The war simply makes the question of reëducating and rehabilitating the disabled a striking one. But we must not forget that the problem of the injured is always with us. It may not be amiss to point out that 54,001 men and women were actually killed in the United States during the year 1913. This means one killed every ten minutes. Over 2,000,000 men and women are injured in the industries in the United States each year. This means one injured every sixteen seconds. The economic loss from accidental deaths and injuries is nearly $500,000,000 annually, and the loss from preventable accidents and diseases would more than pay the cost of maintaining all the public schools in the United States. These are appalling figures. At present the great fear of every boy who goes to war and of every sister and mother of such a boy is that he may go through life maimed and dependent. But we never think of the ever-present danger to these boys of being handicapped physically by merely going to work; and yet there are more persons so disabled through accidents in industrial life in normal times than are disabled by war. When our boys come back from the war, physically disabled, and through the government work in rehabilitation and reëducation are made self-supporting and self-respecting members of society, we shall begin to appreciate that we have been extremely negligent in the past in limiting our efforts to help the crippled and blinded to the good offices of charity and philanthropy. It is a public matter. It is a problem of education. It is an opportunity for service for the teachers of vocational training, for the experts in vocational guidance and direction, for the directors of placement and employment bureaus, and for the designers of special tools and machines for the handicapped. It is an immediate problem in this time of war; it is even more significant in time of peace. CHAPTER X FARM CADETS