Evening star., 1925-06-02
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL y. COLLINS.

city is chairman, to assist veterans in
gathering their proofs and presenting
their claims to the Veterans Bureau
in legal form. as it is not the duty
of the bureau to go out after the
evidence, and in very many instances
the veteran is not competent to pre-
sent his lawful claims effectually
The rehabilitation committee, with
main Offices in the Bond Building and
branches in each of the 10 Veterans
Bureau districts throughout the Coun-
try, serves as attorney for the veteran,
with no expense to him, in gathering
his facts and formulating his claims.
No paid attorney is permitted under
the law to represent a veteran before
the bureau. and thus the extortionate
pension claim agent who so scan
dalized the country following the
Civil War is eliminated. Within the
first six months. the rehabilitation
committee secured for veterans over
million dollars of their claims which
had previously been rejected on tech
nical grounds, in spite Of the libeEal
policies of the present administration
of the bureau under Gen. Hines.
= :: :.
To finance the rehabilitation com
| mittee work, the American Red Cross
has been giving it 500 900 a year,
tions, purporting to be interested in
aiding the wounded, appealed TO the
Red Cross to give $1,000 600 also TO
each of them, and cease to dis
criminate" in favor of the American
Legion. The outcome was 4 with
| drawal by the Red Cross of its sup
| port of any organization in that way,
and To cooperate only by direct Red
| Cross action. The Knights of Colum-
| 4 eric - MI
| Legion rehabilitation committee toI
| the extent of $4,000. and the Nation
al American Legion provided the rest|
| of the expense.
: In the smaller cities the legion hasI
| grown, especially during the last year
| 1t is officially stated TO have some 30
| 900 more paid-up members in thel
| United States today than it had al
| year ago. COMMANDMENTS chief Gen.
James r. Drain predicts that the or
| ganization will close this year with
million members. In the District of
| Columbia only 10 per cent of the vet
Grams are legionaires, but in the West
| 80 per cent are paid-up members.
| The Veterans Bureau hospitals are
/ noting the increase of patients. The
! law was liberalized in the last Con
gress so that all veterans of all wars
| are eligible TO hOSplIanZallOn, TeBdIu-
| less of whether their sickness or
wounds were proved of war origin. on
| May 81, 1928. the total number of pa
tients was 24,343; June 8, 1924, 22,457.
and May IA, 1925, 2S.400. The statis
/ tical bureau states that very few Of
this increase are veterans of other
wars than the World War. The peak
of the need is not yet reached.
x r y
After the amendment of the law, in
! June, 1924, the American Legion re-
Mobilization committee suggested to d.
rector Hines a general review of the
| 260, 900 "active permanent total and
death cases" on file. Of the 10000 al
ready reviewed, 17,212 awards have
been made on evidence secured by the
committee, mostly increasing the death
| compensation to widows and orphans.
To accomplish this 1000 special let
| ters and 294. 900 form letters were sent
out to all addresses of the veterans
| concerned The review is continuing
at the rate of 900 day.
Between August II, 1924, and May
| 16, 1925, the rehabilitation committee
obtained for veterans a total increase.
| ing to 81 1895. .221.37. 1t is this work to-
/ gether with the protection and up
| bringing of veterans orphans. that the
! fund will maintain. The work has the
cordial cooperation Of the director and
other officials of the Veterans Bureau
and approval of the Government.
Copyright. 1928, by Psul v Colins)