It needs to be re-emphasized that the community prob- will welcome him without question because he is in unilem will vary from place to place. Obviously, the small form, and because the army is strange to most people he town has a different situation from that of the country, will be petted and pampered until he is sure that he is a crossroads or the large city. Factory communities will find superior person to whom the world owes not a living, but a different problem from the residential community. The a penthouse with all accessories. guiding principle is the same. Here returns a group of An education though helpful is not too necessary so men who have lived a type of life which does not primarily long as he can handle the instruments of death and comfit them for a place in the community. The community thus mand a following among his fellows. Since government enlarged must use its own background, common sense and equipment is issued for destructive purposes and may love to absorb them with the least possible friction. To this easily be written off he feels no incentive to take care of his end the community readjusts its own life and thinking to equipment, other than that which he needs to pass inspecmake a place for those who have returned. tion. In his training he is taught to destroy and to kill. His V-THE SOLDIER enemy must be ruthlessly put out of the way, and he is taught to do that effectively and with dispatch. He becomes
The returning veteran will find himself in a strange a veteran and discovers that what has been drilled into him world-and sometimes not a too agreeable world. That for several years he must unlearn. He must plan his life, world will have to adjust itself to the returning veteran, and the days stretch endlessly before him and the hours This is not to say, however, that the veteran himself has hang on his hand. Money which came and went without not changed. He has. The full import of these changes much meaning now looms large in importance. He needs it will not be apparent for sometime to come. The veteran not for luxuries, but for food, clothing, shelter, security himself does not know they have taken place. They are not and medical care. Civilian prices are out of reach and many only the change in physical condition, but there has been a items are not available. Motorists pass him up. Girls want psychological change as well. The veteran may not be to know who he is and where he comes from. Movies aware of this change himself. We are not speaking about charge regular prices. The freedom often accorded servicethe relative small number of psychoneurotic cases, nor men is now likely to get him in trouble. The ways of war primarily about the disabled or partially disabled. They must be unlearned and he must learn to conserve each present a case of their own. We are thinking of the aver- item. He can't turn it in and get a new one-whatever it age serviceman who comes back with the experiences of is. He finds that the education which was so relatively unwar and battle behind him. important is now a necessity if he wishes much advanceEven these servicemen may be divided into two classes ment. Open air is now exchanged for a house or office which, despite similarities, present different problems. which stifles him. Even when he gets with his buddies The first of these are those who were taken at the age of and they "lay it on thick," he is conscious that he is kideighteen, or thereabouts, without any business experience, ding himself for tomorrow it is back to the grind of making and the second is the older group which will return to take a living. He remembers his chaplain and goes to church up former threads of life. to feel strange in a well appointed building. The service
The younger men went into the army without any ap- seems too formal and bears too little on his own problems. preciable ideas of the business world, and without any The minister, because of his varied congregation, speaks knowledge of what it means to be responsible for them- of many things in which the veteran is not interested. The selves. In the army their lives were planned for them. church must raise its budget, and there is the question of They were told what to do. Because it is necessary, there is denominational lines. The veteran leaves the church cyniconly a limited amount of freedom of choice even in the ally bitter as he thinks of the informal service on the hillhigher grades of noncommissioned officers, and practically side where the chaplain spoke direct to his heart. none the nearer you approach the private. He arises when If the veteran is older he is startled by the change which told, eats what is set before him, dresses according to has taken place in home, community and church and he orders, and works or drills under supervision. As has been bitterly longs for the "good old days" before the war. If indicated, the necessities of life are provided-food, cloth- he is married his children may have grown up, or his wife ing, medical care, and a nominal amount of spending becomes more self-reliant under added responsibility. He money. His insurance, for his dependents, is deducted from feels he is an outsider and out of place. The longer he is his pay and when he receives what is left he can spend it in the army the worse it will be. as he pleases secure in the knowledge that recreation, These veterans have faced death without flinching. Many amusements with talent far beyond his normal purse, and of them have had an abundance beyond what they had ever all other essentials will be furnished just the same. Money known. They have had a social equality and a racial loses its value. If something suits his fancy he will pay an equality that makes them unwilling to return to their exhorbitant price for it knowing that he doesn't have to former ways of life. Worry about money. He may gripe about this or that, but These are the veterans which are returning-eager at there is a physical security that is deadening. When he first, then perhaps disillusioned and then cynical and bitter. goes on pass or furlough the USO and Stage Door Can- There is no short road to postwar settlement of these teen and many other organizations furnish all sorts of free problems. It will be as long and as heartbreaking a job to entertainment, train fares are at rock bottom, movies are reorient the soldier for peace as it was for war. There will at a discount, motorists will ride him free of charge and be many casualties-both among veterans and civilians. perhaps hand him a piece of money just as a friend, girls But for our future welfare these adjustments must be April-May, 1946 17