and institutions. In the matter of the payment of vouchers, I would just like to state that at the close of business Saturday night, May 8, we had on hand in the auditing section 877 vouchers. If they were all in legal form and ready to pass without being sent back or put in correspondence-I mean, if they could go through without anything of that kind and it meant simply the mere auditing of them, they could all be passed in a day and a half. That is because we have gotten our department in such good shape.

Some of those, however, will be in correspondence, as we call it. perhaps for three or four weeks, for the purpose of getting some technicality smoothed out in the way of what they call Government red tape. Our meal and lodging requests, that is, where a soldier is given a ticket entitling him to a meal or lodging, come in unvouchered; they come in ready for payment with the exception that we make an office voucher and pass them to the disbursing office: these all pass through the day received. I am glad to say I have had a good many letters of commendation from the banks, hotels, and restaurants all over the country saying that they approved the promptness with which we pay them and some of them even went so far as to say they had not received that good treatment from some of the other departments.

The CHAIRMAN. What evidence do you require before you will pay a claim? For instance, if there are claims coming from various sections for lodging it seems to me they would be claims that should be accompanied by satisfactory evidence.

Mr. QUILLIN. Yes. In the first place, it is drawn by the district officer and given to the student, I mean, to the trainee: he signs a receipt that he has received the meal or lodging and then the hotel or restaurant or whoever furnishes the meal or lodging sends it in directly to central office or sends it through a bank for collection. The CHAIRMAN. I have an item here which I want to read:

The official order of the United States for a low priced meal, issued to disabled ex-soldiers and sailors by the United States Vocational Board, is no good in several Boston downtown restaurants, it has been officially reported to that board and to the American Legion by holders of them, who have suffered some humiliation and hardship.

Do you know anything about a situation like that?

Mr. QUILLIN. Yes: I have been told by some of our district and field men that there are certain restaurants and hotels which are not familiar with the Government meal and lodging requests, and on account of the red tape, that do not accept them; also the situation was at one time so acute in Washington, on account of these meal and lodging requests being sent through the banks, that several of the banks in Washington returned them to their correspondent banks saying that there was delay in collecting them and they could not handle them as a cash collection. These, of course, have to be paid by voucher.

The CHAIRMAN. This statement goes on to say:

The Government sends each out-of-town man his railroad ticket or fare, and during the examinations, etc., here, each is given a voucher for his noonday meal. It is said that all the restaurants were asked to honor them, given a sample, and that all who were asked agreed to the plan. During the past week, however, it is reported that several of the restaurants, the names were given the men, have declined to accept the vouchers.

It would work quite a hardship on a soldier if he should be found there without sufficient money for his subsistence.

Mr. QUILLIN. I understand that in every place where these men assemble there are several restaurants and hotels that understand these requests and honor them. Of course, you could not go to any restaurant, the proprietor of which was not familiar with the procedure, and get a meal; it is a good deal like a personal check that some of us might draw; unless they were acquainted with us or knew something about it they would not cash it.

. I have known this to happen, that a restaurant man might get one or two and he did not want to send them in to Washington for collection. All he had to do was to mail them in and we would mail a check, but he would take them down to his friend the banker on the corner, and the cashier or paying teller usually "fussed " about it and would say, "We do not like to handle them, they are so much trouble, for the reason that they have to be handled as an I. O. U. cash item in the cashier's drawer. He sends it on to the correspondent bank down to Washington, the Riggs Bank, for instance, or some of these larger banks, and they present it to us and we give them a check. We make a voucher and give them a check and then they return it to the first bank in question. If that should happen out in the Middle West some place it might be two or three weeks before it got back and that I. O. U. ticket is lying in the cashier's drawer all that time. He does not like that. He has to enter it every day as a cash item. If the bank examiner comes along he makes a note of it to the effect that the cashier has 75 cents or $1.50 ticket cash item for a Government meal request. The bank examiner writes in and wants to know if that is a legitimate charge against the board. Therefore, a lot of these smaller banks, scattered over the country, frown on paying them for that reason. That is something, of course, that we can not help.

The CHAIRMAN. What would a man who found himself in this position do in Boston, where would he go?

