The Knoxville independent. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1894-current, 1917-09-01
INSURANCE FOR
men AT FRONT
Families Of Our Defenders Must
Be Protected Against Want.
JUST GOVERNMENTS DUTY


Holding Out Mere Chance of Gratui-
ties After Peace Is Concluded.
BY w. G. M'ADoo, Secretary Of the
Treasury.
The purpose of the war insurance bill
now pending in the congress Is to Sc
cure the future of Americas soldiers
and sailors by insuring their lives and
providing adequate compensations and
indemnities for loss of life and total
or partial permanent disability; also to
protect their families against poverty
and want by providing them with suf-
ficient means of support>during the alb
sence of the men at the front.
The nation, having been forced to re-
sort to the draft in order to create
quickly an army to save the country, is
under a higher obligation to do these
things for its fighting forces than If a
volunteer army only was created. This
great and rich republic cannot afford to
do less, and 1t must do what is pro-
posed in a spirit of gratitude and not
as charity. Every soldier and sailor
who serves his country In this war will
earn everything the proposed war in
surance bill provides To be benefl-
ciary Of the proposed law will be a
badge of honor.
When We draft the wage Garner we
call not only him, but the entire family
to the flag; the sacrifice entailed is not
Invisible. The wife and children, the
mother, the father, are all involved In
the sacrifice-they directly share the
burden of defense. They suffer just as
much as the soldier, but in a different
way, and the nation must generously
discharge as proud privilege the duty
of maintaining them until the soldiers
and sailors return from the war and re-
sumo the responsibility.
We have drawn the sword to vindi-
cate Americas violated rights, to re-
store peace and justice and to secure
the progress of civilization. We cannot
permit our soldiers, while they hold the
front, to be stabbed in the back by I'M
certainty as to what is being done for
their loved ones at home Our tomor-
rows are in their hands--theirs In ours.
The national conscience will not permit
Americas soldiers and their depend
ents to go unprovided with everything
that a just, generous and noble people
can do to compensate them for the suf-
ferings and sacrifices they make to
serve their country.
Aside from the care and protection Of
their dependents while the soldier is
alive, the proposed war insurance act
provides for definite compensation for
his dependents in case of death, for
definite and adequate indemnities in
case of total or partial disability and
for re-education of the MANNED and
disabled man, so that he may take up
new occupation and make himself a
useful member of society. We must
restore their efficiency and adjust tier
still available faculties and functions
to suitable trades and vacations, Which
the injuries of the battletields have not
wholly destroyed.
The heavy depletions in man power
resulting from this conflict, which is
without precedent in history or in.agi-
nation, will place new and greater val
ues upon all forms and degrees of
human energy and demand as first
duty of intelligent government that
every remaining useful sense and limb
of the blind and crippled shall be re-
claimed under the benevolent processes
of education and reapplied to economic
uses for the benefit of society.
The millions we shall be called upon
to spend to support the dependents of
the soldiers while they are in the fight
ing line, for indemnities and for re-
education of the crippled are in the last
ANALYSIS investments of the best sort;
they are sums of capital advanced by
the nation to promote utility. self re-
spect and economic development More
than all. they are essentially humani-
tartan end in the highest sense dis
charge by the government Of an essen
tial duty to society.
We are proposing to e2pend during
the next year more than $i0,000,00O,-
600 to create and maintain the neces
sary fighting forces to re-establish JUS
tice In the world But justice must
begin at home. Justice must he done
to the men who die and suffer for us
on the battlefelds and for their wives
and children and dependents who sac
rifice for us at home. To do Justice to
them requires only 1.-THE Of the money
We are expanding for the general OBJ
jects of the war. Let ii not be said
that noble America was ignoble in the
treatment of her soldiers and sailors
and callous to the fate Of their depend
ents in this greatest war of all time
The pending war insurance bill gives
compensation, not pensions. 1t fixes
amounts definitely in advance instead
of holding out the mere chance of gra-
tuities after the conclusion of peace. 1t
saves the dependents from want and
gives them the necessaries of life while
their men are at the front 1t deals
with its heroes literally for the suffer-
ings that result from their disablement
on the field of battle, and If they die 1t
makes just provision for the loved ones
who survive them. 1t fosters the help
less and dependent, the manned and
disabled. and recognizes the immensely
Of the nations debt to the valor ana
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