The Wanganui Chronicle. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1940. POST-WAR REHABILITATION

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 84, Issue 244, 16 October 1940, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1940. POST-WAR REHABILITATION

THE Government is to be commended upon its determination | to make an early start with the problem of rehabilitating the soldiers when they return to civil life. A start in this direction is already being made by promoting legislation for the settling of soldiers on the land when peace returns again lo the world. The problem of rehabilitating a large number of soldiers I must, because of its nature, be a difficult one. War withdraws i a large number of people from peace-purposes production and i directs them to either belligerency and war-purposes produc- ‘ tion. These economic distortions, however, do not straighten \ themselves out when the war effort ceases, for there is no such thing as “a return to normalcy,” to borrow Mr. Calvin i Coolidge’s phase. The economic organisation of this Dominion i in keeping with that of the world at large, is not a. piece of ’ machinery standing unaltered on its own base. On the contrary, the whole of the economic organisation is continually i changing irrespective of the distortion caused by war-purposes j production. j It is a matter of very great difficulty, indeed it might as I well be spoken of as an impossibility, to forecast the kind of ; world in which people will be living in a decade hence. The ■ period of peace since the last war has seen ushered in and L established the motor-car age, with its concrete or tarmac roads, i its streamlined cars Neon lights, radio in every home, aeroplanes spanning the world; and a hundred miles north added to the wheat belt of Canada through the discovery of a wheat which will come to maturity in 90 days from sowing. The factory ship has become part of the technique of whaling, resulting in a tremendous increase in the supply of whale oil. to the great ineonveiijmee of the producers of copra. All of these changes have occurred without their being influenced to any | noticeable degree by the war of 1914-1918. It would be rash ! to assume that no such changes will occur in the future: and each change means an alteration in the employment available to men and women. It has already become clear that there are changes now in operation concerning the food people eat, the kind of clothes that they wear, the kind of houses in which they desire to reside, the holidays they want to enjoy. Just as the internal combustion engine has revolutionised life since 1918, so, too, may Ihe Diesel engine again revolutionise life in the next decade. It is into a world which is changing with increasing tempo, that the rehabilitation effort will have to be made when the next peace arrives. While the economic difficulties themselves are great enough, the characters and the dispositions of the men also present problems. Military life, whatever may be its drawbacks, is stimulating because it is gregarious. A young man is among comrade-sharing joys and sorrows, dangers and hardships, travel and novelty, monotony and variety, while on active service. Because contrasts always appear pleasant, many soldiers believe that all they want for the rest of their lives is to live in humble peace, pursuing the even tenor of their way. But it is the common lot of veterans to live for years ‘‘all restlessly at home, ’ to borrow from Byron, and for men to be released Irom the colourful and varied life of a military camp to go to the isolation of a farm is a very big contrast, for which many men are not suited. To ensure that the wrong men do not get placed on farms, or to ensure that the right men are not placed on the land too soon after their return, is going to tax the ingenuity of those who shall be placed in charge of the administration of the rehabilitation schemes. All men, however, cannot be placed upon farms, and it will be more undesirable than after 1918 to set these men up in small businesses. A manufacturing' business, in order to succeed, must have much more machinery and tools than was the case two decades ago, and the mortality rate of small businesses was high enough after 1918. Small manufacturing businesses will have a shorter expectation of life from 1941 onwards, while lhe trading business which is run on a narrow margin of owned eapifal and a wide margin of borrowed money, cannot hope to survive the inevitable downswing of the trade cycle after the war, let alone altogether, for lhe moment these changes in demand, which will occur through the dynamic nature of the economic system. Unfortunately, it is easier to point out the dangers than to offer constructive suggestions when considering the post-war rehabilitation problem. But one fact is clear, and that is that no successful rehabilitation can be put, into operation hurriedly. It. follows from that, fact that the scheme’s success will be. greatly aided by the existence of a considerable diversify of employment being available to the soldiers when they return to civil life, so that the men may become reaeeustomed Io civilian atmosphere, work and responsibilities, and also to give, them time to find their feel before they embark upon their civilian careers mice again.