111,250
May
4, 847, 470
June
5, 740, 470
Total, 6 months ..
11,864,245
3, 629, 737
3, 047, G94
3, 653, 195
4, 659, 485
4, 028, 795
3, 070, 027
22,220,111
3, 773, 670
3, 904. 893
3, 444, 793
4, 205, 930
3, 574, 778
3, 250, 855
23, 339, 528
4, 657, 005
4, 450, 725
4,491,960
3 4, 149, 028
4 2, 915, 845
5 2, 897. 765
29, 784, 676
July
August
760
828
776
960
850
623
798
858
779
930
785
729
1,092
1,040
1,050
3 966
«698
5 699
1,277
986
6, 262, 418
4, 904, 880
Total, year
7,458
9,773
11, 030
33, 953, 178
44, 375, 030
46, 901. 856
> Excluding addition to Brewster housing project.
2 Excluding addition to Parkside housing project.
3 Excluding Charles housing project.
* Excluding additions to Brewster and Parkside housing projects
• Excluding Herman Gardens housing project.
60396—41 — pt. 18-
-38
7548 DETROIT HEARINGS
Subject: Statistics relative to national-defense program.
From: W. E. Stirton.
To: Dr. John R. Emens, Director-Administrator.
Date: July 15, 1941.
At your request, I have checked our various records for such information as
might prove helpful to you in the formulation of the report which you are prepar-
ing for consideration in Washington relative to the urgent need for the expansion of
our vocational education program for national-defense facilities.
A short time prior to the inauguration of this program in Detroit, a survey was
made of the available facilities for this training work in the Detroit public schools.
The survey indicated that there were an estimated 2,565 work-stations for occupa-
tions approved for training by the Office of Production Management, available
in our various schools. On the assumption that each work-station could accommo-
date, on the average, 1 preemployment and 1 supplementary trainee per day with-
out conflicting with the regular school program, the facilities were adequate to
handle appro.ximately 5,130 trainees.
Total work-stations available survey of June 1940 2, 565
Number of trainees these facilides could accommodate 5, 130
June 1941 peak enrollment 12, 853
Increase in demand for facilities percent-- 150. 5
The following table indicates the growth of our enrollment from the inception of
the program to date. The figures shown represent the total enrollment as of a
given date in each particular month, and do not constitute the peak enrollment
figures which are somewhat higher. In the interest of uniformity, the peak figures
are not shown as they were not available for the earlier months of training.
Growth of vocational education program for national-defense class enrollments July
1940~June 1941
Period
July
August
September
October. . .
November
December.
January. .-
February..
March
April.
May
June
Work
Projects
Adminis-
tration
224
1,294
1,161
1,287
1,456
1,455
1,476
1.260
1,240
1,117
Michigan
State Em-
ployment
Service
0
446
316
518
556
575
492
1,117
1,215
1,181
966
974
National
Youth
Adminis-
tration
0
130
116
0
0
816
816
165
380
550
730
667
Supple-
mentary-
Army,
Navy etc.
18
297
128
1,210
1,942
2,623
2,246
3,330
4,617
5,871
6,968
7,779
Total
242
2,167
1,721
3,015
3,954
5,469
5,030
5,872
7,452
8,719
9,626
10,697
The following total figures should be of interest:
Total number trained from July 17, 1940, to June 30, 1941 19, 410
Work Projects Administration 5, 614
Michigan State Employment Service 5, 627
Supplementary " 6, 869
National Youth Administration 1, 300
Total number enrolled as of June 30, 1941 10, 697
Total number of trainees involved in the program since formation,
July 17, 1940 30, 107
Obviously, the facilities originally available in the Detroit public schools had to
be expanded in order to permit our handling the more than 150 percent increase
in trainees than there were available work-stations to accommodate. This
expansion of facilities has been accomplished both by the conversion of other types
of vocational rooms and the acquisition of new shops in order to meet our June
30 peak enrollment of 12,853 trainees.
It must also be borne in mind that the shortage of work-stations in certain
fields of training has been much more acute than in others. For example, we are
now training 1,579 men in various types of welding. This has necessitated provid-
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7649
ing an expansion of more than 300 percent in the welding facilities which the
Detroit public school shops would accommodate at the beginning of the program.
In addition many of the facilities listed in the original survey were located in
schools in outlying districts which were geographically inconvenient for defense
training purposes. This has thrown a disproportionate burden on facilities more
centrally located with reference to the homes or factories from which trainees are
drawn
Thus far we have been able, as indicated, to cushion the increased demand for
shops by converting other facilities or securing new ones. However, this procedure
cannot continue indefinitely without acute conflict with regular school activities.
The greater proportion of our trainees are now of the supplementary types and
this gives promise of a considerable increase in numbers in the very near future.
vSome of the principal organizations referring trainees of this type are as follows:
Organization
Trainees
now in
program
Estimated future
requirements
U. S. Navy
U. S. Army Selfridge Field
Army engineers
Hudson Motor Car Co
Briggs Manufacturing Co
Great Lakes Steel Corporation.
Detroit Edison Co
Fniehauf Trailer Co..:
Murray Corporation
475
125
50
2,000
1,500
800
40
125
2,200.
350.
Several hundred.
4,600.
1,800.
No estimate.
Do.
Do.
I am attaching copies of letters received from some of these organizations
substantiating the figures just indicated.
Likewise there is a very definite possibility that we may be called upon to
Train large numbers of women on this program in the very near future.
From: A. R. Carr, Dean, College of Engineering.
To: Dr. John R. Emens, Personnel Division.
Date: July 18, 194L
As requested in your telephone communication, I would like to explain the
request for the building for engineering. As a matter of fact, we are so crowded
that we could easily absorb a $100,000 unit without any increase in the present
number of students.
For example: Several engineering laboratories are housed in one room which
is only big enough to accommodate one laboratory. Several laboratories are so
small that ■we have to reteach sections containing from 5 to 10 people at a time.
These classes must be duplicated a number of times to accommodate our students.
Therefore, any increased building facilities would increase our efficiency and
tend toward more economy of operation.
However, for this purpose I believe I would say that one more $100,000 unit
about 85 feet square would accommodate about 100 more students full time and
at least that number part-time at night, in regular engineering and defense
courses. The. reason I suggested two $100,000 units was because of the fact that
with two units we could bring back our drawing department from Commerce
High School, a move which is most badly needed to get us in shape for inspection;
and the other unit would be used for engineering mechanics testing laboratory
and to increase our facilities in mechanical and aeronautical engineering.
I shall be happy to go into this matter with you. I will be pleased to bring
along the report of the E. C. P. D. Committee for I am sure you would be inter-
ested. As you probably know, we were turned down only because of lack of
space and equipment.
Financing Detroit Public Schools
REPORT BY division OF INFORMATIONAL SERVICE, DETROIT PUBLIC SCHOOLS
The Detroit school district is the only school district of the first class in Michi-
gan as designated by chapter 8 of part 1 of Act 319 of the public acts of the 1927
State legislature. It is coterminous with the city of Detroit, which embraces an
area of slightly over 143 square miles, and serves a total population of 1,759,000.
The school board consists of seven members elected by the city at large for
terms of 6 years, elections occurring every 2 years. The officers of the board of
7550 DETROIT HEARINGS
education are the president and vice president, elected annually from among the
members; a secretary elected by the board; the city treasurer as ex-officio treasurer;
and the city controller as ex-officio controller.
Budgetary procedure. — ^The Detroit Board of Education is required by law to
prepare its annual budget and submit it to the city controller on or before January
2 of each year. The controller compiles the budget for all city activities and
submits the compilation to the mayor on or before February 1.
The mayor considers the budget until March 1, altering it by increases or de-
creases. With respect to the budget of the board of education such alterations
can be made only in the total amount requested.
On, or before March 7, the budget is submitted to the common council of the
city of Detroit, which may make alterations, but again only as respects the total
of the board of education. Thereafter, the total city budget is returned to the
mayor for approval or veto of any part.
The common council again receives the budget on the fourth Tuesday of April
for action on the mayor's approvals or vetoes. The controller receives the budget
for the preparation of tax and bond statements, returning it to the common council
for final adoption on or before the first Tuesday in May.
Budget contents. — As acted on by the board of education and submitted to the
city controller, the budget includes the estimated requirements for each activity,
the estimated receipts from various sources, and the net amount required by way
of city taxes or bond issues.
The budget for the fiscal year July 1, 1937, to June 30, 1938, includes the
following items:
Amount estimated
Maintenance fund: for 1937-38
Administration $398, 729
Instruction 22,225,905
Auxiliary agencies 1, 866, 765
Fixed charges 115, 535
Operation of plant 2, 921, 333
Maintenance of plant 1, 066, 420
Miscellaneous items 167, 515
Total 28, 762,202
Less estimated credits 12, 785, 630
Net amount requested 15, 976, 572
Capital outlay:
Equipment, alterations, and improvements 675, 000
New buildings 5,927,271
Total net requests 22, 578, 843
The amounts allowed by the mayor and the common council included:
Maintenance fund: Total $27, 880, 000
Capital outlay:
Equipment, alterations, and improvements 675. 000
New buildings! . 1,000,000
Total 29,555,000
Less credits 12,785,630
Total net allowance 16,769,370
1 An additional $1,500,000 was allowed dependent on the receipt of credits beyond estimates.
The decreases in the maintenance fund and in the capital outlay fund are
adjusted by the board of education before the beginning of the fiscal year, July 1,
1937.
Expenditures. — Total expenditures by the Detroit Board of Education and the
changes in school membership since 1925 were as shown below, as regards the
maintenance fund, that is exclusive of capital outlay:
Year
Membership
Expenditures
Year
I
Membership E.xpenditures
1924-25
206, 903
309, 541
278, 395
272, 607
$15,611,339
25, 438, 581
21, 134, 046
18, 627, 039
1933-34
275, 439
286, 766
295, 939
$19, 173, 435
1930-31.
1931-32 .
1934-35
1935-36
22, 748, 569
23, 989, 078
1932-33 .-.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7651
Expenditures for 1935-36. — The distribution of expenditures by divisions and
functions for 1935-36 is shown in the following table:
Instruction
Operation
and main-
tenance
►■
Adminis-
tration and
supervision
Coordinate
and auxili-
ary agencies
Total
Elementary and kindergarten schools
$8. 764, 346
1, 117,734
2, 991, 837
3, 339, 705
916, 588
1, 124, 432
373, 675
$1,970,733
145, 890
610, 927
644, 944
214, 962
149, 074
13, 459
$541, 081
33, 371
139, 855
104, 668
26, 374
10, 106
26, 638
$293, 221
234, 325
102, 932
80, 859
11,760
3,280
2,288
$11,569,383
1,531,321
Intermediate schools - - . .
3,845 553
Academic high schools .--
4, 170, 178
Technical, commercial, continuation, and
vocational schools .
1 169 686
Wayne University
Evening and summer schools
1, 286, 894
416, 061
Total
18, 628, 320
3, 749, 992
882, 097
728, 668
23, 989, 078
It will be noticed that some 78 percent of all expenditures is devoted to direct
instructional purposes.
Of the $18,628,320.75 direct instructional expenditures, $396,509.48 was for
books and supplies and $18,231,811.27 for salaries.
Over 75 percent of all operation expenditures is thus used for direct instructional
salaries.
Teachers^ salaries. — Detroit teachers' salaries are based on a salary schedule as
follows:
Monthly salary
Division
Elementary..
Intermediate
High
Atypical
Of the 3,408 elementary teachers, 1,908 have not as yet reached their maximums;
310 of 1,025 intermediate teachers are below their maximums, as are 243 of 1,012
high school teachers.
Revenues. — Revenues for the Detroit public schools arise from local taxation
and Michigan St^te aid available for general purposes, and some Federal and
Wayne County aid available for restricted purposes.
Comparable budget revenues from various sources have been as follows:
Revenues
Local taxa-
tion 1
State aid 2
Federal aid
County aid
Other credits
Total
Year ending June
30—
1925 .-
$12, 494, 516
17, 890, 008
17, 884, 821
3 16, 403, 413
12, 875, 173
12, 185, 452
11,093,981
13, 571, 000
$2, 999, 658
5, 700, 000
6, 593, 420
7, 692, 500
7, 208, 000
5, 000, 000
6, 700, 000
10, 219, 180
$58, 800
79,000
72, 000
72,000
75,000
75, 000
80, 000
70, 000
$66,'6o6'
67, 000
67, 000
67, 000
57, 000
57, 000
67, 000
$488, 000
824, 450
1, 069, 200
< 2, 267, 750
2, 317, 480
2, 299, 000
1, 867, 080
1, 893, 000
$16, 040, 974
24, 559, 458
25, 686, 441
3 26, 461, 636
22, 542, 653
19 616 452
1930
1931
1932
1933 ..
1934 .
1935 .
19, 798, 061
25, 820, 180
1936
' Exclusive of bond issues for new buildings and land.
2 Exclusive of funds for education of the handicapped which are included under "Other credits" and
amounted to $223,560 in the year ending June 30, 1936.
' Because of a salary suspension equal to 1 month's salary and other savings, this amount was reduced
by $2,860,984.
* For the first time lunchroom gross receipts of $1,240,580 are included.
7652 DETROIT HEARINGS
Exhibit 16. — Detroit's Vocational Education Program for
National Defense
REPORT BY WARREX E. BOW, DEPUIY SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS, BOARI>
OF EDUCATION, DETROIT, MICH.
The Detroit Board of Education in terms of national service readily entered
into a plan of cooperation as indicated Ijy the excerpt from the Board of Education
Proceedings of July 23, 1940; "authoritj' * * * granted to enter into contract
with the State board of control for vocational education (through authorization
from the United States Office of Education) to operate a vocational program to
give training for essential defense occupations."
PURPOSE OF THE PROGRAM
The controlling purpose of the vocational education program for national de-
fense is to develop trained personnel for employment, adequate to meet the needs
of the industries essential or allied to the national defense. The training falls
into the categories briefly summarized as follows:
1. Supplementary classes provide for the upgrading of employed men by ex-
tending their skill and knowledge of an occupation essential to the national defense.
2. Preemployment and refresher classes provide for the training of unemployed
men. These inen are made emploj^able with single skills in jobs essential to the
national defense.
3. Vocational courses and other related or necessary instruction for youth
employed on work projects of the National Youth Administration.
4. Training programs for the armed forces in fields deemed necessary by the
commanding officer.
ORGANIZATION OF THE PROGRAM
General advisory council. — In Detroit, the responsibility for the vocational
education program for national defense was given by the superintendent of schools
to the deputy superintendent. A large general advisory council composed of
about 100 members was organized, with the superintendent of schools. Dr. Frank
Cody, as chairman, and the deputy superintendent of schools. Dr. Warren E.
Bow, as vice chairman of the group. All the interests of the metropolitan Detroit
area were represented. The following general areas were considered in making
up the council:
(a) Detroit public schools.
(b) Metropolitan area schools.
(c) Industry and business.
(d) Labor.
(e) Social and civic organizations.
Subsequent developments have demonstrated the wisdom of giving representation
on this council to all interests: industrial, social, racial, labor, and educational.
Various members of this council also serve as craft consultants. Refer to chart of
the organizational plan to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of the
committee relationships.
Advisory committee. — At the first meeting of the general advisory council, the
members were given a thorough understanding of the program and were then
asked to suggest an advisory committee. This advisory committee has equal
representation from labor and industry, and one lay member representing the
community as a whole. The advisory committee was chosen with extreme care,
and is the governing committee of the program.
This committee passes on matters pertaining to the program according to Fed-
eral and State regulations. The group must approve the formation of all courses,
both as to trainee selection and training experiences. They guide the program by
indicating avenues of expansion, and have collaborated in making wise disposal of
what might otherwise have been controversial items, such as seniority, and so on.
The chairman of this committee (without vote) is the deputy superintendent of
schools.
Assisting the advisory committee is a group of consultants, representatives
from cooperating agencies such as the Michigan State Employment Service, the
Work Projects Administration, the National Youth Administration, school repre-
sentatives, and others. The cooperation and assistance of these agencies has
been, and is, of invaluable aid in conducting this training program.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7653
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7554 DETROIT HEARINGS
Superintendent' s administrative committee. — To facilitate the immediate training
aspects of the program, the deputy superintendent of schools appointed a superin-
tendent's administrative committee consisting of:
(a) The deputy superintendent, Dr. Warren E. Bow, as chairman.
(b) The director of vocational education, Mr. Earl L. Bedell, as vice
chairman, particularly charged with the responsibility for instruction.
(c) The director of guidance and placement, Dr. Warren K. Layton,
particularly charged with the responsibility for selection and enrollment of
trainees through the proper referral agencies. (It should be noted that
placement is a function of the Michigan State Employment Service.)
(d) The director of use of school facilities, Mr. Fred S. DeGalan, particu-
larly charged with the responsibility for facilities for training.
(e) The director of the vocational education program for national defense,
Mr. W. E. Stirton, as secretary.
Since the magnitude of the program is such that the members of this committee
could not adequately serve the program without sacrificing their regular activities
assigned to them in the school system, the administrative committee appointed
a staff of three men to directly serve the program on a full-time basis. The
members of this staff were selected from the regular school staff and were desig-
nated as director and two assistant directors for this particular program. These
men have been certified by the State board of control for vocational education
on the basis of their industrial and educational background, and were selected
by the various members of the superintendent's administrative committee because
of their previous activities in the respective fields of trainee selection and guidance
of instruction, and of facilities. The superintendent's administrative com-
mittee is active in administering all phases of the program through the medium
of the director of the vocational education program for national defense. The
Detroit Board of Education Chart showing the administrative structure of the
Detroit Plan of the Vocational Education Program for national defense enables
one to gain a clear understanding of the administrators' duties in connection with
the program.
Committee on industrial needs. — The committee on industrial needs was organ-
ized from members of the advisory council at the same time that the advisory
committee was organized. This committee on industrial needs is composed of
leaders in industries intimately connected with the defense industries, and repre-
sentatives of the Michigan State Employment Service and the board of com-
merce. At the inception of the program this committee sponsored a compre-
hensive survey of over 200 employers with a pay roll of 384,000 men. This survey
gave confidential information which made an invaluable picture, not only of the
potential needs of the defense industries in manpower, but indicated accurately
the fields in which training was needed. This report originally was the direct
guide in the allocation of classes.
Subsequently, the primary responsibility for keeping the program constantly
and currently informed of actual and impending training needs, both as to num-
bers of men and fields of training, has been assigned to the Michigan State Em-
ployment Service. To make these vital recommendations the employment serv-
ice maintains a staff of field men who continually contact all the actual and poten-
tial defense contractors. This agency also makes investigations and recom-
mendations on other questions involving labor supply, such as the advisability
of training women, etc.
Committee on selection and assignment. — The committee on selection and assign-
ment is made up of experts in personnel problems from the community, especially
the cooperating and referral agencies. The director of guidance and placement
for the Detroit schools is chairman. The group determines the selection of trainees
as to their source and qualifications; and from the reports of the committee on
industrial needs and the Michigan State Employment Service, helps the program
to meet the requests of industry for special training in selected fields.
Many problems have been worked out in detail by this committee, for example:
Factors' in reference to training the Negro people have been intelligently con-
sidered and programs evolved so that the manpower of our community, irrespec-
tive of race, will be used to the maximum in defense industries.
The committee on selection and assignment also makes recommendations as to
the place of the handicapped, such as the disabled veterans and the deaf, in the
program.
Metropolitan schools committee. — The metropolitan schools committee is com-
posed of the superintendents of the school systems adjacent to Detroit and within
the metropolitan area. The Detroit Director of Vocational Education, Mr. Earl
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7655
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7g56 DETROIT HEARINGS
L. Bedell, is the liaison man for this committee. This group enables full coopera-
tion of all the school systems in the metropolitan area, and makes it possible for
the smaller communities, if they so desire, to turn over their facilities to the Detroit
program. In this case they are operated exactly as are the training centers in
Detroit proper. Some of the neighboring communities prefer to operate their
own program, but nevertheless avail themselves of the assistance rendered by all
the committees of the Detroit program. This integration eliminates duplication
and promotes efficiency.
Youth advisory committee. — This committee has been formed to consider the
particular problems of youth as they apply to this program. The members,
nominated by the advisory committee, are all individuals concerned with the
complex problems confronting youth at this critical time, and they attempt to
give the maximum service possible to youth within the provisions of the vocational
education program for national defense. This group is a subcommittee of the
advisory committee.
Council of Metropolitan Detroit Administrators for National Defense Training. —
There has recently been superimposed on this operating structure, at both the
local and State levels, a three-way cooperative council consisting of a representa-
tive from the public schools, the State employment service and the National
Youth Administration. This insures absolute integration of effort, and whenever
a problem affecting two or more of these agencies is encountered, the solution is
determined through this group.
*******
SUPPLEMENTARY TRAINING
By far the greatest number of trainees in this program are found in the sup-
plementary classes for employed men. The men attend classes after their regular
working hours, in the evenings, on Saturdays and on Sundays. These men apply
for training mainly through their employer or their labor union, while some apply
by direct correspondence or personal interview.
The need for this training arises from the expansion of industry due to defense
contracts, and occurs either as a need for upgrading and enhancing of present
skills for promotion, or as a need for training in new fields of activity occasioned
by defense contracts demanding products and procedures not present in normal
production.
Instruction in supplementary classes, as in all activities of this program, is based
directly and solely on the needs of industry. This demands an intimate and
constant contact and cooperation with the industry concerned. To insure
positive results, all the instructors are highly trained men recruited, in the main,
directly from industry, who are certified as to their competency by the State
board of control for vocational education.
This program is kept constantly informed of the diversion of local industries
into defense contracts. The resulting dislocation of labor produces the great
demand for conversion training which we are now experiencing. These programs
are worked out by direct and complete cooperation with the industry as far as
possible in advance of the change of operations. The statistical report included
demonstrates the growth of this supplementary type of training to a current
enrollment of approximately 10,000 men.
Preem-ployment training. — The second largest enrollment in this program is
found in the preemployment training for unemployed men. Previous discussion
has established the fact that these classes are based on industrial need. The
training is offered in single skills or semiskills which can be acquired within a
I0-to-I2-week training period of at least 30 hours per week. These semiskills, in
which training is given, are found in the list of approved occupations formulated
by the Ofl^ce of Production Management and the Federal Security Agency.
On the basis of need, the vocational education program for national defense
requests referrals for training on an approximately even division between the
Work Projects Administration, and the unemployed registered only with the
Michigan State Emplovment Service. These two agencies comb their lists for
the most eligible men on the basis of the specifications contained in the requisitions.
These men are referred to the vocational education program for national defense
office for interview, and a copy of their work history is transmitted to this office
in advance of the scheduled time of interview. The Michigan State Employment
Service is using aptitude tests wherever possible to further refine their referral
process.
The prospective trainees, who have been referred to the program office, are then
interviewed in this office. The interviewers are highly skilled and experienced
men, and if, as a consequence of their interview, they feel that the candidate can
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7657
be made employable in a defense occupation in the period allowed, the candidate
is assigned to a class that meets at least 30 hours per week.
The instructors of all these classes are highh' skilled industrial men, who are
charged with the responsibility of making the trainee employable within a pre-
scribed period. The teachers are instructed to promptly release from training
any trainee who demonstrates inaptitude in the shop, so that the trainee referrals
are triple screened (by the referral agency, the interviewer in the program office,
and the instructor).
Training of National Youth Administration youth. — The third type of training
provided by the vocational education program for national defense is for youth
employed on National Youth Administration projects. Since these projects are
classified as defense projects or regular projects, our instruction follows this
division.
Youth employed on defense projects devote half their time to training given by
the vocational education program for national defense. This instruction is given
in the same occupation in which they are employed, with related training inte-
grated into the instruction.
Youth employed on regular or nondefense projects are provided training
opportunities in three types of courses, as follows:
(a) A course supplementary to their work experience.
(6) An occupational adjustment course.
(c) A course contributing to their civic and vocational intelligence.
The referral of youth to National Youth Administration projects is primarily
arranged between the Michigan State Employment Service and the National
Youth Administration, although the schools may also recommend any case which,
in their contacts, they feel should be so assigned.
Trainees from the armed forces. — The fourth field of training provided by the
vocational education program for national defense is for the armed forces of the
United States. These requests for training come from the commanding officer of
the unit. In the Detroit area, we are at present training 900 enlisted men from
the United States Navy as aviation machinist's mates, and as aviation metal-
smiths. We are also training enlisted men from Selfridge Field in such diversified
fields as Army office practice, electricity and magnetism, and radio. We have
trained United States Navy men, stationed at the Grosse lie air base, in aviation
engines and aircraft welding. We are training enlisted men from Fort Wayne in
auto and driver mechanics. These instructional activities are always offered on
a basis of need worked out in advance between the vocational education program
for national defense and the particular branch of service concerned.
AN EXAMPLE OF DEFENSE TRAINING
An unusual example of coordination of preemployment training, placement,
and subsequent supplementary training is found in the answer to the request of
the Army Engineer Corps for help in preparing specialized maps of 100,000 square
miles of terrain. These maps are prepared from aerial photographs of the area.
Since there were no men available with this special training, we were given author-
ity by the Army to act as "employer's agent." On this basis, we asked the
Michigan State Employment Service to provide many draftsmen to be hired for
this work. These referrals came from the trainee files of men who had completed
the preemployment refresher courses in detailing and tracing. A condition of
their employment was that they would attend supplementary classes in photo-
grammetry to learn the peculiar and specialized techniques of this work. Exam-
inations at the completion of these supplementary courses determine the em-
ployee's status on the civil-service salary schedule. The facilities for the actual
map making and for conducting the supplementary classes in photogrammetry
have been donated by the Detroit schools.
PLACEMENT OF TRAINEES
In all of these training programs, the responsibility for i^lacement of men after
training is the responsibility of the State employment service. No direct attempts
are made to place the men in employment. However, by the verj^ close and
intimate relationship of the instructors and the vocational department of the
board of education with industry, direct requests from industry for trainees are
constantly being received. Again, since the hours of training for unemployed
men are generally throughout the night, they are able to canvass industry per-
sonally in the daytime. Since all trainees are provided with a certificate of
accomplishment, many find placement opportunities themselves. These two
7558 DETROIT HEARINGS
types of placements account for by far the largest percentage of placements as
indicated by the accompanying statistics.
One outstanding difficulty in preparing placement reports is the lack of informa-
tion on self-placements. It is certain that the major proportion of discontinuances
are due to self-placements which are very rarely reported. A spot survey con-
ducted by the vocational education program for national defense of 100 random
discontinuances showed that 81 percent had secured placement by their own
efforts.
Another outstanding difficulty in making an accurate placement report lies in
the fact that self-placements made after the training period ends cannot be known.
A third difficulty is that many unemployed men, while in training, find jobs,
but continue in the preemployment training classes unless discovered. It is
highly desirable that these recently employed men should continue training, but
their assignment should be changed to supplementary classes. Instructors con-
stantly urge trainees to attend supplementary classes after obtaining employment.
CONVERSION TRAINING
The recent publicity given the proposed curtailment of the automotive industry
has given impetus to the number of applicants for training, with a resultant
increase in the proportion of referrals directly from the State employment service.
However, this community has been anticipating the automotive curtailment, and
in cooperation with the affected industries, has for some time been increasingly
active in establishing conversion training programs. From past experience, we
feel confident of the techniques in solving this problem although the exact mag-
nitude of the task and the full impact is not as yet entirely defined.
TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES
The vocational education program for national defense is established on the
premise that there shall be no discrimination on the basis of race or sex of trainees.
In order to insure complete understanding and cooperation, a staff member has
been assigned to the special guidance problems arising in the training of racial
minorities, especially the Negro race. This assignment carries no implication of
placement responsibility on the part of the vocational education program for
national defense, but it does facilitate intelligent assignment of Negro trainees to all
the various classes.
SUMMARY
The success of the vocational education program for national defense in Detroit
is a natural development of outstanding cooperation of all the agencies involved.
From the inception of the program the advisory committee has contributed
unstintingly of time and ability to guide our activities. The members have been
asked to attend many meetings of industrialists to discuss the program. They
have been escorted, in groups and singly, through the training classes.
The industrial department of the Detroit Board of Commerce has mailed
thousands of descriptive letters and pamphlets prepared in our offices. They have,
also, organized meetings of all personnel directors to which we were invited to
explain the program. . .
Organized labor has shown equally enthusiastic support of the tramuig by
asking our staff to meet with them, and by widespread publicity programs in the
shops, through the medium of bulletins and shop stewards.
The instructional staff, in the main, is recruited by nominations from labor
and industry. Labor and industry have given these instructors leaves of absence,
and they have arranged continuing seniority, in order to insure the most vital point
of the program, i. e., the employment of the most highly skilled and competent
men as instructors.
The Training Within Industry Division of the Office of Production Management
works so intimately with the program that their offices are even located m the
same building, and their telephone is connected with the switchboard in the
program office. In mutual studv of training problems and needs, the two agencies
travel together to the industry concerned, and knit their activities together in the
resulting program. . .
The Michigan State Employment Service and the Work Projects Administra-
tion have, since the inception of the program, been completely and enthusiastically
cooperative. Their referral procedures and their reporting procedures have all
been worked out with a view toward complete coordination with the prograni s
activities. Similar cooperation in those fields has been experienced where the
program is associated with the National Youth Administration.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7659
Program representatives have, with the Michigan State Employment Service,
held joint meetings at every welfare and Michigan State Employment Service
office in the city of Detroit, explaining the operation and opportunities of the
program.
The extent of this cooperation with all participating agencies cannot be over-
estimated, and in this spirit we are confident that any training program of what-
ever description or magnitude can be handled in this area.
We feel that no account of the program activities in Detroit would be complete
without reference to its effect on the morale of our manpower. From hundreds
of unsolicited letters of appreciation from men, taken from the ranks of the
unemployed, made employable again, and now in defense occupations, we can
sense the intensification of the American spirit.
From employed men whose supplementary training has enhanced their skills
and given them positions of greater responsibility, we ihave the same story. This
training program has increased the determination of men to maintain our demo-
cratic way of life, as much as it has increased their abilities to produce the tools
necessary for that defense.
Included with this report are statistical statements reflecting the growth of the
vocational education program for national defense of the Detroit Board of Edu-
cation. It is important to note that (1) the placement figures listed are only
those reported by the instructors of the program who have no responsibility for
placement, (2) the majority of discontinuances have been found to be self-
placements, and therefore are not correctly reported (as previously inentioned, a
single spot survey of 100 of these discontinuances in preemployment classes
showed 81 percent employed), and (3) discontinuances in supplementary classes
for employed men most commonly refer to men who have attained the necessary
skill or knowledge which prompted them to attend classes.
Detroit "plan data
Date
Number of
classes
Supple-
mentary,
employed
men
Preem-
ployment
(Work
Projects
Adminis-
tration
and Michi-
gan State
Employ-
ment
Service)
Youth in
classes
(from
National
Youth Ad-
ministra-
tion)
Preem-
ployment
place-
ments
from
instruc-
tors' re-
ports
Training
conclu-
sions for
preem-
ployment
only
Current
total en-
rollment
July 31, 1940_
33
107
143
160
190
216
204
255
337
418
473
530
563
18
297
128
1.210
1.942
2.623
2.246
3.330
4.617
5.571
6.968
7. 779
9.086
224
1.740
1,477
1,805
2.012
2.032
1.968
2.377
2. 455
2.298
1.928
2.251
1,978
242
Aug. 31, 1940
Sept. 30, 1940
130
116
86
282
359
237
" 193
1 193
1 193
281
358
312
226
213
182
401
390
658
1816
'816
1 816
1, 333
1,603
1,253
1,151
1,711
2,167
1,721
3,015
3,954
5,471
5,030
5,926
7,452
8,419
9,626
10, 697
12,067
Oct. 31. 1910
Nov. 30, 1940
Dec. 31, 1940_
816"
816
165
380
550
730
667
1,003
Jan. 31, 1941 . .
Feb. 28, 1941
Mar. 31, 1941
Apr. 30, 1941... .
May 31, 1941
June 30, 1941..
July 31, 1941
Total
2,933
11,130
' Average per month, total for these 3 months was divided by 3.
As of July 31, 1041, the tctal number of men in the Detroit program, excluding
any youth on National Youth Administration who had received training or are
in the process of completing training, is 33,033.
Our instructors report 2,933 preemployment trainees have secured placement
as cf July 31. Our recr rds show that in addition 1 1,130 men in these preemploy-
ment c1p,ssos have concluded their training as of July 31 either bv completion or
discontinuance. Our spot survey shows that 81 percent of discontinuance termi-
nation ere self-plr.ctn ( nts. Reports from the Michigan State Emplovment
Service, which is the agency solely responsible for placement, should show a large
number cf placcrrcnts made from the 11,130, but there will still remain a vast
number of self-placements of which there is no record.
7560 DETROIT HEARINGS
Procedures Employed in Detroit's Defense Vocational Education
Program
report by warren e. bow, deputy superintendent of public schools, board
of education, detroit, mich.
Speaking specifically in terms of procedures emploj'ed in the vocational educa-
tion program for national defense in Detroit, we can illustrate best by citing a
particular instance.
Many months ago, when a large automobile concern in this area realized that
the fulfillment of his large defense contracts, both actual and impending, would
necessitate new skills, one of our representatives was called into consultation.
The procedure outlined below was then worked out and carried through to a
successful conclusion.
1. The new production was broken down and analyzed in terms of the necessary
operations, and the number of operators necessarj' in each operation, and the
necessary skills for the operations.
2. The employer distributed to many thousands of his employees a question-
naire asking in detail for his work history previous to his present job in the plant.
This survey resulted in the uncovering of men with unsuspected skills and experi-
ences necessary in defense production which were not being employed in the then
current production.
3. Malching a list of employees, made up of those available with the desired
skills, plus those whom the questionnaire disclosed as having partial or complete
necessary skills, against the list of necessary operators and skills, resulted in a
detailed list of men to be trained further, plus a list of those for whom it was-
necessary to refresh in latent skills.
4. A representative of our office then matched this composite and detailed list
of individual training needs against a list of all school shops, showing the training
stations where such skills could be taught. Consideration was also given to the
geographical location of the training stations and the trainee's home. Then
individual post cards were sent to the 2,800 men to be trained, telling them not
only the school to report to, but also indicating the particular machine to which
they were to be assigned. Since this program was to be conducted while the men
were still employed on nondefense production, the training was held after hours
on the trainee's own time. Most of the assignments were for Sundays, with a
double 6-hour shift, though other classes were opened during the evenings and
Saturdays.
5. Highly skilled instructors were selected and called to a series of special
meetings in advance of the class meetings. Here they were informed of the
exact and specific jobs for which the various men were to be trained.
6. Both the industrj^ and the vocational education program for national
defense kept constant supervision of the instruction by assignment of special
supervisors to this particular activity.
7. When it developed that in some instances particular kinds or quantities of
equipment were not adequately available within the schools, the industry cleared
a wing of its plant and installed the necessary extra equipment. This shop is
operated entirely by the vocational education program for national defense, just
as a school shop would be. An expert from the plant was hired by the program
as a center supervisor for this particular shop.
8. After the men were trained and assigned to their new defense production
job within the plant, the instructional program was maintained. Men are
not being upgraded further in shop techniques, but are taking training in related
subjects such as shop mathematics and blueprint reading.
This is in some detail an example of a cooperative training program conducted
by industry and the vocational education program for national defense which
originated about 8 months ago. We are conducting other such programs for other
plants in this area with minor modifications such as use of aptitude and qualifica-
tion tests aimed at the particular needs of the particular plant.
From our experiences in this area, past and present, we know that if the in-
dustry will tell us whom to train, what to train them in, and when they must be
trained, we can meet any and all challengs for training arising in this area.
When we speak of the cooperative efforts which make possible this approach to
the training problem, we mean the splendid cooperation of both management and
labor with our program.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7661
Statistical Report, Vocational Education Program For National
Defense
by detroit board of education
Period of Aug. 1 to Aug. 31, 1941
PLAN I. PREEMPLOYMENT
Subject
Machine-tool operation
Metal bench work
Airplane wing construction...
Aero mechanics
Foundry
Welding
Drafting
Number
of
classes
Number
of train-
ees in
class as
of Aug. 31
891
235
281
18
23
114
74
Subject
Sheet metal
Metal forming
Aero riveting
\ircralt welding
Inspection techniquei
Total... _
Number
of
classes
Number
of train-
ees in
class as
of Aug. 31
34
11
56
44
33
1,814
PLAN I. SUPPLEMENTARY
Machine-tool inspection
Welding
Metal bench work
Driver mechanics (Army).
Diesel engines
Army ofHce practice
Aviation engines
Pipe welding
Aero construction
Electric power wiring
Machine-tool operation
Shop math
Radio
Sheet metal
Aircraft drafting and layout
1
64
5
2
8
2
U
2
2
4
172
19
1
2
1
15
1, 336
105
29
156
32
195
39
41
110
4,123
423
24
45
15
Aircraft layout
Aero mechanics
Blueprint reading
Drafting
Electricity and magnetism
(Army)
Inspection techniques
Aircraft welding ..
Aero riveting
Steam engineering
Machinist's mates (Navy)._
Metalsm iths (Navy)
Total
438
45
18
1,188
367
41
242
109
556
11
483
172
9,920
PLAN I. NATIONAL YOUTH ADMINISTRATION, DEFENSE TRAINING
Machine shop
Welding
Blacksmith and heat treating
Sheet metal
Aviation engines
Woodworking manipulations
329
135
22
73
16
Aero riveting
Aero construction
Auto mechanics..
Total
755
PLAN III. NATIONAL YOUTH ADMINISTRATION ,
Drafting
Office machines practice
Clothing construction
Shorthand and office practice
Typing
General clerical practice
Typing and general clerical
practice
17
69
65
18
14
18
110
Machine-tool operation.
Auto mechanics
Training for retail jobs
Commercial sign work.
Laboratory technique. .
Home hygiene
Total.
TOTAL PROGRAM CLASSES AND ENROLLMENT AS OF AUG. 31, 1941
Type of plan
Number
of
classes
Total
number
of
trainees
Number
of Negro
trainees
Number of
Work Pro-
jects Ad-
ministration
trainees
Number of
Michigan
State Em-
ployment
Service
trainees
Plan I:
(a) Preemployment
(b) Supplementary
(c) National Youth Administration de-
fense training
Plan III:
(a) National Youth Administration
Total
438
26
25
1,814
9,920
755
476
266
228
167
139
994
578
12, 965
800
820
7662 DETROIT HEARINGS
Peak enrollment for all classes period of Aug. 1 to 31, ]9/fl
Plan I. enrollment of Aug. 31, 1941 12, 489
Plan III, enrollment of Aug. 31, 1941 476
Training concluded (Aug. 1 to 31, 1941) 4, 214
Peak enrollment 17, 179
' Board of Education,
Detroit, Mich., September 24, 1941.
Mr. John W. Abbott,
Chief Field Investigator,
House Committee Investigating National Defense Migration,
Detroit, Mich.
(Attention Mr. Riley.)
Dear Mr. Abbott: While attending your meeting of September 24, 1941, in
the Federal Building, Detroit, Mich., I understood Lieutenant Commander Eade
to say in his testimony that he was only familiar with the Briggs Manufacturing
Co. training set up for aircraft work.
I believe you should be informed as to the relationship between the vocational
education program for national defense, Detroit Board of Education, and the
Briggs Manufacturing Co.
On September 19, 1940, a class was started through the cooperation of Mr.
Henry Roesch, industrial relations director, and the Detroit Board of Education.
The Detroit Board of Education loaned the building facilities, and partial equip-
ment, such as benches, sheet-metal brake, and shear. Briggs Manufacturing
purchased and loaned to the national-defense program such equipment as vises,
electric drills, air hammers, rivet sets, heat-treating furnace, etc. The Briggs
Manufacturing Co. assigned men on their pay roll who had been trained in plants
in the eastern and western parts of the United States to assist our teachers in the
correct procedures for doing aircraft operations. At that time Briggs Manufacturing
selected approximately 35 men from their plant and continued the men on their
pav roll during training. After about f) weeks of shop work many of the individuals
were selected and sent to an eastern aircraft plant for further training. I under-
stand these men later became foremen within the plant.
Classes were operated 24 hours a day, in shifts of 6 hours. Trainees were
selected from Work Projects Administration rolls, after Work Projects Adminis-
tration officials had carefully interviewed each individual. Michigan State
Employment Service recommended many other men who were trained 300 clock
hours.
Shortly after starting one room in the Carstens school, the demand for training
was so great that one additional shop was opened and one lecture room. This
was followed by the opening of two shops and one lecture room at Commerce
High School. Again demand necessitated the opening of two additional shops at
Aero Mechanics School, and the Vend School with a capacity of 250 training
.stations. All facilities mentioned so far have been in addition to equipment at
Cass Technical High School.
Aircraft training shops operate 24 hours a day. Preemployment f'lasses
declined after a period of time due to lack of trainees. At this period of training
we received requests from Murray Manufacturing, Briggs Manufacturing, and
Hudson Motor Car Co. for conversion training. The companies mentioned,
selected men employed by them to whom they suggested that they take a con-
version training course in aircraft riveting. Labor assisted in selecting men on a
senioritv basis. The men from the companies were informed th.ere vas a possi-
bility they might be laid off, however, if they could do aircraft work, tbey would
be the first assigned to that employment when the departments opened tor pro-
duction. The conversion training program is now operating 7 days a week for
the above-mentioned companies.
