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Now for the second step--the work of finding cripples all over the United States. We in the State of New York have had surveys made not only in the cities, but also in the country districts and even out to the remote farms that are not reached by R.F.D. carriers. We have had surveys made and have found literally thousands of children and grown- ups who were crippled and had no medical care of the right kind. There are probably today not only hidden away in the big cities, but also in the agricultural and mountainous parts of the United States, other thousands and thousands of crippled children who have never had any proper care, who have never been to a doctor, who have never been to a hospital or been looked over to see whether they could be brought back to useful life. That second step of finding the cripples is gradually being carried out.

Then the third step--the matter of diagnosing what the trouble is. This step is primarily for the doctors; and yet it is true that our good doctors--even the general practitioners--cannot in many cases consider themselves experienced in what is really orthopedic work. In other words, the average practitioner has to go to a specialist when it comes to treating certain types of patients. All over the United States we are establishing, more and more, clinics run by cities, schools, counties or the State, clinics that are within reasonable travel distance of every home, clinics to which the crippled children can be taken. After they have become crippled or after the people in search of them have found them they are taken to the clinic and the case is diagnosed. Great strides have been made in the past few years in providing facilities for the operations that are essential in some cases. But the medical profession is also realizing that many operations can be avoided through a system of plaster casts, massage exercise and other forms of treatment. The main point is to get the case properly diagnosed by the right kind of doctor in the first instance. Then comes the treatment.

The next medical step, which up to this time has not been developed far in this country, is "after care." After the cause of the trouble is known and the first remedies for it have been applied and the child is able to go home, the treatment must not stop; the parents must be taught what to do. Visiting nurses go in occasionally to see how the child is getting on, and furthermore we are developing new methods by which "after care" is being given in schools for crippled children. We do not want to take the children away from their education, of course, and many schools are putting in special facilities for crippled children where along with their education they can be given the right kind of medical treatment. The point to remember is that the overwhelming majority of children who become crippled can with proper treatment be restored to a useful, active life in the community. It seems to me from somewhat wide experience not only of my own, but of other people, the average cripple in this country has about the finest natural disposition of anyone in the community. There is something that comes to crippled children that gives to them happier, better dispositions. They are seldom cross, they are seldom fretful; we nearly always find them ready to cooperate; we find that they turn out well as scholars and that they are ready to assist in every way in the treatment provided for them.

I want to repeat that we owe to every crippled child in the United States a chance to come back, not merely from the big, broad point of view of humanity. I want to emphasize again that by restoring all of these tens of thousands of children to useful, normal lives, we shall be doing a fine thing, carrying out a great objective for the Nation. I know that we shall have your cooperation. From you who are crippled and you who are absolutely normal we shall have help in furthering this great purpose; we must search out the cripples from every nook and corner of the land; we must do through education everything possible to prevent crippling; we must provide the right medical care; we must spread "after care" to the homes throughout the land.

I am glad to have had this opportunity to say these few words today. We are enlisted in a great cause, one of the greatest causes of humanity that exists in America today.