The Ypsilanti daily press. (Ypsilanti, Mich.) 1928-1962, 1944-09-06

their wholesale rejection Of draft
ses because Of nervous and men
tai symptoms and their equally
wholesale recommendation on the
same grounds for discharge after
men have been indicted.
DR.. Link is concerned princi-
pally in whether these boards are
not making mental cases out OF
large groups of the population
and making entirely too many OF
them think when they return to
civil life that they are somehow
special and distinctive cases, and
that they are just not suited to
rough and workaday world.
The statistical figures are suf-
hciently shocking. or 1885, 900
draftees classified rs unfit, as Of
April /, 1914. 1,34o, 900, or 80 per
cent, were rejected as mentally
unfit or deficient. or these $4,000
were classified as mentally def
cient, and 100000 were rejected
for mental disease or some nerv-
ous condition or state Of mind.
Mentally Deficient Group
The mentally deficient group do
not constitute as much OF prob
lem as the average citizen might
at first think. A great deal OF the
heavy work OF the world is done
by just this group OF citizens.
They are the hewers Of wood and
the drawers of water. They do a
routine task very well, and they
are perfectly content to stay put
once they find something that
suits them. They cannot take job
that requires decisions and rapid
adjustments, and they are not
happy in such a job. But in less
responsible, but necessary labor,
they are very efficient and remain
content and happy. They are not
dangerous, as the layman expects
mental cases to be. They will
never lead any revolutions. We
could not get on without them.
And you see some Of them around
you every day from the time you
start to work until you return
home. I am OF course not talking
about the mental defective Of the
level of idiocy or imbecility.
or the other group = percent
.nL - v-,nwt ha an,all
eentage, are actual mental cases
maniac depressives, paranoids
OF bad schizophrenics. But most
Of them must be what are COM
monty called neurotics, or neuras-
themes. DIR. Link feels that The
army has been too soft with them.
Elm the last war;" he writes, shell
shock really meant shell shock.
Today this term il loosely applied
to almost any neuro-psychiatrie
condition" In short, most Of these
men are simply scared and are
weak enough TO admit it, and the
army psychiatric boards baby
them, act just like their doting
mothers, and make even worse
mama boys out of them than they
originally were. Every soldier il
scared not only when he gets into
combat but when he is first in
Quoted. The men conquer it and
do their duty. The mama-boys
whine and get let of.
Effect Of animation
Not only is that an injustice,
but, as DR.. Link complains, they
have a psychiatrie examination
and hear a lot Of the terms Of the
new psychiatry-such rs "com'
plexes." and "libido," and "es'
cape mechanisms," and these they
carry back into civil life, and they
become confirmed neurotics. On,
case instanced by DR.. Link was o.
woman who hailed her discharged
soldier-husband into court To-
non-support: his defense was tina
the army doctors had told him h,
was "emotionally unstable" o.
'houldn't work.
What DR.. Gibbs and I are con
cerned about is whether thes
msma-boys get pensions. Their
will be enough drain on the Unite
States Treasury without thai
Any one applying for . per
sion on psycho-neurotie ground
should be required to have had 81
months army duty with 200 hour
of combat sxperienca