In regard to Briggs Training Within Industrv School; Mr. Henry Roesch, in
charge of the school has mentioned that when the companv hires men ^\ho 1 ave
been training on the vocational education program for national defense they are
given a test job to check their ability. After the check has been made, the men
are assigned actual aircraft jobs from which thev are later transferred to the
production line. Mr. Roesch was asked where he thought the men on the present
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7663
production line come from, and his remark was that 95 percent had been trained
on the vocational education program for national defense in the foregoing facil-
ities made available by the Detroit Board of Education and in cooperation with
the State board of control for vocational education, who purchased the majority
of the equipment on the national defense training program.
May we also take this occasion to call to your attention our formal report
submitted on September 12 which relates a general program in this and kindred
activities. Attention is also called to our supplementary report pursuant to your
recent letter of September 18 answering a question regarding our technique in
conversion training.
Yours ver3^ truly,
(Signed) Warren E. Bow,
Deputy Superintendent.
Exhibit 17. — Priorities Unemployment and Need in Detroit*
report by labor division, work projects administration, federal works
agency, washington, d. c.
September 26, 1941.
More than three-fourths of the total employment in the automobile industry
in the Nation is concentrated in Michigan, and three-fourths of the workers em-
ployed in the industry in Michigan are in Wayne County (Detroit). Thus,
Detroit will be especially hard hit by the drastic curtailment of automobile
production. Local estimates indicate that net unemplovment for the area will
reach 30,000-40,000 by December, and may reach 60,000-80,000 by the end of
January 1942. The unemployed will not be absorbed by the expansion of defense
employment before the summer of 1942 at the earliest.
Automotive employment in the Detroit area totaled about 280,000 in May 1941
before the seasonal reductions this summer. An industry-wide quota of 200,000
units per month, a reduction of 48.4 percent from the rate of production during
the 1941 model year, has been established for December 1941. According to
estimates prepared by the Michigan Unemployment Compensation Commission,
tills quota will cause a decline in nondefense automotive employment from the
May peak of approximately 75,000 by December, and more than 112,000 by
January 1942. The losses in employment will be only partially offset by estimated
over-all increases in defense employment of 45,000 and 55,000 by November 30,
1941, and January 31, 1942, respectively. It is further expected that the cut in
automobile employment will be accompanied by the loss of at least 20,000 jobs
in the nonmanufacturing services and trades by January 1942. Thus, net losses
in employment in the Detroit area will total 30,000-40,000 jobs in December 1941
and may reach 60,000-80,000 by the end of January 1942.
These estimates assume the continuance of the 40-hour week. Even with the
32-hour week, which some manufacturers think would not be feasible on an in-
dustry-wide basis, the net increase in unemployment, on the basis of current
estimates, will total 30,000-40,000 in January 1942.
EMPLOYMENT TRENDS AFTER JANUARY 1941
Estimates of employment trends after January 1942 are less definite. If a
further cut to 25 percent of 1941 production is ordered, a step which some local
sources anticipate, an additional 35,000-50,000 workers will be thrown out of
work in Detroit. Estimates of defense employment based on present contract
figures indicate that even if no further curtailment of consumer production is
required the unemployed will not be absorbed before the late summer of 1942.
If additional cuts are made in automobile production the jobless will not be reab-
sorbed before the beginning of 1943.
During the past 12 months employment in the manufacturing industries in
Detroit, particularly in the automobile industry, has been steadier than in previous
years. Extensive seasonal lay-offs did not begin this year until the middle of
1 A paper on Priorities Unemployment and Need in Michigan, from the same source, appears in this
volume as E.xhibit 9, p. 7585.
60396— 41— pt. 18 39
7664
DETROIT HEARINGS
Julj". Between July and August it is estimated by the Detroit Board of Com-
merce that 95,000 automobile workers were laid off. About 50,000 of these
workers were still unemployed on September 1. As the new model season was
well under way by this time at a level 26.5 percent below the previous year, most
of these workers had little prospect of being reemployed in the industry. No
additional lay-offs of any appreciable size are expected until the 48-percent cur-
tailment order goes into effect in December. This will involve loss of jobs for
another 25,000 workers.
The Michigan Unemployment Compensation Commission has estimated that
80 percent of the employed automobile workers will be eligible for unemployment-
compensation benefits. On this basis, of the 112,000 automobile workers who are
expected to lose their jobs by January 1942, some 20,000-25,000 will not be eligible
for unemployment compensation. According to the State social welfare com-
mission, from 10,000 to 15,000 of those ineligible for unemployment compensation
will apply almost immediately for relief or Work Projects Administration employ-
ment.
Local relief and Work Projects Administration officials in Detroit anticipate a
gradual increase in need for the remainder of this fiscal year with probable spurts
in December 1941 and January 1942 and again in March-April 1942. Since many
workers dropped in July and August during the seasonal shut-down have not been
rehired, unemployment-compensation benefits for those in this group who remain
unemployed will be exhausted by DecemVjer. Together with the usual seasonal
increase in need this factor will place a greater burden on the local relief program
at that time and will substantially increase the need for Work Projects Adminis-
tration employment. The majority of the workers laid off in December and Jan-
uary, if not aiasorbed in other industries, will exhaust their benefits and begin to
apply for relief and Work Projects Administration in March and April 1942.
The trend away from Work Projects Administration and general relief which has
continued quite consistently during the past year has already been reversed. Sep-
arations for private employment have declined steadily in recent months and
applications for both direct relief and Work Projects Administration employment
have started to move upward, particularly during the latter part of August and
the first w^eek in September. Increases thus far reported have been small, how-
ever. The Wayne County relief load on September 5, 1941, showed a small in-
crease for the third successive week. On that date it numbered 12,747 cases,
about 10,000 less than a year ago. Work Projects Administration employment
in Wayne County on September 3, 1941, was 11,556 compared with 26,916 a year
ago. If present estimates of unemployment are accurate, and all of the needy
applicants are cared for, the Wayne County relief load should increase to double
its present size by early 1942. Since the relief agency makes a practice of imme-
diately certifying all employable cases to Work Projects Administration, there
should be a corresponding increase in the number of persons eligible for Work
Projects Administration employment.
ACTIVE REGISTRATIONS, WAYNE COUNTY
Active registrations at the Wayne County office of the State employment
service in late August 1941 numbered approximately 60,000, of which one-third
had training or experience in manufacturing occupations. Except for near short-
ages among a few highly skilled occupations, the supply of labor even during peak
employment periods has been more than adequate to meet all the needs of in-
dustry. As a result there has been little tendency for employers to relax their
hiring specifications relating to age, color, citizenship, or sex for any but the most
highly skilled occupations, and then only in terms of age.
Furthermore, the State employment service figures show that the influx of
workers from other areas in Michigan, particularly from the Upper Peninsula and
the northern cut-over area of the Lower Peninsula, and from other States is con-
tinuing. During July, 30 percent of the 12,000 new applications in Detroit were
from workers last employed outside the Detroit area. This is the highest pro-
portion of nonlocal registrations in the last 12 months and compares with ratios
ranging from 17 to 26 percent in preceding months.
It is universally agreed that the problem of retraining is crucial in Detroit and
that the retraining program will have to be substantially expanded to facilitate
the transfer of nondefense workers to defense production. Many of the auto
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7665
workers will need retraining before they can be accepted in defense jobs. Con-
cern has been expressed that the Work Projects Administration, because of its
reduced employment quotas, will not be able to expand its training program
sufficiently to meet retraining needs.
Up to August 27, 1941, 7,383 Work Projects Administration workers have been
employed in the defense-training program in Wayne County. Of this number
1,144 are still in training. Placements in private employment from the training
program have been considered highly satisfactory. Of those not now enrolled
2,680, or 43 percent, are known to have found jobs, and it is believed that most
of the 1,033 trainees who left Work Projects Administration without stating a
reason also secured employment.
In general, the employment situation in Detroit threatens to become critical.
Local informed opinion agrees that all the conditions are present for the creation
of a slump which may not be overcome for a period of 6 to 12 months. Although
unemployment-compensation benefits may, for a time, meet the needs of many
of those who will be rendered jobless in the next 6 months, a substantial number
will also be forced to seek aid from the general relief program and from Work
Projects Administration. In this event present Work Projects Administration
employment quotas will be entirely inadequate to meet the situation.
Exhibit 18. — Automobile Manufacture and the National
Defense Program
REPORT BY WILLIAM J. CRONIN, SECRETARY, MANUFACTURERS' COMMITTEE, AUTO-
MOBILE manufacturers' association, DETROIT, MICH.
September 17, 1941.
The whole-hearted cooperation of the members of the automobile industry
with the defense program from the very beginning was first reflected in associa-
tion action at the meeting of our board of directors held in New York on October
15, 1940, at which the attached resolution was adopted subordinating normal
industry activity to defense needs. ^ This led to the establishment of the auto-
motive committee for air defense at the request of the Office of Production Man-
agement and the United States Air Corps. It is evidenced further by the indus-
try's willing acceptance of the Office of Production Management program for
the curtailment of automobile production, by its abandonment of the automobile
show this year and intention to omit new models for 1943, by its program for the
conservation of scarce materials needed for defense, as well as by the heavy
burden of armament production assumed by its members.
By the enclosed recommendation to members adopted by the board of directors
of this association at their last meeting our board pointed to defense production
as the industry's first objective, urged members to expedite employment of auto-
mobile workers on defense work and, on the basis of conditions ii^ each plant and
community, to cooperate in protection of the seniority status of workers in the
movement from noudefense to defense employment.
Resolution Adopted by Board op Directors, Automobile Manufacturers
Association
September 8, 1941.
The board of directors of the automobile manufacturers association has received
proposals advanced to expedite the employment of automobile workers on defense
assignments. The association cannot commit its member companies. However,
recognizing that defense work is the indu.stry's first objective, the board recom-
mends that the individual companies take practical measures for expediting such
employment in order to aid both the defense program and the automobile worker.
Consideration of the subject discloses that problems which will be encountered
differ materially from community to community, and between individual plants.
• The text of this resolution appears in material submitted by C. E. Wilson, president of Genera!
Motors Corporation, as Exhibit B, p. 7347.
7666
DETROIT HEARINGS
The board believes, therefore, that such programs should be developed in their
details locally.
The board urges individual companies to cooperate in working out, on the
basis of conditions in the plant and the community, measures for effective recog-
nition and protection of the seniority status of workers in the movement from
nondefense work to defense work.
Exhibit 19.
-Employment in Airplane Parts Division of
Automobile Parts Factory
report by h. j. roesch, director industrial. relations, briggs
manufacturing co., detroit, mich.
September 16, 1941.
Our employment figures for the past 12 months are listed on the attached sheet
under the heading "Defense and Nondefense Work."
A forecast of employment figures on defense work for the next 12 months, as
far as can be ascertained from the best information available at this time, is as
follows:
September 1941 447
October 311
November 326
December 308
.January 1942 235
February 448
March 356
April 220
May 385
June 250
.July 100
August 96
The figures given above are additions to our employment on defense work as of
August 1941 when we had approximately 2,100 on the pay roll. We cannot
forecast nondefense employment at this time.
Some of the technical problems arising in the conversion from civihan to defense
production are as follows:
The only types of equipment that are nonspecialized in our body plants are:
Stationary spot welders, stamping presses which are used in the drawing and
forming of body stampings, shears used to cut sheet stock to sizes, and metal
band saws used to cut parts which cannot readily be formed by dies.
The balance of our equipment, which consists mainly of conveyors which are
designed specifically for pleasure car body construction, portable welders similarly
specialized, and paint spray booths and ovens also designed specifically for
pleasure car body construction.
Should we receive defense orders which would make it possible for us to use
this equipment, it would be necessary to rebuild, in the main, all of this specialized
equipment so that we could carry on mass production on any new item. This
would entail the dismantling of conveyors which are on practically every foot of
floor space in our various productive departments. You can readily see that
dismantling a plant in this manner would take a great deal of time, and that the
engineering on any new job which would come into this type of plant would also
take a considerable length of time. It means also that the bulk of our employees
would have to be unemployed until the transition was completed. There would
be many months of unemployment resulting from such a move. Further, another
technical problem arising in conversion from civilian to defense work would be a
retraining of our personnel to carry on with new jobs.
The time element involved in retraining men would necessarily depend on the
relationship between the defense job and the nondefense job, by which is meant
that it would depend largely on the type of construction, materials used, and also
on the hand tools to be used.
At the present time we are actively engaged in enlarging a training program
which has been developed in our plant since July 1 of this year. It is expected
that this training program will be in full force by December 1, 1941, at which
time we will have 300 trainees on each of 3 shifts, or a total of 900 trainees each
24 hours. It is expected that the average length of time necessary to train a
man in aircraft assembly work in our aircraft division will be approximately 300
hours per man. At this time we are about to start training men who have been
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7667
employed in our nondefense plants, which will entail intensive instruction and in
many instances the eliminating of practices which these men have carried on in
our nondefense work for many years.
For instance, the care and handling of aluminum parts is a big factor in the
elimination of waste aluminum. Where a man has formerly worked with steel
he has developed some practices which cannot be tolerated in the fabrication of
aluminum, such as hitting the fabricated part with a hammer, which is permissible
on steel but not on aluminum.
This appears at first glance to be a very minor point, however, when you con-
sider the years of experience involved in training the man on fabrication and
assembly of steel automobile parts, it can be seen that the transition from one
type of work to another will have to be given special attention to eliminate waste.
Then again there is the problem of teaching the men more of the theory of
their trade than was necessary in highly specialized automobile work where the
operations were designed for mass production is one of the factors which has not
been thoroughly covered in the production of aircraft parts.
Defense and nondefense work — eviTployment for past 12 months
August 1940
September 1940
October 1940.. .
November 1940
December 1940.
January 1941__.
Nondefense
Defense
10, 681
6
15, 894
34
17, 155
99
17, 883
477
17, 850
582
17, 522
865
February 1941
March 1941.. _
April 1941
May 1941
June 1941
July 1941
Nondefense
17, 672
17, 652
17, 439
18, 404
18, 586
17, 136
Defense
1,036
1,252
1,486
1,392
1,460
1,699
Exhibit 20. — Defense Employment in Automotive and Refriger-
ator Plants
report by lewis d. burch, industrial relations, nash-kelvinator corpo-
ration, detroit, mich.
September 24, 1941.
Attached are some sheets showing employment for both defense and nondefense
in all the Nash-Kelvinator plants for the past year and also a forecast for the
7 months including September 1941.
As to the use of nondefense workers on new defense projects, we have done this
as much as possible in the past. For example, in the Racine trailer plant the em-
ployees used there were 87 percent from the Kenosha plant.
Hourly pay roll for Kelvinator division employees at Detroit, Mich., engaged in
manufacturing domestic and commercial refrigeration equipment and defense
products
Nondefense
Defense
Nondefense
Defense
August 1940
1,637
1,139
1,311
1,572
1,786
1,901
0
0
0
0
0
0
February 1941
2,059
2,235
2,333
2,415
2,406
2,240
0
September 1940
March 1941 . -
0
October 1940 ... .
April 1941
0
November 1940. .. . ...
May 1941
0
December 1940..
June 1941 . ..
0
January 1941
July 1941
0
FORECAST FOR THE NEXT 7 MONTHS
September 1941
October 1941_^.
November 1941
December 1941.
1,900
6
1,900
25
1,900
50
1,200
150
January 1942. .
February 1942
March 1942..-
1,200
1,200
1,200
500
650
650
7668
DETROIT HEARINGS
Hourly pay roll for the \ash plant at Kenosha, Wis., manufacturing passenger-car
automobiles and certain defense parts
August 1940..-.
September 1940
October 1940 ..
November 1940
December 1940.
January 1941...
Nondefense
1,585
2,367
3,896
3,931
3,776
2,772
Defense
February 1941
March
April 1941
May 1941
June 1941
July 1941
Nondefense
3,037
3,127
3,320
3,302
2,964
1,320
Defense
FORECAST FOR THE NEXT 7 MONTHS
September 1941
October 1941...
November 1941
December 1941.
2,494
2,400
2,400
1.700
120
50
50
100
January 1942.
February 1942
March 1942...
1,400
1,050
1,050
100
100
100
Hourly pay roll for Leonard division. Grand Rapids, Mich., manufacturing stoves
and refrigerator cabinets
August 1940
September 1940
October 1940....
November 1940
December 1940.
January 1941...
Nondefense
2,351
672
1,748
2,314
2,456.
2,812
Defense
February 1941
March 1941.-.
April 1941
May 1941
June 1941
July 1941
Nondefense
2,930
2,953
3,007
3,197
3,351
3,065
Defense
FORECAST FOR THE NEXT 7 MONTHS
September 1941
October 1941...
November 1941
December 1941.
2,365
2,365
2,365
1,600
January 1942..
February 1942
March 1942..
1,600
1,600
1,600
Hourly pay roll for Seaman body division, Milwaukee, Wis., mamifacturing bodies
for Nash automobiles
-■\.ugust 1940..-
September 1940
October
November 1940
December 1940.
January 1941—.
Nondefense
962
2,258
3,551
3,245
3,101
2,955
Defense
February 1941
March 1941...
April 1941
May 1941
June 1941
Julv 1941
Nondefense
FORECAST FOR THE NEXT 7 MONTHS
September 1941
October 1941...
November 1941
December 1941.
2,500
2.500
2,500
1,800
January 1942.
February 1942
March 1942..
2,732
2,872
3,166
3,198
2,897
508
Defense
1,600
1,600
1,600
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7669
Hourly pay roll for Wisconsin national-defense division at Racine, Wis., manu-
facturing trailers for the U. S. Army
Nondefense
Defense
Nondefense
Defense
August 1940
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
February 1941
0
0
0
0
0
0
12
130
286
254
240
September 1940
March 1941
October 1940 _._ ...
April 1941
November 1940
May 1941
December 1940
June 1941
January 1941
July 1941
244
FORECAST FOR THE NEXT 7 MONTHS
September 1941
October 1941...
November 1941
December 1941.
244
50
0
0
January 1942..
February 1942
March 1942.. _
Hourly pay roll for propeller division, Nash-Kelvinator Corporation, Lansing, Mich.,
to he engaged in manufacturing propellers for airplanes
August 1940
September 1940
October 1940...
November 1940
December 1940.
January 1941 . . .
Nondefense
Defense
February 1941
March 1941...
April 1941
May 1941
June 1941
July 1941
Nondefense
Defense
FORECAST FOR THE NEXT 7 MONTHS
September 1941
October 1941...
November 1941
December 1941.
10
100
250
500
January 1942.
February 1942
March 1942...
1,000
1,500
2,000
7670 DETROIT HEARINGS
Exhibit 21. — Denial of Employment to Aliens
report by florence g. cassidy, secretary, nationality committee, council
of social agencies of metropolitan detroit
September 20, 1941.
I am particularly concerned about the problems of overcrowding of housing
facilities and schools caused by the coming to Detroit of migratory workers to
take jobs which might possibly be filled b}^ local workers. A case in point has
been the unwillingness of employers to employ aliens even when there was not a
specific statutory prohibition of their emplo.yment. In other words, in some
instances the employer has gone further than the law demands in denying employ-
ment to aliens with mechanical skills. When such aliens are persons of un-
questioned loyalty to the Ignited States and when their lack of employment means
a lack of good local defense workers, a somewhat serious problem is created.
Exhibit 22 — Effect of National Defense on Negro Employ-
ment IN Detroit
report by GLOSTER B. current, executive secretary, DETROIT BRANCH,
national association for the advancement of colored people
September 15, 1941.
Since the establishment of the national-defense program, Negroes, as a whole
have been fighting for an equitable share in manning the industries vital to the
Nation's defense. Industrial expansion and absorption of labor into national-
defense industries found the Negro laborer in Detroit faced with the same dilem-
ma— "last hired, first fired." The advent of new industries and the curtailment
of certain types of civilian production, coupled with reclassification of employees
and training program designed to create a skilled-labor supply for new operations,
has not materially aided the Negro workman. A number of organizations and
agencies are trying to work out solutions for Negro-employment problems.
However, the difficulty faced by all is the same: Lack of accurate information and
statistics.
EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING
The Tolan committee, investigating national-defense migration and the efl'ect
of the movement of people on community facilities, asked the Detroit branch of
the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to write a paper
for its public record covering the following points:
1. A compilation of Negroes employed in defense and nondefense plants in the
Detroit area, tabulated to occupational classifications.
2. A compilation of Negroes enrolled in national-defense training courses.
Negroes employed in defense and nondefense plants. — Total figures on the number
of Negroes employed in defense and nondefense plants in the Detroit area are not
available. Plants are reluctant to release information showing an occupational
break-down of employees according to race. Even the State employment service
experiences difficulty in compiling information relative to Negro placements in
industry. Cooperation with the President's memorandum to the Office of Produc-
tion Management in June 1941, which stated: "Government cannot countenance
continued discrimination against American citizens in defense produc-
tion * * *," is difficult to obtain. His exhortation to industry to "open"
the doors of employment to all loyal and qualified workers regardless to race,
national origin, religion, or color, still goes unheeded by many industries with
large defense contracts.
In a letter from Mrs. Geraldine Bledsoe, supervisor of Negro placements for
the Michigan State Emplojaiient Service, we learn that figures are only available
for a few of the major industries. Mrs. Bledsoe states: "As to the total number
of Negroes now employed in Detroit industries, we can only give results of a check-
up that our field service made of a quite inclusive list of local industries, although
we did not get figures on all of this list. Figures were received for 57 industries
employing a total of 21,099 Negroes."
From another source we learn that 29 industries employ 12,214 Negroes. Of
these the Ford Motor Co. and the Packard Motor Co. account for 11,560. Inci-
dentally, the two aforementioned auto manufacturers have, in the past, made
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7671
definite efforts to employ Negroes in skilled and semiskilled classifications.
Because of the divergence' of sources, it is impossible to draw comparisons from
the totals mentioned.
DISCRIMINATION
When we look at the estimated employment needs as mentioned in table I
(44,794) the outlook for Negro employment should be hopeful. Yet, in actual
practice, that is not the case Local employers constantly overlook available labor
supply and will not consider Negroes in skilled occupations.
Examples of discrimination. — The Briggs Manufacturing Co. has flagrantly vio-
lated the President's Executive order by refusing to employ Negroes in the aviation
plant. In the Detroit Free Press for September 10, 1941, there appeared an
article stating the results of the company's efforts to reach mass production on
$40,000,000 worth of airplane assemblies. Mr. Robert Perry, Free Press auto-
motive editor, cites figures to show that "More than 3,000 men are now at work,
in addition to 400 apprentices in a training school in the same building. The
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, in a press release for
September 13, 1941, brought out the fact: "Although the Briggs Manufacturmg
Co. here wants all the riveters they can get, three affidavits sent to the President's
Committee on Fair Employment Practice in the last 2 weeks charge the company
with refusing to emplov Negro workers."
On July 11, 1941, James Douglass, who completed a training course sponsored
by the board of education, received the following telegram:
1941, July 11— P. M. 12:49.
"James Douglass,
657 Medbury — Detroit;
"If unemployed report Conner plant Friday a. m. for interview.
"Briggs Mfg. Co. Conner Plant,
"Streeter."
When Douglass went to the company for his interview he was informed that
"There must be some mistake." . .
There are numerous "incidents" of similar cases reported to the association.
In some instances, plants like Ford's, who in the past had a reputation for fair
emplovment practices, are hesitant to absorb Negro skilled workmen into defense
industries. Skilled workmen have reported that applications for transfers to
the Ford aircraft factory have not been honored, whereas white workers with equal
seniority have been placed.
An employee of the Dodge truck plant reported to the association that there
have been no Negroes hired in the plant since 1937. The Negroes who are working
in this plant have not been promoted according to seniority, whereas white
workers have been promoted to jobs of higher classification and pay.
The employment service reports that "The scarcity of workers available for
employment in defense occupations, together with the general tightening of the
labor market, has resulted in a continued relaxation of employer specifications as
to color, age limits, and physical requirements." ^
This relaxation has resulted in an increased number of employment-service
placements of colored workers. On the other hand, there are complaints regis-
tered against the employment service that it tends to shy from breaking down
barriers. Many national-defense trainees have reported to the association that
they have been sent on car-washing jobs and to other menial jobs by the employ-
ment service. • ■ +•
Negro ■participation in national-defense training. — The amount of participation
of the Negro in the vocational-education program for national defense has not
been very large. ' However, in view of the relatively small number of placements
of trainees, it is no small wonder that Negroes must, of necessity, prepare for occu-
pations that are now closed to them. Mr. Ernest Marshall, supervisor of guidance
for vocational training for national defense, has worked diligently trying to interest
Negro youth in training for jobs in industry. One of his most difficult problems
was convincing youth that placements would come as the result of training.
Always before them lay the examples of friends who had completed training courses
but had not been placed.
Table I shows that of 2,476 Negro trainees enrolled in classes from February
16 to July 31, 1941, 124 are reported to have left the program to enter employment.
Of this number, there are only 31 known placements as the result of training.
Approximately one-third (734) of the total enrolling in the program are still
1 state Employment Service— Labor Market Bulletin.
7672 DETROIT HEARINGS
unplaced in industry and constitute a reservoir of skilled and semiskilled Negro
labor. The association maintains that this reservoir should be tapped before
outside labor is brought into Detroit.
Table I. — Negro participation in the vocational-educational program for national
defense
Number of Negro trainees enrolled in classes from Feb. 16 tc July 31, 1941 _ 2, 476
Reported left program to enter employment 124
Known placements as a result of training 31
Completed training, not reported placed 734
Number enrolled in classes July 31, 1941 679
Preemployment 319
Supplementary 137
National Youth Administration defense training 77
National Youth Administration 146
Training within industry. — One of the most important phases of the industrial
defense program is the training within industry. The Training Within Industry
Labor Division of the Office of Production Management could not supply us with
any break-down relative to Negro participation in this program. However,
personal contacts with the personnel managers of several large plants reveal that
men are "requisitioned," to quote the words of one manager, for training in specific
operations in new defense plants.
The requisitioning process works to the disadvantage of the Negro laborer.
On the basis of seniority and basic skills, men are brought into the training pro-
gram of some plants and thus guaranteed employment. But, due to a peculiar
interpretation of "seniority," the Negro is effectively barred from the training
program. Moreover, reclassification of operations which employ Negroes in some
plants has resulted in colored workers not being able to qualify as possessing
basic skill necessary for inclusion in the training program. In one instance, we
asked the personnel manager what would be the reaction of his company to Negroes
who could not qualify for training within the industry to enroll outside in courses
offered by the vocational education program. He blandly stated that: "There is
no chance for the Negro in defense industry unless a large number of defense con-
tracts are forthcoming which will use up all available supplies of skilled labor."
By "available supply" and "skilled labor," we deduce that he and many other
manufacturers mean labor other than Negro labor.
CONCLUSION
Through effective control methods and prejudice, national-defense industries
are preventing Negro labor from receiving an equitable share of defense employ-
ment. The change-over that is going on in the auto industry is not, at present,
giving the Negro laborer the same chance for absorption into defense industries
as is afforded the white worker. Training within industry is not open, in many
instances to Negroes because of seniority and need of basic skills. Employers
are unwilling to grant promotions to colored workers, or allow them to replace
white workers in jobs of higher classifications who have been transferred to
national-defense operations.
Trained Negro labor is not being utilized. The National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People has certified many cases to the Fair Employment
Practice Committee for investigation of industrial discrimination. We hope that
by waging a constant fight for alleviation of these practices to gain for all workers,
regardless of race, creed, or color, the opportunity to share equally in national
defense through participation in Detroit's industrial program.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
Table II.- — Occupational break-down of 29 defense industries
7673
Skilled
men
Semi-
skilled
men
Unskilled
men
Women
Negroes
Employ-
ment
need
Company—
ji
170
60
170
20
85
5
29
3
90
712
2
25
3
0
900
0
0
20
612
6
450
14
25
2
0
0
10
0
10
0
0
0
600
B -
100
10
D
3. 022
20
60
125
1,000
2,000
900
30
90
1,355
1,262
300
15
45
113
250
250
40
16. 677
206
87
65
320
260
800
78
87
600
7,472
20
120
35
600
2,000
450
75
650
2,670
2.569
700
75
180
437
175
0
80
65, 830
49
58
225
20
90
6
300
1,000
400
180
110
3,598
1,354
560
3
6
1
0
50
0
0
23
133
183
20
0
14, 681
E
F .
100
G
20
H
I
500
J - . -.-
1,200
K
415
L
M
6,000
N -
1,100
0
200
60
0
40
175
0
60
5,267
10
0
25
O - . .
60
i """::/:"
0
0
0
4
11, 000
0
0
S --
700
6,500
u .
20
7,000
W.. --
275
0
Y
250
200
3,410
307
250
2,578
40
70
0
115
25
401
100
0
200
0
0
0
6
0
225
0
0
0
100
(A) ■--
1,000
3,400
(C) -
0
638
(E) -
150
Total -
133, 383
91,340
13, 636
3,214
12, 214
44, 794
Note.— 18 of the companies represented in the table do not employ Negroes. Yet estimated total em-
ployment needs of these plants is 11,673 men. The association maintains that local plants could easily
absorb all of the available skilled and semiskilled Negroes without difficulty if discrimmatory policies were
r6nioV6(i.
(The names of plants in table are omitted due to promise not to divulge the source of information.)
Exhibit 23. — Advertising in Detroit to Fill California Jobs
PAID NOTICE IN DETROIT NEWS, SEPTEMBER 9, 1941, BY MICHIGAN STATE EMPLOYMENT
SERVICE
ATTENTION!
Aircraft Jobs
San Diego, Calif.
Needed Immediately Automatic Screw Machine'Operator
Up to $1.15 per hour
Milling Machine Operators
Up to $1.15 per hour
The above men must have at least 2 years experience, be able to read blueprints
and set up own work.
Tool Makers
Up to $1.30 per hour. Must be experienced on small tools, jigs, and fixtures.
All machine operators, tool makers, and wood pattern makers must furnish
own tools and precision measuring instruments as required.
7674
DETROIT HEARINGS
Tool Designers
Capable of designing special tools and fixtures for
Up to $225 a month,
machine use.
Company has defense orders that guarantee at least 2 years solid work. Pres-
ent workweek is 50 hours, of which 10 hours is at IH times regular hour rate.
Extra bonus for night work. San Diego's Homes Registration Office will lend
assistance to you in finding suitable housing. Applicant's traveling expenses
will be refunded to him. Details in interview. You must be able to furnish
documentary proof of United States citizenship. Men presently employed in
defense industries will not be considered.
no fees charged
Michigan State Employment Service
112 East Jefferson Ave.
Phone Randolph 5925
Address Box 723, Detroit News
Exhibit 24. — National Defense in Plymouth, Mich.
report bt c. h. elliott, city manager, plymouth, mich.
September 4, 1941.
housing by industries
Below is a tabulation to show the percentage of employees in the various indus-
tries in and around Plymouth living within a radius of 5 miles of the industry;
those living between 5 and 10 miles; those living between 10 and 15 miles and
those'living more than 15 miles from their place of work. It is extremely inter-
esting to note that the larger percentage lives within the 5 miles radius.
Plymouth
5 miles
10 miles
15 miles
Over
Industry
Num-
ber
Per-
cent
Num-
ber
Per-
cent
Num-
ber
Per-
cent
Num-
ber
Per-
cent
Num-
ber
Per-
cent
Total
114
35
308
43
3
3
47
25
170
77
76
10
94
63
30
1
84
83
20
55
12
17
6
5
3
5
4
3
25
7
8
5
2
7
30
2
8
10
3
5
15
35
5
18
10
10
2
25
9
6
150
Burroughs Adding Machine Co..
Daisy Manufacturing Co
Dunn Steel Co -
263
75
350
6
4
4
2
5
60
325
70
10
16
97
24
Plymouth Tube Co
4
2
230
35
8
7
27
25
55
30
315
21
37
15
110
13
850
Wall Wire Co
140
Total ...
825
41.1
87
4.4
344
17.2
359
17.9
389
19.4
2,004
An attempt was made to estimate the number of nonresident employees of the
various industries. It is impossible to guarantee these figures. The information
was received by personal interviews with the employment manager in the various
concerns.
Industry
Allen industries
Burroughs Adding Machine Co
Daisy Manufacturing Co
Dunn Steel
Ilamilton Rifle
Plymouth Tool Gauge
Plymouth Tube Co
Plymouth Stamp Co -.
Kelsey Hayes Co
Wall Wire Co_
Nonresi-
dent
75
110
36
35
4
21
36
8
625
65
Percent
nonresi-
dent
0.50
.31
.11
.50
.25
.87
.65
.26
.73
.47
Percent out
of State
0.25
.20
.03
.35
.20
.55
.30
.16
.70
.38
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7675
AREAS AND POPULATION
The city of Plymouth was first incorporated as a village in 1867 by special
act of the legislature. No changes were made in the village charter until 1918,
at which time Plymouth became the fifth town in the State of Michigan to adopt
the commission-manager form of government. It still maintained its village
charter, however, until 1932. In May of that year, the village charter was
changed to a city charter under the commission-manager form of government.
Throughout the decades Plymouth has grown rather gradually until the present
time — there is a population of approximately 6,000 living in an area of 1.84 square
miles. The 1920 census of Plymouth was in the neighborhood of 2,800; the 1930
census 4, .500, and the 1940 census 5,360. Plymouth has grown from a strictly
agricultural commvmity and composed of retired farmers and the necessary service
employees to a town quite largely composed of the laboring element. It is true
that being seated in a beautiful setting close to a large city that we find a large
number of professional people residing here. Very few cities in the State can
possibly boast of as large a percentage of its population graduated from colleges
and universities. This is caused by the house of correction located within 3 miles
of the city, the Wayne County Training School located about the same distance,
the Wayne County road system and park system all employing technically trained
individuals who have found it advantageous to live in this proximity. The
contiguous area of Plymouth includes approximately 22 square miles and in this
area, together with the inhabitants of the city of Plymouth, there are 13,860 people
residing.
AVAILABLE BUILDING SITES
Within the city of Plymouth there are now available for building approximately
1,670 lots. These lots vary somewhat in size but would average 50 by 120..
The average assessed valuation of the vacant lots, excluding business and commer-
cial, is $140. Fully 75 percent of the lots have access to water and sewers. Around
the city there are 10 subdivisions which have an estimated number of available
lots in the amount of 7,000. Very few of these have access to water and sewer.
Many are able to have water by the old method of drilling wells. The city of
Plymouth is at all times ready at the will of the owner of property to lay water
mains and sewer mains in anticipation of building. We have followed a conserva-
tive policy in the past and shall continue to do so in the future, but when indi-
viduals are willing to build, the city will not shirk its duty.
VALUATIONS WITHIN THE CITY
Our assessor has made a detailed study to show the number of homes in the
city assessed under $1,000; those between $1,000 to $2,000, etc. The results of
his study are tabulated herein:
Dwellings in Plymouth corporate area
Assessed valuation, under $1,000 ._ _ 293
Assessed valuation, $1,000 to $2,000 '__'_'_ 806
Assessed valuation, .$2,000 to $5,000 270
Assessed valuation, $5,000 to $10,000 _______"" 26
Assessed valuation, $10,000 to $20,000 __^ 3
Total . 1, 39g
Assessed valuations, corporate area
Assessed valuation, 1941:
Buildings $3, 167, 200
Land $1^ 548,930
Total area assessed, square feet ' 51, 296, 256
Average assessment per square foot (land) '$0. 0302
The above table was completed in May when the city completed its assessment
roll.
RESTRICTIONS
Zoning. — Within the city of Plymouth a zoning ordinance was passed by the
commission which has been strictly adhered to. The zoning ordinance divides
the city into six districts.
There is inserted herewith a table to give briefly the various definitions of each
plat along with the number of square feet of area in the city and the percentage of
the total area.
7676 DETROIT HEARINGS
Class A: One- and two-family dwellings, churches and temples, public, parochial
schools, colleges, libraries, farming and truck gardening.
Class A: 39,873,831 square feet, 77.6 percent.
Class B. Any use permitted in A and apartment houses, hotels, private clubs,
fraternities and lodges, boarding and lodging houses, hospitals, institutions of an
educational, philanthropic, or eleemosynary nature, nurseries and greenhouses.
Class B. 6,639,375 square feet, 12.8 percent.
Local business: Any use permitted in A or B or for any other except building
material or contractors storage, lumber yards, etc.
Local business: 899,775 square feet, 1.7 percent.
Commercial district: Any use permitted in A, B, or local business, except
bakeries, bottling works, junk yards, coal yards, etc.
Commercial district: 1,323,675 square feet, 2.6 percent.
Industrial district: Any use permitted in A, B, local business, or commercial
except abattoirs, blast furnaces, coke ovens, etc.
Industrial district: 2,367,600 square feet, 4.6 percent.
Heavj' industrial district: Any use permitted within the provisions of any
ordinance regulating nuisances, odors, vibrations, etc.
Heav3' indu.strial district: 192,000 square feet, 0.7 percent.
PRIVATE RESTRICTIONS
The zoning ordinance in accordance with the State law zones for height, u.se,
and area. It cannot zone for valuation. However, a number of the subdivisions
in the city have provided subdivision restrictions which have made it mandatory
to group buildings fairh^ well. Approximately 28 percent of the citj^ is devoted
to small homes that would carry an assessed valuation of approximately $1,000
to $2,000; 55 percent of the citv is devoted to homes that could be built for
approximately $2,500 to $3,500; 13 percent would require homes $3,500 to $5,000,
and 4 percent to homes over $5,000. A home that would be built by a contractor
which would sell for approximately $5,000 would carry an assessment on our rolls
of approximately $3,200. Our average home today throughout the city is assessed
at approximately $2,500.
Outside the city approximately 63 percent of the area has some type of restric-
tions and 37 percent with no restriction whatsoever. We have endeavored in the
past year and one-half to cooperate with the township officials urging them to
adopt a zoning ordinance. We have not been successful thus far.
FURTHER RESTRICTIONS
The city of Plymouth has restricted properties further in that trailers and touri.st
homes and camps can be built only in a very small part of the city. The restric-
tions are rather stringent and to date no individual has seen it possible to inves-
tigate in such a camp. The city of Plymouth also restricts building in that all
types must conform to our building code. This building code was passed in 1930
and does not permit a great latitude in some of the newer materials on the market.
There are fnore stringent restrictions when building within the fire limits.
BUILDING PERMITS
We have listed below the number and amount of the building permits issued for
our fiscal year ending June 30, 1940, and June 30, 1941. One notes some increase
in the permits and the valuations. Most of the increase was due to developments
taking place in the last month or so of the fiscal year of 1941.
Building permits, 1940:
45 dwellings, reported value $201, 700
5 stores and business, reported value 54, 900
152 remodelings, repairs, and replacements, reported value 46, 798
Total 303,398
Building permits, 1941:
57 dwellings, reported value 248, 480
1 3 stores and business, reported valuefe 90, 000
Remodeling, repairs, and replacements 52, 133
Total 390,613
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7677
WATER SUPPLY
Undoubtedly the greatest service carried on by a municipality is the water that
it sells to its inhabitants. In 1890 the city of Plymouth developed a water supplj'
from springs located about 5 miles from the nearest point of its city limits. This
water supply has been most potable and satisfactory. The chemical analysis,
however, shows that the water is rather hard. At the present time, with the in-
crease in employment, new factories, and new homes, we are finding that the water
suppl}^ is close to the water demand. It is therefore necessary for the adminis-
tration to take immediate steps. We have been in touch with the State depart-
ment of health, the conservation department, and others, and expect within the
next month or two to drill test holes to obtain a larger water supply within the city
hmits. The information which has been made available to us indicates that there
should be plenty of water in our own back yard. It is interesting to note that the
average daily consumption in 1940 was 448,100 gallons. The average daily con-
sumption in 1941 (for 6 months only), 608,900 gallons. This is nearly a 30-percent
increase. On July 26, 1941, there was pumped 980,000 gallons. It is very doubt-
ful if our supply could furnish 980,000 gallons. The water supply problem, there-
fore, becomes the first major problem of our municipality.
RECREATION
The year round recreational program has been carried on in the last few years
jointly between the city of Plymouth and the board of education through a recrea-
tion committee. The program consists of basketball in the wintertime and is
composed of eight boys' teams of post-school age and four girls' teams of post-
school age in the evenings and eight junior high teams playing on Saturda3^ A
small admission charge is charged for the evening games. Badminton is also on
the program and an average of 28 to 36 participate in this program.
A summer recreational program is carried on under an athletic director, two paid
instructors, five recreational leaders on four playgrounds in the city. A daily
program of sports and handicraft for school-age children during the day and
evening program of softball for adults during the evening. The average cost of
this program would be around $800, borne jointly by the city and the board of
education.
Under conditions existing and expected to exist due to the incoming of the
workers in this area, the recreational program will need expansion. It has been
noticed that the lack of an adequate recreational program in other centers is
directly contributed to juvenile delinquency and in some cases to adult delin-
quency; and, under the conditions which will occur if a large population is migrated
into this area, these delinquencies will become more pronounced if our recreational
program is not expanded considerably.
