2 per centum of such professional personnel to attend professional courses conducted by other than bureau agencies, and such employees in addition to their salaries shall be entitled to the payment of expenses incident to such detail, including transportation: Provided, however, That travel or instruction outside the continental limits of the United States shall not be authorized under this section." SEC. 7. That section 200 of the World War Veterans' Act, 1924, approved June 7, 1924, as amended, is hereby amended to read as follows: "SEC. 200. For death or disability resulting from personal injury suffered or disease contracted in the military or naval service on or after April 6, 1917, and before July 2, 1921, or for an aggravation or recurrence of a disability existing prior to examination, acceptance, and enroliment for service, when such aggravation was suffered or contracted in, or such recurrence was caused by, the military or naval service on or after April 6, 1917, and before July 2, 1921, by any commissioned officer or enlisted man, or by any member of the Army Nurse Corps (female), or of the Navy Nurse Corps (female), when employed in the active service under the War Department or Navy Department, the United States shall pay to such commissioned officer or enlisted man, member of the Army Nurse Corps (female), or of the Navy Nurse Corps (female), or women citizens of the United States who were taken from the United States by the United States Government and who served in base hospitals overseas, or, in the discretion of the director, separately to his or her dependents, compensation as hereinafter provided; but no compensation shall be paid if the injury, disease, aggravation, or recurrence has been caused by his own willful misconduct: Provided, That no person suffering from paralysis, paresis, or blindness shall be denied compensation by reason of willful misconduct, nor shall any person who is helpless or bedridden as a result of any disability be denied compensation by reason of willful misconduct. That for the purposes of this Act every such officer, enlisted man, or other member employed in the active service under the War Department or Navy Department who was discharged or who resigned prior to July 2, 1921, and every such officer, enlisted man, or other member employed in the active service under the War Department or Navy Department on or before November 11, 1918, who on or after July 2, 1921, is discharged or resigns, shall be conclusively held and taken to have been in sound condition when examined, accepted, and enrolled for service, except as to defects, disorders, or infirmities made of record in any manner by proper authorities of the United States at the time of, or prior to, inception of active service, to the extent to which any such defect, disorder, or infirmity was so made of record: Provided, That an ex-service man who is shown to have or, if deceased, to have had, prior to January 1, 1925, neuropsychiatric disease and spinal meningitis, an active tuberculosis disease, paralysis agitans, encephalitis lethargica, or amoebic dysentery developing a 10 per centum degree of disability or more in accordance with the provisions of subdivision (4) of section 202 of this Act, shall be presumed to have acquired his disability in such service between April 6, 1917, and July 2, 1921, or to have suffered an aggravation of a preexisting neuropsychiatric disease and spinal meningitis, tuberculosis, paralysis agitans, encephalitis lethargica, or amoebic dysentery in such service between said dates, Largely re pealed March 20, 1933, 48 Stat. 11, § 17 and said presumption shall be conclusive in cases of active tuberculosis disease and spinal meningitis, but in all other cases said presumption shall be rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence; but nothing in this proviso shall be construed to prevent a claimant from receiving the benefits of compensation and medical care and treatment for a disability due to these diseases of more than 10 per centum degree (in accordance with the provisions of subdivision (4) of section 202 of this act) on or subsequent to January 1, 1925, if the facts in the case substantiate his claim." SEC. 8. That paragraph (1) of section 201 of the World War Veterans' Act, 1924, approved June 7, 1924, be amended, to read as follows: "(1) If death occur or shall have occurred subsequent to April 6, 1917, and before discharge or resignation from the service, the United States Veterans' Bureau shall pay for burial and funeral expenses and the return of body to his home a sum not to exceed $100, as may be fixed by regulation. Where a veteran of any war, including those women who served as Army nurses under contracts between April 21, 1898, and February 2, 1901, who was not dishonorably discharged, dies after discharge or resignation from the service and does not leave assets which, in the judgment of the director, should be applied to meet the expenses of burial and funeral and the transportation of the body (the decision of the director to be binding for all purposes), the United States Veterans' Bureau shall pay the following sums: For a flag to drape the casket, and after burial to be given to the next of kin of the deceased, a sum not exceeding $7; also, for burial and funeral expenses and the transportation of the body (including preparation of the body) to the place of burial, a sum not