The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1922-06-26
Veterans Bureau Not So Efficient
 As Its Publicity

| TGO A AG0 4 AU1GN1Gy l Indianapolis, Ind, June 24-The
 American public has been sadly mis- | led as to what the Government is do- | ing for it's sick and wounded ex-sol- diers. Newspapers have been full of 1 the staggering sums being spent ou the disabled. But the United States Veterans Bureau has not been nearly
 as efficient in it's particular job of | caring for the disabled as has the | Bureaus publicity office in its part1- cular field.
 | These statements are set up in the | first of a series of articles entitled | Ten Months of the Veterans Bureau"
 appearing in the current issue of the | American Legion Weekly
 | Just now the Government is spend | ing money at the rate of $52S, 900
 to the new Langley bill increase this | total to $545, 600, 900, or as much as
 it cost to run the whole United States | Government twenty-five years ago." the Weekly's article declares. we hear that 30,0O0 men are in hospitals, that 1O9,O0O are taking l vocational training. The inference is l that all is lovely. This inference Is false.
 Thirty thousand men in hospitals means little unless we know they are 1 in fit hospitals and that there are no
 others not in hospitals who should | be there. Vocational training is only | 70 per cent. efficient by the admis- sion of MT. Forbes, (director of the Veterans Bureau.) The present vo- l cational training situation is doing a | large part of those 109,000 students no good, but positive harm" The article recounts the fight the Legion has waged, beginning in 1919, | for the standardization of the three headed Government system of caring | for the disabled. This fight, centered the hnSoifa a 1izafjnn nf in "scandaiously unfit places, with half of those needing it not hospitalized at all,'' a system rotten to the core" " with responsibility fixed upon no one. brought about passage of the Sweet bill.
 By forcing the passage of the Sweet bill, the Legion caused the formation of the U. s. Veterans Bureau, of which Charles R. Forbes, Seattle, Wash, be- came director. MT. Forbes was prom ised, the Weekly declares, complete cooperation of the eX-soldier organ ization. The Legion undertook to withhold public criticism and to sus- pend judgment until MT. Forbes had been given an opportunity to untangfe the skein.
 'The Legion has kept it's bargain" the article continues. With a liaison officer in each of the 1 regional dis triCts into which the Bureau has divid- ed the country, the Legion has kept the mechanism of it's entire organiza- ClOn at the OlSpOSal or the Bureau and the veteran The Legion has criticized, advised, worked and fought as hard as ever before to put the Bureau on it's feet.
 Though the Government is spend ing more than a half billion dollars annually the disa bled veterans are not receiving benefits in any way com mensurate with that vast outlay. Be- tween the taxpayer who gives and the veteran who receives intervenes the old familiar bucket brigade-the sil- houetteS of Incompetence. Jealousy Encouragement, Greed, Waste, Ex- travagance and Short-sightednes Of the golden stream Uncle Sam pours forth far, far too few drops reach the ultimate beneficiary, the isabled man."
 Politics and private greed have de- layed for a year the location of hos pitals. Meanwhile men Who fought the country's battles are dying and going insance for the need of those hospitals, the Weekly declares
 Site on site has been chosen agreed upon by eminent experts, only to be abandoned in the face of objec- tions arising from politics or selfish ness or both.
 Listing those political or selfish or both" agencies opposing the use of sites near them for the treatment of sick and wounded ex-soldiers, the Legion enumerates: 'The millionaire who knew Secretary Mellon. He | his country estate an he had his way
 An exclusive young ladies' school
 which viewed with repugnance the same thought.
 Another rich man who saw an influential Congressman.
 Rival chambers of commerce which have created a Sargasso Sea which impeed all progress The article charges that a general atmosphere of loOseness and incom- petence pervades some divisions of the Veterans Bureau. Other Bureau officials offer to compensate their shortcoming with recitals of their immense sympathy for the disabled, and the compelling interest" they have in their work. These qualities are never acceptable substitutes for intel1igence or ability the article concludes
 These are headlights in a situation The American Legion Weekly means to disclose. It will do so in the hope and with the confidence that public opinion will lend the Bureau and the Legion renewed support in the effort which must redeem the Governments in-kept promises to our broken men"
 The Legion maintains at Washing ton. in the shadow of the Veterans Bureau. and at Indianapolis, seat of Legion national headquarters, Service Divisions which establish close contact between the disabled veteran and the Government agencies set up especial ly for his care. The Service Division office at Washington, as we'll as the one at Indianapolis. has forced through claims for disabled men de- spite vigorous opposition from officials who seemingly would rather witness a claimants misery and death than secr1nce red-tape procedure and
 hnreaiicratic nraceents- More than