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In the Diisseldorf school sports and games play a role of considerable importance -- not only recreational but curative as well. By three months of swimming practice one of the pupils recovered the entire use of a paralyzed forearm.

When training is completed, the soldier is ready for useful and remunerative employment -- to realize upon the values created during re-education.

CHAPTER VI
AT WORK AGAIN

The real measure of success in putting the disabled man back on his feet is his showing on entry into regular employment. In matter of fact, the training is really the preliminary part of the placement program, inasmuch as the original choice of subject was made with reference to a definite labor demand, and the instruction largely determined by the employment requirements of the job in prospect.

The finding of jobs for men trained in skilled trades is a comparatively simple matter, and it will be found that the good trade school usually has its pupils placed before their course is completed. So with the schools of re-education, the men are often taken away prior to graduation. The heads of such schools are closely in touch with industry and, in a very informal way, keep on the lookout for good openings for their pupils.

The men trained wholly or partly in factories are usually kept on by the employer with whom they are placed. There is thus no necessity of finding them a job.

As has been pointed out, not all disabled men are disqualified from return to their former jobs, and thus many do not become candidates for re-education. As soon as hospital treatment is completed, they are ready to return to work. In the majority of instances they go back to their former job. On a questionnaire filled out by employers in one of the Canadian provinces it was asked whether former employees who were disabled at the front could count on the jobs which they left upon enlistment. The answers were emphatically in the affirmative: "absolutely," or "surest thing you know," "you bet," and more of the same character. The patriotic motive in this case can safely be availed of, because the best placement possible is to return a man to an employer who knows him well, and to a job with which he is both satisfied and familiar.

In Australia one of the first moves by the repatriation authorities after the return of the soldier is to communicate with his last employer, stating the man's disability and asking whether his old position is open for him, and in the event that he is disqualified for that job, whether there is another into which he can be fitted. Enlistment in the Australian Commonwealth was and has remained entirely voluntary. As one inducement to joining the forces many employers promised to hold jobs open for men until their return from the front. In many cases this was regarded as almost a contractual obligation; the man went to France or Gallipoli to fight for interests in which his employer shared; the latter agreed that the enlisted man should not lose his place through following the course of duty. So keen was the feeling regarding this reciprocal responsibility that there were even discussions in Parliament as to whether employers should be required by law to make good their promises. It was pointed out, quite logically, that there was usually no written evidence of the promise; that the employer worth working for would live up to his word, and that in the case of any other the man would profit by finding another job. The authorities have, however, secured the cooperation of chambers of commerce in registering officially employers' commitments in this regard.

The jobs of some of the disabled men who can return to their former occupation will, however, have disappeared, due to suspension of operation, business failure, and other causes. The placement in these instances is comparatively simple, for the only necessity is to find the man a similar job.

Still other men, however, who remain handicapped economically have not had or do not take advantage of re-educational opportunities. For such every resource of skilled employment technique is called into play.

One of the most difficult tasks in the placement of disabled soldiers is to prevent their exploitation by employers who might argue that, as the man is in receipt of a regular pension from the government, he can afford to take a job at a reduced wage. If a man has been fitted competently to hold down a given position, this contention is indefensible, and is contrary to the whole theory of rehabilitation. As he should not receive wages in excess of his earning power, so his pay must not be prejudiced because he has some outside source of income. The employer must not be permitted to regard the disabled man as a source of labor which can afford to work cheap.

This tendency may be manifested not only in the original wages arrangement, but also in failure to increase wages in pace with augmented skill and productivity, the employer imagining that the handicapped man will be loath to leave a job on the earnings of which -- together with his pension -- he can comfortably live. When the employment authorities are satisfied that such a situation prevails, the man should be immediately recalled and placed in another job.