PENSIONS FOR WORLD WAR VETERANS' WIDOWS

AND ORPHANS

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1940

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

COMMITTEE ON WORLD WAR VETERANS' LEGISLATION,

Washington, D. C.

The Committee met at 10:30 a. m., Hon. John E. Rankin (chairman) presiding.

The CHAIRMAN. The committee will come to order.

Mr. Chittenden, do you want a few minutes?

Mr. CHITTENDEN. Yes, sir; just about 5 minutes.

[H. R. 7763, 76th Cong., 3d sess.]

A BILL To provide the privileges of hospitalization for veterans of the Regular Establishment on a parity with war veterans

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That any veteran of the Regular Army, Navy, Marine Corps, or Coast Guard who was not dishonorably discharged shall be granted hospitalization by the Veterans' Administration subject to the same restrictions and limitations as are now applicable to war veterans.

[H. R. 7764, 76th Cong., 3d sess.]

A BILL To extend the privileges of domiciliary care for veterans of the Regular
Establishment on a parity with war veterans

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress asembled, That any veteran of the Regular Army, Navy, Marine Corps, or Coast Guard who was not dishonorably discharged shall be granted domiciliary care by the Veterans' Administration subject to the same restrictions and limitations as are now applicable to war veterans.

STATEMENT BY LEROY P. CHITTENDEN, NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL DIRECTOR OF THE REGULAR VETERANS' ASSOCIATION

Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, my name is LeRoy P. Chittenden, National Educational Director of the Regular Veterans' Association, with office at 1115 Fifteenth Street NW., Washington, D. C. The Regular Veterans' Association is composed of men who have served at least 1 year honorably in any of the _Regular Establishments, that is, the Regular Army, Navy, Marine Corps, or Coast Guard.

I appear before you committee today in behalf of H. R. 7763 and H. R. 7764, introduced by the chairman of this committee at the request of our association. Briefly, these bills call for the same privileges of domiciliary care and hospital care for veterans of the Regular Establishment as now acorded to war veterans.

Before March 20, 1933, section 202, paragraph 10 of the World War Veterans' Act provided as follows:

The Director is further authorized so far as he shall find that existing Government facilities permit, to furnish hospitalization, and necessary travelling expenses incident to hospitalization, to veterans of any war, military occupation, or military expeditions, including those women who served as Army nurses under contract between April 21, 1898, and February 2, 1901, and including persons who served overseas as contract surgeons of the Army any time during the Spanish-American War, not dishonorably discharged, without regard to the nature or origin of their disabilities.

Under the provisions of the Economy Act, this section of the World War Veterans' Act was repealed.

The Regular Veterans Association favors the restoration of this language in the World War Veterans' Act and further urges that the provisions of this paragraph be liberalized to permit hospitalization of all Regulars. The recent modern tendency to streamline our military and naval machines has brought about a very serious problem to the enlisted personnel of the Regular Service. This country first began to introduce mechanized machines and armament in 1933. According to the report of the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs, the number of men receiving disability discharges from the various services had remained fairly constant with a very slight increase each year from 1910 until 1932. With the advent of the mechanized equipment, disability discharges from the services jumped from 19,559 in 1933 to 29,484 in 1934. Since that time such discharges have been continually rising. These figures bear out our contention that the duties and obligations incident to service in our modern Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard as presently set up materially affect the health, usefulness, and longevity of the men in service at the present time. Whereas formerly a man in military or naval service was not incapacitated before the end of a 30-year period, yet now due to the strenuous and rigorous programs adopted in the services, an enlisted man finds today that he has reached the end of his physical endurance at the end of a 20-year period. In this connection, I would like to state that many times, men are discharged from the services and then shortly after such discharge, become afflicted with nervous disorders, tuberculosis, and other ailments which are unquestionably the result of their service. However, due to the fact that these men are not accorded the presumptive period given to all war veterans who establish their claims, they are unable to receive the benefits of hospitalization or domiciliary care inasmuch as the present law provides that men who have no war service shall be accorded the privileges of hospitalization only in the event their disabilities are incurred in service. Such service connection must be of a pensionable degree, that is they must be at least 10 percent to entitle them to hospital benefits.

