Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1922-08-07
COMMITTEE: MAY
Be SELECTED To
SETTLE sAWYER-
LEGION DISPUTE
Colonel Sprague Suggests
That the President Ap-
point a Board to Decide
the Hospital Controversy,
CARE GIVEN WOUNDED
SOLDIERS Is ISSUE
Chairman of Rehabilitation
Committee Takes Issue
With Statements Made
By Harding'S Physician,

Chicago, Aug. 6 (by the Asso-
ciated Press A. A.
Sprague. chairman of the Ameri-
can Legion's national rehabilita-
tion committee, has suggested to
Brigadier General Charles d. Saw
yer President Harding's physi-
clan that the president be asked
to appoint a committee of physi-
clans to decide the controversy
between the general and the le-
gion over the hospital care given
wounded soldiers.
Colonel Sprague tonight made
public his letter to General Saw"
yer, who is chief coordinator of
the disqualification board.
Takes Issue With Sawyer
The letter takes issue with
statements made by General Saw
Yer in reply to previous communi-
cations from the legion official
as printed in the congressional
record.
The letter in part follows:
"The American public should
know the situation as it really ex-
lists, you write, and then you go
on to state that there are 80 gov
ernment hospitals with a total bed
of 2S,412 beds, 10,191 OF
which are unoccupied.
This latter assertion has been
given wide national publicity as
a denial that further hospital con-
is necessary.
"The impression is gained from
your statement that these beds are
available for sick and disabled
service men. On the face of the
reports which the veterans bu-
reau publishes bi-weekly, contain
ing this information, it states in
capital letters THIS REPORT is
TO BE USED FOR ADMlNfS-
PURPOSES o n LY.I
TOTAL UNOCCUPIED BEDS CAN
NOT BE INTERPRETED TO
MEAN THAT ALL ARE AVAIL
ABLE ON ACCOUNT, OF CHAR
ACTER OF HOSPITALS AND
GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION This
is Just what the American Legion
says, and what your statement de-
MES.
Mental and Nervous Cases
"You have absolutely ignored,
and not mentioned in any way the
fact clearly stated in the same re-
port that there were SSH pa
tents in contract hospitals. A.
SIT of whom are mental and ner-
vous cases and Z,774 of whom are
1t is for these men
that we demand the best the coun-
try can give. The fact that you
have omitted these men from your
statement to congress again con-
vinces us that you fail to compre-
bend the nature of this problem
and the tremendous changes that
have been effected in medica
science during and since the war.
"The situation that really eX-
lists is that many of the 80 hospi-
tails listed as government hospi-
are only emergency buildings leas-
ed from year to year, which the
abandoned as soon as
proper disqualification can be Sc
cured IN government owned hos
pitals.
Z '1t is not on statistics that the
egion's plea for proper hospitah-
zation is based, but on constant
daily observation of conditions
and personal contact with the sit
lation in every one Of the four
.een districts
Describes Situation
"On a visit to a nearby hospital
{ found the following situation:
Three men were hospitalized In
one room, one of them a mental
Ease, another a general surgical
case and the third suffering from
The mental case es-
,aped one night and was recap |
.ured, wandering about the vicin--
ty in his pajamas. He was put |
back in the room and the next |
hight killed the tubercular patient |
With a chair while the surgical pa
lent looked on nelplessly.
Colonel Sprague suggested that |
he physicians committee be sell
ected preferably from the execu-
i've committee of the American |
Medical association, "who have no |
with the government