Audubon County journal. (Exira, Iowa) 1884-1993, 1918-09-12

.--.- Herlence OF the allies and the
central powers studied at first hand by corps
Of specialists, and supplemented by cooperative
research under the direction of the Red Cross
Institute for Crippled and Disabled Men, and the
National Association of Manufacturers, pro-
gramne has been worked out by the surgeon gen.
erals Office Of the army which is calculated to
insure to every soldier of the United States who
comes back from cover there minus an arm or
q leg, blind deaf, or otherwise handicapped
better chance of reinstatement as useful mem
Der Of society than afforded to any of the
soldiers Of the allies in the first two or three
years of the war.
E Germany alone the only nation that was pre-
pared for this war, had included detailed plans
for the reconstruction Of MANNED and mutilated
soldiers in its war program from the beginning,
and, under it's autocratic system of government,
has been able to enforce these plans, with the
result that every crippled German soldier is put
to work at some useful occupation with the slight
est possible delay after his injury. The allies
have had to evolve their general plans as well
as particular methods out of the bitter experience
of war, in this as in other phases of the great
conflict, writes Frank Parker Stockbridge In New
York Times
1t was not until after the United States en-
tered the warm May, 1917, to be exact-that
there anything like complete exchange of
experiences and principles evolved from them in
respect to the war cripple. Out of the first inter
a.
ton Of the disabled cOnbatant, held in Paris Nav
8 to u, 1917 at which delegates from the United
States surgeon generals office sat for the first
time as representatives of their nation at war
came an international interchange of knowledge
and ideas concerning the war cripple. At a sec
ond conference, held in London last November, a
permanent interallied committee was established
which will have it's headquarters in a new per-
manent institute for the disabled, endowed by
the French government with 10000 francs $780,
0O0) for building and equipment, and maintained
by annual appropriations of 10000 francs ($6OOO)
each by the different allied nations represented
Already this clearing house of scientific and
economic Information for the benefit of the war
cripple has done Invaluable work in enabling the
warning nations to profit by each others expert
ences and mistakes Not the least valuable con-
tributions have come from American sources, our
army surgeons having had opportunities for COM
parative observation of methods in vogue in diff
ferent countries denied to those whose nations
had been actually at war for three years. The
United States, therefore, will begin it's work OF
restoration with the accumulated experience Of
nearly four years to build upon
The first steps toward reinstatement to a self
supporting status, and by far the most important
steps, must be begun almost Immediately after
the soldier receives the incapacitating injury
and carried on continuously and cumulatiyely
throughout the period of his hospital care
This is especially true in the case of the SOL
der who has lost limb, or who has been blinded.
One of the most important lessons gained from
the experience of the allies, il not the most inn
portant, is that the problem of the restoration to
usefulness of the crippled soldier is a psyche
logical one, even more than it is surgical or
economic The experience Of the French authori-
ties, who had to deal with terrific proportion Of
mutiles in the first two years of the war, was
disheartening. Fewer than II per cent of dis
abled soldiers expressed a desire even willing
ness to learn how to do useful work. A large
proportion had 'lost their nerve" at the same
time that they lost their limbs or their eyesght.
most of them felt that they had done enough for
their country-that the nation owed them their
living without effort. Because facilities for the
early employment of patients, even at trivial oc-
cupations were lacking in the military hospitals,
they had acquired the habit of ideness which,
when once fixed, is almost ineradicable.
The experience of France differed only in de-
gree from that Of the other allied nations. To
avoid similar experience, and not only give
every crippled soldier the best possible chance
to become selfsupporting, but to insure that he
avails himself Of the opportunity thus afforded
the psychological and economic rehabilitation of
every American ncapacitated by his injuries for
further military service will begin with and go
on parallel with his physical rehabilitation
which, in turn will be process not merely of
'patching up" but of the actual development to
their utmost usefulness of all the injured mans
remaining physical powers.
The first reaction of the man who has lost
limb is utter despair. He is "done for" in his
own estimation Nobody has any use for a Grip
pie" is the way in which nine out of ten express
1t. Unless he is man whose former occupa-
ton has been mental, not dependent upon the
use of his physical energies he sees ray of
hope for his own future. Unless Immediately
sectifed, this state of mind quickly becomes fixed
and all but irremediable. So the first step. to-
ward rehabilitation which will begin almost as
soon as the injured man comes out from under
The anesthetic Is what they are terming in the
surgeon generals office "cheer-up work. BY
every means that can be devised the cripple is to
be convinced that his case is not hopeless, that
10 stu has chances Of becoming again useful