Evening star., 1924-08-30
YOUR BONUS
Questions That Bother You
Will Be Answered in
This Column.
Address: Room .22, News De.
rartment, The Evening Star,
washinEt0 ID. C..

Q. The adjusted compensation act
says that the amount of bonus or in
Surance soldiers are entitled to re-
ceive is based upon the American ex-
perience table of mortality. Please
tell me what this table is and how it
is used as basis for computing the
amount of insurance that a veteran
may, be entitled to receive.-W. D. H.
A. By carefully studying the law
Of mortality, which is the law of
averages as applied to the duration
of human life, statistics were gradual
ly gathered and tabulated and tables
of mortality were finally constructed
one of these tables, the American ex-
perience table of mortality, is the
one used by the Government and by
most private insurance corporations.
This table starts with 100000 persons,
all 10 years of age; and according to
the table, 749 of them will die before
the end of the year. leaving, 99,251
who reach the age of II years. The
number of deaths and the number sur
viving is given for each year until at
the age of 95 only three will re-
main, and presumably these three will
die before reaching the age of Sc.
From the information contained in
this table the Government figures
that about $4,000 veterans will die in
the year following the passage of the
adjusted compensation act. This
table is also used in the insuring of
the service men and women by the
Veterans Bureau
Q. I lost my honorable discharge
from the Army. Some time ago l ap-
piled for another copy and / received
instead a certificate in lieu of my lost
discharge giving only the date of my
enlistment, the date of discharge
from the service and the character
rating. While the information on the
certificate in lieu was what 1 wanted
In filing my claims for an adjust
ment of compensation, l want to
know if it would be possible to get
| more complete certificate showing
the battles in which 1 engaged and
the citations given to me at the
time.-G.
A. The War Department is receiv-
ing thousands of requests for copies
of discharges. The work of getting
, them out retards progress upon
claims for the bonus. They are dis
couraging such requests. However,
certificates in lieu of lost discharges
do not ordinarily give any other in
formation than you received on yours.
Much of the data noted upon your
honorable discharge is from company
or regimental records not now avail
able to the adjutant general, so GER
tificates generally only state the date
of enlistment, the date of discharge
and the character rating given at the
later date. At some later date, by a
personal effort. you may be able to
get the War Department to give you
some written record of the battles
and engagements in which you partici-
pated during the World War.
@. My son had filed his applica-
tion for the bonus while serving in
the Regular Army. He died last
| month. Am l entitled to his bonus?
Your advice and help will certainly
be appreciated.-Mrs. o.
A. You are entitled to your. sons
bonus If he named you as his bene-
ficiary when he filed his application.
Under the provisions of an act ap-
proved December II, 1919, you are
also entitled to six months pay at the
rate received by the deceased at the
date of his death, provided he had
previously designated you as his de-
pendent and his death was not caused
by his own willful misconduct. If
your son is survived by widow she