offices were handicapped, some somewhat more than others, in not having money available. The appropriation that had been granted was about enough to take care of 8 months rather than 12.

The Administrator was confronted with the problem of whether he should thin the money on a 12-month basis or use the amount needed prior to asking for a deficiency appropriation.

The then Administrator chose to curtail the spending by living within the limitations imposed by the lack of sufficient funds.

We called this matter to the attention of the Administrator and he admitted that. This was in late November and he asked that he be given 30 days at least to get additional reports in, so he could make a determination of what the condition was. He said he didn't know whether the deficiency was $20,000,000 or $40,000,000. Our estimate

was it was $35,000,000.

The Administrator left his post within the 30-day period. The commander called attention to the situation in his letter to the Appropriations Committee. The VA just didn't have the money available in the medical divisions in the various offices to do the job the way it should be done.

As the commander stated, in some States we had a very bad situation because of red tape and delay in making payments to doctors and hospitals. That doesn't prevail everywhere because they have different plans. For instance, under the Michigan plan, they contract with the State hospital association to pay the doctors and collect from the Administration.

In Michigan itself they were going to throw up the sponge because the Veterans' Administration owed them about $600,000 and they could not operate, but the Veterans' Administration did take action and they are still following that plan in some States, but we have made recommendations to the Administration of what we think would be an improved manner of handling payments to private doctors who render

treatment.

There again we run into the problem of personnel. As it is now, the bill comes into the Medical Division for preparation of the voucher and it is sent to Finance. Finance goes over it and if they find that Dr. Ralph Jones is Dr. Ralph T. Jones, instead of being corrected in Finance it goes back to Medical, goes through the thing again and then into Finance.

We recommended that Finance itself handle the vouchers and payments, that the Medical Division simply approve the correct bill and refer it to Finance for completed action.

The Veterans' Administration tried it on a test basis in the branch area of St. Louis and the reports indicated it has already materially improved the situation, and in view of that fact we urged that it be put in effect throughout the Administration, but the primary thing

Mr. TEAGUE (interposing). Money has not been mentioned in any complaints I have heard of. The only complaint is it takes so long to get the money and the red tape, and only the Veterans' Administration mentioned lack of money.

Mr. TATE. That is odd because the complaint is universal. It is true in every State except those that operate under the Michigan plan. They get their money there because the hospital association pays them. Mr. TEAGUE. Does your organization get many complaints of men

with service-connected disabilities trying to get into hospitals and can't get in?

Mr. TATE. Yes. I think the most crying need that has been presented recently was from Chicago. There they had been doing apparently what Mr. Rankin spoke of, unloading on Veterans' Administration hospitals.

There, it is reported, they have men with active tuberculosis, service-connected, on the streets that can't get into hospital beds. We have taken that up with them and they are assigning some additional beds at Great Lakes at the naval base.

Temporarily it has relieved the situation but we do get complaints from various parts of the country about getting service-connected men in the hospitals.

Mr. TEAGUE. It is usually lack of beds and not the decision of some man in the Veterans' Administration.

Mr. TATE. That is right. If a man with service-connected disability requires hospital treatment and the Veterans' Administration doesn't give it to him, we have people around to see that they do. They will make a bed available in most cases, but not in all. There is no question but there is a shortage of beds and medical and nursing personnel.

Mr. TEAGUE. Thank you.

The CHAIRMAN. Does the gentleman find that men get out of hospitals too soon because of the shortage?

I was talking over the long-distance telephone yesterday about such

a case.

Mr. TEAGUE. Madam Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN. Yes.

Mr. TEAGUE. I know a young fellow that had phlebitis. He went to the Veterans' Administration doctors and they stated there was nothing they could do.

Mr. TATE. Was he service-connected?

Mr. TEAGUE. He was service-connected. He went to his own doctor and his doctor wrote the American Medical Association and asked if there wasn't some manner they could help, and they wrote there was a man in New Orleans and he asked the Veterans' Administration to pay for it, and when he told them that they said they had decided to help him in their hospital. He said, "You told me you couldn't do it. Now I have gone to my own doctor."

