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In spite of their preparation, in spite of their forewarning, the Central Powers still have far to go in making adequate provision for the soldiers disabled in their grasp after world empire.

CHAPTER XVI
FOR THE U. S. FORCES

The situation of the United States with regard to making provision for the disabled soldier is perhaps slightly different from that of the other belligerents. One of the principal causes of difference is the selective influence on the personnel of the military forces of the conscription law.

This legislation has specifically exempted, temporarily at any rate, agricultural workers, highly skilled mechanics, and those who, because of their special qualifications, are necessary to the maintenance of the national interest at home. In Italy and France the situation with regard to the make-up of the army is vastly different. There we find almost all the able-bodied agricultural workers in the service, and battalions of highly skilled mechanics and experienced workmen in uniform.

The problem of refitting for industry the disabled soldiers of the European forces is therefore very unlike that of the United States. Up to the present time the force sent to the front consists practically of men between the ages of twenty-one and thirty-one. This means that the majority of men disabled will not be highly skilled or long experienced in any occupation and thus will be more plastic from the vocational point of view. Past experience has in European practice been the main determinant of training for the future. It may be expected that in many of the American cases this will afford no definite criterion. Either the soldier may have entered the service direct from school or college or if he has been at work for some time, it is likely to have been in a dozen different jobs of varying character. Many of the men, therefore, can answer definitely to no "former occupation." As has been found in Canadian experience, the soldier when asked his trade will report that for three months prior to the war he worked on a railroad. "Then you are a railroad man?" is the question. "No," is the answer, "for the two months before that I was in a cotton mill, and still earlier drove a delivery wagon for a local firm." In such a case past experience is almost a negligible factor, and the man may properly be restudied vocationally in order that he may be trained in the skilled trade most suited to his qualifications and talents.

An interesting experiment in vocational analysis and allocation has been carried out by the military authorities in classifying drafted men for special lines of army service. The new recruits have been given simple psychological tests prior to their assignment to work as radio operators, oxy-acetylene welders, linemen in the signal corps, drivers or mechanicians in the motor transport service, and so forth. The results have been encouraging and the experience gained will undoubtedly be helpful in further vocational guidance of the men returning for discharge.

In the general process, it is likely that many men who were previously undifferentiated as to occupation, who possibly looked forward to careers as clerks or general utility men, may be directed into skilled trades which will afford to them a much greater financial opportunity, and will contribute more largely to the national stability and efficiency.

The recent wave of interest in the United States in vocational education has put the country in better shape to deal with the instructional requirements of the disabled soldier than would have been the case ten years ago. Although not claiming facilities to compare with those afforded by the fine system of technical institutes in Great Britain, there are in practically every important urban community of America, one or more vocational schools. Industrial education is well provided for by schools, the first of which were founded by private initiative but operated on a non-commercial basis. The later institutions have been established by local educational authorities as part of the public school systems.

Commercial education, to a noteworthy extent, is still in the hands of business colleges which are run as profit-making enterprises. But the work of many of them is efficient to a creditable degree.

Agricultural education has been splendidly provided for by the agricultural colleges and experiment stations maintained by the several states, with assistance, in some instances, from the national government. These institutions have the most modern equipment, expert teaching staffs, and the finest facilities for imparting a practical knowledge of agriculture.

And finally, it must be recalled that practically every American university has industrial departments with shop equipment, which afford to students not only the theoretical, but also the practical, type of instruction. As the war goes on the universities will be drained of students, while the vocational schools whose regular pupils are of younger age, will tend to continue full. In Canada the university plants have been put to good use in the training of disabled soldiers. Even more extensive facilities of this character are available in the United States.