Rockingham post-dispatch. [volume], March 07, 1918, Image 11

About Rockingham post-dispatch. [volume] (Rockingham, N.C.) 1917-1965

Image provided by: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library, Chapel Hill, NC

                
ROCKINGHAM FOST-DISPATCH, ROCKINGHAM, N. C.
"IWK TO TfH
0 Cx
Back These Boys
With Your Dollars
A War Savings Stamp Is as Secure
J as a National Bank Note
Both are backed bythe United States
Government. About the only difference is that
the stamps pay you 4 per cent interest com
pounded quarterly on January 1st, 1923.
If you are pressed for money at any
'time, you can cash a War Sayings Stamp for
its current value at any money order postoffice
on ten day's notice.
War Savings Stamps are convenient and
easy investments, no "red tape" and are backed
by the entire resources of the people of the
United States.
Every Stamp you buy help to keep the
Germans out of your own home. Every Stamp
you buy brings you nearer to financial freedom.
fThis War Will Be Won Only When
Thrift Becomes Our Watchword
H. A- Page, Jr.,
Fore Service Station, Fords and Repairs-
' Too Particular.
Dm girl who thinks more of her
georgette crepe waist than she does of
ber beau and refuses to permit It to
get mussed will never march to the
well-known tune of Mr. Mendelssohn.
Mcriaa Times-Union. -
Paper for Excelsior.
A machine baa been brought out re
eently which shreds various kinds of
paper that are fed Into It, making -it
into soft material which can be used
for packing In place of excelsior and
the like. By utilizing their waste pa
per in this way, many firms are reduc
ing the cost of preparing fragile goods
(or shipment.
Aspen Wood for Matches.
Aspen wood is used almost exclu
sively in making matches In Sweden
as It Is easily cut and porous enough
to be readily Impregnated with sul
phur or paraffin.
Nature' Error.
Sofferei writes us that If nature had
known what she was about when she
made imn, rhe would have given him
two noses one to have a cold in and
one for general utility Then you could
get the first on amputated (as In the
case of tonsils cr nn appendix) and live
comparatively happily ever after. We
will call nature s attention to It Exchange.
nmifc m mmnt l i M i w ip ami i w
Join These Americans
On the Road to Victory
See the crowd ! It is a happy crowd ! Why ?
Because it is on the road to Victory. It is an
old road, the Thrift road, the broad highway to
personal success. And as usual, the success of J
the individual means the success of the Nation.
The Nation to-day wants Victory. The individ
ual here at home can help best by winning a mil
lion smaller victories over waste and extravagance.
Join the crowd! Take the Thrift pledge!
Raise the W. S. S. (lag and keep it flying. Put
your quarters and your dollars behind your sons and
husbands and brothers on the sea and in France.
JOIN THE CROWD!!
Be
a War
Saver
WS.S.
TOR SAVINGS STAMPS
UIUXD WY TH
UNITED STATES
.GOVERNMENT
Be
a Life
Saver
i THIS SPACE CONTRIBUTED BYi
W. R. McNAIR,
Everthing in Furniture
AT WCV M fVFLD WOiGtf A?VLLiS
By BARTON BLAKE.
AR means wrecking chemical
and physical and moral wreck
ing. And It is the wreckage of
men that Is most distressing to
those who see the war at close
range. Houses can be rebuilt.
The farms of the Olse and the
Alsne can be cleared. The fac
tories at Chaunes can be re
stored, or else razed and erected ,
all over again and made modern.
But what about wrecked men?
In France I have heard an ironist say :
"Yes, he was a hero for ten days and now he Is
a decbrated ruin; a cripple for life."
Yet even "mutlles" can be patched up. They
can be provided with a "Jarabe Americalne" and
an arm fixed with, all sorts of Joints and springs
that make it practical. Last week, in the train to
N n, I sat next to one such mended hero; he
showed me his arm with real pride, and explained
that for the present he had work in the municipal
markets of Paris ; but that he hoped to get trans
ferred to something more esthetic; he would pre
fer to be a sort of subcurator in a picture gallery.
"See, Monsieur, I can hold a fork like this or
I can grasp a glass; the thumb is exaggeratedly
long; 1 have to get a special glove. . . ."
Yes, the mutiles' features can be molded into
something like a human semblance, where it's the
face that has suffered. But that is hardly enough.
It is not enough to make the hero for ten days, the
cripple for a lifetime, look like a man. He must
be restored to real living to a part In the world
of industry. That is for the sake of Belgium, or
France, or Britain, or whatever his country may
be ; It is also for the man's own sake.
