Evening star., 1945-08-21
Agencies Treat
.VeteransCo|d|y,
Draft Aides Say
Clerks Tell Leohy
Little Is Done to
Help Job Hunters
BY MIRIAM OTTENBERG.

District draft board chief clerks
who now are talking every day with
10 to IS men just out of the service.
protested today that veterans are
getting a cold reception and a
run -around" from Government
agencies here.
They aired the troubles of return.
ing veterans today after being told
by District Selective Service Direc-
tor William E. Leahy, who met with
the rs board chief clerks in his Of
nee, that the board clerks are more
familiar with the veterans, their
needs and their psychology than
any other people in the country
including Congress.
Mr.. Leahy predicted Congress
would not abolish selective service
when it reconvenes - no matter
what the rumors may be-and that
Congress will trust selective service
with the job of helping veterans.
Problems Detailed.
Mr.. Leahy wanted to know why.
with $500 veterans back in the Dis
trict, he had had so few reports on
what assistance they were getting
from their draft boards. It de-
veloped the board clerks had taken
1t as a matter of course to do
everything they could for the re-
turning men without putting their
efforts on paper.
Again and again, as the board
clerks told of their experiences with
the veterans, they complained that
veterans would come back to them
bitterly protesting their reception at
the agencies to which the draft
boards had referred them.
One clerk told of a veteran whose
only shoes when he got out of the
service were combat boots. He
had borrowed his nephew's shoes.
which were too tight. He came to
his draft board with the protest
that his ration board had told him
1t would take six days for him to
get shoe stamps. In that and 13
other cases the board clerks got the
shoes.
Another clerk told of three men
who came in yesterday to say they
had obtained no help from the
United States Employment Service.
In each case the board clerk said
she had sent them to people she
knew for jobs-one of them another
reglStrant of the board.
Another board clerk said he was
sending job-seeking veterans direct
to personnel officers in Government
agencies he knew needed help be-
cause "it takes weeks for the Civil
Service Commission to take action"
Mr.. Leahy wanted to know what
the attitude of the veterans was
toward their draft boards. One of
the chief clerks stood up and said:
Hurt by Cold Reception.
i've been with the board since
January, l941. When the men come
IN, they come over and greet me.
| can't remember all their names
but then I get out their files and
we start talking. I tell them thev
are looking flne-but they have
changed so much and improved 50
much 1 didn't even recognize them.
They like that. In a lot of other
places they get very cold recep.
tlon and it hurts them"
Another clerk agreed.
Yes, they're mighty glad to see
an old face" he said. When thev
see somebody in the board thev
recognize from three or four years
ago, a big grin comes over their
faces. They talk then as they
would to an old friend"
Another clerk told about the men
coming back to her board. She said
the "grandest" veterans were the
ones who had been overseas two or
three years. Practically every one
OF them, she wanted the other
board clerks to know, had at least
one decoration.
The board chief clerks said they
talked personally to every veteran
who came in. Some of the veterans.
they said, came back two or three
times as new problems cropped up.
Their problems ran the gantlet
from a place to live to a place to
work. One board clerk said she had
even offered to escort a man per-
sonally to the agency he had to
visit because he complained he
didn't knou, tho c;t,,