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II

The wounded soldier comes through the field aid base hospital, and, finally, if his disability is such as to disqualify him from further military service, he is returned from overseas to a convalescent hospital at home. Certainly at this point, if not perhaps earlier, preparation for his social and economic rehabilitation should begin.

Before deciding what can best be done for him, the recent experience of the crippled soldier must be taken into account. In the first place, he has been away from home influence and environment for some time perhaps one year, perhaps three. During that period he has led a life in the open, free from the many routine responsibilities of the civilian. He has been provided automatically with every necessity of life his only reciprocal obligation being to obey the mandates of military discipline. After his injury he has been given every care which the medical corps and its auxiliaries have been able to provide. Every effort has been made to minimize worry or exertion on his part. These influences have the effect of deadening his initiative and his sense of social responsibility, and readjustment to civil life becomes in consequence more difficult.

The new handicap usually throws the man into a state of extreme discouragement. The loss of a hand, an arm, or a leg seems to the man formerly able-bodied an insuperable obstacle to his future economic activity. The prospective pension is the only mitigating feature of this depressing outlook, and he begins to calculate how he can exist on the meager stipend which will become his due. He has basis for this expectation, for has he not known in the past several men each of whom lost a limb through accident? It was necessary for them to eke out a living by selling pencils on the 'street, or in some similar enterprise of make-shift character. Again, life will hold no pleasure in the future; he will always feel sensitive about his missing limb. Besides, nobody has any use for a cripple.

Such a state of mind will be encountered in the convalescent soldier. It must be met and overcome. With returning health, initiative must be reawakened, responsibilities quickened, a heartened ambition must replace discouragement. We can go to him and truthfully say: "If you will yourself help to the best of your ability, we will so train you that your handicap will not prove a serious disadvantage; we will prepare you for a job at which you can earn as much as in your previous position. Meantime your family will be supported and maintained. You will be provided with a modern artificial limb so that a stranger would hardly know you are crippled. Finally, we will place you in a desirable job."

The first reaction to this program is fear that an increase of earning power will entail a reduction of pension. When re-education of war cripples was first begun in both France and Germany, it was found that many of the men were unwilling to undertake training, in apprehension of prejudicing their pension award.

The solution of the difficulty was official announcement that such would not be the case, but that pensions would be based on degree of physical disability alone, without reference to earning power. In Canada, a placard to this effect is posted in all military hospitals and convalescent homes.

The choice of trades in which war cripples may wisely be trained is of primary importance. In addition to considering whether men with certain types of physical disability can engage in a given trade, its present and prospective employment possibilities must be taken into account. If it is a seasonal trade, if the number of workers in any locality is so small as to make difficult the absorption of many newly-trained men, or if the industry is on the wane rather than enjoying a healthy growth, the indications are negative. The ideal trade is one in which the wage standards are high, the employment steady, and the demand for labor constantly increasing. In picking trades the present boom conditions should be discounted. Machinists are now earning fabulous wages, but it should be considered whether there will not be an extreme reaction after the war.

The trades actually being taught to war cripples are many and varied. In France at the notable Ecole Joffre at Lyons there is instruction in accounting and commercial subjects, toymaking, bookbinding, shoe-making, woodwork, mechanical drafting, tailoring, wood-carving, gardening, and machine tool work. At the suburban branch at Tourvielle, agricultural courses are given. In Paris at the Institut National Professionel des Invalides de la Guerre are taught the standard trades of tailor, shoemaker, harnessmaker, and tinsmith. Also, dependent on the ability of the individual pupil, instruction is provided in accounting, industrial design, cabinet-making, and automobile engineering particularly the operation and repair of agricultural tractors.

In Rome, the Italian war cripples are being taught commercial subjects, carpentry and wood-carving, bookbinding, box-making, saddlery, and leather work, shoemaking, tailoring, and blacksmithing. At Naples there is instruction in shoemaking, tailoring, telegraphy, and commercial subjects.