The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-03-17

signal electrician he receives SS1 a month, The preliminary training necessary tc lit the drafted men for this service re- quires about POO hours, and enables man to send and receive minimum mes sage of 20 words of five letters The instruction is given free and the federal board would like to have teaching classes established over the United States. The
 classes could be held during Saturday aft erEoons and Sunday mornings. l under stand the work is not difficult and that
 man can learn to do it between the
 date of draft and that of his order to go to the cantonment. Teachers are needed
 for the work. The pay is from B to 5
 a night.
 It is estimated that we shall have 100000 disabled men sent back to the | United States during the first year Of | our fighting, and that at least 2O,0O0 or | them will require vocational re-educa- | tion to overcome the handicaps incur red in the service. During the second year of the fighting there will be 40,- 900 more, and during the third year l about 60,000. This means that if the
 war lasts for three years more, we | shall have 120,00 wounded soldiers who will be so trained in the hospitals that they could make a livelihood when | they came out. This is on the assump- | ton that we shall send 100000 mon | overseas the first year and a million
 more for each of the two years suc- i ceeding. The war training board esti- | mates that four teachers will be need ed for each 100 men and that the coun- | try will have to provide 1900 teachers l for the hospitals for each 100000 men 1t sends overseas. This means that we
 shall need $500 occupational teachers
 if the war should last but three years. 1 All of these teachers will have to be especially trained, and the government , is preparing to start this work under tho direction of the federal board for vocational education.
 ] This re-education Is necessary not only to make the wounded men self | supporting after they leave the hospi- tai but also for their recovery of both body and mind. The experience of Eu- rope is that the work in the trenches
 has paralyzing effect on the mind,
 and that many of the soldiers who come to the hospitals are mental and nervous wrecks who have to be care fully handled in order to rehabilitate them. The work of training must be begun just as soon as possible in order to prevent the men from becoming dis | couraged and drifting into the ranks of dependents. idlers and nonemployes. Re-education puts spirit and life into | them, and they begin to improve as soon as the training begins. Their work lgrows better as they near their recov- | cry and the idea is to continue 1t so that they will be able to work eight hours daily at the close of their train l inG. The French figures show that 80 per cent of the men who have been trained in the hospitals have become
 efficient laborers, whereas only per cent of those who have taken up such training upon leaving have been of any 1 v91ue whatever.
 In this re-education the physical and I'mental conditions of each man are | studied. both in connection with his I experience before he went into the war and the possible market for such work as he may be able to do after the war is closed He is given all arti-