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Show Unfit Draftees To Be Treated Army to Build Up Health Of 200,000 Who Were Dropped in Draft. WASHINGTON. Plans for rehabilitating re-habilitating 200.000 of the 1.000.00C youths who have been rejected for military service because of physical or mental deficiencies were announced an-nounced by President Roosevelt al his press conference recently. The program will apply immediately immedi-ately to the 200,000 who were certified certi-fied by local draft boards as susceptible sus-ceptible of physical rehabilitation for the army. Local physicians and dentists will give the treatments, for which the federal government will pay as part of the cost of national na-tional defense. When in proper condition, con-dition, the men will be inducted into the service. 50 Per Cent Unfit. While this is the immediate program, pro-gram, Mr. Roosevelt said that it was only the first objective, adding that something should be done along broader lines, and declaring that he considered the existence of the conditions con-ditions revealed by the selective service examinations as an indictment indict-ment of America. Nearly 50 per cent of 2,000,000 men examined for selective service were found unfit mentally or physically. The President said that he would start a long-range program calling for co-operation of states, counties, cities, townships and individuals to remedy the underlying causes of the situation. The plan for rehabilitating the 200,000 men was adopted on the basis of a report to the President from Brigadier General Hershey, director of the selective service system. sys-tem. The President could not estimate esti-mate how much it would cost but said that it would be much less than if the men had been inducted and rehabilitation had been attempted. Plans Under Way. The plans are already far advanced ad-vanced for helping the 200,000 men. Those suffering from heart diseases, dis-eases, musculoskeletal defects and mental and nervous disorders will beut in a special category and will be examined by traveling boards or teams of specialists who will recommend rec-ommend curable cases for immediate immedi-ate treatment at government cost. Of those rejected under the selective selec-tive service act, 100,000 were found mentally unequipped for service, since they did not have the equivalent equiva-lent of a fourth-grade education. The other 900,000 rejections were due to physical defects or mental and nervous diseases. The largest category of physical defects came under the dental classification, representing rep-resenting nearly 21 per cent of the whole. Defective eyes were another an-other major cause of rejection. "The registrant will have the privilege of having the services performed per-formed by his family physician or dentist in his own community. "The cost of this rehabilitation program will be borne by the federal fed-eral government as a necessary part of our national defense program, pro-gram, and additional funds will be made available to the selective service serv-ice system for this ourDose." |