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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283  

So long as the product of his labor cannot be disposed of, each pupil receives a wage of fifty centimes a day. When the product is sold, the man receives his part of the profit realized, one-half being paid to him in cash fortnightly and the balance deposited to his credit until discharge, when he receives his accumulated savings and sometimes, in addition, a grant in cash or a set of tools.

284  

During the first two years of the operation of the Institute, the number of pupils admitted was 923, and the number of graduates 481. Of these, 398 were placed in employment by the Institute.

285  

In addition to the men who are trained at the Institute, others are assigned to various re-educational schools in Paris, or are placed as apprentices in private shops. In both cases, the training is supervised by the Institute.

286  

The Institute maintains a boarding annex in Paris for the pupils who are trained outside. If during the training the man receives sufficient wages, he may be required to pay one franc seventy centimes a day for his board. The man is not maintained at the annex if his earnings exceed four francs a day.

287  

By taking advantage of the facilities of outside schools and workshops, the Institute is enabled to provide for the men instruction in any trade. Experience has shown, however, that the best results are obtained when the men, while receiving training, are under direct supervision of the administration of the Institute and not exposed to the varied temptations and distractions of the capital city.

288  

In Germany, one of the most important institutions is the Dusseldorf School for the wounded. It was created by the so-called Headquarters for Voluntary Relief, an organization which had been formed for war relief in general, by amalgamating the interests of the local Red Cross, the Women's Patriotic League, and the city administration.

289  

The first step in re-educational work was the creation of a department of vocational advice for wounded soldiers under treatment in the fifty military hospitals of the city, which is a hospital center for the Rhine province. The vocational advisers come in touch with the wounded man at the early stage of convalescence, when there is greatest danger of the onset of mental lethargy.

290  

In February, 1915, about twenty general educational courses were started in one of the city's school buildings. Later, new and more suitable buildings were erected and equipped with machinery and tools. Technical courses training for many trades were instituted, and provision made for the maintenance of the pupils and for allowances to their families.

291  

The various courses prepare men for employment as metal workers, engineers, telegraphers, electricians, carpenters, cabinet-makers and wood-workers, workers in the building trades, locksmiths, sculptors, stone-cutters, paper-hangers and plasterers, printers, photographers and etchers, bookbinders, cardboard and leather workers, dental mechanics, farmers, civil service employees, stenographers, and office workers. The trade courses prepare for the master-workers' examinations which can be taken at the Dusseldorf Board of Trade. Time spent at the school counts as time spent as a journeyman's apprentice. Examination fees have been waived for disabled soldiers. Also, instead of offering a pretentious sample of work as a "masterpiece," the would-be master worker simply has to prove that he can do what is required of a first-class workman in the particular trade. The Board of Trade has provided for a special tradeworkers' course in preparation for the examinations.

292  

As a general rule, it is aimed to restore every man to his former occupation. When physical disability precludes this program, the object is to prepare him for some other position in the same line, usually for one that requires less physical but more intellectual effort. The program of instruction includes, therefore, in addition to the practical trade courses and shop work, ample provision for theoretical training.

293  

The courses preparing for office positions are the most popular with the disabled men, in Diisseldorf as elsewhere. An effort is made, however, to keep trade workers from turning to office work. The tendency is to reserve the clerical courses for men who formerly held minor government positions and who wish to prepare for civil service examinations, or for those who are too severely injured to perform physical labor, and especially for former traveling salesmen and sales clerks who by reason of their injuries must seek office jobs, preferably in their old line of business.

294  

Finally there is the department of general education, which teaches civics, rhetoric and grammar, and simple manual training, preparatory to more intensive vocational work later to be undertaken. There is also provision for training the left hand of men who have lost their right hand or arm, and it has been found that a five weeks' course is sufficient to give these men a free and characteristic handwriting. In this work the one-armed pupils are taught by similarly handicapped instructors.

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