The Arizona copper camp., 1920-03-20

y Well, of the 10000 eligible for
training there have in nineteen
months been placed in actual training
somewhat more than $4,000.
OF the 10000 eligible for training
and of the $4,000 and more actually
placed in training in nineteen months
there have been placed in useful and
gainful occupations just 217.
/ Truly, those are impressive figures!
Let us ponder well their purport; for
they are measures of the fullness and
generosity with which we are keeping
faith, and paying debt of honor, and
discharging an obligation than which
we have none more solemn. 1t is no
: time for guesswork or for mere spec
lulation or estimate. We must pro-
ceed with mathematical exactitude.
According to the rule OF three
d(which has not yet, we believe, been
sent to the scrapyard), if $4,000 men
are placed in training in nineteen
months we may reasonably expect the
whole 10000 eligible candidates thus
Ito be dealt with in little more than
seven years. Perhaps they will all
lbe disposed of in somewhat less time,
because before seven years have
passed many of them will have died
and many more will have grown tired
and withdrawn from the waiting list.
| Ano 10 hn
!Iorable rule, if out of 10000 eligibles
in nineteen months no fewer than 217
have actually been placed" we
might expect, did human longevity
permit, that the entire company would
be thus placed in the course of a lit
tile more than eight hundred years.
At such rate is this program of
duty, justice, and humanity" the
president well described it-being
fully and generously" fulfilled. Eight
hundred years!
I It is, of course, gigantic work to
look after these 10000 men, and it
requires the activities of large staff
lof officials. Undoubtedly. We sup
-Ipose that if in the good town of Some
'lwhere there were hundred or a hun
dred and ten disabled soldiers to be
cared for, the selectmen would ap-
'Ipoint committee of three to do the
job, and then it would be done, SO
far as putting them in training went,
in about thirty days, or perhaps less.
We'll, the United States government
has three men at work for every hun
dred and ten applicants. That is to
say, 1T has an official and clerical
force of 5000 working on the eligible
list of 10000, and to that clerical
force it is paying in salaries nearly
three times as much as it is spending
flor the vocational education" or
training of disabled soldiers.
This staff ought to do it's work with
''lthoroughness and expedition, too. At
the beginning it was working under a
code of rules comprising no fewer
than 522 sections. Surely that should
have been sufficient to guide it Alright.
But as the work, proceeded and its
magnitude developed that code was
found to be inadequate, and it was su-
fIperseded by a new one containing l.
500 regulations. Who shall say that
we are not scrupulous in our payment
of debts of honor, when such action
is guarded and directed by 1900 rules?
Who shall say, either, that our keep
ing of the faith is not generous, when
in every case the burden of proving
his disability and his worthiness to
receive training is thrown upon the
applicant himself; much as though
he we're to be considered malinger
and an impostor until he proved him
self really disabled soldier. AS for
the accuracy and justice which this
force of 5000 assures, they are sug-
gested by case cited in detail by
Mr.. Littledale. A man was complete.
ly disabled for his former occupation,
the only one he knew anything about.
They examined him and rated him as
only 10 per cent disabled and good
for stipend of So month! OF
course, he appealed. They examined
him again, and this time rated him
so per cent disabled. Again he ap-
lpealed, and again they examined him,
with the result of rating him 100 per
cent disabled.
In such fashion are scores of thou
sands of our returned soldiers being
trifled with, insulted, betrayed. In
such fashion is this government keep
ing faith with those who kept faith
with it, even unto victory. In such
fashion are we fully and generously
ldischarging the most solemn obliga-
tion that rests or that can rest upon
us. If the treasury repudiated even
single $50 Liberty bond the nation
would cry out in wrath and shame.