Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-07-06
BY WILLIAM HARD.


More than 1000 900 disabled World
War veterans will file claims under the
pension provision Of this bill. says Sem
ator Robson, Republican. Of Kentucky.
speaking Of the new veterans compen-
sation law in its administration form.
All calculators here agree that the
number of applicants for relief under
the new law in any form will mount up
into many hundreds of thousands and
will thereupon greatly increase not only
the number of veterans compensated
and satisfied, but also the number of
them rejected on claims for compen-
sation and consequently discontented.
That is the fundamental reason why
the new law is regarded by the best
opinion here as being only one more
stage in a development toward newer
and broader laws in the future. The
new law has been produced primarily
by the discontents and Rgitations Of
veterans whose applications for relief
often with whips of maddening red
tape, by the Veterans Bureau and the
controller general.
The new law, since 1t vastly widens
the opportunity for applications. will
also necessarily vastly widen the oppor-
tunity for just or unjust bureaucratic
reflections Of them. In every congress
sional district of the United States the
number Of veterans thinking themselves
to have been badly treated by the Vet
Grams Bureau will be largely multiplied.
The political pressure thereupon for the
broadening of the law will become ire
Sistible. First, the scale Of payments
fnr will hA
then finally allowances will be granted
simply for World War service ire
spective of disabilities. That is the pros
pect which the events Of the last two
weeks have firmly established in the
minds Of the solidest students here Of
veterans affairs.
There are now some 4300,000 World
War veterans living. Some $4,000 of
them have been getting allowances for
disabilities contracted, or reasonably
presumed to have been contracted, dur
ing war service.
*&A
Several hundred thousand more have
claimed such disabilities without being
able to substantiate them under Veterans
Bureau regulations or under controller
general decisions. This writer is aware
of one application rejected because. al
though tuberculosis was proved by an
X-ray picture of the appropriate re-
quired date, the doctor who made the
picture could not accompany 1t with a
statement. He was dead.
Such reflections, along with reflections
really necessitated by the law, but pro-
ducing genuine hardships and obvious
determinations, drove the American Le-
gion to presenting to the Congress last
Fall its extremely modest and mod
crate scheme for removing hardships
and determinations without in any way
changing the basic principle of grant
ing compensation only for disabilities
probably or presumably connected with
World War service. The cost Of the
scheme to the Federal Treasury was
not more than $35, 900, 900 q year. The
country should know, not as surmise
or as comment, but as fact, that
the subsequent and present enlarge
ments OF that cost and the adoption
OF schemes which will lead straight on
to tremendous engagements of it in the
rapidly approaching future have been
due essentially not to the clamors of
veterans, but to the exigencieS Of poll
tics.
The instant historical truth is that
each political party took the American
Legion scheme as q mere political
springboard, from which it could do
fancy dives into the Treasury amid po-
litical applause. This competition I'LL
timately involved the President himself.
Starting his administration as an advo-
cate Of allowances for service connected
disabilities only, he now, in order to
escape from schemes which he dislikes
more intensely, Is the jealous promoter
Of allowances for all disabilities,
whether contracted during service or
after it.
The route along which we are trav-
cling is the route blazed for us by the
aftermathS of all OF our previous wars,
but the pace is much faster. The period
which elapsed between the official clos
ing of the Revolutionary War and the
time when the Revolutionary War vet
Grams got their first allowances for dis
abilities not connected with the war was
IS years. The similar period for the
Civil War veterans was IS years. The
similar period for the Spanish War vet
Grams was ID years. The similar period
for the World War veterans is years.
X
This acceleration of pace has doubt
less been occasioned by prompter COM
munications in the course of the ad-
vance from stage coach to railroad
train to telegraph to radio. Prompter
communications inevitably lead to
quicker agitationS. They are expected to
be quicker and quicker and more and more
inclusive Of a total assembled listening
Nation as time goes on. Our Revolu-
tionary War and our Civil War gave
us first a system Of allowances for war
time disabilities and then q system Of
allowances for all disabilities and then,
finally, q system Of outright pensions
for simple service. In the case Of the
Revolutionary War, the system of OUT
right pensions for simple service, ire
spective of disabilities, did not arrive
for so years. In the case of the World
War it may arrive, it is calculated,
within IS. The average age Of our
World War veterans will then be S..
Among people here who are looking at
this matter, not oratorically, but reals
tically, the dominant thought is that our
arrival at q nat service pension system