Douglas C. McMurtrie

“ It is surprising how very recent has been the development of the work of rehabilitating the disabled man. Up to ten years ago absolutely nothing had been done in that direction, and while the cripple received monetary compensation of one kind or another in the past, nothing was done to put him back on his own feet or to deal with him in a constructive manner. The only obligation acknowledged to the disabled soldier in the past has been the pay- ment of a pension—which has not always been a help to the man in the long run. ”

“ It was never enough to support a man, on the assumption that he was totally disabled, and has acted more or less as a subsidy which has not proven an encouragement for him to go out and earn his own living. We have dealt practically in the same way with disabled industrial workers. We have, even under the most enlightened legislation, compensated him for his disability in the form of* a money pension and left him idle and without any means of getting back to usefulness. ”

“ In finding jobs for the handicapped, we look at the disabled man's capabilities rather than at his disabilities, and if we look long enough and carefully enough we will find many jobs for which the individual disability does not disqualify. If men are trained and put in those jobs they will, of course, succeed. ”

“ Our injustice to the disabled man in the past has made it even more of a despair than it should be, for he often happens to know of the man who used to work next to him in the factory and who lost an arm. ”

“ The public at large has thought its duty to disabled men in general was discharged by offering them alms, or its duty to the disabled soldier largely fulfilled by entertainment. One thing which will come home to us is the damage that is going to be done some disabled soldiers, through using them in a liberty loan campaign and other drives of a similar nature, to serve as object lessons, make speeches, and the like. ”

“ He came in to get employment and when he was asked what kind of work he wanted he said, "A job in some kind of propaganda." He did not want a trade employment or regular work but he wanted to go around, be in the public eye, and make speeches. I need not emphasize how injurious it is to have many of the ladies think that their duty to the disabled soldier is to entertain him at pink teas and in an un- wise and inappropriate way. That again sets the man back. To entertain a man is easy but to give real thought to what you should do for him is hard. ”

“ It is a public duty which we cannot impress too strongly, that every reaction, every influence on the returned disabled soldier shall be constructive, and help to build up charac- ter rather than aid in any way in breaking it down. That is the last link of the chain and that is something that the government or any other agency cannot provide. The public will decide whether the work of rehabilitating disabled American soldiers is going to be a complete success. ”

“ The work has been taken up by practically every other nation, it being realized that the only real compensation to the disabled man is to put him back again where he can be useful, where he can be productive, and in a position where he can be happy and contented. ”

“ In the first place he is there getting occupational therapy—something that will keep the mind active, something to drive away the tedium of idleness and keep him from thinking about himself, something that gets him again interested in life. Occupational work of a very simple nature is sometimes carried on at the bedsides or in the wards and serves the double purpose of interesting him and being of per- manent value. ”

“ The only country that saw the job from the first as a national responsibility was Canada, and I think it is a very great and lasting credit to our northern neighbors that they did so. Practically from the beginning of the war, no Canadian soldier has had to be in any way dependent on charity or philanthropy. ”

“ Disabled Soldiebs and Economic Independence the most successful mechanism for discovering possible jobs is what is known as the industrial survey, with special reference to the placement of the handicapped. ”

“ If you take a man with two hands and put him at that job he would probably keep one hand in his pocket because he will not have to use it. Is a man with one arm at all handicapped when placed at work of that character? I was struck the other day when reading a document describing the work for the blind at one of the centers in Europe to learn that they had found successful employment for the blind in a clock fac- tory at the job of testing out the gongs—spiral pieces of tempered wire, upon which the hours are sounded. ”

“ At the earliest moment, men of high ealiber should be brought in close, friendly, and confidential touch with the disabled man, to show him what there is ahead, and lead him to begin to think about his own plans. ”

“ Now, when he has once gotten a little spirit back, when his ambition is aroused again and he begins to think he can do some- thing, the next necessity is to find what he shall do, and that neces- sitates what is known in some of the countries as a vocational survey. We have found, let us presume, through industrial surveys and other means what jobs are possible to the disabled. We are asked again and again, and I suppose everybody who is interested in this work has been asked the same question: What are the jobs for the one-armed man, what are the jobs for the one-legged man? ”

