somewhat. Thus, one school which stressed difficulties in the placement of older persons, stated that of those over 55 years of age, only approximately 6 percent were placed in machine shops and not a single one in welding. On the other hand, a trade coordinator in another school held that men in the 40 to 60 age group can adapt themselves to welding as speedily as younger trainees, but was of the opinion that when they arrive at a certain skill, their progress slows down or comes to a complete stop.

That the majority of the older workers are slower than the younger people was generally conceded, but one shop superintendent believed that the older men were more interested in their work than the younger. “If not crowded or high-pressured, they work well and accomplish a great deal." In another shop, according to the superintendent, older men were preferred on some jobs particularly routine jobs not requiring too much physical labor-because it was felt that bench workers over 60 were more stable.

Among typical cases cited by one school were those of two unemployed men, 70 and 68 years of age, who were trained as lathe-machine operators, obtained jobs, and were doing well; a woman of 65 who was trained as a horizontal-drill-press operator and became a wage earner in a war industry; and a man of 57 who was retrained in sheetmetal work and was placed as a shipfitter's helper.

On the basis of the reports, the State director concluded that in the matter of retraining, steady employment and good mental and physical conditions are more important than the age of the trainee. It was conceded that the older people learned less quickly than the younger trainees. This was almost inevitable because

They have been out of school; they have had unsteady and unsatisfactory employment. Their muscles are stiff and their minds are stiff. They have lost self-confidence and have developed self-consciousness-consciousness of their own ineffectiveness, of their failure, of their physical disabilities which they come to exaggerate because they have so little else to think about.

In his opinion, the two remedies for this situation are (1) steady employment, not necessarily in the same job, but continuous wage earning with promotions or advantageous transfers which keep the worker on his toes all the time; and (2) steady part-time schooling— both vocational and general-which parallels work.

Under the early WPA program, a worker could attend evening classes if he wished, but it was not obligatory. In the opinion of the State director it was a mistake not to require part-time schooling. His conclusion is confirmed by the more recent experience of the Wisconsin State Board of Vocational and Adult Education in training for defense industries, when school attendance itself was made a WPA-work activity and wages were paid for the hours of training. If this procedure had been followed by WPA in earlier years, he states, many skilled workers would be available now when they are sorely needed. Continuing education, he believes, should always have been a requisite of a WPA job.

The investigator believes that, although in the existing emergency it may be imperative to draft older people into industry, this policy should not be permanent. The objective should be "steady employment for all through middle age with a fair share of the Nation's production going to the old, so that they may have a few years to live as they like and where they like; to do some of the things they have planned for their old age.'

Post-War Education and Training Scheme in
Great Britain

THE British Minister of Labor and National Service, the President of the Board of Education, the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, and the Secretary of State for Scotland have agreed upon a scheme i to come into full operation after the war, to provide for the further education and training of young men and women who would normally have taken courses fitting them for a business or professional career. The Appointments Department of the Ministry of Labor will supervise the scheme, the object of which is to insure an adequate supply of men and women equipped to fill higher posts of all types in industry (including agriculture), commerce, and the professions, after the war. Plans have accordingly been approved for providing financial assistance to enable suitably qualified men and women, on demobilization, to undertake or continue further education or training (that is, beyond the secondary school standard).

The plan is primarily intended for the armed forces, including their auxiliary and nursing services, the cost of which is defrayed from moneys provided by Parliament; the merchant navy; civil defense services; police auxiliaries; and the civil nursing reserve. A certain number of candidates other than those in the services listed, whose advanced education or training has been interrupted by employment in work of national importance, will also be included.

The primary condition of eligibility will be proof of a period of fulltime effective service in work of national importance during the war. However, in general, members of the regular army, navy, or air forces, or the regular police or fire services, or men reserved in industrial work taken up before the war, who cannot be considered as having been diverted from their intended professions by reasons of their war work, will not be eligible for training for a new profession.

Holders of State and other scholarships who are still undergoing training at the time of the cessation of hostilities will be considered eligible for training, as the course of training provided under these schemes is decided in relation to the war needs and may not lead to the profession most suited to the abilities of such persons. Before a candidate will be accepted for training he must show capabilities or potentialities which would justify expenditure of public money.

Men or women who held posts before the war for which adequate training had been received, but who left such positions for temporary war work, will not be eligible for training for a new profession unless there is no opportunity for resuming their pre-war careers. However,

Further Education and Training Scheme. London, the Appointments Department, Ministry of Labor and National Service, 1943.

short refresher courses may be available for such persons. Aliens will not be barred from training if they qualify in other respects, but if accommodations and opportunity are limited, suitably qualified British subjects will be given preference.

The courses provided under the scheme, which can profitably be taken only by those with an adequate educational background, will be for persons who entered war service before going to a university or technical college, and those whose further education was interrupted by war service, including those who have taken shortened or specialized courses designed to equip them for war service; and refresher courses, mainly for the older groups.

