New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-01-10
Legion Memorial De-
,nonncing Method of Aid
ing Disabled Veterans to
CotoWilsonand Congress
Calbraith Will Present the
Document to Harding
This Morning at Marion,
Asking His Assistance

the governments present system OF re-
facilitating disabled war veterans and
suggesting remedy for the suffering,
ing the work will be submitted to-day
by officials of the American Legion to
President Wilson, President-elect Har-
ding and all members of both houses
of Congress.
Consolidation of the three agencies
now charged with the care of wounded
veterans is the solution to the problem,
the Legion will declare. The Bureau Of
Wark Risk Insurance, the Federal
Board for Vocational Education and the
United States Public Heath Service,
the memorial declares, must be CO.
ordinatcd and all three placed under
common control.
The American Legion plan will be
submitted to President elect Harding
at Marion this morning by National
Commander F. w. Galbraith- jr., the
Legion's highest officer who also will
discuss other issues vital to veterans
with the next President.
OF the consolidation proposal the
Legion says:
"To do this there must be new
law which will place. tNr priied or
ganization under single administrative
head. For the new organization the
veterans ask an appropr .t.on sufficient
TO buy. build, equip and enlarge hos
pitfalls and to provide facilities for all
the men now under hospital treatment"
Three thousand copies of the me-
mortal have been sent out to Legion
speakers in all states who have volun-
teered their services.
The memorial asserts that the United
States has been more liberal than any
other nation in it's provisions for the
disabled soldiers, but that it has failed
IN = large measure to make these pro-
visions available. This is attributed to
IAN astonishing state of divided re-
the government agencies with which
) the problem rests"
I'm tie rehabilitation of q disabled
man ere are three needs-medical
treatm NJ, vocational training and fl
nencial support" the memorial pro
ceeds. "The government has recog-
nized the three needs but overlooks the
fact that they are the simultaneous
needs of one man. no. of three differ
ent men, nor o. one man at three differ
ent times. 1t makes three problems
out o. what really is one three-par.
problem.
Continuing this faulty conception it
has given the problem over to thru
agencies The Public Health Service.
for treatment; the Federal Board To-.
Vocational Training, for training, and
Bureau of War Risk Insurance., for
financial support. Each of these agcn-
cles Is an institution comp etc in IT,
self. Each is adn;nistrativolv indo-
pendent OF the other two. All by force
OF circumstances are exercising func-
tons they were not intended to exer-
else. This presents an amazing specta-
Gle OF administrative chaos. duplication
wasted energy and conflict. which is the
key to the present condition.
The result is the suffering of the
disab ed veteran. Thousands are wait
ing' and have waited, for months for
compensation for their injuries. Thou
sands have waited months for ar
opportunity to reestablish themselves
as seif-sustalning memhNr OF society
by vocational training. Thousands are
in need of hospitalizatic n. and the GOV
eminent has no hospital facilities avail
able for them. Sixteen thousand beds
are needed now. Hundre S of yeterars
are the objects of pub ic and private
charity. Afflicted and penniless veterans
nave teen driven to re7nge in aims
houses and jails. Many have died and.
II relief is not Forthcoming, more will
oie' destitute, without proper. medical
care, without compensation with which
to obtain It, abandoned by the countrv
they served. AL this is attributed d.
rectty to the manner in which the gov
eminent has administered the affairs OF
the disabled. Immediate relief and ul
innate remedy of this condition is
possible and Imperative"
Taking up the three government
agencies dealing with the disabled men
the Legion memorial asserted that the
Bureau of War Risk Insurance had
never accomplished it's vital object Of
making just and prompt awards Of com
pensation.
So long as the Federal Board Of yo.
eationai Training was Centralized in
Washington, as the War Risk Bureau
now is. the work of the board was a
failure, says the Legion Since it has
negun. to. decentralize by going out
into the field and looking up this men
IL has approved 100000 sd!itional case
and placed 61,000 additional men in
training. at attempts, and in part has
succeeded, in looking up the man, con-
trary to the general practice of having
the man look up the agency" saws the
Legion, and continues:
1.-THE United States Public Health
Serv,ce acts as an agency of both the
bureau and the board, but is responsj-
BILE to no authority common to both
because there is not such AUTHORITY
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