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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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Most of the occupational work for men disabled by shell shock has value as a therapeutic measure rather than as trade training. Its object is the restoration of the men's health, not their re-education. When they are recovered, they are expected to return to their former occupation. If after being cured of their nervous troubles they are still unable to take up their old calling, they must go elsewhere for serious training in a new trade.

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CHAPTER XIII
ALLIES ON THE CONTINENT

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When the call to war broke in upon the serenity of France, most of the able-bodied population sprang to the colors -- with the result that we now know so well. There was no provision then for the training of cripples, but as men began to return disabled, an organization for their re-education was hastily built up to meet the necessities of the situation.

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What respect we must have for the work done in France! With her national existence threatened, with a powerful enemy not far from the gates of Paris, that gallant country with which the United States is now proud to be allied, gave careful thought to the future of the men injured in her defense. And in spite of the difficulties, that work for disabled soldiers was so creditable and so imbued with sound spirit as to serve for example and inspiration to the world.

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The enterprise which prompted the foundation of the Lyons school, as already described, was not unique. A similar spirit prevailed in the foundation of scores of similar schools throughout the republic. The men who founded them were all pioneers, working it is true on a common problem, but each almost on original lines. We may properly expect, therefore, that French experience will show much to follow and much to avoid -- the one as helpful as the other.

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In almost every community in France, as men discharged from the army because of their disabilities began to return to their homes, societies were formed for the purpose of organizing some system of aid to the broken and often destitute soldiers. These various societies and committees throughout France soon recognized that the Lyons committee headed by Mayor Herriot had found the best way for really aiding disabled men -- a far better way than giving them money allowances or placing them in the trifling jobs open to untrained, handicapped men. The committees in the larger cities, which were able to collect the necessary funds, took steps therefore to open similar schools in their communities. In Montpellier, Bourges, Saint-Etienne, Bordeaux, Rouen, Toulouse, Marseilles, Pau, and many other cities schools were organized during the first eighteen months of the war. The expense of the undertaking was in most cases originally borne by private subscriptions, but as the value of the work became generally recognized, the municipal or departmental government assigned funds for its support, and in course of time the school usually passed under the control of one of these administrations.

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The first re-educational school to be established and maintained by the national government was opened at Saint-Maurice, a suburb of Paris, in May of 1915. The government took over for this purpose a group of buildings which had been used as a public convalescent home and a home for industrial cripples. It installed here not only a finely equipped trade school with dormitories and workshops but also a military hospital in which a certain number of beds were reserved for men who wished to take courses in the school. By this arrangement hospital treatment and trade training were dove-tailed; that is, men were enabled to start their occupational work before the completion of their hospital treatment. Most of the provincial schools had no such hospital connection, nor did they at first desire it, being of the opinion that a man should be thoroughly cured of his wounds before he attempted any kind of work. After two years of experience, however, the value of cooperation between hospital and school was apparent, and the government took measures to attach the existing schools to military hospitals in the vicinity and to organize new schools wherever there were no re-educational facilities within the reach of convalescent patients. It is now an accepted principle with French authorities that every man, before he is discharged from hospital, should have the opportunity to take up some form of training for self-support.

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The schools have found their usefulness greatly increased by this arrangement, for it has enabled them to recruit more pupils and to obtain better and quicker results. Patients in a hospital, with the example of their comrades before them, can be more easily induced to enter upon a course of training than men who have returned to their homes and been already a little spoiled by the hero-worship of their friends and families. Work begun as early as possible in the convalescent period is, moreover, an excellent preventive of that malady sometimes known as hospitalitis, which so insidiously attacks the will and ambition of long-term patients. The saving of time to the men themselves is of course invaluable.

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