Evening star., 1939-10-29
Industrialists Tackle Problem
OF Aid for Workers Over 40
Agreement to Curb Determinations Made bv SO
Larger Establishments in Rochester
in Employment Plan
By Raymond p. Brandt.

| ton trend by age groups from 1860 to
1880 emphasizes that within the next
40 years the percentage of workers be-
tween As and IS years old will constantly
increase. For instance, in 1860 only 1914
per cent of the population were in the
45 to IS years old group, but by next
year they will constitute 20.2 per cent
of the total and in 1880 they will be 259
per cent of all the population. The
causes of these increases are, on the one
hand, the extension of life by the adj
vance of medical and sanitary science
and public health administration, and,
on the other, the rapid decline of the
birth rate in recent years. Although
the chart relates to total population
and not alone to workers, the percent
ages for the middle-age group will ap-
proximate each other.
Commenting on these population
changes, the committee said:
The shift in the age groupings of our
people cannot be ignored, because it will
create whole set of new economic and
social problems which will affect both
VIC ogoCC anu 4NdllOIl. 1lle
feels that it can say, without fear of
contradiction, that the result of the age
shift constitutes one of our primary eco
nomic and social problems The effect
of this shift in age groupings has been
with us for some time and has been
one OF the contrbutory causes why mid
dle-aged men and women have found
1t increasingly hard to find re-employ-
ment. Old-age pensions and social Sc
curity insurance have become largely
necessary as result OF this shift, cou-
pied with chronological changes and the
further fact that our industrial machine
has been out of joint. causing distress
| among our entire population.
Plan Must Be Long Range.
ITO correct this growing fault, we
must explore the possibilities of adult
education in an attempt to rehabilitate
those middle-aged persons who have lost
their jobs through chronological changes
or through their trades or skills be-
coming obsolete.
ANY plan of education or vocational
| guidance that may be worked out must
be planned to extend over a period of
at least 40 years. The reason why such
| a long-range plan must be devised is:
First, the middle-aged persons in our
| population will continue to increase.
reaching maximum during this period,
| and second, the whole picture will
change from time to time. depending on
the general employment situation, which
| will make continuous planning neces-
| sary."
For more immediate action the COM
| mlttee recommended the adoption of the
| West Virginia plan of State rehabilita-
ton of welfare recipients found to be
Jooless because of durable or correctible
| physical defects
| Finding that physical unfitness in
the middle age constitutes their greatest
handicap in obtaining Unemployment"
the committee deplored the practice of
many employers of refusing to tell un-
successful applicants for jobs that they
had not passed the physical examina-
tlons, and it asked for legislation to COM
pei "all employers requiring physical
examinations as a condition of employ
ment to keep records of all persons
examined, and when person is rejected
by reason OF physical defect, that he
be told why he is rejected, unless the
| physical defect is of such nature that
to tell him would aggravate his condi-
ton"
With this as the first step, the COM
mittee further recommended that the
State pay for the cure or correction of
physical defects if the worker himself is
unable to meet the cost. Among cures
and corrections to be met, if necessary
by State costs, the committee listed i'm
paired vision, fistula, hernia, goitre, frac-
lures, kidney stones, hemorroids, tumors,
cataracts, gallstones, varicose veins and
prostate glands
Citing the experience of West Virginia.
the report asserted that such program
would more than pay for itself in re-
duced welfare costs after period of one
year, to say nothing of the saving in
humanitarian values"
Welfare Cost Reduced.
The report continued that in West
Virginia a general savings of 81 per
cent in welfare cost alone had been ef-
fected, since the average cost of rehabili-
tating 1880 persons had been $97 10 per
case, as against $228.86 per case while
the recipient was on public relief.
The committee found that in the popu-
lar mind there were 81 purported causes
of discrimination against workers over
40 years old. Summarized, these can be
listed under the following heads: A be-
lief that insurance, pension and accident
compensation rates greatly favor the
younger employe; that speed machinery
can be operated more efficiently with
stronger and more adaptable younger
workers; that the public demands young
er persons as mattresses, clerks, stenog-
raphers, office workers and the like; that
younger workers, although better edu-
Gated than the middle-aged workers, are
cheaper and that an example has been
set by municipal, State and Federal civil
service agencies against older workers.
| In its conclusions fhe cnrnn,ittae ~.