The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-03-19
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORM A TON
BUREAU
FREDERIC J. HASKIN. Director,
Washington D. C
THE ARMY AND THE RED CHEW
RON.
Washington: D. C

RON.
Washingtn, March 1.-THE war
department has decided to extend the
range of its responsibilities to take in
the unemployed ex-soldier. Increas-
ing seriousness of the unemployment
situation is the reason for this step.
The formation of a war department i
bureau for aid of red chevron men
does not imply any lack of efficiency |
on the part of the United States en- |
pioyment service of the labor depart |
ment. This service has found posi- |
tions for approximately 10000 sol |
diers in the past three months. But |
the war department feels that 1t
should lend a hand in placing the I'M |
employed soldiers. l
AS Colonel Arthur Woods, head of
the newly created bureau puts 1t, the
war department should be, and is, in
tepsely interested in the ex-soldiers,
and we are going to try to act as big
brother to them.
The war departments new bureau
is SO extremely new that its exact
duties and functions are not de1lned
1t does not at present plan to go INTO
the employment business on an IN
tensive scale for the benefit of indi-
vidual soldiers. But it announces its
intention of urging the employers to
take back their former workers who
entered the army. 1t will lend to the
department of labor men who can be
sent to the army camps to obtain coz
operation of tho soldiers themselves
in readjustment plans 1t Will ask
business firms to keep in touch with
+ the federal employment service, and
to give the discharged soldier a chance
whenever possible. And it will extend
the idea that it is the duty of every
! United States citizen who employs lab
or or knows of an untitled position, to
! try to connect some soldier with
kjob.
| The soldier who leaves the army
without having been wounded is in the
! best physical condition. There is no
question that he is a desirable type
! of workman. The soldier who has
| been disabled in service goes back to
| civil life with the idea that he must
make good somehow. Given a fair
chance, he will make good in spite of
| drawbacks. In either case the ex-
soldieI is a pretty safe proposition as
| a workman.
The bureau chief, Colonel Woods.
was only recently discharged from the
army where he had served in the air
| service. He was enjoying a brief va
cation in Florida when Secretary
Baker pursued him by long distance,
and brought him back to Washington
secretary of war" and incidentally to
study out some way by which the war
department could fill the aforemen-
toned big brother hole to the wearerS
of the red chevron. Colonel Woods
thereupon became the first unemploy-
ed soldier to be placed by the war
department.
In an interview regarding the war
departments new project, Colonel
Woods said: lone outstanding diff
Guilty in placing discharged soldiers is
that the hero, just returned. from the
trenches does not always long to set
: tie down Immediately to the grind of
another job. John Smith, for variety
call him Harold st. Clair, has $50 CIV
en- him with his discharge, and he has
an unsha kable desire to spend his $50
as joyfully as possible. Broadway and
the white lights entertain Harold as
long as he can pay generously for the
luxury of being entertained. His $50
lasts him a week or SO. Then he is
| stranded.
Even then he does not look fol-
steady employment. He joins thai
army of casual workers who spend ev,
cry other day hanging around some
fascinating steam shovel where exca
- walton is in progress. New York ha:
y more of these soldier .stragglers thar
? any other city. Every returning sol
adier has the impulse to study Broad
way first hand, either in order to com
pare it to Paris, or because he missed
, | seeing the French metropolis. Thi
| with variations is the story of the ma
= jorlty of the unemployed red cheVrol
Q men, especially those in our cities.
1.-THE nation feels responsibility to
y / wards these men, went on Colone
| Woods. MANY of them We're takel
= from good positions and conscriptet
= into the army. Others volunteered Al
gave their services to the country, an,
= the country owes them a fair chanc
: to reinstate themselves into a suitabl
civil occupation. We do not like t
see them wander about the streets I'm
2 cared for
The bureau believes that it is no
altogether the soldiers fault when h
1t remains out of work. There are jus
now more men than jobs, particular
in the industrial field. For farr
workers, coal miners, 1aborers an
some other workers, there is a Jdeman
e in certain sections of the country. Blu
H. for other 'labor-painters, railroa
n workers, engineers and auto me
- chanics, for instance-there is a1mos
u no call. Right now the total of I'm
10 employment caused by the close c
N war projects is estimated at 700, 00t
~ Another difficult phase of the sit
- uation, the new bureau has diseovere
'e is that in a large percentage of case
d, discharged men prefer not to retur
IT to their pre-war occupations Out
door life and exercise have strengthen
DC ed them, so that to some, indoor worl
Of that they once looked upon as attrat
as tive, seems less desirable than farmin
or other outdoor employment. The
have learned in the army to respe,
IN manual labor. Many have learned fC
re the first time in their lives to use the
:, hands and muscles.
Other soldiers, who before the VIZ
III engaged in unskilled labor, have a.
~ quired training. and can enter a trad
be as apprentice or journeyman. St
- others have gained the ambition
VI become clerical workers. Many me
is who had always done manual lab,
a gained some education in the arm
+ and became clerks, or are now dete
mined to find clerical enploymeT
pc The surplus of clerical workers on Il
tn labor market is astonishing. Repor
be of the labor department for the pa