The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1922-07-25
GEN. SAWYER is
BLOCKING VETS
AID, IS CHARGE
Col. Sprague of American Le'
gion Committee AssaiIs
Presidents Physician
ASKS HIM "STAND ASIDE
General Sawyer's Declaration
Only 2 More Hospitals
Needed Is Charge
(By the Associated Press)

Chicago, July 25.-Colonel A. A.
Sprague, chairman Of the American
Legion's, national rehabilitation COM
mittee in a letter to Brigadier Gen
eral Charles E. Sawyer, personal
physician to President Harding and
chief coordinator of the federal
board of disqualification, made pubic
today charges that Gen. Sawyer is
standing in the way Of proper care
for wounded and shell-shocked vet
erans and holding up hospital plans
voted by congress.
81 recognize the fact" Colonel
Sprague wrote to the presidents
physician, "that before becoming
chief coordinator of the federal board
Of disqualification you had no con-
tact with the men and women who
were serving in the army and navy
during the war and no experience
either in the field on in the govern
ment service that would give you
chance to really know how men feel
who lose their nerve, their health
and their minds in devotion to duty
or how their families look upon
these men who went out in the
strength of their youth to invest
their life in their nations service"
Asks He Stand Aside
Appealing to General Sawyer to
"stand aside" Colonel Sprague said
over 45OO. mental cases are still con-
fined in contract institutions and
that of the remaining 4,715 victims
of mental disorders only $500 are
in government institutions devoted
entirely to their cae. 5'r
Quoting from letter received
from General Sawyer in which the
chief coordinator said, II am con
vinced that the peak of hospitaliza-
ton has been passed." and that the
government had sufficient beds, ex-.
cept in two Districts" Colonel
Sprague replied: .t ~ rls * &. s,.,. = e
ut is almost unbelievable that,
having satisfied yourself that these
hospitals were needed and that they
should be built to capacity that we
now have to reply to your statement
that they are unnecessary. Sir, ask
the boys in contract asylums and
their families, ask the men whose
nerves have been shattered by this
war who have suffered from the lack
of adequate disqualification.
Reply of Legion
"The reply Of the American Leg
ion and every real American is give
these men the best care that medical
science can provide in government in
stituions maintained at the highest
standard Of equipment and adminis-
tration-and near to their own
homes, so that, if rehabilitated they
can be retured to civil life with
greater ease, and # doomed to hos
pitalization they can be near those
whom they love best"
"Four years have already passed
and the veterans have not yet been
provided for. A belated program is
now being held up and changed. 1t is
being changed to meet your ap-
proval.
~ appeal to you, sir, to stand
aside and allow this program of the
veterans bureau to go into effect and
at once"
The controversy between General
Sawyer and the Legion officials is
the outgrowth Of a letter written by
the general July 18th to Colonel
Sprague dealing with the Legion's
demands for hospi.al care of the
wounded under the Langley appro-
priation bill.