Mr. QUILLIN. There are any number of restaurants and hotels. that will take them just the same as money. You can not drop into any place in Boston and get it, as I say.

The CHAIRMAN. Would the Boston office look after the matter if presented to it?

Mr. QUILLIN. Yes, sir; they have an arrangement made.

The CHAIRMAN. I can see how this would work an untold amount

of not only inconvenience, but it might be suffering?

Mr. QUILLIN. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. At any rate, it would retard the very work that the board is trying to do?

Mr. QUILLIN. Yes, sir; and for that reason the meal and lodging requests never stay over night in our office, in order to make it as pleasant as we can for the boys and people who handle them. The CHAIRMAN. This was as late as April?

Mr. QUILLIN. Yes, sir; but the district offices have told me that they have an arrangement with various hotels and restaurants in the various places where they know how to collect them, but you do run across some who do feel otherwise on account of the "red tape as they call it.

The CHAIRMAN. That is all, Mr. Quillin.

4661-20-VOL 2- 63

STATEMENT OF DR. E. 0. LITTLE, DISTRICT MEDICAL OFFICER, DISTRICT NO. 7, CINCINNATI, OHIO.

(The witness was duly sworn by the chairman.)

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Dallinger, Dr. Little is connected with the Cincinnati office; do you want to examine him?

Mr. DALLINGER. What is your connection with the Cincinnati office?

Dr. LITTLE. I am district medical officer, District No. 7, detailed from the Public Health Service.

Mr. DALLINGER. How long have you been in the Cincinnati office? Dr. LITTLE. Since November 1, 1919.

Mr. DALLINGER. Since you have been there have you had enough doctors to conduct the examinations without causing the applicants to wait unduly?

Dr. LITTLE. I have.

Mr. DALLINGER. What on the average would be the time that an applicant for training at the Cincinnati office would have to wait for his examination?

Dr. LITTLE. I should say on the average not over from one to three hours, when they were required to wait, occasionally.

Mr. DALLINGER. That condition of affairs has prevailed since you have been in Cincinnati?

Dr. LITTLE. Yes, sir.

Mr. DALLINGER. Where is your office located in Cincinnati?

Dr. LITTLE. You mean the address?

Mr. DALLINGER. Yes, sir; whereabouts is the office?

Dr. LITTLE. In the Denton Building, corner of Race and Seventh Streets.

Mr. DALLINGER. Does the Public Health Bureau of the Treasury have an office in the same building?

Dr. LITTLE. They do not. The district office of the Public Health Service is on Fourth Street, practically at the corner of Fourth and Race Streets, three blocks away.

Mr. DALLINGER. Has the War Risk Insurance Bureau an office in Cincinnati?

Dr. LITTLE. Not to my knowledge. I think the War Risk Insurance Bureau has a representative in that section, but not especially assigned

to Cincinnati.

Mr. DALLINGER. Do you know where his headquarters are?

Dr. LITTLE. I do not.

Mr. DALLINGER. You think that it would be an advantage to have the three departments in the same building like they are in New York and Philadelphia?

Dr. LITTLE. I think undoubtedly there would be a good deal of advantage in having the office of the district supervisor of the Public Health Service and Federal board and the Red Cross in the same building.

Mr. DALLINGER. Has any recommendation been made to that effect by anyone in Cincinnati?

Dr. LITTLE. I can not say positively, but I think such a recommendation has been made. In fact, I know that there have been several conferences between the three organizations, beginning about

December, but at no time have they been able to find sufficient space to accommodate the three organizations in one building.

Mr. DALLINGER. Has the vocational board sufficient space, in your opinion?

Dr. LITTLE. They have, since the middle of February.

Mr. DALLINGER. 'What was the situation previous to the middle of January?

Dr. LITTLE. We were greatly overcrowded.

Mr. DALLINGER. As a result of that overcrowding was there some delay in acting on cases?

Dr. LITTLE. Well, I should say possibly some delay was caused by that overcrowded condition.

Mr. DALLINGER. How many medical officers are there in Cincinnati working for the Federal board?

Dr. LITTLE. I have six in Cincinnati and two outside of Cincinnati.

