OCR Text |
Show HEALING WOUNDS OF WAR BIGGEST JOB OF RED CROSS Broken Homes and Men Must Be Rebuilt Re-education of Disabled Soldiers for Future Usefulness. They Hrn already rebuilding tb broken homes ol Kranoa. And they ' re alrendj rebuilding the broken men Over here we, too, are gottlog ready ! to ile miIi- to the same task (be best of American skill ami genius. For eaeli mllhnn of our men who enter aeilon ten thousand will be so crippled as lo need mechanical appliances, appli-ances, anil Ihoy ulll have to he spe daily educated to use these so (hat the action of the missing limbs will he reduplicated us closely lis possible. If the tiermuos hud had the entree to certain parts of France last fall i tit y might have seen Held that they j once destroyed yielding their best crop In years. And they might have seen some of these fields being reaped by men they (bought they had done for. They were men with vurylng degrees de-grees of leglossness and annlessnevs Some ran (and repaired) tractor en Ulnes. Some, with both arms gone ahove the elbows, spaded the ground with the aid of a clever inecluiiilsiii to jvhlch the spade was booked. One mnn, who nlsn had but the stump ol eneh arm left, not only used a scythe hut kept It sharp. The Rod Cross Is running a five-hundred five-hundred acre farm In France on which the maimed are taught the use of farm Implements and ih c of riommrtR-anlmals, riommrtR-anlmals, and Is already laying Its plans for great work for the maimed In this country. The end and aim of all Its work will be to tit men to re-hwn re-hwn to i heir own homos, nnd re-enter, as nearly us possihte, their former place In life. Sometimes these re educated men take a far higher place In the community com-munity than they occupied before. For Instance, men who have been automobile automo-bile mechanicians, and wboM h'k's were mutilated, have been re-educated In mechanical drafting Bridge work- men have made similar advances. A Canadian mechanic who was imilmed and afterward re-educated became a foreman at more than double bis former for-mer pay. It was only their seeming inlsofortunes thai openefl for these men the opportunity to secure the education edu-cation their talents merited. The Ited i 'toss sends out a strong warning against mistaken kindness toward to-ward the maimed men who are even now returning. If, It says, the public Insists on making lions of these men. It will end by making them babies. If employers hunt through their plains for "snaps" for them, and give them Jobs that mean little more than hold trig down stools and reminiscing about their daring deeds, then Indeed we shall complete the work of destruction for them, maiming minds as wefl M bodies. We, the American pi-ople, are going to he asked to spend more time, more money and energy keeping these men In the game than ir would cost to merely support and amuse them and let it go nr that We must make them special harnesses, actually nnd metaphorically, meta-phorically, and then hnve patience while they are getting ndlusted to It. And we must see that thy have their chances at suitable employments Hut these men are going to have something more than just marvelous i iitutiiimeeN that will enable thorn to do i HVftlbmeeN thai will enable ittem lo do almost an. kind of work. These men's j tremendous sacrifice won't be paid bock by letting them In on life's work, hut not Its soelnl game. So they are going to have Sunday arms snd legs I as well as the work u-tlny wonders! A man with both hands gone niuy, with perfectly molded finger-, light his own I cigarette or play earth And a man with his face so ravaged that his best friend could not restrain a -.liudder may wear, over the disfigured part, a mask that Is perfect and delicute, a fork of art nnd science. |