The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1921-01-10
AMERICAN LEGION
ATTACKS THE SYSTEM
Fx-Service Men Object to the Method
of Rehabilitating Disabled
Veterans of the War
ASSOCIATED Press)

system of rehabilitating disabled vet
Grams of the war is denounced by the
American Legion as failure" which
should be remedied by consolidating
under single head the three depart
ment agencies now engaged in that
work. This charge and the remedial
suggestion will be presented today by
the legion to President Wilson, Presi-
dent-elect Harding and to every mem
ber of both houses of Congress in a
memorial directing attention to the
suffering, shameful neglect and in
justice" which the legion asserts
marks the administration of the af-
fairs of the war veterans.
Colonel F. w. Galbraith Jr., nation
al commander of the legion, will per.
sonally deliver a copy of the memo
rial to Senator Harding at Marion
where Colonel Galbraith has an ap-
pointment to discuss with the presi.
dent-elect the legion's program fol-
the disabled men.
The legion asserts in the memorial
that the function of the three agencie.
which now deal with the soldiers whc
require their country's cars, the bu
reau of war risk insurance. the fed
eral board for vocational education
and the United States Public Health
Service, "must be co-ordinated, theil
machinery decentralized and all thre,
placed under the common control"
''To do this the memorial says
"there must be new law which shall
place the unified organization under /;
single administrative head" Fol
this new organization, the legion ask
an appropriation sufficient to buy
build, equip and enlarge hospitals
sufficient to provide facilities for al
the men now under hospital treatment
Bills providing for this have been in
troduced in both houses of Congress
at the request of the legion.
1t is announced that the legion hal
sent copies of the memorial to 300
legion speakers in all states who hav,
volunteered to endeavor to focus tn
attentio nof the nation on the situa
tion of the disabled men.
The memorial asserts that tn
United States has been more liberia
than any other nation in its provision
for the disabled soldiers but that i
has failed in large measure to max
these provisions abailable. This i
attributed to "an astonishing state o
divided responsibility and wasted eff
fort among the government agencie
with which the problem rests"
Taking up the three governmen
agencies dealing with the disable'
men, the legion memorial asserte
that the bureau of war risk insuranc
Ia dnever accomplished its vital oh
ject of making just and proper award
Of compensation.
As long as the federal board of vo
cational training was centralized il
Washington, as the war risk bureau
now is, the work of the board was
failure, says the legion Since it ha
tegun to decentralize by going on
into the field and looking up the men
it has approved 10000 additions
cases and placed $1,000 additions
rien in training.
"The United States Public Healtl
Service" says the memorial, "acts a
an agency of both the bureau and tn
hoard but is responsible to no autho
rlty common to both because there
TO such authority. There is a clea
break in the chain of responsibility
Declaring that it is remarkable tina
the rehabilitation system has accom-
plished "what little it has," the legiol
attributes this to the sincerity of tn
men employed in the three agencies
who, it says, generally have mad
1.-THE best of an impossible situation"