directly connected than many of you, but in which I see no reason to assume that I should be more interested.

Because of the unstable conditions in Europe, the unavoidable delay in receiving important decisions from the associated governments, and the tremendous and immediate readjustments following the signing of the armistice, it has been impossible for the Red Cross management definitely to formulate all the plans for the future.

Certain fundamental policies have been agreed upon, however. To save time I shall enumerate them briefly:

1. In view of the widespread and intense suffering among children abroad, the Junior Red Cross, as a national organization, plans to continue for a few years at least, primarily for the purpose of giving to those sufferers the necessary relief and comforts and any further assistance which seems appropriate. The relief work will take the form of specific projects in various countries and will be confined entirely to children. This will be the great gift of the Junior Red Cross of America to the children of Europe. Dr. Livingston Farrand, the new chief executive of the Red Cross, will sail for Europe on March 8 to select these special projects and make definite plans for their management.

2. The American Red Cross will be the medium thru which the Junior membership organized in the schools may render valuable services. It therefore asks for the cooperation of the schools, but it does not seek any degree of control over them. It recognizes the importance of continuing its efforts only for clear-cut and distinctive purposes which avoid a duplication of the efforts of other national departments and organizations affecting the schools. Consequently it has no intention of attempting matters of general education. It views the school as the proper center for broad education in citizenship and offers an opportunity for participation in the work which the Red Cross is peculiarly fitted to undertake, with the hope and confident belief that such participation will infuse into this education a few stimulating and essential elements.

3. The school-membership plan will continue in the future as in the past, the school becoming an auxiliary and each pupil a Red Cross member when a fund equivalent to 25 cents per pupil has been subscribed. This plan is thoroly democratic and offers an excellent opportunity for the socialization of the school if all pupils work cooperatively toward this common unselfish purpose of world-wide importance.

4. A certain percentage of the membership fee for each school (this has not yet been determined) will be sent to national headquarters to be used for the foreign relief work suggested above. The remaining part of the fee and any additional money raised may be used for such state and community activities as are considered appropriate Red Cross work.

5. A part of the money now in the local treasuries thruout the country will be sent to national headquarters, so that necessary relief work abroad may be started without delay.

6. To insure the practicability and educational value of the future program an advisory board of representative school people will be created.

These are some of the policies already determined. Time will not permit a statement of others. Within a short time a complete and detailed announcement will be made public, so that we shall all know how to proceed with our plans for the immediate future and for next year.

The possibilities of internationalizing education thru this program are almost boundless. From the standpoint of America this can be done by really attaching our children to their great projects for relief abroad. Their accomplishments must be made personal and vivid to them. They must become intelligent with respect to the needs of the children in Europe and the Near East. They must understand the conditions under which these children live, the industrial and agricultural difficulties resulting from the war, and the reasons for and effects of the prevalence of disease and the low physical vitality of the general population in the countries concerned.

The Junior Red Cross plans to send to the schools of America at intervals interesting illustrated reports adapted to school use that will picture these conditions and show the progress made with relief work in its relation to the reconstruction of devastated regions and the development of industrial and social life. Thru material of this sort much can be done to teach in a very vital way the future problems of the various countries, as well as their traditions, customs, occupations, geography, and present social and industrial conditions.

Pamphlets telling stories and activities of the American children will also be distributed in the schools abroad. It will be the constant aim in the preparation of these reports to make the children of the several nations intimately acquainted with each other and to build up the kind of international sentiment and understanding which is absolutely essential to the successful administration of a legally constituted League of Nations.

This presents to you briefly the future program of the Junior Red Cross. It suggests a great system of service extending from the home, school, and community to distant parts of the world, where sorrow and pain are at every door. It unites the children of the nation under the banner of mercy. It dignifies and nationalizes simple acts of unselfishness. It gives international scope to the spirit of service and sets in motion the machine for practical action. It furnishes motives for purposeful school activities which meet real issues and makes the school a more potent factor for social good.

As the children of America answered so valiantly the call to "make the world safe for democracy," let us now give them the privilege of demonstrating their determination to help rebuild the world. If you doubt their willingness to serve in this new cause, give them a chance to decide. I

know what they will say. They are not "quitters" and will not be found lacking. Their memories of the Marne and Verdun will never fade, and their appreciation of the world made safe by the sacrifices at ChâteauThierry and the Argonne will carry them on with greater energy to the new duties ahead. I say the American children are not "quitters." They will be as strong in the constructive pursuits of peace as in the trying emergencies of war. Their desire to serve is inherent; our province is to foster it.

Then let us as their leaders help them to assume a full share of the continuing responsibilities and clear the way for complete action under the new slogan "Help Rebuild the World." Let us put new meaning into education and thru it develop in the hearts and minds of the millions of children in the American schools the spirit and understanding that will save the world from selfishness and hasten the day when a real and lasting peace shall settle upon all the peoples of the world.

EDUCATIONAL SERVICE

LOTUS D. COFFMAN, UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA, MINNEAPOLIS, MINN.

