Pueblo chieftain., 1921-12-12
ROUNDING UP THE VETERANS

sated by cleanup squads, who did not
Snow that they were entitled to gov
ernment aid. At Stockton. California.
a battle SCARED ex-service man de-
cleanup squad. He said he had heart
trouble. So. slight was his heart all
ment. however. that the examining g
physician found that II would not en-
title him to compensation. But to his
great surprise he discovered that the
vet had scar about 10 inches long and
inches wide on his hip whore 4 mus
Gle had been shot off.
His chief complaint seemed to be that
he had heart trouble, but he casually
mentioned the fact that no had this
ugly shrapnel wound In the hip and
besides a bullet wound in one arm. He
almost forgot TO mention the latter
disability. the doctor said.
II was also found that he had not
fully recovered from a sort OF paraly-
sis OF the throat, arms and legs. The
vet said that he had always been too
busy to file a claim for compensation.
before. but that while working in the
mountains he saw "A poster announcing
that the cleanup squad was coming
to stockton SO he decided to go there
for an interview. He was rated as 80
per cent disabled and therefore en-
title TO $40 n month compensation.
When the cleanup squad sat in
Hartford. Connecticut. veteran
came before 1t. He showed the doc
tors of tho squad wound in his left
side that made them stand aghast. Tho
head OF the cleanup squad was called
into tho room and he, too. admitted
that in his crowded experience In the
department with disabled ex-eeryicc
mon, he had never seen such n gha-t =
ly wound. This soldier had not re-
ceived penny OF allowance since his
discharge over two years ago.
An explosive bullet had opened n
wound across his left side, Just above
tho hip. over IL inches long, and had
forced the hip out sso that the cavity
was from TO 6 inches deep. II had
not yet fully healed and the veteran
applied for compensation inasmuch a.
he was unable TO work
Humorous incidents como to light in
connection with this work as the I'M
employment situation leads some OF
the cx-serviec men to strain point
IN order to obtain compensation. In
knoNvillc. Tennessee. "a young man
presented himself and told OF his af-
Fiction. which he was informed was
not compcnsahlc. The young man was
taken aback by this prompt dismissal
OF his argument and paused n mo-
ment. Suddenly his hand began TO
tremblc whilc resting on his knee az he
Siiu. "ii also very nervous.
In some parts OF the hill country OF
( Tennessee and West Virginia tho gov
ernment representatives with the
cleanup squads were mistaken for
'Revenooers''. In other remote dis
tricts they were mistaken for draft Of
ficials who the less literato portion of
the population believed were searching
for draft evaders. One agent of tho
Veterans Bureau who had preceded
the squads for the purpose OF making
the advance arrangements was picked
up by a group of men In an automobile
who offered to take him to his dcsti-
nation. II. accepted the offer and got
in the car but he had to rest his heels
on several demijohns of corn likker."
Tho trip was interrupted In several
places while deliveries were being
made.
In Buchanan. Virginia. n man who
had his face almost blown away by a
gasoline explosion in Franco told the
clean-up officers that he did not know
that lie was entitled TO compensa ton
because 'he wasn't any hero soldier
and didn't get shot. but Just got blew
up trying to put firc out In camp