Under present conditions, a large number of men are discharged from the service today and denied benefits which in all fairness and justice should be theirs. Because of these existing unfavorable and unfair conditions pertaining to Regulars, we feel that H. R. 7763 and H. R. 7764 should be given favorable consideration by your committee and enacted into law.

Direct evidence of the far-reaching need of the legislation which we are proposing is given by the announcement that the present na

tional administration favors the inauguration of a hopital-construction program to cover all parts of our Nation. The administration proposal is embodied in Senate bill 3246 introduced by Senator Mead, of New York, with loans up to $300,000,000 to provide hospital facilities for the civilian population. The legislation we are requesting is insignificant compared to the proposals of Senate bill 3246. In making this comparison, I would like to be definitely on record as stating that I am not in any way objecting to the provisions of Senate bill 3246.

At the present time, at Veterans' Administration hospitals, there are available some 55,600 beds, and at Veterans' Administration homes, there are 17,134 beds. According to the report of the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs the present need of hospitalization exceeds the present facilities. Congress has recognized the need of expanding the hospital facilities of the Veterans Administration and there are now under construction additional hospitals and homes which will add to the present figure. The Regular Veterans' Association heartily concurs in the action of Congress in providing additional facilities for those World War veterans and veterans of other wars requiring hospitalization. However, we also feel that the veterans of the Regular Service are entitled to similar privileges and we respectfully request your favorable consideration of the provisions of H. R. 7763 and H. R. 7764.

Mr. Chairman, I might add that before the repeal under the Economy Act of 1933 those men who enlisted after April 11, 1918, and served until the declaration of peace in July 1921 were taken care of on the same basis as the World War veterans. But, of course, those benefits were taken away from them by the provisions of the Economy Act. Now, just in comparison, I would like to state that Spanish-American War veterans who served April 21, 1898, to July 4, 1902, were provided with hospital facilities and domiciliary care by our Government, and the average service of these men in all probability at any time was not over 1 year. But regardless of the fact that they may have served 1 month, they are still entitled to those benefits, and it would be particularly pleasing to the members of our association if your committee would seriously consider restoration of these men, particularly these men who served from the end of the armistice until peace was officially declared, and permit them to once again have the privileges to which they were formerly entitled.

The CHAIRMAN. You understand, Mr. Chittenden, that this committee only has jurisdiction of the hospitalization so far as these peacetime veterans are concerned. We do not have jurisdiction of their pensions.

Mr. CHITTENDEN. That is right.

The CHAIRMAN. We do not have jurisdiction of the compensation but only the hospitalization. I assure you we considered these bills carefully. Thank you for your presentation.

Mr. CHITTENDEN. Thank you, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Members of the committee, we are going to deviate just a moment from the rule. The gentleman from Massachusetts, Mr. McCormack, wants to make a short statement before the committee. Representative McCormack and all Members of Congress

are very busy now, but we will hear Mr. McCormack and let him speak now so that he can return to his regular work.

Mr. McCormack.

STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN W. McCORMACK, REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM MASSACHUSETTS

The CHAIRMAN. I will say, Mr. McCormack, you have the right to extend your remarks in the record.

Mr. McCORMACK. Thank you. I appreciate not only the fact but the suggestion. I will conform with the extension rather than the

statement.

Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I am appearing in support of H. R. 7980. The bill provides for straight pension for disabled veterans of the World War. The bill provides for the payment of pensions in the amount and under the same conditions as now received by Spanish-American War veterans. I have expressed myself many times on the floor of the House on this question. I think it is the duty of the Federal Government to assume this responsibility. These men served in the Army or the Navy or the Marine Corps of the Federal Government, and I have always contended it is a responsibility of the Federal Government rather than of the political subdivisions to care for those veterans who have become handicapped by disabilities, whether legally rated as service-connected

or not.