Due to the proximity of the Wayne County Park system to Plymouth, North-
ville, and the contiguous area, recreational and picnic facilities for a vast additional
population is available and this phase of the migratory problem is perhaps the
only one not needing attention or expansion, as the Wayne County Park Board
and Road Commission have collaborated to build and develop 9 to 11 miles of
park around this area.
SCHOOLS
Plymouth has a fractional district including Plymouth proper and parts of
Plymouth and Northville townships with a total district area of about 12 square
miles and a population of approximately 6,500. The school census for 1940 was
1,835 and the number of pupils outside the district accommodated in the high
school was 424. The number of pupils from the outside district expected in 1941
is estimated to rise to around 600-650. The district consists of one high school and
two grade schools with 35 high-school classrooms and 28 grade classrooms. The
estimated additional space needed for the year 1941-42 is 10 to 15 more rooms.
The school personnel consists of 1 superintendent, 3 principals, 1 nurse and 70 in-
structors at the present time. And the estimated personnel needed and to be
added in 1941-42 is 5.
There is an increasing trend within the last few years toward special and voca-
tional training, but, however, not showing very much of a decrease in the classical
training. In other words, pupils are taking vocational and special training as
additional studies. The number of pupils taking vocations training in 1941-42
7^78 DETROIT HEARINGS
is estimated at 600 and the number of adults taking this same training, but in the
evening, is 40. The types of this training is industrial, manual arts, and home
economics. The types and number of machines available for this training are
metal lathes, 6; shapers, 3; milling machines, 1; surface grinders, 2; arc welder, 1;
drill press, 1; wood lathes, 3; band saw, 2; jointer, 1; circular saw, 1; jigsaws, 5.
In a conversation with the superintendent on the effect of the Selective Service
Act upon the availability of instructors, he inform.ed me that two out of five
were accepted and removed from the school list. However, it is not expected that
there will be any further losses. He also informed us that due to the effect of
increased industrial wages against instructor's salaries, two of his instructors were
lost to industry and there may be more if salaries get too far out of line with in-
creased living costs. However, there are no indications of dissatisfaction in the
immediate future.
FACTORIES AT PLYMOUTH
Distance of home from -plant
Factory
Total
employees
Less than
5 miles
6 to 10
miles
10 to 15
miles
15 or more
miles
Kelsey-Hayes
Daisy Manufacturing Co
Allen Industries
Wall Wire
Dunn Steel Products Co_
750
325
150
140
70
Percent
13
97
84
60
70
Percent
27
1
10
18
25
Percent
47
2
6
22
5
Percent
la
Exhibit 25. — Social Welfare in Wayne County
REPORT BY WALTER J. DUNNE, DIRECTOR, DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL WELFARE,.
WAYNE COUNTY, MICH.
Except for such Federal and State aid as is paid to the county of Wayne ta
partially meet the expense of the several welfare categories, the county is entirely
dependent for the administration of all departments and activities on a direct
tax on real and personal property and on such miscellaneous revenues as may be
earned as fees for services by the several county departments and institutions.
It should be pointed out in this connection that under section 20 of the constitu-
tion of the State of Michigan, "The total amount of taxes which may be assessed
against property for all purposes for any one year shall not exceed 1)4 percent of
the assessed valuation of such property." Under this constitutional provision,
therefore, the maximum which may be levied for the administration of all local
government, including county, township, village, and city, except where charter
provision prevails to the contrary, is $15 per $1,000 of the assessed vahiation.
In the current fiscal year Wayne County was allocated 5.55 mills of this 1.5-mill
limitation, and in the forthcoming fiscal year, the limitation allotted to Wayne
County remains at 5.55 mills. In the budget for the current fiscal year, the
maximum amount of tax was levied which could be raised under the 5.55-mill
allocation, and in the budget for 1941-42, which is now in the course of prepara-
tion, it is apparent that this maximum must again be levied. These facts are
pointed out in order to make it clear that the county of Wayne is at the present
time utilizing every available source of revenue to the maximum in order to meet
the existing requirements of county government.
Any unforeseen burden placed upon the county or the municipalities which it
includes will obviously create an emergency. Should this eiaiergency result from
the current influx of defense workers to this area, and the emergency develops
before the client has gained legal settlement, it is obvious that the county and its
municipalities would have to lo6k to the State and Federal Governments for
additional aid in solving the welfare problems so created. Equally, if the emer-
gency occurs after settlement has been acquired, a like problem is faced by the
citv of Detroit because of its legal responsibility for settled indigents.
in the fiscal year December 1939 to November 30, 1940, inclusive, the total
relief expended by the county government amounted to $1,671,711.28, of which
the State of Michigan contributed 50 percent. From February 1, to November
30, 1940, the nonsettled relief expended amounted to $619,587.18, of which the
State also contributed 50 percent. During the month of April 1940, wiiich was-
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7679
the peak case-load month, there was committed for nonsettled rehef the sum of
$79,351.45.
In addition to the above amounts for direct relief, Wayne County expended
$732,712.48 for supplementation to A. D. C. cases for the fiscal year December
1, 1939, to November 30, 1940.
Relief expenditures excluding administrative costs for period Dec. 1, 1940, to Aug.
SO, 1941 1
Appropria-
tions
Encum-
brances
outstanding
Expendi-
tures to date
Available
balance
Expenditures chargeable against appropria-
tions:
Net general relief cost of resident poor-out-
countv, 1940-41 --.
$500, 000. 00
425, 000. 00
650, 000. 00
158, 838. 32
$412. 42
2 $312, 200. 09
3 199, 668. 85
685, 297. 36
$187, 387. 49
Relief of nonresident poor, entire county
A. D. C. supplementation, entire county,-.
Transfers to general poor fund for care of
225, 331. 15
* 35, 297. 36
158, 838. 32
Total expenditures chargeable against
1, 733, 838. 32
412.42
1, 197, 166. 30
536, 259. 60
1 The county fiscal year ends Nov. 30.
2 This figure repre.=;ents net expenditures chargeable against county appropriations but excludes dis-
bursements chargeable against State reimbursements in the amount of $273,330.16.
3 This figure represents net expenditures chargeable against county appropriations but excludes disburse-
ments chargeable against State reimbursements in the amount of $157,248.65.
< Indicates debit balance.
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL WELFARE, ALL DISTRICTS
For purposes of comparison, this report has incorporate data of a similar nature
for the department of social welfare as a whole, and for the nonsettlement division
as a district. It was felt that the changes and fluctuations in the nonresident
case load could be analj^zed more correctly by such a presentation. Most of the
information is self-explanatory and to facilitate comparison and analysis, graphs
have been prepared.
Department of social welfare — all districts
Date
1940
May
June
July
August
September.
October
November..
December, .
Employ-
Unem-
able
ployable
cases
cases
2,771
1, 443
2,639
1,568
2,860
1,554
2,492
1,545
2,007
1,460
1,829
1,404
1,572
1,415
1,507
1,496
Total
case
load '
5,055
4,760
5,013
4,755
4,095
3,735
3, 586
3,485
Date
1941
January
February. _
March
April
May
June
July
August
Employ-
Unem-
able
ployable
cases
cases
1,715
1,422
1,721
1,413
1,540
1,378
1,353
1,432
1,030
1,369
882
1,239
819
1,172
877
1,148
Total
case
load '
3,627
3,561
3,366
3,207
2,749
2,357
2,179
2,210
1 It will be noted that the total of employables and unemployables does not equal the total case load.
The diflerence is accounted for by cases receiving supplementary relief to Work Projects Administration
and private employment.
60396—41 — pt. 18-
-40
7ggQ DETROIT HEARINGS
Industrial employment index, Detroit metropolitan area, 1923-25 monthly average
equals 100, as prepared by Detroit Board of Commerce
Month
1940
1941
Month
1940
1941
104.9
109.9
110.3
108.8
102.6
96.0
123.0
122.1
122. S
120.3
123.8
119.6
Julv
64.1
93.4
111.6
120.2
122.0
121.9
96.0
August
September
116.0
October
November - - -
December.. _. ..
Jul.
Sept
NATIONAL DEFB^NSE MIGRATION
Department of social welfare, all districts
7681
1940
May
June
July
August
September.
October
November..
December..
Cases
Cases
opened
closed
687
990
649
933
589
868
840
581
391
928
429
917
379
519
533
627
Applica-
tions re-
ceived
1,047
1,303
1,011
759
841
754
952
1941
January
February. -
March
April
May
June
July
August
Cases
Cases
opened
closed
585
450
458
554
384
599
412
570
264
764
246
583
285
473
332
315
Applica-
tions re-
ceived
1,128
805
666
807
547
521
702
July
Sept
TSt: 7w^ Tet. y„. Apr. „ey Juns j„iy Aus.
7682 DETROIT HEARINGS
Employables between ages of £1-45, inclusive, September 1941
Emjjloyable and in labor
market
Cases receiving relief sup-
plementary to Work Proj-
ects Administration
Employable but not in labor
market
Number
of cases
Number of
persons
Number
of cases
Other employ-
ables, excluding
Work Projects
Administration
employees
Number
of cases
Number of
persons
Male
Female
Male
Female
Male
Female
White --
104
97
68
53
43
48
23
16
3
1
7
172
74
7
1
169
Colored
73
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL WELFARE, NONSETTLEMENT DIVISION
The data for the Nonsettlement Division follow the plan used in the preceding
part. Additional information includes an analysis of the applications received
during July and August. Comparison of the applications-received data with
previous months was rendered impossible by changes instituted in compilation
of the data. For the same reason, critical analysis of the under care cases was
rendered difficult.
A survey of 1,085 under care cases taken as of May 9, 1941, revealed the follow-
ing information with respect to settlement:
Casef
Without settlement 345
Verified in-State 324
Pending out-State 202
Pending in-State 72
Pending in Detroit 103
Undetermined 6
Verified out-State 26
Detroit — verified , 7
To weigh the significance of this information, a 10-percent sampling was taken
of the under care case load for May 1940. The results were asfollows:
Cases^
Without settlement 81
Verified in-State 20
Pending-out-State _ 6
Pending in-State 5
Pending in Detroit 19
Undetermined 15
Verified out-State 25
Verified in Detroit 15
Total 186
For month 1, 860
The high percentage of the without settlement cases, for the major part, is the
result of two factors:
First, appropriations for direct aid to transients made under the Federal
Emergency Relief Administration Act; and, second, assignment of nonsettled
persons to the Work Projects Administration. In each instance, the person
lost their last settlement because of an absence exceeding 1 year, and failed to
acquire a new settlement since they were recipients of public aid.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7683
Department of social welfare — nonsettlement division
Employ-
able
cases
1940
May
June
July
August
September..
October
November. _
December. _
1,060
914
874
759
612
546
529
505
Unem-
ployable
cases
585
712
689
694
663
636
623
611
Total
case
loadi
1,857
1,761
1,786
1,691
1,507
1, 361
1,309
1,273
Date
1941
January
February...
March
April
May
June
July
August
Employ-
Unem-
Total
able
ployable
case
cases
cases
load I
542
630
1,308
567
638
1,291
502
626
1,224
434
594
1,119
327
572
988
303
504
871
287
470
808
345
466
858
I It will be noted that the total of employables and unemployables does not erjual the total case load
The difference is accounted for by cases receiving supplementary relief to Work Projects Administration
and private employment.
2000
Sept.
7684
DETROIT HEARINGS
Department of social welfare — nonsettlement division
Date
Applica-
tions
received
Cases
opened
Cases
closed
Total
case
load
Date
Applica-
tions
received
Cases
opened
Cases
closed
Total
case
load
1940
May
June
July
August
September. .
October
November-
December...
355
277
377
287
290
321
305
416
258
190
227
149
103
113
99
167
292
204
194
251
252
298
161
183
1,857
1.761
1,786
1,691
1,507
1,361
1, 309
1,273
1941
January
February...
March
April
May
June.
July
August
494
396
317
331
271
276
425
406
183
164
108
107
92
95
106
151
167
184
183
193
235
185
177
106
1.308
1,291
1,224
1, 119
988
871
808
858.
IMDU8TMAL agLOYMENT TtOlSX
DSmOIT llEnU>I>OLITAN AR£A
193S-25 MOimar AVZRASS XQUALS lOO
as oooplled by
tTTROTT BOARD OF COIOCRCS
40
soo
450
400
■QM-agTTLSMBirr DiyiSIOM
■enthly totals of applleatieas
reoelTe^, tases opened and
ceses elosed slnoe Jitne« 1940.
Leeend
applloatloas received
cases opened -i— — . -
eeises closed -— — —
T Air. June T~ A^g
Mw. way July
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7685
Nonsettlement division employables between ages of 21-45, inclusive, September 1941
Employable and in labor
market
Cases receiving relief sup-
plementary to Work
Projects Administration
Employable but not in
labor market
Number
of cases
Number of per-
sons
Number
of cases
Other employables
excluding Work
Projects Adminis-
tration employees
Number
of cases
Number of per-
sons
Male
Female
Male
Female
Male
Female
White
16
40
5
18
11
22
8
13
0
0
0
0
45
30
1
1
44
29
Colored
Nonsettlement division — applications received
Classification
Number
of cases,
July 1941
Number
of cases,
August
1941
Classification
Number
of cases,
July 1941
Number
of cases,
August
1941
Loss of Work Projects Ad-
97
52
32
42
118
24
74
46
23
29
108
26
Medical-dental
1
27
22
4
ministration employment--.
Desertion _-
Other reasons:
Single men -.
25
Loss of private employment --
Single women
61
Illness -- -.-
Total
Transient -.
415
396
Insufficient income
TRANSPORTATION
When nonsettled persons apply for relief at the Nonsettlement Division, it is
the policy of the Department of Social Welfare to explore the possibilities of
transportation. In line with this policy, transportation is made available to
such clients when arrangements for their return have been made with the State
of their settlement, assuming always that the return of the client is a good social
plan.
The adoption of this policy is necessary in view of the prevailing State regula-
tions governing loss of legal settlement. Many States have followed a policy
that a person loses his legal settlement if he has been absent from that State for
more than 1 year, and the greater portion of the nonsettled case load consists of
persons without settlement. Unless some policy of returning clients to their
place of legal settlement is followed, the cumulative effect of caring for nonsettled
persons could prove financially disastrous to a relief program financed by local
funds.
The following schedule, prepared by the agencies involved, reflects the increase
in rail and bus transportation which has taken place as a result of the influx of
defense workers into the Detroit metropolitan area.
Wabash Railroad:
June 1941, 24.1 percent over June 1940.
July 1941, 18.9 percent over July 1940.
Baltimore & Ohio Railroad:
June 1941, 34 percent over Jirne 1940.
July 1941. 82 percent over July 1940.
Michigan Central Railroad:
June 1941, 23 percent over June 1940.
July 1941, 26 percent over July 1940.
Greyhound Bus Terminal of Detroit:
July 1941, 37.30 percent over July 1940.
August 1941, 43.37 percent over August 1940.
7686
DETROIT HEARINGS
The following schedule li.sts the number of cases which the Wayne County-
Department of Social Welfare transported to the various States. This report
makes no reference to the number of individuals involved:
1940
1941
1940
1941
Alabama
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut.-..
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Idaho
Illinois.
Indiana.
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
M issouri
Minnesota
Mississippi
Massachusetts.
Montana
Nebraska
New York
North Carolina
Ohio.
Oklahoma
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
Tennessee
South Carolina
South Dakota
Texas
Virginia
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming
New Jersey _..
District of Columbia.
New Mexico
Canada
Total.
205
323
HOUSING
Since the inception of the defense program, the nonsettlement division has been
experiencing a continuously increasing difficulty in housing families. This
difficulty is the result of two factors: First, a general increase in rents, and, second,
a deficiency in housing facilities for low-income groups. It may be pointed out
that the housing shortage, though acute throughout the county, has been felt
particularly in the nonsettlement division, due in large part to the concentration
of its case load, 70 percent of which is colored, within the area bounded by Grand
Boulevard where a large portion of the homes are unsuitable for tenancy.
The nonsettlement division maintains an emergency shelter where families can
secure temporary emergency shelter. In many instances the families have had to
remain in the shelter for a period of several weeks because of an inability to secure
a suital^le place to live. At the present time the nonsettlement division is housing
three families in the shelter, each having five, six, and nine children. These
families cannot locate a place to live at a price within relief requirements and as a
result they have been living at the emergency shelter as long as 5 months. There
are a number of other families who have been sheltered on an emergency basis for
shorter lengths of time.
In general, cases under care at the nonsettlement division have had their rents
increased approximately 10 percent. In a number of cases the individual in-
creases have ranged from $4 to $7 for a small family unit and rents for larger
quarters have increased in a like proportion. Room rent for single women aver-
aged $2.75 per week 1 j^ear ago, and at the present time this average has increased
to approximately $3.50 and apparently will increase further.
More than 60 percent of the case load resides in quarters that are either unin-
habitable or borderline. Several families make use of basement space that is
both inadequate as well as undesirable.
We may add that the families are not acceptable as tenants on housing projects
at this time since the Housing Commission has a long waiting list of low-income
employed families and do not wish to take relief clients, particularly if they are
nonsettled in Wayne County.
It probably is unnecessary to mention that there is a high degree of moral
instability and delinquency among clients who live under conditions such as we
have described above.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7687
MEDICAL PROGRAM
The policies governing the administration of the medical program in Wayne
County differ considerably from relief regulations.
In general, the entire hospital program is operated on a county-wide basis.
This statement applies to financing as well as use of the facilities involved such
as hospitals, institutions, etc.
The settlement and residence requirements vary for the various types of medical
services, and on another page of this report we have outlined the policies followed.
With respect to other qualifications it should be made clear that the medical
division extends hospitalization to persons other than those in relief categories.
The distinction is recognized that a person may be indigent for purposes of hos-
pital care, though he would not necessarily qualify for relief. Further, in the
interests of public health, hospitalization of tubercular and contagion cases inust
be accomplished regardless of financial factors involved. In such instances, the
financial investigation is made subsequent to the hospitalization and a deter-
mination made as to the client's ability to pay.
Distribution of hospitals in metropolitan Detroit according to type of service
Type of service
Number
of
hospital
Beds
Maternal
44
8
16
7,414
4,183
2,228
439
370
1,003
Mental -- ..
Convalescent - - - - -
23
Total ..
91
14, 637
1,003
SETTLEMENT AND RESIDENCE REQUIREMENTS GOVERNING ADMISSIONS OF
PATIENTS INTO HOSPITALS
Tubercular. — Patients hospitalized regardless of residence. However, if patient
has settlement ' in Michigan, outside of Wayne County, county of settlement is
billed. If patient has settlement in another State, arrangements for transporta-
tion are made, contingent upon approval of medical authorities. This involves
consideration of the hospital and medical facilities in the community to which
transportation is planned, and also the patient's physical ability to travel. Obvi-
ously no attempt is made to transport patients requiring further care to communi-
ties which lack adequate and proper facilities.
Contagion. — No resident requirements; hospitalized where found.
Afflicted adult. — Hospitalized on basis of residence.^
Psychopathic. — Hospitalized on basis of residence.^
Expenditures made by the medical division during the period Dec. 1, 1940, to Aug. 30,
1941 1
Appropria-
tions
Encumbrances
outstanding
Expenditures
to date
Available
balance
Care of insane, sick, and afflicted
$350. 000. 00
2,740,000.00
250, 000. 00
r 890. 000. 00
I 31, 641. 49
$202, 959. 27
1, 620, 597. 57
167, 355. 15
788, 563. 33
$147, 040. 73
Care of tubercular persons
Care of contagious-disease cases.
Medical treatment of adults, unex-
pended balance Nov. 30, 1940
$161, 334. 30
12, 877. 40
} 3, 185. 00
958, 068. 13
69, 767. 45
129, 893. 16
Total
4, 261, 641. 49
177, 396. 70
2, 779, 475. 32
1, 304, 769. 47
1 County fiscal year ends Nov. 30.
' Settlement: 12 months, continuous residence in Wayne County without private or public assistance.
' Residence in Wayne County with intent to make it their home.
7688 DETROIT HEARINGS
SUMMARY
For purpo^ses of better understanding, it ma}^ be advisable to mention briefly
the division of responsibility governing the care of needy persons in Wayne
County.
The city of Detroit is responsible for the care of all settled needy persons residing
within its geographical limits. The care of all needy residing in the balance of
the county area, as well as care for nonsettled needy residing in Detroit, has been
delegated to the department of social welfare. The above division does not
include the social-security categories. In the first section of this report, we have
discussed how the above jurisdictional division of responsibility may potentially
affect the care extended to workers migrating into this area.
In the second section of this report, the "all districts" total included the follow-
ing divisions: Dearborn City, Ecorse (River Rouge — Lincoln Park), Grosse
Pointe, Hamtramck, Highland Park, nonsettlement, townships, and Wyandotte.
Comparison of the data for the entire department with the statistics of the
nonsettlement division, will reveal that the department has felt some effects result-
ing from the influx of defense workers but not to any great extent. As evidence
of the defense migration, it may be noted that the "applications received" totals
in the nonsettlement have not decreased proportionately with other relief dis-
tricts. This ratio will be further accentuated when it is remembered that the
"all districts" total includes the nonsettlement division.
From the enclosed data it may be concluded that the case load of the nonsettle-
ment division has followed the same general patterns of activity reflected in the
relief load of the entire department. It should be noted, however, that the ratio
of unemployables to the total case load is higher in the nonsettlement division
than for all relief districts. In this respect, it may be mentioned that a consider-
able portion of the relief applicants indicate that excellent and liberal medical care
rendered in Wayne County is a reason for migrating into this area. The number
of unemployables would be further increased if the classification included persons
who are physically able but not in the labor market. Included in this category
are women with minor children, etc. In addition, a considerable jjortion of our
physically employable cases are not acceptable to private employment because of
age limitations.
Exhibit 26. — Effect of Defense Migration on Community Facil-
ities OF Macomb County, Mich.
REPORT BY CHARLES N. MCNAIJGHTON, CHAIRMAN; LEO R. JE.\N, VICE CHAIRMAN;
AND ISAAC A. HARTUNG, SECRETARY, MACOMB COUNTY BOARD OF SOCIAL WEL-
FARE, MOUNT CLEMENS, MICH.
In preparing this memorandum on the effect of the movement of people on com-
munity facilities under the national defense effort, the agency is submitting two
earlier reports in addition to the facts infra. The two reports are An Analysis of
Public Aid in Macomb County, First Report, published liy the Macomb County
Emergency Welfare Relief Commission in July of 1 936 and An Analysis of Public
Aid in Macomb County, Second Report, published by the Macomb County
Emergency Welfare Relief Commission on September 1, 1939.' These two reports
give a cross-section of Macomb County's population and should help to supple-
ment the data the agency hereby offers.
In considering the problem of migration into Macomb County, the following
factors have been considered: Increase in school attendance, population figures by
political subdivisions, increase in plant capacity in Macomb County, data on
employment and welfare statistics.
Table A shows the trend of population figures by political units.
' Both reports are held in committee flies.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7689
Table A. — Population of Macomb County by political units showing status and per-
centage change over 1930
Unit
Armada Township
Bruce Township
Cen terline
Chesterfield Township.
Clinton Township
East Detroit
Erin Township. __
Harrison Township
Lake Township
Lenox Township
Macomb Township
Mount Clemens
New Baltimore..
Ray Township
Richmond Township...
Shelby Township
Sterling Township
Utica
Warrent Township
Washington Township.
County
Status
Urban Rural
1,412
3,198
259
8,584
10. 992
10,429
1,645
14,389
1,379
1,357
1.022
22. 126
1,215
1.064
785
2,004
5,942
4.531
1.710
1,935
1,439
1, 155
2,946
3,648
1,607
78, 872 28, 766
1.929
2,197
3,198
2,004
6,201
8,584
10, 992
4,531
10, 429
3, 3.55
1,935
14, 389
1,379
1,439
2,512
2,946
3,648
1,022
22, 126
2,822
107, 638
1,929
2,146
I 2, 604
1,204
4,347
5,955
8,197
2,260
6,779
2,953
1,676
13, 497
1,148
1,370
2,302
2, 184
2,462
11,665
2,468
Differ-
ence
(more)
51
594
800
1,854
2,629
2,795
2,271
3,650
402
259
892
231
69
210
762
1,186
2 1, 022
10, 461
354
77, 146 30, 492
Percent
change
over 1930
(increase)
2.4
22.8
66.4
42.7
44.1
34.1
100.5
53.8
13.6
15.5
6.6
20.1
5.0
9.1
34.9
48.2
89.7
14.3
39.5
' Centerline was incorporated as a city and made independent of Warren Township in 1935.
2 Utica was incorporated as a city and made independent of Shelby and Sterling Townships in 1937.
The trend toward urban growth has been in the southern part of the county,
which is adjacent to the city of Detroit.
In 1930 an analysis of the population showed 14,895 persons living in rural
areas and 62,251 persons living in urban areas. (See table 54, p. 75, An Analysis
of Public Aid in Macomb County, First Report.) Comparing these figures with
1940 figures, the following averages are seen:
1930 census
1940 census
Difference
Percent
increase
Urban areas . . .. .- .. ..
62, 251
14, 895
78, 872
28, 766
16, 621
13,871
26.7
93.1
The number of people settling in the rural areas does not indicate that these
people are relying on agriculture for a livelihood. In fact, farm acreage is decreas-
ing although population is increasing considerably more than average. In 1930,
there were 210,915 acres m farm land; in 1935, there were 235,352 acres in farm
land; and in 1940, there were 233,722 acres in farm land (see Sixteenth Census of
the United States Agriculture Bulletin, first series) . Also the Agricultural Bulletin
(first series) of the Sixteenth Census of the United States (1940) indicates the
number of farms as 3,969. Presuming that every farm is occupied and using the
average ca^e size of 4.1 persons per family, the actual rural farm population is
16,273 persons. This would be a maximum figure. The second series of the
Agricultural Bulletin (Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940) discloses that
1,299 farm operators work off the farm for pay or income. This would indicate
that approximately one-third of the rural farm population supplement a farm
income with other earnings, which no doubt are industrial earnings. Such facts
indicate a decided trend toward urbanity and a greater dependency upon industry
for a livelihood.
7690
DETROIT HEARINGS
There are other factors to support an unusual rise of population in Macomb
County. In tracing school attendance since 1935, there appears to be approxi-
mately a 28 percent increase for theschoolyear of 1940-41 over the school year
of 1934-35. The registrations by years are as follows:
School vear of — Continued. Registrations
1938-39 31,691
1939-40 32,940
1940-41 34,525
School vear of — Registrations
1934-35 27,202
1935-36 27,672
1936-37 28,893
1937-38 30,818
The school-registration figures do show a sharp rise during the school years of
1937-38 and 1940-41 over the respective preceding school years. It also shows
a steady rise in Macomb County's population since the Sixteenth Census of the
United States was taken. On the basis of 32,940 registrations during the school
year 1939-40, when the population was ascertained as 107,638 persons, a school
registration of 34,525 for the school, year of 1940-41 would indicate an increase
of population to 114,549 persons at the present time. This is a tremendous growth
in 1 year. The causes of this growth can be explained when recent industrial
development in Macomb County is discussed.
In studying industrial development in Macomb County, the Sixteenth Census
of the United States Bulletin of Manufactures, 1939, shows 62 industries located
within the county. This figure may be slightly higher when it is extended to June
1, 1940. Since June 1, 1940, 35 new plants are listed in Macomb County, in the
following areas: East Detroit 4, Mount Clemens 6, Warren Township 23, Erin
Township 1, and New Baltimore 1. See table D appended to this report for detail.
Thirty-five additional industrial establishments do not exhaust the growing
industrial development or report the ceiling in industrial growth. In fact, the
figure represents the minimum.
Your attention is called to the fact that the majority of these plants is located
in one area, and that is Warren Township. In view of this fact, the larger indus-
trial plants in Warren Township have been given greater consideration in dis-
cussing the problem of migration.
Taking the plants in Warren Township that do have available figures, 15 plants
show a possible employment figure of 32,853 employees. (See table B.) Out of
this number approximately 23,272 employees are employed on national-defense
work. (See table B.)
Table B. — Fifteen selected industries in Warren Township showing type of industry
and employment
Name
Location
Number
employed
Number doing
national-
defense work
U S Army Tank Arsenal
1U6 Mile Road and Van Dyke
18,000..
8,000
3,824
700..
All.
Do.
Chrysler Corporation-Dodge Truck.
21500 Mound Road-
1,682.
21400 Mound Road
All.
11177 East Eight Mile -.
700
75 percent.
21535 Hoover Road .. - -..
300
All.
22000 Hoover Road-
321
Do.
Bundy Tubing Co
9 Mile Road and Grand Trunk R. R_
Hoover Road ...
600 to 1,000.-
34
Do.
Some.
Index Tool Co
8 Mile Road near Sherwood
21725 Groesbeck Highway
30
75 percent.
30
Do.
8129 East 9 Mile Road
23
12.
All.
Do.
9^<i Mile Road
5-.
Do.
Square Tool & Die
Hoover Road
74
80 percent.
In discussing this mushroom industrial growth, these things should be considered :
Firstly approximately 75 percent of the industrial development is due to the national
defense effort; secondly, when production ceases for national defense, Macomb
County will either be faced with an exodus or an appalling unemployment problem
which in either case will be serious. If there is an exodus, Macomb County will
be faced with a large out-county population which may in all probability have a
legal settlement in Macomb County until one is gained elsewhere in Michigan or
legal settlement is lost by being out of the State of Michigan for 1 year. Therefore
if these men who are employed on national defense move away after establishing a
legal settlement in Macom)) County and cannot find employment elsewhere,
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7691
Macomb County will be liable for any aid given, if given in any other county in
Michigan, under the present poor laws in Michigan. If these men move out
of the State of Michigan and do not remain away for a period of 1 year without
assistance, they will be subject to return, thus becoming a burden on the county on
their forced return. If the men remain in Macomb County and cannot be ad-
justed in peacetime employment, a serious problem of public aid arises. Macomb
County's thought in regard to this potential problem which lies within its jurisdic-
tion has been touched upon in chapter 5, page 73, Welfare Trends and the Need
for Social Planning, taken from An Analysis of Public Aid in Macomb County,
Second Report.
In studying the cyclonic industrial growth in Macomb County since June 1,
1940, Macomb County did not have sufficient time to go into the many diverse
problems arising from such growth. To illustrate, Macomb County did not
have the time to study the places of origin, average age, etc., of these employees
in industrial plants in Macomb County. However, Macomb County has given
some thought to population problems in connection with relief statistics.
Macomb County is also interested in plans industrial management has for plant
use when defense work ceases. Due to the shortage of time, no consideration
could be given to this problem.
The Fifteenth Census of the United States reported 54 home industries with
1,404 gainful workers employed therein. The 1930 census also reported 26,275
gainful workers living in Macomb County. On these facts Macomb County in
its first report, An Analysis of Public Aid in Macomb County, page 51, indicated
that approximately 94 percent of all gainful workers worked outside Macomb
County. This is rather high as no weight was given to employment in the whole-
sale trades, in service establishments, in retail trades, and on farms in Macomb
County. When such weight is given the percentage of gainful workers working
outside of Macomb County would be greater in 1930; however, there is still a
decided percentage of decrease of gainful workers living in Macomb County and
being employed outside of Macomb County in 1940. The Sixteenth Census of
the United States (1940) shows the following figures:
Population of Macomb County 107, 638
Number of gainful workers i36, 600
Number of home industries (1939) 62
Number of gainful workers employed by home industries:
In wholesale trades 315
In service establishments 231
In retail trades 2, 396
In manufactures (nondefense) 4, 512
On farms 3, 969
11,423
Number of rural farm population (see table A) 28, 766
Number of urban population (see table A) 78, 872
Number of acres in Macomb County (land area) 307, 840
Number of acres in farm production 233, 722
1 1940 census of figures are not available showing the number of gainful workers in Macomb County.
The figure 36,600 was therefore estimated.
Facts would indicate that approximately 60 percent of the gainful workers
living in Macomb County work outside of Macomb Cotnnty. In using 60 percent
Macomb County realizes the situation has somewhat changed, but it is believed
the figure is still representative in view of the fact a housing shortage in Macomb
County necessitates many of these men to live outside of Macomb County. This
situation is being corrected, as a $1,800,000 Federal housing project has been
approved for the building of homes for national-defense workers. In addition to
this project there is considerable nongovernmental activity in home building, both
in rural and urban areas. If the present growth continues with the same tempo
for the next decade, Macomb County will more than double its 1940 census
population.
This evidence of future growth is admirable and Macomb County takes pride in
it. However, when the pendulum begins to swing back and industrial conditions
become inert, it is realized a serious welfare problem can be created. It is with
this thought that annual welfare figures for Macomb County are submitted on
table C to indicate the steady rise in need of public assistance and the cost of such
public aid.
7692
DETROIT HEARINGS
T.\BLE C. — -Annual ivclfare statistics in Macomb County from Oct. 1, 1929, to
Sept. 1, 1941
Year
Appli-
cations
received
Cases
aided
Total com-
mitments '
Costs
Federal
State
Local
1930 - ---
(2)
(2)
(')
(2) (*)
6 3, 509
3,733
1, 753
2,596
9,065
4,360
2,046
1,117
3 1, 988
3 3, 144
3 2, 732
3 3, 816
3 4, 765
3 5, 524
1,342
3 .$240, 552. 14
3 436, 998. 52
3 185, 422. 94
s 218, 922. 57
592, 982. 54
648, 988. 83
179,218.97
214, 738. 94
624, 077. 11
344, 595. 82
121, 959. 72
40, 872. 80
$240, 552. 14
436, 998. 52
1931
1932
185, 422. 94
87, 278. 51
1933
$95, 995. 45
' 365, 239. 59
7 450, 100. 50
3; 043. 98
19, 332. 06
24, 647. 44
$35, 648. 61
146, 929. 82
128, 600. 00
137, 229. 85
169,293.17
569, 329. 67
302, 700. 09
60, 979. 86
20, 436. 40
1934
80, 813. 13
1935
70, 288. 33
38, 945. 14
1936 - . .
1937
26, 113. 71
1938
6,144
3,118
1,768
30, 100. 00
41, 895. 73
1939
1940 . .-
60, 979. 86
1941 8
20, 436. 40
1 Commitments do not include indirect relief charges, such as administration, maintenance of a sewing
project, mainteaance of a surplus commodity project, etc. Commitments only include necessities given to
applicants for public aid.
2 Applications received in January 1934 are missing.
3 See table 29, p. 45, of An Analysis of Public Aid in Macomb County, first report.
* There is some data since Oct. 1, 1933, reported in An Analysis of Public Aid in Macomb County, first
report.
5 See table BB and table 29 of An Analysis of Public Aid in Macomb County, first report.
5 Relief costs does not include administration or other indirect relief costs.
8 AppUcations received in January of 1934 are missing.
' The indirect costs of administering public aid were deducted from the Federal contribution. In 1934
Macomb Count v received $516,954.44 as Federal aid, in 1935, $561,240.79.
8 To Sept. 1, 1941, only.
The figures in table C represent direct relief costs only. It does not include
assistance given through the Work Projects Administration (W. P. A.), Old Age
Assistance (O. A. A.), Aid to Dependent Children (A. D. C.) and Aged Blind
(A. B.), hospitalization, township supervisors, and other smaller relief units.
In commenting on the figures presented in table C, three facts are of some con-
sequence: Firstly, the Federal Government withdrew grants in aid when the
W. P. A. program began operation in the fall of 1935. W. P. A. moneys since that
time were derived from the Federal social-security programs: A. D. C. and A. B.
This terminated when such programs were transferred to the bureau of social aid
on December 1, 1939, in accordance with Act 280, Public Acts of Michigan, 1939.
Secondly, the peak year in welfare needs occurred in 1938 when 6,144 families
were given direct relief assistance at the cost of $624,077.11. This figure does not
represent public help given by other agencies such as W. P. A., O. A. A., etc.
When such agencies are considered it can be estimated that more than 10,000
families in Macomb County were assisted throgh grants from public sources-
such as Federal, State, county, city, and township sources. As reliable figures
from all sources are not available, no true statement can be made at this time. It
is the opinion of the statistician that in 1 938, when industry was practicallj^ at a
standstill, more than 50 percent of the county's population was in need of public
assistance. What will happen in Macomb County when peace comes and nation-
al-defense production is not needed any more, is left with you. It is surmised
that relief needs will rise even higher.
Thirdly, your attention is called to the costs of public aid. The peak j'car
was 1935 when $648,988.83 was expended from Federal, State, and local sources.
The cost in 1935 was before the advent of W. P. A. ; therefore, the year of 1938 can
convey to some extent the great need for public aid when the industrial machinery
slackened up. In that year $624,077.11 was expended for direct relief and
approximately $1,200,000 was expended by W. P. A. There are no figures
accessible to indicate the moneys spent for O. A. A. and other smaller agencies in
Macomb County. The fact remains, however, that when unemployment of any
consequence exists today, Macomb County's needs for the unemployed runs into
the millions.
As can also be noticed in table C, direct relief since 1939 was, and now is, financed
from State and local funds only. This is due to Act 280, Public Acts of Michigan,
1939, which went into eff'ect December 1, 1939. By this law, the State of Michi-
gan matches dollar for dollar. That is why the relief costs for the year of 1940
and the 8 months of 1941 are equally divided between State and local sources. It
should be remembered, however, that Macomb County is faced by the 15 mill tax
limitation. Therefore, in any year of excessive unemployment, as occurred in
1938, Macomb County would be unable to assume the financial burden.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7693
In closing it can be said that Macomb County has studied the problem. It
knows the causes and the effects that can be produced. It has given some thought
to the situation, which is growing due to the relief consciousness of the public, and
which has been expressed in the two reports enclosed with this memorandum. In
tackling the problem, Macomb County can refer you to chapter 5, page 73 of
An Analysis of Public Aid in Macomb County, second report, wherein welfare
trends and the need for social planning is discussed.
Macomb County Department of So-
cial Welfare, General Relief,
Isaac A. Hartung, Director.
Report prepared by Frank J. Starkey, statistician.
Table D. — Industrial plants established in Macomb County since June 1, I94O,
showing type of industry, location, and date of operation
Industry
Phillips-McCreedy Co.
Bacon Manufacturing Co
Albert Albrecht
W. E. Gilpin
Rodney Sabo
Thomas E. Currie
U. S. Chemical & Lacquer Corporation.
Michigan Flame Hardening Co
Keystone Metal Molding Co
J. N. Kimball
Branch DeHoover
Cement Boatworks
Accessory Die & Tool Co
Index Die & Engineering Co
Leo Burke
Bryant & DetwilerCo
Turner Engineering Co
Hudson Motor Car Co
Hatzcl & Buehler
Drake Avery Co
Norbert DeGrandchamp
Michigan Limestone & Chemical..
Chrysler Corporation
Soss Manufacturing Co
Superior Tool & Die Co
Dalzen Tool & Die Co
Bishop & Son
Mermaid Boat Works
Wayne Die & Engineering Co
Square Tool & Die Manufacturing.
No-Sag Spring Co
Colonial Broach Co _.
L. & L. Manufacturing Co
Hoves Screwlock Co
Detroit Curled Hair Co
Township
Mount
Clemens.
do
do
do-._..--
do
do
East Detroit
do
do
do
Erin.
New Balti-
more.
Warren
do
do
do
do
do
do
do
do.i..._
do
do
do
do
do
do
do
do;
do
do
_do.
.do.
.do.
.do.
Type
Machine shop.
Garden tool manufacturing
Construction
Machine shop
Work shop.-
Construction
Paint mixing
Welding
Metal molding
Marine engine control equipment.
Shed (construction tool)
Boat builder
Manufacturing tool and die . .
Manufacturing
Manufacturing building supplies..
Construction (naval ordnance)
Temporary construction
C onstruct ion .
do
Temporary
Cement block factory
Limestone and chemical
Tank arsenal
Door hinges ■ .
Tool manufacturing
do
Machine shop
Light manufacturing
Die manufacturing
Tool and die manufacturing
Manufacturing
Manufacturing tool and machines-
Manufacturing machine parts
Tool and die
Manufacturinc.
Dale
Oct. 31, 1940
Apr.
June
May
May
July
Apr.
June
Apr.
Apr.
Nov.
June
24, 1941
11, 1941
22, 1941
13,1941
12, 1941
29, 1941
15. 1940
25. 1941
1, 1941
14, 1940
28, 1940
Jan. 31,1941
Mar. 20, 1941
July 26,1940
May 16, 1941
July 15,1941
Do.
June 2, 1941
May 7, 1941
Sept. 11,1940
Apr. 15, 1941
Apr. 4, 1941
Sept. 23, 1940
Mar. 10, 1941
May 27,1941
Apr. 1,1941
July 24,1941
Jan. 30,1941
Feb. 28,1941
Dec. 23,1940
Dec. 31,1940
May 2,1941
Dec. 23,1940
June 14, 1941
Note.— Data obtained from the Detroit Edison Co.
Exhibit 27. — Uns.\nitary Conditions Caused by Migration op
Workers into Royal Oak Township, Mich.
