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Show Released by Western Newspaper Union. WHAT OUR BOYS REALLY FIGHT FOR I RECENTLY READ a piece In ! which the writer told of the kind of jobs the men in the armed forces would expect, and should have, when they finish the task of defeating defeat-ing the nation's enemies. According to that writer the men who left the farms, the factories, the banks, the j stores and all the other types of vocations America offers, would, when they return, expect to step Into jobs that would support good homes, situated in spacious grounds, elaborately elabo-rately furnished, with one or more cars in the garage, a yard man and a maid to do the work. A job that would provide the necessary funds for an extensive playtime devoted to travel, to hunting and fishing and other recreations that are enjoyed I... .u Of such jobs as he pictured there may be half a million in all America, Amer-ica, and there will be nine or ten million of those returning soldiers, sailors and marines. Not jobs enough to even start with. That writer does not know the American type. He has no conception concep-tion of the class of men who are fighting the nation's battles. To be sure they will want jobs when they come back and most certainly they should have them. They will want to go back to the things they were doing before the war called them. They want to go back to the farm, the factory, the desk. That is what they expect. They want to come back to a land that otters opportunity opportu-nity to develop the ability each possesses, pos-sesses, where they can reap the rewards re-wards of that ability in whatever measure they may individually display dis-play it. They want a chance to earn that fine home in spacious grounds if they have the ability to do so. It Is . the maintenance of such opportunity oppor-tunity for which they have been fighting. Those who may expect the comforts of life to be handed to them because they carried the burden bur-den of the battlefronts are the very, very rare exceptions. PEACETIME TRAINING OF U. S. YOUNG MEN OVER THE YEARS from 1916 to 1920 a group of well-intentioned men attempted to secure the enactment of a universal military training law. I was one of that group. At a meeting meet-ing in the Union League club, in Chicago in 1918, I made the statement state-ment we could not accomplish the desired purpose so long as we classed it as a military training law, that the mass of American people were opposed to compulsory military mili-tary service for their sons during peace times. I proposed we change the title to citizenship training. The real purpose was more that of making mak-ing citizens than making soldiers, though under such a law as was proposed, and regardless of the title, military drill and discipline in the camps would be an essential feature. fea-ture. At that time there were early indications in-dications of the sprouting of class distinctions in the nation. To put the young men of America, the sons of farmers, bankers, workmen, industrial in-dustrial executives, men of wealth and of poverty, into camp together, all living under exactly the same conditions, would destroy that sprouting class distinction. When these boys knew each other, when they became camp buddies, there could be ro such thing as class antagonisms an-tagonisms among them. Tine suggested sug-gested change in title was not made. Public opinion and partisan friction prevented the passage of the bill. Another effort will be made to pass a universal military training law. If the sponsors of the new bill will but take a lesson from the past and call it a citizenship train-, train-, ing law, they can succeed and America Amer-ica will be better for having such a law. GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES DOES THE RAISE IN WAGES given the civilian employees of the federal government, between August of 1941 and August of 1943, conform to the Little Steel formula? In August of 1941 the then 1.444,985 civilian employees received a total of $217,-772,054, $217,-772,054, an average of $151 per employee. em-ployee. In August of 1943 the 3.063,-379 3.063,-379 present employees received a total of $C46,372,969, an average of $211 per employee. The difference represents a 40 per cent increase in wages given to the "civilian employees em-ployees of the federal government. In November of 1918 the government had only 917,760 civilian employees. It would seem there might be an opportunity for some economies at Washington, that It might be possible possi-ble to get along with a lesser number num-ber of bureaucrats. A MINNESOTA READER sent me the figures of the number of federal fed-eral government civilian employees In World War I and at the present time, with the perconnel cost of the tw.o periods, a difference of some two and a quarter billions a year. He did not know that there are now more federal civilian employees in his own state than the total employees employ-ees of the cities, towns, counties and state, Including all the police forces, In Minnesota. That slate is not an exception, the same thing Is true in the greater number of states. 'i |