The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1919-01-30
EDUCATE WOUNDED TO
CARE FOR THEMSELVES
The U. S. Government Is Preparing to
Do the Utmost in Aiding the 10 Per
Gent Who Will Be Out
of Jobs.

/ HhlADi9 NoP EAfIAt Hb %NOA NANh NhAiF SAHtNs
yesterday by Frederic w keogh Of the
| National Association of Manufacturers,
in which he said that 90 per cent of all
returned wounded men 90 back to their
old jobs, leaving but 10 per cent who
have to be re-educated.
(, Mr. Keogh spoke as follows;
illustrated feature stories on the re-
education Of the wounded soldiers and
sailors usually describe mechanical and
human miracles. Such presentations of
| the subject cause us to think that there
| is an enormous task ahead of us in max
/ ing, by mechanical means, whole men
out of little more than remnants. To
accept this as indicative of the problem
of re-education is TO warp the judgment
and misdirect the general endeayor. Let
it he understood that the causes of mill
tary disability are, to the extent of at
! least so per cent, of a medical nature.
A disabled soldier or sailor is not neces
sarily man without legs or arms.
! Ninety per cent of all returned
wounded men go back TO their old jobs.
With them the employment problem is
simple. Only 10 per cent have to be re-
educated. Undoubtedly many more men
are injured annually in American indus
tries than we may expect in years war.
tSeyenty per cent of all men injured in
war or peace never had trade. Conse-
! quently the teaching of any trade or any
kind Of machine operations to this 10 per
cent gives them better incomes and cas-
Ter work than their former Occupations
/ To the extent of over 90 per cent re -edu-
/ Ion Il ,,th hov
binary industrial education--in estab
lished industrial schools, in day, contin-
uation, and night classes and in factories
when the crippled man is so nearly com
petent TO do the proposed work that the
employer can properly put him to work,
supervised by someone in the establish
ment
"In putting disabled men back to in
dustry, there is no room for the spectac
ular. Our soldiers 90 the limit in their
military life and we viii go the limit in
appreciation and care of the injured. I'm
til now, however, and apparently in pros
pect also, re.education means, and can
mean, only the kind of industrial train
ing that is always given in educationally
| intelligent countries to all workers who
need it, with only little more intensive
personal consideration of the capacities
and limitations of the pupil Existing
| facilities for industrial training may
need TO be greatly increased because of
returning soldiers, but they need to be
increased anyway, because America has
only begun to provide facilities for the
industrial training of her working peo
pie. The development of existing facil-
tiles along the usual lines win enable
these extensions to serve perfectly in lat
er peace times.
"The life Of a wounded soldier OF sailor
returned to industry will be pretty much
what he himself makes it. If he takes
/ it up with the energy and decision that
carried him through battle he will come
| through in a way entirely satisfying and
gratifying to himself. The results viii
be commemorate with his own efforts.
The man who finds and loves his work
will be beautifully repaid.
bringing the physically unfit and dis
abled man to an irreducible minimum is
national obligation Tn caring for dis
ahed soldiers and sailors, no source of
possible benefit to their condition should
be left unexhausted. Ii disabilities make
it inadvisabe for a man to follow his
former employment he should be fitted
for new occupation by appropriate
training.
"The problem of the handicapped man
is not a new one, for he has been with us
for long time and our records Of indus
trial accidents. even for a year, ought to
supply us with enough material for the
problem of what to do with them. The
matter of rehabilitation of the men dis
abled in the present war will be a matter
of national concern for at least 80 years.
Ii should be approached soberly, there
fore, and with none of the hysteria that
attaches to the homecoming of the mill
tary hero. II is one thing to welcome
back soldier in uniform and if he is
suffering from the effects of wounds to
overload him with attentions. When he
lays aside the military garb and pursues
the path of the civilian, the honors and
attentions that have been showered on
him are likely to cease.
THE United States has resolved that
every returned soldier shall have full
opportunity TO succeed When necessary,
war cripples must be thoroughly trained
in schools and industry, and industrial
opportunities must be disclosed for those
who need occupation. Jobs must be
adapted to them, in order that they may
become competitors in every sense with
the workers who are whole. Occupations
that do not exist must be brought to be-
ing Certainly work must be reserved
for cripples, and devices must be discoy-
cred and adapted that will fit the victims
of war back into all the ordinary actv-
tiles of life How work can best be pro
vided and adapted to crippled men is in
the long run an individual problem, which
must be met and solved by each employ
Ter
THE bulk Of the evidence at hand
proves that the restoration of the Grip
Piled soldier to industry can be carefully
worked out so that it will represent
sound business proposition for the en-
ployer, fair opportunity for the wound
ed worker and az economic advantage
to the community.
particular study is needed in each
particular plant to find out where men
can best be fitted in. In this respect,
every manufacturer can be of great as
sistance simply by telling other manu-
facturers of any means he may devise
for employing man who has lost any of
his members. A manufacturer may dis,
cover way of employing crippled sol
diers not known to any other manufac-
turer, and nothing can be more patriotic
than passing on the information.
at has been the experience of firms
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