Statement by the President on the Need for Deferring the Drafting of Certain Apprentices and farm Laborers.

I HAVE today signed an Executive order on essential industrial apprentices and approved a policy on agricultural labor which together will contribute materially to our program of maintaining necessary industrial and farm production consistent with the principles of the Selective Service System.

These orders do not permit permanent exemption of any worker from Selective Service. Rather, they provide a more orderly basis for granting the temporary deferments which local boards have customarily extended to qualified individuals.

The policies set forth in these documents were developed by the interested Government agencies and were recommended to the Acting Director of the Office of Defense Mobilization by the Interagency Manpower Policy Committee and the National Labor Management Manpower Policy Committee.

The Executive order relating to apprentices follows recommendations made by Maj. Gen. Lewis B. Hershey, and is being administered under specific regulations issued by General Hershey.

General Hershey has assured me that these regulations will provide an orderly flow of needed machinists, mechanics, and other skilled workers for both the military and civilian needs of the Nation. He has also advised me that proper precautions have been taken to prevent deferment of less essential apprentices such as those in the barber, fur, cleaning, candy, and cosmetics fields.

Only apprenticeship programs which have been in existence for at least 1 year, which are soundly sponsored, and properly certified, will be eligible under the program. A certification procedure has been established to assure that only bona fide training programs in the most essential trades are accepted.

As in the case of college deferments, apprentices will be deferred only while making satisfactory progress in their training and only until the training has been completed.

The agricultural labor policy is being promulgated by John R. Steelman, Acting Director of Defense Mobilization, with my approval. It provides the Selective Service System and other agencies of the Government with uniform goals in support of essential farm production.

In the face of daily increasing need for farm products, our farms have lost 6,000,000 workers in the last 4 years, and are still losing them to both the military services and to industry.

For Selective Service, this policy means continued emphasis on giving temporary deferments to skilled workers necessary for substantial quantities of production.

For farmers, this policy will require urgent efforts to recruit and train replacements for the men whose deferments expire.

The Department of Labor is requested under the policy to assist local boards and others with information on the availability and supply of persons with agricultural skills who can replace deferred farm workers.

The armed services are asked to refrain from soliciting recruits among farm workers while they are deferred for necessary production. This is intended for the sake of orderliness in our productive system and does not, of course, affect the right of the workers to enlist.

The policy statement also covers suggestions to the Department of Agriculture, Federal Security Agency, Civil Service Commission, and other interested agencies.

I am confident that all the agencies and the public will cooperate with these plans for assuring the production necessary to the support of our defense program.