Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-01-11
DELAY IN THE PAY OF SOLDIERS
TOPIC OF CORRESPONDENCE
Secretary Baker Insists War Department Is
Not Properly Subject to Charges-Rep-
resentative Mann Thinks Differently.

Minority Leader Mann today made
public in the House correspondence
between himself and Secretary of War
Baker upon the reported complaints of
families of soldiers as to non-receipt of
aliotments of soldiers pay and the
difficulty in getting information of the
condition of wounded and deceased
soldiers and officers.
Secretary Baker had written to Mr..
Mann in part as follows:
My attention has been called to the
statements which have been recently
made on the floor OF the House con-
corning the delay in making payment
to the enlisted men of the Army and
of their allotments, and l feel that
there is some misunderstanding in
the matter, which, in justice to the
War Department. should be clarified.
with respect to the matter of al
Iotments l wish to state that the War
Department has jurisdiction only in
cases where the aliotments do not
carry family allowances and that
those which do carry family allow
ance come within the jurisdiction of
and are paid by the bureau of war
risk insurance. Treasury Department.
War Department Prompt.
Concerning the allotments which
are payable by the War Department, l
wish to state that these payments are
being made promptly and that they
a re ;,N ~
may be, and probably are. cases where
there has been some delay, due to
inability TO locate the allottees, but
these are few in number and even in
these cases it is hardly likely that any
hardship has resulted, as these allot-
ments are not made for the benefit of
families Allotments which are made
for the benefit of families and which
carry family allowances are not paid
by the War Department, but by the
bureau of, war risk insurance of the
Treasury Department.
'The War Department is co-operat-
ing heartily with the Treasury De-
partment in its efforts to solve the in
triGate business imposed by the sud-
den assumption of this great under
taking. | do not comment here upon
the war risk insurance bureau. be-
cause the committees of Congress
have already looked into and have
been made acquainted with the almost
endless detail which the inaugura-
ton of this new and helpful system of
insurance imposed.
Some Payments in Arrears.
with respect to the troops over
seas payment has not been paid as
promptly as has been the case of men
and 1t is known that a great many OF
the sick and wounded who are being
returned from overseas. and of whom
l shall speak later in this letter, are
several months in arrears in their
pay. It is to be borne in mind that
from July to November of last year
the overseas troops were actually in
the fighting line. and think that any
delay in their payment can properly
be attributed to the conditions of
their service rather than to any lack
of effort on the part of the authori-
ties of the American eXpeditionary
forces. 1t requires no stretch of i'm
agination to realize the vast differ
ence between paying troops which
are in camps of environments and pay
ing troops which are in actual action
along a wide battle front and operat-
ing under conditions of intensive Of
fensiVe campaign.
1T is the cases of sick and wound
ed men coming back to the United
States from the field of operation in
France which have given rise to the
statement that there has been I'M
warranted delay in the payment of
troops, and when consideration is
given to the conditions under which
these men were operating in France
it is not strange that they should be
returned to the United States in ar
rears in their pay, or without proper
records. showing the condition OF
their accounts with respect to pay
and other items which enter into the