PENSIONS FOR WORLD WAR VETERANS' WIDOWS

AND ORPHANS

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1940

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

COMMITTEE ON WORLD WAR VETERANS' LEGISLITION,

Washington, D. C. The committee met at 10 a. m., Hon. John E. Rankin (chairman) presiding.

The CHAIRMAN. The committee will come to order. I am going to ask the representatives of the veterans organization to follow the suggestion that was made this morning as to our procedure. The first witness is Mr. Watson B. Miller. Mr. Miller, we will hear you.

Mr. MILLER. Mr. Chairman, may I ask the privilege of introducing Mr. E. V. Cliff, the chairman of the committee for just a moment? The CHAIRMAN. Suppose you insert that omnibus bill of the Legion in the record at this point?

Mr. MILLER. That is not our bill, Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN. Well, the one you have here. What is your bill? Mr. MILLER. I cannot recall the number of the bill. I am afraid I cannot recall the number of the bill until I come to it in the course of my remarks. I do not want to be arbitrary about it.

The CHAIRMAN. Will you insert it in the record at this point anyway?

Mr. MILLER. Yes, Mr. Chairman.

STATEMENT OF E. V. (PAT) CLIFF, OF MINNESOTA, CHAIRMAN, NATIONAL REHABILITATION COMMITTEE, AMERICAN LEGION

Mr. CLIFF. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I want to thank you for having the privilege of appearing here and I want to say in the same breath that I have been here so often that I doubt if I can add any more to the record than I have already stated. I want to direct just one brief remark I am going to make, however, to the widows and orphans compensation bill as recommended by the American Legion and take this opportunity to thank the committee for the enactment of that legislation which has already been nut on the statute books-namely, Public, No. 484; Public, No. 844; Public, No. 304: Public, No. 514; and Public, No. 198.

I hope that this committee, in whom I might state we have full confidence, will be able to complete this year in the bill before it the complete enactment of relief and compensation for the widows and orphans of the veterans in the World War. This principle was established and I am sure all members of the committee know in 1862

for the Civil War veterans for service-connected cases. Again in 1890, based only on service; and the Spanish-American war veterans widows were accorded protection by law in 1918. It has become increasingly harder for these widows and orphans of World War veterans who had no service-connected disability to understand why they should not be protected the same as widows and orphans of the other wars. And so this morning in making these remarks, may I on behalf of the national rehabilitation committee urge you again, as I have in the past, that this legislation be completed and enacted this year for the purpose of complete protection of the widows and orphans of the World War veterans.

May I thank you again, Mr. Chairman.

The CHAIRMAN. Let me ask you a few questions, if you are through with your statement?

Mr. CLIFF. Yes.

The CHAIRMAN. You say now that the widows and orphans of nonservice-connected cases of Civil War veterans were included in the pension bill of 1890?

Mr. CLIFF. 1890, as I have it.

The CHAIRMAN. 1890. And that the widows of the Spanish-American war veterans who were not suffering from service-connected disabilities were included in the pension bill of 1918?

Mr. CLIFF. 1918, during the World War.

The CHAIRMAN. Have you got those rates?

Mr. CLIFF. No; I have not those rates here.

The CHAIRMAN. General Hines, you have those rates here? General HINES. I will put the rates in the record, when I testify. The first rate, as I recall them, was $12.

The CHAIRMAN. You mean for the Civil War?

General HINES. No; the Spanish-American War. The Civil War started as low as $8 and increased year by year and got up to the present rate of $50 for a widow who was a wife of the veteran when he served, $40 for widows over 70 years of age, and $30 for widows under 70 years of age. The Spanish-American War service-pension rates are now $30 and service-connected rates $30 to $40.

The CHAIRMAN. All right. Thank you, General Hines.

Mr. CLIFF. I want to state on behalf of the American Legion here, that I wish to thank you again, Mr. Chairman, for the privilege of making these remarks.

