"Thank God! I am not a cripple."

There is a story of a Michael J. Dowling, a young man who fell from a wagon in a blizzard in Michigan when he was 14 years of age. Before his parents discovered he had fallen from the rear of the wagon, he had been frostbitten. His right leg was amputated almost to the hip, his left leg above the knee; his right arm was amputated, his left hand was amputated. Not much future for a young man like that, was there? Do you know what he did? He went to the board of County commissioners and he told them that if they would educate him he would pay them back every penny.

During the First World War, Mr. Dowling, who was at the time president of one of the largest banks in St. Paul, went to Europe to visit the soldiers -- to visit those who were wounded. I remember reading that upon one occasion he was in a large hotel in London, and he had before him the wounded soldiers in their wheelchairs. They were in the lobby and he was up on the mezzanine floor. As he started to speak he minimized the seriousness of their wounds; the fact that one had lost an eye, another had lost an arm, etc., was no grounds for complaint. And he got those fellows so riled up that they started to boo him. Then he walked over to the stairway and down the stairs towards the lobby, telling them as he walked how fortunate they were, and they continued booing. Finally, he sat down on one of the steps and took off his right leg. And he kept on talking, and telling them how well-off they were. Well, they calmed down a little bit, but they still resented his remarks. Then he took off his left leg. Well, the booing stopped then. But before he arrived at the bottom of the stairs, he had taken off his right arm and flipped off his left hand, and there he sat -- just the stump of a body!

Michael Dowling was the president of one of the biggest banks in St. Paul. He had married, and was the father of five children... he knew how to live, and he knew how to make money, and he knew how to rear a family -- and he finally died as the result of the strength he gave in encouraging the wounded soldiers of the first world war.
(As related by Matthew Cowley, May 18, 1953)

An interesting note, Michael Dowling was known to punctuate his speeches, when addressing the disabled veterans of war "Thank God! I am not a cripple." He made good his promise that he would never become a permanent public charge.