The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, June 24, 1918, Page 15

J Giving War Cripples the Desire to Live ! -and Great Britain and France have Washington Bureau, Nonpartisan Leader — AR cripples are going to operate farm trac- tors in-the Dakotas, and culti- vate or- - chards in the Pacific Northwest, and operate lathes in the machine shops in St. Paul, and vulecan- ize. automobile tires in gar- ages all over the country, after a year or so. Your Uncle Sam is getting ready to solve the war cripple problem, and the problem of the cripple produced by ordi- nary industry along with it. Re-education in trades is the answer. A nation-wide sys- tem of schools in these trades, at which the war cripples and the cripples from the railroads and mires and factories will be students, is about to be born. Congress is considering the bill, and it is only a ques- tion. of a few weeks, appar- ently, until the measure which will set the whole machinery in motion will be signed by President Wilson. The two photographs pub- - lished herewith were taken at the training insti- tute for Canadian war cripples at Calgary, Alta. THE BACKWASH OF THE WAR Every man shown in the pictures has been ctippled, ‘but in each case the loss has been reme- died as nearly as possible, and the man is working efficiently once more. He will never have to be taken care of by family or friends. He is as use- ful and industrially productive as other men. He will command as high wages. He has suffered no breaking of his independent spirit as a citizen, because he need ask no favors of any man. : From the agricultural and mining states of the West have gone scores of thousands of young men, to fight the battles of human liberty in France. In all probability thousands of them will be wounded, and many will lose limbs or eyesight, or otherwise will be unfitted to go back to their old jobs. -Those from the industrial towns would, un- : der the old scheme of treatment of cripples, be left to get along on their pensions, or to piece out their pensions with the meager wages of such work as they could secure. Crippled men from the farms, going home, would at best have to struggle against heavy odds for the rest of their lives in carrying on their work. i But this is a new kind of war, and its human wastage is not going to be thrown aside. This is a war for the preservation of all that is worth - while in civilization, and for the increase of the influence of the common man in all human affairs. Every man’s life is important. Every bit 'of 'human salvage that can be gathered up and made use of is to be cared for and set on its way again. Cripples are to be mended and re-’ trained and made to forget that they were ever cripples. B P P 4 THE ALLIED NATIONS - “That’s ie” spirit in which Canada ° gone into the rehabilitation of the war cripples. Congress is learning all ‘about: the = experience of these countries, and President: Wilson is ready to sign the bill as soon as con- gress puts it through. : Of course, the ignorance of con- gress upon this whole matter has been a drawback to prompt action. At first there was protest against any large expenditure for teaching new trades to war cripples. Then the mili- tary party became active in trying to block the plan of placing this re-edu- cationin the hands of civilians. ‘The bill' was drafted so' as to apply only to war cripples. . But gradually the Veterans of the great war practicing tractor plowing. This is a daily scene at Calgary Tech- nical institute. Just outside the city of Calgary young Canadians who might be considered useless cripples are learning to overcome the handicap of their wounds. The advent of the motor into agriculture and the demand for intensive cultivation has made tractof engineering a popular course for young farmers who return from the trenches unfit for general farming, department of labor and the federal board for vo- cational education began to-get a hearing, with the result that the bill will probably apply to in- dustrial and war cripples alike, and will establish a permanent national system of restoring indus- trial victims to full earning power. At a hearing on this re-education bill before a joint committee of the house and senate, R. M. Little of the United States employers’ compensa- tion commission showed that there are over 2,000,- 000 accidents in American industry each year, in which the worker loses some working time; that over 700,000 of these accidents each year involve the disability of the worker for more than four weeks; that there are 22,600 killed and 11,500 per- manently disabled as to some of their working capacity, each year, and that there are today in the United States at least 100,000 of these cripples who urgently need to be taught new trades in order that they may not fall below the line of independent self-support. ! A BLESSING AND A SAVING Various witnesses said that they believed that the total number of war cripples would be ‘so few, in comparison with the number of persons disabled ~ in the war industries, that-it would be folly to dis- criminate between the men injured in the army “over there” and the industrial armies at home. The broader the program the better the chance of a proper variety of trade education, and the more . satisfaction to the whole industrial world. For Heroes of the ;ur who are heroes in peace, too. Although all st'averely weakened by the violence of conflict in France, they are determined to be self-supporting. The picture shows a lesson in vuleanizing at the Calgary Technical institute. Instead of Being Helpless From Their Wounds, ‘every dollar invested by the Returned Heroes Will Be Re-Educated in Special Trades by the Government—W hat Canada Does government in this re-educa- tion would mean many dollars, quite aside from lifelong grati- tude and loyal civic activity, to be contributed by the bet- ter work of the man so helped to his feet. BUT, THEN, THIS IS “PATERNALISM” Dr. Royal Meeker, commis- sioner of labor statistics in the department of labor, read to the joint committee a letter which he had written to Presi- dent Wilson. In this letter he said: “It is most important that the men injured in the service of the country should be re- habilitated as completely and quickly as possible, and_re- employed at real work where t‘:hey can give real service for Just compensation. I am fully aware of the great importance of taking care of war cripples, but, important as this work is, it is insignificant compared to the vastly greater problem of providing for the rehabilita- tion and re-employment of in- dustrial cripples. “It is my desire to affect an organization to take care of our war cripples, which would be permanent in character and would be the be- ginning of a permanent organization to take care - of the vast army of industrial cripples, which we have always with us, despite all our safety work.” Who Says the Farmer Is Not a Gambler? Jessie, N. D. Editor Nonpartisan Leader: It has always been a puzzle to me to know just how a man and wife can be true Christians and be farmers; that is, if, as we are told, a poker player, or gambler, can not be a true Christian, so long as he follows the business. Farming seems to me to be even a worse game of chance than any gambling I have ever witnessed. A farmer has to buy his seed grain and feed— or we’ll call this chips. He antes up by putting in the crop and paying the hired help. He has to bet by making a slave of himself and wife all the year around and paying more hired help to take care of it in the fall. And if God is good to us, which he most always is, and furnishes plenty of rain and conditions suit- able for a big crop, you would suppose we ought to be the winner. But God has not been fixing the prices. Thanks again that we can not blame God for the speculation done with the farmers’ products. So here is where the joker comes in. We have forgotten that while ~e hold four kings, the grain gambler holds five kings, so we are beaten . though we have ‘a bumper crop. But we ante up again and play the game. Mr. Black Rust steps in and takes the pot. Or, perhaps- Mr.- South- Hot Winds steps in and says: 2 “Let’s fatten it one year, boys, it i|. . will be bigger and better pext year.” ‘So we have to do as he says, just as. we have had to do” with the grain’ ~gambler. But you know we are ‘good stickers, so we ante up again and— _ win the game this time. But we have " anted up and bet so much to win this one hand that we can’t get half enough to pay back what we borrowed. So we have to continue to live mis- erly and send to Sears-Roebuck, ete. And I can’t see any remedy except it comes through organization of the farmers. And I think when the farmers of other states realize what North Dakota has done, and is doing, they will unite and rid themselves of the serpent and crush it out forever. I hope the time has come when the voice of all the people will be heard against monopoly and, plutocracy. 'NORMAN' McCULLOCH. £