Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1919-09-18
RECOMMENDATIONS TO CON.
GRESS.

Director II. G.S .SCh0lmeley- Jones of
the Bureau Of War Risk Insurance
has made the, following recommends
tions to the Interstate and Foreign
Commerce Committee Of the House of
Representatives:
The War Risk Insurance Act is one
of the most beneficent ever passed by
any legislative body in the history Of
the world, but the experience of over
year and half Of it's operation has
shown that it should be amended in
some particulars. The Bureau of War
Risk Insurance has. therefore sug-
gested for the consideration Of Con-
gress some amendments to the act
the principal features of which en-
brace the following:
That the beneficiaries of insurance
should include uncles. aunts, nephews,
and persons who have stood in loco
PARENTS to a member Of the military
forces. This would allow the Bureau
to pay the claims of those men who
died in service and who had named as
beneficiaries aunts and uncles who
had brought them up since childhood.
The Bureau has also recommended
that persons who were drafted and
who died or became disabled in the
line of duty before having been ac-
cepted into active military service at
the camps shall be entitled to com
pensation under the War Risk Insur-
ance Act. The act as it Stands at
present only covers a man after he
has been accepted into active mill
tary service by the medical officer at
the camp or other place Of mobiliza-
tion.
The recommendation also provides
that should d draftee die or become
disabled before acceptance by the
camp officer, he shall be deemed to
have been granted insurance paying
$25 per month, payable, however, on
ly to his widow, children, mother, or
father. The Bureau has also recon-
mended that any person who has been
accepted by the medical officer at the
camp, provided he has not refused to
take insurance, shall be covered for
insurance paying $25 per month with
out charge should he die within one
hundred and twenty days after such
acceptance. This provision is sug-
gested in order to cover the men who
were stricken down by influenza in
the fall of 1918 and who had not had
any opportunity to apply fos insur-
iance.
In order that the insurance to be
issued after the war may be properly
administered, the Bureau has asked
authority to invest the premiums and
set up reserve funds, investments to
be made in interest bearing obliga-
tions of the United States.
In connection with this converted
insurance the Bureau asks the right
so to frame the policy forms that if
the insured desires to have his con-
verted insurance paid in one sum, he
may so elect; and if he wishes his
beneficiaries to receive the in STALL
ments within, say three years rather
than over a period of twenty he may
so elect.
1t also asks the privilege so to draft
the converted policies that a man may
designate his beneficiary who will
receive all the payments. Thus, if a
man wants his wife as beneficiary
and does not want the installment
payments after her death to go to a
sister or a brother, the policy will
provide that installments will be paid
to the wife and on her death the re-
naming installments to her estate.
During the war, if soldier took
out an insurance policy and was kill
ed and did not leave any beneficiary
who could take the insurance money,
the policy reverted to the Govern
ment. AS conditions have entirely
changed, due to the cessation Of ac-
tive warfare, the Bureau asks that
this forfeiture be eliminated from the
act so that in no case will the Gov
ernment forfeit an insurance claim.
The bill introduced by Mr.. Rayburn,
of Texas. and. those of other members
widening the provisions for payment
to disabled soldiers, have the indorse-
ment of the Bureau. By these bills a
man totally permanently disabled
will receive 500 instead Of $50, as at
present ($10O being paid now only in
specified cases,) and man with one
leg off will receive percentage of
$100 rather than a percentage of $50,
as at present. The amounts payable
|if he is temporarily totally disabled
are considerably increased by these
bills and are deemed nearly to fit
present-day conditions, taking into, ac-
count the present high cost of living.
Provision is made in bill intro
duced by Mr.. Sweet to pay 5000 in
case Of double total permanent dis
ability.
Missouri Valley Pleased