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Wounded veterans in Washington's Walter Reed Hospital have twisted restlessly under the quips and songs of entertainers. What they really wanted to hear were the plans which U.S. industry has for their future--after they are discharged. Last week big, red-faced Eugene Holman, president of Standard Oil Co. (N.J.), stepped up to the hospital's loudspeaker. In his deep, Texan voice, he told the G.I.s of his company's plans for them.

Any discharged veteran who wants to go into the filling-station business, said Holman, should apply to Standard. It is ready to spend up to $3,000 per veteran to build him a filling station. The cash will be a loan: a man's character his collateral. Standard has talked in terms of $5,000,000 to get the project under way. Holman assured veterans that there are no strings attached to the offer; they need not sell Standard's products.

"There is nothing charitable about the plan," said Holman. "It's good business." What better investment could Standard make, Holman asked? In the postwar years, the oil industry must have thousands of new retail outlets for its products.

In the same unpublicized way, many another company is carefully planning to help disabled veterans get on their economic feet. Some of them:

P: In May, Bulova Watch Co., Inc. will open a school in Queens to train severely wounded veterans as expert watch and clock repairers. The school expects to graduate 500 men a year, will cost Bulova $500,000. To be sure of jobs for its graduates, Bulova asked the nation's retail jewelers for help. By last week 1,400 jewelers agreed to hire Bulova-trainees.

P: Ford Motor Co. has set aside all jobs in one of its rural plants for disabled veterans.

P: Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Co. has 6,362 veterans with medical discharges on its payrolls. Westinghouse discovered that 83% of the jobs in some of its manufacturing divisions can be performed by men with one eye. 82% by deaf men, 19% by men with only one leg, and 17% by men on crutches.

P: The Society of American Florists and Ornamental Horticulturists believes that its members can employ 16,000 disabled veterans for light, quiet work in greenhouses and showrooms.

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