Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1942-12-13

The executive order of December
carried much promise for the establish
ment of a well-co- ordinated public em-
ployment policy in the United States,
very backward in this respect by COM
parison with other nations Of an equal
degree of industrialization. Here is a
welcome illustration of that social
progress which sometimes comes as a
by-product of war strain.
Separation of social security policies
from the primary labor placement func-
ton of the employment exchange svs-
tenn is simultaneously effected by the
present shift. That, too, is not merely in
the interest of immediate efficiency, but
also probably desirable from the VIEW
point of long range social planning.
Establishment of the basis of a ra-
tional wartime policy for higher educa-
ton is the third outstanding accom-
plishment of the recent executive order.
For the first time, after year of war,
there now is some promise that the COL
leges and universities will be encouraged
facilities, to the fullest possible extent.
both for immediate needs and for the
preservation of those less material values
for which the war is fought.
Protection Of Colleges.
Heretofore governmental policy has
been operating to promote the hquida-
ton rather than the preservation OF the
liberal arts colleges. Wholly inadequate
provision has as yet been made for the
continuation of that preliminary pro-
fessional training which is essential II
the supply of competent doctors, teach
ers. ministers, scientists and adminls-
traitors is not to be cut off at the source.
The attitude of the military authori-
ties has been, quite correctly, that the
protection of the colleges is not their
concern Their business is not to con-
slider civil neds, but to comb the educa-
Iional institutions for promising military
material wholly regardless of whether
this means that in a few years time
there may be no more qualified doctors
for our hospitals and no more competent
teachers for our schools.
The strictly military attitude. how
ever, is contradiction of what the
phrase total war" implies. Since the
national effort demands not merely
big Army and Navy, but also its equip
ment and supply on titanic scale, the
needs of war industry must be given
comprehensive consideration. Absence
of ri, off in inSonj-
tary factory district may soon be trans
lated into delay in the production Of
alrplanes vitality needed in a critical
battle zone.
Policy Holds Promise.
It is an ominous sign that colleges with
outstanding records in professional
training are now threatened with actual
dissolution because the administration
has heretofore failed to see that in total
war the obvious military needs are only
part of the whole complicated picture.
An Army and Navy of 100000 men will
be of no avail If the economy behind 1t
Is so weakened and disrupted that 1t cam
not transport, sustain and supply that
spearhead of national effort.
BY promising a uniform policy, under
civilian direction. for "the efficient utili-
cation of the Nations educational facili-
ties the new executive order has brought
hope to many despairing college adj
ministrator 1t should now be possible
to check the wastage caused by the
short-sighted assumption that basic pro-
fessional training is non-essential in
wartime.