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For the more helpless to whom is not possible employment in factories or mercantile establishments either at a reduced or standard wage, there is possible work either in a special subsidized workshop or at home. In the special shop the work in general and certain operations in particular can be adapted to the limitations of the handicapped workers. If the capital expense and overhead are publicly or philanthropically defrayed, such an institution can, from the proceeds of its product, pay for wages and materials.

An example of this type of organization is the Incorporated Soldiers and Sailors Help Society which came into being in England at the close of the South African war to provide employment for disabled men. Its work was greatly enlarged in consequence of the European war, and a series of "Lord Roberts Workshops" established in various British cities. The sale of product is based largely upon considerations as to source and manner of manufacture.

Such an organization is most necessary and helpful; it is highly important, however, that men be admitted to it only as a last resort after every possibility of fitting for employment in regular channels has failed. The man who can be put to work under normal conditions should not be segregated with disabled men exclusively.

The soldier disabled too seriously even for work in a special shop or factory should be returned to his own home if he has family or relatives prepared to take care of him, rather than sent to a home for incurables, to live out his life amidst a colony of unfortunates. If possible he should be provided with work which will keep him busy and provide some modest financial return, which will prove to the shut-in a great incentive and satisfaction.

The case of the shut-In child or adult who has no work to occupy the hours of his long days is indeed hopeless. A worker in a New York City organization that is interested in the welfare of the crippled shut-in child and adult tells of the case of a man sixty years old who was hit by a truck and suffered the amputation of both legs in consequence. His lot appeared desperate until a paper novelty company provided work for him that he could do at home. The first week the man earned three dollars -- a fortune it seemed to him, for he had given up all hope of ever being a productive worker again. With ambition rekindled, he built a workbench for himself, and was able to do considerable work at glueing and pasting and increased his earning capacity little by little. He took especial pride in the fact that he could purchase sweets for his wife out of his earnings.

Some fairly satisfactory forms of home work can be found if pains are taken in their selection, and there is some effort to secure the work from manufacturers. With a little simple training of the workers it may be possible to induce the sending out of work not ordinarily so handled. There is necessary, of course, organization to obtain the work, transport it to the worker, check the quality of the workmanship, return the product to the manufacturer, bargain for rates of pay, and effect financial settlement.

Some of the most successful subjects of home work already found in very limited civilian experience in seeking occupation for cripples of both sexes are toy painting and finishing, powder puff making, glove manufacturing and trimming, preparation of paint and varnish samples, tag and label stringing, paper novelty work, brush-making, and apron stitching and finishing. It is likely that many more satisfactory can be discovered.

Many a disabled soldier whose thoughts never turned to a life in the open may be tempted, by the inducements held out by his government, to settle on the land. A free homestead, a generous loan of money on easy payments, a set of implements for his new occupation -- these offers may open new vistas to the ex-soldier whose work, before the war, kept him in the factory or in the office.

Thus, in France, a law was recently passed providing that disabled soldiers may be granted loans up to ten thousand francs, at an interest charge of one per cent, for the acquisition or improvement of small holdings.

In England, it is planned to settle returned soldiers, in general, in large colonies of small holdings, to be created by the state. As an experiment of the practicability of this scheme, a Small Holding Colonies Act, passed in 1916, empowered the Board of Agriculture to acquire in England and Wales up to 6,000 acres of land, for the purpose of providing experimental small holding colonies. Scottish-American societies have established several garden settlements for men maimed in the war.

Plans are also being made for an extensive settlement of returned British soldiers in the oversea dominions. To ascertain what facilities the dominions were prepared to offer in this regard. Sir Rider Haggard undertook in 1916, on behalf of the Royal Colonial Institute, a journey throughout the dominions. In most of them the governments declared their readiness to give the British soldiers the same facilities as regards settlement on land as the soldiers of their own military forces.