Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1920-02-27

u Il f3pt Nds All tt3C l&tlC
in any one of the sixteen
reconstruction hospitals
that his discharge is what
IS%kEgt he wants most and he will
ESEA keep ON saying it after he
gets ii and arrives home.
He means it. of course. but il is after
the fashion to say ii sanyway. The ar
ray of Inconvenience that have been
looming up ever since he turned from
the victorious battlefield remind him
that he wants "out." These are--stld-
den transfers from camp to camp. only
one shirt or one pair of sox, long de-
lays in papers being signed. uncertainty
about war risk insurance papers, I'M
certainty about physical condition, and
all sorts OF annoyances in way of
sanenesS in meals. much confinement,
ALL having no way of using ones own
Initiative and doing things for ones
self. or course, this array of neon
venienees was as much in sight when
he was an active soldier, but he didn't
see them.
Although these continually tickle the
soldiers desire for discharge. they do
not keep him from the larger infu-
ence of reconstruction. which has made
such an atmosphere that he writes
back after he's out and at home that
he's a bit lonely, and he may add some
thing that shows his courage tor
his letters always have this in them)
lis not understood. Indeed he will
write back anything he feels. for he
has an understanding Of the recon
struction folk and they of him.
This reconstruction program, as car
| rled out in the hospitals for the re-
turned disabled. is one of the most I'M
usual and unique happenings of the
war period. Perhaps no part of the
war situation is more dramatic than
this, and in the written history it viii
occupy some of the most interesting
pages.
Meanwhile this drama of refitting
the disabled for life is still going on.
The workers have been selected from
the applications requested by the sur
XVII SGItI III > OliiNt ut W ia
thousands of persons. largely women,
qualified for this work. and more than
COCO women have been appointed.
They have come from country town
and city. The large majority are
trained in arts and crafts, for their
first duty is to occupy bed patients
with handwork. and their second ia
give the convalescent something to do
that will hslp TO cure stiffened mus
Gle or to teach one hand to do what
both hands previously did. Some are
specialists in some craft. like iewelry
making, basketry, wood carving, leath-
or tooling or rug weaving. Some are
specialists in art, and teach poster
painting and designing. Others are
general craft workers and help the men
TO make bead chains. baskets and any
thing he would like for himself or at
home. Another group are stenoGra-
pliers and teach shorthand and tipping
Another are teachers for reading. writ
ing. arithmetic. or on up through the
college subjects. Still another (these
are men) teach subjects like agricul-
ture. auto-meehanics, printing, etc.
Finally, group with entirely different
training do massagIng TO restore the
functions of muscles aiBl nerves.
So the reconstruction workers come
from the nation AT large and, there
fore it's the whole American people
that are helping this soldier to get set
tied again.
Now there wouldn't be much drama
or much of anything else to the job
OF reconstruction If each person Just
did the bit that Uncle Sam assigned
him 10 do. But he, or rather she
doesn't and that is why the soldier
writes back and that's why there's a
real story to tell--one that might be
reacted in any part Of any community
or in any college or university. b9f
never In full again until there is an