I have Just had a talk with Miss Grace Harper,
chief of the bureau of the re-education of mutiles
at American Red Cross headquarters in Paris.
She has shown me estimates tnat for every mil
lion men plnced in the field France counts on hav
ing to care for 50,000 mutiles 5,000 of them a
month. And this figure does not take account of
the war-bllnded and war-deafened and war-crazed.
"Please do not quote these figures as our own,"
says the cautious chief. "They are the best esti
mates we have been able to secure, but they are
pstlmfltps.
"France Is working miracles In making over
maimed men," Miss Harper goes on, "but even at
the close of 1917 the work of reconstruction has
not yet caught up with the destructive forces. Un
der the French system the wounded soldier passes
from a 'Post de Secours' to a base hospital, and
thence to one of the eleven existing 'Centres de
Physlotheraple." At that center he receives sur
gical treatment, or physiotherapy, or both, physio
therapy meaning electrical or mechanical massage.
Here he receives also an artificial limb, and his
industrial training is begun to fit him for a new
place In the social organism.
"The French centers of physiotherapy are capa
ble of receiving less than 25 per cent of the mu
tiles. Happily the schools of re-education are able
to take care of some of those mutiles who must,
perforce, forego the physiotherapeutics.
"l am talking to you In terms like these because
the problem la such a big one, and because our
own country, too, must realize something of the
problem we are all up against, and the support
that must be given to the American Red Cross If
we are either to be of much help to France or to
ourselves In this business of making men out of
war's wastage. But I want you to realize that the
Red Cross did not come" to France Just to study.
"I, for one, have been.in Paris since March, 1917,
and have visited practically every large center of
re-educatlonal work In France, and some of the
small ones; not all, by any means, for nominally
there are 103 of them. The Red Cross continues
to study the new developments the new demands
In the field of re-education, for when the American-
army has its full share of casualties the Red
Cross, whose first task Is to back up that army,
must benefit by French and British experience.
But our real program for helping In France has
now advanced bejrond the stage of study.
"A superficial examination of our field showg
this: The training already provided in France la
Industrial training, or the preparation of dis
charged , soldiers for such Jobs as stenography,
SWjmStG SCYTHE MT.H CWS
bookkeeping, school teaching, etc. sit-down work.
And yet It is a fact that from 65 to 75 per cent of
the French mutiles nowadays were, before the
war, farmers or farm laborers. Not all of these
men should undertake, or are physically and men
tally fitted to undertake, industrial or city Jobs.
Moreover, everyone knows that the first great
world peace problem will be the challenge of a
food shortage. Obviously, as many mutiles as pos
sible France's today, America's tomorrow must
go back to the land. So it Is the plan of the Amer
ican Red Cross to help France In placing some of
them there and, later on, to help America in the
same way."
I ventured to point out to Miss Harper that re
ports show there are 31 agricultural centers in
operation In France, but Miss Harper was in
clined to shake her head. She would not quarrel
with my figures, but with the impression they cre
ated. "No doubt," she said, "but you must remember
that, Judged by American standards, France is not
yet in the forefront of scientific agriculture.
French economists, whose minds are now more
than ever busy with the facts of food production,
are exclaiming at the sad truth that Germany,
with a less and inferior farming area, should, be
fore the war, have exceeded France' in agricultural
production.
"These thirty-one agricultural centers of re-education
you speak of have opened their doors for
mutiles, but they lack necessary equipment, and
the canny mutlle looks In and, too often, passes
on. Small wonder, especially if you reflect upon
his eagerness to get home, to be free of discipline
that is Irksome because It ta (after three years and
a half of war) still discipline.
"France is teaching her mutiles small trades, cob
bling, basket-making, tlnsmlthlng, machine work,
- etc., but what the Red Cross wants above all to
do Is to co-operate In the agricultural movement.
We who are world-famous for our agricultural ma
' chinery must provide motor tractors and other me
chanical equipment for the schools of re-education.
Also, we must give expert Instruction In the rais
ing of live stock, poultry, rabbits, bees. We must
go In for training in horticulture. When the spring
of 1918 has come, we should be In a position to
show you our agriculture center in full blast, fill
ing a part, at least, of the great need I have men
tioned. And that farm of about 500 acres will be
situated In one of the richest farming areas of
France, very close to one of the great psychothera
peutic centers. That is all I can very well tell
you now. -
"Of course, that one farm will not solve the
whole problem of the war mutlle. At least, it will
at all times take care of 200 muflles. It will have
been leased for three years. Dairies, sheds, cow
barns, sheepcotes, pig-sties, a forge, machine shop,
carpentry shop all these things figure in our cal
culations. By spring, work of construction and
repair will have been accomplished, quarters for
men put up and some of the work will have been
-contributed by the mutiles themselves. It Is not
' only more economical, It Is better so. And they
will get two francs a day wagethese mutiles j
five francs a day when they are themselves In-
- structors."