The criterion for assistance will be whether the candidate is capable of profiting by the course desired, and it is hoped that the plan will afford the opportunity for a university education to persons qualified to take advantage of it who would not otherwise have been able to obtain such an education. In general, professions which require the attainment of a recognized standard as a condition of entry, or in which technical training or higher education will improve an entrant's prospects for advancement to a responsible or administrative position, will be the ones recognized. In other cases an applicant will have to prove that the expenditure of public funds for his training will be to the national advantage. The probabilities of employment opportunities in different professions will have to be considered, and a committee has been appointed to give expert advice upon the number of persons who should be encouraged to enter upon the various kinds of further education or training in the light of prospects of employment at home and abroad.

Applicants who are accepted for further education and training will receive grants varying according to their existing obligations, financial resources, if any, and the length and nature of the course desired. Inability of an applicant to contribute to his own maintenance will not debar him from an award, but if long or expensive training will be required, it will be necessary for him to show special promise of a successful career.

In determining the amount of an award, the income of the parents of applicants under the age of 21 years will be ascertained, as well as the amount, if any, which they can contribute toward the costs of education. For married applicants and those over the age of 21, their private incomes and any contribution which the parents can make will be taken into account in fixing the award, but no account will be taken of personal-disability pay, or pension or war gratuity. A reasonable maintenance allowance will be paid to the wife and children of a married applicant, subject to the amount of their individual incomes.

The scheme cannot come into full operation until after the war, but applications are to be received immediately from men and women. who have been discharged from war services because of disablement or on medical grounds, and who are not required by the Ministry of Labor to undertake other forms of national service.

Industrial Injuries in March 1943

INDUSTRIAL injury reports from 10,814 manufacturing plants listed a total of 25,157 disabling injuries during March. The reporting plants employed 5,957,801 workers, or about 37 percent of the Bureau of Labor Statistics' estimate of total manufacturing employment for the month. Assuming that the reporting establishments constitute a representative sample, the total number of disabling injuries experienced by workers in all manufacturing plants of the United States during March, therefore, may be estimated as about 68,000, or some 13 percent more than in the previous month. This increase, however, is largely offset by the greater number of days included in the month of March. On the basis of the daily average number of disabling injuries, March showed little change from February.

The tremendous import of this volume of injuries is not apparent in the mere count of cases. It becomes more realistic, however, when it is realized that, on the average, each disabling injury resulted in the loss of about 20 days from work. The disabling injuries experienced in March, therefore, represented the direct loss of 1,360,000 man-days of production, which was equivalent to the complete shut-down for the entire month of two of the country's largest shipyards.

The seriousness of the injury problem is further emphasized by the fact that these figures do not take into account the continuing economic loss resulting from the many deaths included in the totals and from the reduced productivity of those workers who have suffered permanent physical impairments. Nor do these figures include injuries which resulted in a time loss of less than a full day. First-aid cases, or "nondisabling injuries" as those in the latter group are commonly called, vastly exceed the more serious "disabling injuries," and even though the time lost per case is small, in the aggregate they represent a very substantial volume of lost production. Nondisabling injuries may be conservatively estimated to have cost our manufacturing plants the equivalent of an additional 368,000 man-days of production in March. In the final analysis, the story of time lost because of injuries does not end with these large figures, to which must be added an indeterminate amount of time lost by fellow workers who stop to help when an accident occurs, the time spent by supervisors who must investigate the occurrence, and the time spent in training replacement workers.

Proportionately, the number of fatal injuries reported in March remained unchanged from the previous month, totaling 0.3 percent of all the disabling injuries. The proportionate number of cases resulting in permanent impairments, however, changed from 5.2 percent of all disabling cases in February to 2.9 percent in March.

Relatively few of the 54 industry groups for which comparable February figures were available showed much change in their March injury-frequency rates as compared with the previous month. Of the 12 industry frequency rates for March which varied by 5 or more points from their February levels, 5 were lower than the corresponding February rates and 7 were higher. Wide fluctuations in the monthly injury-frequency rates, however, must be heavily discounted in evaluating safety conditions within particular industries. Far more indicative of the true conditions existing in an industry is the general level maintained by successive monthly frequency rates. The cumulative frequency rates reflect this level as an average for the longer period which they cover.

The cumulative frequency rates for the first quarter of 1943, shown in the accompanying table, range from 4.7 for the women's clothing industry to 76.6 for the planing-mill industry. In nontechnical language this means that for every million employee-hours worked in these industries during January, February, and March, there were less than 5 disabling injuries in plants manufacturing women's clothing compared with more than 76 in planing mills. Working conditions involving very high hazards were indicated in 6 other industries which had average frequency rates of over 40. Only 9 of the 75 manufacturing industries surveyed had average frequency rates of less than 10, which marks the upper limit of what is commonly considered to be good safety, performance. It is highly significant, as an indication of a low injury-frequency rate resulting more from zealously applied safety practices than from the lack of inherent hazards, that this select list includes both light and heavy industries. The manufacturing industries reporting the best records for the first quarter of 1943 were, in the order of their injury-frequency rates, women's clothing, 4.7; rayon and allied products (chemical), 7.6; soap, 7.6; sighting and fire-control equipment, 7.7; radios and phonographs, 8.2; men's clothing, 8.6; military tanks, 8.9; cement, 9.3; and small arms, 9.9. Industrial-Injury Frequency Rates for Selected Manufacturing Industries, February and March 1943, With Cumulative Rates for 1943