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CHAPTER XIV
KINGDOM AND DOMINION

When England sent her first "contemptible little army" to the continent in defense of the violated rights of Belgium, it was followed not alone by more Britishers but by troops from every corner of the globe. In every dominion of the empire troops were enlisted to "fight for the right" as the home country had seen it, and were dispatched to the front as fast as circumstances allowed.

Great Britain and every one of her dominions, in consequence of their heroic stand for the benefit of civilization, have had to face the problem of the returning disabled soldier. In the solutions attained by these commonwealths, dealing as they have with Anglo-Saxons, men of similar traditions, habits, and impulses as ourselves, the United States must find peculiar interest and derive unusual profit from the showing of their experience.

When the first British disabled began to return to the streets of London, there was scant provision for their care.

Now to every British soldier who lies in the hospital ward three possibilities are open -- a visit from the dark-winged Messenger, a period of convalescence and the buckling on again of the sword for another thrust at the Hun, or "Blighty," the old familiar haunts, an economic crutch in the shape of a pension, and a job suited to his physical limitations. As surely as the stricken deer seeks the familiar glades so does the discharged warrior turn his halting steps to the sheep downs of the south or the smoky towns of Lancashire, the heather hills of Scotland, the mines of Cardiff, or the long, long way to Tipperary.

If we could visualize the procession of maimed and disabled men in mufti as it leaves the discharge depot we would see it melt away into the economic horizon of every portion of the United Kingdom, to carry to each county, borough, and town the problem of the care of the disabled man as a legacy of the Great War for the stability of those free institutions the Anglo-Saxon prizes above life or sound limbs. And in each and every district he will find that provision has been made to continue his medical treatment, choose for him an occupation suited to the abridgement of his powers, and induct him into it after proper training. Should he be in doubt as to his rights under the new and unusual laws of the realm, the Local Pensions Committee stands ready to secure his rights, succor his family, and educate him to surmount the handicap the enemies of civilization have laid upon him. And this, not because England thought this out as the best way to care for her disabled heroes, but because it chimed in with her way of doing things in the past. Local government has always been a cherished prerogative of the English commonwealth since the days of the petty kingdoms. A representative government may sketch its plans in the large, but the English community must be given a free hand in filling in the local details. So when the Disabled Sailors' and Soldiers' Committee reported to Parliament in 1915 that "the care of the sailors and soldiers, who have been disabled in the war, is an obligation which should fall primarily upon the state" and that body passed the Naval and Military War Pensions Act in 1915 to provide for "the care of officers and men disabled in consequence of the present war," the plan proposed to commit the disabled man to the care of a local committee of his own townsmen. To be sure, later developments of the plan necessitated modifications of this scheme in the interests of coordinated measures for the economic welfare of the realm, but this is essentially the genius of the English plan -- local responsibility for bringing the opportunities afforded by the government to the door of each disabled man.

Specific instances of like care were not wanting. The Incorporated Soldiers' and Sailors' Help Society, which was established under royal patronage at the close of the South African War, had sought to aid the ex-service man in finding employment by furnishing him with the name of a "friend" in each parish or ward throughout the empire. The Old Age Pensions scheme of the state was administered by local committees in every borough and urban district having a population of 20,000 or over. The necessities of the families of the enlisted men had long been looked after by the Soldiers' and Sailors' Families Association by a ramification of local committees composed largely of clergymen and ladies of leisure in all parts of the country.

It was quite natural, therefore, that Parliament should look to a local committee to take the hand of the disabled man and lead him all the way back to a life of productive and contented activity. It was thought that the necessities of each man could best be assessed and provided for by a committee of his townsmen familiar with the conditions that environed him and his family. The soundness of this principle cannot be questioned, and while it may not make for uniformity it at least has the advantage of intimacy. It is the recognition of a principle, expressed many times in Parliamentary debate and charity organization, that in dealing with individuals in widely differing stations in life and with peculiar necessities, a human element must somehow be provided which the uniformity of governmental regulations does not permit. The human element -- a quick sympathy, an intimate knowledge of a disabled man's circumstances, a way to help unfamiliar to rules of a bureau -- this can be supplied best by the local committees.