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An unofficial campaign in the interest of the disabled was early initiated by the Red Cross Institute for Crippled and Disabled Men. One of the most familiar items in this campaign was a small folder of which over seven million copies were distributed, largely through the courtesy of telephone, gas, electric, and other public service corporations. It was entitled "Your Duty to the War Cripple" and its text -- which epitomizes the gospel preached in the campaign -- read as follows:

When the crippled soldier returns from the front, the government will provide for him, in addition to medical care, special training for self-support.

But whether this will really put him back on his feet depends on what the public does to help or hinder, on whether the community morally backs up the national program to put the disabled soldier beyond the need of charity.

In the past, the attitude of the public has been a greater handicap to the cripple than his physical disability. People have assumed him to be helpless, and have, only too often, persuaded him to become so.

For the disabled soldier there has been "hero-worship"; for the civilian cripple there has been a futile kind of sympathy. Both do a man more harm than good.

All the cripple needs is the kind of job he is fitted for, and training in preparation for it. There are hundreds of seriously crippled men now holding down jobs of importance. Other cripples can do likewise, if given the chance.

In the light of results already attained abroad in the training of disabled soldiers, the complete elimination of the dependent cripple has become a constructive and inspiring possibility.

Idleness is the great calamity. Your service to the crippled man, therefore, is to find for him a good busy job, and encourage him to tackle it.

Demand of the cripple that he get back in the work of the world, and you will find him only too ready to do so.

For the cripple who is occupied is, in truth, no longer handicapped.

Can the crippled soldier -- or the industrial cripple as well -- count on you as a true and sensible friend?

The assistance of chambers of commerce and manufacturers' associations was enlisted to secure transmittal to their members, with a special note of endorsement by the organization, of a circular calling to the attention of employers their responsibility to the disabled soldier. Over two hundred thousand employers were reached direct in this manner, and the statement was reprinted in scores of trade journals.

A speaker's bureau was organized, a film and picture service instituted, and the daily press and magazines were supplied with informative articles on the work being accomplished abroad in the reconstruction of crippled men. One of the most interesting features of the work was the preparation for individual trade journals of articles on re-education in the particular trade covered by each journal or on employment opportunities for the disabled in that trade. This material proved of very direct interest to both editors and readers of the journals.

Another feature of the campaign was the issue of a booklet in ten foreign languages: Yiddish, French, Italian, German, Hungarian, Polish, Greek, Spanish, Danish, and Swedish. These were distributed to pastors of foreign language speaking congregations, and to physicians and social workers in the foreign communities. The text of the booklets was also reprinted by almost every foreign language newspaper in the country.

The work of public education in the interest of the cripple has just begun. It must be continued until the "man on the street" is thoroughly familiar with his responsibilities to the disabled.

CHAPTER VIII HORS DE COMBAT

The disabilities of modern warfare are varied indeed. While the soldier with a leg off. has represented in literature and illustration the war disabled, this representation is statistically far from accurate, and many other classes of handicap incurred in military service have numerically exceeded the amputated. Yet to the public at large the one-legged hero will doubtless continue to typify the toll of warfare in disability.

By criteria of method and manner of treatment and training, certain groups of the disabled are set aside into classes from among the multitudinous list of causes for which men are discharged from the army. Into such clear classifications fall the blinded, the deafened, the shell shocked and other mental cases, and the tuberculous. These groups will be dealt with in succeeding chapters. Excepting cases of facial disfigurement, which is a subject in itself, there remain to be considered a wide variety of cases which can best be described as crippled, allowing for a liberal interpretation of that term.

This class comprises amputations, paralyses, severe rheumatism, limitation of movement in joints due to gunshot injuries, general debility due to long-continued suppuration, and a long list of other difficulties. Although medical treatment may vary, all may be considered to require the same type training provision and employment.