Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 184, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 August 1918 — WAR CRIPPLES WILL FIND JOBS [ARTICLE]

WAR CRIPPLES WILL FIND JOBS

Britain Plans Suitable Instruc* tion to Suit Men for Work. TRAINING IS UNDER WAY London Exhibition Shows the Skill of Wounded—-Re-educs tion of Blind- > ed Soldiers—Wage Question f Is Solved. / London. —The soldier broken iHCffiv war will have his chines bf fu&Wfe em■ployment at work suitable to his maimed condition aZ'» at a wage that will enable him to ft//e without seeking charity. The q?ly reason for any possible failure of t’<e plan will be due to refusal on his part to take part in the training-.which has been provided for him. I The ministry of pensions and the ministry of labor are making every effort to provide suitable instruction and to obtain posts for the men as they are trained. Already courses of training are established In the engineering and building trades, the manufacture of aircraft, wholesale and retail tailoring, the making of leather goods, furniture making, diamond cutting, wood carving, toy making and many other trades.

An exhibition is now open in London in which are displayed the methods of training and the resulting variety of work turned out by the disabled soldiers or sailors. . During the early days, of the exhibition a conference of delegates from allied countries was held in which details of the after care, work and the treatments for the restoration of the wounded were givep. Plan for Aiding Blind. Sir Arthur Pearson described the methods in use at St, Dunstan’s for the treatment, training and re-educa-tion of blinded soldiers. He said that the actual re-education and training was divided into two sections, the classroom and the workshop, the men’s working day being divided between the two. Typewriting was taught in the classroom, while in the workshops the largest number of men were learning cobbling. Some men learned mat making only. Basket making, the oldest of the staple industries for the blind, was taught in many varieties. The other industry taught in the workshops was Joinery. The men of St. Dunstan’s acquired these industries in a quarter of the time usually supposed to be necessary to teach a blinded man a trade. Shorthand writing, by the aid of a machine which enabled the Braille characters to be taken down, was also taught, as was telephone operating.

Dealing with the provision of surgical supplies, Sir William Mac Ewen said that when a hospital fqr the limbless was established in Scotland they were told that, in view of the thou-

sands of men who had lost limbs In the war, it would be impossible to get enough artificial substitutes unless aliens were employed. To meet the difficulty a skilled limbs committee of physicists, engineers and surgeons was formed, which had directed the production of limbs b/ wood carvers, pattern makers and mechanics in shipbuilding jArds and engineering shops, and thus tjjey had been able, by employing 4iome industry alone, to supply artificial limbs in sufficient quantities and quality to satisfy requirements. Methods of Treatment Prof. V. Putt! of Bologna dealt with the surgical treatment -pertaining to amputations. He described the methods of Dr. Giuliano Vanghetti, who first conceived the idea and the means of drawing living energies from the stump of an amputated limb and transmitting voluntary movements to an artificial member. It is now possible for a man who has lost both hands to use a knife and fork at table, dress himself and even shave with a safety razor. This miracle is due to the treatment known as cinematization, and the perfection to which artificial limbs have been brought. In order to obtain this voluntary movement the muscles are allowed to overlap the bone of the stump and are so arranged as to give two protuberances similar in shape and size to two small fingers. The muscles are so arranged as to give alternately the flexion and extension movements and where that cannot be obtained a rotary movement can be given. In this way artificial limbs, instead of being merely supports for the stumps, can themselves be manipulated. In another department a meat safe —of which one workshop has sent 250 to France—can be seen, and a touching side of this -exhibit was a tray of things for one-armed men—jigs of this and that sort to enable one-armed men to cut wood and wire, and to polish frames, rulers for one-armed clerks, billiard rests for the one-armed player, etc. The wage question has been a serious problem, but the difficulties have been largely solved. Up to the present very few of the trained men transferred to employment have failed to obtain wages of $lO and over per week. It is hoped that with the extension of the work of the department exchanges working under the ministry of labor the employer who considers that a man’s pension is an opportunity to cut wages will find himself badly left.