The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-12-02

LlluSlcy, dIlu ScIVlug uIluSE III enlisted men and civilian empl The story of the war risk section in France is highly interesting. One of the officers at Tours has written for me this account of the work and its tremendous import:
 When the war risk insurance act was approved in October, 1917. there was quite naturally an incomplete conception of the vast machinery which it would be necessary to put into effect in order that the different phases of the act might be properly administered. Particularly is this true of the administrative features of the act with the American expeditionary forces. It was not until November, 1917, that any concrete plai. had been adopted to see that the provisions of the act were properly carried out overseas. The first detachment representing the bureau of war risk inalrance was sent overseas ln December 1917. This detachment was military organization, recruited from carefully selected men of special training. It become known overseas as the war risk secton. To this date 1t is one of the impoEant departments of the Ameri- can expeNtionary forse, attached directly to the stiff of the commanding general of the servi es of supply.
 sSrhe, first big problem of the
 war risx section was to provide
 cppOrtnsity to every American soi-
 dier in europe to become fully pro-
 tcctet with insurance before Feb-
 yssars I2 I0ts, the date oH Whic0 sA S sy sssf VI aEsssA sar -.i.lr c~ssa ss aH s@
 apply Tor Eovernment insurance
 autonpsicalIy expired. In order
 that dis might be accomplished
 it was necessary to launch n conn
 prehesfve and most inclusive cam-
 paigu In France and England,
 whfci would reach without aues-
 tion svery soldier in the American
 espeIitionary forces.
 Tn iidition to the insurance feature. the wa risk insurance act provides for allotmeltS and family allowances, and up to Jamary, 1918, the members of the America experditionary forces had ex- ! ecuted n. allotment and allowance forms, as none f these forms had ever reached Europe. 7 was one of the requirements of the nat each soldier execute one of thes tcl,as whether he made an al- lotmef and s0 7ted government al lowass gx au IAls greatly augmented the ~ss& MaiIs had fs he accomplished within lflS gpscasa .ssE y the limited perso.A oeL. ag fs Sy-r Sist Es ion.
 "The seel .sn. ss nSssesr and en- listed men te all csssc,Sneais ths1 in Europe. Each war risN ,s usIaliy fsEssa- sisted of not more tha c s3ess AEts4 not more than six enliste Asens 7 some cases a party of three wcu eYs1 a.1 entire division. When the inseA III se sa paign closed on February F, tAe eastss showed total of about $S0o. .Oo0t> yt government insurance had been writl~ by the war risk parties in Franct and England. In addition to this an allot- ment and allowance form had been exe- cuted by each soldier.
 TREMENDOUS RESPONSE
 "SiAce April IF, 1918, the war
 risk section has continued to se-
 cure applications for government
 insurance from troops as they de-
 parked In Great Britain and France.
 During certain weeks the amount
 of this insurance applied for by
 those soldiers has rum as high as
 FPS 100000. The weekly average
 since April IF has been In excess of
 S2O,OOO 900. Comparatively, this fig
 ure Is small beside the total
 amount of insurance applied for,
 hut 1t assumes great importance
 wheE 1t Is remembered that II rep-
 resents Drotecfisn tC t-fS depend-
 ents of cair soldiers, who, though
 previousl. given the opportunity to
 apply for insurance in the United
 States, had not done so, and who
 were yet within the limit of 12O
 days after their enlistment.
 ssThe total amount of insurance
 written H the kwnrN risk section
 now aggr,gates over $1.eoO.ooO.-
 GOO.
 Ssr- zi,k Ar-~ campaign an extension of time until April 12. 1918. was gAnted by Congress. at the request of thA President. to all soldiers in the service,\yn order that any who did not have opportunity, or had re- fused government insuitnce, might have another chance, and thatunits which had not been thoroughly caNassed could be moro thoroughly solicited A supplement tary campaign was immSdiately started by the war risk section. and during tho two months from February 12 to April 12. an additional s200.000.p0 of govern ment insurance was proeuAed.
 "Important as has been the work of securing applications for government i'm suranee, that feature has ben by far the lesser part of the job. The lie insurance provision of the act involvts compa ra- ix simple The allotment and allowance provision is complicated, and involves a vast variety of questions which imme- dfately affect the pay rolls oi company ccrfirnanders and the welfare q the sol diefs and ther dependents. New ques- tions constantly arise which ntcessarily involve new interpretations orSdsoisiops. As soldiers poured into Europe the vol tune of work handled by the. alptment and allowance department in tfA war risks section continuously fncreaseA, and It now reaches correspondence Aggre- gating oyef 10000 mail Items each week. This Is lArger volume of mail than Is handled by any other departmentsef the gle week the incoming and outgoing nah of the section has exceeded ls.0oo items.
 AID IA HIGH MORALE ~ar risk ssctioH has besn to do its fuli
 fCeathusya sn Rags 1wel