Bisbee daily review., 1919-03-19
WOLRD CONFERENCE ON REHABILITATION OF. SOLDIERS IS OPENED
Delegates From Many Nations Meet to Arrange Plans
 for Disabled
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 NEW YORK, March 1S.-Delegates from all the alIed countries are bring ing a comparison of methods of re- habilitating war victims at a four day international conference on re- mobilization of the disabled, which opened here today under the auspices of the Red Cross Out of the con- ference, it is expected, will be de veloped for each country new methods for the restoration to society of all the injured, comprising the best ele- ments of the varoius methods now in use.
 Plans for extension of the work to the hundreds of thousands of persons crippled every year in industry also are to be taken up at the conference
 Today's session was given over to short outlines of the rehabilitation plans of the various countries, speak CTS including some of the most prom inent opponents of the movement in } the United States, France, Italy, England, Belgium and Canada
 pr. Bourillon Speaks
 Dr. Maurice Bourillon, president of the permanent Inter-allied committee on war crippIes, director of the French national institute for crippled soldiers and known as "the grand father of reeducation," was the first speaker.
 France. he said, so far as possible. is training the disabled to resume their pre-war trades, but that where this is impossible they are being trained for new vacations according to their preferences and abilities. New laws, he said, give them pensions and five years preference in civil po- sitions in the national government
 Belgium's work was described by Prof. Louis Alleman, director of the government institute for cripples at Port Villez, France The Belgian work so far, he said, had been con- dIlcted by civilian organizations, but a bill providing for national rehabili- tation of soldiers will undoubtedly be pS4ssed soon"
 ItaIys Work Described
 Prof. Vittorio Putt, a famous Ital- ian Orthopedic surgeon and director of the Rizzoli institute at Bologna, described Italy's plan, which includes 15 days compulsory attendance by each convalescent soldier at a vcca- tional training school This brief period, he said, was sufficient to con , vince virtually all the men of the -ad- : visibility of taking a complete course. Preference in certain government pO- sitions also has been instituted in Italy as a means of providing places for wounded soldiers, he said t- F. Gerald Robinson, deputy minister of the Canadian department of sol- diers' civil -reestablishment and " E. SegswOrth, director Of vocational training in the department described the three-part Canadian plan of re- habilitating her wOunded-the ward occupations designed to keep the sol diers cheerful during convalescence; the curative workshops where heavier work is given and the industrial re- training schools to which the men are sent when physically healed.
 EncIand's Plan
 England, said Mrs Ethel Wood. sec retary of the local war pensions committee of London, is offering vo- cational training not only to the wounded, but to soldiers who were minors when they enlisted, to uni versity, students, whose courses were interrupted and to widows of slain soldiers
 Americas program, as built up from the experiences of the allied na- tions, was outlined by Col. Frank Bill lings, chief, and Lieut. Col. Joseph l.. Miller. assistant chief of the divis- ion of physical rehabilitation in the surgeon generals office
 Under the American plan, Colonel Billings said, no soldier will be dis charged from the Army Olntil he has fully recovered physically and all who desire will be given full vocational retraining.
 Some difficulties are being encoun- tered, he said, in obtaining sufficient instructors for the retrainng work. The 48 reconstruction hospitals now operating, he said, have only 1900 women reconstruction aids, 500 enlist ed instructors and 100 commissioned officer instructors.