Mr. DALLINGER. Where are they located?

Dr. LITTLE. One in Cleveland and one in Indianapolis, in the branch offices.

Mr. DALLINGER. Has there been any complaint from those men that they did not have assistance; have they asked for additional help?

Dr. LITTLE. No; they have not.

Mr. DALLINGER. They have been able to take care of the boys they have examined without any undue delay?

Dr. LITTLE. Yes, sir.

Mr. DALLINGER. Have you heard of any complaints from any of the soldiers in the Cincinnati district of their treatment by employees of the vocational board?

Dr. LITTLE. I have not.

Mr. DALLINGER. Has there been any complaint in the way of letters from soldiers in leading newspapers there; have you seen anything of that kind?

Dr. LITTLE. No, sir.

Mr. DALLINGER. Do you know whether or not there has been any delay in acting on cases after the application has gone in and the boy has been examined?

Dr. LITTLE. Not more than I believe would be necessary from the volume of work and the size of the staff. I think that the cases are acted upon in a reasonable length of time.

Mr. DALLINCER. What would you call a reasonable length of time from the time the boy first makes his application?

Dr. LITTLE. Well, if the items in the case are complete, I should say within 10 days or 2 weeks.

Mr. DALLINGER. Your office has authority now to act in these cases without sending them to Washington?

Dr. LITTLE. Yes, sir. We have an appeal board and in a case where there is disagreement the case may be placed before this board of appeals which takes action.

Mr. DALLINGER. But, if the report of the medical staff is favorable, the boy's papers are properly filled out, and the district vocational officer there and his subordinates pass favorably upon the case, it does not have to come to Washington?

Dr. LITTLE. It does not.

!

Mr. DALLINGER. You can put the boy right into training?

Dr. LITTLE. Yes, sir.

Mr. DALLINGER. You said that in 10 days to 2 weeks, do you mean that on an average or in some cases you are able to put the boy in sooner?

Dr. LITTLE. In a great many cases he may be placed in training the same day.

Mr. DALLINGER. Have you known of such cases?

Dr. LITTLE. Yes, sir.

Mr. DALLINGER. That is, the man would come in in the morning and make his application?

Dr. LITTLE. Yes, sir.

Mr. DALLINGER. For the first time?

Dr. LITTLE. Yes, sir.

Mr. DALLINGER. And where it was a perfectly obvious case and you had no difficulty in determining that he was entitled to compensation on account of his injury, you have put the case through in one day?

Dr. LITTLE. Yes, sir.

Mr. DALLINGER. And the boy has actually been placed in one day? Dr. LITTLE. I have one case in mind where the man's papers were completed in less than two hours. In all cases where a man reports directly to the office, unless there is something exceptionally wrong he receives an answer before he leaves the office.

Mr. DALLINGER. I know that this is not in your line, being a representative from the Cincinnati office, and if you do not feel like answering from your knowledge of course you are at liberty to say so. Dr. LITTLE. All right.

Mr. DALLINGER. I want to ask you if on the whole you think that the cases of disabled soldiers are being handled and the boys put in training with satisfaction to the boys themselves and to the community, so far as the Cincinnati office is concerned?

Dr. LITTLE. I think they are. I have heard of no complaints which I believed were just.

Mr. DALLINGER. You think that they have a sufficient staff of advisers and trainers, men in charge of the training department? Dr. LITTLE. Well, I believe that the staff is insufficient.

Mr. DALLINGER. You think perhaps that there would be still less delay if there were more men?

Dr. LITTLE. Yes, sir; more men. Of course, this is not a thing that I can speak upon, because it is out of my line. I know it is true that it is difficult for them to secure men with experience along industrial lines to conduct the work pertaining to those fields.

Mr. DALLINGER. Is that due to the fact of the salary limitation?

Dr. LITTLE. It is undoubtedly due to the salary.

Mr. DALLINGER. What does your appeal board consist of?

Dr. LITTLE. The appeal board consists of the district vocational officer, the district medical officer, and the representative from the central office who is stationed in the district office.

Mr. DALLINGER. He is not a medical man, I suppose?

Dr. LITTLE. NO. The district medical officer is the only medical representative on the board.