24 March 1944

 

 

Great
Progress

 

It would not be possible for any-
one to see the correspondence and
the bulletins that come to me from
Rotary clubs and district governors
in North America and in the south-
ern hemisphere without being tre-

mendously impressed with the prog- —

ress of the Work Pile project.

Thousands of communities are
going to be ready with jobs for their
boys and girls in the service when
the war ends. These jobs will carry
these young people over the recon-
version period. The plans include,
of course, similar jobs to bridge
over that period for the disemployed
civilian workers. Think what the
cumulative effect of this is going to

be on the economic condition of
each country,—and of the world!

Each week brings new evidence of
the applicability of the essential
elements of the Work Pile project
to communities of all sizes and
kinds, whether they be located in
Australia, in Southern Africa, in
Canada, the U.S.A., or elsewhere.

My appeal to Rotary club officers
is: Let it not be said at the close of
your term that the Rotary club has
not succeeded in arousing its com-
munity to the need for a complete
Work Pile survey which will reach
every family in order that all may
cooperate toward assuring adequate
employment for those first difficult
months following the war.

 

 

Placing Returning
Veterans

In Bristol, Connecticut, the Ro-
tary club is assisting the commu-
nity-wide committee on postwar
planning by taking over one branch
of the work, namely that of trying
to place returning veterans and act-
ing as an advisory staff to help these
veterans reestablish themselves in
the community. The government
has permitted the local draft board
to furnish the Rotary club commit-
tee with the names of veterans re-
turning to town. The club committee
writes to each such veteran, send-
ing. a questionnaire which, when
filled out and returned, is referred
to a member of the Rotary club
whose name, at the same time, is
given to the veteran in question as
a source of help to him.

86 Work Pile Leaders

In San Jose, California, the Work
Pile project is a community plan
headed by a general committee of
85 citizens under the general chair-
manship of a member of the Rotary
Club of San Jose. Their slogan is
“Greet Johnny with a Job—Help
Build the Work Pile.”

The Chamber of Commerce an-
nounced that early returns totaled
nearly eight million dollars but ex-
pected that figure to be much higher
when final returns are totaled.

Advanced students of two high
schools made the house-to-house

canvass to gather the survey blanks.

Five subcommittees are handling
the surveys among (A) industry,
(B) business, (C) public buildings,
(D) residential households, (E)
rural territory.

long as ae eee ts done’
Work Pile News No. 8

College Women

Canvassing

The Rotary Club of Glens Falls,
New York, reports that in the Work
Pile survey, largely sparked, guided
and manned by Rotarians, fifty
women from Skidmore College’s De-
partment of Business and Sociology
will spend a week canvassing the
community so as to reach every
family, if humanly possible. At the
same time the Glens Falls Area
Committee for Economic Develop-
ment will be conducting a survey
among manufacturers to obtain an
estimate of the number of jobs
available in the plants after the war
and the time required for them to
reach full production on a peace-
time basis.

Community
Cooperation

As a result of the initiative taken
by the Rotary Club of High Point,
North Carolina, postwar planning
work in that community is pro-
gressing in a highly successful man-
ner with wholehearted cooperation
among the service clubs, the C.E.D.,
the Chamber of Commerce, and the
school authorities.

Concurrently with the C.E.D. sur-
vey of industries, some 700 high
school students are canvassing all
householders, “applying” (as stated
by the secretary of the Chamber of
Commerce) “the Work Pile idea of
Rotary International.”

The survey among householders
will be followed up immediately with
a similar inquiry among stores and
offices. The secretary of the Cham-
ber of Commerce points out that the
total figures will be of importance
to three C.E.D. subcommittees on
distribution, construction, and serv-
ices.

fobs to bridge the reconversion period