DIVISION OF ECONOMICS AND HISTORY JOHN BATES CLARK, DIRECTOR PRELIMINARY ECONOMIC STUDIES OF THE WAR EDITED BY DAVID KINLEY Professor of Political Economy, University of Illinois No. 12 DISABLED SOLDIERS AND SAILORS BY EDWARD T. DEVINE Professor of Social Economy, Columbia University ASSISTED BY LILIAN BRANDT NEW YORK OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS AMERICAN BRANCH: 35 WEST 32ND STREET LONDON, TORONTO, MELBOURNE, AND BOMBAY Sice HARVARD COLLEGE JUL 15 1919 Que lendour, COPYRIGHT 1919 BY THE CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACE 2 JACKSON PLACE, WASHINGTON, D. C. EDITOR'S PREFACE Fortunately for the people of the United States, the subject of the restoration of disabled soldiers and sailors to economic usefulness has become of less importance in point of magnitude than it feared might be necessary at the time the work was undertaken. The prolongation of the war would have brought us many more thousands of injured men to care for and the matter would, therefore, have required a much more widespread attention on the part of our people. However, although the number for whom we have thus to provide is happily smaller than we feared would be the case, their proper treatment and care is one that requires the fullest knowledge and deserves the deepest interest and attention of the nation. Dr. Devine's study of the subject is, therefore, exceedingly timely. The thoroughness with which he has done his work, the sympathy with which he has treated the subject, the opportunities which he had abroad to study the methods of Great Britain and France, and his general familiarity with the field of social amelioration, all help to give his report an importance and value which the work of but few writers on the subject could equally well command. His long stay in France in Red Cross duties has given him opportunities to secure first-hand information and he has presented it clearly and skilfully. The general public, as well as those who are professionally connected with the matter, will thus find his study not only important but extremely interesting. In addition to his study of the subject in Great Britain and France, Dr. Devine has added chapters on Canada, the United States, Germany and Austria. His report shows that in this matter, as in so many others, the Central Powers have looked farther ahead than the rest of the world and were, at the opening of the war, prepared to reduce the human wastage from wounds to a minimum. From them and their experience, too, we have something to learn. Dr. Devine's study goes into the subject of the public attitude toward, and treatment of, the duty which the nation owes to those who have thus sacrificed themselves in its behalf. His discussion of the "new program," as he calls it, should direct our attention sharply to the subject of restoring those who are industrially disabled as well as those who have suffered in war. In other words, the experience gained from the treatment of those disabled in battle should be extended in time of peace to those who suffer from industrial accidents. Like the rest of the world, we have been neglectful of this duty. Economically, as well as morally, the restoration of the industrially disabled should be a permanent and profitable feature of our future public policy. DAVID KINLEY. University of Illinois. FOREWORD It will be obvious to any reader of the following pages that they were written before the end of the war was in sight. The manuscript was completed early in October, 1918, and in general it traces developments to that date. There would be comparatively little to add if it were to be revised now, as page proofs are passed: final official reports of the nature of casualties are not yet available; the systems, which had been established in the principal countries have not been materially modified in the intervening months; and it is still too early to make any study of results. Five or ten years from now we may hope for an appraisal of the new methods of providing for disabled soldiers and sailors. NEW YORK, April, 1919. EDWARD T. DEVINE. |