STATEMENT OF WATSON B. MILLER, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL

REHABILITATION COMMITTEE, THE AMERICAN LEGION

Mr. MILLER. Mr. Chairman, I cannot initiate what presentation I have the privilege of making before the committee without expressing again my appreciation of the long-time courtesy of the chairman and the members of the committee as to the presentations of the American Legion and other interested ex-service groups. I recall so very graphically that at the time I was privileged to first appear before the World War Veterans' Committee, the present chairman, Mr. Rankin, was the senior minority member and at that time-the year was 1924-I think the hearings involved six weeks. This was preceding the time, Mr. Van Zandt, you remember it well, that the

World War Veterans' Act was passed. The Chairman's assistance and interest aided very materially the progress of what we then regarded and still regard as the most generous and far-reaching piece of legislation, for its time, with regard to disabled soldiers and sailors that the world has ever known.

I hope to proceed with this presentation in a manner which will not try the patience and make too much of an impost on the time of a very busy group of members of the national legislature and I am sure that I can conclude before the time for the convening of the House.

May I proceed now, Mr. Chairman?

The CHAIRMAN. Yes, Mr. Miller. Will you insert in the record at this point your two bills covering the disabled veterans and also the widows and orphans so we will have them before us when we go to read these hearings?

(The bills referred to are as follows:)

[H. R. 7593, 76th Cong., 2d sess.]

A BILL To provide Government protection to widows and children of deceased World War veterans

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the surviving widow, child, or children of any honorably discharged person who entered the service prior to November 12, 1918, or if the persons were serving with the United States military forces in Russia before April 2, 1920, and served ninety days or more during the World War, or who, having served less than ninety days, was discharged for disability in the service in line of duty, dies, or has died from a disease or disability not service connected, shall, upon filing application and such proofs in the Veterans' Administration as the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs may prescribe, be entitled to receive compensation: Provided, That payment of compensation under the provisions of this Act shall not be made to any widow without child, or a child, whose annual income exceeds $1,000, or to a widow with a child or children whose annual income exceeds $2,500. In determining annual income, payments of war risk term insurance, United States Government life (converted) insurance, and payments under the World War Adjusted Compensation Act, as amended (U. S. C., title 38, ch. 11), and the Adjusted Compensation Payment Act, 1936, as amended, shall not be considered.

SEC. 2. (a) The monthly rates of compensation shall be as follows: Widow but no child, $30; widow with one child, $38 (with $4 for each additional child); no widow but one child, $15; no widow but two children, $22 (equally divided); no widow but three children, $30 (equally divided) (with $3 for each additional child; total amount to be equally divided).

(b) The total compensation payable under this section shall not exceed $64. Where such benefits would otherwise exceed $64, the amount of $64 may be apportioned as the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs may prescribe. SEC. 3. That as used in this Act

(a) The term "person who entered the service" shall mean a person, whether male or female, and whether commissioned, enlisted, or drafted, who was finally accepted for active service in the military or naval forces of the United States, members of training camps authorized by law, and such other persons heretofore recognized by statute or veterans' regulations as being eligible for World War service connection for disability;

(b) The term "widow" shall mean a person who was married prior to the date of enactment of this Act to the person who served: Provided, That all marriages shall be proved as valid marriages according to the law of the place where the parties resided at the time of marriage or the law of the place where the parties resided when the right to compensation accrued; and

(c) The term "child" shall mean a person unmarried and under the age of eighteen years, unless prior to reaching the age of eighteen the child becomes or has become permanently incapable of self-support by reason of mental or physical defect, who is a legitimate child, a child legally adopted, a stepchild

if a member of the man's mousehold, an illegitimate child, but as to the father only, if acknowledged in writing signed by him or if he has been judicially ordered or decreed to contribute to such child's support or has been judicially decreed to be the putative father of such a child: Provided, That the payment of compensation shall be continued after the age of eighteen years and until completion of education or training to any child who is or may hereafter be pursuing a course of instruction, entered into before said child reached his or her twenty-first birthday, at a school, college, academy, seminary, technical institute, or university, particularly designated by him and approved by the Administrator, which shall have agreed to report to the Administrator the termination of attendance of such child, and if any such institution of learning fails to make such report promptly the approval shall be withdrawn.

SEC. 4. That payment shall be effective from the date of enactment of this Act in all cases where application under Public Law Numbered 484, Seventythird Congress, as amended, is on file in the Veterans' Administration prior to the date of enactment of this Act, and in all other cases payment shall be made from the date the application of the widow, child, or children, in the form prescribed by the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs, is filed in the Veterans' Administration.

SEO. 5. This act may be cited as the "World War Widows' and Dependent Children's Act, 1940".

