Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 191, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 August 1918 — Give Your Boy a Chance [ARTICLE]

Give Your Boy a Chance

By BDWIN F. BOWERS,

M. D.

of TitoVigßantu

Capt. Arthur H.‘ Samuels of the surgeon general’s department told me an Interesting story the other day. ft seems that once upon a time, long before the Mullah of the Hohenzollerns went mad —and slathered up the world —there lived a panhandler who was even more useless and no-account than the average bum of his species. This panhandler was practically illiterate, totally intemperate and utterly hopeless in the Job of being a man. One fine day, while laboring under the tmcorrelating influences of a “hangovert* from a large evening the night before, this poor derelict was shaken from his precarious perch on the brake beam of a “freight.” When the trackmen picked him up, he was minus a left hand —also a right hand and arm. Something occurred while he was in the hospital, something that brought about a rebirth in this tramp—worth possibly a dollar and a half a day from ids neck down, and nothing from his chin to his scalp. . Anatomically he was decidedly curtailed—spiritually he had grown great. For, provided with artificial hands, this reborn man started out to make something 'useful and creditable of himself. He sold papers, and became self-supporting. He hewed out an education, climbing slowly and painfully up from the pit of ignorance he had settled into by gravitation. One position after another he conquered—like the ancient Pistol, who vociferously insisted that “the world was his oyster.” Finally our hero —he was a hero by this time, although he himself never suspected it —qualified for a college course, took his B. A., studied law, hung out his shingle, and rapidly became one of the leading authorities on corporation law In his section. He interested himself in politics, and developed an enviable sphere of influence in his party. Raised a Family. Oh, yes—and he married a sweet Southern girl, and has two beautiful children. And they all lived happily ever after. ft’s a splendid and inspiring thing—this regeneration of a man —this growth of a soul. It kind of “gets you” —with a little catch in. the throat/ I tell the story as Captain Samuels told it to me, because some of the boys we are sending overseas will return disabled each year of the fighting. Many of -these will be crippled in arms, legs or eyes. They’ll need, first of all, a spiritual stiffening in their spinal columns. Then they’ll need some kind of vocational re-education —they’ll need to know, even though handicapped by the loss of members, how to do the thing they did before they went over to battle for a cause as high and nobl6 as ever enlisted the lance of a Bayard or a Galahad. If this rehabilitation is not possible, they’ll need to know how to do something else that will make them self-supporting—self-respecting. In this they are going to receive the help of Uncle Sam himself, and of the very best brains the old gentleman can enlist for this reconstruction service. In every section of the country, coordinating with a central agency at Washington, “curative workshops” for the treatment of those crippled In war will be established—together with a complete system of providing food, shelter, clothing and pay for the soldiers during the period of their re-edu-cation.

After the. boys are trained —reeducated to their old trade or else to one adapted to their capacities—thpy will be provided with a “job.” Those who show enough gold to the pan from the neck up will get a “position.” Here there is no limit to the possibilities. It’s up to the man himself. From his neck up he may be worth SIOO,OOO a year. * Practically every big employer of labor in the community is enlisted in the good cause to help the handicapped boy get all that’s coming to him. Which is all that any boy of real spirit could expect, or would accept • There’s po charity in this proposition —merely an honest sincere effort to make every man —no matter in what condition he may be —most useful to himself, his family, and to the economic needs of his community. Woman's Help Is Needed. 1 Now, here’s where we need the good help of women —the mothers, wives, sisters and sweethearts of the boys. It’s going to take a little time to do this work of re-education. Give the boys this time. Let them stay with their teachers in these schools until they are once more fitted to earn a living. ** The very greatest injury you could possibly put upon your physically injured boy would be to turn him into a psychical cripple—to suffocate him in maudlin rentimentallty. Don’t for the great love you bear him, don’t take him home, and make him a dependent. That you are willing to toll and slave for him is most praiseworthy in you. But your wellmeant efforts may transform a self-re-specting earnest man into an idler —a handicap to you and a terrible enemy to himself. It may put the “reverse English” in the little story Captain Samuels told me. Tn Germany, they are using from 85

to 90 per cent of all their disabled men back of the lines, while the remaining 10 to 15 per cent are entirely self-supporting. Take a lesson from these scientific savages. that your dear boy may come home to you safe and sound, but if he should be hurt give us a chance to bring out all that there is in him, to place him in the very best possible condition to work for his future, and for the future of those who love him. And so you will do most for him, most for yourself, and most for the country he gave so much to save.