FFICIENTLY utilized, well-trained, and enjoying high American standards of health, education, security, and personal and political freedom-these are the national objectives for the labor force of America.

Under six policies of a long-range program designed to strengthen the structure of the American economy, which were set down in the President's economic message to Congress on January 8, Mr. Truman listed as No. 1 "Efficient Utilization of the Labor Force." Amplifying this policy, the President said:

We must develop and utilize fully the skills of our labor force. We must improve productive efficiency through industrial training and counseling focused on employment opportunities in various occupations, industries, and localities. I am directing the Federal agencies concerned to initiate a study of these programs, in cooperation with State and local authorities, in order to improve such training and services and to remedy inconsistencies and gaps.

¶ The President said that the purposes of the Employment Act of 1946 would be substantially achieved if during 1947 we sustained employment at about 1946 levels or slightly higher.

He said that in maintaining a high level of civilian employment "we must also achieve a better distribution between localities of labor scarcity and labor surplus; between occupations that are short of workers and occupations that are overcrowded. The proper use of our workers is equally important both to the economy and to the individual."

Of the public employment offices, the REPORT said: The return of the employment service to State administration should not result in its disintegration into forty-eight disconnected pieces, nor in the subordination of the placement service to unemployment insurance. An efficient placement service requires uniform minimum standards and an integrated interstate system for disseminating job information and placing workers across State lines.

The REPORT then went on to discuss discrimination in employment or wages against certain classes of workers regardless of their individual abilities. "Discrimination against certain racial and religious groups, against workers in late middle-age and against women," the REPORT said, "not only is repugnant to the principles of our democracy but often creates artificial 'labor shortages' in the midst of labor surplus. Employers and unions both need to reexamine and revise practices resulting in discrimination."

¶ Speaking generally of his long-range program, Mr. Truman said that "a variety of measures will be needed to fortify the basic structure of the American economy before the transformation from war and reconversion to a high-consumption peacetime economy is completed. We are still at the threshold in formulating a program of consistent policies designed to give business, agriculture, and labor the opportunities which are envisaged in the Employment Act."

The progress of reconversion is told in the final report of the retiring Civilian Production Administrator, John D. Small. The report abounds in recordbreaking facts. Entitled FROM WAR TO PEACE; CIVILIAN PRODUCTION ACHIEVEMENTS IN THE TRANSITION, the report points out that industrial production climbed from one peacetime record to another during the last 6 months of 1946. While doing so, it absorbed nearly all of the 20 million demobilized war workers and the 101⁄2 million service men and women released by the services during the year.

Despite the tremendous reemployment task which the Nation faced soon after VJ-day, unemployment at no time exceeded 2,700,000 which it reached in March 1946 after big-scale demobilization. During the last part of 1946, civilian employment hovered

between 57 and 58 million-the highest in the country's history: it was 4 million higher than the wartime peak and 14 million higher than the prewar year 1939.

The report calls attention to the fact that all of the increase in employment since the end of the war and since 1939 has been in nonagricultural employment. While there are only 40 percent more nonfarm workers than in 1939, industrial output in the same time has risen 80 percent. While October 1946 agricultural employment remained the same as in 1939, output was one-third higher.

"Jobs for the handicapped" was given further support when the Secretary of Commerce released a policy statement prepared for the Department of Commerce by the Business Advisory Council after a study of the employment of handicapped veterans and the experience of businessmen who hired handicapped individuals.

The policy statement maintains that:

1. It is sound economically and important socially to employ a handicapped person in a job assignment the duties of which he is capable of performing.

2. With adequate placement procedures and special tools and devices, it is possible to neutralize most physical handicaps so as to make the impaired worker a useful and productive person.

3. A handicapped person should not be refused employment in a suitable position because of apprehension that he may become the subject of a compensation case.

4. Employers should urge the enactment of adequate Second Injury Fund Laws in the States where they do business.

5. A study should be made of the best placement practices and the most successful mechanical devices developed for handicapped workers. The results of this study should be made widely available so that industrial establishments in all communities may be helped to do their full share in providing useful work for the handicapped.

¶Fewer than 31,000 new students were admitted to the Nation's 1,300 schools of nursing during 1946, according to a report of the National League of Nursing Education. This is nearly 10,000 less than the 1946 goal.

Although anxiety was expressed by some nursing and hospital officials over the sharp decline in student nurse admissions, Edith H. Smith, Chairman of the National Nursing Council's Committee on Careers in Nursing, said the drop was "inevitable and expected"

A special

ESPITE limited staff and facilities, the USES so

DESPITE staff at creditable job to help

veterans get back on production jobs. The major credit is due to the outstanding performance of the employees in the more than 1,800 local Employment Service offices throughout the United States.

However, it is obvious that the local office needs help in locating jobs for veterans if it is to provide for them the "maximum of job opportunity" which the law says they shall have. It was with that in mind that the Congress was asked to appropriate funds for the expansion of the VES staff in the field. Recognizing that additional staff was needed to carry out its mandate, Congress granted money for the employment of field assistants by the VES.

In making this expansion, the VES intends to supplement local ES operations. Personnel in those offices have been trained and are experienced in interviewing, counseling, and referring applicants for employment. What they need is help in expanding the field of job opportunities for veterans. The field assistant of the VES directs his efforts to the fulfillment of this need.

The field assistant collaborates with the local office staff in the development of job opportunities, recruitment of qualified veterans, the promotion of the ES in the community, and in many other ways.

The entire Nation is concerned about the number of unemployed disabled veterans. It is the first responsibility of the field assistant to promote the employment of disabled veterans. In many instances, he sells individual disabled veterans to prospective employers, at the same time introducing the selective placement technique to the employer.

Although the field assistant of the VES is on the staff of the State veterans employment representative and administratively responsible only to him, or a designated assistant State VER, all of his activities are being carefully coordinated with those of the ES. His appointment, local office managers are finding, is proving most worthwhile to the local offices through which he operates.

It is already obvious that the local offices are extending to field assistants their full cooperation. Jobs for veterans is a mutual objective, and the activities directed toward the attainment of that objective must be carefully integrated.

But the field assistant should not be expected to carry the entire load of assuring veterans the maximum of opportunity in the field of gainful employment. That is the purpose of the entire VES. The means to that end vary under the plans of operations in the States. And although all States have agreed, in