The Vocational School for Disabled Soldiers Many disabled soldiers on being discharged from the army find themselves prevented by their handicap from following their former trade. The state, realizing that it owes them reparation, grants them a pension, the amount of which depends on the severity of their wounds and the extent to which they are incapacitated for work, but this pension is, unfortunately, owing to the many demands on the treasury, never large enough for their necessities. The state, therefore, offers further help in the form of certain minor government positions, which it reserves for disabled soldiers. But since there are many more applicants than positions, the greater number of men who wish to eke out their pension in this way can only register on a list of candidates and then wait months or even years for their turn. The pension is insufficient; government posts are too few. What then can be done to keep the disabled soldier from dependence or need? The remedy is to help him back into industry. If he is unable to practise his former trade, he must learn a new one which is compatible with his maimed condition. A former farm laborer, for example, who on account of the loss of his leg will never be able to follow the plow again, can learn to be a tailor, a shoemaker, a basketmaker, a clockmaker, a hairdresser, or a tinsmith. A former locksmith, paralyzed in his right arm, can learn to write with his left hand and, after receiving some general schooling, can study accounting and become a bookkeeper, commercial traveler, or the like. When a disabled soldier has learned a new trade, his earnings in addition to his pension will enable him to support himself and his family, and he will enjoy again the cheerfulness which comes from independence and useful activity. Moreover, retraining a man to be a productive workman benefits not only the individual but the state. After the war France will have to make a tremendous effort to compete industrially with her enemies, and her greatest difficulty will be the shortage of the labor supply. She will have to utilize every resource, the whole effort of which every individual is capable; even war invalids must be utilized to the fullest extent to which they can be made capable. If they are not retrained for industry, the nation's output and its prosperity will be diminished. Disabled men who are unable to go back to their former work and who do not learn to do something else run the danger of being reduced to appealing to charity or of yielding to the dangerous suggestions of idleness and misery. Social justice as well as the interest of the state demands that they be remade into self-supporting members of society. If public measures are insufficient, private efforts must supplement them. In recognition of the situation the people of France have formed into numerous groups and societies whose purpose is to help the disabled soldier back to a normal life. In order to attain their end, they can, we believe, employ no better means, no means more fruitful of results or of more far-reaching beneficence, than vocational training. The project for a vocational school at Rouen originated with the Departmental Committee on Technical Instruction of the Seine-Inférieure. In June, 1915, the Committee received a circular from the Minister of Commerce asking it to consider the best method of providing trade training for disabled soldiers. It set to work on the subject immediately and began to study the conditions at Rouen with a view to providing such training. The Committee soon found that |