The Nenana daily news., 1918-10-11
blG WAR INDEX
 USED ID PLACE
 MEN RIGHT JOBS


 of putting each soldier in to the niche where he can be of most serv. ice to the country, the army and himself is the personnel card. The whole work is entrused to the "per- sonnel office," which makes out a variety of records for the incoming soldiers. These do everything from listing his dependents to making sure that his mail reaches him promptly. The most important one, however, is that mentioned.
 On this card are a number of blanks, each of which is filled out by an officer in the course of a personal interview with the man. There is nothing nasty about these interviews; they average half an hour in length and occupy as much time as is needful to secure the de- sired information. They are of in- innate, personal nature ard in them the man is encouraged to talk as freely as possible, as all the data secured is for the army's own use and is confidential. Further, "cam- ouflage is not permitted" as Cap tain Irwin w. Ringer, camp per sonnel officer expressed it. "The government has ways of its own for finding out whether a man has lied about himself in this interview"
 On the card go the names of the recruits parents, of his wife, child ren or divorced wife of whom the civil court has allowed alimony. if he has any of these, his religious be- lief, home address and the address of his nearest relative, certain con- fidential information, and, eventu- ally, the unit to which he is assigned. By means of this card the army can locate any man in service within a short time.
 On the other side of the card are blanks for about 90 vacations useful In the army and in these is listed the length of time the man has been employed in each. Other blanks are provided for listing his special qualifications. Every effort is made to draw out from the recruit statements as to any special abilities he may have. Questioning the re- crult IS almost an art in itself. For instance, recruit may declare he IS miner. If he is metal miner, accustomed to working in hard rock. he IS very valuable; if he is a miner experienced in another sort of work he IS no special value to the army. If the recruit is a farmer, another question as to his ability to handlo steam or gasoline tractors is neces- sary. If he is accustomed to driv- ing these he is almost sure to be assigned to the artillery; if he knows more of livestock than of machinery he may wind up in a remount de- pot, a supply company or some of the different sorts of trains where equipment is untilized.
 Across the top of the card are series of spaces corresponding to the vacations listed. In these tags arc put, red one for qualified men in that line and green one for men of unusually high qualifications. By these names, when the cards are put together in filing case, a clerk can run his eye down the case and DICK out at glance all the men qualified in occupation No. AZ, etc.
 In rating the men every effort IS made to determine the real de- gree of their skill. Experts" in any line are very rare, personnel officers say, declaring that far few CT than per cent of men qualified Tn an occupation are expert in it. Tn determining a mans skill the en- ployers he has had are considered
 For instance, a man who had charge of all the tractors used on some large western ranch, would be rated as of more skill, providing his record showed he had carried out