BY GEORGE H. BRIGGS, CHAIRMAN, AND E. G. PHIPPS, SECRETARY, JOHN R COUNCIL
IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATIONS COMMITTEE, ROYAL OAK TOWNSHIP, MICH.
The area to be discussed is the southern part of Royal Oak Township in south-
eastern Oakland County, Mich., bounded on the south by Eight Mile Road;
Dequindre on the east; Ferndale, Pleasant Ridge, Hazel Park line, and Campbell
Road on west and the Twelve Mile Road on the north.
Subdivision of this area began as early as 1912 and a steady growth of small
homes took place. The quality of the homes has steadily improved among the
earlier residents, and the number has gradually increased, and for the most part
without any sanitary sewers being installed by the subdividers.
This area is in a low basin and has no outlet for even storm water. The soil
consists of 2 or 3 feet of sand on top of a tight blue-clay subsoil which -is impervious
to rnoisture and simply holds all pollution instead of carrying it away and purify-
ing it. Garbage and tin cans have continuously been buried to further pollute
the soil. This, together with outdoor privies, continues to increase the insanitary
and unhealthful conditions.
7694 DETROIT HEARINGS
As the number of homes increased in this district it was necessary to provide
additional schools. This was done, and for the most part by bond issues at a
time when interest rates and building costs were at the highest of all times, i. e.,
during the years of 1924-29.
Then came the business depression followed by the Michigan law setting a
15-mill tax limit for all bond issues. This limit was soon reached or already
had been and has prevented the installation of sewers.
OPEN DITCH FOR SEWAGE
There now is an open ditch alongside the Eleven Mile Road, through the center
of this area, which is about 5 feet deep and has practically no outlet and is the
receptacle for the overflow of septic tanks which are not adequate to care for the
raw sewage of the saloons, etc., causing a continued stench for blocks along this
two-lane public-utility highway. The ditch is also a dumping place for dead
dogs, cats, and other animals, and at all times a green scum covers the flow of
this ditch.
This highway is traveled to more than its capacity and the ditch makes it
very hazardous for automobile travel as almost any day an automobile may be
seen lying in the ditch.
During school days this ditch is followed by primary school children on their
way to school and naturally play along the banks even though it does carry aU
the possibilities of serious disease.
To add to this condition a migration of workers is coming into this area in large
numbers and every conceivable shelter is being used to house defense workers
and their families. These people who are settling this area are all law-abiding
American citizens but have been unfortunate financially and have taken up cheap
real estate (because of the State scavenger sales) and built to have a place of
shelter. In some cases chicken coops are occupied by parents and their children.
Shacks built out of old lumber, tents that have seen better days, garages, even a
real-estate office with two or three children of the family living in the small sales
room.
Some small, hastily thrown together four-room houses, without partitions
with only subfloors, and some without any floors, are the stopping place of the
parents with as many as six children, necessitating some of the children sleeping
in the old jalopie and then having to get up early so the dad can use the car to
go to work.
This area is becoming one of the fastest growing centers of population in the
United States, and being inadequately supplied with water and more especially
sewers, this area is almost a certain spot for an epidemic of typhoid fever as the
spring thaws and rains cause flooding of this thin topsoil unless immediate relief
is provided. Every spring and fall rains flood the lowlands and many of the
residents have to use boots to get into and out of their homes. This condition
remains for weeks at a time or until the water has time to seep away into the
natural drains and evaporate.
Coming out of the depression years the problem of Royal Oak township in
Oakland County is no simple one. There is no money to provide sufficient sewage
facilities for this neglected area and under State law it could not be supplied where
the drainage taxes have not been paid.
With Royal Oak township and Oakland County in no position to take care of
the needs of this expanding population, together with small-time political strife
and squabbles, definite action must be taken by the State and Federal Govern-
ment, and that quickly, to prevent a serious outbreak of disease in this territory.
FIGURE ON JOHN R COUNCIL SUBDIVISION
>
The following table of statistics covers the 10 subdivisions represented in the
John R Council, i. e., the area north of Ten Mile Road, thus excluding Hazel
Park. These figures speak for themselves:
Adults - 1,628
Children 1, 189
New homes 147
Men on defense work 215
Number of outhouses 499
Houses under construction 183
Owners 537
Children of school age 710
Lots 3, 113
Houses -- 691
Vacant lots 2,422
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7695
Of the vacant lots 90 percent are sold to individuals, and at the present rate
60 percent of those will be built on by January 1, 1942, and the remaining will
have homes started by that time.
Of this migration 25 percent is from the Detroit area while the remaining 75
percent is from outlying Michigan ancj southern neighboring States.
If sewers were available Federal Housing Administration loans could be
obtained, thereby improving the quality of the homes.
STEADY INCREASE IN POPULATION EXPECTED
The Madison district schools opened September 8 with an increased enrollment
of 175 pupils over the number of pupils that were registered when school closed
last June. New pupils are entering each day and when registration is com-
plete there probablv will be over 200 pupils new to our district over and above
the school load as' of June 1941. At that time our schools were carrying a
capacity load and taxing our school facilities to the utmost.
With this added group of approximately 200: children our schools will be in a
serious overcrowded condition and will limit the educational opportunities of
each individual child as there will be neither room enough nor equipment enough
to handle this excess pupil load. This means thai, there wiU have to be half-day
sessions in some classes, the cutting out of kindergarten altogether, or some
other similar solution.
Our problem of overcrowdedness will increase each month as the school year
progresses because there is no doubt tliat new families will be moving in practi-
callv day bv dav for the rest of tl:e school year.
There' are numerous shacks located close around the Madison High School in
which people are living in most crowded conditions, some with, only dirt floors.
A most unhealthful condition exists at tl^e intersection of John R and Eleven
Mile Roads. A beer garden, a pool hall, and a trailer camp with a capacity of
20 or more trailers, immediately beside the ditch along Eleven Mile Road.
The trailer camp is provided with inadequate septic-tank sewage facilities,
from which the sewage finds its way into the Eleven Mile Ditch. Garbage, to-
gether with tin cans, also finds its way into this open ditch from these activities.
There are several children of school age as well as some not yet of school age
living in this camp, which is adjacent to the back door of both tlie saloon and
pool hall. This camp is a direct result of defense worker migration and has
brought on a condition which is almost beyond our control.
All of this problem lies within easy access to the northeastern defense plants
area, and only a few miles from the larger ones employing thousands of workers,
and as production increases this will increase their numbers several times.
In the light of the above testimony we believe a master sewer plan should be
set up by the Federal Government to care for 2,422 new homes which will carry
approxirnatelv 9,500 more population in this area alone and that it should be a
100 percent Federal grant as it will be impossible for the district to finance the
project otherwise.
Exhibit 28.— Need of Defense Housing in Pontiac, Mich.
REPORT BY ROY REUTHER, INTERNATIONAL REPRESENTATIVE, UNITED AUTOMOBILE,
AIRCRAFT AND AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENT WORKERS, CONGRESS OF INDUSTRIAL
ORGANIZATIONS, PONTIAC, MICH.
Pontiac has a normal population of around 68,000. The city is primarily a
one-industry (auto) town, with approximately 33,000 industrial workers working
within the city limits.
PONTIAC HAS 17,272 DWELLING UNITS
A. Condition of dwelling rmzYs.^1,689 need of major repairs, 6,405 need of minor
repairs, 212 unfit for use, 36 percent of all dwelling units in the city were found
substandard, while 75 percent of all Negro dwelling unil;^ was found substandard.
Four thousand five hundred dwellings in Pontiac has less than 1 toilet and 1 bath
per unit.
B. Rentals in Pontiac compared to 51 other cities. — Pontiac average $25 to $29.99;
51 other cities average $20 to $24.99; the above figures on rentals were compiled
in 1939 in a Work Projects Administration survey. Since that time rent prices in
Pontiac have increased from $5 to $10 per month during the past 2 months.
60396—41 — pt. 18 41
7696
DETROIT HEARINGS
C. Rental vacancies in Pontiac less than one-half of 1 percent. — -The above survey
was made approximately 6 months ago. Since that time thousand of additional
workers have been employed in the Pontiac industrial plants. Because of the
high rentals and shortage of decent homes, Pontiac workers are constantly moving
about seeking a better home at a price they can afford. The Work Projects
Administration survey in 1939 showed 43.5 percent of tenants occupied dwellings
1 year or less, while 29 percent of the tenants occupied dwellings 6 months or less.
D. Thirty-five to forty percent of Pontiac workers live outside of city limits. — A
recent survej' of the workers in all Pontiac industrial plarits showed more than 35
percent lived outside Pontiac city limits. This is due to three factors: (1) A
housing shortage, (2) available houses are often substandard, and (3) rentals in
the city are higher than most factory workers can afford.
Status of employment in larger Pontiac plants
Plant
Normal
employ-
ment
Present
employ-
ment
Employment expected by September
Yellow Truck & Coach
Pontiac Motor
Pontiac Fisher Body
New Pontiac defense plant
Wilson Foundry
Baldwin Rubber
4,300
6,500
3, 500
(0
500
450
9,100
10, 500
4,500
(■)
500
600
15,000.
(?) Likely to expand.
Do.
3,000.
1,750.
Definitely to expand to make gas masks.
• New plant making antiaircraft guns.
NATURE AND AMOUNT OF DEFENSE WORK IN PONTIAC
Yellow Truck & Coach. — At the present time 59 percent of all Yellow Truck &
Coach work is defense work, while 63 percent of their truck work is defense work.
The amount and percentage of defense work at this plant will increase greatly.
New Pontiac defense plant. — This plant is just starting to hire a large number
of workers and is expected to employ 3,000 workers within a few months. This
plant is devoted exclusively to defense work, making antiaircraft gvms.
Pontiac Motor and Fisher Body plants. — These two plants at present are doing
very little defense work, but they are expected to do some in the near future.
Both of these plants are also expected to do even more auto woi'k than thej- are
now doing, which will further boost their employment and further complicate
the housing problem in Pontiac.
Wilson Foundry. — This plant now makes steel flywheels for tanks and 6-inch
steel projectiles. This plant is now negotiating with the Wright Co., of Dayton,
Ohio, for some type of aluminum castings. They expect this order to require an
additional 1,200 employees.
Baldwin Rubber Plant. — This plant is now doing verj^ little defense work.
However, the company has already begun work on plant expansion and they
already have orders to make gas masks for the United States Army. This order
will greatly increase employment at this plant.
American Forging & Socket Co. — This i)lant is now negotiating for several
defense orders and it is expected that a large part of their work will be defense
work.
Other smaller shops. — The Universal Oil Seal and Pontiac Appliance plants
make oil seals for submarines, tanks, destroyers, and trucks. Several other small
plants are also engaged in defense work.
Exhibit 29. — Need for Federal Assistance to Enlarge
Hospital Facilities in Bay City, Mich.
REPORT BY J. harry NELSON, CITY MANAGER, CITY OF BAY CITY, MICH.
September 18, 1941.
The 1940 population of Bay City was 48,019 and the estimated 1941 population
is 50,000, and it is assumed that the increase in populatiou is due to the large
amomit of defense contract work which has been assigned to this area.
The defense contracts already placed with industries in Bay City amo\nit to
$25,000,000, excluding the Dow Chemical Co., and this amount does not include
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7697
any subcontracts. These contracts are placed with the following industries:
Dafoe Boat Works, shipbuilding; Dow Chemical Co., airplane castings; Kuhlman
Electric Co., electric parts; Bay City Shovels, cranes and shovels.
The Dow Chertiical Co. has recently completed extensive additions to plant at
Bay City and has increased the number of employees. The amount of defense
contracts held by this company is not available.
Additional industrial activity is reflected in several operations of the city, i. e.,
the water pimipage for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1941, amounted to
1,795,440,000 gallons as compared with 1,738,780,000 gallons for the previous
year. The number of water meters in service for the same period was 12,432
compared with 12,186 for the previous year. The number of building permits
issued for the first 6 months of 1941 was 731, amounting to $724,803, as compared
with 598 permits, amounting to $481,322 for the first 6 months of 1940.
A recent survey made by the United States Public Health Service showed!
hospital facilities sufficient to service 335 beds were required in this area, whereas
200 beds are at present available, or a shortage of 135 beds, which shows that
our present hospital facilities are overta.xed.
A recent survey shows that an average of 9,468 persons were employed in this
area during the first 6 months of 1941 as compared with 7,445 for the corres-
ponding period of 1940.
The Bay City area is so situated geographically that our hospital facilities are
called upon to serve adjacent counties, on account of limited hospital facilities
in those counties, i. e.:
Population
Midland County 27, 094
Arenac County 9, 208
Tuscola County 35, 693
Iosco County 8, 560
Bay County 74, 891
All of the aforementioned data are based on present conditions in this area, and
it is assumed that future conditions and prospects of increase in defense contracts
and also increase in population would warrant the request of additional hospital
facilities.
Without a grant from the Federal Government it will be impossible to con-
struct these alterations and additions.
Exhibit 30.— National Defense Contracts in Bay City, Mich.
REPORT BY A. J. MAXWELL, MANAGER, BAY CITY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, BAY CITY,
MICH.
September 11, 1941.
Insofar as we can determine, based on announcements made to date, the total
of primary contracts for national defense work here is estimated at $25,000,000.
Since figures are seldom disclosed on secondary contracts, we do not know what
these would amount to locallj^- although it is possible they might range from
$5,000,00 to $10,000,000.
Employment statistics follow (these are actual figures reported to us by all
local plants employing 10 or more people) :
January. .
February
March
April
May
June
1937
1938
1939
1940
1941
7,147
5, 22.')
7,541
7,639
8,957
8,662
5,202
7,173
7, 657
9,232
7,738
5,073
7,205
7,708
9,518
7,849
4,998
7,007
7,081
9,601
7,900
5.121
7,403
7,171
9,575
8,226
5,742
7,094
7,415
9,882
July
August
September
October
November.
December.
1937
8,871
8,897
9,588
9,266
8,539
6,292
1938
5,719
5,259
6,142
7,891
8,187
7,723
1939
5,909
6, 154
8,045
8,281
7,898
7,956
1940
6,185
7, 558
8,699
9,384
9,681
9,467
1941
10,106
9,668
As of September 1, there were only 79 families on direct relief in Bay City.
Nothing could better reflect the policy of Bay City manufacturers to hire local
labor.
Local manufacturers have not yet found it necessary to import large numbers
of skilled, semiskilled and unskilled factory workers. They have, however, in
certain instances, found it necessary to draw on the rural areas of the Thumb
district and northern Michigan for employees. Many, if not most, of these
7698 DETROIT HEARINGS
employees live within a radius of Bay City which makes it possible for them to
drive back and forth to work.
For the most part, Bay City is a metal industries town.
Wherever they find it necessary to do so, plant operators are sponsoring train-
ing within industry programs.
It is estimated that 400 new houses will be either started or completed in the
Bay City area this year.
Although Bay City's housing situation is considered tight, it is by no means
desperate; and unless future months bring a much greater influx of defense workers
than we have had to date, it is thought improbable that there will be a need for
construction of so-called Government housing units. This chamber is, however,
attempting to encourage more and more privately sponsored residential construc-
tion, in an effort to improve the quality and quantity of lower and medium cost
housing. (Our vacancy ratio, according to a Work Prrojects Administration
survey reported March 17, 1941, was 1.5 percent, of which 0.7 percent was con-
sidered habitable.)
Exhibit 31. — National Defense Training in Bay City Public
Schools
EEPORT BY BENJAMIN KLAGER, SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, BAY CITY, MICH.
Proposed trade school unit
A proposed trade school unit will supplement the present facilities of the Bay
City Central High School in the training of individuals needed in local industries
for'the fulfi Iment of contracts for national defense held by those industries.
The equipment of Central High School has been utilized to its full capacity
by the regular students and the special classes conducted in training national-
defense workers for the past year has placed a severe strain upon the plant and
equipment. The demands for training have not been satisfied and upward of
300 applications are now on file for various types of training.
The proposed trade-school unit would provide five additional shops, two draft-
ing rooms with a potential capacity for training 250 individuals based upon a
6-hour program. If two or three shifts were placed in operation the capacitj^
would reach 500 or 750.
From the number of defense contracts held by Bay City industries and a review
of the employment schedule enclosed, and the number of applications for training
on file, it would appear that at least two shifts for trainees would be required.
The building would be erected on the Central High School grounds at a distance
of about 40 feet from the shop units of Central High School. It is planned to
use steam from the Central High School heating plant, which has two auxiliary
boilers not now used and which would be more than adequate for the purpose
mentioned.
The space utilized for the trade school unit adjacent to the Central High School
will necessitate the purchase of a plot of ground adjoining the school administra-
tion building, which will involve an expenditure of $7,000.
The estimated total cost of this unit is as follows:
Cost of building $70,000
Architect fees 3, 500
Cost of equipment and furniture 69, 360
Cost of land 7,000
Miscellaneous 600
Total cost 150,460
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7699
Annual report, national-defense program, July 7, 1941
I. Preemployment refresher courses, plan I: ,
Courses offered:
1. Foundry.
2. Arc welding.
3. Machine shop.
4. Patternmaking.
Enrollment of preemplcj'ment refresher courses for the year 210
Placed in employment:
1. Foundry 19
2. Machine shop 36
3. Welding ' . 29
4. Patternmaking 5
Total 89
Persons finishing training without placement 24
Present enrollment of preemployment refresher courses:
1. Foundry 16
2. Machine shop 19
3. Welding 24
Total 59
II, Supplementary courses, plan I:
Courses offered:
1. Machine operation.
2. Related drafting for sheet-metal workers.
3. Blueprint reading for automobile factory workers.
4. Related information, aircraft construction.
5. Blueprint reading for machine operators.
6. Shop mechanics for maintenance men.
7. Shop mathematics for machinist.
8. Shop mathematics for automobile workers.
Enrollment supplementary courses for the year 287
Present enrollment, supplementary courses 50
III. National Youth Administration, plan III courses:
Courses offered:
1. Automechanics.
2. Foundry.
3. Machine shop.
4. Office practice.
5. Homemaking.
6. Hospital aid.
7. Blueprint reading.
Enrollment of ND III courses for the year 237
Placed in employment:
1. Automechanics and welding 20
2. Foundry 8
3. Homemaking 6
4. Hospital aid 3
5. Office practice 23
Total 60
Present enrollment National Youth Administration courses:
1. Automechanics 24
2. Foundry 14
3. Homemaking 11
4. Hospital aid 19
5. Machine shop 16
6. Office practice 13
7. Related drawing 17
Total 114
7700 DETROIT HEARINGS
Comparative data — Average membership and school census
School year
W2&-27-...
1927-28
558. S
526.'
1928-29
1929-30_...
511. f
579.*
1930-31
1931-32
1932-33
630.^
683.;
668. (
1933-34
1934-35
1935-36
1936-37
1937-38
603.^
624.'
610. J
626. r
622. i
1938-39
604. J
1939^0.
1940-41
603. (
664. C
Kinder-
garten
Elemen-
tary
(grades
1-6)
3, 738. 2
3, 682. 5
3, 297. 6
3. 669. 6
3, 632. 5
3, 362. 7
3, 931. 8
3, 653. 3
3, 453. 3
3, 336. 9
3, 281. 1
3, 309. 9
3, 241. 7
3, 060. 0
3, 087. 0
Junior
high
(grades
7-9)
1, 572. 1
1, 665. 8
1,941.6
1, 723. 0
1, 770. 2
1, 830. 3
2, 030. 4
2, 004. 0
1, 908. 3
1, 846. 6
1, 721. 5
1, 803. 8
1, 874. 5
1, 869. 0
1, 882. 0
Senior
high
(grades
10-12)
984.4
1,017.5
1, 040. 3
1, 067. 2
1,265.8
1, 450. 5
1,671.8
1, 665. 3
1, 732. 8
1, 583. 0
1, 671. 1
1, 646. 0
1, 805. 2
1, 861. 0
1, 936. 0
Special
rooms
213.5
204.9
157.9
204.7
190.4
194.9
219.2
228.3
256. 4
245.8
320.3
209.3
149.2
66.0
55.0
Junior
college
159
191
182
199
259
337
402
352
353
327
378
341
408
383
340
Total,
public
school
member-
ship
7, 226. 0
7, 288. 6
7,131.0
7, 443. 3
7, 748. 3
7, 858. 7
8, 923. 2
8, 506. 3
8, 311. 1
7, 950. 1
7, 998. 3
7, 592. 1
7, 675. 4
7, 842. 0
7, 964. 0
School
census
13,788
13,812
13,962
13, 840
13,911
13, 843
13, 733
13, §65
13, 843
13, 597
13, 517
13, 472
13, 422
13, 181
13,200
Parochial
school
member-
ship
3, 267. 3
3, 914. 7
4, 058. 5
3, 878. 8
3, 268. 9
3, 194. 8
2,915.9
3, 186. 8
3, 391. 2
3, 916. 6
3,641.1
3, 635. 2
3, 662. 3
3, 620. 0
3. 557. 0
Population of Bay City:
1926 ... 51,358
1939. 47,359
Growth in the vocational department, Central High School
1928-29
1931-32
1934-35
1935-36
193ft-37
1937-38
1938-39
1939-40
1940-41
1941-42
Mechanical drawing
77
40
29
41
18
38
90
83
64
135
85'
24
130
112
155
165
29
57
15
130
105
124
155
25
58
15
156
113
133
181
18
87
31
123
97
196
163
27
75
19
107
108
205
175
20
73
139
146
190
180
30
108
184
150
236
192
30
100
198
Auto mechanics
156
Machine shop .
290
Wood shop (including cab-
inet making and pattern-
making)
Architectural drawing
Printing..^
Aeronautics.
196
29
80
Total .
233
481
597
612
719
700
694
793
892
949
Dated July 8, 1941.
INFORMATION RELATING TO BAY CITY AND CONTRIBUTING AREA
1. Population within a radius of 5 miles from Bay City, City Hall, 55,000.
2. State and Federal highways entering the city: U S 23, M-47, M-15, M-24,
M-25, and M-107.
3. Railroads serving this community: New York Central lines, Grand Trunk
Western, Pere Marquette Railway.
4. Airports: William Clements Airport.
5. Public schools in Bay City: 15 public elementary schools, 2 junior high
schools, 1 senior high school, 1 junior college, 13 nonpublic schools.
Resident building construction for Bay City and adjacent to Bay City — All areaa
indicated are important contributing areas to Bay City high schools
Bay
City
Hampton
Bajigor
Essex-
ville
1938.
283
330
295
158
16
29
25
27
20
25
30
45
127
1939
133
1940
207
19411
82
> To June 1, 1940.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
Bay City data on employment in national-defense industries
7701
Finn name
Janu-
ary
April
July
Octo-
ber
Janu-
ary
April
July
Octo-
ber
(esti-
mate)
Bay City Shovels, Inc -..
Bay Manufacturing Co -..
Chevrolet Motor Co
Defoe Boat & Motor
Dow Chemical Co
Qarbcr Machine Co
I. B. Corporation..-
Kuhlman Electric Co--
Laetz Foundry Co
National Electric Welding
Plywood Products Corporation
Smalley-General Co
275
933
2,100
150
200
16
439
372
28
115
148
27
275
857
2,100
150
290
8
432
130
30
150
170
28
285
576
635
210
440
14
222
350
33
160
234
35
285
1,359
2,125
275
600
23
449
350
43
148
300
43
300
1,149
2,120
380
800
17
508
355
36
145
300
43
330
1,113
2,230
420
955
15
561
360
39
150
350
43
315
1,150
2,300
575
1,100
(')
590
400
(')
150
260
41
350
1,400
(')
1,000
1,500
(') '
700
450
(•■)
(')
300
(')
' Unreported.
Exhibit 32. — National Defense Migration Since June 1940 and
School Statistics, 1937-41, for Midland, Mich.
report by j. .1. schafer, superintendent of schools, midland, mich.
September 15, 1941.
The school district of the city of Midland coincides with the geographical boun-
daries of the city but our high school serves a large area in Midland County and
parts of Bay and Saginaw Counties. Thus, our nonresident enrollment is high.
A 5-year record is shown below:
1937-38
1938-39
1939-40
1940-41
1941-42
School census (5 to 19, inclusive)
Enrollment (kindergarten to 12).
Nonresidents (9 to 12)
2,703
2,561
375
2,785
2,581
391
2,730
2,664
429
2,745
2,814
500
2,826
2,830
518
Midland is the home of the Dow Chemical Co. whose steady growth has ac-
counted for the increased population. A number of those employed do not live
in the city proper, either because houses are not available or they prefer to live
just outside of the city limits to avoid the heavier taxes of the city. For this
reason their children do not enroll with us Vjelow the ninth grade and several of
the rural schools near the city limits are crowded. All of the capacity of our
present grade buildings are in use; hence, we are not anxious to enroll grade pupils
who live outside our own limits.
The Dow Chemical Co. employs a great many college graduates, thus making
Midland a rather young community. Our birth rate is high and the elementarj
school enrollment is rising. However, the situation is not acute.
A questionnaire was sent to the parents coming to Midland since June 1940,
and who have children in school. We received replies from 56 who had come
from other parts of Michigan and 16 who had come from other States.
The average number of children per family was 2.5.
They reported that it took them an average of 3.5 weeks to find a place to live,
several built a home, and some were still dissatisfied with their rented quarters.
Although a good many houses have been built here the past few years, Midland
has had a shortage of desirable homes and especially apartments. Right now I
believe that a shortage of building materials is causing a curtailment of further
building of homes.
Most of those coming to Midland were promised a job before coming and all
seem to be working. Some had been unemployed but most were transferred or
had improved their status in position and salary.
7702 DETROIT HEARINGS
Exhibit 33. — Defense Migration in Midland, Mich.
REPORT BY R. S. PHILIP, ACTING SECRETARY, MIDLAND CHAMBER OF COMMERCE,
MIDLAND, MiCH.
September 17, 1941.
The 1940 populatiou census of Midland indicated that there were 10,329
people located in the city of Midland. There has been a steady increase in popula-
tion in Midland Township as well as the city of Midland itself. This increase has
been influenced, no doubt, by the defense program. The Dow Chemical Co.,
the largest employer in the district, has increased employment considerably, but
perhaps the greatest factor is the building being done on the chemical warfare
plant built by the Government and to be run by the Dow Chemical Co. This
building is the cause for the influx of a great number of skilled workers such as
necessary to building construction, but these workers have been of the temporary
nature, coming and going as the demand requires as the building progresses. I
have attempted to get an estimate of the required number of workers for the
chemical warfare plant when it is put in operation, but I am told that this informa-
tion would not be obtainable until the Government is ready to proceed and
that the majority of the workers required will be women of an unskilled nature.
The Dow Chemical Co. itself employs about 80 percent unskilled workers. The
other 20 percent includes a lot of technical workers in with skilled workers.
The Austin Co., doing the construction for the Dow Chemical Co., employs
about 75 percent skilled laborers which, as heretofore mentioned, consists of
skilled and building trades employees from out of the State or any place obtainable.
Concerning the local health situation, there are no powder manufacturing plants
within the city and the only hazard that might be involved would be the natural
hazards caused by the operation of a large chemical plant within the city.
In connection with the health situation, I might point out that the city of Mid-
land is very poorly equipped with hospital facilities. At the present time, they
have a small general hospital, very inadequately equipped for operating and having
a very small bed capacity of probably not more than 10 beds. A remedy of this
situation is being sought, and I understand that a grant has been given by the
Government to subsidize the building of the hospital to the extent of about 2.5
percent of the total cost. This project is still in the offing and nothing definite
has been shaped.
In regard to the housing vacancy ratios from 19-37 to date, I was unable to
uncover any information, although I can give home-construction data for the same
period. We have a homes registration office set up in the chamber of commerce
office and are attempting to register all vancies in the area. A recent 1-day survey
conducted by the United States Post Office showed that there are very few vacan-
cies in Midland, and the registrations so far have supported that. On the other
side of the picture we have numerous applications for home dwelling units and are
unable to keep a supply on hand. Single rooms seem to be plentiful. In 1937,
138 homes were built in'Midland; 1938, 98 homes were built; 1939, 103 homes were
built; 1940, 80 homes w ere built. During the first 7 months of 1 941 , 74 new homes
were constructed and there are many others under construction. I am told by
the lumber companies that lumber is available for building but it is hard to get
skilled labor for construction. It can be seen that we can expect an improvement
in the housing situation due to private building, but it is problematical as to
whether it will be sufficient to cover the housing needs of Midland, at least during
this defense period.
Since April of 1941 the direct relief load in Midland County has been consistently
below 100 families. At the present time there are about 25 families on direct
relief. In December 1939 the relief load was 254. This dropped to 128 in
January 1940. In December 1940, the relief load was 121 and, as indicated from
the present load of 25, it has steadily been decreased. If the present employment
Iceeps up in Midland County, they do not anticipate very much of an increase in
the winter months \a hen the load was always been the heaviest.
I have contacted some of the smaller concerns doing business in Midland, and
none of them seemed concerned over the lack of obtaining materials. One machine-
manufacturing plant, while not working under full capacity, has a subcontract in
view with a concern of Bay City which would give them full capacity. Their
work at the present time is" about 95 percent defense as their production at the
present time goes mainly to the Austin Co. which is building the chemical warfare
plant for the Dow Chemical Co. named as the No. 1 defense plant of the Nation.
Looking at the picture as a whole, it seems that the city of Midland has not been
unduly burdened by the ramifications of the defense program and that there is not
much cause for concern over unemployment in the near future due to priorities or
lack of 6btaining materials.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7703
Exhibit 34. — Defense Industry and Hospital Facilities in
Saginaw, Mich.
report by frank n. andersen, chairman, building committee, saginaw
general hospital, saginaw, mich.
September 6, 1941.
Below is a list of Saginaw firms having defense contracts totaling $21,671,533
in prime contracts and $15,000,000 in subcontracts. This list is furnished by the
Saginaw Board of Commerce.
national-defense contracts, SAGINAW, MICH.
Saginaw Steerhig Gear Division, G. M. C: .30 caliber Browning machine guns;
new 360- by 600-foot plant.
Saginaw Malleable Iron Division, G. M. C: Parts for Allison aircraft engines;
1- addition built, another building.
Chevrolet Grey Iron Foundry: Motors, castings, and parts for Army trucks;
two additions built.
Chevrolet transmission: Transmissions and bumpers for Army trucks; soon to go
on aircraft engine parts.
Wilcox-Rich division, Eaton Manufacturing Co., airplane parts; three additions
built, one building.
Saginaw Stamping & Tool Co.: Army trailers; one addition, one contract,
another provisional.
Lufkin Rule Co.: Gages, precision instruments, etc.; one addition.
Baker-Perkins Co., Inc.: Powder-mixing machinery.
Wickes Bros. : Boilers and machinery for cantonments and arsenals.
Raymond Products Co.: 60 trailers for defense workers.
Blind Institute: Pillowcases.
F. W. & F. Carlisle Co.: Leather.
Jackson & Church Co. : Machinery for arsenals.
Mitts & Merrill: Machinery for Navy.
Stork Engineering Co. : Profiling machinery for gun plants.
Sugar Beet Products Co.: Compounds for arsenals.
All small pattern, tool, and machine shops in town have subcontracts from the
above primary contract holders.
Youth Administration Mechanics Training School, under construction.
Defense contracts to June 30, 1941
Prime contracts $21, 671, 533
Subcontracts, estimated 15, 060, 000
HOSPITAL FACILITIES
The population of Saginaw County, according to the 1940 census, is 130,468.
Four general hospital beds per thousand is considered a moderate estimate of the
needs of a comnumity; that is, in addition to beds for chronic patients. On that
basis Saginaw County would need 520 general hospital beds. We have 156 at
St. Marys, 50 at St. Lukes, and 129 at Saginaw General, making a total of 335
adult beds, leaving us short 185 beds.
Of the 4,235 patients admitted to Saginaw General in 1940, 1,479 were from
out of town. Six counties, namely, Saginaw, Bay, Midland, Tuscola, Gratiot,
and Isabella are served mainly by Saginaw and Bay City hospitals. The total
population of these 6 counties is 326,423 according to the 1940 census. Bay City
has 241 beds and there are small hospitals in Caro, Mount Pleasant, and Alma,
totaling about 132 beds.
Good hospital practice requires that the percentage of utilization of hospital
beds throughout the year should be not more than 70 to 75 percent. This is
necessitated by the segregation of various types of patients and also to allow for
proper cleansing of rooms between cases. Those who assume that a hospital can
run 100 percent full do not realize that an adult cannot be placed in a crib, a man
cannot be put in the women's ward, a pneumonia or typhoid case must not be
placed in a surgical ward, and obstetrical patients must be kept entirely separate.
Our colored and Mexican population add another complication.
Saginaw General's percentage of occupancy for 1937 was 75.5 percent; for 1938
was 70.9 percent; for 1939 was 71.2 percent; for 1940 was 82.2 percent.
7704 DETROIT HEAEINGS
The percentage for the first half of 1941 is 92 percent, which includes peak days
as high as 114 percent. To carry this load, we have increased our capacity in
every possible way, crowding beds into unsuitable quarters, hurrying patients into
beds still warm from previous occupants. A patient dying in a room with other
patients must remain for lack of any other place to put him. All this is verj^ hard
on patients and, in spite of all this, we have turned away hundreds needing care.
You will see that even in 1940 we were running beyond capacity. This year,
since defense projects are well under way, we have been overcrowded to a dan-
gerous extent. Since the other hospitals are also overcrowded, an accident involv-
ing a number of people would be a catastrophe. There would be no place to care
for them but the halls.
January 1941 was the date of the beginning of large-scale defense production
in Saginaw. The same date was the beginning of a marked increase in hospital
occupancy. There seems little doubt that the increase is due mainly if not alto-
gether to defense migration.
The Saginaw Board of Commerce gives the following figures on industrial em-
ployment: First 6 months of 1940, 18,058; first 6 months of 1941, 22,034. June
average, 1940, 18,044; June average, 1941, 23,014. Estimated workers on defense
work, 1940, 3,000; 1941, 8,000. Estimate of additiojial defense workers required
on contracts now held, 4,000.
Additional beds can be added most quickly and cheai^ly at Saginaw General,
since central equipment is available to service an extra wing. Accordingly,.
Saginaw General Hospital has applied for Federal funds to build a 70-bed addition
at a cost of $276,000. Public Works Administration — Defense Public Works
Docket No. Michigan 20-125.
You may wish to know something of our medical standing. Our hospital
belongs to the American Hospital Association, is approved by the American
College of Surgeons, also approved for the training of interns by the American
Medical Association. Each department of our medical staff has on it doctors
who have been certified by the American boards of the various specialties. If you
wish to enquire further as to our standing, Graham Davis, formerly with the
Duke Foundation and now with the Kellogg Foundation in Battle Creek, knows
something of our work.
Exhibit 35. — Community Facilities Needed in Saginaw, Mich.
REPORT BY CARL H. PETERSON, CITY MANAGER, SAGINAW, MICH.
This brief presents a picture of those public improvements that must be con-
structed if the city of Saginaw is to adequately meet problems growing out of the
influx of people who have already come to Saginaw and will continue to come as a
result of the national-defense program. Saginaw, a city of some 83,000 population,
connected to Detroit by a 90-mile, four-lane superhighway, is playing a vital indus-
trial role in national defense. At January 31, 1941, defense contracts aggregating
$82,580,000 had been awarded in Saginaw' and nearbv Bay City.' This figure will
undoubtedly pass the $100,000,000 mark by the close of 1941.
Defense industrial activity in Saginaw will ultimately mean an influx of people
conservatively estimated at'l5,000 to 20,000, or a population increa.se of 20 to 25
percent. If Saginaw's defense industrial program is to proceed without serious
interruption, it is absolutely essential that additional housing facilities be pro-
vided— at least 1,500 new homes within the next year and one-half. Additional
school facilities are also needed to meet this new problem.
Present housing facilities are totally inadequate to handle defense newcomers.
Saginaw traditionally has a very stable housing condition that does not readily
allow for quick absorption of a large group of people. Single-family dwellings
make up 88.5 percent of all dwellings in the city.2 Owner-occupancy is also
prevalent, with 60.9 percent of all dwelling units occupied by owners. Both of
these figures are well above the average for comparable cities. Mortgages held
on owner-occupied structures also show the marked stability of Saginaw real
property — only 35.5 percent. A recent study of vacancy in Saginaw residential
properties by Work Projects Administration research authorities shows a habitable
rental vacancy rate of but 0.9 of 1 percent. ^ Of those rental vacancies having all
standard facilities, only 0.4 of 1 percent were ready for occupancy in February
1 Dpfense contracts awarded. National Defense Advisory Commission, 1941, p. 5.
2 Sasinaw real property survey, Work Projects Administration, 1940.
« Exhibit B, appendix for survey of vacancies in dwelling units, Saginaw, Bay City, and Midland, Mich.,
Work Projects Administration, 1941.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7705
1941. This means that Saginaw cannot possibly meet its defense housing needs
with existing vacancies. Large-scale building activity is the only answer to this
acute problem.
INADEQUATE SEWERAGE FACILITIES
Saginaw's real defense housing problem is not one of building construction, but
rather one of inadequate sewerage facilities. A recent survey of building agencies
in the city reveals that 1,000 homes can be built by local enterprise within 1 year,
providing the necessary sewerage facilities are made available. The more recent
action of the President in approving Saginaw as a defense area wherein homes can
be financed under title VI of the National Housing Act should give further
impetus to local housing development sufficient to meet the emergency.^ We
know that the defense housing program can be handled locally if the necessary
extensions to the sewerage system are made.
Large sections of the city lie undeveloped simply because the existing sewerage
system cannot stand the burden of extensions into these areas. Sewer complaints
from property owners show that there is widespread flooding of basements when
heavy rains flood the existing sewerage system. The answer to the question of
developing new areas for the necessary defense housing facilities lies in the con-
struction of large relief sewers. At this point the city has for years been running
into a stone wall. It has been impossible to finance large public improvements
under the financial restrictions imposed by the 15-mill tax limitation.
Much thought and study has been given to the development of a satisfactory
system for the city. A well-designed engineering program for relief sewers ^
involves a program which would require the expenditure of $4,000,000 to $8,000,-
000. It should be noted that the relief sewers contemplated in this program
must of necessity be oversize construction due to the level topography and
extensive drainage area of the Saginaw Valley. It must also be remembered
that Saginaw has a combined sewerage system carrying away both sanitary
sewage and storm water. Coupled with this relief sewer program is a system of
interceptor sewers and a sewage-disposal plant ordered completed by the Michigan
Stream Control Commission not later than May 1946 and costing an additional
$3,900,000.
From the standpoint of defense housing, two projects included in the proposed
sewerage-facility program demand immediate attention:
PROJECTS IN NORTHWEST AND SOUTHWEST SECTIONS
(1) A part of the program will open up a large undeveloped area in the north-
west section of the city. This project, costing approximately $1,250,000, will
provide facilities for the development of homes in the middle brackets, and also
give relief to three large trunk-line sewers (State, Mackinaw, and Court) which
originate in this rea. Storm flooding relief in these three large sewers will also open
up additional home building in the developed areas now inadequately served by
these sewers in time of heavy rains.
(2) A group of sewers that will open up an undeveloped area in the southeast
section of the city will provide housing in the lower brackets. This project will
cost in the neighborhood of $750,000.
Development of these two major relief sewer projects will do two things: (1) It
will open the door to construction of desperately needed defense housing, and (2)
it will pave the way for a solution of Saginaw's sewage-disposal problem, a problem
that is bound to become more severe as a result of the defense program. These
two problems, we feel, reflect the thinking of the House Committee on Public
Buildings and Grounds in its discussion of the community defense facilities bills
(H. R. 3213 and H. R. 3570) .^ When Saginaw's problems were presented at the
hearing, a member of the committee commented by saying, "This is the first con-
crete evidence we have had of any need so far. We have been sitting here for
days and listening to a lot of generalities, but this is the first concrete case we have
had. "7
Elimination of the sewerage facility "bottleneck" will open up housing develop-
ment sufficient to meet our housing needs. This housing will be of permanent use-
fulness to the community, in contrast to temporary defense housing facilities built
with Federal funds. It is also our belief that dollar for dollar, sewerage facilities
* Press release, Division of Defense Housing Coordination, Office for Emergency Management, April
10, 1941.
» This plan is taken from a report prepared by the consultinp; engineering firm of Shoecraft, Drury & Mo-
Namee, that carries a determination of the sizes and grades of sewers considered essential to the program.
« Hearings before the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds, House of Representatives, March
4-1.3, 1941, pp. 87-93.
' Ibid, p. 93.
7706 DETROIT HEARINGS
will produce more housing in Saginaw than Federal housing assistance. In
Muskegon, Mich., for instance, a Federal defense-housing project containing 300
dwelling units will cost in the neighborhood of $1,000,000. An expenditure of
twice this amount on sewer construction in Saginaw will produce an unlimited
supply of permanently useful housing facilities.
With the completion of the two relief sewer projects discussed above, we can
also look forward to a speedy solution of our sewage-disposal problem. While
the problem of providing interceptor and sewage treatment facilities is not an
entirely new one in the city, its solution must be regarded as much more urgent
now in the light of defense needs. If pollution of the Saginaw River was a serious
problem under normal conditions (as evidenced by the order of the Michigan
Stream Control Commission), it will certainly constitute a much more serious
problem with additional dumping of wastes resulting from the city's defense
burden.
