The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1918-08-04
Thousands of Factories, Shops
and Offices Will Take Back
Q Manned Soldier.
RED CROSS BUSY
IN NEW FIELDS
With Allowance From Govern
ment, With Added Wages, Vet
Grams Be Self-Supporting.
BY Associated Press.

0NcW OIhs Aug. 3.-InouSandS OF
factories, shops and offices in the
United States are planning to open
their doors after the war to the SOL
diers and sailors who may return
home handicapped by wounds so SER
ious as to force these men to enter
new trades and Industries.
Already field agents employed by
the Red Cross Institute for Crippled
and Disabled Men in this city are at
work demonstrating to employers %
labor that man who has los, an arm
or a leg may prove to be a valuable
worker capable of maintaining him
self in comfort il not effluencc; for.
with the allowance made by the gov
ernment to the returned fighter, wages
canned by labor would place him on
better footing financially than he was
before the war
Douglas G. McMurtrie, director of
the Red Cross Institute. has knowledge
of hundreds of typical cases of men
who have been crippled in industry
and in battle. Such men, according to
Mr.. McMurtrie, instead of becoming
respondent derelicts or mere pension
ers. have learned trades and profess
sions which have made them happy
and successful. 8
A mechanic who enlisted IN the
Princess Patricia's regiment and who
was wounded and returned to Can
ada, spent three months in a conval-
escent hospital and now earns. it is
said. double his former pay, having
taken advantage of mechanical draw
ing and arithmetic classes carried on
at the institution. Writing to the
hospital instructor, he said: AT pres
ent, since my discharge from military
tachnicaIIv a hattar M
all around; / am able now to hold a
job as foreman in a machine shop. |
with more than twice the salary I
was getting before"
A former private in the ThirteentS |
battalion, before enlisting was getting |
s12 a week for driving a city milk !
route He lost an arm and a leg and, |
atef a course in re-educatton scnool |
to a preliminary training |
1t the convalescent hospital. he OBJ !
.ained a position as a metal turner |
md filter at s75 a month.
Quoting Lord Shaukhnessy. Mr.. Nc
said that !" the occupations
md training provided reveal astonish-
ng talents which even the man him
elf did not know he possessed" The
success which is being achieved IN
sanada in dealing with the problem
II vocational re-education, Mr.. Nc
.Iurtrie stated. has been inspiring to
hose who have the same work in
land in the United States.
The Federal Board for Vocational
with an initial appropria-
ion of So 0oo. .ooo is authorized to take
,ver all schools and institutions neces-
ary to re-educate the crippled soldier
II sailor, and, in certain cases, TO
uild new schools Thus far the pre-
iminary work Of rehabilitating the
var cripples has been undertaken
argely at the Walter Reed General
Hospital in washington under United
states army supervision, and at
ozen or more similar institutions
the country.
Basketry. typewriting and similar
impi4 kinds of work are given the
atient to keep his mind clear and
right and give him an interest in
fe. Major General William Gorgas,
urgeon general of the army, it is un-
,ethod. The Red Cross Institute here,
owever, will not take a man for train
ng until he has been discharged froni
he military or naval service. It's plan
the employment OF a re-
ducation advisor in every military
ospitaI where the needs Of the patti
nts as TO learning new trades or pro-
essions could be studied, and the
hen will be given every advantage OF
election, after practical tests
THE public has too often confused
he idea of a cripple with that of
eggar,'' said Mr.. McMurtrIe. The
esulting reaction has done a great
injury to the cause of the self-respect-
ng disabled man in regarding him as i,
subject for charity but not for tradel
and employment II
ITO be sure there is historical pre-
edent for this attitude for in the
ast decades and centurieS various I
'eopleo have condemned+et the cripple
D the stetess of .roedsfae beggar or at | :
CONTINUED on Page Six.) II