The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1924-05-22
BONUS BRINGS
A HUGE TASK
Huge ADMINISTRATIVE Task
Brought to Put Bonus
Into Effect.
TO BRING OUT RECORDS
Soldiers and Sailors Entitled
to Bonus Must Get Out War
Records and File Them.

veteran bonus bill into law mas lald
upon the shoulders of the government
department an administrative task so
huge that the figures involved stagger
the imagination.
They must explore q veritable
mountain of war records. From that
mass of musty documents they must
pick out the individual war histories
of more than $3.50 men to provide
the data upon which alone bonus pay
ments of any kind can be made.
The daily service of every soldier,
sailor or marine who served under the
flag in the great war at home or
abroad, is subject now to minute ex-
animation. Through his days of sick
ness and health, of training at home
or battle abroad, the searchers must
follow each man through the wilder
ness of official records. And the bulk
of the task must be done in the close
packed filing cases of the war depart
ment where the intimate official story
of America at war alone is told.
Must Go Over Records.
In those records alone are more
than 167,00D,0 900 separate documents,
each Of which it may be necessary to
handle many times before the veter-
ans can all be assured Of bonus pay
ments. 1t will require 81 separate
checking operations to make the ex-
animation, of the files and it will take
$500 clerks to do the work in the
War department alone.
There are amazing stories by the
hundreds of thousands among these
individual war records. There are
tales of highest heroism, of great adj
venture; tales, too, rich in pathos and
sacrifice. They are the war story of
each one of the millions of men gath
cred into the vast volume of the flies
that must now be opened for perusal.
Among them are the brief records Of
the many who were called for service
but to whom death came in the hos
pitfalls almost before they had taken
their soldier oaths.
\ And among them also, never to be
recognized for what it is, lies the
brief story of Americas Unknown
Soldier, the record that would show,
if it were in the power of man to pick
it out, who he was and where he
fought and how ne died.
Army's Share Largest.
By comparison the Armys share in
the task of record searching oversha-
dows the work that must also be done
by the Navy and Marine corps to carry
out the will of Congress. In the Army
files are the records of 5,250,000 men
who may make claims. Each must be
examined as to the soldiers record
before it can be passed upon. In the
Navy files are the records of 551,736
enlisted men and of 1880 women who
served in the rank of "yeoman-F." In
the Marine corps there are some 3d.
600 records to be combed out.
The War department files are To-
Gated here in Washington. They are
crowded into the three floors of the
historic old arsenal at Washington
barracks, scene of many historic
events. 1t was there that the con:
spirators were tried for the assass-
ination of President Lincoln and close
by is the spot where some of them
paid the penalty with their lives.
The documents, grouped in their en-
veloped jackets, are now set In SOL
dierly ranks in 1909 steel filing
cases that placed end to end would
cover more than five miles. They oc-
cupy 2.36 acres of floor space and
they weigh 1880 tons and would fill
81 freight cars.
Work Necessarily Slow.
The very compactness of the files
adds to the task of ascertaining the
individual stories they tell. 1t is ply
sically impossible to employ more
clerks than the $500 who will be put
to work about them. During the war
the draft operations were far greater
in scope because they dealt with men
by tens of millions. But that work was
decentralized over the entire country
and endless clerical help could be
used. Now, the product of the draft
in fighting manhood alone is to be
dealt with, but that record is all
here in the crowding file cases.
The War department, and in CO.
operation with it, the other two mill
tary services, began preparatory work
more than two years ago to make
ready for the day when bonus legisla-
ton might be enacted. At that time
Colonel Robert C. Davis, then COM
manding a regiment of Infantry at
Plattsburg, n. Y, barracks, was sum
moned to Washington to begin study
that has resulted in the completion Of
plans for the gigantic clerical ma
chinery it now becomes his duty to set
in motion as he is now Adjutant GEN
eral of the Army.
Complications Revealed.
Some idea of the complications that
must be met may be gained from the
fact that the Army files contain the
records Of 60s928 Smiths who served
during the war; 40,101 Johnsons; 49,
902 Brows and 27,s3a men named Will
liams. In countless cases initials and
even the first and second names are
identical, yet the records must sep
arate them one from the. other and to
each give his proportionate benefit
computed on the actual service he
rendered in the war.
Another complication foreseen lies
in the fact that % per cent of all
these 100000 potential claimants can
not read nor write the English Ian
guage. A corps of interpreters, having
among them knowledge of almost
every tongue, must be included in the
great Office force to deal with the
analysis of the records.
Veterans Must File Blanks.
The starting point for every veteran
in seeking compensation must be the
filling out of application blanks al
ready printed. 1t is here that General