The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-11-19
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
INFORM A TON
Blu AU
FREDERIC J. HASKINt Director,
Washington. D. c.
PSYCHIC AFTERMATH OF WAR
Washington. D. c.
1.-The Soldiers.

l. II
I 1.-THE Soldiers.
| Washington, D. c., Nov. 16.-The
great war has ended; but 1t has been
officially stated that it will be many
months before any Of our forces nave
been brought home and that most OF
them will not be returned for more
| than a year.
There is more than one reason for
/ this; but, most of all, the government
recognizes the danger of turning loose
two million men, accustomed to a life
of tension and restraint, to shift for
themselves. Decentralization for, peace
must be even more careful than mo-
bilization for war. Mobilization was
conducted along military and economic
lines; rehabilitation must include not
only these considerations but psyche
logical considerations as WELL
The folly OF abrupt and wholesale
discharges is shown by history. Such
| a procedure lost for Carthage all she
had gained from her victories of the
first Punic war, and opened the way
/ for her final destruction. Swarms of
Greek and Barbarian mercenaries. who
had fought and won Carriages bat
ties, found themselves with arms in
their hands, no place to go. and moth
ing to do but start another war. Most
of the pirate crews which infested the
seas during the eighteenth century
were old privateersmen of the war of
the Austrian Succession, who, after
the peace OF Aix-La -Chapelle, found
themselves out of jobs and without in
clination to return to the Improbable
and unexciting life of traders. The
bandits who haunted portions of
France, Italy and Spain during the last
two generations were simply old
guerilla bands which fought on one
side or the other during the Napo-
leonic wars. Men accustomed to ex-
element are loath to return to the
placid routines of peace. particularly
when a continued excitement offers
them opportunities of richer reward.
The relaxation from the life of war
to the life of peace, must. if it is not
to cause harmful friction, be gradual
From the first the government, thru
the surgeon generals office, has pur-
sued policy of extreme caution in re-
gard to discharges of disabled soldiers
Several hospitals in this country have
been filled with soldiers wounded in
the fighting abroad. Most of them
have been sufficiently restored to move
about comfortably, but singularly few
discharges have been granted. No SOL
der is removed from military disci-
pline and military supervision until he
has proved his fitness to take his old
place in society or better one. The
1 blind are re-educated SO not to be de-
pendent on charity or the state for a
livelihood, and those who have lost a
limb are taught crafts or trades where
use of the limb is not required. The
earning power of many wounded SOL
der has been raised. far above its pre-
war standard in this way. Architects,
mechanics, chauffeurs, carpenters,
masons, draughtsmen. watchmakers
, and designers have been created where
clerks, mill hands sweatshop workers
and laborers existed. Latent artistic
talent has been developed, painters
and musicians created.
Such q policy, of course, cannot be
followed in discharging our entire
army. but it will be followed in effect.
A bill has been introduced in congress
which would authorize the war de-
partment to discharge last aliens and
illiterates. There is no doubling the
wisdom of this measure. These noun
tain boys and backwoodsmen who
have been drawn by the draft into a
, world where almost everyone is ac-
quainted with the rules of reading and
: writing, will not contentedly return to
, their original environment of ignor-
ance. The value of educating aliens,
literate and illiterate, who cannot
speak English, or who speak it badly,
is obvious.
, So far as is known, our overseas
forces will be brought back to concen-
tration camps in this country, and dis
charged in small groups. Thus there
will be no overwhelming liquidation
. of the labor markets. and the soldiers
will be brought only gradually into
contact with home environment, and
{ their relapse into civil life will be
= without morbid excitement. In the
r meantime they may make plans for
| their futures, whether they will fol-
low their old caIlings or seek new and
: bigger fields. 1t is the belief of many
e American officers that the army
should assist it's soldiers to fit them
: selves for these new fields. This
1 could be accomplished by a program
nF 10
carried on in the camps. Nigh;
!, schools for disabled soldiers could be
. | established under the supervision OF
the government, and it is possible that
:, arrangements could be made with the
colleges and universities that will en-
:, able them to receive higher education
, without cost.
With the war neurotics" consider.
: able strides toward readjus-rl?rt have
been made already. With tie advent
= coyery of such soldiers win be more
: rapid than formerly, The subcon
= scious element of fear which ha.
= lurked in the minds of nearly all sol
y this phase of readjustment must pro-
= coed with caution.
q 1t must be remembered that the
q vast majority of war neuroses" il
8 soldiers are cured in shell shock
IS hospitals at the front within few
days to a few weeks after they de
d velop. Surprising as it ma seem, thu
: French and American psychiatrist
d haze found that their patients recove
Re much more rapidly in hospitals main
re tanned in the fighting zone. Pre-
&c ventive measures have arrested tn,
l. spread of neuroses to a large extent
If 1t is said that an expert can determine
IS a case of potential shell shock" sew
4 eral days before the actual shocl
n takes place. To each division of tn
e American army is assigned a division
TT psychiatrist and 4 staff of assistants
rs These men move among the troops
If singing out men on the verge of
= nervous breakdown and apply meas
IT ures at once to forestall it,
~ But there are many causes Of wa
n neuroses which cannot be cured at tn
- | front and hare again Arnnrica In