The copper era and Morenci leader., 1921-03-11
The GOVERNM ENT-THE WOUND
 ED EX-SERVICE MAN-Part No. 2

ED EX-SERVlCE MAN-Part No. 2 .(b) Dealing with papers not people.
 Not only has the Bureau failed to; create an adequate force to go into the field and make contact with it's charges but it has no first hand means of determining the degree of their disability. It cannot call all it's claimants to Washington to examine them. Much less can it keep them all in Washington to observe progress of their condition and so preserve a ! just relation between the degree of disability and the amount of compen- sation in each case.
 The Public Health Service has fourteen regional offices Throughout the country and an army of local ex- aminers who make these physical eX- aminations. A man must forward his claim to the Bureau in Washington and present himself to a local exam iner of the Public Health Service for examination. The local Examiner who sees and knows the claimant DOES NOT DECIDE THE DEGREE OF HIS DISABILITY. The report of his examination is forward to Wash ingto1. The medical staff of the Bureau, not the Public Health Ser vice determines by use of an arbitrary standard the percentage Of disability and the compensation that should be paid for it. The claim is then certi- fled for payment by another man whS has never seen the claimant and to whom the claimant is not person, but 9 paper, case
 The Federal Board for Vocational Education, acting on"the advice of examiners of the Public Health Ser, vice, whose recommendations it ac- cepts, frequently is obliged to with hold training from men who are phy- sically unable to pursue the course. Very often the Bureau of War Risk Insurance at ting at Washington on evidence furnished by the same eX- a.niners on the same men rules that these men are only slightly disabled. Such men have been refused compen- sation by the Board or awarded tra- eicallv small amounts. As result these men can. get neither training nor compensation adequate to support them.
 (c) Medical and Hospital care: More Absent Treatment"
 The Bureau is responsible for hos pitalization and medical treatment but is powerless to enforce it's responsl- biIity because it has no facilities by which this care and treatment may be given. Authority has been dele gated sometimes even third-hand. The Bureau has given the job over to the Public Health Service, the Army the Navy, the National Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, the De partment of Interior and to private hospitals. Local examiners Of the Public Health Service decide 1T man needs treatment and hospitaliza- tion. If he does the service does it's best to give it to him. Allacation of men to hospitals controlled by aboVe agencies is made by the Public Health Service. Except in the case of its own hospitals and those contract hos pitals specifically under it's control, the Public Health Services control over patients ends with this place ment. Some institutions have refus- ed the Public Health Service privilege of inspection Beds in additional hos p;tals are contracted for by the Pub lie Health Service. In the later class are state. nun .cipal and private ln- stitutions and institutions operated by charaitable and benevolent socle- ties. From all sources combined there have not been provided ado- duate or proper facilities, especially to tubercular, gas and neuro-psychi' atric cases. If the Layman finds the above situation too complicated for ready understanding, he may find eX- cuse in the fact that H. s. Cummings, Surgeon General of the Public Health Service. in a recent letter to the Ma tional Commander of The American Legion. discussing the part the Sold ier's' Homes play in the scheme, wrote: q am not all clear as to the exact relatioship in the matter"
 5-Federal Board for Vocational Training.
 The board is responsible for the training of the disabled to enable them to overcome their vocational handicap This is matter or edu- cation, the nature of which must de- pend to a large degree upon the adap- tation of educational facilities already existing. As long as the machinery of the Board was centralized in Washington. as the War Risk Bureau is now, the Board was failure In eighteen months it approved 30,0OO cases and put into training l4,Ooo men. Since it began to decentral1ze a nrocess now extended as far as practicable under present laws, It mas approved 1j0. 600 cases and placed in training 61,000 additional men. Ihe Board now goes out into the field u attempts and in part has succeeded in looking up the man, contrary to the general practice of having the man look up the agency.
 (a) Conflict and duplication be- +ween the Board and the Bureau,
 The Board will accept the evidence of the Bureaus medical files granas ing compensation as proof that man 1r entitled to vocational training.