M.T. COPELAND URGES POST-WAR PREPARATION

Homes, schools, and churches should be prepared to aid returning servicemen in readjusting themselves to civilian lives, Melvin T. Copeland, professor of Marketing and Director of Research in the Graduate School of Business Administration, and chairman of the Massachusetts Committee on Post-War Readjustment, declared today.

"Members of the Armed Forces who have served overseas have been through so much more than those at home can possibly realize," Professor Copeland stated, "that rehabilitation organizations are faced with a real problem in helping them in a sympathetic, but not irritating manner."

Started in 1941

Appointed in 1941 by Governor Leverett Saltonstall '14, President of the Board Board of Overseers, Professor Copeland and his committee of 30 have already prepared several reports on suggested preparations for the post-war period in the Bay State. Businessmen, farmers, labor union representatives, and professors make up the group.

With its avowed purpose to stimulate private employers to furnish jobs for returning veterans, the committee has also made great contributions to the manufactures in solving their reconversion problems. Primary factor in all of its recommendations has been the group's emphasis on preparedness for victory.

"Every individual householder, businessman, farmer, or local government should be ready, the moment labor and materials are available, to erect new buildings and make repairs, thus providing additional jobs," Professor Copeland suggested.

Massachusetts Ready

The State, under the direction of Salton-stall, who shows great interest in the work of the committee, has already drawn up enough plans to create employment for thousands, and several of the leading cities of Massachusetts have followed suit with their own ideas for establishing public works without wait- ing for federal grants.

"All firms should be prepared with their own records and statistics, so as to receive more quickly a settlement of their war contracts," Professor Copeland recommended. In this way peacetime working opportunities could be re-established more rapidly.

Employers anticipating the necessity of laying off men, because of reductions in war production, should have such records as those of seniority available at all times, in order to avoid future delays and embarrassment, the committee has also advised.

Here Since 1912

No longer active in teaching, Professor Copeland has been connected with the Business School since 1912. After getting his doctor's degree in Economics here in 1906, he helped establish the Graduate School of Business Administration, and then took a two-year leave to further his studies in Europe and else-where in the United States.

With the exception of 21 months spent on the War Industries Board during the last war, Professor Copeland has been teaching at the University for 32 consecutive years. Only recently he stopped instructing Business School students to devote his full time to his jobs as Director of Research for the school and as chairman of the Massachusetts committee