SEEING IS BELIEVING

INCIDENTAL to the launching of The Employment Counseling Program, the Veterans Employment Representative arranged to conduct the State Office Staff on tour of Lawson General Hospital. They visited the Orthopedic Shop where prosthetic appliances are made, and the Occupational Therapy Shop where the use of prostheses is taught. Arm and leg amputees were seen using tools of all kinds. Of particular interest was the set of charts showing the tests which amputees must pass before being released. That an arm prosthesis can be taught to do finger work, was amply demonstrated. We saw a young radio technician learning to use his prosthesis on the same kind of radio repair work he had done while in the Army Air Forces which requires exact finger work.-VER for Georgia.

TWO-WAY BENEFIT

THAT Veterans Employment Representatives are on the alert on and off duty is demonstrated by these Idaho incidents where helping a veteran helped the USES too.

As he paced along the street, the VER for Idaho encountered a snappy looking young man, who was wearing an honorable discharge button in his lapel. During their conversation, the VER learned that the veteran was unemployed. In addition, it occurred to him that the young man's background was such that it might qualify him for a vacancy then existing in the Employment Service. The veteran, accompanying the VER back to the office, was interviewed by the State Director. The upshot of it all was that the veteran was eventually offered a job in a local office, accepted, and shortly thereafter went to work.

This same VER, reviewing the Army reports of separation, was impressed with the record of a particular veteran. There happened to be a vacancy in the local office in the young man's home town and he seemed to be just the man for the job. When the veteran was brought to the attention of the local office manager, he too, was similarly impressed. The Area Director likewise thought well of the veteran's qualifications for the existing vacancy, recommended his appointment, and the State Director approved it.

RESETTLEMENT CAMPS FOR
EX-PRISONER VETERANS

IN THIS "One World" we are interested in what other countries are doing for their veterans. From the monthly review, LABOR AND INDUSTRY IN BRITAIN, for June 1945, comes an account of a program which helps the veteran get his feet on solid ground before returning to a job in civilian life.

The British Army is establishing voluntary camps for homecoming prisoners of war discharged or released from the services. These "Civil Resettlement Units" will be situated in pleasant surroundings, and will give the men a chance to get used to normal life after their long absence. There will be no "duties" in the ordinary sense. Courses will last from 4 to 6 weeks, and the soldiers may choose camps near their homes. A pamphlet given to the men describes the changes that have taken place "in civvy street," and

says:

"You will need time to find your feet again. Going back after all these changes will not be easy. You may make a few false starts. . . . It is to help you bridge this gap between the Army and civil life that CRU's have been set up."

At the CRU, the veterans will have the help of a trained staff in deciding on a civil job or the job to train for; specialist advice on financial, legal, or personal problems; the chance to meet civilians who can help him after leaving the Army; and the opportunity to try his hand at one or two things before making up his mind.

SPECIFIC TASKS in the over-all veterans program have been assigned the USES. Personnel of the USES are charged with counseling and placement of veterans seeking employment; the Veterans Employment Representative serves as a link between the USES and the veteran. This column will be devoted to miscellaneous informative items, all of which have a bearing, directly or indirectly, on the veterans services entrusted to the USES.

We invite contributions from USES personnel having day-to-day contacts with veterans. The subject matter should be selected for its general interest and because it will pass along suggestions helpful to others in this specialized field of work.

NO PROBLEM

A REPRESENTATIVE of a large manufacturer made these observations re the "veterans' problem":

My experience with people, both sick and well, over a period of years would indicate that the "veterans' problem" is no problem at all. It is a human problem. Close observation of nonveterans certainly bears out the feeling that in most instances exposure to military service does not of necessity, change a man permanently.... The most serious readjustment problem will be among those individuals who were emotionally unstable before entering military service or who were substandard socially before being drafted. A considerable amount of faith and hopefulness regarding the attitude of the battle-experienced veterans resulted from these interviews. One could not help but feel that the "veterans' problem" so-called, is largely a community and family problem and the boys themselves are normal, typical Americans who can and do say, "Give me a job and I'll be alright!"-VER for Connecticut.

REEMPLOYMENT RIGHTS OF

WOMEN VETERANS

BECAUSE numerous inquiries indicate that confusion exists as to the reemployment rights of women veterans, Selective Service has issued a clarifying statement. It is pointed out that the Service Extension Act of 1941 extended the mandatory reemployment rights of the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, as amended, to all persons who have served in the land or naval forces since May 1, 1940. This means that servicewomen discharged under honorable conditions from the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard are entitled to reemployment in their former positions if they meet the requirements and desire such reemployment. "It is true," the statement said, "that many of these women are married or will be in the near future, and will not return to their old jobs. Military training may

qualify some women for new types of employment. However, those who desire their former or a similar job are assured of reemployment rights."

