Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-01-15

| gassed IN the service and were wounded
Kindly give evidence that these thing
were incurred in the service.
Robert j. Fuller chief OF the voca
tional training section for this district
explained the situation as follows
The original delays were caused be
cause the original act Of June ~. 1918
| made it necessary for former service
man to have been awarded compensa =
tion by the War Risk Insurance Bureau
before he could he placed in training
by the Federal Board of Vocational
Training.
That act was amended July II,
1919. Since that time more than
10000 mon have been placed in train =
ing in the country. Individual delays
are due ofttimes to loss of service rec
ords, as there must always be re-
lation established between disability
and former service. before the man can
be trained at government expense.
Factors in Eligibility
There are four factors entering into
a mans eligibility for training. They
are: He must have an honorable dis :
charge from the army. His disability
must have been incurred, increased. or
aggravated. all traceable to his former
service, and his injury or sickness must
prove a vocational handicap. Train
ing. also. must be feasible in each case,
For instance. active tubercular or men
tai cases cannot be given training.
This district. No. 3. has placed in
aiming 5000 men, and also has offered
training to 2300 men, and about 1000
men have discontinued training. or
have completed their courses.
-.
on successfully as the result of the
training the government has given them.
1.-The work in the district has been
dcccntralizcd, so far as vocational
training is concerned, and we now have
seven local offices as we'll as the one
in Philadelphia. Our work has steadily
improved until It is now possible for
action to be had upon an application
within n very few hours on any given
case. provided the eligibility for train
ing has been established as indicated
above.
There has been a lcssening of the
number of medical examinations re-
quired and improvements in the facili-
ties for medical examinations have
been secured by the federal board.
The Federal board has an adequate
medical staff to assist in the tietermi-
nation of eligibility, and it also follows
up men while in training from the
mcdical standpoint. Trained nurses
assist the training officers in overseeing
the men while they are in training.
Sometimes men claiming there have
been delays have had no just cause for
the statements they have made. This
is due to the fact that some have sought
training with disabilities of so slight q
nature that these disabilities have not
constituted a vocational handicap"
DIR. William f. Raken, of 1925
Spruce street, chairman of the Ameri-
can Legion committee on disabled SOL
diers and sailors, said "It is perfectly
true that the war-risk insurance, vo-
cational education and public health
Serv ices have experienced many delays
in the past in their efforts to provide
compensation for disabled former serv-
ice men and to give them vocational
training. But ! must say matters have
improved wonderfully and are still i'm.
proving. The boards are now doing all
that is humanely possible with the
funds at their command"