Evening star., 1921-11-06
CLEANUP SQUADS AIDING
THOUSANDS or VETERANS
5l,A27 Claimants Assisted in Preparing
Cases as Result Of Country Wide
-< Campaign.

More than S6.425 disabled ex-service
men have been interviewed by Uncle
Sam since August. Prima facie evil
dence In the cases of 51,427, of these
veterans indicated that their claims
should be filed. and government rep
resentatives assisted these 51,427
claimants to compile and prepare the
necessary evidence in their claims.
These thousands Of claims have been
speedily acted upos. for out Of these
5l'427 claims filed only 1893 are pend
ing. the remainder having been, ad-
Indicated and notices of settlement
forwarded to the claimants.
Personally interviewing more than
S6'425 ex-doughboys in cities and
small towns, in mountain districts
| and rural communities throughout
Ihe country is no small proposition.
But the government had pledged its
ald to the disabled. and the "clean-
up squads" were devised to carry
this pledge into execution.
Red Cross and Legion Help.
the Red Cross and American Le-
gion were called into conference and
piedsed their support, both financially
sn1 ana morally. to the undertaking.
sa tnese squads were organized in the
fourteen regional districts of the
veterans bureau and sent out to
comb every state. city and village for
sab!ed veterans who had never re-
ce1ved any assistance from the fed
erai government. or who had difi-
comysnss. co11y IN satisfactorily adjusting their
have covered in their itineraries more
than 1,l50 cities. where they main
tanned temporary headquarters, until
al! cases in the vicinity were prop
erly filed. They were assisted BY
locai committees or citizen and. civic
organizations.
Daily throughout the country a steady
line or veterans passed before these
squads, wearing bronze buttons denot-
ing honorable discharge and thousands
OF them wearing the silver star, the
Many of these men were suffering from
the enects OF gas received in the battle
OF the Meuse or limping from shrap-
mel or machine gun bullet received in
the Argonne :
Many Of these men may have been
discharged as physically sound, but who
now were suffering from the effects of
gas and other disabilities OF service
origin. Others were visibly in bad con-
dition and in need of disqualification,
dS tO tne procedure
Of applying for it. -. -
Unusual Cases Found.
Thousands of personal episodes which
formed the aftermath of war were also
revealed to these cleanup squads,
which covered every. nook and corner
of the country in the effort to seek and
assist every veteran having a possible
disability claim. AS a result OF this
unique program Of taking official Wash
ington to the veterans. unusual cases
from all parts of the country are COM
ing to light for the first time.
There is, for example. the case of
c. H. Pearl. a Grand Rapids, Mich,
veteran. who lost his left hand and arm
as a result of a shrapnel wound incur
red in the trenches. Pearl was listed
among his comrades as "a soldier with
out a country" 1t appears that this
veteran of the French and American
Army enlisted originally in the Ameri-
can ambulance service, attached to the
French army, In 1917. After serving his
enlistment he applied for transfer to
the American expeditionary forces. but
on the advice Of the attache he entered
the French service for three months.
Six months later he was wounded
and sent to a hospital. Four weeks
afterward his organization was trans
| ferred to the United States Army, but
Pearl was not sworn into the United