Home Letters Reduce “Shell Shock”
NEWS AND COMMENT.
Frequent cheerful letters from home help to make American soldiers less ?ubject to shell shock, according to W. Frank Persons, Director General of the Department of Civilian Relief, American Red Cross, who has been spending four weeks with the American Expeditionary Forces in France.
“Any worry about the condition of his dependents or relatives tends to put a soldier into a condition where he is subject to shell shock,” says Mr. Persons. “I have this on the authority of eminent specialists who are dealing with such cases in the military hospitals. A soldier who is untouched by bullet or shell may, from shell shock, return to his trench in such nervous condition as to require hospital treatment and a long rest. The best insurance against this serious by-product of modern warfare, the physicians say, is for the man to go over the top or meet a charge in a buoyant, untroubled frame of mind in which his sole concern is the serious business at hand. Cheerful letters from home help to produce the proper mental attitude, but confidence that the home folks lack for nothing is an essential foundation.
“That our men may be protected as far as possible from worry about their families, and that nothing else that will maintain morale be left undone, it is obvious that the American people must see to it that no soldiers’ families lack for anything that will enable them to write honestly cheerful letters abroad. “To the American Red Cross has been given leadership in this vital undertaking. With utmost sympathy its 40,000 workers, organized as the Home Service Sections of 5000 Red Cross chapters, have come already into friendly touch with 300,000 families of soldiers. Whatever the need, this need has been met at once either directly by the Home Service Section, or in cooperation with local agencies.”
Employment of Crippled Soldiers or Civilians.
The only sound method of dealing with the crippled soldier or civilian is to train him for a trade in which his physical disability does not incapacitate him. This is being demonstrated more clearly than ever before by the way the war cripple in foreign countries is overcoming his handicap. In fact, the complete elimination of the dependent cripple has become a real and inspiring possibility. In this country the government will provide the necessary medical treatment, supply artificial limbs, conduct the training for an occupation, and find the job. It rests with the people, however, as to whether they will encourage the returned soldier to accept the advantages of training which will refit him for a life of usefulness and self-respect.
The American Red Cross is inaugurating a campaign to promote general intelligence regarding the true needs of the crippled soldier. The only compensation of real value for physical disability is rehabilitation for self-support. Make a man again capable of earning his own living and the chief burden of his handicap drops away. Occupation is, further, the only means for making him happy and contented.
In the readjustment of the crippled soldier to civilian life, his placement in employment is a matter of the greatest moment. In this field the employer has a very definite responsibility. But the employer’s duty is not entirely obvious. It is, on the contrary, almost diametrically opposite to what one might superficially infer it to be. The duty is not to “take care of” from patriotic motives, a given number of disabled men, finding for them any odd jobs which are available, and putting the ex-soldiers in them without much regard to whether they can earn the wages paid or not. Such a procedure cannot have other than pernicious results. Experience has shown that men placed on this basis alone find themselves out of a job after the war has been over several years, or in fact, after it has been in progress for a considerable period of time. A second weakness in this method is that a man who is patronized by giving him a charity job, comes to expect as a right such semi-gratuitous support. Such a situation breaks down rather than builds up character, and makes the man progressively a weaker rather than a stronger member of the community. The third difficulty is that such a system does not take into account the man’s future. Casual placement means employment either in a make-shift job as watchman or elevator operator such as we should certainly not offer our disabled men except as a last resort?or in a job beyond the man, one in which, on the cold-blooded considerations of product and wages, he cannot hold his own. Jobs of the first type have for the worker a future of monotony and discouragement. Jobs of the second type are frequently disastrous, for in them a man, instead of becoming steadily more competent and building up confidence in himself, stands still as regards improvement and loses confidence every day. The positive aspect of the employer’s duty is to find for the disabled man a constructive job which he can hold on the basis of competency alone. In such a job he can be self-respecting, be happy, and look forward to a future. This is the definite patriotic duty. It is not so easy of execution as telling a superintendent to take care of four men, but there is infinitely more satisfaction to the employer in the results, and infinitely greater advantage to the employee. And it is entirely practical, even in dealing with seriously disabled men. The industrial cripple should be considered as well as the military cripple, for in these days of national demand for the greatest possible output there should not be left idle any men who can be made into productive workers.
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