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The reasons for this request are fully set forth in a letter I addressed to Repre sentative Edith Nourse Rogers on April 24, when the Johnson bill was under consideration by the House.

I would like to have that letter made a part of this record and I herewith submit it for that purpose. In the meantime I will read to the committee that portion of it which concerns our proposal for section 200.

LETTER TO MRS. ROGERS

I am addressing this letter to you because of the deep and unselfish interest you have consistently displayed since 1917 in the welfare of the World War disabled, and because it has long been recognized that where their interests are concerned, your attitude has been of a strictly nonpartisan character-your desire has been to bring them the greatest possible measure of relief.

The House debate of the past 10 days clearly demonstrates that a crisis now confronts the pending Johnson bill, H. R. 10381, reported by the House Committee on World War Veterans' Legislation, and now being debated by the House. This committee bill contains 25 sections proposing to amend the World War veterans' act, at an annual cost estimated by the Veterans' Bureau at $89,000,000. The chief cost factor in these 25 sections is contained in section 200, which the Veterans' Bureau estimates alone will cost $76,000,000 a year for three years. It would seem that Mr. Hoover's letter of warning that a deficit of $20,000,000 may be impending, which Mr. Wood read to the House yesterday, has been prompted to some extent by the cost estimates advanced for the Johnson bill, and other legislative proposals in connection with it.

The present actue difficulties of the veterans' legislation have to do, as you are well aware, with this, and other proposed amendments to section 200 of the World War veterans' act. This is the section of the law which creates the presumption of service connection for disabilities arising to a 10 per cent degree prior to certain dates.

The Veterans' Bureau estimates that Mr. Johnson's bill would increase the cost of section 200 by $76,000,000 a year for three years, through a provision which would make all disabilities developing prior to January 1, 1925, considered of service origin, unless otherwise rebutted.

Mr. Rankin's bill would provide that tubercular, neuropsychiatric and constitutional diseases developing prior to January 1, 1930, would be attributable to the service. The Veterans' Bureau estimates the cost of this proposal at $44,000,000 a year, and adds that should the Rankin bill be superimposed upon the Johnson bill, that an annual cost of $31,000,000 would be added to the $89,000,000 cost of the Johnson Bill, or $120,000,000 annually, altogether.

For greater clarity, the cost estimates of the various amendments proposed to section 200 are herewith set forth:

Veterans' Bureau cost estimates

H. R. 10381, Johnson bill, sec. 200 (1925 presumptive date).
H. R. 7825, Rankin bill, sec. 200 (1930 presumptive date).
H. R. 8133, Legion bill, sec. 200 (1925 presumptive date).
H. R. 10381, amended by H. R. 7825, would be increased by

$76, 000, 000

44, 000, 000

12, 500, 000

31, 000, 000

You will see from the foregoing estimates that the cost of the Johnson bill, section 200, exceeds that requested by the Legion by $64,000,000, while section 200 of the Rankin bill exceeds the Legion's request by $32,000,000. Also, that the cost of the Johnson bill, section 200, exceeds that of the Rankin bill by $32,000,000. These cost estimates have been on record for many weeks, and we had assumed that they had been accepted as reasonably accurate estimates of the cost of the proposed measures. However, other estimates and figures have been used during the debate, which are entitled to consideration because of the prominent positions occupied in the House by those who have sponsored them. The inevitable result of these other estimates has been to confuse the Congress and the country, and raise a reasonable doubt as to the accuracy of all the cost estimates submitted.

For instance, Mr. Johnson, during debate, submitted figures from the Pension Bureau which estimate the cost of the Johnson bill at $319,000,000 annually, and further set forth that should the presumption date of 1925 in the Johnson bill be extended to 1930, the annual cost of the measure would be $426,000,000.

It should be said in connection with cost estimates that those submitted by the Veterans' Bureau have been based upon claims pending, although the four

days' debate has suggested that these estimates are in fact of a minimum nature, and may in actual practice prove considerably greater. While some feel that the Pension Bureau's estimates on Mr. Johnson's bill are excessive and would not be reached, they have nevertheless been presented to the Congress and the Nation by the chairman of the House Veterans' Committee, and for this reason alone they are entitled to serious consideration.

The estimates given you yesterday by Mr. Wood, the Appropriations Committee chairman, in the time granted him by Mr. Johnson, would indicate that he places great reliance upon the Pension Bureau figures submitted by Mr. Johnson, for Mr. Wood said during the debate:

"If I had the time to go through the various items of this bill, I think I could demonstrate that it would amount to more than $400,000,000.”

