PENSIONS FOR WORLD WAR VETERANS' WIDOWS

AND ORPHANS

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 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.

I believe the schedule this morning is to hear Capt. Thomas Kirby, the legislative representative of the Disabled American Veterans of the World War.

STATEMENT OF THOMAS KIRBY, NATIONAL SERVICE DIRECTOR, DISABLED AMERICAN VETERANS

Mr. KIRBY. Mr. Chairman, as I explained before the committee the other day, our legislative program is brief because it is limited exclusively to those disabled in the war and their dependents. A war-incurred disability is a requirement of eligibility for membership in our organization.

The CHAIRMAN. Captain Kirby, I believe you have two bills here?

Mr. KIRBY. We have for this committee H. R. 7558 and H. R. 7560.

The CHAIRMAN. You want to insert them in the record at this time?

Mr. KIRBY. I would like to have both of these inserted.

The CHAIRMAN. Or would you like to insert them at the beginning of the record?

Mr. KIRBY. Either way you prefer. My comments will be addressed mostly to these bills.

The CHAIRMAN. They will be inserted in the record at this point.

[H. R. 7560, 76th Cong., 2d sess.]

A BILL To restore service-connected benefits to World War veterans, and for other purposes

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That a World War veteran entitled to or receiving compensation for a service-connected disability shall be rated as temporarily totally disabled and the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs is hereby authorized and directed to pay compensation benefits in accordance with such rating for any period during which the veteran is hospitalized for treatment of such service-connected disability deemed necessary and suitable by the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs: Provided, That where the monthly rate of com

pensation to which the veteran was entitled or was being paid, upon entry into such hospitalization, would exceed the rate authorized herein, the veteran shall receive the higher rate.

That part of paragraph VI (A), Veterans Regulation Numbered 6 (a), as amended by Veterans Regulation Numbered 6 (c), promulgated under the provisions of Public Law Numbered 2, Seventy-third Congress, March 20, 1933, preceding the first proviso, is hereby repealed insofar as it pertains to compensation and emergency officers' retirement pay being paid to World War veterans for service-connected disabilities.

That part of paragraph VI (B), Veterans Regulation Numbered 6 (a), as amended by Veterans Regulation Numbered 6 (c), promulgated under the provisions of Public Law Numbered 2, Seventy-third Congress, March 20, 1933 (U. S. C., title 38, ch. 12, appendix), preceding the last proviso, is hereby amended to read as follows:

"(B) Where any disabled veteran having neither wife, child, nor dependent parent is being furnished hospital treatment, institutional or domiciliary care by the United States or any political subdivision thereof and shall be deemed by the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs to be insane, and where the estate of such disabled insane veteran derived from funds paid under the laws administered by the Veterans' Administration, equals or exceeds $1,500, further payments of pension, compensation, or emergency officers' retirement pay will not be made until the estate derived from such funds is reduced to $500:".

SEC. 2. That part of the second proviso, section 28, Public Law Numbered 141, Seventy-third Congress, March 28, 1934 (48 Stat. 524; U. S. C., title 38, sec. 722), which limits payment of compensation thereunder to 75 per centum of the payments otherwise authorized, is hereby repealed as of the date of enactment of this Act, and the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs is hereby authorized and directed to pay 100 per centum of the compensation otherwise authorized under Public Law Numbered 141, Seventy-third Congress.

SEC. 3. That part of the first proviso of section 200, World War Veterans' Act, 1924, as amended (46 Stat. 995; U. S. C., title 38, sec. 471), following the first sentence, pertaining to conclusive presumption of soundness, is hereby reenacted into law and shall apply to all claims of World War veterans and their dependents for compensation on account of service-connected disabilities.

SEC. 4. Notwithstanding the provisions of any law of the United States, any person who served as an officer of the Army, Navy, or Marine Corps of the United States during the World War, other than as an officer of the Regular Army, Navy, or Marine Corps during the World War, who made valid application for retirement under the provisions of Public Law Numbered 506, Seventieth Congress, enacted May 24, 1928 (U. S. C., Supp. VII, title 38, secs. 581 and 582), and who prior to the passage of this Act has been granted retirement with pay, shall be entitled to continue to receive retirement pay at the monthly rate paid him on March 19, 1933, if the disability for which he has been retired resulted from disease or injury or aggravation of a preexisting disease or injury incurred in such service, in fact, in line of duty and directly resulting from the performance of duty: Provided, That such person rendered active service as a commissioned officer within the period between April 6, 1917, and November 11, 1918: Provided further, That where the disability is now or hereafter determined to be directly incurred in or aggravated during active service, in fact, in line of duty without benefit of any statutory or regulatory presumption of any kind, it will be considered to have directly resulted from performance of duty, unless otherwise shown by official record, or clear and unmistakable evidence.

