Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-04-07

| contests, are less cared for than any
where else in the country. In n
| speech last Tuesday by Can't. Paul
McGahan, former District commander
OF the American Legion, the speaker
declared:
Washington Tags in it's expressions
or its appreciation OF the services of
It's sons and daughters who went 10
war. Washington lags lamentably:
Washington lags to an extent prob
ably greater than in any other part of
the country. 1t is high time that
Washington came TO a realization of
It's delinquencies. 1t is about time
that there began to materialize some
OF the expressions Of appreciation and
interest in the World War veterans
and their organizations and problems.
Washington should have these,
They are to be found in every other
State in the Union, where they have
been created and established by an
appreciatiye and understanding peo.
pie. Native Washingtonians have
been hiding behind the cloak Of Con.
gress. And the Congress has not
localized its treatment of veterans
from the District of Columbia to the
extent that is their due because of it's
paternal legislative relationship to the
AA5Li dllCIlSSu capital lily.
Where is the District Of Columbia
memorial to its Soldiers, Sailors and
Marines?
Where is the memorial building
housing the veterans organizations
such as are to be found in almost
every other American city?
Where is there effective relief
work for veterans in need of assist.
ance and employment? Nowhere, ex-
cepting on the part of the veterans
themselves.
Congress has not even forced the
completion of the Tomb of the I'm
known Soldier at Arlington, the Ma
tons greatest shrine. And Washing
ton, the Capital of the United States,
has to stand before the world shamed
because of this
X X * n
ooh, why should the spirit of mortal
be proud?" Lincoln used to quote that
poetic challenge-he who now is re-
membered by the noblest monument
in the world as it for us, the living,
to be here consecrated?" Lincoln so
declared, too. upon the field of the
greatest battle of the Civil War.
1t is indeed for the living. say the
defenders of veterans, to be conse-
Grated not to the memory of the
dead alone, but to the sufferings of the
living, broken-lived veterans who have
come down through the decade Of suf-
fering since the momentous day we
celebrated yesterday.
Many good, patriotic Americans for
get that even today there are hun
dreds Of. thousands of World War
veterans bearing about in their bodies
the marks of that sacrifice. 1t has
long ago ceased with them to be a
clarifying of personal bravery. 1t is
now, and forever will be for thou
sands, a cold, drab suffering. And
lest we forget and the flowers of
FLANDERS shall cease to bloom, we
may find that there are today in
Veterans Bureau hospitals 27,561 pa
tents, and that does not represent a
large percentage of the total suffering
veterans outside Of disqualification.
Medical and surgical science has
performed miracles in overcoming all
diseases and healing all wounds ex-
cept those Of the mind. And so. faster
than beds are emptied Of other affiic-
tons, comes the mournful increase of
mental breakdownS--a net increase Of
1000 year. Today there are 1905
mental cases in the Veterans Bureau
hospitals, nearly half of all the pa
TENTS, and the proportion increasing
Does that indicate a modicum of the
suffering in the course of the process
OF the breakdown? No! The mental
collapse of today means deferred
shock in most cases, and deferred
shock" is agony long drawn out.
A graph issued by the Veterans
Bureau shows that the number of
cases of rating temporary partial"
reached its peak in 1923 at about
l2S,000, and at the end of 1926
1t had receded to $4,000. But that
recession was due largely to the sub
stitution of ratings temporary total"
which also reached it's peak in 1923 at
10000. Since then the temporary
total disability" has continued to
climb, and now it Is more than liz, 1000.