The Nezperce herald. (Nezperce, Idaho) 1900-1957, 1921-04-14
THE STATUS OF THE
DISABLED VETERANS
What Has Been Done for Him

! (Second of a series of articles on
this subject by John M. Booth. J
! In order to care for the rapid
4 ly increasing number of ex-serv-
ice men no longer able to earn a
7 living, the Government designat-
ed the following three depart
ments:
l. The Bureau of War Risk
Insurance, already functioning.
Every American soldier was re-
quirel to take out $4,000 insur-
ance at his induction into the
service. After discharge it was
obligational whether he kept it
in force or not. The administra-
ton of these war time policies,
and the administration of those
policies retained by ex-service
men after discharge, and the pay
ment of cash compensation to
veterans for their disability, has
been the work of this bureau.
2. The Board of Vocational
Education. Many ex-service men
are receiving training in voca-
tional schools, business colleges
and polytechnic institutes at the
Governments s expense. The
Board Of Vocational Education
was formed after the Armistice
for the purpose of carrying oil
this work efficiently and econom-
ically.
3. The U. S. Public Health
Service. This, in my mind, is the
most important division of the
Government s rehabilitation pro-
gram. 1t has the care of the
furnishing of beds, doctors, nurs-
es and medicine to the physically
Or mentally disabled.
This above, if you please, is
the program-on paper. What
are the facts of the case? Where
has the program failed and why {?
Primarily, the failure to prop
erly cars for the problem was
the lack of foresight in the begin
ming. Most Of our allies, upon
entering the conflict, Immediate
ly began to lay the foundation
for the care of their veterans,
with the result that when these
disabled men came home from the
service they found hospitals al
ready established, doctors and
nurses provided, the vocational
schools and all other provisions
for their welfare in reasonable
working order. The United States
on the other hand, waited until
their disabled were walking the
streets by the thousands and tens
of thousands, destitute or lodged
in some county Jail or insane
asylum, or subjects of charity i'll
some county hospital, before the
country awoke to the realization
that for a vast number of their
sons who shouldered their packs
with a song upon their lips a year
or two years before, the war did
not come to an end on November
IL, 1918. These men are still |
fighting the unfinished battle. |
With the problem full fledged be-
fore they became aware of its ex-
istence, is it any wonder that the
administration of the solution
has been handicapped by ineffi-
cheney, impractical ideas. and
hopeless, unutterable confusion?
First among the impractical
IDEAS mentioned is the fact that
the three agencies enumerated
above are under three different
heads, in three different build /
ings and with no more co-opera-
tion between them than between
three banks in a small town.. This
system has tended to cause an
amount of confusion that is mex
cusable and reprehensible, and
has brought much suffering on
the unfortunate disabled. It takes
a period of two months at the
shortest for a man to get his pa
pers through the three depart
ments when he is forced by the
severity of his disabili-
ty to apply to the Government for
assistance, and many men have
waited three, six, nine or twelve
to hear from their appli-
cations. Picture poor man,
with a family, living from day to
lay, suddenly stricken with tu-
and put flat on his ]
back. Waiting, in poverty and
want, for his compensation or or /
ler to the hospital, which may l
lever come, and he may die mis- !
,rably, this man who cheerfully {
,aced the country's enemy for I
he sake Of the very people who !
low have forgotten he ever ex-
sted. Do not think this is case {
manufactured out of the whole
10th to make the illustration.
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