“ You may have re-edu- cation, you may have schools, you may have hospitals, and they may be the best in the world, and yet the work is not going to suc- ceed unless there are operative two human factors: first, the spirit and ambition and enthusiasm on the part of the man himself; and second, the understanding of the subject and the support of the program by the public at large. ”

“ Canada then took up the work and has done a most thorough and intensive job. The Invalided Soldiers' Commission has surveyed industry after industry, listing every process in the fields covered with relation to men with all types of handicap—leg cases, arm cases, blindness, deafness and the like. Work of this character brings easily within range of the placement officer or vocational adviser a large number of jobs, which can be sifted down in relation to any individual case. ”

“ For example, if a man who is in business in a small way can be interested while in the hospital in learning some of the principles of accounting, it will enable him when he goes out, to run his business better, and yet at the same time serve the therapeutic The Annals of the American Academy purpose in view. ”

“ It will leave him at the end of the treatment with some definite asset as a result of his stay in the hospital. One of the first necessities is to overcome the natural discour- agement which comes when an able-bodied man—and the men of our forces are more than able-bodied; they are the pick of the coun- try—when you take, a man like that and strike him down from such full physical power and make him, as he thinks, a cripple for life, it is a very desperate experience. ”

“ Dealing with the cripple himself is, perhaps, the easiest end of the problem, because if we do the work well and put real people into the game, he will take care of himself. The American is not ¦easily downed and if you give him half a show he will " come across" - with his end of the job. ”

“ One thing that the Surgeon General of the Army has done is to prepare a series of films showing success- ful American cripples. This series of films-is to be shown in mili- tary hospitals abroad and will provide a very graphic demonstration to a man who has been disabled that he is not down and out. ”

“ The minute he gets that job all his past experience as to rolling-stock, time schedules, and railroad practice in general immediately comes into play, and is saved rather than thrown away. The organization of re-education has varied in the different belligerent countries. In France the first school was started by a municipality, and other schools, in sequence, by an employer's asso- ciation, a department, or state, a charitable organization, a trade union, and various other organizations. In fact, there exist today schools under almost every type of administration. ”

“ Some will be found exceptionally favorable, others medium, and so forth, and there will be discovered many processes that could not be known of unless some such large scale operation were carried out. What is the course of the disabled man from the battlefield on which he is wounded, back to self-support? ”

“ The result is that the work varies widely. If you go to one city you will find the courses of a certain length, and if you go to another city you will, find that they are only half as long—or twice as long. ”

“ There may be physical cripples, but certainly with the best provision and the best help of everybody concerned there need be no social and economic cripples consequent on the engage- ment of American forces in the defence of civilization. ”

“ He passes here through the recon- struction hospital, which differs from the ordinary hospital, in lay- man's parlance, only in the more intensive treatment given. He is retained just as long as he profits by treatment, and the endeavor is to restore the man to the best physical shape possible. While he is in the hospital, in addition to medical and surgical care, he is constantly under treatment of another character. ”

“ The result is that the advantages of the French soldier largely depend on how lucky he was in picking out a place of residence before the war. This is in some ways unfortunate and gives men in some localities a better chance than the men in others. ”

“ He passes through the mechanism of the medical corps at the front, through the clearing stations and base hospitals, and when it becomes evident that he is no longer needed for military service and can no longer be useful for duty at the front, or that he will be laid up for a considerable period of time, he is invalided home. ”

“ The Annals op the American Academy when we talk about taking a man who has lost an arm or a leg, or who has lost two legs, and sending him out to earn his own living sigain so that he will be able to earn as much as he did before, it *does not sound plausible. ”

“ Such surveys were undertaken first in a very informal way in Great Britain, where committees studied certain trades and published statements of what opportu- nities there were in those trades for disabled men. ”