Browning chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1941-1953, 1943-11-05
Visitors to u. S.

battled our common enemy.
Visitors to u. S.
The war has brought a great many
Englishmen to the United States who
otherwise might never have known
any more of America than they
learned from the movies. Many are
highly trained specialists, others are
broadly educated, like those in news
paper and radio work. I have met
"a number, especially of the latter
group. And I am struck by one
thing which they comment upon
the widespread education in Amer
lea.
That is one thing which will make
up one of Englands No. l postwar
reforms-a real public school sys-
tenn. We, in America, underestimate
our own schools on the one hand and
overestimate our literacy on the
other.
At first, the army demanded that
man be able to read and write
or he was deferred. This lost nearly
million men to the armed forces
four states have SO per cent or more
adult illiteracy.
According to latest information,
$4,000 illiterates have already been
reclaimed for army service which
means that they have been taught to
read and write and do simple
arithmetic. 1t is said that there are
facilities for giving the same basic
instruction to 100000 more.
But that is by no means the extent
OF army education. A statement
from the Office of War Information
the other day said, speaking of the
serviceman: "Unless he comes from
a well-to-do family, his education
al opportunities are in fact rather
better in than out of the services"
That is probably something that
few parents thought of when they
waved good-by at the station. They
did not realize that the army and
navy are operating the largest adult
school in the world One out of ev-
cry ten adults in the country, II out
of every IA able-bodied men between
ID and 38 will probably be students
in that school system by the end of
this year. A million boys will be in
the preinduction courses, the sys-
TENS prep schools. Nine out of ten
of these men Will receive advanced
training as specialists.
The Future
Much of the education received
will be carried over as useful in
civilian life, for one out of three of
every army and navy job is Identical
with a civilian job and over two
thirds of the men in the service de-
velop skills that can be used in civil
ian jobs.
These figures alone, I believe,
show that when I'D Day" comes,
the millions discharged will not be
a careless, riotous lot, good for moth
ing but to fight. AS matter of fact,
the vast majority will have, if they
have anything like the feeling I and
most of my comrades in the last
war had, an overweening desire to
settle down to a job and the build
ing of home, mo more to roam"
Some, of course, who had the itching
foot will have developed chronic
cases, but it is doubtful if those roll
ing stones would have gathered
much moss anyhow.
For the majority of the men who
make up our armed forces who want
and expect to fill civilian jobs, the
careful classification of skills which
is vital part of the army and navy
system is going to work in reverse
in getting them jobs afterward. In
preparation for this, experts are al
ready assembling accurate descrip-
tons of jobs which men learn to do
in the service, keeping a cumulative
record of the work they do, prepar-
ing additional tests which will give
a clear picture of their achieve
ments and talents to the prospective
employer. They are also preparing
to tell the serviceman what job he
is best fitted for and offering help
which will better prepare him for it.
I doubt if ever before in history
the military has taken on such a
responsibility for fitting the boy back
into his natural groove when the
fighting is over. This is total war,
everybody is in it, and those who
have been forced to take over the
abnormal duties of fighting are not
going tn he set adrift