The case may be cited of a woman suffering from congenital deficiency of the hand with a very short rudiment of the wrist which is only slightly mobile. By means of contrivances which we need not describe, and with no prosthetic apparatus, she threads her needle and sews as quickly and as well as anybody. This is not an argument, for: (1) it is a congenital lesion and the educability of a child is well known; (2) the woman is extremely intelligent, and unhappily this favourable factor cannot always be counted upon. It would be wrong to conclude from this that a case of amputation at the wrist should be put to sewing.
It must never be forgotten that intelligence and will are factors of the first importance, so that however little intellectual capacity the disabled man may have, he is bound to profit by his passage through the school of re-education in learning to read and write if he is illiterate—this is more frequent than is usually believed—or to improve his knowledge if he has already had some instruction. It is, in fact, by brain work that many learn to replace their physical defect. Let us take, for example, a disabled bricklayer. If he is intelligent and is given a helping hand in the shape of the necessary instruction, he may become a builder on his own account in a small way when he knows how to make plans, work out estimates and keep accounts.
This is not a Utopian fancy. In the small towns and villages there are many owners of businesses such as masons, decorators, joiners, etc., workmen who cannot spell, but who are intelligent, have business minds and a gift for overseeing, who have given up the trowel and will build you a house as well as, or often better than, many "architects." It is with similar aims to these in view that a bricklayer should be re-educated when it is judged that his intellectual capacity is sufficiently great.
Where there is no intelligence education can do little. There are in civil life innumerable "casual labourers" with limbs intact who have never been able to learn a regular trade and who earn a miserable livelihood by doing what "turns up." Their situation becomes serious when they lose some of their physical capacity. They can, however, be rescued, particularly by encouraging them to become agricultural labourers. It is indeed especially agricultural labourers who should be urged to return to the land, and those mechanics who will be unable to work in a factory for the future should also be encouraged to take up this work. One reason for this is that the workman's arm—especially if it has not been too much elaborated—is useful for the execution of a considerable variety of work on the land. It is unnecessary to speak of cases of amputation below the knee, since their usefulness on the land may be taken for granted.
In the country as a matter of fact a man never dies of hunger; and this cannot be said of the town. Apart from actual cultivation of the land, which is in part impossible for the maimed, there are numerous and important occupations of which a town dweller would not think. It is when he goes to the centre of re-education in agricultural work, first of all to view it and then to work, that the disabled man takes note of what he can or cannot do, and of the work in connection with agriculture which is open to him, such as poultry rearing or bee keeping.
This applies to other employments than agriculture.
Apart from his actual trade which the workman can no longer ply with a sufficient return for his labour, he may be able to work at one or two of the accessory employments which would not of themselves bring him in a living but which would yield a satisfactory supplementary income.
In certain re-education centres there seems to be a marked predilection for crafts in which the apprenticeship is short and the installation costs little, though these are in fact the characteristics of those trades which give the labourer a poor return, that is to say, time-work in a large or small workshop.
At the beginning of the war an attempt was made to show that there would never be enough tinkers, sabot makers, shoemakers, or saddlers in the country. It is quite a false idea that a disabled man can gain a living at one of these crafts in a village. It is true that he can do so if, working as an agricultural labourer, he can act as a barber in his spare time, and is capable of executing small jobs, especially repairs, which the villagers would readily give to him rather than have to go several miles to get them done. When the disabled man has this additional work in his hands he will gradually be able to ascertain whether the needs of the countryside and his own personal capacity are compatible with its development. In that case, however, he will be, in fact, a small proprietor buying his own tools and materials and fixing a retail price. But the great majority of workmen have no notion of such calculations and such organisation as are indispensable when a man runs a business even if he is alone. It follows, therefore, that the education of his mental, and especially his commercial, faculties must be considered, and it must be ascertained whether the man is likely to profit by such education. It is useless to install in a hamlet a shoemaker who is incapable of working except as an assistant, and in the town at the actual factories the prospects are poor.