The public ledger. [volume] (Maysville, Ky.) 1913-1968, 1918-08-27
LAUNCHING MEN ANEW
(BY Charles M. SchWahl

For thirty-three years my life has
been spent among workmen in what
mas become the biggest branch of
American industry, the steel business.
But 1t doesn't make any difference
what field of industry you consider.
the test of success is the same.
In the present crisis, leaders of
various businesses are engaged in
work that is necessary to the winning
Of the war, and yet wherever in the
country's service they happen to be
placed, the basis of efficiency remains
unchanged. 1t is brains-specializ
brains.
My present experience in the build
ing of ships proves this daily. The
man who can drive more rivets than
his fellow succeeds not because he is
physically stronger, but because he
knows how to utilize his brains, and
how to direct his energy.
. There used to be good deal of non
sensical talk in this country about
men who miss fire because they lack
genius. Genius is principally hard
work: using normal brains to think
beyond the manifest daily duty 1t
supplies one of the readiest aliIis for
the man who doesn't want to work a
little harder than he is compelled to.
America is facing today a situation
that demands the most thoughtful
consideration of every man and wo-
man. The drain on the man-power of
the country is tremendous. Day by
day, week by week, thousands of our
men are leaving their industrial pur-
suits to take up arms against the
common foe. The army and the navy
are straining every effort to equip and
to train these men for battle; the
great industrial plants are humming
day and night; the shipyards from
coast to coast are quickening, by ev-
cry human process, the building of
ships to send our fighters and the ne
cessary supplies to our Allies over
seas
Certainly it is not difficult to fore
see how the exodus of several million
able-bodied intelligent young men is
going to affect American industry. The
newspapers carry the message daily
! in their help wanted columns. The
supply is way behind the demand;
but we must have fighters and war
workers. and the demand will con-
tinue greater as the war goes on.
This is why the subject of recon-
struction of our disabled soldiers and
sailors will touch every branch of
American industry. The man who has
offered his body in the defense of his
country must not be allowed to re-
turn to us merely as a hero worthy
of our sympathy. His physical handi-
cap, whatever it may be, will not, ex-
cept in rare instances, render him
useless as an industrial factor; on the
contrary, 1t will afford a greater op-
portunity than ever before to util-
ize his brains upon which he was not
so dependent when he went away.
Reconstruction is very live issue
in America. Not an academic pro-
blem, but a practical one. For some
time it has been gaining in import
ance as part of the very fabric OF
industry, and because our big leaders
are blessed with imagination, many OF
them have already foreseen the ne
cessity of salvaging their man-power
of holding trained and loyal en-
ployees and not discarding them on
account of a liability for which they
are not responsible. l know of many
instances where the process of re-
training his returned able men to
their jobs, and has not only saved the
man for himself and his family. but
increased the effectiveness of the
plant in which he worked.
1t is not possible to gauge accurate
ly' the number of fighting men who
will return to us handicapped in body,
but there will be many. Most of them
will not have to learn new trades
not more than ten per cent, am told.
But practically all of them can be put
back into the industrial life of the
country and must be. We need these
men-need them badly, Their physi-
cal courage proves their worth; and
ought to dispel once and for all the
notion that they crave pity,
have been asked to suggest what
seem to be the best fields of industry
for our handicapped soldiers and sail
ors. 1t would be easier to say which
field they cannot enter for do not
believe that any field is closed to
them.
The usefulness of these men as
lighters does not cease when they are
unable to return 10 the trenches. The
men who are building our ships con-