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Show I i j- Work for Soldiers - , . Kills Bolshevism O' j 1 fl-V H li New Reemployment Committee Gets Per-H Per-H ' manent Jobs for Thousands, Many of H 1 o Them in High Places B V ' By W. A. DAVENPORT. H TP HERB'S nothing particularly uew in ' I ! X saving that Bolshevism is Ihe lusty I " son of agitation. Nowadays folks arc using H 1 I f" the much abused word Bolshevism after I ' 'be maimer of a rubber l)lunkcl. If a man 1 ' makes public outcry against profiteers and ! e:" speaks about ropes aid, idle lampposts in the same paragraph he 'is set down by these ' u same profiteers as a Bolshevist. If a mau'suggests a mill pond for United j Stales Senators he is liable to fetch up in court to prove that he isn't a Bolshevist. H' : He 'finds this most difficult for the simple reason that neither he nor his accusers art? '" altogether sure what a Bolshevist is. The " J old familiar groucii who, five years ago, j Was dismissed with the offhand classification that "He's agin ihe Government," and '"therefore not worthy of consideration, is to-day called a Bolshevist. To repent, everything radical to the point of departure Ht It f-'- from the hard and fast rules of politics and I ' economics of yesterday is lo-day seen M' through red spectacles and called Bolshc- Now it doesn't seem to be an exaggera-.. exaggera-.. fion to stale that fewer than 10 per cent, of B the officers who had been actively engaged B " in actual combat in France and Belgium HRL, ' knew precisely what the word Bolshevism ! meant I am" going to lake a long chance ! and say that fewer than 1 per cent, of the j v enlisted personnel knew: and not more than j " 10 percent, had ever heard of it. But those m who had heard of the word were prolly gen-T gen-T orally satisfied lo dismiss it as being some- s thing or other that was a fearful mess and H ( had ruined Russia. B i Dolorous Stuff Read to Men. B fj U.. From the division intelligence officers, B themselves fourlh and fifth hand oracles. H came verbose and dolorous slulT on Bol- ' shevism that was. by order of the rubber j; ' stamp of the Chief of StalT. to be read to B , the enlisted men at each of the three retreat Hj f I', formations conscctuivelv following tlm re- 1: " oeipL oT the formida!)le missives. About ! " one-half of 1 per cent- of (he men listened. Ji The rest stood al attention or at ease, while -if. ihe young Lieutenant or (he First Sergeant ; read the dreadful ukase, which was to Ihe j1 . effect that there was not (he slightest doubt Hre (hat no" American soldier would hesi- 1, talc a moment slaying thai Rolshcvik who Bi suggested .virtue in Bolshevism or (he Bnl- Bf : ' slicviki to him. and thai, inasmuch as thi K " was (he case, all soldier? wore admonished B to have nothing In do with Bolshevism. Wl When it was clrarly understood fhnl Hol- ( -;: shevism had nolhing al nil I" do wilb slum- p gullipn il was cennrally agreed lhat, f m Ai-halcver it wa. we'd have tiolbinp: to lo Hl with it bcnnipc il miglil mean extra details. R , Finallv Ihe nmn began lo demand lo 1 i know what (lhi5 here now Bolshevism was ""'all about anyhow?" Tl became mosl em- H barrassinir for Ihe officer who did not know. H tso cmbarraspincr. in fael. thai in that par- H , il (icular splendid division in whieh Ihe writer ! had Ihe honor lo serve, a core or young I. nnd unnshnmed offic-ers got toielher and j; suscested to (he Regimental Tnlellicrence V j . DffiVcr that be ask Ihe Division Intelligence V j - Officer to come over nnd toll u all what H- i' ; Bolshevism was and why, and wherefore, j The luck'ess R. I. 0. nresenlcd Ihe propo- j ' sition lo the D. T. 0.. and no shavc'ail over administered to n corpora) a more ' eomnrehensive bawling out than Ihe meeker ' .for informal ion received al Ihe supposed fountain head. To be brief, the D. 1. 0. j 5aid that it was little short of seditious to H j "" hold meetings whore Bolshevism was dis- Hl j ( cussed. Anyway there were no discussions 11 nnH we came home to America quite as ig- H : :- 7l0rnnt concerning Bolshevisn as we were Hj I: f, when we went across. ' 't Become Used to Heroes. : ,'ow for ill In every city and village H , ! ; the returning soldiers were lionized for a week. Thenfolks became used lo their hc- ' -v.ps and took them ns a matter of course. ! i The great majority of the men found their former employers 'in a receptive and gencr-; gencr-; our mood. They got their jobs back. The 1 trained mechanics and artisans who wanted to Work had little if any trouble getting H " But there remained a formidable number . i 0f 111C -who did not get their old jobs .back ; or who found lhat somebody who did not H ' ' ' go lo war women in some instanceshad . hcir old jobs and that they'd have to start ,i ' ' in -all over again: or who decided to take a H : ' fQW weeks off before considering working. H , fbere were some who decided never to work H ,.: t apain if there was aiy easier way of ob- -' taining food and clothing. Fortunately, the - v latlcr clement was small. 