The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-11-25
SERVICE MEN ENTITLED
 TO COMPENSATION UNDER ACT
How It Is Handled By Bureau of War Risk In-
 Surance

head alone covered fifteen pages, and did not include injuries to the eyes, he realized that to attempt to publish such a schedule would result in con fusing the men instead of helping them.
 Another question is frequently asked: Upon what is the rating based?" If I get a job and earn some money will my compensation cease ?'; If earned $10O before I went into the service, and now can earn only s50.00, what will the per cent. mean :? Will it be 50 per cent. of the money am now earning, or 50 per cent. of the difference, or just what will it be D This is in effect asking for a, definition of the term reduction in earning capacity" The rating is sup posed to determine what reduction in earning capacity the mans disability has caused hlnl.
 To arrive at this reduction in earn ing capacity there must be a compari- son of the two questions in order to determine what the reduction has been, and to fix the basis for compari- son has been a very difficult question for those administering the act. It was at first believed that a compari- son of a mans earnings after he left the service with those previous to en- &erlng the service would afford an accurate basis and that the result would be the reduction in the mans l earnings.
 But what IS the result of using 1 such a comparison? It is that the 1 question: tIf I get a job and earn some money will my compensation 1 cease?" must be answered, 'Yes,
 your compensation will be reduced or | discontinued.
 Obviously this is not just. A man with a disease like tuberculosis or , bright's disease might by reason of | his necessities be forced to find a jot l and earn something even in spite o1 1 the advice of his doctors. The re- | suit would be that the more he l earned, the less he would get from | the government would profit by thai l mans industry, even though thai 1 mans industry might be one form o1 | committing suicide. If the man got 1 a raise of s1O.00 he would receive | a reduction in his compensation i Such a method of determining the l compensation comparison also doe.
 not take into consideration that mos
 men who have been in the service fol
 any length of time had gained i'm | measurably by the experience, ane 1 probably had improved their earnins l capacity.
 A man may have gone into tn, | war as & farmland and come out a an expert automobile mechanic. I this were so then his earnings as al expert mechanic would be compare, with those when he was & farmhan,
 and he would never secure comper satfon so long as he worked. Sue. l comparison also would not talk
 
 when this man went into the wa
 $100 per month was worth a grea
 deal more than $100 at the presen
 time. It will therefore, be clearI
 seen that to judge a man on his actua earnings, either past or present, i
 distinctly unfair to the man.
 It Is believed that the only com parison which could be used tha
 would be fair to the man was com parfson of his physical condition be 7 fore he entered the service with tha l of his physical condition at the pres ent time, and pay no attention to tn mans earnings. Such a compariso : of course, had to be coupled wit } the experience tables of the doctor
 and the various workman's compen sation commissions to determine hoy much the average disability affecte | | IS THIS BASIS OF COMPARISOl 7 THAT THE BUREAU IS NOW US f ING. The result is, that just as lon
 as the doctors say man is sufferin r a disability which will affect his earn ing capacity to a certain degree, jus so long will he receive compensate of corresponding percentage and n g attention will be paid to his earning g ings. He may be earning five time e as much as he ever earned befor r and still be entitled to the comper e sation. (Congress in the Act recos = nized the justice of this position fe v those who had permanent disabilitie e by stipulating that their rating d should be based upon such an avel
 age table, and should not be in an, = way dependent upon their carr o ings.) !: There are many questions whic