The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1917-08-01
AID FOR DEAF SOLDIERS.
Those Deafened by Battle Shocks Rarely
Receive Sympathy.

While many organizations are raising
funds and perfecting plans for pro
viding American soldiers, comfort in |
hospitals, and recreation back of the |
firing lines in France, and while com
missions for the relief of civilian pop |
ulations in devastated war zones are
performing their laudable work, aided |
by contributions from the generous
public, tile American Association to |
Promote the Teaching of Speech to the
Deaf, founded and endowed by Alex |
ander Graham Bell, former president
of the National Geographic society, has
launched a campaign III behalf of war
sufferers whose sacrifices for their coun
try and for liberty are oftcntimes over
! looked or minimized.
The association, from its headquar
tiers in Washington, presents the cause
of the soldier made deaf by the shocks
and hardships of battle. II says:
"Reports from war hospitals re-
corded in foreign medical journals show
that many soldiers suffer from deafness
i following shock from high explosives,
as well as from direct injuries of the
head and the ear and from diseases of
i the ear due to exposure; and though no
Il enormous number lost all hearing, yet
there are many whose hearing in one or
both ears is seriously and perhaps per-
manentlv impaired. These latter are
classified as hard of hearing and dis
charged or relieved from active duty.
1.-The nation S defender who returns
from the front with visible injury, the
loss Of an arm or a leg, or with a
Scared face, will find associations ready
to aid him i'll securing the kind of work
he is best fitted for.
:" But he who returns with total loss
Of hearing may be far more heavily in
tcapacitatcd for earning fair wage,
even though there is no outward midi
cation of the severe injury from which
he viii suffer- than the comradc who has
lost a leg.
"And it is because of this entire alb
scnce of external indications of his ter
: riblc handicap of defective hearing that
the deaf soldier rarely receives tho
thoughtful considerations so eagerly ex
tended to those whose deprivation may
: actually be far less, vet appears tn,
greater because visible to all.
''In civil life hard-of hearing person.
| who are not lip-readers have always
e found it difficult to retain or to secur,
+, positions which they are qualified t.
fill, and are compelled to accept sub
ordinate positions with small pay; an,
; it is estimated that there are NOR
T than a million hard of hearing person
e in the United States whose pay is lowe
than it otherwise would be because o
defective hearing or because they hav
/" not learned to read the lips.
II Experience proves that the sures
If and the quickest way to restore thcs
If hard Of hearing persons to their norma
= place III any line of human endeavor
to aid them to learn to read the lip
III as rapidly as possible; and it is 0
II record that deafened soldiers appear t
lie develop a special aptitude for learnin
n this subtle art
''Therc are organizations for supply
y ing artificial arms and legs to those VIII
" have lost limb in defense of the
t. country, and organizations to give I'll
no blind instruction III remunerative lin,
) Of industry to enable them to renal
self-supporting.
rs ''Whv not have organizations pr
Y pared and equipped to supply the dca
Of cned soldier, sailor. or marine who ca
no longer hear speech with an abilit
to see and read speech as it falls fro
the lips of all with whom he converse
IN to the end that he, too, may not on
r be able to support himself as we'll as
i. did before the nation demanded Ii
services, but that he may be say,
GU from becoming a dependent!
cy The teaching of lip-rcading to t
ed adults hard of hearing who have 60
command OF language is a professi
promising beneficial results, that jus
lily educated hard-of hearing women W
-eu possess the faculty Of imparting inf,
ost nation to others in taking the norm
* training course that Will enable tn,
- to become proficient teachers of |
- reading. This may be a way in Viii
II cultured hard-of hearing women may
able to serve their country to good p
pose. The Volta Bureau, 1901 3;
tho street, Washington, d. c., will send Fl
literature to all who are inclined to
'"'' gage in this patriotic service.
the " It does not teach ip-reading,
Au- no medical advice to give or inst
and ments to sell, but it will send the nan
~ of the nearest teachers qualified to z
my instructions, and it will assist in
ore formation Of local associations or O
:. national association to teach lip-re
ing to deaf soldiers.