The Idaho Springs siftings-news., 1918-03-08

In France l have heard ironist say:
Yes. he was a hero for ten days and now he Is
Il decorated ruin; n cripple for life"
Yet ''mutes' can be patched up They
can be provided with "jambe Americaine" and
an arm fixed with all sorts of joints and springs
that make ii practical. Last week in the train to
Nh, l sat next to one such mended hero he
showed me his with real pride and explained
that for the present he had work In the municipal
markets of Paris but that he hoped to get trans
ferred to something more esthetic; he would pre-
FER to be sort of subcurator In picture gallery.
See. Monsieur, can hold fork like this-or
can grasp glass the thumb Is exaggeratedly
long; have to get special glove. :"
! Yes the mutlles' features can be nodded into
something like human semblance where It's the
face that has suffered. But that Is hardly enough
1t is not enough to make the hero for days the
cripple for lifetime. look like He must
be restored TO real livng-to Il part in the world
OF industry That is for the sake of Belgium
France, or Britain, or whatever his country may
be- II is also for the mans sake.
l have just had talk with Miss Grace Harper,
chief of the bureau Of the re-educat mutiles
at American Red Cross headquarters In Paris
She has shown me estimates that for every mil
lion men placed In the field France counts on hay-
ing to for 10000 mutiles-5OOO of them a
month. And this figure does not take account Of
the war-bnded and wardeafened and war-crazed
please do not quote these figures our own"
says the cautious chief. They the best esti-
mates have been able to secure, but they are
estimates.
France Is working miracles in making over
manned men, Miss Harper goes on. but at
the close of 1917 the work of reconstruction has
not yet caught up with the destructive forces. Un
der the French system the wounded soldier passes
from Post de Secours' to base hospital, and
thence to one Of the eleven existing Centres de
Physiotherapie" At that center he receives sur
gcal treatment or physiotherapy. both. physio-
therapy meaning electrical mechanical massage
Here he receives also artificial limb and his
Industrial training Is begun-to fit him for a new
place in the social organism.
THE French centers of physiotherapy are capa-
BILE OF receiving less than Is per cent OF the mu-
tiles Happily the schools OF re-educa able
to take care OF some OF those mutiles who must,
perforce, forego the physiotherapeutics.
II am talking to you in terms like these because
the problem is such big one and because our
own country, too must realize something Of the
problem we are all up against and the support
that must be given to the American Red Cross II
ourselves in this business of making men out Of
wars wastage. But want you to realize that the
Red Cross did not come to France just to study.
II. for one, have been in Paris since March, 1917
and have visited practically every large center of
re-educatonal work In France and some of the
small ones not ALL by any MEANS for nominally
there are 1o3 Of them. The Red Cross continues
to study the new developments, the new demands
In the field Of re-educaton, for when the Ameri-
can army has Its full share of casualties the Red
Cross whose first task Is to back up that army,
must benefit by French and British experience.
But real program for helping In France has
now advanced beyond the stage Of study
"A superficial examination OF our field shows
this: The training already provided in France IL
Industrial training, the preparation OF dis
eharyed soldiers for such jobs - stsnosraphy.