One of the finest of all its multifold and varied works was the scheme for the reconstruction of disabled men and their preparation for a life as useful and successful as they would have enjoyed if unhurt. The principles of occupational therapy were applied to the treatment of ill or wounded soldiers in hospitals, beginning with manual work for the redevelopment of strength and dexterity and continuing with occupational aids for the restoring of the nervous system and the bringing about of a cheerful outlook. Nurse-teachers were prepared for this work by courses of intensive training, lasting from two to four months. By the time the tide of injured men returning to this country was at its height this reconstruction work was in progress in nearly fifty hospitals, some 700 officers and men of the army had been detailed to serve as instructors and assisting them were 1,200 nurse-teacher aids trained in occupational therapy.
After he had been restored to physical and mental health in the hospital any soldier who was permanently disabled was given the opportunity of reëducating himself, if necessary, in order that he might continue to take a self-supporting part in the work of the world. The nation had pledged itself thus to care for its disabled defenders. With the exception of Canada, the United States was the only country to make this duty, from the first, the affair of the whole people, functioning through the Government. By act of Congress, the work of re-training war cripples was placed in the charge of the already existing Board of Vocational Education, whose agents would get into touch with the disabled men as soon as they arrived from France, tell them that the nation would engage to make them economically efficient again and show them that their rehabilitation depended only upon their own desire and energy. The crippled soldier could choose any line of work, agriculture, industry, commerce, any of the professions, and either add to the training he had previously acquired, or, if it was necessary, undertake a new kind of occupation. There lay before him the possibility of a variety of education that ranged from six months of shop work to a complete college course of four years. Whatever artificial limbs or appliances he needed were supplied and if he were short of cash a civilian outfit was furnished. Until this training was completed his pay continued at the same rate as during his last month of active service, or it equaled, if this were greater, the monthly sum to which he was entitled under the War Risk Insurance law. Injured men in all branches of the nation’s defense who needed this reëducation were made to feel that in no sense were they receiving charity but that the country was only, and gladly, discharging a sacred obligation.
Educational institutions all over the land offered their coöperation and the use of all their facilities in the carrying out of this scheme of re-training and so also did shops and factories and industrial and commercial bodies of all sorts. A few months after the wounded began to return about 13,000 men had registered with the Federal Board for Vocational Education and it was estimated that there would probably be about 10,000 more who would need to share in the benefits of the plan.
CHAPTER VI
THE WELFARE OF THE SOLDIERS
Into the forming and shaping of the American Army for the World War went something new in the making of armies, something hitherto unthought of in the history of wars, for its training was based upon a new idea, a bold innovation upon military traditions. The method of army training had always been to minimize the individuality of the fighting man, to lessen it to the disappearing point, and so the more surely and easily and completely merge the individual in the fighting mass. Only so, it was believed, could the necessary discipline, unity and uniformity of an army be secured.
But when the United States entered the war and set about the creation of a great fighting force its Secretary of War inspired the task with a new ideal and the whole making of the American Army was based on the idea of developing and heightening the individuality of the soldier, of discovering, improving and utilizing his personal qualities. The unceasing effort was to make of him a better citizen, a better, finer and more capable man, in the conviction that thus he would be also a better soldier. Believing that the higher the grade of the individuals who compose an army the higher will be the grade of the army, all the training, the environment and the treatment of the soldier, from the time he entered the service until he was discharged, were calculated to develop him physically, mentally and morally as an individual, to inspire him as a person and, in general, to make of him a more intelligent, resourceful, upright, self-dependent, capable and moral man than he was before he entered the army. The immediate purpose was to make a better army, an army of thinking, reasoning units, and therefore an army so intelligent and alert that it would at once perceive the fundamental necessity for discipline and instant obedience and would gain more speedily than by the old method the needful unity and uniformity, while its composite individuals would be more capable of efficient action if deprived by the chance of battle of their accustomed leadership.
That was the first and chief purpose. But behind it lay also the determination that these millions of American young men, the flower of the nation, the beloved of their homes, should be, as far as possible, enabled to preserve themselves from those debasements, corruptions and blights of army life which the world, ages ago, had grown accustomed to accept as inevitable. The purpose was that, so far as foresight and effort could command so unprecedented a result, these young men should bring back no scars or wounds other than those dealt by the enemy. The outcome of this bold experiment was a complete vindication of the vision and the faith of the man who insisted it should be tried.
The preceding pages have shown this purpose of individual development and betterment at work in the methods of training the soldier, giving him at least some measure of education when he was deficient in that respect, instilling in him the principles of good citizenship, inspiring him with patriotism and enthusiasm for American ideals, broadening his outlook, appealing to his intelligence and ambition, discovering and improving his aptitudes and assigning him to work for which he was fitted. Coöperating with the methods and purposes of the system of military training was a large and varied program of recreation designed to fill the soldier’s leisure hours and to work hand in hand with that training to make him at once a better man and a better soldier. A part of this program, that of the Commission on Training Camp Activities, was created by and carried on by the War Department, but many civilian organizations constantly coöperated with it and seconded its efforts.
Within the War Department the Commission on Training Camp Activities—it had its twin in the Navy Department—was appointed by the Secretary of War to provide for the men in training such a comprehensive recreational and educational program as would entertain their leisure hours, stimulate and develop their faculties and better their morale. The Commission, with its representatives in every camp, aimed, as one of its purposes, to make the American army a singing army. Trained musicians and song leaders developed and encouraged vocal and instrumental ability and aided in the forming and training of bands and singing groups. As much music as possible was brought into the daily life and work of all the camps.
An athletic director in each camp organized sports and in consequence baseball, football, cross-country running and other competitive games were of frequent occurrence. Skilled instructors in boxing, wrestling and other such personal sports improved the resourcefulness and the physique of the men. Every large camp had its Liberty Theater seating from one thousand to three thousand men, built on modern lines and equipped for any ordinary performance. Theater managers and dramatic directors and coaches wearing the khaki of Uncle Sam’s service brought to the task of entertaining the soldiers and developing dramatic ability among them the knowledge and the skill gained by years of study and practical experience. Theatrical attractions of every sort, vaudeville, drama, moving pictures, musical artists, entertainers of varied kinds, made the tour of these theaters and plays were given in them by amateur companies formed among the men in the camps.