REPATRIATION

Evening Post, Volume XCVII, Issue 56, 8 March 1919, Page 5

REPATRIATION

HOW AMERICA WORKS

APPEAL TO EMPLOYERS.

"The best thing you can do for the 6oldier is give Mm a job."

This advice meets everyone everywhere in America. It is conspicuously positioned in prominent places; it is flung across the sky in electric letters; it greets the New Yorker on his way to the city from all .points of the mighty metropolis. And this thought is being hammered into the minds of all, with the result that the repatriation of Uncle Sam's returning troops is the big problem of the hour.

While President Wilson sponsors his League of Nations scheme, his repatriar tion officers tackle the problem of placing in civil employment large numbers of soldiers.

America planned'to have an army of 7,000,000 men by the end of 1919, and 9,000,000 early in 1920. The sudden end of the war stopped the gigantic work of gathering together and transporting overseas this huge army." But the organisation directed to the creation of, an army had immediately to be converted into one for the demobilisation' thereof, and then sprang into existence the machinery for converting soldiers into citizens with the same expedition as they had been taken from former employment. But a "go-slow" policy had to be followed.

Appeals fwent. out to •employers of the States.

"This is not an appeal for charity," they were told, "but a straight business talk on how all_ employers can aid Uncle Sam in the training and employment of disabled soldiers and sailors. The appeal .talked about the "indispensability of the employers' help" in the work of repatriation.

Employers were told that the SurgeonGeneral's office was making those disabled in war as whole again physically as was possible. Then, instead .of turning them out to shift for themselves, the Government, through the Federal Board, and with the 00-operation of all employers, would get these, men back into civilian employment. Tho Federal Board would tram them to give effective and efficient service as workers in agriculture, industry, commerce, or the professions. "The Federal Board will see that these men are re-employed; that they make good; and that they receive a square deal." Columns of matter to^ the same effect went pouring through the country, and to-day every employer is being asked to show in a concrete way his appreciation of what these injured men have done for the country, and for him as one of its citizens.

HOW THE BOARD WORKS. As a general policy a handicapped man is not directed towards an overcrowded or a waning occupation, in which present or future competition might make permanent employment uncertain. The disabled man, with the- approval of the board, may elect to be trained in agriculture, commerce, industry, transports.tion, or the professions. After the vocational adviser has assisted the handicapped man to choose a suitable occupation, his case, with full information, is referred to the office of the district wherein the man has received physical rehabilitation. Every case is there considered individually by a board of two local representatives—an employer and a representative of labour. After physical rehabilitation, the discharged sailor or soldier becomes a civilian to be train-, od for and placed in civilian employment by. the Federal Board. As a student he is supported by the Government, and the same allotment and family allowance are paid as he received while in military service. After he secures permanent employment he, .as a beneficiary under the War Risk Insurance Act, will be cared for by the War Risk Insurance Bureau should there be any recurrence of disabilities due to military service.

The board insists . that the disabled man receive equal pay for equal work, and under no circumstances will it approve a wage for a disabled man where it appears that decreases have been made because he is receiving compensation from the Government for his injury. But where a disabled man is unable, because of his handicap, to earn the full prevailing wage for his occupation, an adjustment in accordance with the rules and regulations of the shop is to be made.

On account of the cessation of armament and munition manufacture due to the ending of the war, the consequent unemployment renders doubly difficult the placing in civil employ of millions of soldiers. Australia has its problem, but, fortunately, not in so acuto a form. What America is doing in the field of repatriation was gleaned by a Sydney Daily' Telegraph reporter from the secretary of the V.M.C.A. in Sydney (Mr. W. Gillanders), who has- just returned from America after several months' absence.