Miss Harper is a former student at the Univer
sity of Chicago, who hns been associated with the
Children's Aid society and with a night club for
boys and girls In Boston; who has taught book
binding lu Haverhill, Mass.; who has served with
the Massachusetts Infant asylum and who first
came to deal with cripples in helping Dr. Richard
Cabot organize the King's Chapel bureau for the
handicapped at the Massachusetts General hos
pital. There at Boston she set a group of cripples
to work making children's clothes; their product
was sold from coast to coast and at good prices.
The work paid the workers commercially, as well
as helping to restore their status as Independent,
self-respecting and respected citizens.
The chief of the bureau of re-education is a
woman, and a feminine woman. I think it would
seem to the antebellum American mildly diverting
if he could cast his eye over the list of equipment
for the Red Cross farm of re-education which, at
this point of our talk, Miss Grace Harper permit
ted me to see: tractors! plows! hnrrows! extlr
pators and Canadians (whatever "Canadians" are
she told me but I don't remember) ; rollers,
drills, manure distributors, horse hose, mowing
machinery and I don't know how many machines
more 6 horses, 15 cows, 1 bull, 100 sheep, 20 pigs,
15 chicken pens (comprising 1 rooster and 6 hens
each), 6 incubators (210 eggs each), etc.
"Under war conditions," Miss Harper resumed,
"some mutlles are promptly in a position to earn
good wages In munition works at wages which
they will find it hard to equal once normal condi
tions are restored by the return to peace. We
must, therefore, walk rather carefully, if we are
interested in the return to peace conditions, and
in what happens to the mutiles in the readjust
ment. What interests us is that 65 per cent of
farm laborers Included In the list of mutlles and
we must reach them, or at least some of them,
promptly. We must get these men started on the
road that leads to the land while they are still
under psycotherapeutlc or surgical care. For that
reason, if for no other, the Red Cross must com
bine its agricultural re-education with its surgical
enterprises. This training for the future must be
gin during convalescence that is, before dlschargo
from the army Is granted.
"Do not think that the American Red Cross, in
its plan for specializing upon agricultural re-education,
disparages or undervalues the fine work of
the re-educational institutions which have preced
ed it in the field. But it cannot overlook the fact
that France is an agricultural nation and that,
after the war, almost all the world will, for a time,
be somewhere near the edge of hunger. Did you
see this last evening's Evenement?" concluded Miss
Harper, handing me a clipping.
I had not, but I read It.
"The commission charged to study for the radi
cal party congress the economic reorganization of
France hns adopted the following conclusions," the
article begins.
"It is by agriculture that France can, and must
renew Itself, for this Is the base and source of
life.
"Too much encouragement cannot be given to
agricultural production. . . . Henceforth the ut
most possible quantity of labor should be provided
to agriculture by the mobilization on the land of
the older military classes and of agricultural spe
cialists. . . '
The state should encourage the construction
and use of agricultural machinery especially trac
tors. . . Scientific agricultural Btatlons should
be created In the principal regions of France,
Unking the one to the other by means of a central
station at Parts."
"That Is a politician's document, and you have
not read all of It," concluded Miss Harper, as she
took back the newspaper clipping; "but the prinr
ciple is there, and it. is Justly enough expressed.
Here Is another newspaper article. Edmond
Thery, writing In Le Matin of Paris, concludes an'
article on "Our Agricultural Production wlthvthe
words : , 4 .
" The Indispensable agricultural policy for us to
pursue from now on has been perfectly defined by
the order of the day unanimously voted by the
chamber of deputies at its sittl.ng of October. 11.
and It can be summed up In two clauses: moblllza-
' tlon of agricultural labor, mobilization or cnemicai
ffirtillzers.'" t
"So you see," concludes the chief of the bureau
for the re-education of mutiles, "that the Ameri
can Red Cross, in seeking to give France mora
skilled agriculturists, through Its scientific and
mechanical instruction of mutlle fanners and farm
laborers, Is only undertaking to express practically
' what French deputies and French economists de
clare to be a vital necessity for France, and there-
1 fore for France's warmest friend in all the world."