During the time that this country was engaged in active fighting the attention of the American people was focust on the battle front and on those costs of the war which could be interpreted in terms of money. The great majority of the American people then thought of reconstruction, and still do, in terms of economic conditions; but here and there we find those who are putting their emphasis on spiritual values, upon the dignity and worth of human life, and upon the social obligations and responsibilities of the individual. The movement for the conservation of human resources is gaining in strength and in popularity. No phase of this movement touches us more deeply at the present moment than the rehabilitation of disabled soldiers. The health-broken, crippled, and disabled men that the war has left in its dreadful march are now regarded as one of its major costs. The President of the United States has declared that "this nation has no more solemn obligation than healing the hurts of our wounded and restoring them to civil life and opportunity." He indorst the program of the War and Navy departments for the maximum functional restoration of the men and also the program of the Federal Board for Vocational Education for the education of the men after their discharge from service, and he urged the cooperation and interest of all citizens as a matter of duty, of justice, and of humanity. He declared that such work is not a charity, that it is merely the payment of a draft of honor which the United States of America accepted when it selected these men and took them in their health and strength to fight the battles of the nation. "They fought the good fight." "They kept the faith." "They won." "Now," he says, "we must keep faith with them, and every citizen is an indorser on this general obligation."

Modern physicians and surgeons have rendered all the aid that skill and science make possible, but they conceded that the physical reconstruction of disabled men is peculiarly dependent upon their mental attitude. The more serious the disability the greater the danger of mental depression and indisposition to respond to medical treatment. The medical staff therefore urged that educational work should begin at the very earliest moment, if possible when the men arrive at that stage where they begin to worry about their future. The first problem, therefore, was to divert a man's attention by simple recreation, thru reading, pictures, games, handiwork, occupations with a view to securing a more genuine interest in some end worthy to hold his attention and to claim his best efforts in his future vocation. By gradual steps his previous vocational experience was to be supplemented by academic, scientific, or technical training.

This means that a new voice was heard in the interests of the maimed, the sick, the wounded from the battlefields. In the past it was the policy of this country to indemnify disabled soldiers with pensions and to build soldiers' homes for them. We encouraged a life of idleness and dependence. We regarded the cripple as a person to be pitied, not reconstructed; as a person to be supported, not self-supporting; as a helpless, useless person, not as a contributing member of society. Gradually, however, there was evolved by the crises thru which we have been passing a new social attitude which insists that every member of society shall contribute his full share and full measure to social welfare and social progress.

It was with this high purpose in mind that educational service was introduced into the general hospitals of this country functioning in physical reconstruction. At first it provided for three classes of persons: those who could be restored to full military duty; those who could be restored to limited service in the army; and those who were so seriously disabled that they could never again serve their country in a military capacity. The problem was simplified after the signing of the armistice. Only the seriously sick and wounded now remain in the hospitals for physical reconstruction. These hospitals, now forty-three in number, are located in the various military areas from the Atlantic to the Pacific. In each hospital there is a department of educational service, staffed with college, normalschool, and public-school men and women.

The first representatives of the educational department to reach the men are the reconstruction aids. These aids are women of maturity, unusual ability, and skill, animated by loyal, patriotic motives and a desire to be of service. At first they aided the men by interesting them in simple handicrafts, knitting, weaving, basketry, needle-work, designing, and mat-making. By using the various handicrafts they led the men step by step to see that they are simple elements underlying many trades. Ceramics and pottery grow out of clay-modeling, oriental-rug making out of knotting, and tapestry and designing out of weaving. In other words, handicrafts

were used as a means of contact to start the men on a liberalizing educational career. The reconstruction aids regarded themselves as educational missionaries, and for this reason they exerted their energies to the utmost and improvised a series of new occupations. It was not long before the bed patients were studying stenotypy, stenography, library work, bookbinding, jewelry and silversmithing, telegraphy, telephony, toy-making, and stenciling.

As soon as the patients were able they were given the opportunity of taking up academic or technical work. The academic work consisted mainly of the elementary-school subjects. At each of the general hospitals a small room was provided where hundreds of men who had returned from the fighting front wounded and maimed for life, with an arm gone, or a leg gone, were taught to read and write the language of the country that they had gone overseas to fight for. In addition to this they learned the elements of spelling, arithmetic, and history. In the technical department work of a prevocational and sometimes of a vocational nature was offered. It is difficult to state exactly how many courses were provided in the technical department of these hospitals, for the number and character of the courses varied somewhat with the hospital, but it is safe to say that instruction was provided in at least one hundred trades, and that in addition numerous courses were provided in the fields of commerce and agriculture. No definite figures are available at present to show exactly how many men availed themselves of these educational privileges, but certainly in the neighborhood of 60,000 men have gone out from the general hospitals better equipt for the duties they have to face because of the work they took in hospitals. Now for several weeks the total number of registrants has been between ten and fourteen thousand. A teaching staff of over fifteen hundred persons is in charge of the work. Courses of study written in cooperation with the Federal Board for Vocational Education have been used, and sound vocational advice and guidance have been given the patients. They have been directed, wherever their disabilities warranted it, and urged to continue their work with the Federal Board for Vocational Education. The closest cooperation also exists between the Surgeon General's office and the Red Cross in providing wholesome recreation.

It is not possible to mention the names of all those who have contributed to the success of the work, but one name stands out more prominently than all the rest, and that is the name of Dr. Frank Billings, of Chicago, who is the colonel in charge of the Division of Physical Reconstruction. It was due largely to his patience, diligence, steadfastness, courage, and vision that the educational service was establisht and maintained in the general hospitals. He kept his mind fixt upon the men to be reconstructed and urged the introduction of curative work for therapeutic purposes. At first it was assumed that only that kind of work would be introduced which would aid in the restoration of partially disabled muscles and limbs, but it