Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1919-04-29
With the Wounded Doughboys
at Fort Des MONIES Hospital

| trouble to locate Miss Fay ---- by the
directory. find out at her home where
| she worked and that evening she
dropped In on Virgil to his huge sur
prise. She was home folks and the
| delight OF that lad was wonderful
| thing to see. And II IL so with all OF
| them. The department should SEND
those boys. who must have later OPP
erations and who are able to got
around fairly well, home on furloushs'
| They would come back content to wait
while they are patched up.
Hold Feeling OF Resentment.
The boys have a sense OF III treat
ment not by the hospital but by the
government. II Ia a pretty general
| feeling. Murphy--lcts call him Muir
ply because that isn't his name--eS-
pressed the extreme feeling Of this
character referred to when he in
formed me: Dad, the next war l hght
I'm going in as n conscientious OBJ
jector instead of getting all shot up,
Murphy was In seven days after war
was declared and will be Il this
month
"Fm going to refuse to fight or do
duty, be petted TO death and we'll FED
and sheltered and be paid Off In full
and discharged ahead of real men, he
went on. Conscientious Directing Is
the easiest kind of soldering and seems
to get the most from the high officials,
But between now and that other war
I'm going to be bolshevik." This
from Il kid not yet II who had served
| vi, foot in the
Argonne, had been under fire for weeks
and will never again bust broncs' In
Montana. About him was a group
that fully conceded with him,
No, they were not bolsheviks but Just
boys who knew what they had done
and what they had given, boys who
were not regretting their gift but were
sore and insulted over the seeming
preference given to those who refused
to fight for their own or to venture
any part Of that these boys had given
so freely.
Look here" argued Dad" you fell
lows went in because you believed
| your country needed you. IL needs you
now just as much. What's the differ
errce whether the Dutch invaded this
country or whether you boys that de-
Tended it come back again and help a
crowd of bolsheviks and T. w. VS.
| spoil it?" And they all agreed that
| they didn't just mean it but that they
were mighty sore over certain things.
Need Of Propaganda.
! Now there was never greater need
of American citizenship propaganda
than is needed right among those lads.
They have been away from America
and from home two years. They We're
, uniformed boys when they went They
| haven't had newspapers nor have they
| heard argument over policies, etc.
Theirs was the lighting mans job and
they learned it to perfection. Since
they went this country has changed
opinions and even policies. The old
order has changed. They come back
| to find men who stayed at home and
in their Jobs drawing as much in a
week as they drew in a month.
| All the world Is up in the air. The
| boys come back to changed condi-
tons. They wonder where they are
| at. The finest citizenship timber in
| the world, they need advice and as
| sistance and even admonition. And
there ~, where men old enough to be
their fathers come in Those old fell
| lows couldn't carry automatic rifles or
work machine guns but they can and
should carry to those lads the same
help and earnest effort to aid as they
| very great need of that kind Of work
| in camps and hospitals.
Need Special Training.
Those lads should be induced to take
the training offered them by the gov
| eminent. All disabled men are offered
| a wonderful opportunity. The govern
| ment will pay them not less than So
| a month while at school, pay their tut
| ton. buy their books, pay their trans
| portation, give them vacation in
summer--if they will go to some school
adapted to their needs and coincident
| with their desires: colleges. technical
| institutes, vocational schools. trades,
all manner OF opportunity lies within
their grasp.
Down at ward 2 school is in session
daily there at the hospital giving the
| lads tryout. The chance is there but
something more is needed. These lads
need fatherly advice and urgency that
| fathers give their sons. Their one
thought is to get home, get out Of the
army. They need older and wiser heads
to plan a picture Of the advantages Of
schooling and training. to induce them
to grasp and hold the chance offered.
But what can a boy without any
legs do for himself" asked a lad who
sat nlassagins the stumps of the few
inches of lower limbs amputation had
left him. And it did not take much time
to convince the lad that while legs
got their owner much beyond labor
ers day wage: that training and skill
and special knowledge bring high pay
and position; that with his limitea
education Cup to eighth grade) he
could by the time he was q years old
be a highly trained specialist on
salary contingent with his training
and his ability.
J And so on, one boy after another,
they need the older head and the in
centive such men may and do bring.
| This boy to college. that to trade.
! the other to agriculture or chemistry,
any OF tine many lucrative pursuits
that are open to physically disabled
men. They are just lads. still dazed by
| the terrible experiences they have en-
dured. They turn and listen to men,
like their own dads Younger men
have neither the viewpoint nor the
same appeal.