The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-08-24
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j. HAsKIN, Director,
Washington, d. G.
THE SIEGE OF WASHINGTON.

| city is being made a Mecca by an in
creasing number of veterans of the
world war, who find dealing with the
government, by mail too slow for their
| taste.
The other day. an eX-soldier with
| three medals for valor and achieve
ment in the war, dropped into WASH
| ington from a distant city via an ex-
press train. He felt that compensa-
ton was due him because he had
served turnout the war and had been
wounded. He claimed shell shock, but
! been effected, he was now in excellent
health. So he set out for the long
| journey home with the same answer
| that would have been given him in less
time had he gone to his American
Legion post back home and asked it
to help him.
This is one case. The general con-
ditiop is that fifteen to twenty-five ex-
| service men have been coming in to
Washington each day to see about
! compensation which they claim is due
them. Now that the Sweet bill is a
law. arrivals are increasing TO about
| thirty a day, all hoping that the new
law will favor them.
Sooner or later, these men are in
| terviewed by Commander w. F.
Franklin, of Costello Post of the
American Legion. Costello Post takes
care of them and helps them to get
| their cases considered. Investigation
shows that only 40 per cent of these
men have any legitimate grounds for
asking compensation. The other so
per cent are men who either misun-
derStand the government laws on COM
pensatior or, as Commander Frank
! lin put it have acquired a chronic
dislike for work." and think the gov
eminent owes them a living.
ITO take a typical case" Comman-
der Franklin explained. "A man was
| drafted and sent to training camp. He
took the flu and pneumonia set in.
He has never fully recovered his
health. So he is discharged and gets
some compensation.
| Another man in the same town
volunteers and goes to France. He is
wounded and spends several months
in the hospital. He gets well and
comes home. Now, he sees this other
man who never went to France draw
ing twenty-five dollars month, and
he feels that here is an injustice. He
himself was wounded, he argues, and
surely he is entitled to compensation
if this other fellow is.
1.-The more he thinks about his case.
the surer he is that the government
owes him something. He does not
| reason that the country can no more
pay him a monthly salary than any
| other wounded man who has been re-
stored to health. In this frame of
mind, some men do not look favorably
on offers of work. They want JUS
tice' They simply do not understand
the situation.
| seek Open Door to Treasury.
$50 he sets out for Washington,
generally beating his way on the
trains, and tramping, and working
here and there for a meal. He is
| convinced that once he tells his story
to his congressman, that dignitary will
say the magic word and the doors OF
the treasury will be flung open for
him"
How to deal with these men-many
of them war heroes-has been prob
lem for Washington, and especially for
| the Costello Post. This post of the
American Legion is composed of vet
Grams employed in the municipal gov
eminent offices of Washington. When
policemen began picking up jobless
ex-soldiers on the streets. and bring
ing them to the municipal building,
members of the Costello Post at work
| there heard about the cases, and SO
the post began to help these men out.
| Now, Commander Franklin sees
them, listens to their troubles, helps
| them out financially if necessary. He
| cannot find work for them, for there
are few unoccupied jobs in Washing
ton. But if man arrives here
"broke" and with any chance OF
legitimate claim on the government
which has not been settled, the post
| puts him up in a dormitory for the
time being, and gives him meals, and
| sometimes even a dollar for cigarets to
| keep him contented. Then his case is
brought to the attention of the proper
official. and he is sent off-settled-
in as few days as possible.
| If obviously he has no claim-and
Commander Franklin is an expert
| enced judge-he is assisted to leave
the city at once, so that he can get
| home or find work for himself else
| where.
Merely to take care of each man.
some of whom stay only few hours
in the city, costs the post SIS. To raise
- a fund for this purpose a moving pic
ture show was given. and week or
so ago circus. Both together netted
I me post $4,000, an altogether insuffi-
cient sum when so many demands are
being made on it constantly.
Varied Problems Presented.
The variety of problems which the
i Costello post has to meet may be
I young veteran and his wife came to
Washington, and he had completed
his business with the veterans bureau
when his. wife fell ill They were
stranded with no funds for hospitals
or doctors. The Costello post learned
of the case, and had the wife sent to
hospital and the post surgeon at
tended her until she was well enough
TO return to New York.
A different type of assistance was
given by the post in another instance
when veteran, a stranger in this city,
committed suicide. His mind had
been affected by some injury in the
war, and he had been very much de-
pressed. Nothing was ever known OF
him, save his name, Charles Ammon,
of Rhode Island, and his service rec
ord. Police thruout the country tried
to find his relatives but with no sue
cess. Costello Post heard that his
body was lying unclaimed at the
morgue, and took charge of it, paying
to have him buried at Arlington with
full military honors- The government
has no fund for burying ex-soldiers at
Arlington. and in the circumstances the
man would have been sent to the pot
tar,S finId For the f11f11ra the rnnrp-1a