Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1918-06-19
ELKS MAKE GIFT
OF HOSPITAL
Cornerstone of Base Hospital, First
of Its Kind in United States
Laid at Boston Saturday
FOR USE OF AMERICAN
SOLDIERS AND SAILORS
The Hospital in Brief May be Said
to be TO Minimize the Sufferings
Disabilities Caused by the
War

The Cornerstone of Reconstruc-
tion Base Hospital No. l, the first
of its kind in the United States and
the gift to the Government by the
BENEVOLENT and Protective Order
of Elks, was laid June Is in the
presence of distinguished assembly
Of citizens. Representatives of the
nation, state and city, with eminent
men of the medical profession and
thousands of Elks and prominent
citizens from all parts of the east,
participated in the ceremony on
Parker Hill at Boston, Mass. and
signalized by their presence and
words the notable Importance of the
event.
This first reconstruction hospital,
which will serve as the model, the
standardmaker for similar ones
to be established throughout the
United States, will give the manned
and disabled American soldiers and
sailors the best of expert attention
and occupational instruction 1t
Will REBUILT human wrecSaga into
able-bodied men and will educate
them in occupations which will
best qualify them not to become a
burden to society. The aim of the
hospital in brief may be said to be
to minimize the sufferings and dis
abilities caused by the war and to
protect the community from an I'M
due number of crippled citizens.
The Government through the
Surgeon -Genrars Department. Int
November last accepted the recon-
struction hospital plans as gift
from the Elks. The Elk War Re-
lief Commission is building the re-
construction hospital at cost Of
$250,000, the money being taken
from the Elk's 100000 War re-
lief fund, voted by the Elis. 1917
convention. The hospital will be
ready to receive the wounded
American soldiers and sailors in
the early September.
Fred Harper, Grand Exalted
Ruler of the Elks, delivered the
principal address of the occasion,
telling of the benevolent and
patriotic purposes that prompted
the Elks to make the gift to their
country and dwelling on The bless
ings that seem certain to await the
soldiery that court tie
benefits of the institution The
lodges of Elks in New
England were represented by e.
Mark Sullivan, Exalted Ruler Of
the Boston Lodge Of silks.
Every device and resource known
to the medical seize lee vii! be ut
hand at the Reconsideration hos
pital to rebuilt avery part of the
human frame. Mon with half tEcir
faces shot away by shrapnel will get
new jaw bones from their ribs and
new noses and new cheeks from
the cartilages and tissues on other
parts Of their bodies.
Thousands of men who would be
human wrecks without proper
treatment will be rebuilt at the new
reconstruction hospital and taught
trades that make them economic as
sets instead of liabilities. The
men with fractures that have not
rightly knitted, with stiff joints,
with nerve palsies from shock or
from injury, there are the cases
the reconstruction hospital will
help. They will have had the
regular base hospital treatment
Just behind the firing lines, where
the first surgical work will be done.
Manned and disfgured men will
be reconstructed by operation, by
apparatus, by education. Treatment
will be given not only to the classes
already mentioned but also to those
that need plastic operations to rem
edy contractures or defects or who
need appliances to supplant mis-
sing limb. Those given artificial
limbs will be educated in their in
dustrial use.
The institution consists OF a
complete unit of twin war hospital
buildings, vocational workshops
barracks, mess hall and post ex-
change.