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Show THE LABOR TURN-OVER. It 13 given out in official figures compiled com-piled by the war department that the labor turn-over in the United States annually involves a cost of $2,500,000,-000! $2,500,000,-000! Colonel Arthur Woods, assistant to the secretary of war, believes that a great deal of the. turn-over is directly attributable to the lack of a system of industrial training, wherein men who are unskilled, but have the ambition to become skilled, can be trained for a higher grade of work. Colonel Woods, who has come into direct contact with the problem .through the ne-employment of returned service men, says that the Americans have all come back better men in every way, with higher ideals and ambitions. These men havo taken positions which to their, minds were inferior, but only with the idea of later seeking something better. Indications now point to the fact that they are applying in increasing numbers num-bers to tho employment bureaus for better places, not because they hold any particular "gTudge" against their employers, but because they can see no immediate chance to better themselves where they are. Government inquiry at somfl factories discloses that workers work-ers are often assigned to tasks for which they are not suited and where no provision is made for fitting them to the job. "These returned soldiers of ours," says Colonel Woods, "are certainly entitled en-titled to training. Even if they were not, it is to the advantage of the employer em-ployer to give it to them." Colonel Woods has long advocated the establishment of industrial training train-ing classes in plants, not only for present pres-ent employees, but also to help returned re-turned soldiers to become skilled workers. Meanwhile, the immense cost of a constant shifting of labor from job to job is steadily growing; and employment employ-ment managers and efficiency experts aro wrestling with the problem in every branch of industry. Thus far they apparently ap-parently have not hit upon a solution, for they have not found tho underlying underly-ing cause. They can cure the effect in cases, but they have not reached the fundamental trouble. Possibly Colonel Woods' suggestion might be a step in the right direction.' . i |