THE PASSING OF THE CRIPPLE
October 23, 1917
If men are alert, resolute, and energetic, they can usually secure some compensation from any calamity. This dreadful war, attended by the killing and crippling of men on a scale hitherto unknown, has brought as a compensation a determined move to do away with the cripple; that is, to cease the mere effort to keep a crippled man alive and, instead, to endeavor by reconstructive surgery to restore him to himself and to the community as an economic asset.
Surgeon-General Gorgas and his associates have worked out, and are ready practically to test, an organized system under which any seemingly crippled man is to be kept under the guidance of the medical branch of the army until either the usefulness of thedamaged part has been restored or else until he has been trained in other ways so as to enable him measurably to overcome the handicap. In almost every case something will be done to make the cripple less of a burden to himself and others, and in most cases, the army medical service confidently believes, the cripple will once more become a useful and therefore a happy citizen. In all our special hospitals that are now being planned, the curative workshop is part of the plant. The effort is to be not only for the physical development and physical reëducation of the wounded part, but also for any intellectual training necessary to produce new forms of effective ability which will offset any loss in physical ability. The aim is not merely to save the life of, and then turn loose, a crippled pensioner who can be little but a burden on the community; it is to take care of the wounded man until the very best of which he is capable has been developed, so that when once more in the outside world he will be a real asset to the Nation. This is a fine thing for the Nation, and is of incalculable consequence from the standpoint of the self-respect and happiness of the man.
This represents the complete reversal of the old point of view, which was that the cripple was turned loose with a pension for less than what if sound in body he would have earned, and a burden on the community. The purpose of Surgeon-General Gorgas and his associates is that the Government shall stand behind the man and invest money in himso as to develop all his latent resources, fitting him to make good as a citizen and expecting him thus to make good. There will be, where necessary, a money compensation for the injury, but the great compensation will be the return to useful life of the man himself.
The far-reaching effect of such a policy is evident. The purpose is to insist that every man, no matter how maimed, shall be made of further use in the world. If once the army acts on this theory, the great industries will follow suit. The cripple, in the sense of being a helpless or useless cripple, will largely be eliminated, and out of this war will have come another step in the slow march of mankind towards a better and more just life.