Omaha daily bee., 1919-07-21
War Pensions IN England
(From the London Times.)

(From the London Times.)
Sir Douglas Haig has long been known to
have strong views about war pensions and their
administration. Yesterday he spoke his mind
Not only the army, but all of US, have reason
to thank him for being so outspoken. Every
decent man among those who did not go to
the war registered a vow when others went
! that so far as money and organization could
! prevent it, they should not be sufferers on our
| account. The old way with the army to
| butter the men with fine words when we were
at war. and when peace came to let them sup
plement their miserable pensions with organ
| grinding and free meal at an annual patriotic
dinner. But if that callousness was possible
| when the army was recruited for the most part
| from the failures and neerdo-wells, it is not
possible now, and most of US thought that we
| had made decent arrangements for the welfare
| of those who had served their country and of
| their dependents But the warmth of Sir Doug
las Haig's criticisms yesterday shows that the
undoubtedly good intentions of the country are
to some extent being defeated. He may have
lacked perfectly just appreciation OF the dlth-
cutles OF the administration, but it is surely
better that there should be an extra touch of
acerbity i'll criticism of the administration than
that even one man who has deserved well OF
the State in the should get less than his
rights now. And that not only on the grounds
OF personal justice, but because the welfare and
every miscarriage of justice to these men. what
ever its cause, is potent breeder of discomfort
and the brood will sooner or later come home
to roost
Sir Douglas Haig's criticisms are very de-
tailed, but fall naturally in two well-dehned
classes. The first class of grievances arises out
of faults of administration. Among these faults
we put first the failures of the medical boards.
The pensions depend the degree of disable
ment, which. in turn, depends on the doctor. 1t
is not too much to say that the doctor makes
the pension. But the average doctor who ex-
amines the disabled man, being as rule
civilian usually knows nothing about the dis
eases of war. Malaria, trench fever, and shell
shock, for example, dlsablements about
which this war has taught medicine most of
what 1t knows, and only those who have had
access to that knowledge can estimate the de-
gree of disability of the sufferer. There
young doctors unemployed who could, from
their war experience, do justly and with SYM
pathy the work that is often done gnorantly
and without sympathy For not only is there
uniformity in decisions but, as Sir Douglas
Haig complains, some doctors treat every ex-
aminee malingerer. We have several times
drawn attention to this perhaps the bitterest of
ali the grievances of the disabled soldier. Next
to the doctors. bad business organization of the
Departments concerned is the chief cause of
injustice. More than half the complaints arise
out of the delays of the Departments in giving
the men the rights that undoubtedly theirs.
Sir Douglas Haig dwelt on the hardship and dis
tress caused by these delays-delays in award
ing and renewing the wound pension and serv-
ice gratuity in assessing the degree of disabil-
ity that determines the retired pay, and in OBJ
tanning the special emergency grants. Papers
that have to pass through several Departments
are unaccountably held up, and while the De-
partments are filing and referring documents
backwards and forwards, and occasionally, no
dOuht LOSING he maj
to whom they refer may be suffering the acut-
est anxiety and even sometimes actual want
We know, of course, that the secretarial work
is enormous, but the congestion is largely due
to defects of organization that are preventable
One prime fault is the tendency of Government
Departments to regard themselves indepen-
dent great powers with rights and dignites that
affronted by schemes of coordination for
a common end. Thus the War Office will dis
charge a man before the Ministry of Pensions
is ready to deal with him, and the Ministry of
Pensions will have done with him before the
Ministry of Labor take him and equip him
for work The soldier in quest of the rights
that are his is always liable to fall down the
cleft between one Department and another and
each stage in the puncto of the Departments.
each example of their common habit of ignor-
ing each others existence. may mean hardship,
worry, and bitter sense of injustice in the
individual whom it is intended to benefit.
These causes of grievance are all remedlable
by administrative action without costing the
country another penny. Sir Douglas Hag went
farther and argued that the provision of the
widows and children and the rates for total
disability should be increased. The amount of
the rate is not we think, the grievance that is
felt with most men. What they want most of
all is not all increase in the rate but that they
should get the full rate to which they are en-
titled without delay. But it may we'll be tina,
these rates stand in need of revision. They
were fixed most of them, by the Royal War
rant of August. 1917, and since then there has
been a very sharp rise in the cost of living.
What generous then is in some cases
barely fair now, and what was fair may now
be so stingy as to produce "abject poverty
phrase that Sir Douglas Haig used more than
once. On the other hand. there cases in
which fiat rate allowance may still be excess
sively generous. Probably justice might best
be done by allowing greater latitude and sub
stituting sliding scale for the flat rate, SO as
to give greater freedom in meeting particular
circumstances No two cases exactly alike.
1t would be gross injustice to the soldiers
case to represent it attempt to dive
deeper into the public pocket. More money is
not their first demand. But neither is economy
in these matters the paramount duty of the
Departments. Their first duty is to do justice
to those to whom the State is indebted. What |
ever that may cost, the country is ready to
meet the bill
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