Rockingham post-dispatch. [volume] (Rockingham, N.C.) 1917-1965, 1918-03-07

In France have heard an ironist say:
Eyes, he was a hero for ten days and now he Is
a decorated ruin; cripple for life.'
Yet even "mutiles" can be patched up. They
can be provided with ''jambe Americaine" and
an arm fixed with all sorts of joints and springs
that make it practical. Last week, in the train to
Nh, sat next to such mended hero; he
showed me his arm 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 a fork like this-or
I can grasp a glass; the thumb is exaggeratedly
long; / have to get special glove.
Yes, the mutiles' features can be nodded into
something like human sembance, where it's the
face that has suffered But that Is hardly enough.
It Is not enough to make the hero for ten days. the
cripple for lifetime, look like man. He must
be restored to real livng-to a part in the world
of industry That is for the sake of Belgium, or
France, or Britain, whatever his country may
be; 1t is also for the mans own sake
| have just had talk with Miss Grace Harper,
chief Of the bureau Of the re-education of mutes
| 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 hav-
| ing to care for $4,000 mutiles-5,0OO of them
| month. And this figure does not take account OF
| the war-blinded and war-deafened and war-crazed.
"Please do not quote these figures as our own"
says the cautious chief "They are the best esti-
! mates we have been able to secure but they are
! estimates.
France is working miracles in making over
manned men," Miss Harper goes on. "but even at
the close of 1917 the work of reconstruction has
not yet caught up with the destructive forces. IN
| der the French system the wounded soldier passes
| from Post de Secours' to a base hospital, and
| thence to one of the eleven existing Centres de
Physiotherapie." At that center he receives sur
gical treatment physiOtherapy, or both, physio-
therapy meaning electrical or mechanical massage
| Here he receives also an artificial limb, and his
industrial training is begun-to fit him for new
| place in the social organism.
"The French centers Of physotherapy are capa-
BILE of receiving less than Is per cent of the mu-
tiles. Happily the schools Of reeducation are able
| to take care of some Of those mutiles who must
perforce, forego the physiotherapeutics.
Tam talking to you in terms like these because
the problem is such a big one, and because our
own country, too must realize something Of the
problem we are all up against, and the support
4 that must be given to the American Red Cross II
we are either to be Of much help to France or to
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.
81 for one, have been in Paris since March, 1917.
and have visited practically every large center of
reeducational 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 our 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 u
Industrial training, or the preparations OF dis
charged soldiers for such jobs as stenography