The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1910-09-24
FINDING JOBS
 FOR CRIPPLES.

FOR CRIPPLES
 Employment Bureaus For the Handi.
 capped-Need For Special Indus r trial Training-IearningS Steon- graphy Without Hands. (James P. Heaton.) Exclusive Service The Survey Pres Bureau.)
 A beggar holds out in mute appeal l two haunting stumps of arms Miser- 1 able apologies for arms; both hands are missing. Poor Fellow! he'll new CT be able. to do anything people think, and he reaps toll from the passing crowd.
 Well, what can he do? More things than at first seem possible. @ He & can ich, Germany, was born without hands. With the aid of special ap- paratus he. writes with pen and has grapher. Other kinds of possible work are tending news-stands or serving as time keepers and watch could answer questions at the in formation window in 9 railroad sta- ton.
 When it is realized that every min ute some one in the United States is being killed or injured, the need for an agency to find suitable jobs for the disabled is obvious. Approxi- nately half a million people year are injured in factories, mills and foandries, by accidents on railroads, trolley cars, and boats, and in mines and in other industrial cataStrophes.
 How are we to help the handi- capped to earn 8 living? The Special Employment Bureaus for the Handi- capped in New York and Chicago partially answer the question. A DOT ter who has lost a foot must change his work. The bureau finds him a position minding private telephone
 A typesetter lost. his right hand from blood poisoning. His friends pitied him and thought he would never be able to work again. It did seem so. He could not dress himself or cut his own food. His self-reli- ance was gone. At the bureau he was met with g. bracing contempt: and strength. Why, you might have have been in a fix.'
 The typesetter was sent to a farm CT on trial. A month later he was seen by the manager of the bureau driving a four-in-hand.
 Often it is difficult to get a man into a, self-reliant frame of mind. If he is suing some company for dam ages he believes that he will get more if he can plead that he is unable to and even years for the trial, he is acquiring the habit of not working.
 A man who loses an arm is indus trial1y more seriously handicapped than one who lacks a leg Almost any trade calls for two hands. There are possibilities open, however. Such man can serve as telephone Oper- ator in a small private exchange. or as a theatre usher or essengerl not to mention tending a newsstand or serving as time-keeper or watchnlan. A one-armed man is one of the tele- graph operators on a great daily pa per in New York; receiving news tasks in the telegrapher's trade out side of work in Wall Street.
 The disa ability- of old age is the heaviest handicap S of all all; TMo years jobs for decades lost their work A clerk who had labored for thirty years in a house dealing in wool is practically unable to get out of the
 For such men places as errand. boys, elevator operators, or hall. DOT choice is limited and it is depressing to see men who have held responsi ble posts Nreduced to work that is such a contrast to their past.
 Special employment bureaus are not a sufficient solution of the prob lem. The man with one leg, the wo- man with hip disease, the girl with heart trouble-these cannot compete on an equality with the able bodied. Yet they may often be capable of good work and worthy of more than
 
 ence. To overcome the handicap of physical and mental defects special is needed. By becoming ex- pert in some trade they will not have to earn a precarious living as news boys or drift into institutions.
 Two years ago 200 factories were were found for the handicapped in work which permits the operator to l abor while seated and does not re- Iuire unusual strain. Institutions for | the blind ha 1umb have already shown their use i ulness. Similar methods will sue 'eed with the handicapped. Factory | work may seem undesirable but the lrudgery- of fixed hours is offset by he number Of light tasks that can )e performed while seated.
 Among occupations open to the handicapped apprentice, the artistic ewelry and leather trades are fore most. The work is done while seat hops are well lit and sanitary and he wages and hours good. The -rtisan has>a an opportunity to use reat1ve talent. The manufacture of lowers and feathers is not so highly 'aid, unless the worker becomes ex- 'ert at making roses or ostrich feath- ITS.
 In piano factory the small parts f the machinery can be made by ne who is handicapped, as the work, hough requiring skill, exacts no hysica1 strength. In the action de hammers are cut and GOV red with felt, keys overlaid with worry and valves made, all of which 5 light work. Hand folding is an ther possibility. In book binding Il case making or gluing and setting he covers into the binding, requires Fl title physical strain. Candy dipping 5 another skilled task that does not II equire strength.
 A number of Occupations can he ursued either at home or in a small hop by those who are unfit for fac Ory life. Rugs, sofa cushions, piazza 1ats, etc., can he made on small and looms. The manufacture of anne1 and wooily toy animals or of er him ntI