The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-10-23
CHANGE IN DEGREE OF HANDlCAPS
 CAUSES SHIFT IN COMPENSATION
Several Examinations Are Necessary Insure Justice Setting Percentage of Disability for Proper
 Claim Allowance

this were so then his earnings as an expert mechanic would be compared with those when he was a farm hand, and he would never secure com pensation so long as he worked. Such a comparison also would not take into account the fact that prob ably when the man went into the war $100 per month was worth a great deal more than S1OO at the present time.
 It will. therefore, be clearly seen that to judge a man on his actual earnings, either past or present, is distinctly unfair to the man. It was
 believed that the only comparison which could be used that would be fair to the man was a comparison of his physical condition before he en- tered the service with that of his physical condition at the present time, and to pay no attention to the mans earnings. Such a comparison, of course, had to be coupled with the experience tables of the doctors ] and the various workmen's com pensa tion commissions, to determine how much the average disability af- i fected the average earning capacity and it is this basis of comparison that ] the bureau is now using.
 i The result is. that just as long as 1 the doctors say a man is suffering a disability which will affect his earn i ing capacity to a certain extent, just | so long will he receive compensat ton i of a corresponding percentage, and | not attention will be paid to his earn l ings.
 l He may be earning five times as 1 much as he ever earned before, and 1 ] Congress in the act recognizes the l justice of this position for those who i had permanent disabilities by stipu- 1 based upon such an average table, and should not be in any way de- 1 pendent upon their earnings.) Many Claim Injustice.
 1 There are many questions which arise in the administration of this act
 because of the fact that many men
 believe they are not being treated ! the same as other men. I have al ready touched partly upon this, by . showing the impossibility of a de- finite schedule, but believe perhaps ! I can make the matter more clear by ] stating that the bureau fully realizes { that a man with a disability which he has just received, and who is just ! going out into the world Is under
 a much more serious handicap than the man with the same disability but | of long standing. The latter man has had time to become acustomed to the disability, and probably in a large part to overcome it.
 The man just out of the service
 has all of this period before him. The bureau recognizes this fact, and, even in cases of lost limbs, perfectly de-
 finite fixed disabilities, makes awards of a tehn porary nature of a greater
 extent until it is shown that the man has overcome this extra handicap
 This extra handicap, of course, is ! much greater to some men than tG
 others. The loss of an arm to 8
 mechanic will be a much more sert-
 ous loss than to a lawyer, and it would
 take the former much longer to over
 come the extra handicap than i
 would the latter.
 This is one of the most common
 reasons why men with apparently tht
 same disability believe that they are
 not being treated in the same man
 ner As a matter of fact they are
 only the facts are different in th'
 two cases. As soon as the eXtrs
 handicap is overcome the man i!
 placed on a permanent basis, and nc