The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1917-07-26
Teaching Cripples
By Frederick J. Haskin.

NcIC piildI4lLLOplSI VI NSW YIN, OSiS-
miah Milbank, started it with a check
for $50, 600, and the War Council of the
Red Cross is to carry it on. Already
all sorts of working equipment has been
installed, from typewriters and sewing
machines to carpenters tools and broom
straw, so that when our first detach-
ment of crippled soldiers and sailors is
released from the base hospitals a new
future will be awaiting them. In the
meantime the school will be used tor
industrial cripples, of whom there is a
startling number.
This is the first war in which the
state or society has recognized its full
duty toward the derelicts of battle.
Before the state felt that it had dis
charged all responsibility when it paid
a man a small pension for his disability,
but today that does not suffice. A pen
sion of S25 month does not compen-
safe man for the loss of a remuner-
ative occupation or even an uuremun-
erative one, if it happened to be con-
genial.
There was British soldier sent home
shortly after the beginning of the war
with his right arm gone. During the
entire period Of his conyalescence in
the hospital this man had, as Huckle-
berry Finn would say, we'll developed
case of the ''fantods. The nurses
racked their brains for material to cheer
him up, but he remained consistently
gloomy. Finally one of them, succeed
ed in gaining his confidence. at amt
that | mind bein' wounded" he told
her, but | amt no more good for
clock maxim 1t kinda sounds silly to
say it. but l did love to make those
little clocks"
The French were the first to under
take the business of re-educatlng their
crippled soldiers to fill up the gaps in
industry. The French are always think
ing up new schemes to take care of their
INDECENT sand poor. Moreover, some
say it was the French who first intro
duced technical and commercial educa-
ton. although the Germans quickly
grabbed the idea as well as the credit
of it, The. first institution for war
cripples was opened in Lyons, France,
In 1914. The buildings were contrlbut-
ed by the town and the funds raised by
popular subscription, while the Minister
of War agreed to pay about 70 cents
day for each soldier
This was 80 cents less than the
government paid to men who stayed in
their own homes, the deduction being
made on the grounds that the school
was in the nature Of hospital The
men did not see the government line of
reasoning, however, and there was con-
siderable grumbling, which the mayor
of Lyons dispelled by allowing each
man 30 cents from the funds of the in
stitution as long as it was possible to
spare it. Besides this. the men enioy-
ed the profits from the sale of the goods
they. manufactured.
France tried several plans before it
finally adopted the technical boarding
school as the most satisfactory one.
First, the government paid the crippled
soldier a certain allowance while he
lived in his own home and learned a
trade by becoming an apprentice in
some workshop in his neighborhood
This did not turn out well at all. He
had the constant example of men work
ing without handicap before him, and
he soon became discouraged. The
second plan provided that the man
should also livetin his own home, but
should attend a vocational school. which
would teach him trade and also serve
him a substantial meal in the middle of
the day, so that he would not have to
waste time in gong home.
This plan was better than the first,
but not so efficient as the third, where
the man lived entirely in the institution
and was under the constant supervision
of his instructors. The instructors have
not only to inculcate trade but a new
psychology in the cripple.
Now there are nearly 20 such schools
10 France, and almost as many in Great
Britain. A man must be cured of
disease and his wounds healed in a
hospital before he is accepted as a
candidate for one of them, and he must
also be unfit for further military duty.
Furthermore. man must be physically
strong enough to take his place in the
industrial army.
After thorough physical examina-
ton, the soldier cripple is conducted
over the establishment and permitted
to make his choice of occupation. The
school courses, with a few exceptions,
include bookkeeping, shorthand and
typewriting. book binding. paper stitch
ing, woodwork and drawing, shoe max
ing. broom making, gardening, crude
forms of machinery, wood-carving,
tailoring and toy-making. The last has
been an occupation much encouraged in