They will never pay for that.

Do you know of any such case?

Mr. TATE. Did they authorize him to go?

Mr. TEAGUE. No. They would not authorize him.

Mr. TATE. That is where they hid behind their regulations. Mr. TEAGUE. Once they told him they could not treat himMr. TATE. I think they could have been forced to authorize that man to go to a specialist.

Mr. GOLOB. If I may add this, that is the reason our organization believes in the presence of a "friend in court," so that if a case of that kind is called to their attention, he can go to higher authority if need be to see that the individual does get what he is entitled to under the law, and if the law does not provide for it adequately, to call the attention of your committee, to come before your committee for

adjustment, and it is because of that we are so particularly interested in getting that first measures pased by Congress. That is so that our "friends in court" who are service officers, can function and can take up these various problem cases such as you have just mentioned.

A good eighty-odd percent of the cases coming before the Veterans' Administration can be taken care of by existing classification.

The CHAIRMAN. The Veterans' Administration can use their own personnel.

Mr. GOLOB. It is hard for the Veterans' Administration to be counsel for the complainant, counsel for the defendant and judge and jury at the same time. It is not humanly possible to do that. After all, certain administrators adopt certain viewpoints, and are not given to change unless it is called specifically to their attention by authorities who will provide―

Mrs. LUSK (interposing). Madam Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN. The lady from New Mexico.

Mrs. LUSK. I believe they have the authority and can make those concessions.

I know of a case or two that occurred recently in Albuquerque. We were attending those hearings on the Bataan relief bill held by the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee. It came out in the testimony that several of the young men who had been prisoners and were on the Death March and worked in the Japanese foundries without eye protection lost their eyesight. The Veterans' Administration did not do anything for them. They had sent them home without any further treatment, stating that they could not do anything for them, but in this discussion it developed that one of the boys on his own initiative had gone to an eye specialist and was getting some treatment.

After the presentation of that testimony and comment by various Senators who were present at this hearing, the next day an order came out from the Veterans' Administration to have these men and others who were referred to there that had the same eye condition, that these fellows could go any place in the United States where they might find proper treatment and the Veterans' Administration would pay the bill.

I think that is something that should be manifest and should be known by all of these fellows who need special treatment, because there are a large number of cases that need special consideration. The CHAIRMAN. Will the lady yield?

Mr. LUSK. Yes, Madam Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN. The Veterans' Administration lays great stress on the fact that veterans may select their own physicians.

Mrs. LUSK. These boys were given permission to select their own. doctors.

The CHAIRMAN. The Veterans' Administration approved of that? Mrs. LUSK. Yes, authorized that the following day.

Mr. TEAGUE. May I ask one more question, Madam Chairman? The CHAIRMAN. Yes.

Mr. TEAGUE. I have an injury that forces me to wear a special type shoe. I tried for almost a year to get a shoe I could wear through the Veterans' Administration. In the meantime I had gone to a friend of mine in Texas who makes boots and he had made a perfect shoe for me.

Just to see how long it would ever take to get a shoe, I have continued with the Veterans' Administration and I have never gotten any, and I am sure there are many men over the country in the same position.

I am wondering if you ever heard of a case of that kind?

Mr. TATE. We have been able to get shoes. Well, Mr. Teague, commenting on that, I think that perhaps gives an example of the necessity for getting help from our organization, or an organization such as ours, and pointing out the difference between the situation discussed here by Mrs. Lusk and the case you cited, the Veterans' Administration does authorize treatment where they say they cannot give it themselves and they can find it available elsewhere. They do that. The thing they don't do is where they haven't granted prior authorization, they don't pay for the treatment that has been received, as in the case of your man with phlebitis. He asked for that treatment and didn't get it. He asked for an authorization for treatment from a specialist and they didn't give it to him. He went on his own and got it and then requested reimbursement. I think if he had come to us or someone like us we would have battled for it and got it.

Mr. TEAGUE. But you can't get an appointment with a doctor any time you want it. You may get one and not get another for 6 months. This man was told he might die at any time, there were blood clots in his veins.