As stated earlier in this letter, the Veterans' Bureau has estimated that the 24 sections of the Johnson bill, exclusive of section 200, will entail an annual cost of $13,000,000. There are many excellent and necessary provisions contained in these 24 sections of Mr. Johnson's measure. The American Legion has for years endeavored to have the Congress enact many of them into law, on the basis that they would not only bring great relief to thousands of veterans but that their enactment would right many injustices now being done our World War disabled. Thousands of the so-called border-line cases would be rectified under their provisions.

I will cite the following of the many noteworthy benefits which these other sections of the Johnson bill would, if enacted into law, bring to the disabled and their dependents:

1. The comptroller would be precluded from making medical decisions, and, in this connection, his influence would be removed from the Veterans' Bureau.

2. Due regard would be given to lay evidence in support of veterans' claims for disability compensation.

3. Those veterans who are hospitalized for nonservice connected disabilities would, where their annual income is less than $1,000, have disability compensation paid to their dependents in the same amounts as that received by widows and orphans of soldiers killed in the war.

4. The provision which would definitely recognize the disabling effect of battle amputations, by awarding an additional $25 a month for the loss of a hand or a

foot.

5. The removal of the time limit on applications for compensation and the submission of evidence in support of these claims.

These five provisions, alone, would be of tremendous benefit to the disabled, and would, in themselves, bring more relief to the World War Veterans and their dependents than the average of the omnibus bills passed by the House in former years under suspension of the rules.

The American Legion, at its national convention held in Louisville last October, gave serious consideration to the situation confronting our World War disabled, and recommended legislative amendments, which, in their estimation, would solve the most pressing needs of the disabled. These recommendations were incorporated in an omnibus bill introduced in the House by Mr. Johnson on January 7, 1930, under the number H. R. 8133. The most far reaching of these legislative proposals is contained in section 200 of our legion bill, which provided that 20 of the most devastating of the so-called constitutional diseases, would be considered attributable to the service, if developing prior to January 1, 1925, the same date now providing service connection, through presumption for neuropsychiatric disease, tuberculosis, and a few other less prevalent diseases. The Veterans' Bureau estimated that the cost of the legion's section 200 would be $12,500,000 annually, and benefit approximately 29,000 veterans.

These 20 constitutional diseases were selected with great care by the legion, both because of their disabling effect, and the likelihood that their inception resulted from World War service. Such diseases as obesity and gout, which Mr. Luce pointed out yesterday would be attributed to service under the Johnson and Rankin bills, have been rigidly excluded from the legion bill.

The inclusion of the 20 diseases requested in the legion bill, was advocated by expert medical testimony on each of the diseases in question. This testimony alone extended over several days of the hearings.

So much for the presumptive sections (sec. 200) of the various amendatory measures under consideration.

Now here is a situation which we submit for your consideration-the more important provisions of the other sections of the legion's omnibus bill (H. R. 8133), other than section 200-have been incorporated in the Johnson bill (H. R. 10381) now before the House.

The legion believes that the enactment of relief legislation by the present Congress is imperative. We would view the failure to enact relief legislation as a tragedy, even though that failure were due to the endeavor of friends of the disabled to secure the adoption of amendatory provisions of great benefit and effect, although unlikely to be enacted into law at the present session.

For instance, adoption of the Rankin bill would relieve many thousands of distressing cases, but Mr. Johnson has said the following concerning this: "In my judgment, he [the President] will veto it, and there will be no legislation at all."

The legion infinitely prefers to achieve a reality for the disabled, rather than lose an impossiblilty. am sure that you, of all others, realize that we have to do in this connection with the happiness of tens of thousands of disabled, and in all probability with the lives of many hundreds. Under these circumstances, the chances of failure are too great for the legion to assume responsibility therefor, or become a party thereto.

In view of the foregoing, I feel confident that should you propose an amendment to the pending Johnson bill (H. R. 10381) from the floor of the House, and the House concur therein, for the substitution of section 200 of the legion's bill (H. R. 8133) for section 200 of the Johnson bill, that this action on your part would meet with the approval of the national legion as a whole, for it would seem that the Johnson bill, thus amended, would have an excellent opportunity of final enactment into law.

I am sure that you know that the results attained in this manner would merit the gratitude of the tens of thousands of veterans and their dependents whose disabilities are now unrecognized by their Government, but to whom such a law would bring prompt relief; would, in fact, be a godsend.

The Johnson bill, thus amended, would cost, as estimated by the Veterans' Bureau, less than $30,000,000 a year. It would not endanger the national finances, and its enactment would carry out the resolutions adopted by the American Legion national convention.

I believe that such a proposal merits frank consideration by the friends of the disabled in the House of Representatives, and I hope that if you concur, you will suggest this solution of the present situation to the Congress.

You will note that our proposal does not request an extension of the date of presumption, but asks that a selected list of 20 so-called constitutional diseases be included in the group entitled to the presumption of service connection, if developed prior to January 1, 1925.

