The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-10-02
Our War Cripples

Kathleen Hills, in LeSle S.
 Although Germany's system of read-
 justing soldiers to civil life was in opera
 tion within few days after Emperor
 Wilhelm started the war, not until Amer
 ica had been in the conflict nearly a year
 were our initial steps taken in the prop
 lem of rehabilitating disabled soldiers.
 Then the Secretary of War instructed the
 surgeon general of the army to call
 conference to discuss the matter and rec
 commended a bill for presentation to Con-
 gress This conference was held in
 Washington on January 14. 1918, at least
 six months after our first casualties were
 reported from France. After several con-
 ferences a meeting was held on January
 21, at which the committee brought in the draft of 8 bill for submission to Con-
 gress, calling for the creation of an inter-
 departmental commission to be known
 as the board of vocational rehabilitation
 This bill, appropriating slO.oOo,0Oo to the cause was arbitrary in it's demands that
 crippled soldiers be compelled to attend vocational training schools and left little to the individual taste as to what should be the crippled soldiers future calling. His method of earning livelihood was to be s'prescribed" and proper courses for his training provided with compensation while learning. On April 8, 1918, one year after the declaration of war against Ger many. a revised Dlll lOl tiiC AO-SNNSnsA~@N of men crippled in the service of human ity under the Stars and Stripes was intro duced in Congress by Hoke Smith or Georgia. was passed and was signed by the President June 2. It provides that the re-education of the cripple shail nol be a matter of compulsion, but matter of choice in which the full co-operatlph of the disabled soldier is obtained, so ne will work with zest to re-estabi1sh him- | |. J e That. this matter of personal liberty m the re-education of the cripple is a DIS factor has been proved by the experiences of our allies, and that we realize 1t to 2 great extent is apparent from the plan ol procedure which is now being followed. Military life produces the automaton man, robbed of Individuality, and makes for massed efficiency. Soldiers thlnK, act and have their being, not in indivld- ual ways. but as concerns the great Well fare of the greatest number. All these barriers to the development of the indi- vidual after discharge from the service must be broken down as the man faces civilian life. While the medical treatment is intensive the vocational education Is
 slight; as the medical treatment lessens
 in degree, the vocational education be-
 comes more pronounced, so that while at
 the convalescent hospital the work of the
 surgeon general and the vocational edu-
 cator are of equal importance, until the
 line of discharge is reached. If the pa-
 tient is returned to active or limited
 service. he again goes under strict mill
 tary discipline: if he is discharged from
 service. vocational education assumes
 larger proportions in his life. He receives an honorable discharge with war risk compensation. and is given an opportunity
 for training under the federal board Of
 vocational education and when he is
 fitted to resume life's burdens. the gov
 ernment will see to it that he is given job Too much emphasis cannot be laid
 on the word opportunity for so far the man has not been compelled to take any
 vocational re-education work laid down by the government, no matter how neces- sary to his welfare it may be.