The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1918-05-21
OYER 100000 SOLDIERS
HAVE BEEN INSURED
This Is a Larger Insurance Business
Since the Middle of Last October
Than 20 Large Companies
Have Done

Washington, May 2l.-More than SIC,
000,000,000 insurance on the lives o.
more than 100000 soldiers and sailors
already has been written by the bureau
of war risk insurance, That is said &c
be more insurance, all written since the
middle Of last October, than is to-day on
the books of the 20 largest life insurance
companies in the world. All kinds OF
problems have been met with in achiev.
ing this gigantic task, according to in
formation furnished to Congress by
! Thomas B. Love. assistant secretary of
the treasury in charge OF the bureau,
and other officials.
The war risk law provided for pay.
ment of family allowances and alIot.
ments and for administration OF a com
pensation insurance law applicable to
1000. 900 risks and for the writing Of
this insurance on the lives of a possible
1000 900 soldiers and sailors. The APP.
plications for allowances and allotments
of the soldiers or sailors pay had TO be
obtained from the ends of the earth to
which those in war service have been
scattered. From Dec. 20 until the begin
ming of this month the bureau mailed
out 100000 individual checks To fam.
lies of dependents in the United States,
approximately 100000 900 has been paid
out in allowances and allotments and
in addition many thousand claims for
compensation have been made, some paid
and Others disallowed.
More than 95 per cent of the soldiers
and sailors listed at the bureau have tax
en- the insurance and applications for it
have come in at daily rate involving
from S50,000000 to Sl00000,000 OF in
suranee during the last month A cleri
cal force Of about 1890 people is EN-.
ployed by the bureau in the work. A
bill is now pending in Congress favorahly
reported by the House interstate com.
merce committee, amending the law in
a number of details, providing for in
stance that automatic insurance shall be
payable to the mother whether depend
emit or not and to the father as we'll, and
making other broadening features in the
of the soldiers nearest of kin.
Bureau records show that there are
l ,062.09l application blanks returned on
which the man states he has no depend |
ents of any kind There is a surprising |
~ large percentage of those men who |
do have dependents, the first knowledge |
of whom the bureau learns when the de-
pendents write in for information.
One of the surprising developments is
The number of complaints that the bu-
reau is getting from men who have
,sked exemption from their wives or
Hho claim they have no wives In one
'ity recently Commissioner Nesbit of
he bureau has advised Congress, he sent
IN investigator to look into 80 cases
where men had claimed exemption from
heir wives and said they did not know
where the wives were living The bu.
eau located 81 of the 33 wives within
week and the government has absolute
violence that many of these men knew
where their wives were. The men did
lot want the wives to get the money.
In the course of the testimony re.
entity given before the House committee
'aymaster General Cowie of the navy
eclared that in the exceptional cases
shere naval officers do not support their
antilles they are made to do so very
uickly. About six weeks ago a wife
allied at the navy department about
allure of support and inside of 10 min
tes,' said Admiral Cowie, that gentle
ian was sent such a letter that he
,oked out for her in proper order and
lside of three days | had an allotment
my office from him"
The war risk amendments are being
andled on the floor of the House by
representative Rayburn OF Texas,
Iember of the interstate commerce com.
Iittee.