The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1918-06-13
MAKING NEW MEN
FROM FRAGMENTS
STORY OF THE GREAT WORK OF
THE RED CROSS IN RECON-
STRUCTiON
HOPE FOR WOUNDED O|SPELS THE GLOOM
Men Who Thought Lives Worthless
Find New Means Of Livelihood At
Their Command
(By George Buchanan Fife)

The one new sound in the streets
of Paris.
The rumble of heavy wheels, the
rihe-crack of whips, the purr OF rub
Der tires, the warning of the motor
horn, the toy-tinkle of the iacre
horses bell, the scuffle of footsteps
all these are the old sounds. It's only
the toc-toc-toc-that's new.
One hears it OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
toc-the dull, unmistakable sound OF
the soldiers wooden leg, the plodding
on-march of the thousands who have
dropped, still living, through the red
fingers of war.
For this conflict of high explosives
sends so pitiably many men back into
the world with missing legs and arms,
yet, %singularly enough, with calm, UNI
finching heart, often with a pathetic
ally smiling face, and always with a
ribbon on the breast and the graft
tude of France for their sacrifice.
Hundreds of them come into Paris
from the great base hospitals, seek
ing in some new work, the livelihood
they must make. Many, particularly
the legless ones who have been farm
ers or field laborers, believe that their
usefulness as such is at an end and
them. Therefore they seek out the
larger cities-Paris, by preference
for employment which will provide a
chair or bench in a wOrkroom where
a new trade may be learned and life
be begun all over again.
1t is to these unfortunates, these
"grands blesses," now no longer of
momen in the bitter struggle at the
front and even sent back by their Ger
man captors as useless and burden
some. that the American Red Cross
has devoted n of he most import
ant OF its many services-that Of pro-
viding these manned soldiers with the
best type of artificial leg that Amer
lean ingenuity of design can produce.
And already more than six hundred
mutilated Frenchmen have been
equipped. But. more. even than that,
the American Red Cross has now es-
tablished at Saint Maurice, near Paris,
q factory where American artificial
legs are manufactured and supplied
to the French government for issue to
the mutiles Of the army. The present
equipment of the plant is for the COM
pletion of fifty legs a month, but the
output is to be increased as rapidly
as possible.
This work has been undertaken for
two fundamental and equally import
ant reasons.
The first is scientific. 1t has been
found that if a long period elapses
between the amputation of a leg and
the employment Of a proper, weight
bearing device which approaches the
structure of the normal leg, the mus
Giles involved in the operation become
~atrophied and the habit of balance
and of walking becomes markedly
changed. This interferes in consider
able degree with the effectiveness OF
a subsequently supplied leg of ade-
quate design and mechanism.
The second fundamental is psy-
Geological. When a man loses his
leg he naturally feels that his life has
come down in ruin. In some natures
this brings a man to the point of CIV
ing up everything in despair at the flu
ture and what is to become of him.
In other personalities it crystalizes in
TO the belief that as he has given the
best of himself to the service of the
state. the state owes him a living.
Both of these are bad paths for
him TO go stumbling along in his new
life. The French government knows
this full well, for it looks forward to
the day when after peace has come
to the land, all her man-power, all
her man-spirit, all the heart of France
will be needed in the task of setting
her house in order.
So the French government and the
American Red Cross are now working
together to aid the 'mutile" to take
his place in this great work Of the fu-
ture, if possible at the trade which
once occupied him. and to make him
feel that he has not been thrust aside
by those more fortunate but no more
deserving.
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