Evening star., 1920-11-28
SINGLE SOLDIER AID
BUREAU PROPOSED
Legion Conference Drafts Bill
to Unite Three De-
partments.

A tentative draft Of a bill to con-
solidate the work Of caring for mer
tdisabled in the war, so that insurance
compensation, medical examinations
and hospital care shall all be unde,
one director and a single bureau, was
drawn up by the American Legion Of.
ficials meeting Jointly with officers
OF the government yesterday.
further opportunity to study the
measure, 1t is expected that another
meeting. will be called and the bill
put into shape to present to Con-
gress.
The conferees included John H
Sherbourne Of Boston. Abel Davis Of
New York, A. A. Sprague Of Chicago
Robert s. Marx Of Cincinnati and H
H. Raege Of Washington. for the
American Legion. The three govern
ment organizations concerned were
represented by Col. r. q. Cholmeley-
Jones, director Of the war risk bu-
Federal Board for Vocational Edu-
cation and DR.. c. W. Lavinder. as
sistant surgeon general Of the public
health service.
Though some criticism was leveled
at the way the government has han
died the cases OF the men totally or
partly disabled. the heads Of the bu-
reau pledged their fullest efforts in
getting through desirable legislation.
The legion eRcials. in making the
position Of mat organization. clear,
said that it proposed to press for
legislation consolidating functions of
the three government agencies and
doing away with .long-winded talk
about cooperation and co-ordina-
tion." John Sherbourne Of Boston. .
member ct tho legion's committee,
admonished the government conferred
tnat II the proposed consolidation de-
troyed. their present organization "it
destroy"
Or. Lavinder made a plea for tn.
continuation of other work in the
health service. outside Of that done
for the veterans Of the world war"
saying that his bureau had many
other functions in addition to the
work with disabled veterans.
nave read every one of your ap-
preparation bills" Mr.. Sherbourne re-
have to spend for the soldiers, sailors
and marines is much greater than fol
All other purposes combined Now,
we DON'T want to be rough and we do
not want to impair or handicap any
governmsntal agency unnecessarily
"ees ~ ~ euC AAAC OA LuiSs we
are faced with the problem of gov
ernment agencies not functioning, and
we do not propose to permit any
single agency to stand in the way"
Robert Marx declared it appeared
each OF the three agencies affected
by the proposed changes was seeking
to retain its separate entity ana was
opposing the program solely because
IT meant the concentration of the
three bureaus under the direction of
one responsible head. This was de-
clared by the bureau representatives
to be an incorrect representation of
Willingness to work out q plan
which would yield better results.
The conciliation plan as outlined
by the legion representatives pro-
poses the creation Of an assistant
secretary in one Of the executive de-
partments. probably in the Treasury,
to have direct charge Of the work Of
the three bureaus having to do with
ex-servtce men. The government rem
resentatives approved this feature Of
the plan. but doubted the advisability
OF actually combining the three bu-
reaus.
Several members Of the legion COM
mtttee Will remain here to complete
drafting Of the proposed bill. The
three bureaus represented at the con-
ference will aid In this work.