With adequate relief for the present overloaded system, we can begin to see the
possibility of financing an intercepting sewer and sewage-treatment program
through revenue bonds paid out of sewer rentals. But we cannot ask property
owners to pay a sewer rental when sewers back up into their cellars with each
heavy rain. The $3,900,000 interceptor sewer-sewage treatment program under
our present fiscal restrictions would require a Federal grant of at least half that
amount (on the basis that present Works Projects Administration programs are
being handled). Once this program is completed, the remaining relief sevvers
can be financed locally from time to time with revenue from a combined sewer
and water utility.
Exhibit 36. — School Needs in Saginaw, Mich.
- report by chester f. miller, superintendent of schools, saginaw, mich.
Saginaw Public Schools,
Office of the Superintendent,
Saginaw, Mich., October 7, 1941-
Mr. Jack B. Burke,
Field Investigator, House Committee on Natio7ial Defense Migration,
Washington, D. C.
Dear Mr. Burke: I am exceedingly sorry that I have not been able to get
material to j^ou before, but conditions are such here in Saginaw that it is difficult
for us to give you positive information. The gun plant has never been completely
tooled and, of course, they have not been able to take on the men that they should.
The Wilcox-Rich division is not finished and as I imderstand it, an additional
large shell order has been placed here.
Practically all the houses in the city of Saginaw are full and there are large
trailer camps adjacent to the city.
As mentioned to you in our conversation here, we are planning to take all the
children from the sixth grade up in this defense area where more than a hundred
million in defense orders has been placed. In addition to that, wherever country
schools are not able to carry the burden, we have taken in a number of rooms of
pupils. This process is going on continually, but right at the opening of school
we have not shown any great amount of growth because many of these people
have migrated here from the south where school laws were not in force. Con-
sequently, it is necessary for us to use officers to round up these children and get
them into school.
What has complicated the situation has been the curtailment of automobile
production. As yet it is not affecting us materially, but certain plants are to be
retooled for defense purposes which is presenting -a problem. This is particularly
true in retraining people to work in a different type of industry. Before the year
is over, there is no doubt but what we will have a very crowded condition.
As we suggested originally, the city and the Board of Commerce feel that they
can take care of the local housing situation with local funds. With the 15-mill
limitation, of course, schools have all the money they are going to get and it will
mean a curtailment of the school year if we do not have relief.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7707
I shall be very glad to answer any other questions that you may see fit to ask.
By as good account as we are able to give, there have been 847 families moving
into the city during the past 60 days.
I am attaching hereto a report which presents our problem.
Thanking you for any assistance you can give us, I am
Yours vorv trulv,
(Signed) Chester F. Miller,
Superintendent of Schools.
Survey of Building Needs in Saginaw to Meet Growth Due to Nationau
Defense Migration
School enrollment trends:
Registration:
- 1937-38 16,28?
1938-39 16,271
1939-40 16,378
1940-41 - 16,734
Average — membership:
1937-38 15,732
1938-39 15,789.9
1939-40 15, 814. 5
1940-41 15,985. 4
Census:
1937-38 22,510
1938-39 22,662
1939-40 22,697
1940-41 (estimated) 23, 097
According to figures from the Department of the Interior and Employment
Service, we estimate an increase of over 1,500 children, one-half in high school
and one-half in grades, to say nothing of the area. At present, we are accommo-
dating 1,234 from the area, most of whom are in high school.
Developments due to defense:
(1) Increased employee needs:
New gun plant (will employ additional) 6, 000
Wilcox-Rich (will em})loy additional) 1, 500
Malleable iron division, GMC 400
Chevrolet foundry 287
Chevrolet parts (new addition) 160
Chevrolet transmission 260
Means stamping and tool 50
Saginaw stamping and tool (new plant) 250
Baker-Perkins 97
Lufkin Rule (addition) 150
Severance tool (new plant) 200
Wickes Bros, (lathes) addition 200
Columbia mills 100
Jackson Church foundry 100
Saginaw metal products (new firm) 70
Wolverine pattern shop (addition) 50
Raymond products 100
Howard industries (new plant) 300
10, 274
The above are estimates of manufacturers' needs when plants get into full
operation.
(2) Population gains: Estimates of the board of commerce show an increase in
population of over 1,000 since January 1, 1941, to say nothing of the increase in
the adjacent area.
yyQg DETROIT HEARINGS
Saginaw industrial increases compared with a year ago
[Piepared by Board of Commerce, June 1, 1941]
Percent
Industrial employment is up 28. 0
Total industrial pay rolls are up 50. 0
Production employment hours are up 30. 0
Building construction is up 132. 0
Retail sales are up 14. 0
Municipal welfare costs dropped 55. 0
Volume of savings in banks is up 7. o
Commercial deposits in banks are up 22. 5
Electric power consumption is up 24. 6
Bus passengers increased 18- 5
Car loadings increased 32. 4
Kailway express shipments are up H- 0
Telephones increased n n
Postal receipts are up 9- y
New passenger car registrations are up 35. o
Saginaw housing construction — Additional family units provided — Department of
building permits
Sin?le family dwellings
Two-family dwellings
Multiple dwellings
Remodel and repairs (residential)
Total
1939
217
4
15
167
405
1940
263
8
4
167
442
1941 to
May 31
156
6
10
163
335
Estimated
for year
1941
1 1,400
> At present rate, number of permits more than double for siunmer months.
Trends in industrial growth, 1941 over 1940— Actual figures ftirnished by the Saginaw
Board of Commerce
Industrial employment as of June 1 :
1940 1^.989
1941 23, 175
Industrial pay rolls as of June 1:
iQ4n _ _ _ _ _ $550,000
194lI"-"I---m-"I--'- $1,000,000
Electric power consumption, month of May. io nco oko
1940 (kilowatt-hours) JA oo3, »58
1941 (kilowatt-hours) 15, bSd, 8dd
Bus passengers carried, month of May:
1940 Sn-t
1941 422, 0o5
Car loadings, month of May:
1940:
Forwarded ^' "^^
Received ^^ •^^'*
1941:
Forwarded i. ^^^
Received d, OOS
Express shipments for month of May:
1040 '^^i 1°5
{941:::::::::::::::::::: - 22,204
Telephones in service as of June 1: 10 mo
iQ4n 18, Olo
mi::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 20,107
Postal receipts, first 5 months:
1040 __ . $ZlO, DOU
i94i:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: $238,486
New^ car registrations, month of May:
1940 409
1941 ^^^
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7709
BONDED INDEBTEDNESS
The school district now has outstanding $127,000 in bonds which will be paid
this j'car. Taxation for this purpose is provided by a prior obligation law which
permits a special lew outside the 15 mills. The district will be completely out
of debt in 1942.
EXISTING LAWS HANDICAPPING LOCAL BUILDING
1. AH units of government — city, school, and county — are limited to 15 mills
by constitutional amendment. It takes a two-thirds vote to remove the limita-
tion which has been attempted several times without' success. Each time a
majority vote was recorded.
2. Schools are limited in operation to their share of the 15 mills, which is
approximately 5 mills each year, and what money is allowed by the State.
3. Bonded indebtedness is limited to 5 years by the State constitution includ-
ing complete payment of bonds and interest within that time. This makes a
project of any size almost impossible to completely finance locally.
Per capita costs. — The per capita costs given below are low for Michigan. The
Saginaw board has alwaj's operated within its income. Salaries have been the
lowest of the larger cities in Michigan.
Just now the board is faced with unionization and competition with industry,
and costs must materially increase.
Average per pupil cost:
1936-37 75.02
1937-38 83. 76
1938-39 82.42
1939-40 83. 93
Average per pupil high school cost:
1937-38 93. 72
1938-39 85. 86
1939-40 91. 50
1940-41 - 103. 45
Average per pupil junior high school cost:
1937-38 85.75
1938-39 85. 31
1939-40 - 85. 66
1940-41 94. 87
Future development. — An examination of the population growth of Saginaw
City during the past 30 years brings forth several interesting facts. The total
growth between 1900 and 1930 was 37,955, or an average growth of 12,790 each
decade. However, the growth between 1920 and 1930 was 18,392, almost 59
percent of the total growth during the entire 30 years. The reason for this growth
during the past decade is the location of several automobile plants here and their
consequent expansion. Referring to the tables, we find that this same group
constitutes less than 5 percent of the total industries and employs about 47 percent
of the total employees.
The Linde Air Products Co. and the Prest-o-Lite Co. have both purchased sites
in Saginaw where plants are to be erected as soon as business conditions warrant it.
The new gun plant is just being completed, and the Chevrolet foundry. General
Motors transmission, General Motors malleable, Wi'cox-Rich, Lufkin rule — all
are adding large additions to meet defense needs. The schools have trained and
placed in industry over 1,200 men since July 1, 1941.
Saginaw offers to the prospective industry a number of inducements, such as
cheap coal, cheap electrical power, and abundance of pure water, skiUed labor, and
a wide-awake board of commerce.
During the 10-year period, 1922-32, an average of 348 houses were erected each
year. This new building should continue with at least the same intensity-to care
for new families moving to town and also for replacements of existing dwellings.
Defense expansion has caught the city far short on housing.
The present crisis. — Over $82,580,000 in Federal defense orders has been placed
in this city and its immediate vicinity. Orders will eventually reach over
$100,000,000. The large gun plant which is now being completed will require the
employment of over 4,000 additional employees. Other plants, such as Wilcox-
Rich, the malleable iron division of General Motors, the gray iron division of
General Motors, Means Stamping & Tool, and Saginaw Stamping & Tool are
building additions for increased capacity.
7710 DETKOIT HEARINGS
EFFECT ON SCHOOLS
According to figures from the Department of the Interior and emploj-ment
service, we can rather accurately estimate an increase of 1,500 children. Approxi-
mately 50 percent will attend elementary school and 50 percent will attend
junior-senior high.
Saginaw already has a school problem. — Assessed valuations have decreased.
The per capita wealth is $1,068; the lowest of the larger cities of Michigan.
The wealth back of each public-school child is $6,123, next to the lowest of the
larger cities of Michigan.
The senior high enrollment is 4.6 percent of the entire population, the highest
of the larger cities in Michigan.
The senior high enrollment is 24.2 percent of the public-school enrollment.
Saginaw has $443 in school property back of each child; the lowest of the larger
cities.
Saginaw has $69.90 school property for each $1 ,000 of school district valuation;
next to the lowest.
The school census is the highest of the larger cities: 27.7 percent of the
population.
Saginaw's school census has increased yearly.
Saginaw showed 4 percent increase in census from 1935 to 1940 while other
cities lost.
Saginaw's population has increased beyond ability to build schools.
We anticipate the greatest problem in high school. There are not any high
schools within a radius north of 10 miles, east 20 miles, south 30 miles, and west 15
miles. We have enrolled 982 students from outside the city of Saginaw.
Whether defense emploj'ees live in the city or outside, the cit.y of Saginaw
will have the burden; already surrounding rural schools are crowded beyond
capacity and large numbers are being sent into the city.
Sa^ginaw is divided almost equally geographically and as to population by the
Saginaw River, a natural boundary line. Saginaw East High School serves the
east side of the citj'. The school uses an old building 54 years old, of nonfireproof
construction, and a building across a heavy thoroughfare and fire line serving the
south end of the cit.v. More than 1,000 pupils must cross the street each hour
where policemen are stationed to stop traffic.
Since any building was done, the high school has increased 1,000 pupils making
a seriously crowded condition. The school is located three blocks from the
business district, has no playground, cafeteria or other modern facilities which
means pupils must be turned out on the streets in the downtown district.
It is proposed to locate a new high school out from the center of the city, raze
the old high-school building, use the other building, now 30 years old of semi-
fireproof construction and donated to the city, as an industrial school. The city
has a great demand but no facilities. This building, located close to downtown^
could serve as an adult educational rehabilitation and ^retraining center badly
needed in an industrial city.
The Saginaw High School now serves a large rural population covering half the
county; the closest high school north is Bay City, 12 miles away; the closest east
is Vassar, a small school 20 miles away; the closest south, Flint, 30 miles away.
All high-school pupils from Bridgeport, Frankenmuth, and smaller villages are
transported to this high school. With the State now paying transportation, a
yearly average of 982 pupils will attend from rural sections outside the city
district.
If the Saginaw High School can be replaced by a new building, we estimate
sufficient building space can be made available of junior-high and elementary
pupils with the possible exception of small additions to new outlj'ing elementary
schools planned to take additions at a minimmn of cost.
The need — Increased enrollment. — From 1927 (enrollment, 843) to 1940 (enroll-
ment, 1,743) the number of pupils increased 100 percent in buildings designed to
accomodate 800 pupils. It has been necessary to use all basement space unfitted
for high-school use, convert toilet rooms into classrooms, divide three large rooms
by partitions with inadequate light and heat, use locker rooms, convert the swim-
ming pool for instruction, turn pupils on the street on the end hours.
HOUSING CONDITIONS
1. Old high-school building erected in 1879 to accommodate 300 pupils, enlarged
in 1893, brick veneer, wood construction. Large rooms partitioned in three
rooms with exits only through other rooms. Heating system changed from fur-
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7711
nace to steam with old ducts in walls — decided fire hazard. Chemistry laboratories
under main entrance.
2. Manual training building donated to city by William R. Burt in 1893^ —
semifireproof, high-pressure heating boilers under gymnasium. Fire inspector
will not allow spectators, 1,700 pupils must cross Warren Avenue each hour,
seven times a day in all kinds of weather, with 5,000-car daily traffic load and an
established fire-line and bus route.
3. Swimming-pool building used for instruction. Pool floored over due to
enrollment increase and used as girls' gymnasium and music department. In no
way adapted to present use.
4. Three-story residence house, old, used for overcrowding — entirely wood —
used for girls' classes.
5. Indoor athletic contests and practices are held at Central Junior High School,
seven blocks from the building, due to gym condemned for spectators.
6. School assemblies are held downtown at public auditorium to which students
are marched through the streets since school auditorium seats only 400 and is
unsafe for that luunber.
7. Outdoor athletics held at a field a mile from t>he school because there is no
outdoor play space near building.
8. Plays and dramatic product' ons held at Temple Theater downtown where
regular shows must be canceled to accommodate the high school.
9. The school has no library but uses public library three blocks away.
10. The school has no cafeteria or lunchroom, compelling cbilden to go to down-
town district for lunch.
11. Due to crowded conditions 300 students are compelled to attend classes
during the noon hour.
12. Shops are being operated 24 hours a day for defense training.
13. Shops are antiquated, equipped with machinery bought from the Govern-
ment second-hand, after the first World War.
14. Toilet facilities are inadequate.
1.5. Lighting system is inadequate, wired years ago, and 220-volt current
furnished with dynamo.
16. Every available type of room, including reduction in number of janitor
roonis, even toilets, have been converted into classrooms.
17. Entire basement used as classrooms.
18. There is no play space; buildings are right on the street.
Federal Security Agency
office of education
September 9, 1941.
Supplementary Information on School Conditions in Defense Areas
1. Name of school corporation: School district of the city of Sa,ginaw, Mich.
2. Address: 544 Millard Street.
3. Defense area: Saginaw.
4. List of defense industries or activities affecting school conditions. (See
attached report, p. 1.)
5. School membership (total for corporation.)'
6. How does this membership compare to the membership at the close of school
in June 1941? Up 300.
7. How many additional teachers (beyond the number employed in June 1941)
have actually been employed for the school year 1941-42? Elementary?
None. High school? One. Vocational courses? 36 additional teachers.
1 Membership refers to actual numbers enrolled as of date.
Type of schodl
Elementary
Junior high schooL
High school
TotaL
Indicate
grades, i. e.,
1-6; 7-12
K, 1-6-
7-9----
10-12--
Sept. 9,1
1939
8,112
3, 853
3,733
15, 698
Sept. 9,1
1940
7,918
3,745
3; 778
15,441
Sept. 9,1
1941
7,868
3,780
4,068
15,716
1 Indicate the day in September when the count was made.
60396 — 41— pt. 18— — 42
7712
DETROIT HEARIiXGS
8. How does the pupil-teacher ratio (i. e., 1-35) in September 1941 compare to
September 1940? June 1941? 1-36; 1-38.
9. Does the membership reported above represent, in your opinion, the peak of
the enrollment expected during the school year 1941-42? If not, estimate
what the peak will be and when it will be reached? No. Each day relieving
rural schools. Two plants being built not in operation. Peak in May.
Has the housing situation (private or governmental) changed since you made
previous reports to the Office of Education or,,to the Public Works Adminis-
tration? No.
It is suggested that if there are conditions not covered by the points set out
above, that an accompanying letter making a fuller statement be provided.
Date: October 7, 1941.
Chester F. Miller, Superintendent.
10
11
Exhibit 37. — Defense Migration in Battle Creek, Mich.
report bt floyd h. barry, mayor, city of battle creek, mich.
September 20, 1941.
We were faced with a very serious water supply failure at the very height of
the summer demand period and for a short time things looked bad for us in the city
and the people in the housing area whom v.e supplj'. Fortunately, we were able
to solve this and as soon as funds are made available to us we will be able to avoid
a recurrence of this problem.
Immediately upon the heels of this we encountered a strike on the part of all
public service employees and it was a week in settlement.
population
I offer population figures as follows:
Citj' of Battle Creek (census population)
Increase in civilian population induced by Fort Custer.
Total
1930
43, 000
43, 000
1940-41
43, 500
10, 500
54,000
Estimated
as of 1942
45,000
21,000
66, 000
We have estimated the influx of population induced by Fort Custer on the
basis of 0.5 civilian for each soldier and officer in the fort. This ratio of increase
was confirmed by the United States Public Health Service at the time our appli-
cations were submitted some 2 months ago.
The above figures do not, by any means, begin to indicate the load upon our
municipal services and facilities. For example, our sewage plant treats sewage
from all of Fort Custer, the American Legion Hospital, the Veterans' Hospital and
thp defense housing area, a total present estimated j^opulation of 79,332.
It has been quite definitely indicated that Fort Custer is due for expansion which
would double the present population. Tliis appears to be scheduled for early
1942 and while we cannot confirm this in any way we feel justified in preparing
for this increase which would increase the load upon our sewage plant to a sewage
flow from 112,164 people.
If Fort Custer is expanded the noncommissioned officers' defense housing area
will also be increased from 1,000 to 2,000, making the probable population served
by the plant 113,164 people. In addition to this we are committed to treat the
sewage from Battle Creek Township, a heavily i)opulated area adjacent to the
city. This area is likewise affected by nearby Fort Custer and at the present
moment has a population of 7,500 people. This would make a total load at the
plant of 120,604 people in 1942. Our plant sedimentation capacity is for a
population of 60,000 persons anticipated in 1950.
Tliis will give you some idea of the i)rol)lem which confronts us in the matter
of public sanitation and public health.
Fort Custer lias its own water supply but we serve the housing area and almost
all of Battle Creek Township along with our own population. The present
population now served with water is 67,944 and with expansion of Fort Custer
this will increase to 79,888 people.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7713
In all estimates we have not calculated the influx of population in nearby
Battle Creek Township, a part of which is known as Lakeview district virtually
^a part of the citj' except for corporation limits. We wished to leave out the 3,750
people which, according to United States Public Health Service estimates, would
come into this area because of Fort Custer. The purpose of eliminating this
figure is to arrive at a conservative estimate in all of the above instances.
The added burden and responsibility of our police and fire departments cannot
be based on population figures but I can tell you that on many occasions we have
had to hold as many as 48 soldiers in our police headquarters overnight and until
fort authorities took them into custody. With added present population as well
as a heavy transit population this building has been greatly overcrowded but in
spite of this we have had to provide permanent office space here for military police.
Our force has had to be increased by 10 new officers. Our fire department is
among the finest in the country and fortunately a long-range program has resulted
in providing equipment of sufficient capacity to handle the increased building due
to increased population. To be in a better position to handle the emergency which
is upon us a reorganization of our fire department has been necessary. Many
promotions, with increase in pay, have been made necessary by our efforts to make
this vital protective service more efficient. As yet, few additions have been made
to the personnel staff but more seem imminent at this writing.
Very accurate records of our chamber of commerce show that our factories are
working night and day on defense contracts totaling $9,432,519. This figure does
not include the $12,000,000 expansion program at For" Custer which makes a
grand total of $21,432,519 worth of defense activity within the immediate con-
fines of our metropolitan area. You can well imagine the influx of population we
have encountered. It may interest you to know that 1 of our plants formerly
employing 300 men now employs 850 and will soon pass the 1,000 mark. Today
our engineer reports to me that this increase has made it necessary to install 710
feet of 18-inch sewer iii a street now more greatly used by these employees. While
& sewer had been planned for this street it has, up to now, been so little traveled
that drainage was not a problem. I cite this case merely to point out that no
matter how detailed we can make a report of this kind, intended to give a clear
picture of our urgent need for Federal aid, we cannot adequately indicate our
critical position.
In an effort to meet the greatly increased demand on our water system we
instituted and have now half, completed a rehabilitation project at our Goguac
Lake pumping station. While this will increase pump capacities and water supply
it waU not increase water pressures for the defense housing area. Requests for
this increased pressure have been most urgent but we are positively unable to
produce these unless Government aid is assured at once.
I cannot but feel that a comparative tabulation of water pumping figures will
substantiate my statements and give a much clearer picture of our problem. The
following table shows the water pumped from January through August in 1940
and 1941. The third column shows the percent increase in this pumping made
necessary by defense activities.
Total gallons pumped
Month
1940
1941
Percent
increase
Month
1940
1941
Percent
increase
January
February
118,855,000
110,567,500
108, 23a 500
103, 498, 500
111,790,000
103, 365, 000
126, 105, 000
123, 580, 000
May
June.. _
110,921.250
121, 640, 000
184, 346, 000
154, 542, 000
158,684,000
163, 075, 500
200, 090, 000
209, 557, 500
43.0
34.2
March
-April
16.5
19.4
July
August
8.6
35.6
I would call attention to the fact that most of the large industries have their own
water supplies and are connected to the city supply for emergency purposes
■only. To my knowledge this latter supply has been drawn upon slightly if at all.
These private supplies are of much greater capacity than normal operations w'ould
require.
A similar tabulation showing the extreme loading on the sewage-treatment plant
will likewise present a better picture of our situation at this vital point. The
following table shows the monthly flow of sewage to this plant for the same period
:and also the percent increase in this load due to Fort Custer and defense activities.
7714
DETROIT HEARINGS
Total gallons sewage
Month
1940
1941
Percent
increase
Month
1940
1941
Percent
increase
January
February
114,400.000
113,100.000
116.500.000
1 14, 900, 000
162,800,000
140, 400, 000
170,100,000
186, 300, 000
42.3
24.2
45.9
62.1
May
June...
116,000,000
124, .300, 000
125, 100, 000
151, 600, 000
186,900,000
182, 000, 000
259, 700, 000
229, 600, 000
61.2-
46 4
March- ._ ..
Julv
107 T
April
August
51.5-
In February and AugiLst of 1941 troops at Fort Custer were called out on winter
and summer maneuvers. This accounts for the sudden drops and increases in
percentage figures above.
Such statistics as these are obviously not possible for our police and fire depart-
ments and my statements with regard to these public services cannot be sub-
stantiated by comparative figures.
I might add the most recent of our ])r(.il)lems which pertains intimately and
directly to troops coming into the city on leave. In conjunction with a State
health department program we reciuested two case workers in venereal disease
control. This we were granted but the State agency insisted upon the employ-
ment of a supervising nurse. We were not financially able to j^rovide this and
have just recently been informed that no further State aid would be allowed.
Of necessity, we must therefore curtail our i^rogram in this important matter and
get along the best we can until some outside help is forthcoming.
I feel that in our applications for Federal aid we have been fair and just. I
earnestly believe that we have entered upon these matters in the best of good
faith, requesting the absolute minimum of help to overcome our problems. In
the matter of sewage plant extensions, for example, we have denied our plant
the security of stand-by or emergency equipment and revised rather than replaced
present machinery to meet the need and demand. I could cite any number of
instances where this has been done in our entire program and I feel justified in
stating that, while there may be many instances as worthy as our own, none are
more closely and intimately concerned with defense activity than we are here.
Defense-related industry no doubt needs help but there is always the possibility
of falling back on added revenue while a defense-related municipality cannot
depend on any such assistance to carrj' on its added responsibilities.
Exhibit 38. — Effect of Defense Migration on Public
Schools of Battle Creek, Mich.
EEPOKT BY ELDON C. GEYER, SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOL.S, BATTT.E CREEK,
MICH.
National-defense migration has affected the public schools of the city of
Battle Creek, Mich, (population 43,373, census of 1940 — 46,000, e.stimated,
present), which adjoins Fort Custer where $11,000,000 worth of construction
has been in progress for 18 months and where for nearly a year 20,000 soldiers
have been stationed, by:
1. Suddenly increasing enrollment in a normally 8,500-pupil school system
upwards of 500;
2. Increasing the financial burden of a school system already carrying a cur-
rent debt load of $125,000 (short-term notes) due to steadily accumulating
operation and maintenance deficits from which there is no relief because of a
constitutional limitation on local taxation, arbitrarily set in disregard of experience
and proved inadequate in all Michigan limitation districts.
3. Necessitating large scale Defense schools for training migrant and local
workers in specific skills urgently nece.ssary to industries having defense orders
(airplane valves, truck-tractors for use at airports; gun carriages, metal identi-
fication tags, steel and wire products).
During the school year 1940-41, due to inadequacy of machinery for tracing
the children of migrants, we were unable to get a full count of enrollment increase
due to national-defense migration, but could definitely count 351 children of
Armj^ officers and civilians employed at the Fort, who came to Battle Creek since
June 1, 1940. This, of course, took no count of the large number of children of
migrant workers em])loyed in local defense industries.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7715
Since June 1, 1940, the school budget has increased $128,000, with an increased
income of but $19,500 from local taxation derived from an increase in allocation
■of the 15-mill limitation for cit}% county and schools, but of this amount $13,000
has been earmarked by the State debt commission for application to retirement of
$125,000 of current debt. The per capita pupil cost in Battle Creek is $95.50.
Defense schools in operation since July 17, 1940, have turned out more than
1,300 soldiers and civilians trained in specific skills necessary to the Army and
to defense industries.
[The tabulation below was received subsequent to the hearing, and is included
in the record in accordance with instructions of the chairman:]
Effects of national-dejensc migrancy on Battle Creek public schools — Results of
questionnaire to Oct. 2, 1941
Questionnaires sent out 900
■Questionnaires returned 617
Children of Army officers, commissioned and noncommissioned, who have
come to Battle Creek since June 1, 1940 ^ 112
'Children of civilian workers emploved at Fort Custer who have come to
Battle Creek since June 1, 1940-"- 71
Children of workers employed in national-defense industries (have war
orders) who have come to Battle Creek since June 1, 1940 190
Children of workers employed in business, commerce, and industry drawn
here by increased volume due to fort establishment 146
Children of Government emplovees at veterans' hospital who have come
here since June 1, 1940 " 26
;Self-supporting high-school pupils who have come here since June 1, 1940,
because work in defen.se industries, business, commerce, and industry was
easy to find 15
Total national-defense migrancy since June 1, 1940, revealed in
617 of 900 questionnaires sent out 560
'Children of new arrivals since June 1, 1940, brought here by transfers and
nondefen.se or unrelated national-defense employment 53
"Children of workers who came to join parents who came here prior to
June 1 , 1940 (bettered economic status migrancy) 4
Total 617
'■Questionnaires not returned 283
Total 900
1 Army ofBcers were on maneuvers until Oct. 7, and during their absence wivas of many were hesitant to
•give information or return questionnaires until husbands were consulted.
lExHiBiT 39. — Defense Industry and Migration in Muskegon,
Mich.
report by john c. beukema, secretary-manager, greater muskegon chamber
of commerce, muskegon, mtch.
September 22, 1941.
Greater Muskegon includes the cities of Muskegon, Muskegon Heights, and
North Muskegon and their environs, making a community with an aggregate
population of approximately 75, COO.
Several of our industries engaged in defense work are loath to give out figures
because of the very nature of their product for the Army, Navy, and British
Purchasing Commission. In these instances we have supplied our bext estimates.
migration
Summarizing, I might point out that the demands of national defense have
increased emplovment in manufacturing indu.stries in Muskegon from approxi-
mately 15,723 in April 1940, to 22,852 in August 1941. (Previous employment
peak in Muskegon was 18,244 in October 1937.) The difference, some 7,000
workers, has been drawn from the following .sources:
(1) Approximately 1,800 to 2,000 workers were taken from Work Projects
Administration and relief rolls.
7716 DETROIT HEARINGS
(2) Coiuniuter.s, some of whom drive 50 miles each way from their respective
homes to factories in Muskegon, account for another 3,000 to 4,000. In other
words, due to imi)roved highways and increased vehicular speeds the commuting
distance since the last war has increased from 15 to 50 miles.
A worker, for illustration, who has been making $22 a week in a woodworking
plant will not hesitate to drive 40 miles each morning to work and back again at
night each week when wages will range from $40 to $65 a week.
(3) The remaining group, representing some 2,000 to 3,000 workers, are true
migrants. Principal points of origin are:
(a) The unemployed in the small cities and villages of northern Michigan, i. e.,
that portion of the State north of the Muskegon-Bay City line. Many residents
of this area flock to Muskegon when factory jobs open because it permits them
to board here and drive home Friday night for 2 days with their families, returning
Sunday evening.
(6) The Southern States where there is a considerable volume of labor, both
white and Negro, that migrates to Michigan industrial centers whenever employ-
ment in the State mounts. Some bring their families with them. Others find
temporary lodging.
It has been our observation over a long span of years that it usually takes from
6 months to a year for a family of this type to take root in Muskegon, i. e., the
worker will obtain board and room for a time and eventually send for his family"
to join him.
HOUSING
There is no current housing shortage. We have met the housing situation by-
both private and public construction. Private industr}^ built 350 houses in the
Muskegon area in 1939, 550 in 1940, and anticipated construction this year is
750. (Estimates by Bert Ketchum, manager, Muskegon Federal Savings and
Loan Association.)
In addition, Defense Housing Administration has erected 300 dwelling units
in Muskegon in multiple apartment buildings.
Suburban growth has developed such problems as need for new schools, water-
main extensions, sewer extensions, etc. Private utilities are doing a good job in
keeping pace with this suburban growth. Local governmental units are lagging,
largely due to lack of funds. As a result, health problems are being created in
congested areas where there are no water or sewer facilities, due to private wells
being placed in close proximity to cesspools, etc. Public Works Administration
projects are now pending.
HOSPITAL FACILITIES
Another serious problem is lack of adecjuate hospital facilities. Hospitals here-
were already overcrowded during the depression period. A recent survey dis-
closes a shortage of approximately 110 beds, or 50 percent. Problem is novr
under consideration by local authorities, but Federal aid will be required.
PRIORITIES
At the immediate moment the greatest single question facing industry is the
effect of priorities on nondefense industries producing goods for civilian con-
sumption. Principal industry in this category is Norge division of Borg- Warner
Corporation, producing refrigerators, electric washers, electric ranges, and other
items of plug-in equipment.
Figures on Awarded Defense Contracts, Both Primary and Subcontracts
accuralite co. (employing 288)
Working 60 to 70 percent on defense contracts. Bulk of work is on sub-
contracts from several motor-manufacturing companies, such as General Motors,
ALUs Chalmers, International Harvester, etc. Have some direct primary con-
tracts from United States Navy. Manufacture pistons, sleeves, etc.
agerstrand corporation (employing 51)
Working 80 percent on defense contracts. All subcontracts for machine
assemblies, parts, and heat-treated machine parts; also tank parts for Army
Released through Chrysler Corporation, Continental Motors Corporation,.
United States Rubber Co., Goodyear Rubber Co., Inland Manufacturing Co.,.
division of General Motors. Approximate volume, $650,000.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7717
AMAZON KNITTING CO. (EMPLOYING 686)
Have direct primary contracts to supply uiulerwear — sliirts. Total approxi-
mate volume, $300,000; shipped, $130,000; unshipped, $170,000. No trouble
to get labor; turn-over small.
AMERICAN COIL SPRING CO. (EMPLOYING 173)
Working on subcontracts 30 percent. Manufacturing springs for periscopes,
gnnsights, etc. Apj^roximate volume, $300,000.
BRICKNER & KROPF MACHINE CO. (EMPLOYING 79)
Working 90 percent on subcontracts. Manufacture gages, tools, jigs, fixtures,
and machinery parts for machine tool concerns. Average volume $40,000 per
month.
BROWNE-MORSE CO. (EMPLOYING 162)
Working 65 percent on subcontracts for office eciuipment. Approximate value,
$400,000.
CAMPBELL, WYANT & CANNON FOUNDRY CO. (EMPLOYING 2,400)
Working 75 percent on defense work, mostly subcontracts and awards from
motors companies Make steady flow of cylinder blocks and motor parts for
Hercules Motors, Ford Motor Co., General Motors, etc., carrying defense priority
rating.
Have completed $1,500,000 order from British Purchasing Commission for
shells; also large order for tractor treads. Have direct order from United States
Army for experimental shells. Contract totals $17,000.
Comi)any is now negotiating contract for tractor parts with United States
Army. Anticipated total, $4,000,000.
CENTRAL PAPER CO. (EMPLOYING 556)
Working between 40 and 50 percent on national-defense subcontracts.
CLOVER FOUNDRY CO. (EMPLOYING 74)
Working about 50 percent on subcontracts for defense. Furnish piston ring
castings for airplanes to Wright Aeronautical Corporation. Manufacture gray
iron castings.
CONTINENTAL MOTORS CORPORATION (EMPLOYING 3,150)
Bulk of the business is on primary defense contracts, but company is making
no official announcements. Army and Navy demand secrecy. They do not
waiit unit figures disclosed or even guessed at.
Approximate total volume is $75,000,000 here and at the Detroit plant. Esti-
mated, Detroit plant, $35,000,000; Muskegon plant,, $40,000,000.
KAYDON MANUFACTURING CO.
Working 100 percent on primary contracts. Have contract with United
States Navy for roller part assemblies, antiaircraft guns. Over $1,000,000.
LAKEY FOUNDRY & MACHINE CO. (EAJPLOYING 1,455)
Working 65 to 75 percent on defense subcontracts. Manufacture gray iron
castings.
LYON.S MACHINE CO. (EMPLOYING 103)
Company has no primary defense contracts. Have been awarded some sub-
contracts for turret lathes for machine and precision tools. Order is through
Foster Manufacturing Co., division of International Machine Corporation, Elk-
hart, Ind. Company also has subcontract for dies for 105-millimeter shells.
Order through Olds Motor Co. at Lansing. Approximately 60 percent of work
is national defense.
7718 DETUOIT HEARINGS
MIDWEST MACHINE & MANUFACTURING CO. (EMPLOYING 30)
Working 90 percentYon subcontracts for arms manufacturers, Consolidated
Arms Co., Savage Arms Co., etc. Manufacturing gun fixtures and gages.
MORTON MANUFACTURING CO. (EMPLOYING 193)
Have direct contracts for'heavy machinery for botli Army and Navy; prin-
cipally universal borers, millers, and grinders. Also work for other defense plants.
Present backlog about $1,500,000.
MUSKEGON ALUMINUM FOUNDRY CO. (EMPLOYING 31)
Working 35 percent on subcontracts; released principally through Crane Co.,
Chicago. Manufacture aluminum and brass castings.
MUSKEGON MOTOR SPECIALTIES CO. (EMPLOYING 431)
Working 80 to 90 percent on subcontracts for defense through Hercules Motors
and General Motors. Company finishes camshafts for Army trucks, cars, and
tractors.
MUSKEGON PISTON RINo'cO. (EMPLOYING 307)
Working 40 to 50 percent on national-defense subcontracts.
MUSKEGON SCREW WORKS (EMPLOYING 58)
Working 50 percent on national-defense subcontracts.
MUSKEGON TOOL & DIE CO. (EMPLOYING 15)
Working 35 percent on national-defense subcontracts.
MUSKEGON TANNING CO. (EMPLOYING 14B)
Working 55 percent on subcontracts through J. Laskins & Sons. Orders are
for tanned sheepskins for aviation suits.
PYLE PATTERN & MANUFACTURING CO. (EMPLOYING 108)
Working 85 to 90 percent on national-defense subcontracts, metal pattern
equipment for castings.
SEALED POWER CORPORATION (EMPLOYING 894)
Working 40 to 50 percent on national-defense subcontracts. Manufacture
piston rings.
E. H. SHELDON CO. (EMPLOYING 432)
Working 60 to 70 percent qn defense orders. Have both primary and subcon-
tracts for laboratory furniture and mechanical benches for the Army, Air Corps,
hospitals, health units, etc. Volume is approximately $550,000.
STANDARD AUTOMOTIVE PARTS CO. (EMPLOYING 156)
Working 60 to 70 percent on subcontracts. Orders are for valve guides for
internal combustion engines; also machine keys and parts for gun mounts.
VENTO STEEL SASH CO. (EMPLOYING 99)
Working 60 to 70 percent on subcontracts furnishing industrial windows and
some home sash for defense housing.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7719
VICTORY PATTERN CO. (EMPLOYING 10)
Working 80 percent on subcontracts released from Continental Motors Cor-
poration for manifolds and water pump patterns.
WEST MICHIGAN STEEL FOUNDRY CO. (EMPLOYING 347)
Working 80 to 90 percent on defense orders for steel castings under subcontracts.
JOHN WOOD MANUFACTURING CO. (EMPLOYING 570)
Company lias defense contracts totaling $1,487,000: 10.5-millimeter recoil parts
for guns, $300,000; radio panels, $30,000; belt filling macliines, $1,033,000;
155-millimeter recoil parts, $124,000.
Employment and Man-Hours in Major Industries
EMPLOYMENT IN MAJOR INDUSTRIES
January
February
March
April
May._
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
Monthly average
1936
13, 403
13, 060
14,450
14, 773
14, 101
13, 989
13, 449
14, 094
14,219
13, 982
14, 179
15,491
14, 099
1937
16, 125
17, 593
16, 890
17, 093
17, 948
17,926
17,126
18,041
18, 050
18, 244
13, 196
15, 564
1938
16, 983
9,807
12,486
13, 325
13, 353
12, 795
11,765
11,621
10, 553
12, 052
11,986
12,237
12, 616
12, 050
1939
13, 176
13, 537
14, 937
16, 046
15, 377
14,411
13, 630
14, 033
14, 209
14. 668
15, 662
16, 328
14,660
1940
16. 782
16, 280
15, 521
15, 723
15, 938
15,051
15,590
16,471
16, 554
17,020
17, 160
17,723
16, 318
1941
18,154
19, 538
20,884
21,241
21, 867
22,604
22,546
22, 852
MAN-HOURS OF EMPLOYMENT IN MAJOR INDUSTRIES
January
February -_
March
April
May.
June
July
August
September.
October
November.
December. .
Monthly average 2,533,956
2, 584. 083
2, 304, 238
2, 705, 140
2, 752, 768
2. 588, 008
2, 351, 683
2, 375. 101
2, 368, 798
2, 528, 343
2, 506, 777
2, 430, 299
2, 942, 236
2, 880, 276
3,039,711
3, 310. 678
3, 124, 490
3, 198, 967
3. 124, 503
2. 705. 825
2, 810. 389
2. 786, 321
2, 728, 444
2, 040, 402
2, 023, 558
2, 814, 480
1, 386, 346
1, 767, 860
2,091,485
1, 699, 652
1, 603, 521
1,488,119
1,280,123
1, 564, 412
1, 695, 030
1, 699, 903
1, 724, 028
1, 768, 771
1, 647, 438
1, 895, 654
2, 070, 869
2, 596, 682
2,364,311
2, 298, 768
2, 152, 841
1, 853, 163
2, 333, 420
2, 214, 630
2, 512, 963
2, 494, 278
2, 537, 083
2, 277, 047
2,881,515
2, 462, 548
2, 417, 787
2,582,315
2, 383, 989
2, 308, 317
2, 319, 334
2, 773, 075
2, 579. 321
2, 879, 217
2, 632, 999
2, 905, 045
2, 593, 789
3, 230, 203
3, 262, 801
3, 586, 086
3, 858, 185
3, 948, 609
3. 900, 770
3, 974, 050
Labor Supply and Hiring Policies
Most industries prefer to hire local labor whenever available. In a community
of this size, however, whenever employment mounts there is a demand for skilled
labor, and shortages are bound to result in specific categories — i. e., welders, tool
and die makers, etc.
This necessitates advertising for (and sending an employment scout out for)
men possessing these particular skills.
7720
DETROIT HEARINGS
OCCUPATIONAL CLASSIFICATIONS
(Note. — The following data jwere obtained from our latest wage survey (April
1941), when aggregate employment was approximately 21,241, or 1,611 lower than
in August. It covers most of the representative industries, but does not cover all,
as certain industries have a policy of refusing to divulge information of this
<;haracter.)
PRODUCTIVE OCCUPATIONS,
MALE
Assembler
Boring mill
Chippers
Cleaners
Core assemble, fit file and
black
Core maker.