National Headquarters of Selective Service further pointed out that every local Selective Service Board is equipped to handle reemployment cases of servicewomen.

INTERESTING HIGHLIGHTS ON

THE TREND OF VETERAN MIGRATION

A WAR DEPARTMENT survey of the intentions of men in the army indicates that the Pacific Coast can expect a considerable net increase about a quarter of a million-in the number of veterans after the war. On the other hand, the highly agricultural area embracing the South as well as the West North Central census division, will experience a large outmigration. The industrialized Northwest also is expected to get migrants, although on a much smaller scale, while the Mountain States are expected to break even-in-migrants just about balancing outmigrants.

The migration trends are consistent with the pattern of migration among servicemen that prevailed after the last war. The report also shows a very close correspondence between the migration pattern among servicemen and the expected regional distribution of job opportunities after the war.

The report also states that the length of time a man has been in the Army affects his tendency to move, those with longer service being more inclined to migrate. Men who married after going into the Army also show the highest migration rate. Least migratory are those who were already married before induction, while single men are between these ex

tremes.

THE USES was given recognition as the placement agency for veterans in the "Veterans Guide," a daily column in the WASHINGTON POST. Entitled "Direction to USES Offices Good Steer on Veteran Jobs," the column in part reads:

A young former service Texan has written me:

"I am a veteran out of this war. Since there's nothing I'd rather do than fool with cattle and horses, and in order to keep out of so many details, I wonder if you couldn't get me a good paying job on a Government ranch. Fifty miles from town or farther won't make any difference to me. I'll take the job anywhere in the United States. I might not be the best or top rider, but let me know what you can do for me. I don't care how wild they get. If the Ideal is right, I'm off."

What can a guy do about a former service man like that? Me, I wouldn't know a ranch from a range. Or maybe they're both the same I don't know. But as for getting a job on a ranch for a veteran, I just don't have a chance. And I've never had any experience running an employment agency.

At any rate I answer this way:

I'm just a common, ordinary newspaperman and ! have no Government connection at all, so I'm afraid I couldn't get you the kind of job you want, even if I knew what it was. See or write the veterans representative at the USES office, Brownsville, Tex., 9th and Levee Sts., Post Office Box 1511.

So for all veterans who are looking for jobs, strange as some of them may be, the best bet I can mention is the nearest USES.

Another letter came in from Indiana from a veteran of North Africa with 2 years', 10 months' service. This said that the former GI had a medical discharge and needed a job outside work. Seems he had become ill on two different jobs in defense plants and his doctor advised "no work inside."

Again I had to refer this veteran to the USES office at 14-12 North 6th St., Evansville, Ind. He ought to be able to get a good steer from that outfit-if he's sincere and the illness is genuine.

VETERANS! NOT BABES

IN TOYLAND

THE STATE VER visited the Glenn R. Oakmount Associates, toy-makers, in San Francisco. He found that Mr. Oakmount and his associates are veterans and that the organization is very veteran-conscious. The VER was deeply impressed by the spirit of comradeship that prevailed, making the employees really enjoy their work. He reports:

Self sustaining and supremely happy, working on machines with special safety devices, in a light, airy, modern factory, is a crew of thirty handicapped veterans turning out gadgets and toys. None of these men could be called hale and hearty. At the benches are those with heart ailments. A World War I totally blind veteran, and World War II Negro, also blind, "hum" as they sandpaper. A war-weary Marine handles the spray gun; a fatigued sailor is decorating by hand. Using a hook in place of a lost arm, a soldier operates a saw. An epileptic aids in assembling.

This is what the "boss" had to say:

"This gang_just finished 3,000 bunny rabbits for the Easter trade. They're the best bunch of toy makers in the country."

MISCELLANIA

THE U. S. CIVIL SERVICE Commission is asking its employees not to leave work on any day with an unfinished veteran case on the desk. If, by spending a little more time the case can be cleared out, the Commission wants the employee to remain at his desk to finish the task. As the central personnel agency of the Federal Government, the CSC has the major responsibility to carry out the spirit as well as the letter of the Veterans Preference Act. Speedy action on veteran cases is "the intent of Congress,' and the Commission, early in the war program, set the goal of a 24-hour service for clearing out each individual case.

SELECTIVE SERVICE Director Lewis Hershey recently advised post-war planners not to go too far in their well-meaning attempts to help the veteran. He is confident that the majority of the 14,000,000 persons who served in uniform will find their way back to productive civilian life if they are not restricted too much. While urging every community to organize to make services available, he asks them not to get in the position of "forcing help on the returning veteran."