exceeding $100 to cover such items and to be paid to such person or persons as may be fixed by regulations: Provided, That when such person dies while receiving from the bureau compensation or vocational training, the above benefits shall be payable in all cases: Provided further, That where such person, while receiving from the bureau medical, surgical, or hospital treatment, or vocational training, dies away from home and at the place to which he was ordered by the bureau, or while traveling under orders of the bureau, the above benefits shall be payable in all cases and in addition thereto the actual and necessary cost of the transportation of the body of the person (including preparation of the body) to the place of burial, within the continental limits of the United States, its Territories, or possessions, and including also, in the discretion of the director, the actual and necessary cost of transportation of an attendant: And provided further, That no accrued pension, compensation, or insurance due at the time of death shall be deducted from the sum allowed." SEC. 9. Paragraphs 3, 7, and 10 of section 202 are hereby amended to read as follows: "SEC. 202. (3) If and while the disability is rated as total and permanent, the rate of compensation shall be $100 per month: Provided, however, That the permanent loss of the use of both feet, or both hands, or both eyes, or of one foot and one hand, or of one foot and one eye, or of one hand and one eye, or the loss of hearing of both ears, or the organic loss of speech, or becoming permanently helpless or permanently bedridden, shall be deemed to be total, permanent disability: Provided further, That the compensation for the loss of the use of both eyes shall be $150 per month, and that compensation for the loss of the use of both eyes and one Largely repealed March 20, 1933, 48 Stat. 11, § 17 Largely re pealed March 20, 1933, 48 Stat. 11, § 17 or more limbs shall be $200 per month: Provided further, That for double total, permanent disability the rate of compensation shall be $200 per month. "That any ex-service man shown to have a tuberculous disease of compensable degree, and who has been hospitalized for a period of one year, and who in the judgment of the director will not reach a condition of arrest by further hospitalization, and whose discharge from hospitalization will not be prejudicial to the beneficiary or his family, and who is not, in the judgment of the director, feasible for training, shall, upon his request, be discharged from hospitalization and rated as temporarily totally disabled, said rating to continue for the period of three years: Provided, however, That nothing in this subdivision shall deny the beneficiary the right, upon presentation of satisfactory evidence, to be adjudged to be permanently and totally disabled: Provided further, That in addition to the compensation above provided, the injured person shall be furnished by the United States such reasonable governmental medical, surgical, and hospital services, including payment of court costs and other expenses incident to proceedings heretofore or hereafter taken for commitment of mentally incompetent persons to hospitals for care and treatment of the insane, and shall be furnished with such supplies, including wheel chairs, artificial limbs, trusses, and similar appliances, as the director may determine to be useful and reasonably necessary, which wheel chairs, artificial limbs, trusses, and similar appliances may be procured by the bureau in such manner, either by purchase or manufacture, as the director may determine to be advantageous and reasonably necessary: Provided, That nothing in this Act shall be construed to affect the necessary military control over any member of the Military or Naval Establishments before he shall have been discharged from the military or naval service: Provided further, That where any person entitled to the benefits of this paragraph has heretofore been hospitalized in a State institution, the United States Veterans' Bureau is hereby authorized to reimburse such person, or his estate, where payment has been made to the State out of the funds of such person, or to reimburse the State or any subdivision thereof where no payment has been made for the reasonable cost of such services from the date of admission. "(7) Where any disabled person having neither wife, child, nor dependent parent shall, after July 1, 1924, have been maintained by the Government of the United States for a period or periods amounting to six months in an institution or institutions, and shall be deemed by the director to be insane, the compensation for such person shall thereafter be $20 per month so long as he shall thereafter be maintained by the bureau in an institution; and such compensation may, in the discretion of the director, be paid to the chief officer of said institution to be used for the benefit of such person: Provided, however, That if such person shall recover his reason and shall be discharged from such institution as competent, such additional sum shall be paid him as would equal the total sum by which his compensation has been reduced through the provisions of this subdivision. "All or any part of the compensation, of any mentally incompetent inmate of an institution, may, in the discretion of the director, be paid to the chief officer of said institution to be properly accounted for and to be