The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-01-10
American Legion Lambasts
 System of Rehabilitation
Continued from page one)

sands have waited for months for an as self-sustaining members of soci sty by vocational training. Thousands are in need of hospitalization. and the gov ernment has no hospital facilities available for them. Sixteen thousand beds are needed now. Hundreds of veterans are the objects of public and private charity. Afflicted and penni> Hess veterans have been driven to
 refuge in almshouses and jails. Many have died, and if immediate relief is not forthcoming. many will die desti- tute, without proper medical care. l without compensation with which to obtain it, abandoned by the -country they served. All this is attributed Gi-
 rectly to the manner in which the gov ernment has administered the affairs of the disabled. Imm ediate relief and ultimate remedy of this condition is possible and imperative"
 Taking up the three governm ent agencies dealing with the disabled men, the legion memorial asserted that the bureau of war risk insurance has never accomplished it's vital ob- ject of making just and prompt awards
 of compensation. It pointed out that the burden of proof was on the dis dpicQ WHO was thus DIdC0d Tn the position of a man injured in in> dustry who must sue the company ard that when he attempted this the cnly aid he could obtain was from either the Red Cross, the legion or some pri- vate agency.
 Tt is usually months after he is dropped from the pay roll of the army or navy before he is taken up on the pay roll of the bureau" says the me. morial. "on November 26 last. s3,ooo cases were pending in the bureau awaiting adjustment of compensa ion Thousands are suffering, and many have died as result of this neglect" Tt was pointed out that the bureau failed to create an adequate force to go into the field' and discover to what extent the men were disabled, but delegated that task to the public health service, Which has IA regional offices throughout the country, and an
 army of local examiners to make physical examinations.' When .he claim reached the war risk bureau, it was not in the form of person, but a paper, case.
 | As long as the federal board of 70. cational training was centralized in Washington as the war risk bur ,au now is, the work of the board was a failure, says the legion. Since 1t has begun to decentralize by going out into the field and looking up the men, it has approved 150,000 additional cases. and placed s1.0oo additional n. en in training. Tt attempts. and in part has succeeded in looking up the man. contrary to the general practice of having the man look up the agency" says the Legion.
 Criticism of the operation of these two boards is made on the ground tkat their works fails to coordinate tc such an extent that when a war Yet, eran's compensation is shifted from the bureau of war risk insurance to the board of vocational education there is delay of from three weeks to two months. during which no pro nance"
 "A recent survey of conditions in a tubercular hospital had disclosed that about 75 per cent of the patients had received no compensation, and were in a wretched state of anxiety" said the memorial. Some of them had left the hospital in their weakened condi- ton to try to work and support their families. because the government had failed to do so.
 The United States public health serVice acts as an agency of both the bureau and the board. but is responsi> pie to no authority common to both, because there is not such authority. There is clear break in the chain of responsibility"
 Declaring that it is remarkable u at the. rehabilitation system has accom- piished what little 1t has" the Legion attributes this to the sincerity of the mon employed in the three agencies. who' IL says 'generally have made the best of an impossible situation"