New Britain herald., 1918-03-09
WOUNDED HEROES
 TO BE RECLAIMED
Government Will Rehabiitate
 Soldiers Who Return Unit

I,American fighters for democracy l will be returned to the United States
 unfit for further military service" l inc federal Board for Vocational | Education, at the request of the Sen- 1 ate, has reported 9 com nrehenS1ve l scheme to be made the basis of leg l islation for the "reeducation" of the 1 soldiers and sailors of this war. This scheme is based on months of study l and investigation of the methods en- ployed by the European belliGercnts to restore the maimed and crippled
 victims of war to profitable employ
 ment. Germany boasts that every wounded soldier is trained to earn his own living. France, Belgium and England, less adequately prepared for war, do the same. The United States, taking the lead among nations in it's war risk insurance work, IS on the
 eve of creating a vaster and more far-reac ching system than any yet de- vised. Senator IIolxe Smith of Geor- gia, father of the Vocational Educa- ton Act and chairman of the Sen- ate committee on Education and La- bor, is engaged on the framing of the legislation.
 How enormou is the task of reht- ting ex-soIdierS to return to industry is thus summed up in the Senate re- port referred to:
 "Any estimate of the number that will be returned disabled or that will require vocational reeducation must necessarily be based upon certain assum ptions regarding the duration of the war, the numter of men main- tained at the front, and the propor- ton of casualties. These assumptions must be based upon the experience of the belligerents during the last three years.
 There are at present approximately 13,000,000 wounded and crippled sol diers in the belligerent countries of Europe, including 3,000,O0O cases of amputation. In Germany alone, it is reported, 500,OOO men are under treatment in the hospitals, the num- Der of leg amputations during 1916 being 16,000.
 During the next few months the return of wounded, crippled and in valided men from the overseas forces of the United States will begin, and will continue thereafter for an indefinite period until the return of the overseas forces after the termi- nation of the war.
 ''WithOut taking account Of moro contingencies, probable that 100, 900 disabled men will be returned during the first year of fighting and that at least 10000 of these men will require total or partial vocational Te-educatlOn in | order to overcome handicapS incurred | in service.
 "A second year of fighting may add
 10000, a third 60,000 to the number
 requiring such re-education, making a l total for three years of fighting or 12O,0O0. This assumes 100000 men
 overseas the first year, and an increase | of 100000 overseas in each sue | ceeding year.
 l ''The figures given above may un-
 derestimate the development of the | overseas forces, as well as the pro- l portion of casualties in the closing
 stages of the war, when offensive | strategy and tactics and fighting in the | open to break through the German Y lines may succeed the trench warfare
 of the past two years.'
 Efforts Co-ordinatcd.
 What the Vocational Education
 board is planning for the disabled
 soldier and sailor is first, the genera
 program, and, second the special edu-
 cational problems. The offices Of the l surgeon-general of the Army anC
 Navy have charge of the disabled mer
 so far as their physical rehabilitation
 is concerned. The Labor departmen
 has taken up the matter of placing
 these men in industry. The Bureau of War Risk Insurance is charged with the insurance phases of the mat ter; and SO on Through inter de ) partmental conferences all these
 boards, commissions and agencie: | have been searching out every pos sible item in the necessary program and when congress begins the fina drafting of the legislation, it will hav at hand information upon the prob
 l lem from every angle and every cor = ner of the globe.
 f As a result of this work, the re
 | turned American soldier of this wa ! will be cared for as the returned sol f dier of no other war was ever treated l l He will not be turned adrift on tn . world, dazed by his war experience f with no support but a meager pen - I sion. Nor will he be immured in } soldiers home to waste his life i
 idleness. He will be given what ever s ! American Wants-a chance to mak l | good in spite of his handicap-school ool r and classes of every kind will be ope S to him free, and there, under the bes = medical care while at the same tim I | under the instruction ot the pest VC = cational teachers that Uncle Sam ca = employ he will learn a trade whic
 l will make him self sustaining tn 0 | rest of his life.
 t The statistics show almost unbelieV n able results from the systems of Voca = tiona1 rehabilitation now obtaining l h every warning nation. Masses of men - despite the best hospital care wh1c l. modern science knows would have re $ turned to their homes desperate flo
 work and ignorant of their own ca 0 pacity for employment, undeve1opee n unad iusted to the new way in whic
 war had decreed that they must live