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100 Per Cent Able!BY BEATRICE OPPENHEIMHere'8 how one “little business9' is helping veterans to get goingInfantry veteran Alex Remalgas whistles as he works. A few feet away, Fred Crowell, a discharged Air Forces sergeant, hums a merry counterpoint.Each is a skilled craftsman, busy turning out expensive leather accessories—women’s belts, shoulder bags and gun cases. They use only simple tools and their hands on this old-fashioned job.Fred and Alex are among the first disabled war veterans slated to master leathercraft at Phelps Associates in New York’s Greenwich Village. The business, modelled on the little shops” of expert European craftsmen, is run by America's top designers in leather : William Phelps, a veteran of the last war. and his wife, Elizabeth.When Fred and Alex were discharged, doctors said each had a 30-per-cent disability in relation to his prewar job. Yet here, both are one hundred per cent able, says Bill Phelps. Jobs like these are duck soup for men with much worse injuries. All a fellow needs is sight and hands. And we want more veterans than we’ve been able to hire so far.Just A EagimmngThe Phelpses' comfortable Manhattan workshops, sprawled over three floors in a loft building, are just a beginning. They have already put a down payment on a layout in Pennsylvania, where there will be room for other little shops specializing in horn, bone and metal crafts. Simple machines, needed for these harder materials, are ju9t waiting to be manned. Expansion will be limited only by the numbers of vets who apply for jobs.The Phelpses believe so thoroughly in craft careers for disabled veterans that they even encourage some to become competitors. Bill has been giving detailed advice to more than 200 ambitious young men, eager to start businesses like his own.But to make a success, Bill warns, a man must have a flair for design and about $4,000 in cash — to carry him along while he’s getting established.It takes about three months to break in a new worker in the business of making belts, bags and gun cases by hand. But it takes about three years for him to learn every process. No previous training or skill is necessary, the Phelpees claim, 90 long as a fellow knows where his fingers are. And it’s interesting work because you do all of it yourself.Ns Ifi4 UpsHigh quality counts here, and so there are no tough production schedules that might mean nerve-racking speed-upe.Some 200 types of belts and as many kinds of purses are hand-fashioned at Phelps Associates. Bill and Elizabeth dream up the new designs; but the men and women at the benches often think up small improvements — a better catch on a bag, a different flap.One war veteran, Frank Justich, became so interested in that angle of his job, that be resigned from Phelps Associates to study shoe design. The Government is paying the tuition — and the shrapnel Frank stopped in the African campaign won't interfere a bit with his plans.llie Phelpses got started in the leather business by accident. Bill made a couple of leather belts asgifts for me, says Elizabeth. “Friend* begged to buy duplicates, and we decided to give them the chance.9*That was six years ago. The Phelpees feel that by now they've proved that the machine age stillhas a place for skilled handicraftsmen. Vets like Fred and Alex are glad it does.
Newspaper Details
Evening Star
Washington, Washington-DC, US
Sun, Jul 29, 1945
Page 61
Full Page
Clipped by
Daniel M.
GB 09 Jun 2022
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