Library Collections: Document: Full Text


The Disabled Soldier

Creator: Douglas C. McMurtrie (author)
Date: 1919
Publisher: The Macmillan Company, New York
Source: Available at selected libraries
Figures From This Artifact: Figure 2  Figure 3  Figure 4  Figure 5  Figure 6  Figure 7  Figure 8  Figure 9  Figure 10  Figure 11  Figure 12  Figure 13  Figure 14  Figure 15  Figure 16  Figure 17  Figure 18  Figure 19  Figure 20  Figure 21  Figure 22  Figure 23  Figure 24  Figure 25  Figure 26

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The most complete investigations, however, have been carried out in Canada under the Vocational Branch of the Invalided Soldiers' Commission. Whole industries have been surveyed at first hand by competent investigators who bore in mind the needs of the soldiers in whose behalf the information was gathered. Before the work was started, a classification was made of the various disabilities which would be met with, and the availability of the trades to men with these handicaps was carefully recorded. In every report will be found a statement regarding the suitability of the trade for leg cases, arm cases, the deaf, and so forth.

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The surveys also comprised a full statement of the method and practice of the industry, so that placement agents and vocational officers might have a very clear and succinct idea of the trade requirements for which men are being prepared.

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In the United States some small beginnings have been made on similar work. It was found by the employment department of the Red Cross Institute for Crippled and Disabled Men that there was needed more accurate knowledge regarding the possibility of getting jobs for cripples In the leading Industries of the city. Investigators were sent out in a very informal way to look into the openings In various trades and report back upon their observations. Over forty Industries have already been studied In this way, among them the piano, leather, rubber, paper goods, shoe, sheet metal goods, candy, drug and chemical, cigar, silk, celluloid, optical goods, and motion picture Industries. Similar work on a more ambitious scale has now been undertaken by the Harvard Bureau of Vocational Guidance, which has started with examinations of coppersmithing, the shoe industry, and rubber manufacture.

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Industrial surveys of the character described serve three specific ends:

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1. They show in what specific jobs the Individual disabled man can be placed. If the man has general experience in some trade, It is possible for the placement officer, who could not otherwise know in detail the circumstances in a particular occupation, to send out the applicant with a good Idea of what job he should apply for and with a very clear conception as to whether he is competent to hold it down.

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2. It gives educational officers a good idea as to the lines in which disabled men can be placed for training in factories or mercantile establishments under the apprenticeship method.

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3. The surveys oftentimes discover subjects which are desirable for school instruction of disabled men. As a matter of fact, when any particular line is under consideration for addition to the curriculum of a school, one of the best criteria of desirability is a thorough industrial survey of the trade for which the course will prepare.

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The actual experiences of cripples who have been employed in various trades will, if recorded, afford valuable data for the placement of other disabled men. In one employment bureau, it is the practice to ask every cripple in considerable detail regarding his employment record. If he found one trade possible with his disability or another one out of the question by reason of his handicap, these data are recorded and provide a good basis for dealing with another cripple of approximately the same handicap and experience.

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In picking out the subjects of instruction for a training school among those which surveys of the trades have disclosed as possible for the employment of handicapped men, selection should be made according to the following criteria:

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1. The trade should pay well, as otherwise it will hardly profit the soldier to take a thorough course of training to prepare for it. It Is frequently found that among trades which require almost equal ability and training, one will pay good wages and the other will pay poorly, due to commercial influences of one kind or another or to labor conditions.

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2. It is necessary to pick out a trade which Is growing rather than on the wane. In other words it must be one in which there is constant demand for a new supply of skilled labor. Such a condition will insure steady employment and the prompt absorption into the labor market of graduates from the training course.

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3. Trades which are seasonal in character should be avoided. The placement of a disabled man is a fairly expert and careful job and it should not be repeated any oftener than is absolutely necessary.

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4. The trades selected as instruction subjects should be teachable and should not depend in too large degree upon native ability or talent. For example, some of the artistic or craft lines require almost an artist's ability, and among a large number of disabled men, there might be only one who could possibly take advantage of the training.

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5. And the trades must be teachable within a reasonable length of time. While men may be willing to defer for some months their return to regular employment, they will not have patience for a long period. Being adults, they would feel some of the best years of their life were slipping away from them and that the training was not worth the cost. At many schools in France instruction in tailoring had to be given up because it required eighteen months to bring a man to the point of proficiency, and the soldiers would not wait that long.

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