1 i ' But this story has to do with lhat class -'' who did not get their jobs back and those . who found they'd have to start in all over B apain and those who decided lo take a va- ,: " cation for a while. Here in New ork ; ihe problem that they presented was es- H i i pccially vexatious. H j Several thousand discharged soldiers ,- 1 jnen who were drafted from the country ; ; janes anj villages were overcome by their first adventure into the wide world. The business of getting them back to the farm H " aftcr having seen Paris' was no business at 1 all, inasmuch as they decided that they weren't going back. Therefore Xew ork. H Ij Tbcy might starve in New York, bnt rather that than the old humdrum plenty of Bagdad Bag-dad Comers. And many of them did experience the first stages of starvation acute hunger. They found New York a cold, calculating, exacting place, willing to give generously only when given generously. They found that the old uuiform lost its potency after a while. Finally the cops began demanding demand-ing that loitering soldiers with red chevrons on their sleeves move on. It was pretty tough. The general trend of cogitation ran something like this: "Fine way of showing gratitude. Here we are, soldiers who did our best to save' (he country from the Boche and did save il, and now we get the bum's rush if we hang around a corner. Try to get a job and all they offer you is eighteen a week. How's a guy going to gel along on that"7" Invited to First Meeting. Well- this particular chap, a perfectly clean, sane, likable sort of a lad, drifts over toward the lower East Side and entirely en-tirely one-sided forums or has a ticket thrust into his hand by a wary individual who calls him "Brother." The ticket calls upon him lo attend n meeting al a hall where Comrade Pinksy will toll him just why he i'cn'1 silting in a magnificent office dircctim: the destinies of a great enterprise. Our hero, sore al the world in general and his ungrateful motherland m part'cu lnr, goes lo hear Comrade Pinsky deliver himself of the most nausea(in venom of unsound and irrational claptrap that a diseased and degenerate brain could evolve. But our hero applauds. Be is the fertile field, for just such rasr weed. He is lold lhat be has only to turn his rifie upon his old empjoyer as he trained it upon the Germans Ger-mans and (he world is his. He is no ecou-omisl ecou-omisl Willi him. like (he vast majority of us. economics is a purely local thing eon-sislinjr eon-sislinjr of irrent personal demand and infinitesimal in-finitesimal personal supplv. Down at 500 Pearl street. Manhattan, (he Soldiers ami Sailors' Reemployment Bureau was doing what it could (o get everv idle service man a job. The Knights of Columbus wore doiii? Ihe same sort of work. Bui furl her up town there was the American "branch of the Soldiers and Sailors' Sail-ors' Russian Alliance Hint was doing its Trsraniwl best lo nullify Ihe efforts of (he Reemployment Bureau by advising al! discontented soldiers to ignore $"20 and 25 job?, rven if such ware were froiri 25 per cent, lo r0 per cenl. higher than they had ever received before. "Firm! u-Mi'lr (7r I lif en nil :i lisls." screamed Ihe lire exha'incr oralor. "and Ihe capitalists capital-ists will have lo work for you." All of which sounded fair enouch until some one demanded lo know bow I he capitalists cap-italists were coins (o be compelled to work al all. :nd what wou'd they work at. But Ihe forces back of the Soldiers and Sapors Rucsian Alliance kepi jip their work of nroparranda and the Soldier? and Sailors' Reemployment Bureau was irettiu: readv to close its doors. That mean! leaving leav-ing the propagandists all a'one in the exceedingly ex-ceedingly fecund field and Ihe unemployed veleran fair nrev lo the anrumcnls of the demnsrocuc whose slock in Irade is misrepresentation misrep-resentation and malicious fnUebnml. Committee Takes Up Work So its was suggested thai a committee of New Yorkers who hail it within (hem lo continue the work of the Reemployment Bureau lake on the radical agitators in a finish fisht: that they frustrate the plans of the so-called Bolshevists by applying Hie one known sure cure for Bolshevism work. Whereupon Dr. Richard Derby, son-in-law of the late Theodore Roosevelt, wav made chairmau of such a committee, and his associates arc George Broknw Comp-lon. Comp-lon. Major-Gen. John F. O'Ryan, William Fcllowcs Morgan, D wight P- Morrow. Uravson M. P. Murphy, Russell E. Sard, Wade Hays, Herbert N. Straus, Lewis M. Thierv, Joseph F. Hcaly, Cornelius Van-derbilt, Van-derbilt, Sr.. Charles AY. Whittlesey and Arthur Woods. They continued the Reemployment Re-employment Bureau at the Pearl street quarters, where to-day it is flourishing ns never before. To heller illustrate just "what they are seeking lo combat let v us consider the stories lold in the bureau offices by a secret service man from the Department of Justice. Jus-tice. He told