used for the benefit of such inmate, or may, in the discretion of the director, be apportioned to wife, child, or children, or dependent parents, in accordance with regulations. "That any ex-service person shown to have had a tuberculous disease of a compensable degree, who in the judgment of the director has reached a condition of complete arrest of his disease, shall receive compensation of not less than $50 per month: Provided, however, That nothing in this provision shall deny a beneficiary the right to receive a temporary total rating for six months after discharge from a one year's period of hospitalization: Provided further, That no payments under this provision shall be retroactive and the payments hereunder shall commence from the date of the passage of this Act or the date the disease reaches a condition of arrest, whichever be the later date. "After June 30, 1927, the monthly rate of compensation for all veterans (other than those totally and permanently disabled), who are being maintained by the bureau in an institution of any description, and who are without wife, child, or dependent parents, shall not exceed $40. "(10) That all hospital facilities under the control and jurisdiction of the bureau shall be available for every honorably discharged veteran of the Spanish-American War, the Philippine insurrection, the Boxer rebellion, or the World War suffering from neuropsychiatric or tubercular ailments and diseases, paralysis agitans, encephalitis lethargica, or amoebic dysentery, or the loss of sight of both eyes, regardless whether such ailments or diseases are due to military service or otherwise, including traveling expenses as granted to those receiving compensation and hospitalization under this Act. The director is further authorized, so far as he shall find that existing Government facilities permit, to furnish hospitalization and necessary traveling expenses incident to hospitalization to veterans of any war, military occupation, or military expedition, including those women who served as Army nurses under contracts between April 21, 1898, and February 2, 1901, not dishonorably discharged, without regard to the nature or origin of their disabilities: Provided, That any and all laws applicable to women who belonged to the Nurse Corps of the Army after February 2, 1901, shall apply equally to members of the Army Nurse Corps who served under contract between April 21, 1898, and February 2, 1901, including all women who served honorably as nurses, chief nurses, or superintendent of said corps in said period: Provided, That preference to admission to any Government hospital for hospitalization under the provisions of this subdivision shall be given to those veterans who are financially unable to pay for hospitalization and their necessary traveling expenses: Provided further, That where a veteran hospitalized under the authority of this subdivision is financially unable to supply himself with clothing, he shall also be furnished with such clothing as the director may deem necessary: Provided further, That where a veteran entitled to hospitalization under this subdivision is suffering with a disease or injury necessi U. S. C. 38: 496 tating the wearing of a prosthetic appliance and is financially unable SEC. 10. That section 203 of the World War Veterans' Act, 1924, approved June 7, 1924, is hereby amended to read as follows: "SEC. 203. That every person applying for or in receipt of compensation for disability under the provisions of this title and every person applying for treatment under the provisions of subdivisions (9) or (10) of section 202 hereof, shall, as frequently and at such times and places as may be reasonably required, submit himself to examination by a medical officer of the United States or by a duly qualified physician designated or approved by the director. He may have a duly qualified physician designated and paid by him present to participate in such examination. For all examinations he shall, in the discretion of the director, be paid his reasonable traveling and other expenses and also a per diem allowance of $2.65 per day for the period of travel and observation. If he shall neglect or refuse to submit to such examination, or shall in any way obstruct the same, his right to claim compensation under this title shall be suspended until such neglect, refusal, or obstruction ceases. No compensation shall be payable while such neglect, refusal, or obstruction continues, and no compensation shall be payable for the intervening period." SEC. 11. That section 206 of the World War Veterans' Act. of 1924, approved June 7, 1924, be, and the same is hereby, amended to read as follows: "SEC. 206. That no compensation shall be payable for death or disability which does not occur prior to or within one year after discharge or resignation from the service, except as provided in section 200 of this Act, and except where there is an official record of the injury during service or at the time of separation from active service, or where within three years from the approval of this Act, satisfactory evidence is furnished the bureau to establish that the injury was suffered or aggravated during active service. Where there is official record of injury during service compensation shall be payable in accordance with the provisions of this title, for death or disability whenever occurring, proximately resulting from such injury." |