Cupola
Drill
Electricians
Furnace tenders
Grinders, precision
Grinders, rough
Heat treat
Helpers
Inspectors
Laborers
Lathe, automatic
Lathe, other
Lay-out
Miscellaneous machine opera-
tors
Milling machine
Molders, heavy machine
Molders, job
Packer and crater
Paint and spray
Planer
Plating
Pourers
Punch press ,
Sand blast
Screw machine
Set-up
Shake-out
Shaper
Shear
Sheet metal
Structural steel
Trimmer
Welder, arc
Welder, gas
Welder, spot
Winder
Wire room
Woodw^orkers
Miscellaneous classifications
NONPRODUCTIVE OCCU-
PATIONS, MALE, MAIN-
TENANCE, SERVICE,
ETC.
1,390
51
142
174
215
321
163
143
32
43
167
188
165
164
889
1,853
152
190
17
2,200
89
413
108
154
154
12
20
97
261
54
19
57
227
6
10
24
52
29
83
124
113
7
36
523
816
NONPRODUCTIVE OCCU-
PATIONS, MALE, MAIN-
TENANCE, SERVICE,
ETC. — continued
Apprentices.
Carpenters.
Clerks, shop
Crane operators
Electricians
Elevator operators
Helpers
Janitor and sweeper
Laborers
Lay-out
Machinists
Machine repair
Millwright-
Oiler
Pattern maker:
Metal
Wood__-
Pipe fitter and plumber
Power plant
Shipping and receiving
Tinsmith
Tool crib attendant
Tool and die maker--. __
Tool grinder
Tool room machine operator —
Truck driver
Watchmen
Miscellaneous classifications
FEM,\LE CLASSITICATIONS
Assemblers
Core makers
Drill press
Grinders
Inspectors
Laborers
Lathe
Miscellaneous machine opera-
tors
Milling machine
Packers
Winders
Miscellaneous classifications
RECAPITULATION
Total male productive 12, 138
Total male nonproductive 2, 327
Grand total, all male 14,4 65
Total female 2, 431
96 Grand total, all male and female
49 workers 16,896
128
50
66
10
32
100
120
5
54
125
332
10
111
68
22
54
217
46
43
209
20
160
27
105
129
924
61
21
23
260
154
26
480
77
65
130
307
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7721
UPGRADING, OR TRAINING WITHIN INDUSTRY, IN LOCAL DEFENSE PLANTS
The practice of upgrading or training men for better jobs in the plant is almost
'Universal in Muskegon factories. It is necessitated by times and conditions.
With skilled men unavailable, raw country lads are taken into the plant and
trained on the simpler machine operations. Those who show peculiar skill and
aptitude are pushed forward as rapidl}^ as they are able to master the use of ma-
chines and tools. Many of them show remarkable progress. While it takes
years to make a skilled tool and die maker, 6 to 12 months will suffice to convert
a new hand into an excellent machine operator, turning out an increasing volume
of product each day.
A few of the industries emphasizing this t.ype of upgrading are Continental
Motors Corporation, Shaw-Box Crane & Hoist Co., Norge Corporation, Shaw-
Walker Co., etc.
HIRING POLICY AS TO AGE, COLOR, AND NATIONALITY
During the depression employers who were hiring labor placed emphasis on
youth and marital status. Today these standards are gone. Men possessing
particular skills are hired irrespective of age because of shortages in these cate-
gories. Of course, the younger man is preferred.
Primary emphasis is placed on freedom from the draft. An employer will prefer
to hire a married man with dependents or a worker who has been classified other
than I-A by his draft board. Employers don't like to train men for 30 or 60
days and then lose them through induction into Army service.
There is an excellent spirit of cooperation between the two local draft boards
and local manufacturers in this respect. There have been virtuallj^ no appeals
from local boards' decisions on occupational deferment.
There is no prejudice as to color or nationality. Negroes tend to drift to
foundry work. Men of Dutch and Scandinavian extraction to the wood- and
jnetal-working industries, respectively. This is probablj^ due to racial aptitude.
LABOR SUPPLY
There is a definite shortage of skilled tool and die makers, welders, tool designers,
aiiillwrights, and other men in the higher classifications. As heretofore stated,
this shortage is being met through steady upgrading.
There is no concern about the labor supply. A steady stream of men flows
down to Muskegon from the northern halt of the State seeking jobs. In other
words, if the business were available, an expansion of 5,000 employment would
imply no serious difficulty, except possibly a temporary housing shortage, compel-
ling migrants to find lodging rather than bringing their families here.
This elasticity, due to the vast reservoir of labor in the northern half of the
State, has been characteristic of Muskegon for many years. Situated as we are
on the rim of the great Midwest industrial belt, with the ease and convenience
given workers of driving home week ends, we find no difficulty in recruiting and
holding additional labor whenever same is required.
Exhibit 40. — Overload at Hackley Hospital, Muskegon, Mich.
report by amy beers, r. n., superintendent, hackley hospital,
muskegon, mich.
September 5, 1941.
Our facilities are being overtaxed constantly, and we are unable to meet the
requests for hospital service. I am unable to state how much of this is due to
the migration that is attributed to national defense, but I am enclosing a tabula-
tion showing the population of greater Muskegon and of Muskegon County, and
the available hospital beds.
7722
DETROIT HEARINGS
Population and employment, greater Muskegon
1930
1933
1940.:
1941 (first 5 months)
1941 (June) 1
Population
of greater
Muskegon
69, 367
69, 367
70, 438
75, 149
Population
of county
84, 630
84, 030
94, 501
97, 500
Factory em-
ployment
15, 716-
7,899
16,318
20, 536
22, 500
1 Estimated.
Adult beds of Muskegon hospitals: ^
Hackley Hospital 101
Mercy Hospital 100
Total 201
' Beds for adults and children, but excluding newborn.
Estimating ratio of number of hosjntal beds per 1,000 poupulation: Five beds
per 1,000 population (as set forth b}^ American Hospital Association) Govern-
ment figure 4.5 per 1,000.
Estimated population of greater Muskegon in 1941, 75,149 would mean 375
hospital beds, or a lack of 175 beds to care for present population.
Daily average load, Hackley Hospital, 1930-41
Census
Daily
average
adults
Daily
average
newborn
Daily
average
out-
patients
Daily
average
total
cases
Average
length
of stay
1930 . . -
71.0
66.0
57.0
51.0
53.0
61.0
58.0
68.0
69.0
70.0
73.1
78.0
12
12
10
9
7
9
9
11
11
11
12
13
4.0
4.0
4.0
6.0
9.0
11.0
11.0
14.0
16.0
14.6
14.8
17.4
87.0
82.0
71.0
66.0
69.0
81.0
78.0
93.0
96.0
95.6
99.8
108.4
7.4
1931 ..
7.4
1932 . . .
6.9
1933
7.0
1934...
6.9
1935 .
7.5
1936
6.9
1937
6.9
1938
7.0
1939
6.9
1940 _.
6.8
1941' . . . .
6.8
' First 5 months.
Defense industry employees admitted as patients in Hackley Hospital between Apr.
11 and June 19, 1941
Company and product used in defense
Number
of
patients
Estimated
employ-
ment,
June 3
Employ-
ment,
1929
Employ-
ment,
1933
Continental Motors Corporation, airplane engines for
69
6
14
29
8
14
17
4
14
3
9
12
3,141
170
729
2,221
580
682
1,701
418
715
139
399
858
2,500
100
500
1,200
325
500
3,600
280
800
585
Morton Manufacturing Co., horizontal boring, drill-
ing, milling, shaping, planing, and slotting machines..
39
117
Campbell Wyant & Cannon Foundry Co., shells
Bennett Pumps Division of John Wood Manufactur-
ing Co., gun mounts, artillery parts, shell-loading
parts -
1,248
Down
451
Brunswick-Balke-Collender Co., Army equipment
E. H. Sheldon Co., Army equipment
977
227
465
Nelson Tanning Co., tanned sheepskins with the wool
Muskegon Motor Specialties Co., camshafts .
300
985
107
Sealed Power Corporation, pistons and piston rings
602
38 percent of 500 admissions
190
11,753
11,090
4, 818.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7723
Hackley Hospital Application for Lanham Act Grant
[Copy]
July 15, 1941
Mr. George W. McCordic,
Regional Director of United States Public Works Administration,
3636 Barium Tower Building, Detroit, Mich.
Dear Sir: Hackley Hospital of Muskegon, Mich., desiring to avail itself of
the provisions of the Community Facilities Act (H. R. 4545, Public Law 137, 1st
sess., 77th Cong.) to provide for the acciuisition of public works made necessary
by the defense program, hereby submits the enclosed application for a grant of
$325,000 to come under the authority of the Federal Works Agency of the Public
Works Administration, and designated as defense public works.
The forms on which this application is submitted were specifically designated
for a public body, and we have adapted them to the requirements of a private
institution in order to make this application. We are, therefore, supplementing
the information contained in the forms by additional data regarding Hackely
Hospital.
Under the terms of said application it is proposed that the local community,
by private subscription, and the Federal Government shall jointly participate^
on an equal basis, in providing the additional facilities required at Hackley
Hospital. The aggregate cost of said project is estimated at $650,000, of which
it is proposed that the Federal Government shall pay one-half, or $325,000, con-
ditioned on the local community contributing a like sum.
I. federal participation justified
Participation by the Federal Governnient in the amount indicated is justified
by the following considerations:
(1) Greater Muskegon, comprising the three municipalities of Muskegon,
Muskegon Heights, and North Muskegon, and their immediate and continuously
urbanized environs, forming a community of approximately 75,000 people, is a
principal "defense area," because of the nature, character, and volume of its
industrial production flowing into the national defense effort.
(2) A recent survey made by Defense Housing Authority, in scheduling ten-
ancies for a local defense housing project now nearing completion, reveals 19,500
eligibles for defense housing quarters, based on their employment in national de-
fense work, out of an aggregate factory employment of approximately 22,500.
(3) A recent Detroit News survey reveals that Muskegon industries have been
awarded an aggregate of $63,431,574 in direct Government contracts in the na-
tional defense program. Subcontracts held by local industries will aggregate at
least 50 percent of this sum.
(4) Aggregate industrial production for 1941 in the Muskegon area is estimated
by Greater Muskegon Chamber of Commerce at not less than $120,000,000 and
possibly $140,000,000, based on the first 6 months of the year. Of this amount,
it is estimated at least 60 percent and possibly 67 percent is on Government
account, directly- and indirectly.
(5) Prime contractors dealing directly with the United States Government
and/or British Purchasing Commission are:
(a) Continental Motors Corporation: Airplane engines for both airplanes and
tanks, truck motors, et al.
(6) Morton Manufacturing Co.: Machine tools, including horizontal boring,
drilling, milling, shaping, planning and slotting machines.
(c) Shaw-Box Crane & Hoist Co.: Electric cranes and hoists, United States
navy yards; United States Ordinance Bureau.
(d) Campbell, Wyant & Cannon Foundry Co.: Steel and steel treads for tanks,
shells and other steel products, automotive castings.
(e) Bennett Pumps division of John Wood Manufacturing Co.: Gun mounts,
.artillery parts, shell-loading parts.
(/) Anaconda Wire & Cable Co.: Wire products.
(g) Brunswick-Balke-Collender Co.: Army Quartermaster Corps equipment.
(h) E. H. Sheldon Co.: Army equipment.
(j) Shaw- Walker Co.: Office equipment.
(k) Nelson Tanning Co.: Tanned sheepskins with the wool on.
(l) Muskegon Motor Specialties Co.: Camshafts.
(m) Sealed Power Corporation: Pistons and piston rings.
(n) Kaydon Engineering Corporation: Antiaircraft gun bearings (U. S. Navy).
(o) Accuralite Co.: Piston pins and sleeves.
(p) Amazon Knitting Co.: Cotton shirts.
7724 DETPvOIT HEARINGS
(q) Central Paper Co.: Waterproof paper.
(r) Standard Autoinoti\e Parts: Valve guides and machine keys.
(s) Sargent Specialty & Machine Co.: Supplies Quartermaster Corps.
(0 Borg- Warner Corporation (Norge division): Supplies Quartermaster Corps^
United States Navy, etc.
(6) Other indices indicating the upward trend in employment, et al., due to"
national defense work placed with Muskegon industries are:
(a) Emplovment in major industries has increased from a monthly average of
12,050 in 1938 to 22,453 in June 1941.
(6) Man-hours of emplovment have increased from a monthly average of
1,647,438 in 1938 to 3,948,609 in May 1941 (last available figure).
(c) Debits to individual bank accounts have increased from a monthl}' average
of $12,457,744 in 1938 to $22,655,341 in June 1941.
(d) Electric kilowatt-hour consumption has increased from a monthly average-
of 6,467,770 in 1938 to 11,384,095 in June 1941.
(e) Carloads received and forwarded have increased from 3,418 in June 1940 to-
4,277 in June 1941.
(7) Despite the fact that private home construction has doubled since 1939
(increasing from 350 dwellings in 1939 to approximately 750 dwellings in 1941,
according to a survey made by Muskegon Federal Building and Loan Association),
Defense Housing Coordinator is now erecting 300 homes for defense workers in
Muskegon area, at a cost of $1,017,000.
(8) A recent study of 500 admissions over an approximate 2-month period of
time reveals the fact that 36 percent of the admissions were of workers or de-
pendents of workers employed in industries working directly on defense contracts.
This makes no allowance for industries employed on subcontracts, nor for the
growth of service establishments resultant from increased industrial activity.
(9) As a result of the increased indu.strial activity Hackley Hospital is wholly
unequal to meeting the demands for hospital service placed upon it. During
the past 6 months an average of 37.5 patients per month have been unable to-
obtain the service they requested from the hospital. A substantial percentage of
these were unable to obtain admission at all. This by no means covers the list
of those whom the hospital might have served, since local physicians thoroughly
acquainted from day to day with the existing congestion have either referred
patients elsewhere when hospital service was required, or have made arrange-
ments to service their patients at the latter's homes.
We submit herewith our record of the number of patients per month since
September 1940 who have been denied their requests for services. Note the
steady upward trend:
Number of
Month: patients
September 1940 16
October 1940 26
November 1940 20
December 1940 8
January 1941 55
> Average for 1941 to June 30, 37.5 patients.
Number of
Month — Continued. patients
Februarv 1941 25
March 1941 3Z
April 1941 37
May 1941 33
June 1941 » 42
II. HISTORICAL
Hackley Hospital was founded by a deed in trust on May 28, 1903, given by
Charles H. Hackley and Julia E. Hackley, his wife. The trust has been carried
on as a nonprofit corporation in the State of Michigan, and is known as Hackley
Hospital. After Mr. Hackley's death, and under the terms of his will, an endow-
ment fund of $500,000 was provided, and the hospital has operated as a charitable
institution since it opened its doors in 1904.
Under the terms of the original grant, the board of trustees of Hackley Hospital
are not authorized to mortgage, lease, or encumber in any manner the land or
building provided by Mr. Hackley. At the time of Mr. Hackley's gift there was
no other hospital in the community, and the hospital has served in the place of a
municipal hospital during these years without any burden on the community.
About the same time a Catholic institution under the supervision of the Sisters
of Mercy was established, and has also operated in the community and is known
as the Mercy Hospital. There is an understanding with this hospital that Hackley
Hospital has a priority claim on local contributions for a building fund. No tax
has ever been levied in Muskegon for hospital purposes, although the hospital
has iDy arrangement with the public authorities taken care of the indigent sick
since its establishment.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7725
The original hospital building was constructed as a 60-bed institution, but has
been expanded to 101 adult and children beds by interior changes and only a
minor change in construction; namely, a temporary wooden addition for a small
number of children's beds.
In the community of Greater Muskegon, which consists of Muskegon, Muskegon
Heights, and North Muskegon, there being no city or county hospital, the two
local hospitals have handled all wellare and indigent cases. The cases which have
not been paid for by the city or county have been handled by the endowment
funds in the case of Hackley Hospital. Since its establishment the hospital,
originally started as a $200,000 building, has grown to a $1,000,000 investment
and there have been numerous improvements which have been paid for through
the operating earnings of the hospital and of the endowment. Some of these
improvements are as follows:
Laboratory and X-ray
equipment $28, 565. 87
Laundry equipment 4, 072. 97
Medical and surgical equip-
ment 2,847.50
Dietary equipment 2, 429. 54
Office 1,653.11
Total 239,022.86
Ground improvement $13, 754. 96
Hospital building 11, 105. 35
Nurses' home building 93, 892. 37
Faculty residence 21, 201. 92
Radium 7, 500. 00
Hospital equipment 38, 129. 52
Nurses' home furniture and
fixtures 11,808. 30
Faculty residence furniture
and fixtures 2,061.25
While the deed and trust j^rovided for the election of trustees by the trustees
of the First Congregational Church, Mr. Hackley expressly instructed that "in
the selection of trustees for the program administration of the hospital, you should
be at liberty to include individuals outside of your society, whose advice, services,
or cooperation might be desirable. While it is my purpose to establish an endow-
ment toward the support of the hospital, it will not be a large one, for I want the
members of your society and the people of oiu- city to feel that each has a personal
interest in the maintenance of the institution, in making it an efficient and ever-
ready agency for the relief of the sick and the suffering." In harmony with this
request, it has been the aim of the institution never to refuse service to any persons
requesting service when there has been an available bed.
The hospital has always conducted its affairs so that it has operated within
its income, and except for temporary borrowings to finance an improvement, the
hospital has never owed any money except current nionthly bills. At the present
time, the hospital has no indebtedness except current accounts, and it has been
the policy of the hospital to increase its services from its surplus earnings, as well
as operate at as low a rate as possible in order to make these services available to
everyone. Occasionally some gifts have been made to the hospital which have
been used for charitable purposes unless a specific gift was made for definite
improvement.
III. CURRENT SITUATION
In the latter part of 1939, the increased activity of local industries, resulting in
an increase in population, was reflected in the crowded conditions in the hospital.
This was due primarily to the n^ajor activities of the Continental Motors Cor-
poration on orders placed with them by the British Purchasing Commission.
At tha.t time, the hospital board made a study of the situation and inaugurated
plans for the enlargement of its present buildiiig. Since that time, the situation
in the community has become more acute, and the original plans for a 50-bed
addition now must be changed to provide for at least 115 additional beds. In
support of the above statement, we have submitted a schedule on Form 500-D,
part A.
Our original plan for enlargement contemplated a campaign in the comniunity
for a fund of .$300,000 to be provided by local industries, and public spirited
individuals. Because the national emergency, reflected in the increased activities
of our industries, imposed an unanticipated burden on our hospital, we have now
adjusted our plans and proT)ose a joint project by the community and the Federal
Government. Consequently we are applying to .you for a direct grant in an
amount sufficient to construct accommodations to care for patients brought into
the community by defense activities.
In conclusion, we call your attention to the fact that Hackley Hospital is located
on a large tract of ground conii^rising four city blocks, and is ideally situated for an
enlargement by the proposed addition. Studies made by our very competent
hospital architect, Carl Erikson, of the firm of Schmidt, Garden & Erikson, shoM'
7726 DETROIT HEARINGS
this addition can be effected at a niinimum cost for construction. Miich of the
overhead can be absorbed, and tlie additional work can be done by simply enlarg-
ing the present staff of the hospital. In order to make a prompt application,
we are submitting sketches of our proposed addition, which we are prepared to
change to conform to Government requirements.
We respectfully call your attention to the fact that the District Director, United
States Public Health Service District No. 3, was instructed to make a hospital
survey at Muskegon to determine the needs for additional beds that may be
provided by funds from the Communities Facilities Act. This survey was made
on June 19, 1941, by Dr. L. O. Weldon, medical director, United States Public
Health Service, liaison officer. Sixth Army Corps Area. Dr. Weldon advised us
that he was impressed with the acute local need for additional hospital facilities.
We are informed his report is on file with the proper authorities, and you may
desire to consult it in connection with this application. We will be pleased to
supply you any further data which may facilitate action on order that we may
proceed" promptly to the solution of a very acute hospital problem.
IV. WHY GRANT IS REQUESTED
Your local representative, Mr. Watkins, raised the question, "Why isn't
application made for a loan rather than a grant?"
May we point out in the first instance that both local hospitals (Hackley and
Mercy) are chartered as nonprofit corporations under the laws of Michigan and
render a charitable service. Hackley Hospital has never operated at a profit;
never expects to. Part of its income is derived from the community chest, but
this income represents only a sm.all fraction of the cost of services it renders
gratis to indigents and individuals in the lower income brackets.
Secondly, it should be pointed out that since its founding every dollar of invest-
ment that'has been made in the hospital has been contributed from public sources.
The original gift which established the hospital came from Muskegon's great
philanthropist, Charles H. Hackley, long since deceased. Since that time other
individuals have contributed. Earnings from the endowment fund which Mr.
Hackley created have been plowed back into the institution. In other words,
the rates charged (and the same is true in Mercy Hospital) are based on the
service-at-cost principle, with costs held to an absolute minimum.
In this new project the local community is once more asked to provide the funds
necessary for a capital investment by a donation and not a loan. No contributor
expects to realize a penny trom his subscription. With the local community
meeting the needs ot the natural growth of the city, we think it is only fair and
proper that the Federal Government, which has superimposed the defense effort
upon our ordinary volume of business, increased factory employment, by 50
percent, and brought in a large volume of migrant labor, should participate on
the same basis as local citizens in providing the necessary physical facilities so
that Hackley Hospital can render the services which the community expects of
an institution of this character.
Very truly yours,
Harold McB. Thurston.
Exhibit 41. — Defense Housing in Muskegon, Mich.
report by eugene a. krauss, housing manager, defense housing division
of federal works agency. muskegon, mich.
September 18, 1941.
Based on information taken from our applications for dwellings in the defense-
housing project, we have compiled the following figures:
Total number of applications received to Sept. 15. 208
Total number of out-of-city, but within-the-State applicants 91
Total luunber of out-State api)licaiits 29
Canadian applicant 1
.\verage weekly earnings of applicants $29. 06
(This includes a numl}er of monthly salaried employees— salaries ranging from
$170 to $235.)
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7727
[Accompanying the above statement was the following correspond-
ence and statistical material:]
Rationing of Defense Housing Among Muskegon Industries
[Copy of memo]
To: Sherwood L. Reeder, assistant director of defense housing.
From: Eugene A. Krauss, housing manager.
Subject: Recommendation, as requested July 10, 1941, regarding defense indus-
tries in Greater Muskegon.
July 18, 1941.
The Continental Motors, with some $63,000,000 to $65,000,000 defense orders
to date in this area, is, of course, the foremost defense industry here; to pick
the others is difficult.
Actually, so far, one-third of our applicants work at Continental Motors; pTes-
ent guess Is that possibly from one-third to (not to exceed) one-half of our tenants
should be Continental employees.
About 70 percent of the workers in this area are engaged in defense work in
whole or in part; 16,000 workers are in th'"s category.
You wiU find listed below («) industries employing the bulk of the defense
workers, and (b) smaller defense industries.
Total number of employees in major defense industries in Muskegon, and average pay
Name of firm
Number
of em-
ployees
Number
em-
ployed
on
defense
work
Average
pay
Direct
or
indirect
defense
work
Accuralite Co
Amazon Knitting Co -
American Coil Spring. _
Anaconda Wire & Cable
Brunswick-Balke-Collander...
Campbell, Wyant & Cannon. _
Continental Motors '
Lakey Foundry
Lyons Machine Tool
Morton Manufacturing Co
Muskegon Motor Specialty
Sealed Power Corporation
Shaw Box Crane & Hoist
E. H. Sheldon
West Michigan Steel Foundry
John Wood Manufacturing Co
285
700
172
700
2,050
2,500
3,500
1,439
103
185
480
961
700
425
466
500
285
140
60
(2)
289
750
2,100
1,439
88
185
360
290
700
298
419
450
$33. 60
18.00
30.00
30.00
35.00
30.00
26.40
34.00
40.00
27.00
39.00
35.00
30.00
28.00
30.00
33.00
Direct.
Do.
Do.
(2)
Direct.
Do.
Do.
Indirect.
Do.
Direct.
Indirect.
Do.
Direct.
Do.
Indirect.
Direct.
1 Above estimates of average earnings for 40 hours were made by the various personnel men. Actual
earnings as reported so far by Continental applicants indicates a somewhat higher figure, closer to the
average weighted amount of $29.48.
2 Unreported.
60396— 41— pt. 18-
-43
7728 DETKOIT HEARINGS
Total number of employees in smaller defense industries in Muskegon, and average pay
Name of firm
Number
of em-
ployees
Number
em-
ployed
on
defense
work
Average
pay
Direct
or
indirect
defense
work
Agerstrand Corporation
Air Control Products
Brickner & Kropf
Clarke Sanding Machine
Clover Foundry
Economy Tool. --
Fitzjohn Coach
Kayden Bearing Co ' -
Madison Manufacturing Co
Midwest Machine & Manufacturing
Montague Castings Co
Muskegon Aluminum Foundry
Muskegon Boiler Works..
Muskegon Pattern Works
Muskegon Piston Ring.
Muskegon Screw Works
Muskegon Tool & Die
Nelson Tanning Co
Pyle Pattern & Manufacturing
Quality Aluminum Castings
Sargent Specialty Machine... --
Standard Automotive Parts
Standard Pattern Works
Steel Fabricating Co
Vento Steel Products.. '-
54
97
76
50
74
21
160
)
25
55
164
55
23
20
287
65
12
152
109
23
20
161
24
29
99
(')
(')
32
76
99
13
11
100
15
29
33
$26. 00
28.00
40.00
28.00
25.00
38.00
36.00
(')
31.00
44.00
25. 20
30.00
28.00
43. 00
36.00
25.00
(0
27.00
30.00
30.00
30.00
30.00
50. 00
32.00
28.00
Indirect.
Do.
Do.
Do.
Do.
(')
Indirect.
0)
Indirect.
(')
(')
Indirect.
Do.
(')
Indirect.
Do.
(')
Direct.
Indirect.
Do.
Do.
Do.
Do.
Do.
Do.
' Unreported.
8 New industry.
Credit is due Clyde Hester, of Michigan State Employment Service, for supply-
ing names of most of above factories employing defense workers. I obtained
these figures in a 2-week period from June 16 to June 30.
The large majority of Muskegon factories are engaged in indirect defense M'ork;
only eight factories in group (a), page 1, and four factories in group (b) have direct
defense contracts.
My citizens' committee, purely advisory of course, is considering, at my sug-
gestion, the rationing of applicants who could be accepted from any local defense
industry. The amount of defense orders as in the case of the Continental Motors
is obviously important. To take the percentage of local defense orders as the
percentage of tenants to be admitted from that industry would, however, work a
hardship on other applicants, worthy in all other respects, and would pack the
project with Continental workers.
APPLICATIONS FOR HOUSING FROM VARIOUS INCOME GROUPS
(Inter-office memorandum!
Federal Works Agency,
Washington, August SO, 1941.
To: Albert J. Horn, Supervisor Area No. 3.
From: Eugene A. Krauss, Housing Manager, Muskegon, Mich.
Subject: In re Telegram from William A. Ziegler, Assistant Chief. Direct Manage-
ment.
Income groups to August 30, IO4I \and applications for honstng]
Annual income: Application*
Under $1,200 57
$1,200 to $1,,500 41
$1,500 to $1,S00 41
$1,800 to $2,100 1^
$2, 100 to $2,400 1^
Over $2,400 — - ^
Total 171
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
Shelter rents paid elsewhere prior to application
7729
Annual income
Minimum
Maximum
Weighted
average
Under $1,200 ^
$1,200 to $1,500
$1,500 to $1,800
$1,800 to $2,100
$2,100 to $2,400
Over $2,400- --
$5.00
fi.OO
5.00
9.00
16.00
18.00
$40.00
48.00
54.00
22. 00
40.00
30.00
$22.00
23.62
22. 4S
15.71
25.00
24.00
Defense Housing Division of Federal Works Agency,
Industrial Defense Housing,
Muskegon, Mich., August 15, 1941.
Mr. Jack B. Burke,
Detroit, Mich.
Dear Mr. Burke: In response to your letter of Augu.st 11 asking for a list
of "points of origin" of the applicants for housing, we are enclo.sing a list taken
from the first 115 applications received.
Truly yours,
Eugene A. Krauss, Housing Manager.
lists of points of origin taken from first 150 APPLICATIONS
Newberry, Mich.
Frankfort, Mich.
Grand Rapids, Mich.
Woodville, Wis.
Beulah, Mich.
Scottville, Mich.
Roslyn. N. Y.
Benzonia, Mich.
Union Cit\% Tenn.
Grand Haven, Mich.
Lake City, Mich.
Ionia, Mich.
Shelby, Mich.
Bay City, Mich.
Lansing, Mich.
Escanaba, Mich.
Petosky, Mich.
Wilson, Wis.
Copenmish, Mich.
Wakefield, Mich.
Whitehall, Mich.
Amasa, Mich.
Tiptonville, Tenn.
Allegan, Mich.
Hudson ville, Mich.
Milwaukee, Wis.
Hart, Mich.
Holland, Mich.
Wellston, Mich. •
Bernie, Mo.
Nunica, Mich.
Ludington, Mich.
Gladstone, Mich.
Portland, Oreg.
Sault Ste. Marie, Mich.
Marne, Mich.
Cambridge, Ohio
Kalamazoo, Mich.
Austin, Tex.
Hesperia, Mich.
Brethren, Mich.
Greenville, Mich.
Sparta, Mich.
South Haven, Mich.
McNeil, Ark.
Martinton, 111.
Traverse City, Mich.
Ishpeming, Mich.
survey of rental changes in muskegon, mich.
June 12, 1941.
About one-sixth (16.8 percent) of the residential rents in Muskegon, Mich.,
increased between March 1940 and May 1941, according to a sample survey
made by the Work Projects Administration Division of Research in cooperation
with local Work Projects Administration offices. For units which had increases
in monthly rent the average rise was $3.99; such increases added more than
$2,600 to the monthly rent bill paid by Muskegon tenants.
The survey, made at the reciuest of the Office of Price Administration and
Civilia}) Supply, shows that among dwellings which were rental units both in
March 1940 and in May 1941 rent costs rose 2.6 percent, from an average of
$21.48 to an average of $22.04. About 2.9 percent of the rental units had decreases
in rent during the i4-montli period.
The average rent for all rental units in the city in May 1941 — including those
which were not rental units in March 1940 and those for wliich the 1940 rent
could not be obtained — was $22.31 .
Both the frequency and average amounts of rent increases were high where (1)
the occupants had changed or (2) the landlord had made changes in the structure
or in conveniences included in the rent.
7730
DETROIT HEARINGS
Of every 100 rental units with—
This number
had rent in-
creases—
Which
averaged-
The same tenants--
Different tenants
No change in structure or conveniences
Changes in structure or conveniences. .
$3.80
4.20
3.80
5.10
Increases occurred more frequently in cheaper rent districts than more expensive
sections; while average amounts of the increases were progressively larger from
the lower to the higher brackets. Relative to rents paid in March 1940, however,
tenants in the lower brackets had much higher proportionate increases. Units not
fully comparable because of changes in structure or conveniences have been elimin-
ated from the following table.
March 1940 rent group
Less than $15,
$15to$24.99_.
^25 and more.
Percentage
of units
having
rent
increases
Average
rent,
March
1940, all
units
$10. 70
18.40
31.60
Average increase for
units having in-
creases
Amount Percent
$3.20
3.70
4.80
The rent group under $15 a month included 20 percent, the group of $25 and
more included 35 percent, and the middle group included 45 percent of the rental
units in March 1940.
The survey in Muskegon was an enumeration of every third dwelling unit
throughout the city, of which two-iifths were rental units in May 1941. Included
in the estimated total of 5,500 rental units were about 400 units added during the
period; about 40 by new construction, 80 by conversion of old structures, and 280
by change from owner occupancy. These were not aU net additions since some
may have taken the place of other rental units. The average rent of the added
units, $25.80 was about $3.50 higher .than the average for all rental units.
About seven-tenths of the old rental units were occupied by the same tenants
throughout the 14 months; and the remainder were either occupied by different
tenants or were unoccupied at the end of the period.
Changes in structure, facilities, or in service items included in the rent had been
made by landlords in about 5 percent of the old rental dwellings. Such changes
were more frequent in units where the tenant had changed than in units occupied
by the same tenants.
Federal Works Agency,
Work Projects Administration,
Division of Research,
Additional School Needs in Muskegon
[Interoffice memorandum!
Federal Works Agency,
Washington, September 22, 1941.
To: Albert J. Horn, supervisor, area No. 3.
From: Eugene A. Krauss, housing manager, Muskegon, Mich.
Subject: Public Works Administration grant No. MICH. 20-132 for addition to
Glenside School.
I have a letter from Township Supervisor, Joseph F. Cihak, Jr., copy of which is
attached. I had requested this because of the bearing it might have on out
township Public Works Administration application for an addition to Glenside
School.
I agree with Mr. Cihak that about 70 percent of Muskegon's industrial popu-
lation are engaged either directly or indirectly in defense activity and therefore
some 80 defense workers in this area in addition to the 300 families on the project
will require school racilities for their children.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7731
If there is anj- additional information you might desire that might be helpful
in bringing about a favorable decision regarding the application for the addition
to the Glenside School, we would appreciate it very much.
[Interoffice memorandum]
Federal Works Agency,
Washington, September 3, 1941-
To: Albert J. Horn, supervisor, area No. 3.
From: Eugene A. Krauss, housing manager, Muskegon, Mich.
Subject: Consumers' Services — Addition to Glenside school, Muskegon Town-
ship, confirming telephone conversation, September 3, 1941, with Phil Wagner,
liasion and management, area No. 3.
I have been informed that the Detroit area office of Public Works Administration
last week submitted to Washington for consideration local township board's
request for addition to the Glenside School consisting of some 15 rooms and to
cost in the neighborhood of $400,000. In its present form application includes
auditorium and gymnasium. Same was not part of my recommendation to the
school board as I am more concerned with the basic need for education. In my
opinion a 12-room addition is an irreducible minimum and the 15-room addition
asked for is not out of line.
Whatever can be done to facilitate this much needed consumers' service with or
without an auditorium and gymnasium would be greatly appreciated by the
tenants in and applicants for housing in the project.
[Copy]
August 21, 1941.
Mr. Eugene Krauss,
Federal Housing Project,
Hackley Avenue, Muskegon, Mich.
Dear Mr. Krauss: We have made applications through the Public Works
Administration for a grant to erect a school building directly across from the
Federal housing project to care for the children from the project. It is my under-
standing that we may expect between 400 and 450 children from these apartments
to enroll in our school sometime early this fall. The school board of Muskegon
Township, school district No. 1 would certainly appreciate any eS"ort the Federal
Housing Authority might put forth to facilitate our securing this grant from the
Federal Government. We feel, and I am certam that you feel the urgency of this
situation. Without this grant from the Federal Government it is going to be
physically impossible for us to adequately and satisfactorily educate the children
from school district No. 1 which now includes the Federal housing project. It
would be my opinion that without satisfactory school facilities in the district,
you are going to find a serious problem in renting the apartments that you have
available.
Because our success or failure in securing this Federal grant for a school is of
such vital concern, I am WTiting you to inforna you that we have naade this request
and to date have received no commitments regarding it. Anything you may do
to help us in this matter will be appreciated.
Sincerely yours,
M. N. McIlwain,
President of the Board of Education,
Muskegon Township, School District No. 1.
[Copy of memo]
Defense Housing Division of Federal Works Agency,
Industrial Defense Housing,
Muskegon, Mich., July 14, 1941.
To: Sherwood L. Reeder, assistant director of defense housing.
From: Eugene A. Krauss, housing manager, Muskegon, Mich.
Subject: Construction of schools under H. R. 4545.
Several night sessions and day conferences with Muskegon Township school
board, together with Watkins, local Public Works Administration representative,
James Ten Brink, commissioner of schools, and others.
7732 DETKOIT HKARINGS
Mr. Ten Brink came in early July 1, 1941, quite perturbed because June 30,
1941, story in Muskegon Chronicle gave him the impression that a recreation
center only would be built, which, from previous contact, he had gathered this
had been the judgment of Mr. Moore of the Washington Office of Education.
Got him straightened out.
Copies attached, showing his letter to Mr. Norman Borgesen and clipping later
the same day. School is more important, in my opinion, than recreation center.
A local architect, Edwin Valentine, is drawing sketches of a 15-room addition to
Glenside School. Got contractor Dattner to let one of his men make a survey of
school grounds to help Mr. Valentine. The application to Public Works Admin-
istration for same will follow.
I suggested an underpass under road for safety of our children going to school.
Should Public Works Administration object to the cost (theyare trying to get
along-desired gymnasium and meeting hall as well as school addition at this time,
sensing a golden opportunity), I suggested they consider coming directly across
the street to put a community center at lower cubic-foot cost in what is now set
up as a commercial area on project, if that is permissible. If built across the
street on school ground, the auditorium would be of brick, but might cause the
cost to run too high thereby.
Kindergarten and nursery included in the contemplated 15-room addition.
Many widows work. Frequently both parents work, unlike United States Hous-
ing Authority experience.
Double shift contemplated at Glenside until and if above addition is O. K.'d
and built by say, December of this year. Glenside has been growing and that,
together with project children makes double shift the lesser of two evils, preferable
to transportation of pupils to Muskegon schools. That is, looking from the eyes
of Muskegon Township and of Mr. Ten Brink, because it must be admitted there
is a lot of jealousy between the city and county. City has 17 vacant classrooms
within a mile and a quarter or so, but under circumstances shouldn't be used.
Mr. Mcllwain, township board member as well as personnel man at John Wood
Manufacturing Co. and president of personnel men's association contends city
might take pupils for a while and later dump them all back in lap of the township;
he and the rest feel that now is the chance to get additional rooms for school,
even although payment in lieu of taxes is inadequate.
BtriLDiNG Activity in Muskegon Township
[Copy]
Muskegon Township,
Muskegon County, Mich., August 11, 1941.
Mr. Eugene A. Krauss,
Manager of Defense Housing,
Muskegon, Mich.
Dear Mr. Krauss: Muskegon Township reports the following building
activity for the first 7 months of 1941: 117 new houses with a permit value of
$207,512.. . . ,. , . . . ,. K
We believe this tremendous building activity which is increasing month by
month is due to the defense activity in the Greater Muskegon area. Our estimate
is that 70 percent of Muskegon's industrial population are engaged either directly
or indirectly in defense activity.
Very truly yours, ^ ^
Joseph I. Cihak, Jr.
RECREATION
I Interoffice memorandum]
Federal Works Agency,
Washington, September S, 1941.
To: Albert J. Horn, supervisor, area No. 3.
From: Eugene A. Krauss, housing manager, Muskegon, Mich.
Subject: Consumers' Services— Recreation. Confirming telephone conversation,
September 3, 1941, with Phil Wagner, liaison and management, area No. 3.
Although not nearly as important as the other consumers' services noted in
letters of this date such as addition to Glenside School across the street and de-
NATIONAL DEFENSE MldnATTON 7733
cision as to the use of the so-called commercial area, I would like to be advised aa
to the possibilities of recreation as outlined in the good letter dictated by Joseph
S. Niles and signed by myself dated August 25.
[Interoffice memorandum]
Federal Works Agency,
M^ashington, September 3, 1.941-
To: Albert J. Horn, supervisor, area No. 3.
From: Eugene A. Krauss, housing manager, Mich. 20031, Muskegon, Mich.
Subject: Consumers' Services— Commercial area. Confirming telephone con-
versation, September 3, 1941, with Phil Wagner, liaison and management, area
No. 3.
To revise my letter of August 21 to the effect that if area now shown on plan as
"Commercial area" is not to be used for commercial purposes, suggest that it be
used as a park area, inexpensively shrubbed and planted with grass seed.
You have in your files a letter from Omar P. Stelle, president, Real Estate Ex-
change Corporation, Muskegon, Mich., dated May 6, 1941, expressing a desire to
build a commercial building directly across from the project if he is assured the
so-called commercial area shown on the plans will not be actually so used. He has
spoken several times to me on the above subject and while I hold no brief person-
ally for him nor for anv other individual who might want to put up a structure
in the vicinity of the pVoject, I feel it advisable to have an early decision as to
whether or not the commercial area is to be retained.
Please advise if commercial area is not to be retained, as to the alternate use of
the area.
Exhibit 42. — Housing Data and School Census of Muskegon
County, Mich.
report by james ten brink, superintendent op muskegon county public
schools, muskegon, mich.
August 7, 1941.
muskegon township, district no. 1
Three hundred new dwelling units are under construction here on the Govern-
ment reservation.
An increased school enrollment of 450 children is anticipated.
Fifty new homes have been erected or are under construction in this area.
Erection by private individuals.
School census: 1939, 701; 1940, 700; 1941, 687.
MUSKEGON TOWNSHIP, DISTRICT NO. 11
Building data: 1939, 27 new homes at a cost of $27,665; 1940, 40 new homes at
a cost of $40,587; 1941, 11 new homes at a cost of $11,525.
School census: 1939, 246; 1940, 256; 1941, 291.
MUSKEGON TOWNSHIP DISTRICT NO. 8
Building data: 1939, 11 new homes at a cost of $5,290; 1940, 18 new homes at a
cost of $10,507; 1941, 6 new homes at a cost of $8,030.
