The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1919-02-20


boy. Granted, 1t is great many crippled young
men to see at one time, there at Walter Reed;
tragedy of war to make the simplest soul Dewli-
dered. But look again, and again-week by week,
month by month-then you see the beginning
Of this miracle of remakng which is being
wrought there by the doctors, surgeons, educators
and psychologists of the medical department OF
army. Indeed sometimes it is miracle of
life more abundant" growing out of seeming
helplessness.
This may be an Illustration of 1t, and how 1t is
threefold Here is boy who went overseas as
one of our defenders. He could not read or write.
but he could do the things that soldiers do, and
endure the things that soldiers endure. He could
count off the seconds before the order came to
charge a German trench and then when the
order came he could go over the top and he did
for all of here at home; and he was struck
by one Of the shells that were blasting at him as
he charged and he fell.
When the stretcher-bearers found him they
that his amputaton case. Perhaps
you have in the movies, prepared by the
medical department of the army, how these
stretcher-bearers, privates in the medical corps,
make the sklful tourniQuet the emergency splint
of rifle and grass for such boy as this one, how
they rush him to the nearest dressing station,
and how he is taken back to his field and then
base hospital. If you have not, undoubtedly you
will soon have the opportunity, for the film will
be sent broadcast
There is another film that shows part of the
threefold miracle for the returned men at Walter
Read, but only part: (1) the film can show you
how such boy can make one arm or one leg do
the work of two; (2) 1t Illustrates graphically how
he Is trained to q more Interesting and well-pald
trade than he had before the war, and his ampu-
tation-but (3), the film alone, Of course cannot
show you the life more abundant" which he feels
coming through the training of his mind as he
10 trr{ta 20
wonders and new opportunities.
Maj B. T. Baldwin, S. c.. U. S.A, with his assist
ants has provided opportunities Of advancement
for all of these men. While few words might
explain in general what 1t Is that works this mir
acle of what the surgeons call Reconstruction"
1t has taken the evolution of all the centuries to
develop the knowledge which these surgeons and
psychologists now possess.
The process Of reconstruction begins with the
distinctly physical treatment, medical or surgical,
massage, and the various kinds of physio- therapy.
This is followed or carried on in conjunction with
that occupational reconstruction which develops
new muscular control and power In the partially
paralyzed limb or in the stump, while it Is at the
same time teaching new trade occupation
through that very exercise and in the third place
it is simultaneously, clearing and training the
mind.
1t is process slow, patient, full of the wonder
of rebirth. There is one workshop there at Walter
Reed where the once almost helpless fingers of
one returned boy have been forming, very gradual
~, q silver necklace of great beauty-the hands
and the mind Of that boy becoming the hands and
the mind of an artist he has worked. Curious.
that through being injured there should come a
life more interesting, more significant, more crea-
tive.
On the ten-acre farm and In the seven modern
greenhouses at Walter Reed cruelty crippled men
are finding life UNNECESSARILY enhanced through
their work with growing things Sometimes men
who could call only few flowers by name see in
them now their loved vocation for the future
BY every means known to modern science the
minds of those others who have been clouded by
shock or wound are helped to find themselves
again, to take hold of the opportunities waiting
for them there; there is scarcely q man so dis
abled that there is not waiting for him through
these hospital opportunities a definite advance
ment in ife-if only his family, the public, the
country at large will understand.
Let the following list of subjects and occupa-
tons which being taught under the adninlstra-
ton of Major Baldwin show how definitely this
statement is true. Then let go with these
same crippled boys to the theater and see q
strange sight, remembering that these are oppor-
tunities that they carry in their minds
"You will be enrolled in one or more of the
following" says bulletin addressed to them:
Academic OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES civil serv-
Ice commercial arithmetic, commercial English,
commercial law English, foreign language, his.
tory. mathematics penmanship craftsmanship