Mr. Commander, it is good to have you with us and we are looking forward to seeing you tonight, and we sincerely appreciate the help we get from your staff. I doubt that the average member of the DAV appreciates the importance of having people who look at a bill and know exactly how it fits into the whole structure of all of our VA laws. We gain much more from your staff than they gain from us, and that is true of all of our veterans' organizations. It is very helpful to the committee. Some people quibble over what they call a "lobbiest," but I sure gain a lot more from them than they get from me, because I learn something every time I am around them. Thank you very much, again. We will see you tonight. [Whereupon, at 11:45 a.m., the meeting adjourned.] RECOMMENDATIONS OF VETERANS' ORGANIZATIONS, 1974 THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1974 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATAIVES, COMMITTEE ON VETERANS' AFFAIRS, Washington, D.C. The committee met at 10 a.m., pursuant to call, in room 334, Cannon House Office Building, Hon. William Jennings Bryan Dorn (chairman of the committee) presiding. Mr. DORN. The committee will come to order. STATEMENTS OF HALSEY FINK, NATIONAL COMMANDER OF VETERANS OF WORLD WAR I OF THE USA, INC., AND HAROLD B. SAY, LEGISLATIVE DIRECTOR Mr. DORN. We are happy to have our distinguished National Commander of the Veterans of World War I, Commander Halsey Fink. I was with you in Miami, and that was a great convention which I thoroughly enjoyed, and I appreciated the opportunity and privilege of being with you down there. I wish to congratulate you on the outstanding service you have rendered to your country and the World War I veterans. Mr. FINK. Thank you. Mr. DORN. Commander Fink, would you introduce Mr. Say, who, I understand, will present your statement, and some of your officers here today, if you would introduce some of them, the Chair would be grateful. Mr. FINK. Mr. Chairman, members of your distinguished committee: On behalf of my organization, I thank you for the opportunity to present our program. It is concise and will not be time consuming and tiring as in the past. However, before asking Legislative Director Harold Say to proceed, Mr. Chairman, may I have your permission to introduce a few of my official family and the members of our Legislative Committee. I will ask each one whose name is called to rise so the members of this distinguished committee will know just who you are. Mr. Chairman, I will start off my introduction with the national president of our Ladies Auxiliary, Mrs. Emma Walla of Omaha, Nebr. The members of her committee are: Martha Felix of Milan, Ind.; Victoria Wendell of Silvis, Ill.; Donna Carlberg of Fremont, Nebr. Leah Brandmo of Minneapolis, Minn.; Hester Straub of Tuscaloosa, Ala. Mr. Chairman, my fellow officers here today are: National Senior Vice Commander Benjamin Byers of Aberdeen, Md. National Junior Vice Commander Louis F. Zaruba of Washington, D.C. and Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; National Alternate Junior Vice Commander V. Bruce Bennett of Toppenish, Wash.; National Quartermaster Charles R. Law of Baltimore, Md.; National Adjutant John McIntyre of La Habra, Calif. And now to my legislative committee: Q. D. Jack Beckham of Longview, Tex.; Clarence William Johnson of Portland, Oreg.; James G. King of Missoula, Mont.; Henry Markow of Mattapan, Mass.; Adolph M. Pike of Cincinnati, Ohio; and, of course, I have with me my administrative assistant, Ethel Sweitzer. Now, Mr. Chairman, it gives me a great deal of pleasure to introduce my legislative director, Harold B. Say, who will, with your permission, make our presentation. Thank you, sir. Mr. DORN. Thank you, Mr. Commander. Mr. Say, I want to express my appreciation for the outstanding service you have rendered this great organization over the years. I do want to say that we are delighted and pleased to have so many lovely, charming ladies with us, and also your committee. Mr. Say, you may proceed. Mr. SAY. Mr. Chairman, let me repeat the thanks of Commander Fink to your committee for letting us be here. Let me also say that we are very appreciative of the accomplishments for the veterans of this committee and the Congress in the last year or two. We are particularly appreciative of the passage of the cemetery bill and the Health Examination Act. We know that this committee has the same thought as we do on protecting the services for the veterans of the land, that it doesn't want it eroded and will see that it isn't. Mr. Nixon, in his message, emphasized the fact that it should be kept separate and distinct for the veteran, and I think it is the unanimous opinion of every veteran that that is the way it should be. I am not going to read our statement. It is quite brief, Mr. Dorn and members of the committee. You have it and, at your leisure, you can read it. I would simply outline two or three things that are in it. First, on this increase we got last year in pension, 10 percent, the Veterans' Administration still estimated that last year there were some_20,000 World War I pensioners off the list on account of the social security increase. We have an abiding conviction that social security should not be counted in arriving at the income limitation or that if it is, that the limitation should be set up to offset it. That is one of our pleas to you this year. Also, if there is not enough in this VA budget, that the President sent down, we trust that this committee will take care of putting enough in to see that there isn't a chisel down in any place where money is needed. Another point we feel is that the widow of the veteran should be treated on a par with the veteran, pensionwise, and in other benefits. I think the President took that approach in his message the other night but that is our feeling, at least. I will come