Mr. TATE. Does he live in New Orleans?

Mr. TEAGUE. No, sir; he lives in Texas. The Veterans' Administration told him if he found a man to take care of his

Mr. TATE (interposing). The point I am trying to get at is under the regulations as existing now, and as a matter of fact the case you are talking about has been referred to us, but the trouble is their regulations about the necessity for prior authority is the difficult part. Now in the case you refer to, Mrs. Lusk, the Veterans' Administration did authorize these men to go. I would like to know if you could tell me, did the man on his own initiative go to the eye specialist first and as a result of that the Veterans' Administration authorized treatment for himself and others?

Mrs. LUSK. They authorized further treatment. I don't know what he did about the first visit.

Mr. TATE. That was the point. If they did that, we could certainly use that as a precedent.

Mrs. LUSK. I don't really think that was taken up with them. I doubt if it occurred, but under the stress of the discussion, when it was found these men were being sent home without any further consideration, although they were given some compensation benefits, but not as much as they were probably entitled to because they were almost totally disabled and the eye condition was very bad and the Senators were quite disturbed, and you can imagine, you can read between the lines, so to speak, there.

Mr. TATE. Yes.

Mrs. LUSK. Apparently the Veterans' Administration was very disturbed over it and they decided these men should go to anyone they wanted.

Mr. TATE. That is what they should have done.

Mrs. LUSK. It was too bad the hearing had not been held earlier. The CHAIRMAN. The gentleman from Missouri, Mr. Bakewell. Mr. BAKEWELL. At your suggestion, Mrs. Rogers, I would relate an instance that occurred when we were visiting one regional office in a certain city, and I happened to be standing in what might be called the reception office where all the veterans came in that had any problems. When I was there, a man was carried in, obviously in a very bad physical condition. He appeared to be unconscious to me. They just laid him on the sofa in front of the public and no one was paying any attention to him, and I asked the young man at the reception desk if that was they way the treated emergency cases and he said there were only two in line ahead of him, and it was intimated that he was drunk.

I called the medical director and had him come down and it turned out this man was not drunk and had not been drinking, and was suffering a very severe hemorrhage for which he needed immediate and urgent attention.

The reason I bring that up, is the statement that the Veterans' Administration should not give any care to alcoholics. I think we as laymen and the Veterans' Administration as laymen should go very very slowly before adopting a policy with reference to treating alcoholics. In the first place, I think it is a very close medical professional question whether a man is an alcoholic and secondly, I think alcoholism is service-connected. I have seen many veterans who will resort to alcohol to alleviate pain and disability, and I see some who resort to it who are suffering from frustration and disillusionment.

I certainly agree with Mr. Rankin's statement that the veterans' hospitals should not be a refuge and haven for spasmodic drunks, but on the other hand I am very sympathetically disposed to the chronic alcoholic, particularly if professional and medical opinion comes to the conclusion it is the result of some type of service connection..

The CHAIRMAN. I may say I saw some of the work done by the gentleman from Missouri and his committee and the subcommittee of his committee, in some parts of the West and they did a magnificant job.

Will the gentleman tell the story about the streptococcus throat? Mr. BAKEWELL. There was a little delay there, Madam Chairman. I remember the boy who came in.

On this trip we made, and I thought it was rather interesting, as we did not approach these offices as Members of Congress. It so happens that several of us are comparatively young and World War II veterans, and we would go in and out of branch offices and get in line, and maybe say we had a headache or a sore throat and wanted some treatment, and so that is the way we worked it. Perhaps we would say we wanted to get our insurance reinstated, just to see what kind of treatment and attention we would get, but after we had been there a while word would leak out there that Members of Congress were making an investigation.

The particular case Mrs. Rogers refers to is that of a young man I think who was in line ahead of Mr. Sarbacher, who had a bad throat and he had been to his doctor because he could not get prompt attention. His doctor told him he had a very bad streptococcus throat and his tonsils should be removed very promptly, but I think at the