Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-11-21
WOUNDED NOT TO
BE A BURDEN TO
US. AFTER WAR
Industrial Surgeons Hear How
Mangled Men Are Recon
structed" in Hospitals

I'm here to help lick the Ger
mans"
A resolute, vigorous man, wearing
the insignia of a major in the United
states Army, startled three hundred
surgeons in the late hours of yester-
day when they gathered for the
closing of the fifth conference of in
dustrial physicians and surgeons in
the House of Representatives. If the
officer had said ''trounce" or defeat"
the audience would not have been so
moved, perhaps. But the good old
fashioned word lick" brought every
one up in his seat and from that
moment Major Harry Il. Mock. U. S.
A. Medical Reserve Corps, held his
auditors at profound attention. Dur
ing one straight hour he disclosed,
for the first time, the Governm s
notions for rehabilitating and recon-
structing men who are wounded in
this war.
He went into the minutest details
which would convince any one that
Uncle Sam is right back of the great
est humanitarian movement of the
war and that this nation will even
outdo Germany, England and France
in making men over so that they will
not be a burden to the country.
1T took this war to arouse the ma
tion," Major Mock pointed out. so
ciety has been unlSind to it's crippled.
Human conservation is the greatest
by-product of this war, and we are
determined to surpass Germany even
as Germany surpasses France in the
salvage of these unfortunates.
To Care For Wounded
The recent Act of Congress passing
the disability insurance bill gives
Nsg... ,s..A.. ii
Major Mock. Pensions will continue
even If the victim reeovers from his
handicap. Not only will the wounded
soldier be taken care of, but the Gov
eminent facilities will include the
treatment of industrial workers.
The Government idea is so tre-
mendous." declared the major. that
it would take a whole day to lay out
all the details. 1t contemplates re-
ceiving the injured at Staten Island.
where they will be examined. By
this time 1t is expected that great
TCcor struction hospitals, perhaps to
the number of sixteen, will be estab-
lished at the various drafting sta
tions. The Government has under
taken to give every crippled man a
vocational t.'aining. and to this end
communication is already opened
up with schools and workshops. Spe-
cial schools will be built where the
blind, deaf and manned will be
taught new trades. We propose to
cooperate with universities, agri-
cultural and industrial schools; even
private and semi-private institutions.
THE Government itself will have
hundreds. of jobs for these men
mail clerks. court clerks. work on
the reservations. We have now one
hundred biographies of cripples who
have made good. These we will dis
tribute to the wounded soldiers as
they arrive for reconstruction. Some
of these stories tell just those prac-
tical intimate things that a cripple
should know-how to shave, Shine
your shoes, and perform other per-
scnal duties. The national employ
nent bureau will be aided by all
state bureaus, and we intend to have
the employers liability law changed
so that these reconstructed men can
hold jobs in spite of their defects.
These great hospitals for making
over our heroes will be permanent
monuments to their patriotism and
in time they will be used for the re-
habilitation of industrial workers
who have met disaster"
The pledges of Major Mock on be-
half of the nations government were
so cheering that ii was lucky he pre-
ceded Major r. TAFT McKensie, who,
with his screen pictures, gave a vivid
description of actual scenes abroad,
including pictures of soldiers wound
ed in many ways. Major McKensie,
one of the chief officials employed in
the reconstruction work in England.
said that il America raised armies
of men at the same percentage as
England in the days Of the Kitchener
armies, this country could pile up
forces of 100000.
Work Mt High Speed
His discourse was intended to show
the Pennsylvania surgeons precisely
how wounds of every kind are best
treated, according to the discoveries
and inventions made since this war
started. His pictures showed the men
brought from the trenches to the
dressing station. then to the casualty
clearing hospital and finally to the
base hospital.
To show. the speed with which
England works. he narrated that in
Manchester on a Monday he received
ten trains of wounded men who had
been hurt the previous Saturday at
battles on the Somme. His most in
teresting pictures were those show
ing the wounded recovered. Here was
a man with 113 different wounds
from a bursting shell. He had been
so patched up as to be able to go
back. to fight. The actual reconstruc-