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Show Peace Planners Emphasize : f:1 Need for Orderly 'D' Day . -is Planning Board Report Envisions Reintegra- S j I ! ...... -? ? tion of Men Into Services Where Skill, -v . Ability Are Recognized. I ;jJ i: By BAUKIIAGE News Analyst and Commentator, Next week's release of "Washington "Wash-ington Digest" will be written from Quebec, where H. R. Baukhage covered the history-making history-making Roosevelt-Churchill conference con-ference for Western Newspaper Union and its affiliated newspapers. news-papers. WNU Service, Union Trust Building Washington, D. C. As the plans which received their final approval at the Quebec conference confer-ence start turning from ink and paper pa-per to moving men and machines, the thoughts of other planners turn toward another zero hour "D" dy. The war is not over by any means but hard-headed people who realize that you can't wait until it rains to prepare for a rainy day know that you can't wait until the sun comes out to buy your summer clothes. "D" day is as important as "M" day. Demobilization is as big a problem as mobilization. Various plans have been worked on, none has been perfected. The President has offered one. The Republican party will offer another. Industry will present its program. The administration, ad-ministration, whoever is at the helm when peace comes, will have a heavy responsibility. The National Resources Planning board has already al-ready made a report expressing its opinions on a plan drawn up by a special committee on post-war readjustment re-adjustment which, at least, gives us a point of departure. Plan Needed Now The board points out that victims of the war are already coming back and the time is ripe. Only the other day, I went through Walter Reed hospital here and saw some of those victims. Saw photographs of the conditions in which they come back and others showing what medical skill has done for them. I also saw the workshops where wounded men are being rehabilitated, fitted to take up work which, in spite of their handicaps, they could learn to do. This plan emphasizes the need for an orderly demobilization. It is important im-portant to get every man who can be spared from the armed forces, the moment he can be spared without with-out threatening the nation's security, back into civilian life. I know hcrw glad I was when I got out of uniform uni-form imo civvies after the last war. But tie report emphasizes that JT i still mere important than speed is order in demobilization. "We not only want the men out of the armed services; we want to get them into , peace services where skills and abil ities can be fully recognized, utilized uti-lized and rewarded." That is the thesis of the planning board. Responsibility for the placemert of veterans in industry is acknowledged acknowl-edged by the re-employment division divi-sion of the selective service system under the selective service act. The selective service system is not perfect per-fect but considering the job it had to do, It has worked out in a manner that is a triumph of the democratic method. Draft boards are groups of "neighbors" who pass upon each registrant, and on that basis, select or reject him. The same system will put the soldier back into his old job if his old job is there, and if he can fill it. But many had no jobs. Others for one reason or another will be unable un-able to fill the ones they had before the war. These cases must be taken care of. Board's Principles Business has been shuffled and shifted about just as the men themselves them-selves have. It may be difficult to get man and job together. The problem Is intricate but the committee com-mittee has tried to lay down certain principles. Here they are: 1. Three months' furlough at the end of the war at regular base pay not to exceed $100 a month, plus family allowances. 2. Eeyond that time, if necessary, unemployment insurance for 26 weeks for those who register with the government employment service. serv-ice. 3. Special aid and counsel regarding regard-ing readjustment and compensation. 4. Special provision, Including tuition tui-tion and allowance, for the continuation continu-ation of education Interrupted by the war or to follow a -special course of training. 5. Veterans credit for old age and survivors' insurance on the basis of service in the armed forces. 6. Opportunities for agricultural employment and settlement for a limited number of well qualified men. But no dumping of men on farms simply because industrial employment em-ployment is not immediately available. avail-able. Re-Training Program Similar provisions must be made for war workers as war industries close or change over. Meanwhile, the government will maintain centers cen-ters where assistance and retraining retrain-ing for civilian jobs can be arranged. In order to prevent a too rapid attempt at-tempt at change-over of industry, a moderate policy of continuation of war contracts some of which can be continued in the national good. Of course, nothing can be done permanently to stabilize the labor situation without a rapid expansion of peace-time industry toward a goal of full employment. It is well understood un-derstood even by the most fervent of government planners that private industry and not the government must eventually furnish the employment. employ-ment. Already industry is offering plans of its own but it cannot be expected to do the whole job. One suggestion is that government loans be made to industries turning to peace-time production pro-duction in proportion to the number of men such industries employ. Business cannot take over the burden bur-den alone. In 1939, we were at peace although we were making a lot of war supplies for the Allies. Then 4.1 million workers were employed em-ployed in munitions making. Eight and six-tenths millions were working work-ing on farms or agricultural pursuits. pur-suits. At the end of last year, the workers in war plants had more than doubled. They were 10.5 millions. mil-lions. In agriculture, unemployment has not greatly changed, comparatively compara-tively speaking; farm workers ameunt to 8.9 millions. But the men in the armed forces more than doubled. dou-bled. In the same period the unemployed un-employed had decreased from 8.7 millions to 1 million. (Some of these we shall always have with us the lame, the halt and, of course, the lazy.) But it is estimated there were 900,000 persons jobless and deserving de-serving work in July of this year. There may be points to the committee's com-mittee's plan to which objections will be raised. It is not offered as a working' drawing, merely as a basis of discussion, but how much better such a procedure is than the policy after the last war when the soldier was a football and where each congress tried to vote more dollars out of the treasury without rhyme or reason; money which didn't provide jobs, which in many cases, pitifully faid of its purpose, and in others simply filled the coffers cof-fers of the bootlegger and the shark and left the recipient nothing. Diary of a Broadcaster Over the land, the Victory gardens are bringing in their rich yields to many a person who probably never worked as hard physically for his supper before. And probably never had more fresh, sweet and luscious vegetables. But I wandered over a farm recently re-cently that was crying for rain. I couldn't help thinking, as I pushed through a wood lot beside a shrunken shrunk-en stream, stained brown from the yellow leaves that carpeted it, how all IhS living things were anguishing anguish-ing with thirst. Twigs snapped under un-der one's feet like dry bones, there was an ugly growl Instead of a happy hap-py hum from the insects it seemed that only the tough blue-bottles could survive. Not far from the stream where the earth in the, bed of a spring was still damp, one cricket was singing gratefully but there were few of his fellows about. Leaves on tall weeds hung to the stem like a flag at half-staff on a day when no breeze stirs, one yellow-headed flower stood out In a spot of color, it looked like a very sleepy little girl, her damp locks glued to her face almost concealing her tired smile. I thought: "I wish I could stay here until the rain comes singing through the leaves, wetting cracked lips of the peeling furrows I believe be-lieve I would hear a real hymn of rejoicing go up." |