School census: 1939, 128; 1940, 168; 1941, 223.
MUSKEGON TOWNSHIP DISTRICT NO. 9
Building data: 1939, 7 new homes at a cost of $9,735; 1940, 31 new homes at
a cost of $24,504; 1941, 27 new homes at a cost of $21,757.
School census: 1939, 99; 1940, 99; 1941, 121.
FRUITPORT TOWNSHIP, DISIRICT NO. 5
Building data: 1939, 19 new homes; 1940, 28 new homes; 1941, 21 new homes.
School census: 1939, 187; 1940, 217; 1941, 264.
7^34 DETROIT HEARINGS
EGELSTON TOWNSHIP, DISTRICT NO. 1
Building data: 1939, 5; 1940, 46; 1941, 86.
School census: 1939, 202; 1940, 271; 1941, 308.
EGELSTON TOWNSHIP, DISTRICT NO. 4
Building data: 1939, 39; 1940, 39; 1941, 38.
School census: 1939, 123; 1940, 134; 1941, 143.
NORTON TOWNSHIP, DISTRICT NO. 2
Building data: 1939, 25; 1940, 27; 1941, 56.
School census: 1939, 295; 1940, 297; 1941, 352.
NORTON TOWNSHIP, DISTRICT^NO. 3
Building data: 1939, 20; 1940, 27; 1941, 32.
School census: 1939, 235; 1940, 269; 1941, 293.
NORTON TOWNSHIP, DISTRICT NO. 5
Building data (estimated): 1939, 8; 1940, 10; 1941, 7.
School census: 1939, 168; 1940, 149; 1941, 167.
NORTON TOWNSHIP, DISTRICT NO. 6-F
Building data: 1939, 40; 1940, 65; 1941, 50.
School census: 1939, 233; 1940, 277; 1941, 378.
MUSKEGON TOWNSHIP, DISTRICT NO. 6-F
Building data: (No data available).
School census: 1939, 100; 1940, 99; 1941, 109.
LAKETON TOWNSHIP, DISTRICT NO. 3
Building data: (No data available).
School census: 1939, 104; 1940, 94; 1941, 99.
LAKETON TOWNSHIP, DISTRICT NO. 7-P
Building data: (No data available).
School census: 1939, 79; 1940, 86; 1941, 82.
Exhibit 43. — Defense Employment in Kalamazoo, Mich.
Kalamazoo Chamber of Commerce,
Kalamazoo, Mich., July 9, 1941.
Dr. Paul Sangren,
President, Western Michigan College,
Kalamazoo, Mich,
Dear Mr. Sangren: In response to your request that I accunaulate informa-
tion concerning industrial defense production, I state that I have telephoned
responsible persons in the following firms and show by table their answers:
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7735
Firm
Number
employees
July 1940
Number
employees
July 1941
Percent
man-hours
on defense
Button Co
Fuller Manufacturing Co
Checker Cab Manufacturing. .
Clarage Fan
Allen Electrical & Equipment
Shakespeare Co
General Gas Light
Atlas Press Co
Martinson Machine
Ingersoll Steel & Disc
Kalamazoo Stamping & Die...
U. S. Foundry
Bowers Tool & Die
Reed Foundry
Star Brass
Riverside Foundry
Globe Pattern
Kalamazoo Foundry
Kalamazoo Screw Products. _.
Kalamazoo Railway Supply ^.
66
341
684
201
103
293
225
300
20
250
30
80
18
75
5
105
4
60
17
50
100
515
436
380
140
600
185
400
20
350
40
120
33
138
60
140
4
60
28
35
50
11
80
1 10 and 15
22
2 15
85
95
20
70
30
90
75
20
75
50
5
55
75
1 To National Youth Administration and Civilian Conservation Corps schools for instruction.
2 Serving other defense industries; no priority.
3 Estimated.
Kalamazoo Stove & Furnace Co. has had some defense business; not now active,
but trying to get more.
This sums up to be the equivalent of about 1,780 employees on defense work.
There are undoubtedly some more, but detecting where they are is difficult.
Very truly yours,
Kalamazoo Chamber of Commerce,
By E. S. Weber, General Manager.
Exhibit 44. — Nondefense Industrial Problem in Muncie, Ind.
report by lester c. bush, manager, mxjncie chamber of commerce, inc.,
muncie, ind.
August 19, 1941.
Our estimate that from 8,000 to 10,000 people would be thrown out of work in
case the Henderson plan is made fully effective, is probably low. Fact is that
unless defense business in sufficient quantity is given our local manufacturers, in
the event of effectiveness of the Henderson plan, Muncie and its business life
would be seriously and disastrously affected, and employment here would be at
an exceedingly low figure.
>■ As we point out in letters, etc., attached, since January 1, and until August 1,
Muncie industries have had about $10,000,000 worth of prime and subcontract
business, all of a total of $85,000,000 which is the average rate of manufactured
production now, considered upon an annual basis. Therefore, you can readily
see that curtailment of nondefense business here would practically put us out of
business.
All we ask for is replacement of nondefense business with defense orders, to keep
our factories in operation and our employees at work. Any other course would
be ruinous to us.
7736 DETROIT HEARINGS
(Accompanying the above report were the following enclosures:)
Office op Production Management,
Washington, D. C, August IS, 1941.
Mr. Lester C. Bush,
Secretary, Cooperative Committee of Muncie, Ind.
Dear Mr. Bush: Your letter of July 28 addressed to Hon. Harry Hopkins has
been referred to me for reply.
Various members of my staff have already conferred with representatives of
the workers at the Warner gear plant. We are giving every consideration to this
situation in Muncie, which has been called to our attention. We will endeavor
to secure, insofar as possible, defense contracts or subcontracts for those com-
panies which are forced to curtail production because of priorities on strategic
materials.
We would appreciate your sending us as soon as possible a list of the various
industries in Muncie, showing the number of workers employed in each plant.
We should also like to know the approximate number of workers which may„be
laid off because of materials shortages. In addition, we should like to have a
detailed statement of the various raw materials which industries in your commu-
nity have been unable to secure or will be unable to secure in the near future.
Sincerelv yours,
J. Douglas Brown,
Chief, Priorities Branch, Labor Division.
Muncie Chamber ok Commerce, Inc.,
Miincie, Ind., August 18, 1941-
Mr. J. Douglas Brown,
Chief, Priorities Branch, Labor Division,
Office of Production Management, Washington, D. C.
Dear Mr. Brown: Since I am secretary of the Cooperative Committee of
Muncie (nonpaying) and manager of the Muncie Chamber of Commerce (paying
job) I am answering your letter of the 13th instant about nondefense production
here.
I am glad to know that members of your staflF conferred with workers' repre-
sentatives of the Warner gear division lately. I had been so informed.
Herewith am sending list of our industries together with average employment
figures.
The average total employment here now is 16,000 in industry of all kinds
according to our latest check which was last month. There hasn't been much
change either up or down since. Up to date, exclusive of Chevrolet Muncie
division. General Motors Corporation, makers of aluminum forgings and trans-
missions, and the Delco Remy battery division. General Motors Corporation,
Muncie industries have had approximately $10,000,000 worth of prime and sub-
contracts since January 1. Much of this total has already been produced.
Total figures on local General Motors plants defense business are not obtainable
because the local managers do not know what proportion is defense and nondefense
business. It is likely that the central office, General Motors Corporation,
Detroit, is able to segregate this business.
The average rate of annual manufactured production here now is on a basis
of about $85,000,000, therefore, you can readily see that many of our plants
would be directly and seriously affected in case of drastic reduction in materials
and supplies to them because' of their nondefense production. Such reduction
would probablv directly affect from 8,000 to 10,000 employees.
As manv of our plants are in metal production of one description or another,
they would need continuous supply of steel, scrap, copper, brass, etc., mainly,
and a continuous flow of defense orders.
From two to three times a week this office sends to a list of about 60 rhanufac-
turers the bulletin information of the Defense Contract Service, Office of Produc-
tion Management, Chicago office. Some of our industries have benefited from it.
If an orderly change-over from nondefense to defense business is worked out,
we won't have any difficulties at Muncie, and that is what should be done. We
cannot overcome overnight the neglect and mistakes of the past 8 years in not
properly preparing during that time for the defense of our country. Further-
more, we cannot afford to throw millions of our people in this country out of work
at this time; the consequences upon our country and its people would be disastrous.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7737
Mr. Henderson's plan, if put into drastic and violent effect at this time, probably
will cause much suffering, strife, and likely an uprising among our people. There
is no need nor good reason for such disruptive and detrimejital plans for defense
purposes or in its name.
Washington must know by this time that the small industries and businesses
of our country are its backbone. Without them and their employees, our country
cannot survive. Muncie is a small industry town; its industries make more than
200 different articles of commerce, and some of these articles are shipped through-
out the world in normal times. There are hundreds of such cities in this country.
If I can give you any additional information please let me know.
Sincerely,
Lester C. Btjsh, Manager.
[Copy]
Office of Production Management,
Washington, D. C, August 12, 1941.
Mr. Lester C. Bush,
Secretary, Cooperative Committee of Muncie,
Muncie, Ind.
Dear Mr. Bush: I have your letter of July 28 enclosing resolutions adopted
by the Cooperative Committee of Muncie, Ind., concerning a suggested 50 per-
cent curtailment of automobile production.
This office is carefully examining this problem with a view to assuring the
achievement of defense objectives with a minimum dislocation of labor. It is a
matter of the deepest concern to me.
We are glad to have your comments on the effect of the suggested curtailment
on employment, pay rolls, and industrial production in Muncie. Please be as-
sured that whatever decision may be adopted, it will be arrived at only after
most mature deliberation and after giving full weight to the considerations you
point out.
Sincerely yours,
Sidney Hillman.
Muncie Chamber of Commerce, Inc.,
Muncie, Ind., August 16, 1941.
Hon. Sidney Hillman,
Associate Director, Office of Production Management,
Washington, D. C.
Dear Mr. Hillman: Acknowledging your letter of the 12th instant, in which
you say that proposed curtailment of nondefense production "is a matter of the
deepest concern to me."
We fully appreciate your difficulties together with others concerned in this
problem.
You know that the livelihood of thousands of employees and their dependents
is of the greatest concern to us here, hence our most active and aggressive interest
in preventing the closing down of factories and the consequent loss of employ-
ment to thousands of people in this city and county.
Not only are the industries and their employees affected but also general busi-
ness and the great body of our taxpayers, all of which deeply concerns us too.
We reiterate the point of our resolutions that we "strenuously and vigorously
oppose such proposed curtailment of nondefense production in our industries until
such time as sufficient national-defense business is placed with such industries
and their employees as to offset and prevent the closing down of any Muncie
industries or any part thereof, and consequent unemploj^ment of their employees,"
and we mean every word of it.
To throw thousands of our people out of work now when they have only had
about 3 months of full employment, it seems to us, would be almost treasonable
and certainly would amount to a high crime against them. We have already
had in the past 8 years, too much unemployment in this country considering the
fact that we live in the greatest and richest nation on earth.
The greatest freedom we can have beyond our citizenship in this country is the
right of an equal opportunity for all of our citizens to have gainful employment to
provide the necessities of life.
7738 DETROIT HEARINGS
To deprive any of our people now, or at any time, of such rights amounts
eventually to destroying our country. Of what use are the so-called four free-
doms if the fredom of the right to work and obtain a living is destroyed?
Surely someone in Washington has found out by this time that this country
survives and lives because of small business and its resultant employment.
Muncie is a small-industry town. We have about 100 industries and the greatest
employment in any one factory now is 3,000. We produce more than 200 differ-
ent articles of commerce, some of which, in normal times, are sold throughout the
world. Our industrial people are now making a monthly average of $2,000,000
in pay rolls, the highest in the history of this community. Our industrial business
now is running at the average annual rate of $85,000,000 and less than 15 percent
of it is national-defense business. Every one of our industries is eager and
willing to do national-defense business of some kind or other.
How can our people pay taxes, buy bonds, and make a living for themselves
and their dependents, if they cannot have work?
About 16,000 of our people here and in surrounding territory work in Muncie
factories. They must have work to live and do all of the other things required
of them in these times. All we ask is that orderly change-over from nondefense
to defense work be pursued to prevent closing of any of our factories and unemploy-
ment of our people.
Sincerely,
Lester C. Bush, Secretary.
Cooperative Committee op Muncie, Ind.
Organizations represented in the Cooperative Committee of Muncie (four
members each) are:
City of Muncie, Ind.; Delaware County Farm Bureau; Delaware County
Industrial Union Council; Muncie Central Labor Union; Muncie Chamber of
Commerce, Inc.; Muncie Merchants Association, Inc.; Muncie Ministerial Asso-
ciation; Muncie Real Estate Board; Vocational Department, City Schools;
Center Township trustee; Center Township assessor; county board of commis-
sioners; county council; and Muncie Chamber of Commerce, the manager of which
is secretary of the committee.
letter sent to the president of the united states and members of
congress
Cooperative Committee of Muncie, Ind.,
July 28, 1941.
Dear Representative: I am directed to send you the enclosed resolutions
adopted by the above-named Cooperative Committee of Muncie, Ind., upon the
proposed Leon Henderson plan for curtailment of civilian-goods production.
Wish to advise that many of the large industries of Muncie are automotive-
parts producers. Curtailment of passenger-car and other civilian-goods produc-
tion, without first giving such industries national-defense orders to supplant
civilian-goods production, would result in closing down, partially or entirely, many
of Muncie's industries and consequent unemf)loyment for several thousand
employees.
Less than 15 percent of all Muncie manufactured products now is national-
defense business. About 16,000 people are now employed in Muncie industries;
monthly pay rolls average $2,000,000; and the value of Muncie manufactured
products now would average about $85,000,000 annually.
Obviously you can see the justice of points made in accompanying resolutions.
We hope that you will help curb the proposed Henderson plan until enough
national-defense business can be allotted to Muncie manufacturers to offset and
prevent loss of business by our industries and loss of employment by their
employees.
Thank j'-ou for consideration.
Yours sincerely,
Cooperative Committee of Muncie, Ind.,
Lester C. Bush, Secretary.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7739
RESOLUTIONS
Following are resolutions adopted bj' the Cooperative Committee of Muncie,
Ind., at meeting held at the Chamber of Commerce Building, July 25, 1941:
Whereas newspaper and radio commentators report that Leon Henderson,
Administrator, Office of Price Administration and Civilian Supply, is about to
curtail the production of civilian goods including passenger automobiles, by limi-
tation of and, in many instances, completely cut off supplies, equipment, and ma-
terial to nondefense industries and production; and
Whereas such proposed curtailment and cutting off of supplies, equipment, and
materials would result in closing down completely of more than one-half of the
industries of Muncie and the consequent unemployment of many thousands of
industrial employees; and
Whereas such unemployment would greatly increase the poor-relief taxes upon
all the people of Muncie and Center Township and otherwise create undue, violent,
disruptive, and detrimental effects upon industrial, wholesale, and retail business
of this community; and . . ,
Whereas such proposed curtailment of nondefense production by Muncie indus-
tries and employees is contrary to all human rights and privileges especially the
right of an equal opportunity for all of our citizens to have gainful employment
to provide the necessities of life: Therefore, be it
Resolved, That this committee hereby strenuously and vigorously opposes such
proposed curtailment of nondefense production in our industries until such time
as sufficient national-defense business is placed with such industries and their
employees as to offset and prevent the closing down of any Muncie industries or
any part thereof, and consequent unemployment of their employees; and
Resolved, That no such curtailment actions, disturbing and detrimental to our
ocal, State, and National welfare, be undertaken until the facts and necessities
therefor have been fully and exhaustively investigated and thereafter acted upon
by the Senate and the House of the Congress of the United States; and be it
further
Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be sent to the President of the United'
States: Associated Directors William S. Knudsen and Sidney Hillman, Office of
Production Management; Harry Hopkins, Office for Emergency Management;
Leon Henderson, Administrator, Office of Price Administration and Civilian Sup-
ply; Senators P'rederick Van Nuys and R. E. Willis; Representative R. S,
Springer; Hon. H. F. Schricker, Governor, State of Indiana; and Hon. Ira J.
Wilson, mayor, city of Muncie; the constituent organizations of this committee;
and the local newspapers.
Report on Cooperative Committee's Organization and Activities on
Defense Business
After conference between Congress of Industrial Organizations and Chamber
of Commerce representatives early in February, Cooperative Committee of Muncie
was formed with four representatives each from American Federation of Labor,
Industrial Union Council, city administration, chamber of commerce, and Mer-
chants Association. First meeting was held on Friday night, February 14.
Weekly meetings were held until March when bimonthly meetings began. On
April 11 the Farm Bureau, Real Estate Board, Ministerial Association, and
vocational department, city schools, were invited to join with four representatives
each, which invitation was accepted. At the August 8 meeting township trustee,
township assessor, and one representative each of county commissioners and
county council were invited to join committee's activities, which invitation has
been accepted.
Committee's decisions must be unanimous. A chairman is selected at each
meeting from representatives present. Nineteen meetings have been held to date.
CHAMBER supplies FINANCES AND SERVICES
The committee as such has no funds therefore, the chamber of commerce has
paid all expenses of every kind to date, amounting to several hundred dollars.
The chamber's manager has served as secretary to the committee, without pay,
and the chamber offices have been used for meetings without charge, all of which
the chamber has been glad to supply.
7740 DETROIT HEARINGS
NATIONAL-DEFENSE BUSINESS
Plans for obtaining more national-defense business were discussed at the first
meeting, Friday night, February 14, 1941. It was agreed that letters should be
sent to every industry in Muncie and Delaware County, offering the committee's
services in getting national-defense business. Letters were sent out and some
responses were received. Letters were also sent to Wm. S. Knudsen and Sidney
Hillman, associate directors, Office of Production Management; the President of
the United States; Senators Van Nuys and Willis; and Congressman Springer,
urging Muncie's needs for national-defense business. Letters were received from
each of parties mentioned, stating that Muncie and Delaware County industries
would receive consideration.
Letters were also sent to Morris L. Cooke and Robert Mehorney, of the labor
and defense contract services. Office of Production Management, asking their
assistance and replies were received assuring consideration.
Lists of Indiana national-defense contracts have been supplied to the com-
mittee as requested.
Letters were received from C. E. Wilson, president. General Motors Corpora-
tion, and A. P. Sloan's office, chairman, General Motors Corporation, in response
to committee inquiries, assuring it that city and county would be considered in
any corporation future developments.
Unemployment compensation statistics were sent to Messrs. Knudsen and
Hillman suggesting the need for national-defense business for city and county
industries. Replies stated that local needs would be considered.
Committee representatives attended Daniel Hoan meeting. Ball State Teachers
College, Friday night, March 14, because of Mr. Hoan's membership on the
National Defense Board's Advisory Council, and to provide a valuable contact
at Washington.
Pamphlets on selling to the Navy, Army purchase bulletin, and Treasury
Department's purchasing list were sent to all city and county industries for their
use in bidding on national-defense business.
Letters were read at March 28 meeting from Sidney Hillman, G. 0. Cox,
Washington, and A. L. Olson, Chicago, representing the Defense Contract Service,
Office of Production Management, regarding cooperation in getting national-
defense business for city and county.
About 50 local industries were asked for lists of their machine tool equipment,
and many responses were received. Some indicated that they were employed to
capacity while others were ready to accept additional business.
Several committeemen attended former Governor Townsend meeting at
Indianapolis, Thursday, April 3, to confer with him and Pearce Williams of
Labor Division, Office of Production Management, Washington. Assurances
were obtained from former Governor Townsend and Mr. Williams that local
industry interests would receive consideration.
The secretary, at chamber of commerce expense, contacted Maj. A. C. Ras-
mussen. Ordnance Department, Cincinnati office, looking for business. Assured
that local factories already had some ordnance business and others would get
contracts which has proven true in the instances of Muncie Gear, Glascock Bros.,
Durham, and others. Ordnance department now has a suboffice in Johnson
Building.
Prime and subcontracts. — About $10,000,000 worth of prime and subcontracts
for national-defense business have been given to Muncie and county industries
since January 1 and up to August 1. This figure docs not include defense business
at Chevrolet and Delco Remy where exact amounts of such business cannot be
determined.
Several plants have expanded because of defense business such as Muncie Gear,
Chevrolet, Durham, Maxon Premix, and others. Some plant facilities have been
largely employed on defense prime and subcontracts.
Defense contract service. — From two to three times per week during the past
3 months, the chamber of commerce has sent to a list of about 50 industries in the
city and county, the Defense Contract Service, Chicago, information about sub-
contract jobs available from different manufacturers in the several States covered
by the service.
Some business has been obtained by local manufacturers from the Service's
information. How much in dollars I am unable to say at this time. No accurate
figures are obtainable.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7741
Priorities. — We have assisted several manufacturers in supplying them with
information as to how and where priorities can be obtained. Certainly by now,
every manufacturer is well informed as to this subject. The difficulty usually
encountered is to get materials and supplies even though priorities have been
obtained, due to the increasing demand for defense materials and supplies, and
the lack of machine tools, materials and supplies now available. This situation
is not common to Muncie alone but prevails in every industrial section of the
country. Time alone can provide the remedies.
Washington trip. — While at Washington in the last days of April attending the
United States Chamber of Commerce meeting, I called on former Governor
Townsend, Pearce Williams, Senators Van Nuys and Willis, and Congressman
Springer, and others, and discussed Muncie's industrial situation. I received
assurance from all contacted that Muncie's interests would be given consideration.
Messrs. Fisher, Plymale, Sullivan, Herron and this writer, discussed Muncie's
industrial problems with Governor Schricker, at Indianapolis, during this period.
Industrial housing has been discussed at several meetings and R. Earl Peters,
director. Federal Housing Administration, Indianapolis, has said that a housing
survey of Muncie would shortly be made, to determine necessity for a defense-
housing area.
Henderson curtailment plan. — Attached hereto and made a part of this report
is a resolution unanimously adopted by the committee against the proposed Leon
Henderson plan for curtailment of nondefense industrial production.
It will be noted that the resolution specifically and "strenuously and vigorously
opposes such proposed curtailment of nondefense production in our industriee
until such time as sufficient national-defense business is placed with such indus-
tries and their employees as to offset and prevent the closing down of any Muncie
industries or any part thereof, and consequent unemployment of their employees."
These res'olutions were sent to every Senator and Congressman, the President
of the United States, Associate Directors William S. Knudsen and Sidney Hillman,
Office of Production Management; Harry Hopkins, Office for Emergency Manage-
ment; Leon Henderson, Administrator, Office of Price Administration and Civilian
Supply; Senators Van Nuys and Willis, Congressman Springer, Governor
Schricker, and Mayor Ira J. W^ilson.
I regard the Henderson plan for curtailment of nondefense industrial production
as the most important issue now before all of our citizens. If it should be put
into effect without first providing enough national-defense business to offset non-
defense losses, thousands of our industrial workers would literally be walking our
streets unemployed. I sincerely hope that some way or another can be devised
immediately to prevent such dire and undeserved consequences. There is no
need for such an unemployed situation to arise becuse plans can be worked out
to prevent such baleful happenings and still get desired defense production.
Everyone's energies and efforts should be immediately directed toward pre-
venting any unemployment whatsoever in this country. There is absolutely no
need for it under the circumstances, and an orderly change-over from nondefense
to defense business can be devised.
CONCLUSION
I have heard reports that some industries here do not want defense business.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Even a modicum of common sense
used would give the answer that anyone who could make an extra dollar now or
any other time would raise heaven and earth to do so.
The committee has handled many other subjects during its existence. Among
them are the resolutions against sale of oil and gasoline to Japan and "gasolineless"
Sundays; resolutions asking for a $2,000,000,000 reduction in the domestic
Federal Budget sent to all Senators and Representatives; daylight saving time
discussion; bootlegging of beer and liquor in city and county; county housing
authoritv management; living and housing costs here; widening of Mulberry
Street; and other important subjects affecting the lives and interests of the people
of our city and county.
In these stressful times there is great need for the exercise of plenty of patience
and forbearance among our people. Half-baked, spurious plans and ideas
should be given most careful examination.
7742
DETROIT HEARINGS
Exhibit 45. — Airplane Engine and Cargo Truck Manufacture
IN South Bend, Ind.
REPORT BY THE STUDEBAKER CORPORATION, SOUTH BEND, IND.
A brief summary of the defense activities of the Studebaker Corporation will
be helpful in understanding our position and the reasons why we do not have a
serious laboV migration problem.
At the present time the Studebaker Corporation is engaged in two major
defense activities. It is preparing to build Wright airplane engines for the
United States Air Corps, and it is producing 6 by 6 cargo trucks for the United
States Army.
The aviation engines are to be produced at three plants — South Bend, Chicago,
and Fort Wayne, respectively. Active construction of these three plants is
under way at the present time.
The Studebaker Corporation received an educational order for five hundred
6 by 6 Army cargo trucks. Production on this educational order started in June
and has been completed. Further orders calling for 4,960 trucks of the same
type and a supplementary order for 754 trucks have been received. Production
on the two subsequent orders started on September 15 and it is expected that the
orders will be completed before December 31.
The Army trucks are being produced on our truck assembly lines in South
Bend, lines capable of producing both civilian commercial units and Army units.
A study of special projects under consideration for the United States Army
is being carried out by our engineering staff at South Bend.
As can be seen from this summary, for the period under review Studebaker was
not engaged in actual defense work on a large scale, the bulk of its defense activi-
ties having consisted of development and construction work looking toward future
production. The construction work on the aviation engine plants is being done
by contractors and does not involve the use of Studebaker workers. The Army
truck educational order was the only defense work Studebaker engaged in during
the period which required the use of a part of its labor force.
1. Past and future employment. — It is believed that the most active picture as to
our past and future labor requirements can be given through the use of data
covering hourly workers only. In the absence of specific instructions on this
point, the information given applies only to such workers.
The following is a statement of the average number of workers on our pay roll,
by months, for the past year, that is, from August 1, 1940, to August 1, 1941,
classified as between our automobile and truck manufacturing plant operations
at South Bend, the automobile assembly plant operations as Los Angeles, and our
aviation engine division. Since the figures for the aviation division are small
no attempt is made to classify them as between the three aviation plants.
Automotive
division.
South Bend
Automotive
assembly
plant, Los
Angeles
Aviation
division
Total
August 1940
September 1940
October 1940. . .
November 1940
December 1940.
January 194 1_,.
February 1941_.
March 1941
April 1941
May 1941
Junel941_
July 1941..
5,573
7,099
7,164
7,161
7,227
5,835
6,734
7,261
7,511
7,684
7,803
7,589
129
392
438
429
427
336
333
340
360
358
360
354
10
10
28
44
63
75
97
124
164
5,702
7,491
7,602
7,600
7,664
6,199
7,111
7,664
7,946
8,139
8,287
8,107
The educational order for Army cargo trucks on which deliveries started in
June was manufactured coincidental with the production of civilian commercial
units. Because of the smallness of the order and the fact that the same labor
force produced both Army and civilian units, it would be difficult to segregate
for statistical purposes the exact number of men engaged in such defense produc-
tion. Accordingly, no attempt is made in the above table to make such a segre-
gation.
Future labor requirements for defense and civilian purposes necessarily depend
upon several factors:
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
7743
1. Any variation of future aviation engine production from schedules called
for by present plans.
2. The extent to which production of passenger cars and commercial vehicles
for civilian consumption may be further curtailed by reductions in the present
tentative quotas established by the Office of Production Management.
3. The extent to which Army cargo trucks may be produced beyond the quan-
tities called for in the orders we now have.
4. The amount of labor necessary to produce additional defense production
now under consideration.
These questions cannot be resolved for the purpose of making accurate esti-
mates at this time and we can, therefore, only submit estimates based on present
plans.
In considering these and subsequent figures, it should be noted that it is prob-
ably not practicable to transfer any appreciable number of our labor force from
the South Bend plants to defense activities in Chicago and Fort Wayne.
Our present plans call for eventual defense employment of hourly workers in
our aviation division as follows: South Bend, 4,500; Chicago, 4,000; Fort Wayne,
1,400.
This employment will be built up gradually from now until May 1942, at which
time we should reach the maximum employment called for by present plans.
Tentative quotas have been established by the Office of Production Manage-
ment for Studebaker passenger-car production, by months, through July of 1942.
If these quotas are adhered to, employment in our South Bend passenger car
division should decrease to a labor force of approximately 3,900 workers by July
of next year. Our truck division now employs approximately 1,500 men and
this force should be maintained at this level if additional Army truck orders are
received, or if the production of civilian commercial units is not sharply curtailed
in the future.
These figures on our requirements of hourly rate workers will be increased if
Studebaker receives orders for additional defense work.
This long-range estimate indicates that over a period of time Studebaker should
be in a position to absorb labor lay-offs due to decreased passenger-car produc-
tion into its defense activities. This is not so certain during the interim before
large-scale employment gets under way in the aviation division, but if additional
defense projects on which we are now working should materialize into actual
production, there should be no material temporary unemployment among the
Studebaker labor force.
The Los Angeles assembly plant is in approximately the same position. Cur-
tailment in passenger-car production will necessarily result in reduced labor
requirements in those plants. Subcontracting work appropriate to the facilities
of the Los Angeles plant, however, is under serious consideration and if work of
this kind is obtained, it seems very probable that no serious lay-off problem
should occur.
2. Hires. — Hires in South Bend, Los Angeles, and the Aviation Division have
been as follows during the pa'st year.
Automotive
division,
South Bend
Automotive
assemply
plant, Los
Angeles
Aviation
Division
August 1940
September 1940
1,526
65
• 263
46
October 1940 _
November 1940- . _ ..
10
December 1940- - .
66
January 1941
18
February 1941
899
527
250
173
119
16
March 1941
7
20
19
April 1941
12
May 1941
22
June 1941
2
27
July 1941
40
The hires in September 1940 resulted from increasing our labor force to build
up production following the August shut-down for new-model change-over pur-
poses. The increase in the labor force in the first part of 1941 also was necessi-
tated by increased production during that period.
As stated above, it is difficult to classify hires for the passenger car and truck
divisions as between men engaged for defense and nondefense activities. How-
60396— 41— pt. 18 44
7744
DETROIT HEARINGS
ever, the number of men hired for strictly defense work was small during that
period.
Transfers from the automotive division in South Bend to the aviation-engine
division in South Bend have been small during the period because of the lack of
demand for such workers from the latter division. Total transfers to September
10 amounted to but 47 workers.
3. Composition of labor force.— We regret that we cannot submit any recent
study as to the composition of our labor force. Studies have been made from
time to time covering the various points raised on matters in which the committee
is interested, but these are not sufficiently recent to be of present value.
Summary. — Studebaker believes that by a careful handling of its labor force
and its future production schedule it will not be faced with the prospect of having
a substantial number of men laid off as a result of the curtailment in passenger-
car production. Such a problem should not arise if passenger-car production ia
not decreased below the quotas now established for the 1942 model year.
The corporation feels that through a conscientious and careful effort it has to
a fair extent anticipated this problem and provided methods of meeting it in such
a way that no substantial amount of unemployment should result.
Exhibit 46. — Effect of Cut in Automotive Output on Glass
Industry (A)
keport by h. h. baker, vice president, libbey-owens-ford glass co.,
toledo, ohio
September 15, 1941.
On the relation of employment in the plate-glass industry to employment in
the automobile industry, based on the statistical record of the last 5 years: (These
figures cover our total employment; however, Shreveport and Parkersburg have
very little to do with the manufacture of glass for the automotive industry.)
1936
1937
1938
1939
1940
No. 1. Charleston .
1,210
410
294
1,001
1,131
1,438
1,530
1,680
611
279
944
1,735
1,292
1,402
933
453
169
617
1,237
834
699
1,268
490
186
765
1,406
1,184
1,044
1,498
544
184
No 4 East Toledo
1,074
No. 5 and 7. Ottawa
1,336
No. 6. Rossford --
1,277
No. 8. Toledo Safety Glass -
1,002
Total --
7,014
7,943
4,942
6,343
6,915
A tabulation for the last 12 months, giving monthly employment in each of
our plants and indicating what proportion of employment in each plant may be
allocated to employment for the automobile industry is attached.
This distribution, showing the allocation of employees to the automobile
industry, is necessarily an arbitrary distribution, in cases where the plant is not
wholly concerned with the production of glass for the automobile trade. How-
ever, it represents our best judgment.
A forecast of employment in each of these plants extended as much as possible,
taking into account the recently announced cut in automobile production, follows:
No. 6. Rossford 1,047
No. 8. Toledo Safety Glass 718
Total 4, 38H
No. 1. Charleston 1,211
No. 2. Shreveport 333
No. 3. Parkersburg 175
No. 4. East Toledo 902
Nos. 5 and 7. Ottawa
The main production facilities of the flat glass industry, and of Libbey-Oweus-
Ford Glass Co. in particular, are not easily adjusted to defense production, except
as it involves the production of glass products. At the present time we are
manufacturing glass for airplanes, tank mirrors, periscope lenses, searchlight
segments, porthole lights, glass for cantonments, mirrors for cantonments,
observation towers, gas-mask lenses, screens for ttuoroescent lighting, etc.
We are at the present time exploring the possibility with the airplane manu-
facturers for the probable assembly of canopies. We are also exploring the
possibility of additional machine-shop work, to absorb what may be excess
capacity. It is practically impossible at this time to estimate the number of
employees that might be involved in such work.
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION 7745
Libbey-Owens-Ford Glass Co. employment data, September 1940 through August 1941
1940
September —
October
November
December
1941
January
February
March--
April
May- -
June
July..
August
Average
No. 1 Charleston
Total em-
ployees
1,419
1,584
1,710
1,809
1,819
1,792
1,789
1,855
1,860
1,859
1,884
1,953
1,778
Allocated
employees
to auto-
mobile
industry
596
649
701
579
546
466
501
612
595
521
528
644
578
No. 2 Shreveport
Total em-
ployees
Allocated
employees
to auto-
mobile
industry
506
599
604
509
511
507
504
502
505
510
616
629
542
No. 3 Parkersburg
Total em-
ployees
207
172
160
152
147
130
144
140
150
149
156
223
161
Allocated
employees
to auto-
mobile
industry
No. 4 East Toledo
Total em-
ployees
1,125
1,118
1,108
1,098
1,109
1,111
1,114
1,116
1,159
1,163
1,155
1,171
1,129
Allocated
employeea
to auto-
mobile
industry
855
559
1,075
1,087
876
878
925
870
811
768
785
785
856
1940
September —
October
November
December
1941
January
February
March
April
May- -.-
June
-luly--
August
Average
Nos. 5 and 7 Ottawa
Total em-
ployees
1,313
1,390
1,370
1.377
1,362
1,301
1,590
1,591
1,655
1,636
1,587
1,242
1,451
Allocated
employees
to auto-
mobile
industry
1,313
1,390
1,370
1,377
1,362
1,301
1,590
1,591
1,655
1,636
1,587
1,242
1,451
No. 6 Eossford
Total em-
ployees
1,288
1,308
1,354
1,396
1,423
1,402
1,434
1,458
1,455
1,498
1,473
1,454
1,412
Allocated
employees
to auto-
mobile
industry
863
1, 125
1.070
1.201
1,281
1,122
1,075
1,123
1,149
1,109
928
1,003
1,087
No. 8 Toledo Safety
Glass
Total em-
ployees
900
927
945
956
981
986
995
994
1,000
995
973
971
968
Allocated
employees
to auto-
mobile
industry
783
779
841
851
834
878
905
875
870
836
632
728
819
Summary
Total em-
ployees
6,758
7,098
7,251
7,297
7,352
7,229
7,570
7,656
7,784
7,810
7,844
7,643
7,441
Allocated
employees
to auto-
mobile
industry
4,410
4,502
5,057
5,095
4,899
4.645
4,996
5,071
5,080
4,870
4,460
4,402
4,791
Exhibit 47. — Effect of Cut in Automotive Output on Glass
Industry (B)
keport by leland hazard, general counsel, pittsburgh plate glass co.,
pittsburgh, pa.
September 16, 1941.
Thiy company operates si.x flat glass plants- — ^three producing plate glass and
three producing slieet (window) glass; both ]wlished plate glass and sheet glass
are used to produce laminated safety glass for automotive vehicles.
A recapitulation for all flat glass plants will show that a of total of 7,839 employ-
ees, 49 percent, or 3,858 are engaged in production of glass for automotive vehicles,
and that the numl)er of these employees will decrease in direct proportion to the
decrea.se in production of automotive vehicles.
Attached is a chart showing comparison of employment in the automotive
industry and employment in the flat glass division of Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co.
for the years 1936 to 1940, both inclusive. This chart constitutes graphic evidence
that unemployment in the flat glass division of Pittsburgh Plate Cdass Co. bears
a direct relationshij) to reduction in automotive production.
The following tabulation will indicate the extent to which facilities of this com-
pany are now engaged or may be engaged in direct defense work.
7746
DETROIT HEARINGS
Unit
Number of
employees
Percent
engaged
in direct
defense
work
Percent
available
for direct
defense
work
Machine shop No. 2, Ford City, Pa.
Machine shop No. 9, Crystal City, Mo
Machine shop No. 1, Creighton, Pa
Works No. 6, Ford City, Pa. (optical glass, other special glasses, e.g.,
port lights) ^
Works No. 4, Ford City, Pa. (bent safety glass for airplanes, para-
bolic reflectors, etc)
217
60
22
626
1,800
We regard the flat glass industry as an essential industry. Glass products
are going directly and indirectly into the national-defense program. A partial
list of the uses includes airplanes, naval vessels, military trucks and motorized
equipment, optical glass, gas masks, glazing for airports and hangars, glazing for
factories producing military supplies, glazing for Army cantonments and defense
housing, glazing for transportation equipment, etc. Despite the foregoing, the
fact remains that a total curtailment of automotive production would directly
and indirectly dislocate approximately 4,000 of this company's emplo.yees; a 50
percent reduction in automotive production will dislocate approximately 2,000
of this company's employees. The number dislocated at any intermediate point
can be readily determined. At a number of plant locations this companj^ pro-
vides practically the only source of employment, with the result that suspension
of operations would seriously disrupt the local economy.
Concerning the extent to which the glass industry in general, and this com-
pan3' in particular, is adaptable to defense production and a forecast for the next
12 months in that regard, we regret to state that so far as we know, plant equip-
ment for the production of flat glass is not convertible to other uses, either mili-
tary or nonmilitary. In modern production of flat glass a continuous tank
operation is involved. The molten glass flows from a continuously operated
tank onto and through annealing lehrs designed, in the case of plate glass, to
produce a rough rolled glass, and in the case of sheet glass, to produce a fire-
finished product. To produce polished plate glass the rough rolled glass is passed
to grinding and polishing tables, where the final finished surface is produced by
abrasive and polishing wheels.
This company is devoting intensive efforts in research, development, and
technical application of glass products to defense purposes, and is making every
effort to cooperate in every way with the defense program. The fact remains,
however, that there are inherent limitations in the equipment essential to the
production of flat glass which probably preclude any conversion of that equip-
ment to other defense purposes.
Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co.
RECAPITULATION, ALL FLAT-GLASS PLANTS
[Record of actual average employment for 12 months ended Aug. 31, 1941, and forecast of unemployment
incident to proposed curtailment of automotive production ']
Number of
employees
1
Percent
engaged
in automo-
tive glass
produc-
tion
2
Number
engaged
in automo-
tive glass
produc-
tion
3
The employ-
ment shown
in column 3
will be reduced
in direct ratio
to the reduc-
tion of auto-
motive pro-
duction
4
Works No. 1
2, 123
1.760
2,202
492
452
810
87
12
61
22
36
23
1,847
211
1,343
108
163
186
Works No. 9
Works No. 10
Works No. 11
Works No. 12
Total
7,839
49
3,858
' The employment figures above and in tables following reflect full-day continuous employment per man.
XATIONAL DEFENSE MIGRATION
Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co. — Continued
'SVORKS 1— PLATE GLASS; CREIGHTON, PA.
7747
1940
September
October
November.
December
1941
January
February
March
April
May
June
July ----
August
Average ---
1
Number of
employees
Percent en- Number en-
gaged in gaged in
automotive automotive
;lass pro- glass pro
duction duction
1,953
2,023
2,083
2,201
2, 367
2,366
1, 984
1,892
1,946
2,022
2,254
2,323
2,123
78
85
113
71
103
76
100
87
103
81
59
82
1,520
1,720
2,360
1,600
2,440
1,800
],984
1,640
2,010
1,640
1,320
1,900
1,847
After 50 percent
curtailment of
automotive
production,
the employ-
ment shown in
column 3 vcill
be reduced by
50 percent
WORKS 4— PLATE GLASS; FORD CITY, PA.
1940
September
October
November.
December
1941
January
February
March.
April
May
June
July
August
Average -.
1, 648
1,597
1,724
1,767
1,785
1,750
1,702
1,819
1,835
1,801
1,837
1,854
1, 760.
165
224
208
300
286
175
290
237
220
198
129
185
WORKS 9— PLATE GLASS; CRYSTAL CITY, MO.
1940
September
October
November
December
1941
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August..
