The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1920-11-18
THE UNPAID DEBT
TO THE SOLDIERS
New York Times)

y
There has been deal of fine talk
about paying our debt" to the sol
diers How much performance is to
be given to these easy promises? The
people Of three states are paying the
debt by blithely voting indiscriminate,
bonuses, money that will be quickly
and unproductively spent IN many or
most cases by the sound benefciaries
and can be only a temporary dole to
the disabled For them permanent
provision on far-seeing plan must
be made. Has it been made? What
has the government done? There are
three often interlapping, colliding,
imperfect organs for the care of the
disabled, the bureau of war risk in
surance, the public health service, the
federal board for vocational educa-
ton. With the best intentions the
government does business ii the lame
ard clumsy traditional government
way.
You go before this or that board to
get examined. When you present
yourself for examination, you find
that the board has decamped In the
course of time you are ground out of
that board. only to be deposited after
much labor and correspondence and
the unraveling of leagues of red tape,
lin another board. You are driven from
pillar to post Many men get dis
gusted with these everlasting cir
Icumnavigations of the circumlocution
office. They give up in disgust. A
concrete case illustrates the remark
able efficient efforts of the how-not-
| to-do-it federal method. The law says
that, if the illness of soldier cared
for by the vocational board was con-
tracted in the service, the physicians
of the public health service shall ex-
anime the soldier and the bureau of
war risk shall pay for such medicines
as he needs. IF the illness was not
contracted in service. the vocational
board was in the habit of paying for
the medicines prescribed. 1t was the
boards business to bring the. boy or
man into good condition, and the med
icines were. necessary for his health.
The controller of the treasury held a
| few weeks ago that the vocational
board had no legal authority to pay
for medical services. medicines, and
SO on, for soldier whose illness
couldn't be traced in the service. So
! he wouldn't pay even the bills of
hospitals, physicians and druggists,
honestly contracted IN reliance on the
Iprevious practice of the vocational
board.
| As if there were not red tape
enough around the three arms of re-
lief, the treasury has to add some
more. !. The soldier has only enough
money for bare subsistence. He can't
ray for his medicine. The war risk
bureau can't pay because his illness
lcan't be shown to have been contract
ed in the service The vocational
board can't pay because the controller
forbids. The soldier, whose health
/ the government is supposed to be re-
storing, can go without the medicine.
His health can grow worse. He can
die. Thus do we fulfill our boasts
about paying our debt" to the sol
ldiers broken in our defense.
At Elberon, N. J., today there are
some twenty-five or thirty young fell
lows, all of whom have been discharg-
ed from the army though they are
suffering, and some of them incurab-
lily, from poison gas. To about half
lof them the government gives no pay,
mo help whatever. Unless their par
tents or relatives are well off enough
to relieve them. they have no resource
but charity. They are too Ill to work.
Probably most of them never can
work. Sisters of charity. ever true to