The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1919-01-02
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
IN FORM A TION
BUREA
FREDERIC J. HAsKIN. Director.
Washington. d. c.
THE KIND OF HELP SOLDIERS
NEED.
Washington. d. C

NEED.
Washington, D. c.. Dec. 30.-The
plan to teach wounded American SOL
die-s new trades and professions.
/ which has been the subject of much
/ work and discussion turnout the war,
| is now in actual operation. The fed
eral board of vocational education.
which has charge Of the task, asks for
the cooperation of the public in this
business of finding places for disabled
men,
The term disabled" is not literally
correct except in a very few cases. In
this and other countries, men badly
manned have more than made up for
their physical disabilities by the edu-
cation they have gained while conval-
escent, and by the strengthening of
will and moral stamina which their
military experience has given them.
The difficult. according to the ex-
I perts, is to make the wounded men
realize their opportunities and needs
A man who finds himself disabled is
naturally discouraged and inclined to
exaggerate his handicap. The pub
lie generously helps him in this by
1avishing pity on him, when the thing
he needs is encouragement and con-
fidence in his ability.
! Suppose says a member of the
board, that a wounded, disheartened
soldier comes back to his home town.
and worthy citizen sees in him a
chance to show his patriotism and
friendship. He offers him a position
at a good salary without reference to
his former line of work. The ex-
soldier is set to work at a business
for which he has no aptitude. He
does not earn his pay. Some day that
worthy citizen will have a crouch and
dismiss him. Or else he will keep
him, realizing that he has made a
serious mistake"
This is what every citizen of the
United States wants to avoid-this
haphazard aid-and the other danger
of ex-soldier unemployment, which
may end IN beggary or dishonesty. To
place one hundred per cent of these
wounded soldiers, whose past line of
employment is closed to them, SO that
they can make an honest living, is the
program which the federal board for
vocational education has set itself.
After long period of adjustment
and many difficulties as to the recog-
milton of its scope of activity, the
board has at last fitted into a definite
place in the government, and has Sc
cured the cooperation of the medi-
cal department of the army, the de-
partment of labor and the war risk
insurance bureau.
Heretofore, some of our disabled
men have been discharged from sery-
ice without means of livelihood save a
limited knowledge of wireless or
block printing, gained in convalescent
days in the hospital. Now, represen-
tatives of the vocational board are go
ing into the hospitals and talking over
prospects with each man without a
trade, who has been recommended for
a discharge.
If the man is already fitted to enter
some new line of work thru hospital
study, the vocational board helps to
place him in a position. If he has
only an inclination for a new trade,
he is sent to some. school for training.
II he is at loss as to what he can do,
: the vocational advisor makes sugges-
, lions and interests him in some line
of work.
The school to which he is sent may
be any one of the institutions of learn
, ing which have agreed to take men
sent by the board. The one thousand
schools now listed with the board in
clude colleges and technical schools of
the highest standing. Some of them
offer tuition free to former soldiers.
which are paid out of the 100000
appropriated by congress for the
board last June.
Besides the schools, factories are
cooperating with the board. This is
especially Important because some
trades, suchN as printing can be
/ learned most easily thru factory ap-
case under any expense for tuition,
| and -thruout the time of his instruc-
: ton he receives sixty-five dollars a
; month for expenses, with the same
allowance for dependents. as during
> his service in the army. He leaves the
5 school or shop self-supporting and
without fear of being a drag on his
| community.
I The connection of the bureau of
war risk insurance with the vocational
5 education board is not generally I'M
derstood. Enlisted men injured in
service so that they are disabled,
either totally or partially, are en-
= titled to monthly compensation from
l the war risk insurance bureau, a mat
ter entirely distinct from a war risk
insurance policy. When a dis
abled man applies for this compensa-
= ton, and it is awarded, the war risk
bureau informs him that he is eligi-
BILE to receive aid from the vocational
education board. without a decision
D of the war risk bureau, awarding COM
s pensation for disability, soldier can
not be considered as an applicant to
the vocational education board for
e government training in a school or
t shop.
The first practical attempt to find
new places in civil life for the wound
e ed soldiers was made by a Belgian in
= a French city. A group of homeless
al Belgian wounded applied to the
speaker of the Belgian house of rep
reseutatives for aid. He took them
S into his home. and when he found
|, | tnat tney W1SneQ TO Try again tne Olu
" trades, he let them cobble shoes in
:, his parlor, raise vegetables in his gar
d den, and turn his dining room into q
general workshop. He found that they
,. were so much happier when they were
working, and that some picked VI
D a trade by watching the others.
;: He appealed to the Belgian minis
S ter of finance for funds in order to
increase the number of men under his
+. | care. Later, the Belgian congress pro-
= vided money to build extra shacks
: about the house. In this way yoca-
e tional help for the wounded got q
v start, with such excellent results that
France, ENGLAND, Italy, Canada AMI
finally the United States followed the
Belgian example.