The Belding banner-news. (Belding, Mich.) 1918-1973, 1918-10-02
UNCLE SAM PROTECTS
HIS FIGHTING MEN
GREATEST INSURANCE CON-
PANY OPERATED BY THE
GOVERNMENT.

Washington. ID. C.-For so years
Uncle Sam has been laboring to find
out all the crippled soldiers and de-
pendent widows and children of sol
diers who lost their lives fighting for
him. Sometimes he found them and
sometimes he did not. Some times
he was able to provide sustenance for
them and sometimes they struggled
along, destitute, without the aid
Uncle Sam properly owed them.
That was the old pension system.
Today Uncle Sam is taking time by
the forelock. Every boy who goes to
war is assured OF support for himself
if he is disabled and support for his
family if he is lost before he gets to
the firing line. He can go into bat
tie confident that he and his will be
cared for by Uncle Sam. 1t will
never be necessary for him or for his
relatives to pull political wires
through their congressman to obtain
their just dues when the war is ended.
First of ali the nations of the world
the United States is insuring its sol
diers, discarding the old system of
pensions, awarded after the fighting
is ended. The agency used is the
War Risk Insurance Bureau in the
Treasury department, supervised by
Assistant Secretary Thomas B. Love
and Director William c. De Lanoy for
Secretary of the Treasury William
G.. McAdoo.
BY the provision of law, the bureau
insures Uncle Sans fighting men up
to $4,000 at cost averaging So per
thousand. This is against an aver
age of $40 to SIS per thousand, charg-
ed by private insurance companies.
This fair charge in connection with
the government allotment Of pay plan
by which soldiers family automat-
ically gets half his paw and an addi-
tional allotment from the government.
makes the bureau the biggest insur-
ance agency in the world.
Uncle Sam asks every soldier, in
fact requires every soldier 20 send
half his pay as an allotment to his
dependents. To this amount the gov
eminent adds an allowance of $15
per month for a wife without children
or an allowance of S. per month for
a motherless child or such other al
lowances as the soldier dependents
require, up to a maximum of $50 per
month. This not only protects the
soldiers family from charity or desti-
tuition, but gives him an added sense
of security. He can go into battle
not only feeling that his family will
be cared for in event of injury to him
self, but knowing that his family is
being cared for all the time he is
away from home. He gets double
sense of protection from the govern
ment he is serving.
Thirty billion dollars worth of in
surance policies, backed by all the re-
sources of the United States and with
every American citizen as an insur-
ance underwater, have been approved
by the bureau since its organization
last November. New business at the
rate of a billion a week is being reg
ularly written. Here are few con-
densed facts about the work Of the
Bureau of War Risk Insurance:
The bureau receives approximately
100000 pieces of mail per week. OF
the letters received about 10000 are
communications requiring individual
answers and careful investigations to
obtain the information sought.
Five and a half million allotment
and allowance checks have already
been mailed by the bureau. A mil
lion checks a month are now going
forward and the number will increase.
A total of 9, 401 900 applications for
allotments and allowances have been
received. This means the installation
of more than 100000 separate files,
for each case has it's individual file
and record.
In allotments and allowances total
of more than $3.50, 100000 has already
been paid Some of the checks have
gone to dependents in Greece, China,
Japan, Italy and other foreign coun-
tries. The field of the bureau is in
ternational. It's correspondence con-
tains letters Of appreciation from
wives and mothers located in all parts
of the earth
More than 100000 insurance GER
tificates have been mailed to date.
With the greatest mailing list ever
devised the incoming and outgoing
mails at this bureau exceed those OF
any government department.
Immediately following the passage
of the law and before there was a
clerk to attend to the correspondence
"a sacks of mail containing applica-
tions and letters concerning insurance
and allowances and allotments reach
ed the treasury department. Through
no fault of its own the bureau was be-
hind in its correspondence from the
very day of organization. Ten thou
sand clerks modified at the rate of
1000 month, are still endeavoring
to catch up.