back to an old subject that has been with us for a lot of years. It is still the conviction of the convention of the Veterans of World War I, that he should have an unrestricted pension. Back in 1919, the Government discharged him with $60. Later, it gave him $547.50 as an average adjusted service compensation. There was no hospital system waiting for him when he stepped out in 1919. There was no educational aid. There was nothing. He was back on his own and at that time happened to be on his own and out of uniform. He went away happy with the $60 that the Government gave him. But things changed along over the years, and one of the handicaps he had was that he had a sixth-grade education. The average through the country was sixth grade. I know in my own case I was in an outfit that happened to have a good number of college people in it. That was very exceptional. We were brigaded, on the other hand, with a bunch of boys from New York or Brooklyn; their average was about third grade or better. They were good soldiers, but the average education was on a low level. Had there been aid to education at the time the "World War I" man came out, more of them would have been economically independent and successful today than has been the case. There were few of them that were high school graduates and there were far fewer that had been inside the door of a college. So, on the one basic point, we think that to equalize or approach equalizing what this land has given the veteran of more recent times in education and other benefits, to approach that we think an unrestricted pension along the type that long ago was granted the Spanish War veteran, is in order. It would have to be a little bit higher dollarwise because money isn't worth quite as much as it was some years back. But I just am hoping-not to bore you-I want to make just one point on this World War I veteran who is in a little different situation than veterans of other wars. In 1917, when we went to war, when Mr. Wilson got the Congress to declare war, we were a woefully unprepared country. I think we had 76,000 in the Army, or thereabouts. The miracle was that we could raise and have a million men overseas almost a year later, but we had nothing. The headlines told the American people and all the people of the world what was happening. Germany was winning and all the odds were that she was going to continue winning when we walked into this thing. The French and the British were not losing troops by companies or battalions. They were losing them by divisions, virtually by armies. Douglas Hague, in July 1916, lost 60,000 men in one day. One day, following up the Verdun business, there were terrible losses. The young British who went across the channel to the war had one hope of getting home to get wounded severely enough to still be alive and come home. Otherwise, he didn't figure on coming home. And I contend that my own experience, and from knowledge of some history, that the young American who went into the recruiting office in 1917, I don't think there was one out of five that figured he would get home whole and solid. When that old Statute of Liberty went out of sight, a lot of them figured they would never see it again. The fact that circumstances changed in the summer of 1918, partly due to these young green Americans with a lot of courage and guts, the fact that the circumstances changed has no bearing on the fact of what they did. They walked into a war not expecting to come back. They told the folks back home, Oh, I will be back, and so forth, but that wasn't what they new would happen. Things changed, and something different happened, but the point is those young people were there out of valor and patriotism and determination that was beyond the average. Not to say that World War II people and some others weren't just as courageous when they had to be, but these people went into a war where they didn't expect to win and did win, came home and were happy to get out of the Army, and times made a difference. There are a lot of them in very bad straits today. I know it from the letters that pour into the headquarters of this organization, and I also know it from the letters that poured in to me when I was editor of Stars and Stripes for a couple of years. I think it is not unreasonable that we ask for such a pension, and we hope that legislation can come out of this Congress that would accomplish that end. On the age business, there aren't many World War veterans that are less than 75, except scattered ones here and there. We had put an age limit of 75 on it. But that is our plea, Mr. Dorn, and members of the committee. We hope you don't think it is too unreasonable. Thank you very much. Mr. DORN. Mr. Hammerschmidt. I might say to you gentlemen and all of my friends gathered here that Mr. Hammerschmidt is certainly doing a wonderful job here on this committee. He is rendering valuable service to the veteran and is most cooperative with the chairman and all of you. I am just proud and happy to work with a man like Mr. Hammerschmidt. Mr. HAMMERSCHMIDT. Mr. Chairman, I guess it is needless to say that I am very proud to be honored by those kind words from a most distinguished chairman who has served this Congress for over a quarter of a century and is now seeking the gubernatorial position down in South Carolina, and our best wishes go with him in that venture. It is my pleasure to serve with him on this committee. Commander Fink, I want to thank you for being here and introducing the members of your national organization, the legislative folks, and Mr. Say. I appreciate very much your presentation this morning on behalf of the veterans of World War I. Chairman Dorn has already indicated that our committee will again consider pension legislation during this current session of Congress, about which I am very pleased, and I hope you will agree that |