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This rule applies, however, only to men who were, previous to their enlistment, operatives in the skilled trades. Their problems are the simplest of solution. But in the present war, when not only professional soldiers, but whole nations are in arms, there will return disabled many young men who had not yet attained a permanent industrial status. Some will have entered the army direct from high school or college; others will have been migratory workers who had not yet found a permanent niche and whose experience has been too varied to be of much value, still others will have been drawn from unskilled and ill-paid occupations which hold little future opportunity for the able-bodied worker, and almost none for the physically handicapped. Among the latter will be found those who have been forced to leave school and go to work at too early an age, and to whom society has not given a fair chance. When they now return from the front crippled for life and having made a great patriotic sacrifice, it is surely the duty of the state to repair so far as practicable the former inequality of opportunity, and provide for them the best possible training. It would be a cause for national pride if, in the future, such men could date their economic success from the amputation of their limb lost in their country's service. And this is entirely within the realm of probability.

With these latter classes there is, therefore, no former experience of value to serve as a guide in the choice of a trade in which the war cripple is to be trained. We must then fall back on the general principles of vocational guidance. The more important factors will be natural talent, personal preference or taste, habits of work, temperament, and the general character of the individual. Advice in each case should be given by an expert vocational counsellor, a man familiar at once with trade education, with the requirements of the various industries themselves, and with the current status of the labor market. His opinion should take into account the report and prognosis of the medical officer, and also the past record of the individual. As has been pointed out, the friendship and confidence of the soldier are absolutely essential. Very often these are difficult of attainment and the prospective pupil's reserve is penetrated only in the fourth or fifth visit. As the decision to undertake training at all must be voluntary, so must the choice of particular trade meet with the full approval of the soldier himself. And if, after beginning the course, the subject proves definitely distasteful, the opportunity to change to another trade should within reasonable limitation be permitted. It cannot be too strongly emphasized that the unwilling pupil is a poor learner indeed.

It would seem inadvisable to train a man for an occupation which he can pursue only by use of specialized apparatus adapted to the individual motor limitations imposed by his deformity. While a badly crippled man may be taught to operate a lathe with special treadles or to run a typewriter with special paper feed and shifting mechanism, his employment opportunities will be precarious. It may be possible to secure for him one specific job which may be arranged for at the time he starts training. But if he cannot get along personally with his employer, if his family must move to another city, if his wages are not advanced as his product increases for these and a myriad other reasons, he may become practically unable to obtain other employment, and the value of his training will be thus nullified. Ingenuity should be directed rather to fitting crippled men to meet the demands of standard trades, in which there will be, not one or a dozen possible jobs, but thousands. Only thus can the man be made actually independent.

It is absolutely essential that training, if provided at all, be thorough. The pupils are men, not boys, and they cannot go out in the apprenticeship category, as do the graduates of regular trade schools and even in these the present-day standards of proficiency are high. If ill-trained men are graduated from the classes the results will not be fortuitous. Employers will be convinced that the theory of re-educating returned soldiers is unsound; the men will come to distrust the representations of prospective success which have been made to them. There will be, further, an unjustified disturbance of the labor market and its wage standards if a school turns out into a trade as professedly skilled operatives a crowd of undertrained and inexperienced men. Schools of re-education must not contribute to difficulties of this character.

One of the most notable features of the work in France is the length of some courses in which the war cripples are trained. To even comparatively simple subjects instruction periods of twelve and eighteen months are allotted. This permits the men to obtain not only a theoretic education, but a fair degree of practical experience as well an experience which is of especial necessity in restoring to the soldiers a confidence in their own competency.