No beneficiary under this section shall receive any retirement pay for any period prior to the date of enactment of this Act.

Subsection (b) of section 212 of Public Law Numbered 212, Seventy-second Congress, is hereby amended to read as follows:

"(b) This section shall not apply to any person whose retired pay plus civilian pay amounts to less than $3,000: Provided, That this section shall not apply to regular or emergency commissioned officers retired for disability incurred in combat with an enemy of the United States or for disabilities resulting from an explosion of an instrumentality of war in line of duty during an enlistment or employment as provided in Veterans Regulation Numbered 1 (a), part I, paragraph I."

SEC. 5. The Administrator of Veterans' Affairs is hereby authorized and directed to place service-connected disability ratings on a permanent basis

wherever possible. A permanent disability is a disability which it is reasonably certain will continue unimproved throughout the disabled person's life. With disabling diseases and injuries of long standing, the probability of any improvement under treatment shall be conceded as remote, unless specific treatment is indicated for a particular disability. All disability ratings relating to impairments, the lesions and symptoms of which have persisted at approximately the same level of severity as shown by two or more examinations at least five years apart, unless material improvement in the near future may be anticipated on the basis of evidence pertinent to the individual case, shall be placed on a permanent basis. With a major disability rated on a permanent basis, minor disabilities shall be placed on a permanent rating, without regard to fluctuations in the past, except that in the case of diseases or injuries of fluctuating severity over the past five-year period, where the conversion of the current temporary rating to a permanent rating of the same degree would not be justified, permanent ratings may be made on the basis of the average severity disclosed by examinations covering this five-year period, including a recent examination, or an examination required in order to determine the current disability. Nothing herein shall prevent rating on a permanent basis the residuals of all healed injuries.

SEC. 6. The service-connected compensation, exclusive of any amount authorized as a statutory award, payable to any World War veteran who reaches or has reached the age of forty-five years, shall be increased by 10 per centum and shall be further increased by 10 per centum of the basic compensation, exclusive of any amount authorized as a statutory award, upon reaching the ages of fifty-five and sixty years, respectively. Where the degree of disability changes after the veteran's forty-fifth birthday, the veteran shall receive the compensation payable under such changed degree of disability increased for the attained age as herein provided.

SEC. 7. All decisions granting service connection rendered by special boards established under the provisions of section 20 of Public Law Numbered 78, Seventy-third Congress, June 16, 1933, are hereby declared final, notwithstanding decisions rendered to the contrary by appellate or other authority. Payments to veterans restored to the rolls under the provisions of this section shall be effective the date of enactment of this Act, and payments to widows, children, or dependent parents shall not be effective prior to the date of enactment of this Act.

SEC. 8. Permanent and total service-connected disability compensation ratings in cases of World War veterans which, on or after the date of enactment of this Act, have been in effect for a period of at least five consecutive years shall not thereafter be reduced.

SEC. 9. Effective on and after the date of enactment of this Act, the rate of interest to be charged on premiums for reinstated insurance under the provisions of section 304 of the World War Veterans' Act, 1924, as amended, shall be 3% per centum.

[H. R. 7558, 76th Cong., 2d sess.]

A BILL To equalize the extra compensation payable to certain World War veterans who suffered the loss of the use of one or more feet or hands

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That on and after the date of enactment of this Act, World War veterans otherwise entitled to the statutory award under the provisions of the last paragraph of section 202 (3), World War Veterans' Act, 1924, as amended, for the loss of the use of one or more feet or hands, shall be paid $35 per month additional compensation in lieu of $25 per month previously authorized.

Mr. KIRBY. Of course, it is understood, we have other proposals that properly come before other committees of Congress. The CHAIRMAN. I understand that.

Mr. KIRBY. Our program provides that the Disabled American Veterans, independently and in cooperation with other patriotic organizations, aggressively combat all forms of subversive movements calculated to destroy the American form of government. And that obviously is not a subject before this committee necessarily.

We are supporting an investigation of the various isms and we are strongly on record against any ism which is against the American form of government. We have an Americanization committee that has made an exhaustive study of this subject and which has been in close touch with the Dies committee.

The second provides that the Disabled American Veterans, while supporting all worthy movements for better international understanding, continues to advocate a proper military and naval prepared

ness.

