Evening star., 1918-12-02
Positions Await Trained Workers


Positions Await Trained Workers.
The ordinary and normal processes
Of private initiative will not how
ever. provide. imm Mediate employment
for all OF the meR of our returning
armies. Those who are of trained ca
pacity, those who are skilled work
iarity with established businesses
those who are ready and willing to
go to the farms, an those wh6se Apti-
tudes are known or will be sought out
by y-employers will find no difficulty. 1t
is safe to say, IN finding, place and and
who will be at q loss where to gain
a livelihood unless pains are taken
to guide them and put them IN the
way of work. There will be q large
should not be left wholly to shift for
itself. 1t seems to me important,
therefore, that the development OF
public works. OF every sort should De
promptly resumed. in order that OPP
portunities should be created for un.
Skilled labor In particular. ana .tnat
plans should be made for sucn DE,
yelopments Of our unused lands ano
our natural resources as we nave
hitherto lacked stimulation to under
take.
| particularly direct your attention
to the very practical plans which the
Secretary of the Interior has developed
in his annual report and before your
committees for the reclamation OF arid,
swamp and cut-over lands which might.
if the states were willing and able to
cooperate, redeem some three hundred
million acres of land for cultivation.
There are said to be fifteen. or twenty
million acres of land in the west. at
present arid. for whose reclamation wa
ter is available. if properly conserved
There are about two hundred and thirty
million acres from which the forests
have been cut, but which have never
yet been cleared for the ploW and Whlch
lie waste and desolate. These lie scat
tered all over the Union. And there are
nearly eighty million acres Of land that
lie under swamps or subject to periodi-
cal overflow or too wet for anything but
grazing which it is perfectly feasible
to drain and protect and redeem.
The Congress can at once direct
thousands Of the returning soldiers to
the reclamation OF the arid lands which
it has already undertaken, II It Will
but enlarge the plans and the appro-
priations which 1t has entrusted to
possible in dealing with our unused
land to effect a great rural and agri-
cultural development which Will afford
the best sort of opportunity to men
who want to help themselves; and the
Secretary of the Interior has thought
the possible methods. out in, way
which is worthy of your most friendly
attention. -.
Would Aid Victims Trade.
/ have spoken of the control which
must yet. for a while, perhaps for a
long while, be exercised over shipping
because of the priority of service to
which our forces overseas are entitled
and which should also be accorded
$e, hi ioh fn
Gently liberated peoples from starva-
ton and many devastated regions from
permanent ruin. May I not say a
special word about the needs of Bel
gium and northern France?. No sums
of money paid by way. Of indemnity
from hopeless disadvantage for syears
to come. - -
Something more must be- done. than
merely find the money. If they had
money and raw materials IN abun-
dance tomorrow they could not, resume
world .tonaorEow-the very important
place. they held before the fame. OF
war swept across them. Many OF their
factories are razed to- the ground
Much of their machinery Is destroyed
or has been taken away Their peo-
pie are scattered and many OF their
best workmen are dead Their mar
kets will be taken by others. If they
are not in some special way assisted
to rebuild, their factories, and replace
their lost Instruments 'of mafufac-
ture TheyE should not be left to the
vicissitudes of the sharp competition
! for materials ana for iridfstrfal faeil-
tiles which is not to set ih.t hope.
therefore; that the Congress will not
be unwilling. it it should become
necessary, to grant to some such
agency as the War Trade Board the
right to establish priorities OF export
and supply for the benefit of these
people whom we have been so happy
to assist in saving from the German
terror and whom we must not now
thoughtlessly leave to shift for them
selves in pitiless competitive mar
ket.
of our own domestic business read
justments nothing Is more important
than the immediate determination OF
the taxes that are to be levied for
1918, 1919 and 1920. AS much of the
burd en- Of taxation must be lifted from
business as sound methods of financ--
ing the government will permit, and