New-York tribune., 1919-03-29
Defends War R;sb
Bureau

10 the Editor of The Tribune.
Sir: l sympathize with the wr;tor =. -,
letter signed Sergeant" in to-dav,s IT,,
une. don't blame him for being ;rr;...
Perhaps under the circumstances h. :.
cusaole for errors Of observation
statement. But his assertion tho. =,
Bureau Of War Risk Insurance ia q.
building, full Of people doing noth;nS
nothing, nothing" so misrepresents the e' h'a
reau and does such injustice to nv fa,,o-.
workers in the bureau that cannot -. "
so uncontradicted. ~
AS almost any one Of the thirteen hrr,
lngs in which the "War Risk" ia NJ,
might be termed large, I cannot h.
10 winch one of them he refers. II ;s
aoIe' however, that his inquiries tool ~
10 the division Of allotments and suo.-
ances' IN the New National Museum p,,,
ing, IN which $500 employees of tho h,-.N
work. | have worked there for ro.-,N
year. My duties take me into almost .,..
section of it daily. I speak from lnon,',5 10y
"hen say that steady, hard work Il a.
RUE fhes OF work rise on the desks =.
las' as they are demolished. Regulation
are rigid. Moments of relaxation ara fa.s
worked for few weeks last sumuou -
the Division of Accounts. Wha. h..
SAID of allotments and allowance, -
good OF accounts. l have no rsaso, ~
think 1t Is not equally true Of the uho,.
bureau. WHO'S
in the allotments and allowance. i,
vision we deal primarily with nann,;s'
Nons' the forms filed out by the sod;s,.
"heh making their allotmcnts Of nov -
thelr families and asking for the sor.-.
ment allowances. The greater mart of ~.
work is necessarily specialized II ,ro,,,s
be ideal if each case could hsro 80
mother" to see that no mistakes wero
and that difficulties arising throucb 49,
iaui' Oh the bureau were adjusted specd-
NY as possible But there would be several
m1lllon godmothers falling over one anotbo,
IN their efforts, and then there would ba .
lew things, after ALL that would have e.
await the attention Of an expert awards,
or the adJutant generals Office or 30
commanding officer In France. So ono
clerk hles a case, another reads a let,e-
written about it, third makes chanca
OIL ADDRESS, fourth sends form letter on
IL, NTH, perhaps, makes an amended
award or stop payment, sixth dictates
a letter, and seventh examines If 10 ses
that all IS done right Thousands and
thousands Of such tasks are done con-
sclentiously and correctly every dav.
The Bureau of War Risk Insurance ;s
vast and complicated machine 1t is bevond
my province as an employe to discuss IL
generally. have the right, however. 10 tel,
the public what know to be the fact-that
criticism implying that employees Of tba
bureau do not give the government and The
people good ret-rn for what they are maid
is a libel
If the public, including sergeant" could
see US struggling to give this service amonr
dlscomtorts and inconveniences manifold
t1rom which we expect soon to be relieved
by removal to our new buildng), they
would be slower to write letters like this.
In the winter of 1918 women worked
over the market in hall so cold that they
wore coats, furs, caps, gloves and overshoes
at their desks. Last summer thew worked
IN cruel heat, often kept awake at night By
the heat in rooms where three, four and
ilVe were crowded in together. saw them
now and then faint at the files But they
stuck to their work till they did faint.
1t becomes me less to speak Of the diff.
culties or the achievements of the searching
force, but we walk miles day on the stone
floors Of the Museum, and some of US GER
talnly do detective work in untangline
"snarly'' cases. We searchers in the special
correspondence section have little to make
US optimistic. We deal only with cases in
which payments have been delayed or checks
have gone astray. We carry burdens Of
poverty, illness, death, for seven hours a
day, six days a week. AS we trail an eu.
sive application from section TO section or
read bunch of documents half an Inch
thick we mentally picture the woman, shawl
on head or baby in arms, turning in dssp-
polntmcnt from the mail box at the cross
roads or at the tenement house door be.
cause that looked-for government envelope
has not come. We know Just what it means
to the woman and to the baby and we do
our level best to find out the trouble and
to get the check off as quickly as possible.
We work just as hard to clear up questions
OF checkage, SO that men listed for dis
charge can get home.
1t is well both for US and for the public
to remember that for every case of delayed
payment there are hundreds of awards run
ming smoothly. If testimony to this il
needed it is found in the frequent plant
to the bureau: ~ don't see why don't ges
my allotment when all the other women
round here are getting theirs regular
KATHARINE FISHER.
W