PAPERS PRESENTED AT GENERAL SESSIONS 43 



not only on vocational training but on industrial assign- 

 ment. Labor very frequently looks askance at any 

 method which suggests that an attempt is being made to 

 cajole the worker into acceptance of unsatisfactory in- 

 dustrial conditions. A great many attempts to amelio- 

 rate the condition of the worker through so-called wel- 

 fare departments have met resistance on the part of 

 union and non-union labor. None of these objections ap- 

 plies to the medical program, which is free from any im- 

 plications of the sort just mentioned, which are applica- 

 ble equally to the employer and the employe, and which, 

 as all medical procedures should, has as its main objec- 

 tive the rendering of a service to the individual. It is 

 therefore partisan only in the sense of being for the pa- 

 tient and is not concerned with any partisan struggle 



Time does not allow me to discuss in detail any of these 

 propositions, nor to take up the consideration of many 

 other important subjects directly connected with this 

 topic. It is a waste of time to emphasize the importance 

 or the urgency of the problems presented by behavior dis- 

 orders. What we are concerned with is the possibility 

 now offered to medical science through psychiatry to 

 render a service in the treatment and the prevention of 

 these behavior disorders with all their associated conse- 

 quences of social waste, of economic loss, unhappiness 

 and danger both to the individual and to the community. 

 Dr. Frank-wood E. Williams, Director of the National 

 Committee for Mental Hygiene, says : ''This year in this 

 country there are 250,000 boys and girls of high school 

 and college age, all of whom in five years will be confined 

 in hospitals for the insane." A conservative statement 

 would allow at least an equal number who will in five 

 years come into serious conflict with the law. To this 

 must be added a large number who are hopefully look- 

 ing to life, who will meet with bitter disappointment and 

 who will meet with unhappiness and unsuccess. A very 

 large portion of these individuals can either be saved 

 from their impending fate or at least benefited by prompt 

 and suitable relief measures. Can there be any valid ex- 

 cuse for inaction in the face of such need ? 



