The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1919-05-26
Former Exalted Ruler of keokuk Elks
Chairman of Committee to Aid
Disabled Soldiers to Get
Good Jobs.
ELRs HAVE FUND READY
Personal Interviews with Men Wound
ed for Their Country Makes
Plenty of Work for Local
Committee to Do.

( G. Lloyd Norman, the last exalted
ruler of the Keokuk Elks, who have
done so much in wartime, is now the
| head of the new committee appointed
to aid disabled soldiers to get good
jobs by teaching them vacations at
which they can make good living.
| The Elks, after building a hospital
| in Boston and presenting 1t TO Uncle
Sam, have money enough left in
fund to finance this new proposition
they have undertaken.
| The hardest work the Keokuk COM
mittee will have, Is to talk to the men
! involved and persuade them to accept
I the reconstructive schooling with
Igcod pay while in school. judging from
recent experiences all over the coun-
/ try.
Form Partnership With Uncle Sam.
The United States government and
! the Benevolent and Protective Order
OF Elks have entered into co-opera-
tive arrangement through which every
disabled soldier, sailor and marine Of
this country will be given full voca-
tional education of whatever charac-
| ter may be necessary to fit him to be-
come self-supporting and Independent.
through an act of congress, passed
June 27, 1918, putting this work in the
hands of the federal board Of voca-
tional education and authorizing CO
operative arrangement between 1t and
such private agency as 1t may select
/ to aid it.
The Elks War Relief commission
! fund will be used for advancing
money to men whose cases are still
pending before the war risk insurance
board and for re-educating those
technically outside the purview of the
vocational education act, including
icitizens of the United States who
!were wounded while fighting in the
armies of the allies.
viii Use EIks Fund.
| Perhaps the most important thing
to be done by the members of the Elks
fraternity In connection with this
work will be in personally interview
/ ing the wounded men and their fami-
lies to insure their taking advantage
oil this opportunity for free voca-
tional training.
| Too often these disabled men or
members of their families get the
idea that the country will provide
generously for them in return for
what they have sacrificed for it, for
getting that no man can be contented
| to go through life under handicap
that might have been overcome.
| For it has been found that practi-
cally every physically disabled man
can be taught some trade or profess
sion or vocation that will enable him
to take care of himself and hold his
own in competition with the physi-
cally fit who have not had the special
training he has had.
Pay and Allowances All the Time.
| The United States government has
made ample provision for this vooa-
tional work and pays all costs OF
tuition, books, laboratory equipment,
etc, as well as living expenses of the
men while in training and allowances
to their dependents, for all who come
within the provisions Of the law. For
those disabled men who are techni-
cally outside the law, the fund Of the
Elks War Relief commission will pro-
vide.
But it has been found that even
after full provision has been made for
this free vocational education, much
remains to be done in persuading all
disabled men to avail themselves Of it.
| The men themselves and their fami-
| lies must be personally consulted as
| to the best line of vocational work for
these men, and impressed with the
| importance of beginning training with
out delay. More than five hundred
vocations are open to these disabled
men for special training and nearly
three hundred educational and techni-
cal institutions throughout the coun-
! try, such as Yale and Harvard uni
versities, Massachusetts Institute. Of
Technology trade schools, agricultural
colleges and commercial schools, have
opened their doors to aid in this
work.