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4. Transfer workers from one job to another or from one city to another as the war effort requires. [[footnote]]13

Requirements and availability of manpower would determine assignment to agencies, which are all on the National Service Board. Registration, inventory, and classification would be accomplished through the existing machinery of the Selective Service System.

A National Service Act should be passed at this time. Although the war powers of the President could be used to establish such a system upon declaration of a national emergency, it would be far better to have the machinery approved by Congress and written into law with the full knowledge of the public. Even above and beyond the fact that executive use of war powers tends to undermine public confidence in the President, the successful implementation of the national Service Act would depend to a great degree upon public support. Also, detailed planning for implementation could be accomplished once the legislation is on the books.[[footnote]]14

There is little doubt that a National Service Act would pass Congress if the facts are presented properly to the public. In national-wide public opinion polls in August 1942, 70% of those questioned favored "giving the government the right to require workers not employed in war industries to take jobs in war industries." The Austin-Wadsworth Bill, which embodied the principles of National Service set forth above, failed to pass Congress in 1944, large because the general sentiment was beginning to  develop that the production war had been won. This legislation had been requested by the President because of the inadequate powers of the War

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[[footnote]]13 J. J. Corson, Op. Cit., p. 234ff.
[[footnote]]14 C. H. Kendall, [[underlined]] Legal and Legislation Aspects of Economic Mobilization[[/underlined]], Industrial College of the Armed Forces, p. 1ff.

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