of a certain roundup of alleged al-leged Reds nnd the inclusion in that roundup of a dozen men recently discharged from (he United Slates Army all of them overseas over-seas men, too. One of the former soldiers said that lit had been working in a clothing store on the F.ast Side when the draft board filled him into a uniform nnd shipped him to France. He was uo objector. He was not afraid, and therefore developed no hitherto dormant dor-mant conscientious scruples against war. A a matter of fact he had been rather glad to go and a bit ashamed that he hadn't enlisted long before. A bright youug woman filled the job in the store at less money than he had been getting, but he was assured that if he returned re-turned the job would be his again at the old salary, and may be more. He wasn't killed in France. He never heard an enemy crun. He was kept back in the S. 0. S. in the Quartermaster depots, and he returned V-.:, ; . . . v "' ' (e) cnArPLi.i Studios LT COL MARCEL S U-EENE IN CHR,GrE of T5e SOLDIERS Qncf SAILORS RE EMPLOYMENT &UREAU, 500 PEARL ST to the East Side a better business man than he was when (lie army took him. On, yes! J lis job awaited him. lie could ' start any time be wished at .5 less per week than he bad received a year back when he quit lo lake part in the general whaling of . the rJohenzoIlerns. Why' Well, (he girls who look' the men's places were just as good as (he men had bemind were willing lo work cheaper. and it' i lie men wanted to go to work they could do so at SI 5 a week. The stories are pretty much the '"5:1 in c . , Another of these former soldiers said that his former boss a paper bo maker had lold him that there was no place in ih.ni pari icular place of business for "soldier? ' or any other sort of bums" and thai ho had belter go back into the army. Naturally Nat-urally ibis chap wasn't going out into Ihe street to (brow bis cap inlo (be air and jrive ihiee deafening cheers for the United Stnles of America, Places Every Man Now. Vet another of this crowd said lhat when he applied lor his old job he had lo interview inter-view a very unfriendly middle aged woman who lold him lhat she wasn't particular about hiring men when she. could get girls 'heaper. Uf course, if he wished to come iu and work for the same as the girls were getting, he was welcome, because it was not in her heart to (urn down a soldier. And neither did this youth renew bis oath 'of fealty lo (he Slars and Stripes when he 'eft that building. All these former soldiers caught in that m roundup were of foreign birth. With the exception of one, they were u u "Ives of Russia. Rus-sia. All except three had ob'uincd eifhcr their final citizenship papers or vn. as minors, become citizens of the United Stales by reason of their father's citizenship oath. Each considered, and not without a certain amount of accuracy, lhat he had received a rough deal. This new rcomolcymcnt cujimt'tv is placing men rapidly. They are .doing everything except forcing men to take jobs. Tbe are doing everything except forcing employers to make jobs where (here are none. Between January 1 and February 15 (hey interviewed 8,510 eic -service men. In that space of time they received applications appli-cations from 'J,f00 new men. Five thousand five hundred and fifty of I hem were referred to jobs. It is definitely known that '2,740 of llicSe stuck and are making good. In other words, 50 per cent, of those re-4 I erred to positions were placed and arc doing well. "But," says Col. MnrcplS. Jecnct who is ill active charge of the bureau every day, Mhink of ihe oilier 50 per cent.! What about theiu7 How do they spend their time? ' I dare say (hey are not shouting for the incident of war that caused them to lose (heir original positions.". .. Dr. Derby said Unit the experience oflhe bureau showed there was a scarcity of labor a scarcity of cooks, serving men, butlers, high class mechanics, brick layers, plumbers, plumb-ers, expert accountants, experienced civil and mechanical engineers; but of general clerks, of clothing salesmen, of (he men. not pick and shovel laborers but nevertheless neverthe-less unskilled and unorganized laborers No! They arc not scarce and Dr. Derby and Col. Keene are willing to answer any argument lo the contrary by an employer of labor by tilling immediately with healthy, competent men any such positions as he may have open. ''We do not say lhat the average ex-service man, even one without work, is committed com-mitted to radicalism," Col. Keene said, "but we do say that his mind, when he is in (bis situation, is open lo radical opinions Wc believe that American Legion members and ex-service men generally are the bulwark bul-wark of safety within which this country may safely retire Therefore we believe that the ex-service man should get his just deserts, which, by the way. are no more than the just deserts of any other human being, and a chance in the world (0 live and enjoy the present, with the hope of a comfortable- old age." |