Mr. MILLER. We have as part of our general program emanating from the Chicago conventions four resolutions relating to the judicial side of the Government contract of insurance. One asks that the present statute of limitations on the filing of suits on war-risk insurance (yearly renewable term) policies be repealed and an extension of 90 days be given from the date of repeal for the presenting of claims and suits. There is no bar against the filing of, and consideration of, claims on these policies by the Veterans' Administration even though no premiums may have been paid since discharge from service. The state of the law on suits is that they must have been filed within 6 years after the right accrued or before July 3, 1931, subject to a tolling of the statute even after this cut-off date for a time equivalent to any period before July 3, 1931, during which the denied claim has been under administrative review by the Government. There is a further allowance of ninety days from the mailing of the notice of the denial by the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs to the claimant's last address of record. This under the terms of an amendment sought by the Legion and approved by the President on June 29, 1936, as part of Public, No. 844, Seventy-fourth Congress. Mr. Engel has introduced H. R. 7697, seeking to extend the statute of limitations of the filing of suits.

Another resolution asks that insurance awarded by court decree be continued except upon discontinuing action by a court of competent jurisdiction. This will require legislative consideration, of course. It has been suggested by prior conventions and presented to the Congress by bill and discussion with the insurance subcommittee of the World War Veterans' Committee. Our last bill was H. R. 4793, of the Seventy-sixth Congress, by Mr. Grant of Alabama.

The other resolution suggests that the statute of limitations as to suits on automatic insurance be repealed and the right to sue on this form of insurance be extended at least one year from the date of the repeal act. In event the general statute of limitation be extended, the right to sue under any such extension would go to contests on automatic insurance as well as the so-called contract insurance. Just as an observation, we see few such causes though the courts have affirmed the right to sue on the automatic insurance provision of the law.

Mr. Chairman, I know that these suggestions are controversial and undoubtedly they will be opposed by the Government. But I have thought that there is some justice certainly in the proposition that insurance awards as decreed by the Federal courts should be continued unless reversed by courts of equal jurisdiction. We have a paralled in our Federal statutes now where there is a judgment in favor of the Government against an individual by a court decree and the Government claims a set-off for an alleged indebtedness. The current laws require that the Comptroller General go into the Federal courts and seek a judgment for the Government. Now, we have almost a parallel situation. I think I ought to say in fairness so far as I know, court decrees on insurance payments are not upset administratively in an arbitrary manner. Ordinarily the case where a court judgment is reversed administratively and insurance payments discontinued the Government has found or has thought it has found the veterans in such shape as to be able to make a livelihood. In other words, the theory is that in order to reverse administratively they have to hold that the man has improved in health, mentally or physically, over his condition at the time the Federal court awarded the judgment. I would not come in here saying that these matters are handled by the Veterans' Administration in an arbitrary or capricious manner. But the committee may find some justice and some equity in the proposition that once having forced the man into court to get his insurance they should go into court to take it away from him.

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Miller?

Mr. MILLER. Yes, Mr. Chairman?

The CHAIRMAN. In that connection in just a few words I want to call to your attention an injustice which the committee cannot cure but which another committee can. What they are pleased to refer to as the soldiers' bonus was adjusted compensation and that pay that he earned during the war, and under the law the time of making application has expired. Also, the men who reported that legislation out of the Committee on Ways and Means were not very friendly to it and they hedged it about with the limitation requiring that it should be paid only to a veteran's wife, child, father, or mother. The veteran who had a crippled sister or brother depending on him could not get his pay and if he had to borrow money to pay doctors' bills and so forth in his last illness, it could not even be used for that purpose.

I have introduced a bill to extend that time for filing those claims to 1950. It ought to be indefinitely. And also to change that provision and make it payable to the same persons in order that they are in the original bill and if none of them are living then to his brothers, sisters, or his other relatives, or to his estate. That measure is pending before the Ways and Means Committee and I trust that the veterans' organizations will get behind it and help to put it over. I do not want to take up your time, Mr. Miller.

Mr. MILLER. The Chairman referred, I take it, to instances where a veteran during his lifetime did not apply for his adjusted-service certificate and the dependents in the order named by law were entitled to apply and receive what is called the net adjusted-service value in 10 equal quarterly installments.

The CHAIRMAN. He did not collect it during his lifetime.