As a guide to the interpretation and application of this Act, the public policy of the State is declared as follows:
     As a constituent commonwealth of the United States of America, the State of Illinois is dedicated to the urgent task of strengthening and expediting the national defense under the emergent conditions which are threatening the peace and security of this nation. It is the considered judgment of the General Assembly that the service members of Illinois who respond to their country’s call to service in this time of crisis, are deserving of every protection the law may afford, and that repetition of the regrettable experience existing after the great war of 1917-1918, wherein returning service men were subjected to serious discrimination with regard to tenure and other rights, must be avoided, since any form of economic discrimination against returning service men is a serious menace to the entire social fabric of the United States of America and the State of Illinois.