The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1918-08-16

II
making a compulsory allotment to
his wife and children, he need allot
only SIS additional to his brothers.
sisters, parents. grandparents, and
grandchildren, IL he claims family
| allowance for them. But II he Is
not making a compulsory allotment,
he must allot SIS to such other rel.
atives to obtain q Government al
lowance for them.
The Bureau Of War Risk Insur-
ance will pay aIIotments only when
they carry with, them Government
family allowances, and then only III
the amounts required to support
such allowances. All other aliot-
ments will be paid by the branch of
the military or naval service in which
the man is enlisted.
The essence of the hole change In
dollars and cents is simply this:
Heretofore when an enlisted man
allotted more than the required
amount the Bureau Of War Risk in
surance included this excess in the
check which it sent to the relative.
Now this is changed. All excess al
lotments will be paid by the Army.
the Navy, the Marine Corps and the
Coast Guard directly.
Another element which will tend
to reduce the Bureau Of War Risk
Insurance checks is this:
In the past compulsory allotment
made by an enlisted man to his wife
and children varied according to his
rank and pay. The amount was not
fixed. The only limits were a mini
mum Of SIS month and maximum
of half the mans pay. Between these
two poles, the allotment depended
on the mans pay, the law specifying
that he had to equal, II possible, the
Government allowance. This sliding
scale arrangement was changed by
an amendment to the War Risk In
surance Act effective July LIST, 1918.
Hereafter, allotments as stated pre-
viously, are the same for all enlisted
men regardless of rank or pay.
In other words, a sergeant making
$4S month, who under the old sys-
tenn would have been compelled to
allot $24 to his wife and children will
now be required to allot only SIS.
thus looping 50 off the check which
the Bureau of War Risk insurance
will send to the sergeant's family.
If the sergeant wants to continue to
allot $24, the Bureau of War Risk In
surance will pay the SIS, and the ex-
cess of 50 will be paid by the War
Department through the Quartermas-
ter General.
The result of this new system will
be to speed up the delivery of checks
to dependent relativesI because 1t
will reduce the amount OF mathe-
mates required to make awards.
The important thing is that al
though in some cases the first check
may be smaller than usual, there will
probably be another check comdng
from different department to make
up the balance. The relatives should
be urged to write to the enlised man
to find out how much he is allotting,
and how much of this is paid through
the Bureau of War Risk Insurance.
and how much by his own service de-
partment.
We must also emphasize the fact
that the Bureau Of War Risk Insur-
ance is overloaded with correspon-
dence, receiving upwards Of 10000
letters a day and that complaints and
inquiries about specific cases always
delay action because they result in
the papers being taken out OF the
files and losing their regular posi-
ton. We should tell people to wait
until the end of the month before
writing to anybody. II they have in,
quiries regarding excess allotments,
they should consult the Home Ser
vice Sections of the American Red
Cross. These sections. because Of
their intimate contact with the SOL
diers' and Sailors families, have al
ready been receiving from their
Washington headquarters complete
and detailed instructions as to these
changes in law and governmental pro-
cedure, with explicit suggestions as to
the manner of explaining them to the
relatives of the enlisted men. II any
individual cases need attention at
Washington they will be referred by
the Red Cross to the Quartermaster
General of the Army. the Navy allot-
ment Officer. the Paymaster of Ma
rine Corps, or the Captain Comman.
dant of the Coast Guard Gas the case
may be), all in Washington. d. C.
We should also remind people that
July alfotments are not payable until