Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 287, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 November 1919 — Trained Disabled Soldier: Asset Not Liability [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Trained Disabled Soldier: Asset Not Liability

By Robert H.Moulton

7 tHE Idea of salvaging material is old. For years the wideawake manufacturer has realized the importance of utilizing seeming waste products, and thereby has added millions of dollars to the value of his output, has developed many new products, and, in consequence, lowered the cost of many others. But the idea of salvaging human material is new. Of all the factors that go to make up industry the wastage of labor has in the past been the least considered. It became rather the accepted fact that a disabled man should be looked upon as fit only for the serap heap and that instead of being an asset to himself and the nation he was a liability; that hejshould become a, charge upon the rest of his fellow citizens, unproductive but consuming. Although the world Avas waking to the unsoundness of this view before the war began, It remained for the awakened consciousness of men that came with the war to look at this, fact in a more human as well as a more economic way, particularly when it came to the reclaiming of wounded soldiers. Perhqps the very number of those (fisabled forced the nations engaged in the war to look about for a solution of the problem of the wounded men, hut wi th interest once aroused in the subject it lias become apparent that it will not stop with the soldier and that eventually the injured worker in any line of industry or commerce will be taken care of. As a matter of fact, many of the great industries already have discovered new fields for disabled men. Estimates of the surgeon-general show that about 200,000 men who served in the army have received disabilities of such a character that a large number of them will need special education or training to re-establish them in civil life where they will be economically Independent. The government wants every disable, man to fit himself, by special training, to fill at least as useful and' important a place as was his before he was disabled. The only way be can do that is through training. Therefore the government ljas provided training, in addition to insurance and compensation. Every man who is entitled to compensation is entitled to training. And the federal board for vocational education stands ready to see that he gets It—if he wants it. There’s the rub—if he wants it; if he will take it. There are no "limits to the training a man can get. He may go to college or law school or an agricultural college or to a school of medicine. He can have the course, no matter how long it takes or' how much It costs. Or he can be put in a shop or a factory'to learn a trade and paid while he is learning. s

He will get for his living expenses, if he lives alone, at least $75 per month. If his compensation does not amount to that, the federal board will make up the difference. His dependents,-if he has any, will receive the allotments that went te them while he was on active service—at least S3O per month to his wife and $lO to each minor child. —■— : It might seem, offhand, that no man could need any persuasion to take advantage of such opportunities as the federal board offers. But it isn't quite so simple. If a man is In a hospital, a long way from home, and he receives letters from his family urging him to return as soon as he can, with promises of love and care and rest and comfort; if he is pretty tired after a long spell of illness and confinement, he doesn’t feel much like making a new effort. He may feel that it isn’t necessary. He may know that he can get a job, at higher wages than he ever got before, without taking any training at all. There is an answer —and a good one —to \very one of these arguments against vocational training for men disabled in war. It isn’t good for a man who might be able to take care of himself, if he made an effort, to turn that job over to anyone else, no matter hoW closely self-respect. He can go home for a little while: he can have a furlough before he starts his training. Often he can get his training so /ilose to his home that he can live at home. And even if the training does intolve a separation, how about the way he’ll feel five, ten, fifteen years from now? What does a few months of absence mean compared with the comfort, the stability, the self-respect he will get with his training? And then, suppose he can get a Job at good wages just as he is? How long can he hold it? Sooner or later he will have to face the competition of men who are strong and' healthy; He can on even terms only if he has training. Sentiment, in the long run, doesn’t count much in the matter of employment. The ancient law of supply and demand hasn’t been repealed yet. Experience has shown that in other countries where something of the same plan being casried out by the federal board has been tried, the majority of the men who train get better Jobs than those they had before they went into the service. Investigation has shown, also, that few professions or trades or vocations are too difficult for a disabled man, provided he has the ability to fill them and the grit to prepare himself to handle them. The government is anxious to encourage initiative and Individuality in every possible way, and the disabled man who shows

these qualities will have little trouble in consulting with the government advisers with whom he discusses the training he desires. Representatives of the federal board are busy in the great reconstruction hospitals, making preliminary investigations of men about to be discharged. Sometimes it proves comparatively easy to place a man 1 in a good job; training isn’t always needed. The board acts as an employment agency to a considerable extent. But its great task is to seek out the men who have to be re-educated, or who, never having had the opportunity to secure an education, can take advantage of this chance. No attempt has been made w far to place disabled men in s'pecial schools for cripples or to segregate them in any way for training or other purposes. Experience has shown that such segregation is harmful and that the more a disabled man is thrown with his fellow men who are strong and healthy, the quicker vyill be his recovery—and- the more readily will he absorb training. For this reason use is being made of existing educational and trade schools throughout the country. More than 100,000 disabled men have already sought the assistance of the federal board of yocational .education, and new cases come into the central teen branch offices at the fate of 500 a day. There are about 6,000 men to take the training, and efforts are being made to get disabled men to take training just as, quickly as possible after they leave the army. When it is considered that more than 50,000 disabled men left array before they could be told about the board, the figures of those who have shown their interest are encouraging.