Evening star., 1923-02-04
Bl COL. CHARLES X. FORBES,
Director, United States Veterans
Bureau.


bureau.
The disabled veteran of the recent
world war has been given into my care
by the government of the United
States, and as long as | remain director
of the United States Veterans Bureau
/ intend that he shall have the very
best care that i can give him with the
facilities made available TO me by that
government.
l realize We'll that the public expects
these disabled eX-service men to re-
ceive that degree of care which they
so fully earned when they served their
country as part of the fighting forces,
and l am only too glad to take the
public into my confidence and let them
know exactly what sort of treatment
the disabled are receiving.
To my mind. no part of the task
assigned to me as director of the
United States Veterans Bureau is more
important than that of disqualification.
The bodies mutilated by war and the
minds weakened under the terrific
strain of the battle must be made
whole insofar as il is humanity pos
Sible.
Emergency Service.
At tile close of the war the govern
ment was faced with this problem OF
disqualification. 1t was an immediate
problem. The thousands of sick and
wounded eN-SerNice men and women
could not wait while the government
built hospitals and trained personnel to
care for them.
Therefore, in the beginning ii be-
came necessary for the government to
avail itself of every hospital facility
that 1t could lind. Army cantonments
and private hospitals We're used to
supplement the overloaded facilities
of the already existing government
hospitals.
The service. in many cases admitted
~ unsatisfactory. was emergency serv-
Ice. Congress hastened to provide
funds with which TO erect sufficient
government hospitals to care for all
or its disabled. Many of these have
been completed: others are in the
process of construction.
Today, the Veterans Bureau is oper-
ating forty-siX hospitals with a bed
capacity of 1896. of which 1859 are
occupied. Eighteen hospitals operated
under the United States public health
service are also open for use TO the
Nsterans' Bureau and make available
oo3 beds, of which 292 are occupied
The War Department has placed 3.072
beds. located in its hospitals, at the dis
posal of the Veterans Bureau. and of
these l,6oS are occupied. The Navy
department, in eleven of its hosnitals
has made available 1.61S beds. OF which
92o are now occupied. The nine branch
es of the National Home for Volunteer
Disabled Soldiers have set aside 2.7I6
beds in hospitals connected with this
institution for the use of the Veterans
Bureau. of which 2,116 are now occu-
pied. AT st. Elizabeths Hospital,
Washington, u. c. there are S22 beds
occupied by disabled ex-service men.
There are in all 1867 disabled ex-
service men now occupying beds in gov
ernment hospitals. Besides these there
are $500 veterans occupying beds in
civil hospitals. under contract with the
government.
134354 Patients In Year.
During the last fiscal year, the Vet
erans' Bureau furnished a total of To-
16i.554 patient days of treatment. There
We're admitted to all hospitals during
that period a total of 134354 patients
In addition. the Veterans Bureau hos
pitfalls operated dispensaries and out
patient clinics in connection with hospf-
tails. giving 9.692 treatments and 4.02l
examinations. These figures will in
dlcate. in part, the volume of work in
Volved in the disqualification of our dis
abled
l believe in government-owned hospi-
tails and as rapidly as possible they
shall replace the private hospitals with
winch the bureau has entered into con-
tract. Many or the cantonment type of
hospitals are also to be abandoned
The construction of government owned
hospitals TO replace unsatisfactory tenn
porary emergency quarters were aII-
thorized first under public act 326.
March ?, 1919, and its extensions and
subsequently under the first and second
Langley bills Funds were made avail
able under the first Langley bill COM
mencing with March 4. 1921. Since that
date construction has proceeded with
great rapidity.
The selections of sites and the
construction under the first Langley
bill has been directly under the su-
perVlsion and direction of the Treas
ury Department. AS rapidly as the
hospitals have been completed they
have cen turned over to the Veter-
ans Bureau. In the case of the sec
ond Langley bill the Veterans Bu-
reau has had charge of the selection
of the sites and is supervising the
of the building.
The sites have been carefully Sc
lected by qualified experts and the
plans represent the best in hospital