He pointed out that the three units charged by Acts of Congress to take care of the veterans "who need help and ask for it" are the United States Employment Service, the Selective Service, and the Veterans Administration. The other public agencies and volunteer organizations augment the service given by the official agencies and their cooperation and aid is welcomed, but, as General Hershey has pointed out, there is danger of duplication and wellmeaning attempts to direct the affairs of the veteran who is not in need of counsel or aid, who wants only to be let alone to pursue normal existence.

A 16-WEEK course at the Navy's Rehabilitation Training School at Hunter College is preparing a group of hospital corps WAVES for rehabilitation work with veterans. As a part of the course, they visited the New York Institute for the Education of the Blind to observe methods of teaching.

AMONG OTHER things, the war bonds we buy help pay pensions to veterans. The Veterans Administration expects pensions to disabled veterans and to families of deceased veterans will total more than a billion dollars for the fiscal year ending July 1. This, the Treasury Department says, will use up more than a quarter of the national E-Bond quota of the Mighty Seventh War Loan Drive.

If a serviceman loses an arm, a leg, or an eye, he is rated as 40 to 70 percent disabled. His minimum pension would be $57.50, plus the $35 statutory award, or $92.50 a month. A war widow receives $50 a month, plus $15 for the first surviving child. Two dependent parents surviving a serviceman or woman receive $45 a month.

The armed forces have already reported more than a million casualties.

VETERANS EMPLOYMENT Representatives in local USES offices frequently receive inquiries as to where honorable discharge lapel buttons may be secured or replaced. War Department Circular No. 70 directs World War II men and women to file their applications with the commanding officer of the nearest military installation, i. e., military post, fort, camp, station, depot, general hospital, army airfield, etc. Applications must be accompanied by the original discharge certificates and preferably should be presented in person.

QUIZ BOOK

A COMPILATION of various questions asked by hundreds of veterans has been made by the schools conducted by the South Dakota Department of the American Legion and is called the 1945 SOUTH DAKOTA AMERICAN LEGION SERVICE OFFICERS QUIZ Book. During March, the South Dakota Department of the American Legion held several Service Officers Schools at various points within the State; 263 officers attended, representing some 80 American Legion Posts. Representatives from the Selective Service, the Veterans Administration, the State Veterans Department, and the United States Employment Service were present at most of the meetings. Discussions are facilitated through distribution of the QUIZ Book, which includes queries about State and Federal Laws and specific provisions of bills, training, rehabilitation, insurance, hospitalization, other types of treatment, compensation, pensions, reemployment rights and benefits, USES, Civil Service and a host of tips for Service Officers of one sort or another.

AT PRESS TIME (Continued from page 2) was tremendous, with workers leaving the projects in numbers almost equal to those being sent out.

Nevertheless, over a period of 2 years, more than 300,000 workers were placed in this most sensational recruitment task ever undertaken through the facilities of the USES. As local office personnel look back now, all the difficulties and the mystery that didn't make much sense then, must now look very meaningful indeed. The REVIEW hopes to present the full story of this recruitment in an early forthcoming issue.

¶ Of a total of 302 classified labor market areas only 46 remained in Group I as of August 1. As of August 11, this number had been reduced to 44. Before VE-Day the number was 74. During the period July 1 to August 1, seven areas were shifted from Group I and by August 11, two more areas were transferred from Group I to II. In addition, by August 1, four areas had shifted from Group II to Group III, and three from Group III to Group IV. The various groupings as of August 11 were: Group I, 44 areas; Group II, 119 areas; Group III, 110 areas, and Group IV, 29 areas. Only two areas were moved upward from Group IV to III. The loosening of classifications reflects sharp production cut-backs, while the tightening of two areas in the late pre-VJ-Day period was made necessary by an increased demand for workers in ship construction, repair, and conversion.

The U. S. Public Health Service has sounded the tocsin for 60,000 more cadet nurses to be enrolled in schools of nursing during the next 12 months to take care of the Nation's health needs. Among those having first call on the newly trained graduate registered nurses are the Veterans Administration Hospitals where nursing needs are acute and will continue to increase as more veterans are admitted. The number of patients requiring care in civilian and military hospitals is almost 6 million more than in 1940.

The Cadet Corps provides all-expense scholarships and official outdoor uniforms and in addition a monthly allowance of $15 to $30 for the trainees. Scholarships cover cost of tuition, books, fees, board, room, and nursing school uniforms for indoor use. The course is 24 to 30 months in length. Minimum entrance requirements are an attained age of 17 or 18 to 35, high school diploma, and good health.

¶The GUIDE TO FOREIGN EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES launched in May 1945 (with a supplement in June) is now replaced by a revised edition.

The guide represents full current information available on foreign employment, and to keep it up to date new occupational lists of openings will be released from time to time. Thus local offices will have the last word on information, with no necessity for applicants making inquiry to Washington.