Average
2,233
2,271
2,264
2,236
2,207
2,194
2,178
2,174
2,189
2,200
2,211
2,070
2,202
51
1,140
55
1,250
58
1,310
77
1,720
75
1,660
43
945
76
1,660
58
1,260
66
1,440
66
1,450
49
1,080
50
1,035
1,343
7748
DETROIT HEAK1^'GS
Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co.- — Continued
WORKS 10— SHEET GLASS; HENRYETTA, OKLA.
1
Number of
employees
2
Percent en-
gaged in
automotive
glass pro-
duction
3
Number en-
gaged in
automotive
glass pro-
duction
4
After 50 percent
curtailment of
automotive
production,
the employ-
ment shown in
column 3 will
be reduced by
50 percent
1940
September
538
508
482
486
483
492
477
481
470
502
486
499
29
15
23
16
19
17
24
25
29
26
20
19
156
76
111
78
87
84
114
120
137
130
97
95
October
November
December..-
1941
January
February.
March
April
May
June
July
August.^
Average
492
22
108
WORKS 11— WINDOW GLASS; MOUNT VERNON, OHIO
1940
September
474
474
473
461
472
447
419
422
428
424
465
461
34
36
30
33
37
34
41
45
39
39
37
24
161
171
142
152
175
152
172
189
167
166
172
111
October .
November
December.
1941
January. . .
February
March _
April
May
June
July
August.
Average
452
36
163
WORKS 12— WINDOW GLASS; CLARKSBURG,
W. VA.
September
1940
671
775
820
857
878
890
866
791
793
796
778
800
32
26
27
22
17
19
30
.26
22
22
21
19
214
201
221
188
149
169
260
206
175
176
163
152
October
November
December.. __ _
January
1941
February
March
April
May
June .;.
July....
August... -. .--
Average
810
23
186
NATIONAL DEFENSE MIGItATION
7749
Pittsburgh Plate: Glass Co
CoMPARfsorsT Of Employment
Automotive Industry Employees.
No. Of Effpioius.
S^o.ooe
^^oocoo
9«ee
gooe
looe
6etoo
1931
saooo
CuAve Constructed From Data
OF BvfiiSAv Or LABOR SrATISrics.
1939
394000
I93£
305,000
Flat ^lassPivisjon Of PmsBvRQH Piate 5las5 Co.
/94.0
8l?l
CuRv:: Constructed
From Compamy Records,
)9Jg
S746
9- IS '4-1
INDEX
Agriculture. (Testimony and exhibits under this head are printed in
pt. 19.)
Aircraft industry (see also Buffalo plan; Employment; Vocational training) : Page
Bomber blue-print requirements 7372
Cargo planes 7237-7238
Classification of work 7295-7296
Conversion problems 7234-7236
Factors involved in supplying labor needs 7294-7295
Freezing of models to expedite production 7237
Two categories of production 7296-7297
Value of inventory of skills 7303
Welding not satisfactory as substitute for riveting 7238
Allocations. {See Priorities.)
Alpena: Summary of defense problems 7126
Aluminum: Scrap-material uses 7239
Ann Arbor. {See under Unemployment compensation; Migration.)
Apprenticeship training. {See Federal Committee on Apprenticeship; see
also under Vocational training.)
Automobile Committee for Air Defense, work of, summarized 7318
Automobile industry (see also under Chrysler Corporation; Employment;
Ford Motors Co.; General Motors Corporation; Hudson Motor Car Co.;
Motor Wheel Corporation; Murray Corporation of America; Packard
Motor Car Co.):
Automobile stock pile 7433
Basis for production curtailment 7431-7432, 7459-7460
Bomber educational exhibit by 7372
Bomber-parts program 73 18-7322
Conversion to defense production 7269-7278, 7458-7459
Cooperation in defense program 7363-7364, 7372-7373, 7433-7434
Coordination of equipment urged 7267, 7268
Dealers estimated 7385-7386
Displacements. {See under Employnaent.)
European curtailment 7432
Motor-vehicle production 7260
Parts and equipment manufacturers:
Geographic concentration of 7310-731 2
Trends of defense employro.ent among 7311, 7666-7667
Production curtailment 7431, 7447, 7448, 7460
Statement of defense pohcy 7363-7364, 7665-7666
Suppliers estimated 7385-7386
Supply of parts for 7384-7385
Undercapacicy production charged 7267-7269
Automobile distributors. {Setr Priorities; Employment).
Battle Creek {see also under Migration; Population changes; Unemploy-
ment compensation) :
Community facility requirements 7712-7714
Effect of defense migration on schools 7714-7715
Report on defense production 7133-7137
Types of employment in 7175
Bay City (see also under Employment; Population changes; Unemployment
compensation) :
Defense problems of 7123
National-defense contracts 7697-7698
National-defense employment 7701
7751
7752 INDEX
Bay City {see also under Employment; Population changes; Unemployment
compensation) — Continued. Pag«
National-defense vocational training 7698-7701
Need for Federal aid to enlarge hospital facilities 7696-7697
"Black market" in materials, charged 7140-7141
Briggs Manufacturing Co.:
Discriminations by 7671
Employment forecasts 7666-7667
Vocational-training program 7662-7663
Buffalo plan (See also Pennsylvania silk workers) :
Discussed 1 7289
Program adopted 7487-7488, 7490-7493
Results accomplished 7491-7493, 7514
Buick Motor Car Co.:
Conversion of Flint plant, suggested 7271
Location of Chicago plant, explained 7269-7270
Census of manufactures 7427-7428
Chrysler Corporation:
Allotments, passenger-automobile production 7340
Anticipated lowest ebb of employment 7356
Applicants:
By job classification 7324—7325
By plant, sex, color, and residence 7322-7324
By State 7326
Bomber production 7320
Cooperation in bomber program 7372-7373
Defense and nondef ense employees, totals 7328
Defense conversion by 7215, 7328
Emploj'ee-reabsorption policy 7359
Equipment not convertible 7371
Estimated date of employee reabsorption 7357-7358
Facilities in defense production 7371
Future employee requirements 7328
Hires and separations. 7326-7327
Subcontractors employed by 7121-7139
Civil^Service Commission: Recruitment of civilian personnel 7490
Clare: Defense problems 7128
Community facihties: Costs per 100,000 population 7105
Commuting of workers:
Time-distance factors 7095, 7102, 7108
Transportation used 7095, 7099
Congress of Industrial Organizations. {See United Automobile, Aircraft,
and Agricultural Implement Workers.)
Contracts. {See Defense contracts.)
Copper industry:
Annual price averages 7533
Annual production and prices 7529-7530
Causes of unemployment in 7527
Development of..^ 7525-7526
Effect of ceiling on copper 7541-7542
Establishment of ceiling 7541, 7543
Government-purchase program 7448-7449
Impact of defense program on 7218-7219
Migration from area of 7231-7232
Population of ore-producing counties 7535
Price discrimination charged 7530
Probable effect of price increase 7530-7531
Production percentages, by States 7525
Production surveys .. " 7086-7087
Shortages 7454
Subsidy, as employment aid 7086-7087
Debt moratorium: Suggested for displaced labor 7265, 7288, 7291
Defense contracts {see also Office of Production Management) :
Amount of prime contracts 7078
.\ttitude of manufacturers toward 7146
INDEX 7753
Defense contracts {see also Office of Production Management) — Con. Psge
Awards, affected by wage levels 7141-7143
Awards, in State 7176, 7215-7216
Bidding decentralization suggested 7148-7149
Disadvantages of bidding system 7121
Effect on economv of Michigan 7074
Farming out advocated 7089-7090,7163
Incentives to subletting:
Increase in niunber and amount of prime contracts 7078,
7082-7083, 7089, 7207
Shorter production schedules 7090-7091, 7139
In Muskegon 7716-7719
In Saginaw 7703
Plant conversion not always practicable 7147
Pooling of facilities 7084
Relaxation of rules in priority unemployment centers 7207-7208
Speed in letting, as solution of labor problems 7120-7121
Subcontracting delays 7379
Subcontracting problems 7374-7375
Subletting, by Chrjsler Corporation 7139
Type of orders 7215-7216
Value of, estimated 7206
Zoning of labor communities, suggested 7141-7142
Defense conversion: Of idle plants in industrial centers, suggested 7215
Defense migration. (See Migration.)
Defense Planning Board : Creation advocated 7280
Defense Plant Corporation contracts (see also Defense plants) 7370
Defense plants: .
Criteria for location 7435
Location as affecting employment 7293-7295
Location of Ford bomber plant 7107-7108
Melrose Park plant. General Motors Corporation 7377
Ownership in United States when built under Defense Plant Corpora-
tion contracts 7370
Problems created by Government ownership 7377
Defense program:
Direct relief problems involved 7563-7564
Effect on economy of Michigan 7070-7077, 7194
Effect on Michigan Upper Peninsula 7540
Expenditures, Detroit area 7094
Federal aid required I^^^
Impact on copper industry 7218-7219
Impact on farm-labor situation 7219-7220
Lever to effect social objectives 7166
Michigan State planning 7087-7088
National expenditures 7436-7437
Proposals by United Automobile Workers 7265
Defense training. (See Vocational training.)
Department of Labor: Functions of Apprenticeship Section 7499
Detroit (see also Chrysler Corporation; Emploj^ment; Housing; Migration;
Relief; Schools; Unemployment compensation) :
Automobile industry in 7174
Automobile tool and die industry in 7159-7160
Business statistics, 8 months, 1941 7153-7154
Commuting area 7568
Cost of living index, 1914-41 7155
Defense-housing needs 7154-7155
Defense-housing projects 7248-7249
Displacements, anticipated 7408
Employment, parts and equipment manufacturers 7315-7316
Emplovment variations 74 15
Health budget, 1941-42 7604
Health-department facilities and equipment 7606-7608
Health-department technical personnel 7605-7606
7754 INDEX
Detroit — Continued. Page
Housing-commission program 7244-7249
Major migratory movements 7608
Migration survey 7216-7217
Migrant- worlver applicants 7178-7181
National-defense plant and contract expenditure 7094
Negro population 7246
Out-migration estimated 7154
Public-school financing 7649-7651
Reports on defense production in 7152-7156
Value of building permits, 1929-41 7156
Vocational training in Detroit 7221
Detroit Housing Commission {see also Housing) :
Allocations by United States Housing Authority 7249
Program of 7249
Discrimination:
Against:
Mexicans 7400
Negroes 7206, 7253, 7400, 7421, 7671
Nonresident citizens . 7085-7086
Minor factor in Michigan 7210
Relaxation of, in defense program 7206
Dislocations. (See under Employment.)
Division of Defense Housing Coordination {see also Housing) : Program for
Detroit area 7568-7569
Employment {see also under Briggs Manufacturing Co.; Chrysler Corpo-
ration; Ford Motor Co.; General Motors Corporation; Hudson Motor
Car Co.; Motor Wheel Corporation; Murray Corporation of America;
Nash-Kelvinator Co.; Packard Motor Car Co.; Work Projects Admin-
istration ; see also under name of city) :
Accuracy of labor estimates 7518
Aircraft industry: Shortages of skilled labor 7297
Anticipated increases, selected plants 7094
Applicants registering for ^ 7217, 7218
Automobile industry:
Automobile suppliers 7386-7386
Classification of employees 7313
Dislocations:
Automobile distributors 7174, 7208, 7381-7382
Automobile salesmen 7291-7292, 7382
Estimates:
Detroit area 7663-7664
Flint area 7261
Production quotas, as cause of 7171
Employee reabsorption 7357-7358, 7458
Employees, parts and equipment manvifacturing 7314-7317
Percent of workers transferrable to defense jobs 7286
Proportion of workers engaged 7174
Unemployment estimates:
Future 7077, 7122, 7261, 7262
Present 7261, 7077
Bufi'alo plan 7490, 7493
Cities and counties:
Bay City 7701
Flint 7175
Lansing 7175, 7312
Muskegon 7719,7720
Pontiac 7175
Saginaw 7175
Sturgis 7312
Marquette County 7528, 7534
Wayne County 7174
Copper industry 753 1, 7540
Cushions for unemployment 7387
Defense workers, Detroit area 7161
INDEX 7755
Employment — Continued.
Dislocation estimates: In — rag«
Bay City-Midland area 7188, 7189, 7193
Detroit 7188,7189-7192,7261-7262
Flint 7188,7189-7192,7261
Grand Rapids 7188, 7189, 7193
Lansing 7188, 7189, 7262, 7193
Michigan State 7199, 7201
Muskegon 7188, 7189, 7193
Pontiac 7188, 7189, 7262, 7192
Saginaw— 7188, 7189, 7262, 7192
Dislocations:
Anticipated, from material shortages 7145
As national problem 7465-7466
Considered in allocating production 7457
Effect on workers 7262
Factors involved 7198-7199, 7524, 7585-7586
Measures to reduce 7195-7197
Pennsylvania silk workers 7493-7494
Period of 7156
Procedure for handling displaced workers 7497
Present and anticipated 7157
Responsibility for 7262-7264
Retraining requirements 75 11
Fluctuations 7200-7201
Functions of National Labor Supply Committee 7488
Glass industry 7744-7748
Increases, Detroit area 7240
Index, Detroit, 1924-41 7152
Iron industry 7526, 7532-7535
Labor piracy in machine-tool industry 7165
Lowest ebb anticipated 7356-7357
Migrant workers 71 84-71 85
Multiple shifts 7091, 7162, 7265
Negro problems in 7670-7673
Negro registrants, Detroit area 7221
Nonautomotive 7175
Parallels business curve 7157, 7158
Prospects for reemployment 7077-7078
Ratio of Public Works employment to State totals 7393-7394
Recruitment policies 7489
Seniority rights 7162, 7516, 7276
Shortages in skilled trades 7159
Summary of survey findings 7188-7189
Underemployment on defense contracts 7292-7293
Unemployment created by plant location 7269-7270, 7274
Unskilled-labor surpluses 7399
Skilled labor:
Availability 7273
Shifted to production jobs 7274, 7275-7276
Employment policies {see also Studebaker Corporation) 7742-7744
Hiring at gate 7204
Hirhig of local workers, effect of 7208-7209
Hiring of Negroes 7206
Employment service:
Advertising by 7673-7674
Analysis of applications filed in Detroit area 7178-7181
Control of migration by 7209
Cooperation with Work Projects Administration 7406-7407
Efforts to prevent unnecessary migration 7176
Federal control advocated 7475-7476
Preemployment trainee referrals by 7510
Recruitment policies 7489
Rehef applicants must register with 7617
Selection of defense trainees 75 18
Survey of industrial displacements: In Bay City-Midland, Flint,
Muskegon, Pontiac, Saginaw 7407-7408
7756 INDEX
Employment policies — Continued. Paer
Survey of potential defense labor supply 7176, 7514-7515
Utilization of local labor by 7222'
Farm labor:
Seasonal suspension by Work Projects Administration 7407
Wages of 7219
Farm population: Fluctuations 7213-7214
Farm Security Administration:
Rehabilitation programs 7214
Trailer-park program 7306-7307, 7309
Trailer purchases 7306
Farming out. {See under Defense contracts.)
Federal Committee on Apprenticeship (see also Vocational training) :
Establishment of 7498-
Federal Security Agency (see also Social Security; Unemployment com-
pensation) :
National Youth Administration:
Defense-work-program data 7501-7502
Wages for trainees 7517
Office of Director of Defense Training: Coordination of defense-train-
ing programs 7504-7505
Office of Education:
Estimates of defense-training load 7508-7509
Vocational-training program 7504, 7499-7501
Flint. (See under Employment; Migration; Population changes; Unem-
ployment compensation.)
Forced-savings plan: Opposition expressed 7151
Ford Motor Co.:
Anticipated lowest ebb of employment . 735(>
Age and length of service of employees 7331-7332, 7333-7334
Allotment, passenger-automobile production 7340
Bomber-program cooperation 7373
Bomber production 7319
Defense conversion by 7215, 7363-
Defense-employment percentages 7377
Employ ee-reabsorption policy 7358, 7359-7360
Employment at bomber plant 7107
Employment totals, by months 7335-7336
Geographic origin of emploj^ees 7335, 7329-7330
Spread of activities 7095
Subcontractors employed 7164, 7121
General Motors Corporation (see also Buffalo plan) :
Allotments, passenger-automobile production 7340
Bomber production 7319, 7320
Commuting of workers to 7221-7222
Cooperation in bomber program 7372-7373
Cooperation with defense program . 7363-7364
Critical material requirements 7345
Defense conversion by 7215
Defense deliveries 7349
Defense employment by 7292-7293
Defense orders 7368
Defense production 7341-7342, 7348-7349
Dismissals by, in Buffalo 7260
Employment:
Actual and forecast 7337-7338'
Anticipated lowest ebb 7356-7357
Flint, Mich 7175
Production and distribution figures 7385, 7386
Employment policies 7342-7343,7345-7347
Employee-reabsorption policy 7630
Employee turn-over, actual and forecast 7343-7344
Estimated date of emploj-ment reabsorption 7358
Explains location of Chicago plant 7365
Flint project 7367
Geographic origin of applicant 7338-7339
Machines installed for defense conversion 7266
INDEX 7757
General Motors Corporation — Continued. Page
Material purchases 7366-7367
Position of big business 7378-7379
Production capacity 7368-7369
Subcontractors employed 7121
Training-school cooperation 7360
Transferable capacity of defense production 7267
Value of —
Defense contracts in relation to total in United States 7349
Supply contracts per dollar's worth of Government-financed
plant 7350
Glass industry 7744-7748
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.: Bomber production • 7321
Grand Haven, defense problems of 7131-7132
Grand Rapids (see also Employment; Migration; Population changes):
Summary of defense problems 7125-7126
Types of employment 7175
Hamtramck (see xinder Population changes; see also Detroit): Surrounded
bv city of Detroit 7229
Health:
Allocations for, by Michigan 7555
Appropriations, Detroit 7604
Care for indigents, Detroit 7615-7616
Communicable-disease problems . 7553-7555
County health departments in Michigan 7230
Diphtheria among Mexican migratory workers 7553-7554
Increase in industrial accidents 7520, 7522
Sanitation hazards in defense areas 7552-7553
Syphilis treatments 7555
Tuberculosis among Mexican migratory workers 7554
Highland Park (see also Detroit; Population changes) : Surrounded by city
of Detroit. _ _ . . 7229
Holland:
Defense problems 7126
Types of employment in 7175
Housing (sec also under name of city; Diversion of Defense Housing Coor-
dination) :
Allocations, Detroit area 7568-7569
Comparison, dwelling-unit gains with increase in families, Detroit 7242
Construction workers 7520
Crowding in defense areas 71 11, 7113
Defense projects, Detroit area 7256-7257
Emergencj; shelters 7240-7241, 7251
Family-unit construction, Saginaw, Mich 7708
Health inspection of substandard dwellings 7604
Homes registration office:
Purpose and activities 7635-7636
Summaries of applic-ations 7636-7639
Low-rent public-housing program, Detroit 7641
Muskegon, Mich 7726-7729
Negro, Detroit 7253,7246-7247
Private construction, Detroit ._ 7252
Public-housing construction, Detroit 7252-7253
PubHc-housing program, Detroit 7244-7249
Relief families 7616-7617
Rent mediation, Detroit-,- 7240-7241, 7250-7251
Rent rises:
Automobile workers 7272
Detroit area ^ 7569
Rental charges, Muskegon 772^7730
Rental construction, Detroit 7242-7244
Rental shortages, Detroit area 7240-7242, 7250, 7255
Single-residence costs, Detroit 7244
Size of units 7256
Substandard, Detroit _ _ -_ 7242,7251-7252
Trailer parks 7309, 7306-7307
7758 INDEX
Housing — Continued.
Trailers: Page
Coach production 7308
Government purchases 7305-7306
Mobility of 7308
Percent sold in defense areas 7309
Unit costs 7255-7256
United States Housing Authority income restrictions 7254
Vacancies in Detroit 7569, 7639-7640
Hudson Motor Co.:
Agreement with union 7354—7355
Bomber production 7321-7322
Cooperation in bomber program 7372-7373
Curtailment effects 7353
Defense conversion by 7215
Defense production 7362
Employment:
Anticipated lowest ebb 7357
Defense and nondefense 7370, 7352, 7353
Equipment, not convertible 7370
Estimated date of employee reabsorption 7362, 7358
Hires, discharges, transfers 7353
Training programs 7362, 7353
Industrial concentrations: At Ford bomber plant 7107
Industrial products: Cost per pound 7161
International Resources Planning Board: Duties and membership 7464-7465
Ionia, defense problems of 7127
Iron-mining industry:
Causes of unemployment in 7526
Effect of defense program on 7528
Ore-production tonnages 7532
Population of ore-producing counties 7535
Production and employment 7532-7535
Jackson {see also Migration; Population changes) :
Defense problems 71 28
Types of employment in 7175
Kalamazoo (see also under Migration; Population changes) :
Employment by industry 7735
Survey of defense problems 7124-7125
Types of employment in 7175
Labor (see Employment) : Labor advisory committees 744 1
Labor communities. (*See under Defense contracts.)
Labor dislocation (see under Employment, Dislocations):
Measures to prevent 7074-7075
Suggestions for counteracting 7076
Labor unions. (.See Michigan State Federation of Labor; United Auto-
mobile, Aircraft, and Agricultural Implement Workers.)
Little business. (*See under Priorities.)
Lansing. {See under Employment; Unemployment compensation.)
Libbey-Owens-Ford Glass Co. {See Glass industry.)
Macomb County:
Debt limitations 7228
Effect of defense migration on community facilities 7688-7693
School problems 7229
Tax-exempt plants 7232-7233
Work areas of 7232
Macomb-Oakland area:
Migration survey 7218
Sewage-disposal problems 7227-7229
Urbanization problems 7226-7230
Manistee. (»See under Migration.)
Manistique: Survey of defense problems 7124
Melrose Park plant. {See under Defense plants.)
Michigan (see also Defense contracts; Priorities):
Aid to local units of government 7546-7552
Allocation of health funds 7555
Chief industries 7071-7072
INDEX 7759
Michigan — Continued. ^^se
Economic areas (see also under Work Projects Administration) 7396
Effect of—
Automobile curtailments 7585-7586
Curtailments on revenues 7080-7081
Defense program on 7073-7074
Expenditures for direct relief 7556-7562
Highwaj'-department expansion program •_ 7092-7094
Highway program dependent upon Federal aid 7109
Labor-displacement problems ^ 7494
Migration patterns 7225-7226, 7 1 70
Operation of department of health 7555-7556
Poor laws 7609
Proposed developments 708 1
Relief case load 7557
Relief disbursements, by county 7558-7559
Relief financing 7559-7560
Relief problems occasioned by defense programs 7563-7564
Revenues and distribution, Wayne County 7164-7165
Rise of industrial population in 7172
Sales tax as source of revenue 7079-7080
Sales-tax revenues 7080, 7072-7073
Sales-tax tourist-trade revenues 7080, 7073
Sources of funds for relief 7560-7561
State defense program 7087-7088
Subcontracting employed in 7138
Michigan Council of Defense:
Composition of 7225
Discouragement of in-migration 7222-7225
Michigan Manufacturers Association: Composition of 7120
Michigan State Federation of Labor:
Cooperation with employment services 7519-7520
Recommendations:
Changes in L'nemployment Compensation Act 7521
Health programs 7520
Housing program 7520
Midland (see also under Employment):
Defense migration 7702
Defense problems of 7122-7123
Nonresident school enrollments 7701
Migration (see also under Detroit; Ford Motor Co.; Midland; Murray
Corporation of America; Packard Motor Car Co.):
Causes:
Copper-industry dislocations 723 1-7232
Employment opportunities in defense areas 7110, 7115-7116
Location of defense plants 7271-7272
Copper-m]ne workers 7525
Defense training as alternative to 7507-7508
Destination of in-migrants 7216
Depression period 7214
Discouraged by —
Buffalo plan 7491-7492
Employment restrictions 7177, 7207
Michigan Defense Council 7222, 7225
Dislocated workers expected 7195
Effect of highway construction upon 7105
Effect on Work Projects Administration program 7407
Geographic origin as shown by automobile-license applications.- 7587-7603
Geographic origin of automotive parts and equipment workers.- 7316-7317
Geographic origin of migrants 7170-7173, 7185-7186, 7203, 7328
Into —
Ann Arbor 7185-7186
Battle Creek 7185-7186
Detroit 7185-7186
Flint 7185-7186
Grand Rapids 7185-7186
60396— 41— pt. 18 45
7760 i^^DEX
Migration — Continued.
Into — Continued. ^aee
Jackson i 7185-7186
Muskegon 7175-7176,7185-7186
Pontiac 7185-7186
Saginaw 7185-7186
Southern Michigan 7410-7411
Menace of disease among migrants 7553-7554
Nonmanufacturing workers 7173
Occupational backgrounds of migrants 7179-7180
Of—
Negroes 7216
Upper Peninsula workers to defense areas 7410-7411
Workers from cut-over areas 7410-7411
Out of—
Grand Rapids 7186
Kalamazoo 7186
Manistee 7186
Niles-Sturgis area 7186
West Branch . 7186
Pattern of movement 7169-7173, 7198-7199, 7203
Percentage increases, Detroit area 7180
Questionnaire on automotive parts and equipment worker migra-
tion 7313-7317
Ratio of, to population 7217
Relief i^rovisions for indigent 7609-7611
Restriction of, by cooperating Government agencies 7177
Rural-urban movement ^ 721 9-7220
Sanitation and health problems created by 7552-7553, 7693-7695
Seasonal workers 7563
Skilled workers, fears for loss through 7081- 7082
Skills of migrants 7611
Survey by Work Projects Administration 7216
Trends in Michigan 7071
Trends shown by benefit claims filed 7181-7184
Types of - 7221
Mount Clemons. {See under Unemployment compensation.)
Motor Wheel Corporation {see also Automobile industry) :
Employment-reabsorption policy 7359
Percentages of defense employment 7362-7363
Multiple shifts. {See under Employment.)
Munice, Ind.: Industrial problems occasioned by defense programs. _ 7735-7741
Murray plan 7265
Murray Corporation of America:
Classification of applicants by occupation, home State and length of
residence 7350
Cooperation in defense program 7369
Employees engaged in defense work 7369
Employment anticipated, lowest ebb 7357
Estimated date of employee reabsorption 7358
Products manufactured 7358
Muskegon {see also under Employment; Policy changes):
Defense contracts 7716-7719
Emplovment 77 1 9-7720
Hospitkl facilities 7716, 7721-7726
Housing requirements 771 6, 7726-7729
In-migration 7175,7715-7716
Report on defense production 7132
School needs 7730-7731
Types of employment in 7175-7176
Muskegon County: Housing data and school census 7733-7734
Nash-Kelvinator Corporation :
Defense conversion by 7215
p]m.i)loyment forecasts 7667-7669
National Youth Administration. {See under Federal Security Agency.)
Negroes. {See under Discrimination; Housing; Migration; Vocational
training; Work Projects Administration.)
INDEX 7761
Niles-Sturgis area. {See under Migration.) • , . • , ^^^*
Niles (see also under Unemployment compensation): Report on industrial
situation 7129-7131
Nonsettled people:
Federal relief for, advocated incr vnsfi
Federal responsibility for ^saq
Relief problems connected with 'oo-a
Oakland Countv. {See Macomb County area.)
Office of Education. {See under Federal Security Agency.)
Office of Price Administration and Civilian Supply: Reorganization of.. 742o
Office of Production Management:
Defense Contract Service: -7100 -7100
Charged with getting only small contracts 7121-71/2, 71dy
Relaxation of rules governing material distribution suggested. 7146-7147
Release of unallocated materials by, advocated 7146-7148
Efforts to prevent unnecessary migration 7177
Labor Division:
Displaced silk-worker conferences ~7 o
Duties of 7488
Established National Labor Supply Committee 7488
Labor and management cooperation 7490
Policy promulgated for automobile industry 7495-7497
Procedure for handling displaced workers 7497
Training Within Industry Branch 7499, 7570-7572
Vocational-training estimates '^^^ 'tc^a
Liaison with State government 7084
Subcontracting Division, importance of work 708d
Owosso, defense problems of '126
Packard Motor Car Co.:
Anticipated lowest ebb of employment ^-- 7^57
Curtailment percentages '''^ Zo^ ,
Employee-reabsorption policy 7dbl
Employment, defense and nondefense 7070
Equipment not convertible 7370
Estimated date of employee reabsorption 7358
Geographic origin of applicants 7351
Training-period requirements 70^9
Up-grading of workers 7362
Petoskey. {See under Unemployment compensation.)
Pennsylvania silk workers:
Defense dislocations 7493-7494
Reemployment program 7493-7494
Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co. (.9ee Glass industry.)
Plymouth: National defense report of city manager 7674-7678
Pontiac {See also under Migration; Employment; Unemployment com-
pensation):
Defense-housing requirements 7695-7696
Defense problems 7128, 7129
Population changes:
Declines: Battle Creek, Bay City, Flint, Grand Rapids, Hamtramck,
Highland Park, Jackson, Kalamazoo, Monroe, Muskegon 7213-7214
Increases:
Detroit area, Flint, Lansing, Saginaw 7213
Macomb-Oakland area 7218
Post-emergency period business outlook 7149-7150
Post-emergency planning:
Balance between public expenditures and tax income discussed 7482-
7483, 7485
Budget requirements 7479-7480
Federal responsibility for general relief 7478
Highway program advocated 7105-7106
Points covered in State program 7077
Readjustment problems 7470-7472
7762 INDEX
Priorities: ^'^^*
Alloeation methods 7446,7455-7456
Alumimim expansion program 7449
Army and Navy:
Charged with hoarding material 7141
Charges of hoarding materials, answered 7238, 7300
Material demands 7375
Available copper supply 7431
Available steel supply 7431
Cause of labor dislocations 7186-7187, 7408, 7488, 7524, 7663-7664
Creation of artificial shortages • 7403
Copper shortages created by 7454
Copper-supply program 7448-7449
Effect on —
Automobile distributors 7174, 7208, 7381-7382
Glass industry 7744-7748
One-industry towns 71 76
Small manufacturers 7379
Trailer industry 7308
Estabhshment of ratings 7441-7442
Factors preventing correct material-shortage estimates 7443-7444
Importance of proper material distribution 7380-7381
Inducing migration 7208
Labor dislocations created by 7174
Labor piracy resulting from 7165
Maladjustment of material flow 7365-7366
Material-conservation program 7436-7437
Material distribution in last war 7140
Material-expansion program 7437-7438
Material hoarding charged 7376
Material shortages created by 7140, 7442-7443, 7453
Material speculation caused by 7375, 7431-7432
Oil supply 7448
Passenger-automobile allotment and percentages of curtailment 7340
Percentage of production curtailment 7077
Rubber-curtailment program 7444-7446
Rubber-stock piling 7450-7451
Speculations in strategic materials 7140-7141
Steel-expansion program 7449
Steel-tonnage shortages created by 7453
Stock-pile proposals 7451
Strategic materials, suggestions for handling 7146-7147
Supply, Priorities, and Allocations Board created 7375
"Priorities unemployment" defined 7207
Priority unemployinent. {See Employment, Dislocations.)
Priority-unemployment centers. {See under Defense contracts.)
Priority-labor districts. {See Defense contracts, labor communities.)
Production quotas. {See priorities.)
Public Works Administration, public-facility extension by 7214
Questionnaire to Michigan industries with compilation of answers 7132-7133
Reconstruction Finance Corporation, financing of defense plants by 7141
I^elief:
Aliens on Detroit rolls Vli.i
Caseload - - 7557
Characteristics of direct-relief population 7562-7563
Disbursements by counties 7558-7559
Employment services for welfare clients Z^no
Expenditures for, in State 7^^^~7 An
Financing problems and costs '^^^~7560
Housing for welfare clients '^^'^^"i^pil
Legal residence of families returned to State of settlement 7614
Legal settlement of transient men 7614
Needy families in Michigan 7395
Provision for indigent migrants ^^nvo
Reductions in Michigan deficit for 7079
Revenues for, from sales tax ^~7,r. ^rc?
Sources of funds ^«?o~?rQA
Statistical data on Detroit case load 7618-7634
INDEX 7763
Riveting. (See under Aircraft industry.) Page
Royal Oak Township: Defense in-migration problems 7693-7695
Saginaw {see also under Employment; Migration; Unemployment com-
pensation):
Community facility requirements 7704-7706
Defense contracts 7703
Defense problems 7126
Family-unit construction 7708
Hospital facilities 7703-7704
Industrial growth 7708
School needs ' 7706-7707
St. Joseph, defense problems of 7172
Sales tax in Michigan {see also under Michigan; Relief):
Application of 7079-7080
Chief source of revenue 7079-7080
Revenues from 7072-7073, 7126
Sault Ste. Marie, defense problems of 7126
Savings of workers 7114, 7119
Schools {see also Battle Creek; Saginaw):
Appropriations, Detroit 7650-7651
Enrollments, Detroit area 7673
Overcrowding 7520
Personnel changes, Detroit area 7644—7645
Problems of school housing 7570, 7649-765 1
Sebewaing, defense problems of 7127
Settlement (see also Nonsettled people) :
Detroit relief policy 7609-7612
Work Projects Administration policy on 7411
Shortages. (See under Priorities.)
Silk workers. {See Pennsylvania silk workers.)
Skilled workers. {See under Employment.)
Social security {see also Federal Security Agency; Unemployment compen-
sation) :
Aid-to-blind grants 7566-7567
Aid to dependent children 7567-7568
Amendments to act, proposed 7090
Fourth category for relief advocated 7477
Funds available in Michigan for assistance program 7565
Geographic origin of old-age-assistance applicants 7635
Old-age-assistance applicants 7566
Old-age-assistance expenditures 7565
Old-age-assistance program 7073
South Bend, Ind. {See Studebaker Corporation.)
Strikes:
At Shaw-Crane plant 7112
Following mediation agreement 7166-7167, 7486-7487
Responsibility for 7486-7487
Subsidies. (See under Copper industry.)
Studebaker Corporation: Employment policies 7742-7744
Supplies. {See under Priorities.)
Supply, Priorities, and Allocation Board {see also imder Priorities) :
Criticisms made and answered 7426-7427
Functions of 7426
Materials survey 7428
Surveys:
Detroit area by Work Projects Administration.. 7216-7217, 7240-7241, 7251
Equipment of 1,200 manufacturers 7139
In-migration, Wayne County area, by Work Projects Administration. 7411
Limitations of 7187-7188
Manufacturers' resistance to labor surveys 7277
Supply, Priorities, and Allocation Board materials survey 7428
Wage record, by Unemployment Compensation Commission 7185
Tool and die labor. {See under Employment.)
Transportation {see also commuting of workers) :
Effect of diversion of intercoastal shipping 7444
Of freight, by truck 71 09
Of indigent families, to place of settlement 7611
Shortages of freight cars 7432
7764 INDEX
T^ncmployment compensation {see also Federal Security Agency): Page
Benefit restrictions 7472
Benefits for defense trainees 7075-7076
Claims filed as showing migration trends 7181-71 84
Comparison of interstate and intrastate claim volume 7183-7184
Contrasted with private insurance 7468
Decrease in interstate claims filed in Ann Arbor, Battle Creek, Bay
City, Detroit, Flint, Lansing, Monroe, Mount Clemens, Niles,
Petoskey, Pontiac, Soginaw, Wyandotte 7184
EPfect on construction workers 7523
English report on 7150-71 51
Experience and merit ratings 7469-7470, 7523
Federal control advocated 7474
Federal regulation for post-emergency period 7213
Inadeq uacy of benefits 7466-7467
Insurance reserves 7466
Limitations of time and amount 7075, 7078-7079
Pooling of benefit payments advocated 7211-7213
Proposed changes 7090
Suggested changes 7472-7475, 7521
Theory of, anolyzed 7211-7213
Wage-record survey 71 85
Unemployment Compensation Commission: Labor displacement surveys
by__.;. -•-- 7207
Unions. (See strikes.) Michigan State Federation of Labor; United Air-
craft and Agricultural Implement Workers.
United Automobile, Aircraft, and Agricultural Implement Workers:
Membership 7285
Agreement with Hudson Motor Car Co 7354-7355
Defense-production proposals by 7265
Displacements of members 7260-7262
Employment committee 7490
Machine-availability survey 7268
Opposition to decentralization 7290
Position on defense-plant conversion 7266
Position on pay for trainees 7290
United States Housing Authority:
Allocations, Detroit area 7249
Variation of income standards i 7254
Vocational training (See also under Bay City, Briggs Manufacturing Co.;
Buffalo plan; Hudson Motor Car Co.; Packard Motor Car Co.; Work
Projects Administration) :
Administration of program 7575-7576
Age distribution, engineering defense trainees 7501
Age of trainees, as limitation on 7143
Aircraft-apprentice school 7319-7320
Airport-servicemen training 7502
Alternative to migration 7507-7508
Analysis of distribution of expenditures for _ 7505
Apprenticeship training 7498-7499
Appropriations for 7514, 7575
Automobile-industry 3-month program 7302
Certificates of completion 7579
College-level defense-training program 7499-7501
Commei cial-t rade schools 7 144-7 145
Conversion training for automobile workers 7584-7585, 7658
Cooperating agencies 7580
Coordination of defense training programs 7504
Defense worker training programs 7499-7501
Detroit programs 7154, 7648
Enrollees, Detroit area 7221
Enrollments, engineering defense courses 7501
Enrollment increases 7648
Enrollment reports 7581
Equipment distribution for 7513-7514
Equipment purchased 7580
For armed forces 7657
INDEX • 7765
Vocational training — Continued. Pa&e
Foreman training 75 10
Hours required in aircraft industry 7236-7237
Inadequacy of facilities ^ 7286
National enrollment estimates 7508, 7575
National Youth Administration work program 7501-7502, 7657
Negro engineering trainees 7501
Negro trainees-- 7206, 7511, 7580, 7672
Nondiscrimination provisions 7577-7578
Percentage of automobile workers needing training for aircraft pro-
duction 7303
Placement of trainees 7579
Preemployment courses 7510, 7656
Present employment of former Work Projects Administration trainees- 7406
Program geared to employment level 7508-7509
Public-school program 7144
Regional variation in 7511-7512
Retraining estimates 7513
Rural youth 7511
Selection of occupations for training 7506, 7514-7515
Selection of trainees 7518, 7577
State advisory committees 7576
Statistical summaries 7661-7662
Supplementary instruction 7509, 7656-7657
Teacher qualifications and training 7577, 7580
Two functions of program 7512
Types of courses 7578-7579
Up-grading program 7507-7508
Wages of trainees 7503, 7506-7507, 7517
Within-industry program 7300, 7144, 7498
Women engineering trainees 750 1
Women workers 7511
Work Projects Administration program 7502-7503
Work Projects Administration Retraining and Reemployment Divi-
sion ' -. 74 1 7
Work Projects Administration enrollments 7393
Work Projects Administration trainees, by employment status, course
completion, and race 7405
Wage levels. (See under Defense contracts; Labor communities.)
Wages of workers (see also under Vocational training; Work Projects Admin-
istration) : Farm labor 7219
Warren Township. {See Macomb County; Macomb-Oakland area; De-
troit.)
Wayne County (see also Detroit; Macomb County area; Michigan; Work
Projects Administration): Social-welfare report 7678-7688
West Branch. {See under Migration.)
Work Projects Administration:
Age of workers 7399, 7424
Allocations of funds between areas 7398-7399
Americanization program 7422
Analysis of relief and load, by economic area 7397-7398
As deterrent to migration 7423
Attitude of workers toward 7424
Certification of nonsettled persons 74 18
Cumulative expenditures in State 7389
Curtailments, effects of 7079, 7394, 7664
Defense training program 7403
Detroit migration survey 7216
Elffect of 18 months' clause 7418-7420
Effect of labor dislocations on program 7409
FJffeet of migratory labor on 7407
Employment:
Average hours and earnings - — 7391-7392
Defense and nondefense 7393
Elmployment of women 7400
P]mployment Service referral procedure 7406-7407
7766 INDEX
Work Projects Administration — Continued. Page
Emplovment trends by State total, Upper Peninsula and Wajme
County 7390
Expected load increases 7157-7158
Historical-records-survey project 7587
Housing surveys, Detroit area 7251
Load:
Bv age, sex, and color 7401
By months 7394
Classified according to skills 7402-7403
Load increases, 1937-38 7414
Negro-worker increases 7421
Persons on defense register, by occupational group 7404
Policy toward nonsettled workers 7411
Preemployment trainee referrals by 7510
Public-facility extension by 7214
Quota assignments 7420
Reductions based on reduced appropriations 7418
Reemployment problems of workers 7399
Retraining and Reemployment Division 7417
Seasonal suspension of farm labor 7407
Separations for private employment 7413
Sponsors' contributions to projects 7560-7561
Sponsorship contributions 7423
Stabilizing effect during defense program 741 1-7412
Terminations . 7395-7396
Trainees by employment status, course completion, and race 7404
Trainees, by type of training 7503
Trainees presently employed, by occupation 7406
Unemployment absorption 7416
Vocational-training enrollments 7393
Vocational program 7502-7503
Wages for trainees 7517
Wyandotte. (See under Unemployment compensation.)
York plan: Followed in Michigan 7138
Ypsilanti: Survey of defense problems 7123-7124
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