It is now 23 years since the World War started. Spanish War veteran legislation along this line was passed 22 years after the Spanish War started. The World War veterans have now waited 23 years. The CHAIRMAN. With reference to the Spanish War, the bill was passed 20 years afterward.

Mr. McCORMACK. Well, yes; I stand corrected. My impression was either 20 or 22, and I took the maximum to be on the safe side. Certainly the veterans of the World War are entitled to consideration along those lines, consideration which has long since been properly extended to Spanish-American War veterans and Civil War veterans. Now, a more parallel case would be the case of Spanish-American War veterans to the World War veterans and it seems to me that we have arrived at the time that favorable legislation along these lines should be enacted by the Congress.

The men who would benefit by H. R. 7980 are disabled. Most of these disabled men are compelled to look somewhere for aid and assistance. They are compelled to do so, I know, in the case of Massachusetts, and I assume that the same situation exists in relation to the other States, to go to their local communities. In Boston we have a soldiers' relief department that is a separate and distinct department from the Public Welfare. But it is the same basic consideration. It is public-welfare charity!

Instead of saying to the veteran, you go to the public welfare and make an application for public asisstance, they say, you go to the soldiers' relief commissioner.

I cannot see why the Federal Government who used these men's service should not assume the responsibility for the payment of disability pensions of some kind. Now, to the extent that the Fed

eral Government does that the local government is to be relieved. Certainly, one of the most serious problems touching local government at the present time is the tremendous burden imposed on them as a result of relief measures that are necessary.

One of the most serious problems of local government is the tax problem, because you and I and all of us know that from 75 percent to 83 percent of the tax dollar raised in every State and town of the Union-I do not care what state it is in-comes out of the home owner or the one who owns property, and that is a very severe burden.

In others words, in your local government, the local unit of government, the town or city, or, in the South, it is the county or whatever it may be, in the local unit of government, the nearest to the people, 75 percent to 83 percent of the tax dollars raised must come from the property owners, that is in the main, the home owners. The field of taxation, of course, is very, very limited in the local unit of government.

The CHAIRMAN. Does that hold good, Mr. McCormack, where they have a State sales tax?

Mr. McCORMACK. Yes; I think the States sales tav to some extent has reduced burden, that is, where the State plows back into the local government a part of the tax dollar received, but I do not think that would disturb that much more than 10 percent, Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN. I was wondering if this will not show that the property owners pay more than the sales tax, that is, they buy more. For instance, the property owner has to supply the things to his tenants, we will say.

Mr. McCORMACK. When I said, 75 percent to 83 percent, I meant directly. Indirectly, of course, the home owner is also a consumer.. With reference to the sales tax, of course, he has to pay his share according to the amount of purchases made. I have seen figures which-take my section of the country-have shown and show that the home owner would pay more taxes ultimately. When I said that the local government must look to the home owner and the property owner for from 75 percent to 83 percent of the tax dollar received, I meant directly.

The CHAIRMAN. Yes.

Mr. McCORMACK. I suppose that the sales tax so far as direct taxation is concerned may reduce that somewhat, but then we come to the question again, what does the home owner pay directly and indirectly? And I am inclined to think that your observation is correct. From the figures I have seen, in the long run they pay more. The combination of direct taxes on their property, plus the indirect taxes which they pay as a result of the sales tax which is imposed by the States, is also a burden upon them.

Now, there are so many other aspects that I will cover in my extension of remarks that I will not take up the time of the committee, but the basic thing that I have in mind is that the time has arrived when veterans of the World War-and the same thing applies to their widows and their orphans-I think the time has arrived. when a pension for widows and orphans should be enacted into law without regard for their service connection.