are used to arouse the emulation of wounded soldiers. Large industrial plants are asked to put in special workshops for war cripples, where they can serve apprenticeship at their old trades or new ones. In the larger schools the training offered is divided into instruction in manual trades, office work, and general schooling. Figures show that the manual trades most in demand are shoemaking, tailoring, basketry, harnessmaking, saddlery, tinsmithing and carpentry. The reason for the popularity of these trades is that they will afford a living almost anywhere, in the city or in a tiny village. They do not require expensive equipment, and they are the trades selected by the men themselves. Most of the soldiers are from villages and small towns, and these desire to acquire a trade that, when eked out with their pensions, will give a good living and yet not be too exacting. These men will open shops in their homes, and have time also to work in the garden, cultivate their tiny farm patches, and attend their vines. Among other trades taught are those of mechanic, typography, lithography, typefounding, bookbinding, the manufacture of artificial limbs, expert workers in wood, iron and leather, locksmith, brushmaking, toy and paper-box making, oxy-acetylene and electrical welding, metal and wood turning, electricians, mould making and stucco work, carriage and vehicle painting, upholstery, fur work, photography, jewelry making, diamond cutting, sabot and galoche making, stone carving, hairdressing, dental mechanics, wireless telegraphy, and many others. Several of these trades are being emphasized on account of the number of Germans engaged in them prior to the war. As the Germans have been either killed in battle or sent back to Germany and will not find France a congenial place of sojourn for many years to come, the vacancy in these industries is going to be taken advantage of. In various districts where particular industries prevail, men are being instructed in them, such as diamond cutting at St. Claud, and the celluloid industry at Oyonnaux. The officials are having a great deal of difficulty in persuading the wounded men from taking up the commercial lines, and in showing them that there is infinitely better chance of profitable employment in the trades. It seems to be the consuming ambition of the majority of disabled workmen to become clerks. There are courses to fit these men, and if they insist, they are given them. There is now a healthy public sentiment in France against the injured man's remaining merely a pensioned idler or a seeker of sinecures under the Government, and the number of men who do not take reëducation, either immediately or after going out and finding that the aimless existence does not meet the approval of friends or the public, is growing constantly smaller. As time goes on, the work becomes more efficient and better organized, and France is now one of the leaders among the nations who are taking care of the war wounded and refitting them for lives of usefulness. Some idea of the French loss in man power and the number out of which those requiring retraining came is given in a statement by Deputy Lucien Voilin in the French Chamber of Deputies on December 20, 1918. During the course of a debate and interpella tion of the Government on problems of demobilization, he said: I betray no secret when I say that the problem of demobilization presents itself thus: We have mobilized 6,900,000 men. We have had about 1,400,000 killed — in which are included deaths from disease and wounds- total casualties resulting in death. We have 800,000 who have recovered from wounds. The French High Commission to the United States on January 14, 1919, authorized the publication of the following statement of French losses up to November 1, 1918: Dead (killed in action and dead of wounds)... 1,028,800 299,000 [Of which 700,000 crippled and pensioned. To this figure must be added a great number of the 435,000 Frenchmen war prisoners henceforth unfit to work.] Grand total of French casualties.. 1,385,300 3,000,000 4,385,300 CHAPTER VIII EVOLUTION OF THE BRITISH SYSTEM British policy generous to the disabled of the war Revolutionary abandonment of pre-war conceptions - The new programme — Utilization of existing agencies — Coördination under State control - Statutory Committee of the Royal Patriotic Fund Corporation and its local committees Ministry of Pensions and the Special Grants Committee - Functions of local committees Advisory trade committees for training and placement Extreme flexibility of the system. Present British policy in regard to the after-care of disabled soldiers and sailors may fairly be defined as a policy of seeing the disabled man and his family "all the way back" to his pre-war economic status or to a condition approximating it as nearly as possible, the process of restoration being guaranteed, directed, and, to the extent necessary, financed by the State. It may be pointed out that the fundamental principle in accordance with which this policy has been developed has not been generally understood or accepted on the Continent. There it is argued that compensation for the loss of an arm or a leg or an eye or for any other injury should be proportioned in each instance to the disability without regard to prewar earnings. In the case of any given injury, since the hurt is absolute, the compensation should be unvarying; "for the same hurt there should always be the same compensation." Remarking upon this difference in conception between Britisher and Con tinental, Sir Arthur Griffith-Boscawen doubts that the Continentals "will ever appreciate our standpoint any more than we shall subscribe to their doctrine of abstract égalité." The French conception of justice, or rather the conception more consistent with the French than with the British policy, seems to underlie our own procedure in the United States, where, under the law, compensation for disability is assessed without regard to military rank or pre-war earnings. In this respect it may be felt that the British policy of complete restoration is rather less democratic than our own, since it recognizes social status; but it may fairly be contended in defense of the British policy that, granting it to be more conservative, it is at the same time more liberal in its provisions than any of the Continental policies. The private does not get less, although the officer may get more. It may be noted also that in our own compensation law, the flat-rate scale of payments was determined by eliminating from the original bill a provision for higher compensation for officers without increasing the compensation proposed for privates, the final scale adopted being, in fact, somewhat below that provided for privates in the bill as originally drawn. In any case, judged by conventional, pre-war British social philosophy regarding the State's obligation in provision for the disabled, the present policy of seeing the men "all the way back is nothing less than revolutionary. Traditionally in Great Britain the after-care of disabled soldiers and sailors has been principally an affair of private initiative and of private financial support. Pensions and allowances have |