Under that provision we naturally are supporting the extension of the Military and Naval Establishments during the present critical times. In short, the D. A. V. position is that we want to keep foreign agitators out of America and American troops off foreign battlefields. Our proposal is that all hospitalized service-connected World War veterans receive total ratings while hospitalized.

That is a point that properly should come before this committee. The situation, as you know, now is that when a man is hospitalized for disability, if he is single he receives only $15 a month even though his compensation outside of the hospital might be $100. And a man hospitalized for a service-connected disability, married or otherwise, is carried on the same rating he has before entering the hospital. Obviously a man in a hospital for any considerable time is totally disabled economically. In other words, he passes up any earning capacity and very frequently he jeopardizes his job while carrying what might be but a small compensation rating. Furthermore, there is a natural disinclination for any sensible man to enter a hospital unless compelled to do so and when he realizes the loss he is going to suffer financially he optimistically feels if he stays away from the hospital he will overcome his disability without hospitalization. And so many of these men aggravate their condition and in the long run both the veteran and the Government are the losers. We most certainly do not want in the hospitals men who should not be there. On the other hand, we think every reasonable inducement should be offered to those who need treatment to be hospitalized. We urge that all of the service-connected disabled veterans be paid the same standard of compensation, provided that any statutory award to which a veteran is entitled shall not be disturbed.

As you know, through years of study the committee adopted the so-called presumptive clause which extended on the average 5 or 6 years. In 1933 that presumptive provision was suddenly removed from the law and the destitution and the suffering that resulted developed such a reaction that the law was subsequently changed. There was then set up throughout the country boards made up of those not employed by the Veterans' Administration which regularly passed on all these cases almost without limitation of law. To explain this differently, if a man was in the presumptive class and he was dropped under the Economy Act, that man had the right to have his case reviewed by an outside board. However, there was a limitation in the law that the men reinstated by those outside boards should be paid at 75 percent of the standard of compensation for the other

cases.

Now, the boards went into those cases from every angle and I have the word of many civilians who sat on these boards that put these

so-called presumptives back on the rolls and there was no question in the world in their minds that the men should be on and should have never been removed.

It is unsound medicine to attempt to say that you can cite the time and incident and place that marked the beginning of the average chronic disability. You cannot take an N. P. case today or years ago, or a tubercular case or the other chronic cases and prove that the inception of that disability started at a given place or at a given time because of a given incident. In originally adopting the presumptive clause, as the chairman recalls, the Congress did it partly on account of medicine and partly to overcome an administrative impossibility. The doctors knew and the committee knew that to require a man who was obviously extremely sick and impaired to try to prove exactly when this trouble started and where it started and what brought it about was out of the question. For several years when these men broke down and commenced to build up evidence for compensation, they were told by the Government such evidence was unnecessary as the Government under the law was definitely presuming service connection within the presumptive period. Now the Government has repudiated that agreement and has cut these men 20 percent. So it is our feeling now that these men who are returned to the compensation rolls at the standard rule. There are slightly more than 21,000 of these at present, and they cannot go back 15 or 20 years and prove by records that their disabilities arose from this incident and at that place and at that time. Indeed, many who might have aided them-doctors and members of their own outfits-have passed on during the years. Therefore, we urge that these so-called presumptive cases be restored to the rolls at 100 percent rather than at 75 percent, which prevails at the present time.

Mr. VOORHIS. Have you a bill on that, Captain Kirby?

Mr. KIRBY. Yes; H. R. 7560 introduced by the chairman.

I would like to emphasize that all the men about whom I am talking are now on the rolls. The issue is whether they should be paid at a 100-percent standard, or whether they should continue on a 75percent basis.

The CHAIRMAN. Now, Captain Kirby, would you be bothered by an interruption at that point?

Mr. KIRBY. Not at all.

The CHAIRMAN. If these veterans die their widows and orphans are taken care of under the present law; that is correct, isn't it? Mr. KIRBY. That is correct.

The CHAIRMAN. That is, just the same as service-connected cases. I want to get that in the record. If you remember back in 1930 when we were trying to pass what they called the Rankin bill to advance the presumptive period to January 1, 1930, if that bill had passed all the veterans who went on would have been taken care of as presumptive cases and when they died their widows and orphans would have been taken care of.

Mr. KIRBY. On the same basis as anybody else. Yes.

The CHAIRMAN. But that was vetoed and the disability allowance bill passed on it and the widows and orphans are out and it only takes care of now the totally disabled veterans.

Mr. KIRBY. That is all so far as the non-service-connected pension group is concerned.