The Glasgow courier. [volume] (Glasgow, Mont.) 1913-current, 1920-12-17
CRUEL TREATMENT
OF WAR VETERANS
Veterans Tell Of Gross Neglect
of Montana Men Who Helped
To Win the War.
DELEGATION TO CAPITOL
American Legion Leaders Are to Try
to Secure Justice by Showing
Congress the Sad Practices
of Officials.

VI
Quoting from the official records,
a statement was issued Saturday by
the delegation of American Legion
men who left Sunday morning for
Washington, D. c., describing typical
cases of gross Indifference and cruel
treatment which Montana veterans Of
the world war have suffered, and still
are suffering at the hands of the war
risk insurance bureau, the correction
of which for the hundreds of veterans
in Montana the Legion officials will
seek at Washington by means of leg
i~slation which they will ask of Mon.
tana's congressional delegation, and in
whose support other senator's and con
gressmen will be enlisted.
The Legion delegation is composed
Of William Ferguson of Miles City,
state commander of the Legion, C.
I. Busha, Jr.. of Helena, state war
risk officers, Attorney 10y T. Molum-
by. of Helena, and Moses Cohen of
Butte, state finance officer.
The Delegations statement is here
appended:
A Lewis and Clark Soldier.
"a young man of Lewis and Clark
Soollty WIN JoilSN IllS (tlOlS IND uGNS
after was was declared was wounded
by a high explosive while hauling
mmunition to the front. He was riding.
one of the horses attached to an am
munition wagon when a high explosive
shell landed in the middle of the out
fit, killing the horses, and driving q
piece of shell through his foot, taking
out the entire ankle joint and mutilat-
ing the foot. After spending months
in various hospitals, undergoing re-
peated operations, he was discharged
with the wound still open. 1t would
heal over and then break out again.
"The result is q foot which is no
thing more than a mass Of sensitive
tissue and fractured bone, rigid at
the ankle, the leg being shortened, and
it being necessary for him to wear a
specially made shoe. Manual labor Of
any practical kind is impossible. and
it will be years before the foot is in
a normal condition so that it will be
more than a detriment.
Last April he was awarded S25 per
month. This amount was later increas-
ed to $50. but the bureau refuses 10
go further. Acting in accordance with
its regular practice, this amount will
shortly be reduced to So per month.
A Pitiful Case.
A young man was indicted into the
service and sent to Camp Lewis, where
he was accepted and entered into
actual service. After a lapse of five
months he q sent home, with 4 scar
over his eve, his mind completely gone.
and no explanation of the cause of his
condition. His discharge states that
he YVES discharged 'on account of de-
mentia praecoX.'
Notwithstanding the law says that
a MAJ accepted for and actually en-
Gagged in military service shall be
deemed to have been sound when ac-
copied, he is in an insane asylum and
is now neither receiving compensation
nor war risk insurance.
ArbitrariEess.
"An0ther man from Lewis and
Clark county enlisted in Nav, 1917.
He was sent to France with the 9th
engineers in the fall of that year;
spent three or four months at the
front in the mud and water, contract
ing bodily ailments from exposure
which caused his confinement in a
hospital ever since the middle of Jan
uary, 1920. being confined to his bed
in complete helplesSness, which will
continue during the remainder of his
natural life, according to his doctor.
"After months Of hammering. the
bureau awarded him compensation
from May g., 1920. Nowhere is that
date mentioned in the application pa
pcrs nor in the proof. nor has it any
relation to the date of his disability.
If he is entitled to compensation he
was entitled to have it begin with jan
uary II, 1920, this date he went into
the hospital. The bureau is either
guilty of giving away government
money to 4 man who is not entitled to
it. or is guilty of deliberately with
holding from him money which, oa-
longs to him. 4
A Distorted View.
"a man was struck on top of the
right shoulder. mean the neck, by a
piece of shell which passed ~diagonally
through his chest, la~cerating the right
lung and lodging in his left side so
near the surface hat he could feel the
heat of the metal in that side, the skin
peelin@ off from the effects of the
heat. The right shoulder blade was
shattered along the edge, the muscles
connecting the shoulder blade with
the back being severed so that when he
tries to lift his right arm the shoulder
blade lifts awav from his back so that
one may Law his hand between the
shoulder blade and the chest. A scar
from n to two inches wide and about
10 inches long extends from the shoul-
der TO the middle part of the back.
"The bureau officials do not believe
that the indiscriminate passage of a
piece of hot iron through the right
lung and such other vitals as We're in
the way affects the functions of organs
or impairs his ability to do manual
work, which is al the man is fitted to
do'bv reason of lack of skilled training.
Neither does it consider that the prac-
teal uSeloSSneSs of the right arm
amounts to much, for it awarded him
SIC per month January 1920. and has
lust turned down an application for an
Increase. To make matters worse,
whe" his case was hrounht TO the at
t%entinn of the Legion officials he was
nenniless and had not received even
this miserable pittance for four of five
months.
NipGardlv Treatment.
"a doughboy from one of our nor
thern counties was DISCHARGED from
the army hospital at Fl. McHenry,