Omaha daily bee., 1918-12-14
Jobs for Manned Soldiers r
By Samuel Harden Church, President of
Carnegie Institute. in Carry On,

carnegie Institute, IN Carry On.
have often wondered what would do if l
were to find myself out of employment with the
necessity confronting me Of hunting a wage
paying job in order to provide for my family. l
cannot imagine any situation that would be more
discouragng. / have always, therefore, been
careful to receive every person who has ever
called upon me in the search for employment,
and if unable to find position for him in any
department. under my own direction. have re-
TERED him to others or made such suggestions
as would lead these applicants into other prom
lslng fields of work.
have never found myself in sympathy with
tendency which has been developing in recent
years in some of the industrial establishments
OF the country whereby an age limit was set up
against applicants for work This age limit
was at first made thirty-hve years, and then.
when it was found that a sufficient supply of
men could not be obtained, it was raised to
forty-hve years My feeling Is that there should
never be any age limit at all and feel convinc-
ed that the social ideals for which we are all
STRIVING will never be accomplished until it be-
comes possible for every man and every woman
upon their own application to find employment
suitable to their respective abilities, with a
corresponding wage
The business men who are directing our great
establishments have up to a recent time felt
themselves impelled as for example is done in
the army to demand physical perfection of
can readily see how such policy will shut out
from livelihood many thousands of men and
women who are physically defective in one way
or another, or who have passed the arbitrary age
limit. and yet are capable of giving intelligent
and devoted service in any tasks which might
be assigned to them.
Very recently have had personal experience
with two defective cases of this kind. The first
was that OF. young man whose sight, through
disease IN childhood, had been impaired by the
loss OF seventy-hve per cent of his vision. He
was unusually bright mentally and strong
physically, and had completed the course in
chemical engineering, which made him adapt
able to some of the most important forms of in
dustrial work. The oculists were able to supply
glasses which corrected his vision so that with
this aid it was almost normal but when I sent
him to one of our captains of industry with a
letter OF recommendation. the answer came back
that ne had been put through an eye-test with
out his glasses and rejected because of the posi-
BILE risk of injury to his person which might
ensue from his movements among the machn-
cry of the plant When the war brought on
shortage of labor however, this young man
found employers who were eager for his services
and he is now occupying responsible position
in one of the largest establishments of the
country.
The other case was that of young man who
when child had been run over by train, with
the loss of both of his legs above the knees He
came into my office wearing artificial legs,
which did not seen to fit him any too WE'LL and
walking more or less laboriously with a cane
He was just the kind of applicant whose
physical appearance would cause nine men out
OF ten to tell him they had nothing for him to
do and yet he had in him human heart. an
intelligent brain, and rightful ambition to sue
coed IN life | had no place for him but kept
him gong the rounds until finally in this same
shortage of labor he found employment as an
enQraVerS nd La :,
that trade.
l have described these two cases because
they illustrate a common attitude of EMPLOYERS
toward the defective members of our race 1t
calls up Burns pteous line, Mans nhumanty
to man makes countless thousands MOURN" We
are now face to face with the necessity of furn-
lshlng immediate employment to increasing
numbers of MANNED and wounded soldiers who
have had their bodies more or less DESTROYED
as they have rushed into the war to defend their
country. r.
If my two young friends, the one with his
detective vision, the other with his leg1ess
trunk, could be absorbed so easily in useful
work. why is it not just as reasonable to cali
upon the employers of labor in every avenue of
human industry to take their share of this de-
fective soldier labor and apply and develop it
as tar as it will go in each case? If the output
IS not up to the standard let the pay be so much
tor so much But when your son-when my son
comes home with his body shattered in the
hell and death Of battle, let him never go beg
glng for job. Let the job be ready for him
so many Jobs for so many shattered men at so
many shops, all the time. We must not reject
them in an arrogant exercise of power, we must
not debase them by the prefer of charty-we
must give them the job
The maximum age limit must CO. 1t has no
right of existence in human society, and the old
policy of rejecting all applicants except those
who are physically perfect must give way to
that higher sense of human responsibility where
by every employer Of labor must find himself
face to face with the age-long cry of conscience
that he is not the selfish master of the little
field in which he finds himself for short mo-
ment in charge, but that he is, indeed, that
higher sympathetic and reciprocal being whose
honorable relation to the business life of Amer-
ca finds its full Interpretation in the old phrase,
my brothers keeper"