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Fortunately, however, it is not necessary to create new channels of employment, or greatly to disrupt old ones, in order to secure to invalids permanent spheres of occupation. Let public sentiment be so educated as to surrender the lighter occupations into the hands of disabled soldiers by common consent, and the object so much desired will at once find its realization. Let it be settled that the well-qualified invalid has a right to these employments -- that it is dishonorable in a sound man to compete with him for their possession, and the disparity in manual strength ceases to have any weight. While economy suffers in nothing from such an arrangement, humanity is satisfied, justice vindicated, and personal independence provided for in one who, otherwise, might be doomed to irretrievable idleness and misfortune, from his continued inability to obtain employment.

This course of conduct on the part of communities would render legislative interference unnecessary. Indeed, it might be a serious question whether any legislature would have a right to interfere with the question, except so far as prescribing the qualifications of public officers. Certainly it could not go beyond this, and decree that civil employments of a particular nature should exclusively belong to invalids. A principal of interference of this kind, carried to such an extreme, would militate against the plainest sanctions of personal right. It should not, therefore, be undertaken. Far wiser and better is it, then, to educate the public heart by convincing appeals to its humanity, into a recognized form of consuetudinary law on this subject -- a law which, without having the positive, institutional character of an enactment, should yet bear with an obligation equally binding upon all; and to disobey which should be considered something more than a violation of social ethics and conventional usage, and occasion to the offender a punishment more lasting than legal penalties, in the contempt and scorn of the community. It is true, doubtless, that there are men who would not be moved, even by considerations appealing either to their humanity or self-respect, into compliance with such a custom, but their number would always be too small to cast any influence on the community at large.

Experience everywhere showing that public opinion is the most powerful lever in society, it only becomes necessary to possess ourselves of this all-controlling instrument in order to turn the current of social sentiment in any direction. And, as all reforms grow popular and reputable in proportion to their magnitude and the numbers beneficially influenced by them, so would it be with this movement. Let public meetings be held, at first, in villages, to consider and act upon this suggestion. Let a certain class of employers, for example, organize themselves as an association willing to hire invalids by preference. Let the initiative be taken on any scale, however small. City, railroad and other corporations can also find employment for hundreds of disabled soldiers, and patronage can thus be made to flow in upon them from individuals to corporations. Example being contagious, as soon as the plan is found to work well in a small community, we may be sure it will be tried in a larger one, thus passing from village to city -- to county and to state.

Let us suppose, again, that the trial is made with one calling first, so as not suddenly to disrupt the established order of things. The experiment can be made with any subordinate office that may be selected. Thus, a doorkeeper or messenger is wanted. It is agreed that an invalid, otherwise meritorious and competent, shall have it. One is accordingly selected, the vacancy filled, and the precedent established. So long as there are invalids to be found in that locality, let it be understood that they are to have a preferred claim to the succession. Meanwhile, and as other vacancies occur in offices whose duties can be discharged by one-armed, one-legged, or infirm men, let the precedent be extended. By these means, in the course of a few years, every useful invalid can be provided for, and when so established, becomes a productive agent in the industrial economy of the State, instead of a mere drone and consumer. Of course it should be understood that the tenure of office is for life, and during good behavior, particularly where the disability is of a permanent and incurable kind. And, as public sympathy would naturally be first enlisted in favor of this class, there is little room to doubt that they would receive the earliest benefactions that were to be bestowed.

The following list of light trades suited to invalids will show how wide is the field of industrial activity still open to them:

Brush and broom-making.
Button-making.
Cameo-cutting.
Carvers.
Caterers.
Cigar-making.
Collectors.
Copyists.
Cork-cutters.
Bottlers.
Daguerreotypists.
Engravers.
Barbers.
Music dealers.
Postmen.
Hatters.
Musicians.
Jewelers.
Lithographers.
Match-makers.
Newspaper venders.
Oyster stands.
Shipkeepers.
Car drivers.
Pilots on ferry boats.
Accountants.
Plaster-image makers.
Seed stores.
Pocketbook makers.
Bread and cake stores.
Confectionery.
Soda fountains.
Stationers.
Surveyors of work.
Gangers.
Tailors.
Teachers.
Tea dealers.
Telegraph operators, clerks, messengers, etc.
Thread and needle stores.
Umbrellas and parasols.
Whip makers.
Willow workers.
Paper box makers.
Writing masters.
Printing.
Tobacconists.
Toll gatherers.
Ticket masters.
Switchmen.
Watchmen.
Window-shade makers.
Wire workers.
Wooden ware.
Worsted patterns.
Shoemaking.
Bookbinding.
Weaving.