South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1917-09-30

the labor market alone will doubt
less make il necessary"
Difficulties To he Considered.
Granting. then. the general desire
of manufacturers 10 fulfill a patritic
duty. what are the special difficulties
they must face2 At present the
greatest obstacles are. first. the
heavy risks entailed in employing
disabled men under the present
compensation laws; and secondly.
the limited opportunities for en-
plOyment The former obstacle. be-
cause il arises from existing legis-
lation, is more difficult TO overcome.
Correspondents state that they be
lieve a crippled man can do certain
work as efficiently as anyone else:
but that they hesitate TO employ a
man having but one eve. arm, or
leg, because, under existing compen-
sation laws. they would be obliged
! TO pay compensation for total dis
ability for life were such employe
TO suffer the loss Of the other eve.
arm or leg while employed Future
conditions certainly call for some
modification of the compensation
laws. The position of the manu-
facturer in regard TO this CONSIDER
alton is summed up by one firm a.,
1 follows: The first question that
arises concerns the status Of such
men who might be employed in the
factories of our members would as
sumo under the compensation law
rf 81,
of other states. As you probably
know, the compensation commission
of this state holds that if work
man having but one arm. or one leg.
or eye should through accident lose
the other corresponding member, he
would have TO be compensated on
I the basis of total disability This
ruling. as you can readily see. makes
it practically impossible for a par
| tally disabled workman to secure
employment in any of the hazardous
industries. In our opinion and in
that of most manufacturers with
whom we have talked regarding this
matter the law ought 10 be amend
ed so that a partially disabled man
after he has recovered from the ac-
cident which disabled him should
then have the same status. as far
as other accidents are concerned, as
though he had never been disabled.
At least some modification of the
law should be made so that such
men shall have a chance of en-
ployment in their old line of work
with which they are familiar We
/ believe that something of this kind
will have 10 be done if crippled sol
diers are to be employed in factor
les in those states that have COM
pulsory compensation. the laws of
which have been Interpreted in the
same way as the New York state law
has been interpreted"
Correspondents i'm Indiana. New
Jersey. pennsylvania, and Ohio raise
the same issue; one i'm the last
named state summing up the situa-
ton in these words: There are
many places where men with one
arm, one leg or one eye could be
used to a good advantage around a
manufacturing plant. and could rem
der a service probably 10 percent TO
90 percent of the value of an able
bodied man, and if the only question
| involved was whether we could use
these men. even if we paid them the
full wage of an able bodied man and
our plants lose that difference. we
would be heartily in favor of work
ing out some such plan" Were this
condition remedied by legislative
amendments the task Of the manu-
facturer would be simplifed.
The Clerical and Executive Field.
The clerical field offers unlimited
possibilities. especially in the ship
ping. receiving and bookkeeping de
partments of almost every factory
Stenography and typewriting like
wise hold possibilities. particularly
for the blind. In France numerous
blinded soldiers have been trained
to take dictation on a special ma
chine and to transcribe their notes
rapidly and accurately This of
course presupposes that the injured
man has a certain grade of intelli-
gence and general education, for
when these are lacking the task is
more difficult.
Each Case An individual Problem
How and when the work can best
he arranged is the problem which
manufacturers must solve as soon
as possible. The attitude of the
worker will vary in each individual
case and il is the manufacturers
duty 10 make him realize how much
his attitude will affect his success.
The general position on this ques-
! tion is summed up by a Massa-
chusetts ink company, which writes:
We now have in our employ a
number of men who might be de-
scribed as cripples and who can
very easily hold their own with the
average. There is almost always
something that cripple can do
even in the way OF pure manual
labor, but his value 10 himself and
his employer depends very largely
on his own attitude toward the
work and the extent 10 which he is