Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-09-14
SOON HAVE MORE
JOBS Than men,
SAYS COL. WOODS
Director Of Unemployment
Finds Little Difficulty (
in Placing Ex-Soldiers |
in Old Jobs.
BY DORIS E. FLEISCHMAN.
Written for the International News


New York, Sept. l3.-Colonet
Woods, special assistant to the Secs
rotary Of War, is finding employs
ment for every eX-service man, solS
der, sailor and marine. who cannotI
get his old job again. The man
who does not want his old job any
more is also being taken care OF.
SO confident is Colonel Woods
that every employer who possibly
can will offer his old employees such
attractive terms that they will be
glad to resume their prewar posi%
tons that the problem for him res
solves itself into one of getting bets
ter jobs for the men who have
learned to handle better jobs during
the war, or to create Jobs Tor men
whose old jobs have actually ds|
appeared. Colonel Woods was for-
merly police commissioner OF New,
York City, and it is because OF his
exceptional handling of municipal
| problems, and the countrywide rep-
utation that he established for
| forceful and intelligent methods.
that he was chosen for one OF the
most important pieces of work
which the country has to offer to-
day.
1--WE are really trying to find the
| Job without soldier and show It to
! the soldier without job said COLI
| onel Woods i'll all interview. There
is only an apparent shortage OF
work for men who want it. Actu-
ally we have more work to be dona
in this country than there are sof-
diers or sailors unemployed. Less
! than 100000 men have been or arc
still being discharged from service.
They are going out at the rate OF
| 10000 or more day.
"Of the 100000 men who leave
army and navy stations statistics
show that 90 per cent go directly
! home to their old jobs, or to new
ones which they know are waiting
for them. The government service
| for unemployment has nothing Ia,
do for them. That means that cons
siderably less than 100000 melt
have registered uncertainty as toI
their future employment. During
five weeks time 1873 ex-servica
men applied to government agencies
throughout the United States, and
Sl,928 of these were placed satiss
factorily in positions. The rema.,,-
ing men are being placed as rap-'
idly as possible. Presently there
will be a shortage of labor. Inns
migration, which averaged 100000
for seven years before 1915, has falS
len off so that since 1915 the yearly
average has been 10000 instead Of
100000. There will soon be a
shortage Of labor, particularly in tho
skilled trades"
Colonel Woods is trying to put
the ex-service man into job witht
out red tape. He has not created
new bureaus. He has enlisted the
department of Agriculture, with
$4,000 field representatives; the Dee
partment of Interior, with $4,000
field representatives the Postofficel
Labor and Navy and Army departs
ments, volunteer welfare organizes
tons, such as the Red Cross. War
Camp Community Service Ameri4
can Library Association, K. of c.
and numerous private organizations,
such as Chambers of Commerce,
merchants associations. principal
labor organizations. He IS using
their machinery. He is co-operat-
! ing with them and unifying tho
work, so that it can move most
expeditiously, and with an eye to
the needs and offerings of individual
communities.
| A soldier out of job can apply
almost anywhere, or write to Col-
onel Woods. and he will be taken
care of with little fuss. For the
basis of Colonel Woods method is
efficiency and not red tape. He
wants the best jobs for ex-scrvice
men, and he is showing employers
why ex-service men are best suitedi
~ tI,a hec+ iohr