SHORTAGE OF LABOUR

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22520, 30 September 1938, Page 18

SHORTAGE OF LABOUR

PROBLEMS FACING GERMANY

DECREASE IN NUMBERS OF STUDENTS

LACK OF PROFESSIONAL MEN 'TIOU OVa. OWI CORRESPONDEKT.) LONDON, August 7. During % the last weeks one has only had to open a German newspaper to realise how acute the shortage of labour has become in the Third Reich, writes W. G. J. Knop in the "Scotsman," of August 5. Labour conscription has been employed in connexion with the building of fortifications, and on the land every available man, woman, and child has been enlisted to help with the harvest. All this might be regarded as a proof of the splendid victory over unemployment, were it not that Germany is faced with a problem which threatens to be harder to solve than unemployment itself. For it is not only in the field of unskilled labour that demand at present exceeds supply. Skilled labour is everywhere lacking, and so are men and women, who possess higher technical or professional qualifications.. Whether it is the lack of instructors in technical schools (Berufschulen) or the impossibility of finding higher executives for big manufacturing concerns, or the demand for more doctors, chemists, or engineers, on all sides the same tendency is apparent.

There seems no doubt that the Nazi system, in its ambitious efforts, has been guilty of a.lack of foresight the results of which will prove increasingly embarrassing as time goes on. It has been so concerned with consolidating its own authority by. the regimentation, of Germany's youth into its military and political organisations that it has been unable to ensure an adequate supply of men and women with the necessary technical equipment to carry out the programmes of the new State on the scale on which they have been conceived.

Decrease in Students A useful pointer to the causes of this dearth of skilled men is furnished by the latest figures relating to ' the . numbers of university students, in- -Germany. A decrease of 42.2 per cent, in the total number of students is perhaps not at first surprising. Herr Hitler's avowed contempt for learning for its own sake is certainly reflected in Nazi policy, and' where brawn is at. such a, premium, brain is -understandably relegated a to second place. Such purely academic faculties as philosophy, classics, and literature were bound to suffer from the glamour of the party, career, as well as from the introduction of military and labour service. But at least one would have expected the practical training, of skilled men to march hand in hand with the consolidation of the Nazi order. In point of fact, the increase in employment and the intensification ,of national life have beeri accompanied by no corresponding increase in such training. In every branch of science except agriculture there has been a steady and substantial -falling? off in the number of 'university students since the advent to power of the Nazis. In ; the vital studies of medicine, engineering, and chemistry, as well as in mathematics and the natural sciences, the German , Government has so far failed completely to stem the ebbing tide of students . . ..The-, stimulus which _tbe great self-sufficiency drive has given to the study of agricultural sciences is reflected only by a rise of just over 100 students in five years (1356 to 1477). ,- : The.conclusion is inescapable that the' Nazis' bid to divert the interest of <the ,~ rising, generation from academic to realistic pursuits has been, all too successful in those fields in which "realistic" is synonymous with "non-intellectual," while everything goes to indicate that the existing shortage of skilled experts, far from diminishing, will continue to -grow for some years to come. The military leaders and the organisers' of the-countless battalions of party i "organisations have done their work with amazing speed and efficiency. Field-Marshal' Goering's Four-Year F9an and Herr Darre's agricultural experiments may or may not enable the. German army of the future to march successfully on its stomach; but, as long as it lacks doctors, chemists, and engineers, it will remain an army with feet of clay. Gravity of Problem What is most surprising is that the Nazi authorities, with the evidence of their own statistics staring them" in the face, should have failed f five years. ,to appreciate the gravity of the problem they reveal, or, if they have appreciated it, that they should have failed to hit upon effective-remedies. Clearly, something will have to be done tp deal with a situation that is already showing signs of becoming really critical. ....••, A number of large industrial companies have been forced to amalgamate for no other reason than that there were not ■ a sufficient number of qualified executives to go round. Mechanical schools are finding such difficulty in providing suitable teachers that pupils are often instructed by men totally unqualified for their task, who often know less of their subject than the ■ pupils themselves. Most serious of all is the lack-of .'technical experts in industry, and it is common knowledge that among leading concerns every enticement is used v to secure the services of useful men from rival employers. A - German trade paper recently estimated that the demand for senior engineers exceeded- the available supply, by 12,000. which -at the present rate represents almost two years' total enrolments of engineering student's -in German universities and higher technical schools. Nearly every trade and profession could offer similar examples. There is no alternative but.the gradual extension of conscription from the field of\ labour into the ranks of technical and professional experts. Men of science and learn- . ing will inevitably be called to 1 fulfil compulsorily the most urgent needs of the State, but since these needs . will absorb every available qualified man and woman, the result must be a suppression of individual liberty and initiative far beyond anything that has been seen hitherto. The first evidence of this is the virtual conscription which already -.exists within the medical profession as a result of the present shortage ofj doctors. ' Such' conditions ' cannot react favourably -on - the general level of -scientific . achievements. Moreover, doctors, chemists, and engineers cannot .be mass-produced at a moment's notice, and any shortening of the period of training must result in.a, lowering of the general standard.

In non-scientific .fields the problem is, not- so obviously acute,. but in the

long run is almost certain to produce a crisis. The Nazis have chosen deliberately to sacrifice learning to pursue ah immediate policy of national aggrandisement. That is their own affair. But sooner or later. ■. they, will inevitably feel che pinch of having debased .their cultural standards. There are already signs that the day is not far distant when Germany will find herself actually unable to keep pace with the scientific and technical developments of the outside- world.i