THE BLIND ARE EMPLOYABLE

A REVIEW

Blindness and the Blind in the United States, by Dr. Harry Best. New York: MacMillan Co. $6.50.

THIS VOLUME is largely a pre-war statement of the situation of the blind in the social and economic scheme of American life. However, the general outline of the problems of the blind and the types of services to meet them are still valid in most instances.

The cost of blindness to the individual and to the State is discussed at some length. The cost to the individual is most frequently one of deprivation of a fuller life and a dependence upon the sighted for many services necessary for existence. The individual is all too frequently denied the right to work even though his abilities are fully adequate for many job requirements.

The financial cost of blindness to the State, including ameliorative services provided to lessen or minimize the loss to the individual, pensions, and lost earning power has been estimated at over $38,000,000 annually. Such a tremendous cost should be kept in mind by Employment Service staffs to be certain that it is not added to by failure to consider the blind for the jobs they can do.

In the chapter discussing occupations for the blind, the restricted occupational horizon of past years is shown to have substantially widened with the development of new methods of placement and new industrial practices. Contrary to the view of many persons, labor-saving devices of recent years have actually increased rather than lessened opportunities for the blind.

Throughout the volume Dr. Best treats the blind as a homogeneous group, but this is not consistant with his statement on page 665, where he says: "There is no such thing as a 'problem of the blind': there are as many blind problems as there are blind persons to be dealt with." The blind, like other handicapped persons, are character. ized by individual differences just as are the non-handicapped. One omission in Dr. Best's book is the failure to take cognizance of the possibilities for the blind individual inherent in job analysis and selective placement now so well developed by the USES.

Exception is taken to Dr. Best's reference to the "sad, dark life" which the blind lead, a concept, we believe, that gives a wrong emphasis. Those interested in the rehabilitation of the blind should not succumb to this outlook; it is a misconception, and a major drawback where employ. ment of the blind is at stake.

On the whole, those whose primary interest is to further employment of the blind in industries will find a great many of the chapters of this carefully compiled study exceedingly helpful.

While the economic level of the blind is now much higher than is indicated in Chapter XVII, it has still to be improved. Some of the author's objectives are rapidly materializing through the efforts of modern agencies working for the blind. On the whole, there is ground for optimism that Dr. Best's hopes are being realized and the worst of his fears mitigated.—JOHN M. MCAULAY, Specialist, Services for the Blind, Office of Vocational Rehabilita tion, Federal Security Agency.

2. Community Review of Manpower Situation. The number of displaced workers and returning veterans in each community will be determined in cooperation with local management-labor groups, and action will be taken by the WMC and local USES offices, in cooperation with the communities, to speed reconversion and reemployment.

3. Channeling of Workers. On the basis of information that will be available, workers will be advised of employment opportunities in civilian production. Special effort will be made to get workers with specialized skills to accept employment that will break civilian bottlenecks. When such workers are not available, an effort will be made to arrange for the loan of workers with needed skills so that reconversion projects that will result in large volume of reemployment may be completed as rapidly as possible.

4. Expansion of Services.-The USES local office will immediately begin to serve all employers, including those for whom services were restricted because of war requirements, so as to increase to a maximum the job opportunities for all workers seeking employment.

5. Expansion of Veteran's Services.-Employment counseling service for veterans will be provided in each community. The veteran

will be given as much assistance as he needs to fit himself back into civilian life. He will be supplied with information on the labor market conditions and outlook locally and in other areas; types of civilian jobs which will permit the best use of training and skills acquired while in the armed services; requirements of occupations and opportunities for advancement in various industries. At the same time an aggressive effort will be made to find employment opportunities for veterans that will use their qualifications to the best advantage.

In addition to placement counseling service, each local office of the USES will provided another type of service to the veterans by furnishing current information concerning all the community agencies, Federal, State, and local -private and public-which offer special services or benefits to the veteran.

6. Increased Emphasis on Personalized Services. Increased emphasis will be given to job counseling and other personalized services to assist job seekers to adapt their wartime experience to peacetime job opportunities.

7. Inter-Area Transfer of Workers.-In view of the tremendous wartime volume of inter-area and inter-State migration, workers will need assistance in finding civilian jobs in their home communities or other communities where civilian production is expanding. On the eve of VJ-Day inter-area recruitment, already extended to reconversion employment, had increased to the highest level yet reached. The facilities for transferring workers and for recruiting those with urgently needed skills for reconversion will be maintained and strengthened.

Regional directors were given instructions to put the new program into immediate effect in the 1,500 local USES offices, which have an important role to play in the free post-war labor market-that of speeding reemployment of displaced workers and returning servicemen.