Am"juiy,r'i9ih8a.rm'  5  Reconstruction  of  Crippled  Soldier.  •  503 
But  the  employer's  duty  is  not  entirely  obvious.  It  is,  on  the 
contrary,  almost  diametrically  opposite  to  what  one  might  super- 
ficially infer  it  to  be.  The  duty  is  not  to  "  take  care  of,"  from  pa- 
triotic motives,  a  given  number  of  disabled  men,  finding  for  them 
any  odd  jobs  which  are  available,  and  putting  the  ex-soldiers  in  them 
without  much  regard  to  whether  they  can  earn  the  wages  paid  or  not. 
Yet  this  method  is  all  too  common.  A  local  committee  of  em- 
ployers will  deliberate  about  as  follows :  "  Here  are  a  dozen  crippled 
soldiers  for  whom  we  must  find  jobs.  Jones,  you  have  a  large  fac- 
tory; you  should  be  able  to  take  care  of  six  of  them.  Brown,  can 
you  not  find  places  for  four  of  them  in  your  warehouse?  And 
Smith,  you  ought  to  place  at  least  a  couple  in  your  store." 
Such  a  procedure  cannot  have  other  than  pernicious  results.  In 
the  first  years  of  war  the  spirit  of  patriotism  runs  high,  but  expe- 
rience has  shown  that  men  placed  on  this  basis  alone  find  themselves 
out  of  a  job  after  the  war  has  been  over  several  years  or,  in  fact, 
after  it  has  been  in  progress  for  a  considerable  period  of  time. 
A  second  weakness  in  this  method  is  that  a  man  who  is  patronized 
by  giving  him  a  charity  job  comes  to  expect  as  a  right  such  semi- 
gratuitous  support.  Such  a  situation  breaks  down  rather  than  builds 
up  character,  and  makes  the  man  progressively  a  weaker  rather  than 
a  stronger  member  of  the  community.  We  must  not  do  our  returned 
men  such  injury. 
The  third  difficulty  is  that  such  a  system  does  not  take  into  ac- 
count the  man's  future.  Casual  placement  means  employment  either 
in  a  make-shift  job  as  watchman  or  elevator  operator  such  as  we 
should  certainly  not  offer  our  disabled  men  except  as  a  last  resort — 
or  in  a  job  beyond  the  man,  one  in  which,  on  the  cold-blooded  con- 
siderations of  product  and  wages,  he  cannot  hold  his  own.  Jobs  of 
the  first  type  have  for  the  worker  a  future  of  monotony  and  dis- 
couragement. Jobs  of  the  second  type  are  frequently  disastrous,  for 
in  them  a  man,  instead  of  becoming  steadily  more  competent  and 
building  up  confidence  in  himself,  stands  still  as  regards  improve- 
ment and  loses  confidence  every  day.  When  he  is  dropped  or  goes 
to  some  other  employment,  the  job  will  have  had  for  him  no  per- 
manent benefit. 
Twelve  men  sent  to  twelve  jobs  may  all  be  seriously  misplaced, 
while  the  same  twelve  placed  with  thought  and  wisdom  and  dif- 
ferently assigned  to  the  same  twelve  jobs  may  be  ideally  located.  If 
normal  workers  require  expert  and  careful  placement,  crippled  can- 
didates for  employment  require  it  even  more. 
