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There is no uniform machinery for the placement of war disabled. The principle is universally recognized that a "man must go back to his former trade and, if possible, to his former position." The care committees, while interviewing the man in the hospital, get also in touch with his former employer. Sometimes a position is thus secured even before the man has started his training, and the latter is then adapted to the requirements of that particular position. It is, however, not always possible to place a man with his old employer. Some of the larger care committees run employment bureaus of their own. Others turn over the man who cannot be taken back to his old position to another agency.

Employers' and workmen's associations are of considerable assistance in the placement of war cripples, especially the Federation of German Employers' Associations, which has been recently formed for this particular purpose, and the many master guilds of hand-workers. There are also a number of agencies due to charitable or private initiative.

Finally, there are open to war disabled a very large number of positions in government service. The Imperial Government has promised that all former employees of the railways, post office, and civil service will be re-employed, if not in their old capacity, in a kindred position. These men are to be paid without consideration of their pensions. The post office department has decided to give all future agencies and sub-agencies in the rural districts to ex-soldiers, provided they are fit for the positions and want to settle on the land. Many city governments make efforts to take in the handicapped. A number of employments under the war department are reserved. The war department, through its recently created welfare department, attempts. also to develop a placement activity wherever there is no very active local care committee, and publishes twice a week a journal which lists the positions open for handicapped veterans.