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Show Strive for Employment fTfM Of Disabled Veterans pS Act to Furnish Handicapped With Chance mfPi For Gainful Occupation; Industry Pledges Full Co-Operation. By BAUKHAGE Veu'i Analyst and Commentator. WNU Service, 161S Eye Street, N.W., Washington, D. C. When a lot more workers than Job begin to plague the employment employ-ment offices of the country, some 24 million men stand to have a little tougher sledding than their fellows , . . that is, unless the program pro-gram that will be getting under way as these lines appear achieves the worthy purpose that its designers have for it The potential workers who are going go-ing to get this special help are the men who have made the second greatest sacrifice In World War lithe li-the ones who gave all never came back. I'm going to talk about the disabled American veterans. In times of great unemployment a person with a disability has two strikes on him when pitted for a Job against a perfectly able-bodied worker. Therefore, the Disabled American Veterans, a veterans' organization or-ganization whose membership is confined solely to the war disabled, Is setting up the machinery to go to bat for him so that he from whom much has been taken to keep the rest of us secure within the wide bounds of these United States will have at least as good a chance as his able-bodied colleague in getting a Job where he can earn a living for himself and his family. For the first time In its history, DAV, the Disabled American Veterans, Vet-erans, has set up a highly Integrated Integrat-ed national network of employment officers headed in Washington by Dr. Gilbert S. Macvaugh, a disabled veteran of this war and a former lieutenant commander with wide experience ex-perience in personnel and employ ment counselling. These employment employ-ment officers have their hands reaching out In two directions one toward the disabled veteran and one toward the employer in an endeavor to bring the two together so that the employer and the veteran may 'meet and reach' ah agreement on a Job. ! Let me give you two small examples exam-ples of the type of thing the DAV is getting ready to do in a big way. Take the case of the man who had been wounded in the invasion of Normandy. An injury to his spinal column paralyzed him from the waist down so that he is bedridden. bed-ridden. On directions from the Washington DAV office, the local employment officer of the DAV contacted con-tacted the man to see what kind of work he might do while in bed and yet receive some income. In the man's community there was a small plant tor making hooked rugs. The DAV representative arranged to have the bed-ridden veteran make hooked rugs and market them with this concern. Then there is an entirely different type of case seeing that Justice Is done the disabled veteran after he does get a Job. A guard was employed em-ployed In a certain public building. build-ing. He had a slight nervous disorder dis-order for which a psychiatrist was treating him, prescribing a little medication to be taken while on duty. One day the medicine made the veteran feel drowsy and he asked to be relieved from duty for a few hours until he could overcome It. That was refused him. Subsequently Subse-quently charges were preferred against him and he was given a letter of suspension. The DAV National Na-tional Employment officer went to the mat for him and had the whole case uncovered. Find Boy Can Do Job Well Back of the helping hand offered to the disabled veterans to get them Into Jobs a lot of spade work has been going on the ground has been prepared with great care so that when the crisis comes many workers and few Jobs the former G.I. who literally gave part of himself tor the rest of us will have an opportunity to work. The DAV asserts that he can do Job well In spite of his handicap. It points to records It Is accumulating which show that when a disabled veteran la hired, he shows great car and conscientiousness In performing per-forming his task, it's something like the story of the old Washington airport it wis one of the most dsn-Igeroui dsn-Igeroui In the United States, but , there were no major accidents on it. The answer was that pilots, knowing the hazards, took extra precautions In using the field. So a disabled veteran, already knowing what it is to be handicapped, uses considerable extra care. I said the DAV had set up a national na-tional employment program for the first time in its existence, headed up in Washington by a National Employment officer. Then each state has a Chief Employment officer. of-ficer. The DAV In each state is divided into chapters, or local units, and each has an employment officer of-ficer also, thus bringing the contact of this helping hand right down into the community where the veteran lives or is hospitalized. Before the program can begin operating In the complete way envisioned en-visioned by its planners, the men who can offer the Jobs have to be contacted personally and the challenge chal-lenge of their opportunity to make work available to handicapped veterans vet-erans has to be put squarely before be-fore them. This has been the first task of Dr. Macvaugh and his corps of employment officers. DAV Get$ Off To Good Start A strong beginning was made when at a conference in Atlantic City the following representative organizations, or-ganizations, among others, were contacted personally by the DAV National Employment officer and asked to Influence the businesses for which they are spokesmen to put disabled veterans on their work rolls: the National Association of Manufacturers, the American Bankers Bank-ers association, the Chamber of Commerce, the National Council of Farmer Co-operatives, the American Ameri-can Farm Bureau federation, the American Retail federation, the Air Transport association, Aircraft Industries In-dustries association, Investment Bankers association, Committee of Economic pcvelopment American Trucking association, American Waterways Operators, Association of American Railroads, National Foreign Trade Council, National Retail Re-tail Dry Goods association, International Interna-tional Association of Lions Clubs, National Grange, National Association Associa-tion of Motor Bus Operators, and so on. But this gives you an Indication Indica-tion of the scope of the cultivation of the soil for Jobs for disabled veterans. vet-erans. Available Jobs are made known to the Veterans' Employment Representative Repre-sentative of the United States Employment Em-ployment service, which has agreed to designate an assistant in each state who will specialize in the employment em-ployment of war disabled G.I.s. The DAV has developed a system whereby its chapter employment officer of-ficer knows as soon as a man who has a disability is released from an Institution and Is available for work in his community. He also knows the disabled veterans living there who need Jobs. It is his task to bring the men and the Jobs together. to-gether. It Is the DAV chapter employment employ-ment officer who takes the man to the veterans employment representative repre-sentative of the USES where the Jobs are registered, and on to the prospective pro-spective employer, if necessary, to clinch the employment of the ex-GI. ex-GI. There are five planks in the employment em-ployment platform of the DAV. First, to convince employers that they should employ disabled dis-abled American veterans, somewhere, some-where, IMMEDIATELY; Second, to support the training train-ing of disabled veterans for more than one key Job In an Industry so that when heavy unemployment develops, tha disabled man will not be the Brat discharged, for he will be able to do more than one Job; Third, to advocate Increased wages for disabled veterans became be-came they have become more valuable as a result of the multiple mul-tiple training; Fourth, to try to Improve working conditions for the disabled dis-abled ex-G.I. ao that his Job la a pleasant ano; Fifth, U see that preference la given the disabled veteran In staying an the Job when pesple have U be released. |