Evening star., 1949-09-01
5000 Trained Workers Busy
AT GI Insurance Dividend Job

In two temporary buildings on
the Mall which have been con-
verted to a beehive of rapid fire
calculating machines. the Vet
Grams Administration is handling
the entire distribution of GI in
surance dividends to the Ma
tion's 100000. veterans.
More than 5000 workers,
trained for only several months
of work, are grouped around 1900
punch-card and other high-speed
record machines-rounded up
from all over the country-to
handle the tremendous job.
In buildings taken over from
the War Assets Administration
the workers began today to flood
the mails with cards, acknowl-
edging veterans claims for theii
shares of dividends on policies
held during and since World War
II.
100000 Apply In Day.
The applications, made avail
able Monday, poured into VA at
the rate of 100000 yesterday. BY
the $50 am. mail delivery today
more than that many more had
been received.
The Internal Revenue Bureau
and District tax officials said to.
day the dividends would be ex.
empt from Federal and District in.
come taxes, and indications were
that the same rulings would hole
for State taxes.
Maryland Controller James j
Lacy said yesterday the dividends
probably will be exempt because
the payments apparently repre-
sent a return on premiums pre-
viously paid" Virginia officials
said they would take the question
under adviSement today.
At VA, astronomical figures are
commonplace. But it took the
dividend project to hand the
agency its biggest administrative
headache.
The problem:
Divide $4,000, 900 900 among
about 100000 veterans. But
adjust each veterans share ac-
cording to his age. how long he
held his policy and how much
it was worth. And-just to make
it tough-remember that some
veterans have more than one
policy and some have converted
term policies to other forms of
insurance.
Simple Formula. t
The answer. according to VA.
is a simple formula which looks
like this:
Multiply *" by the number
Of months the policy was held
per $1,000 worth of insurance.
*" represents, the amount of
determined for each age
group. But the reason you can't
use this formula to figure your
is that VA isn't releasing
the estimated *" amount for
each age. Those figures must be
officials explained, until
the *" amounts. can be tested
on millions of applications to
make certain the total payment
won't be too far of the $780,
900 900 mark.
Counting conversions and multi
pie policies issued to the 10000, ,000
VA found about 23,000.-
600 separate insurance accounts
which must figure in the dividend
The administrative job
will cost about $12,000,000.
Some Of Steps Taken.
Here are some of the steps in
the biggest insurance payoff In
history:
l. Months ago, workers began
verifying the records of each Of
the $4,000. 900 accounts in Wash
ington and 13 other cities.
2. Because the active cards
couldn't be brought to Washing
ton for the dividend computation,
the Eastman Kodak Co. has
each of the 23 1000. 900
and made normal sized facsimile
copies. All these are now in
Operation Dividend headquarters
600 square feet of space in
the two temporary buildings south
of the Lincoln Memorial Reflect
ing Pool.
8. Seated at lines of machines.
special employees are making
punch cards-carrying virtually
all the essential data except vet
erans' current addresses-from
each of the 100000 record
facsimilies.
Punch Cards for Each.
4. Punch cards also are being
made for each dividend applica-
ton and-in the process which
began today-portions Of the ap-
plications are being returned to
veterans, stamped in the order
they were received.
5. Sorting machines will 60 to
work on the two sets Of punch