The Taihape' Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE MONDAY, MARCH 4, 1918. THE EMPLOYMENT OF SOLDIERS.

Taihape Daily Times, 4 March 1918, Page 4

The Taihape' Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

MONDAY, MARCH 4, 1918. THE EMPLOYMENT OF SOLDIERS.

With which is Incorporated The Tai hapo Post and Waimarino News).

The question of training and employment of partialy disabled soldiers appears.to be forcing itself upon the Government. The chairman of the Taihape Patriotic Society has received from the Discharged Soldiers' Information Department, over the signature of the Prime Minister, a proposal for consideration which will, or should, appeal, not only to Patriotic Associations, but to everyone who claims to have a care for our homecoming warriors, and for their rapid return to normal conditions in the business life of the country. The proposal briefly is, that the owners of workshops and factories should take aud teach a trade or occupation to men who are incapacitated, through wounds received, or disease contracted while in military service, from following their old pre-war occupations. The Government does not ask workshop or factory owners to hour the cost, or, in fact, be anything out of pocket by the employment and teaching asked of them. Tliey pay, after one month's trial, what the wounded man is worth to them and the State finds the balance to make what constitutes a current wage. The wounded men for whom the proposal is made, are to be provided with forms of application on which they will state. what trade or occupation they think they could become proficient in within a reasonable period—say, twelve months. If they do not name an employer they would prefer to work under, the Patriotic Committeeis asked to interview suitable em- | plovers in its district and ascertain whether any of them would be willing to take on the soldier as a learner. The scheme is well thought out in detaiV st[l] > there will arise difficulties which the proposals do not seem to have realised, m many large factories there are machines that an intelligent man could loam to operate in a comparatively short machines are so clostly, and , 0 sive in motive power that the owner could not place them at the disposa* of learners, more especially as learners would only be able to waste material for some considerable time. For instance in newspaper offices there is the linotype, which men with one or both legs impaired could quickly learn to operate, provided, of course. they possessed the necessary intelligence and education to commence

with. In fact, there will be such a

shortage of linotype operators after the war that the Government and Patriotic Associations might with advantage to men and. employers give more than ordinary ' consideration to this avenue of employment for men with leg impairment only. We know thai two operators enlisted from this office have been killed; there may be three or four others for all we know, j but in addition to the two killed it is reasonable to assume that two others will receive such wounds as will render it impossible for them U> return to their old occupation. 'At this rate it means that for every linotype in New Zealand four operators will be either killed or disabled. It may be that the "Taihape Daily Times" has had worse experience than other offices in this respect, in any case the loss and disablement of operators will be very considerable. It is understood that in some offices girls are being pressed into linotype operating, but as it is not work suitable for females the practice should be stopped, if only in favour of returned partially incapacitated soldiers. These men will be the care of the State; they will have to be kept out of the national purse, therefore the sooner they are helped into independence by some such scheme the Discharged Soldiers' Information Department proposes the more money from taxation there will be to help a greater volume of men. To avoid a lamentable state of vocational misfits it is necessary that action should )oe prompt. Nothing will tend to failure more than to rest after having evolved the scheme, together with lax supervision of cases in seeing that men ar e not physically and mentally out of their depth. While we think the scheme is a really good one; a scheme that should appeal to every employer of labour, and of every taxpayer in the State, we realise that it may prove a failure from administrative omissions and laxity. In New Zealand there are so many living in luxury that they do not realise any danger to the State from indifference and neglect of the returned soldier question. We believe that nothing has helped on the cause of anarchic socialism more than callous disregard of the life and well-being of their fellow-men by tne inordinately rich. Britain and her Allies are proclaiming every day what their war aims are. After reading and hearing these war aims shall we still remain callously inactive in providing for permanently injured men who were ready to give even their lives that we might possess what we have in safety. It was the inhuman treatment of incapacitated soldiers, and of the wives and' children of men who were killed in battle that gave great impetus to social revolt and the formulation of anarchic creeds. In those days when, as British records disclose, a woman whose husband was killed in war was hung for stealing food for her large family of small children. Stealing js n,o longer a crime punishable, with death, nevertheless revolt against social conditions was never more threatening than it is today. The people of this country have it in their power to disarm the anarchic socialist by reforming social conditions; by giving the life, comfort and health of our people prior consideration in the making and administration of our laws, and by the evolution and adoption of all such measures for the humane absorption into civil life the men who ar e returning to us whether wounded or not. We welcome the scheme under notice, and we think it should be given broadcast publicity so that there may be no misgivings in any quarter about any aspect of it. The strength of the chain is its weakest link