Should you desire the reasons, from a medical standpoint, for the Legion request that these diseases be incorporated within the presumptive provisions of the law, Doctor Shapirio of the Legion's staff, now present, will testify in this connection.

202 (10) DEPENDENCY PAYMENTS

The Legion believes that section 202 (10) of the act, as amended by the Johnson bill, should be approved by the Finance Committee. This amendment authorizes allowances for the dependents of men in hospitals who are suffering from disabilities which have not been connected with the service under the existing law. These proposed dependency allowances would equal those received by widows and orphans of men who died in the service, where the annual income of the veteran so hospitalized is less than $1,000, the allowances to be paid for two months following discharge from hospitalization.

Some of the reasons why the legion desires the Finance Committee to approve this amendment are as follows:

(a) The veteran population entered the service the finest physical and mental group in the Nation. The unfit physically and mentally had been rigidly excluded. After the war it was found that this veteran group, selected for physical and mental soundness, was developing certain physical and mental disabilities to an alarming extent. All agreed that some of the disabilities, because of their prevalence, must have resulted from service, although in many cases there was no direct evidence of this.

In an effort to render justice under these unusual circumstances, this Senate Committee, after prolonged study, created a legal presumption that if a veteran developed any one of certain specified diseases prior to January 1, 1925, that he had acquired this disease as the result of service.

The purpose of this presumption of service incurrence of disease, was to protect these large groups of veterans and their families in their rights to compensation, by extending them the legal benefit of the doubt that they had actually incurred them as a result of service.

But in doing this the Congress also determined that if a veteran developed one of these diseases at a date immediately following January 1, 1925, that it was not to be presumed he acquired this disease as a result of service, although he still had the right to prove service origin. So those veterans developing these diseases after the date of presumption set by the Congress, have not been benefited by the law, except in hospitalization, although it has been determined through years of testimony on this subject that medical science can not state exactly at what date certain diseases may or may not be possibly attributable to service.

This hospitalization equality, was specified by the Congress at the same time it set the date of January 1, 1925, as a limitation on presumption of service origin.

Although the Congress granted this right, it has failed to give it full effect, because it has not authorized sufficient hospital construction to care for all of those men whose disabilities developed after the presumptive date. The Finance Committee should recognize that the majority of those men in hospitals to-day, whose disabilities have not been connected with the service, are suffering from these specified disabilities which, had they developed prior to a certain date, would have been considered incurred in the service.

In the group granted hospitalization regardless of service connection the Congress assumed a contrary attitude. It did not place this group upon an equality with the so-called presumptive groups, but specified that "the director is further authorized, so far as he shall find that existing Government facilities permit, to furnish hospitalization to veterans without regard to the nature or origin of their disabilities."

The Congress thus expressed its belief that those suffering from presumptive diseases are entitled to the benefit of the doubt concerning their incurrence as a result of their service.

In asking that the Congress extend dependency allowances to the men in hospitals who are not upon a compensation basis, the Legion hopes that the Congress will at least continue its policy of giving the benefit of the doubt to those suffering from the so-called presumptive diseases, through giving to their families an allowance which may enable these veterans to acquire the hospitalization which the Congress intended should be their right.

(b) One of the reasons advanced by General Hines in opposition to this amendment is that he believes it is in the nature of pension, or the entering wedge of pensions, and that the Congress has not yet determined its attitude on pensions to World War veterans suffering from nonservice-connected disability.

The Legion does not believe that payments under such an amendment should be viewed as pensions. Pensions are essentially permanent in their character. Payments provided under this amendment are essentially temporary in character, as they cease two months after the veteran's discharge from hospitalization. They are in the nature of emergency payments to allow a veteran to obtain hospitalization which he might otherwise not accept because of the financial plight in which his family would be left if he ceased to be a wage earner.

So far as such legislation's being the entering wedge for pensions is concerned, it is the opinion of the Legion that legislation of this character will do more to forestall pressure for pension legislation than any other one legislative act the Congress may undertake. There is undoubtedly a Nation-wide demand for some form of protection or compensation for the families of men in hospitals whose disabilities have not been connected with the service under existing law, and the enactment of such an amendment would do much to satisfy this Nationwide demand.

(c) The director has stated further that to grant this family allowance would discriminate against those men unable to obtain hospitalization because of the lack of hospital beds.

The Legion's answer to this is that it is the duty of the Congress to construct sufficient hospitals to care for these cases, and that the failure in the past of the Congress to provide sufficient hospital beds, should not be used as an argument against the men unable to obtain hospitalization.

In view of the foregoing, the Legion believes that the benefit of the doubt should be extended to these men, at least so far as granting dependency payments to their families is concerned.

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Thomas Kirby desires now to speak in behalf of the American Disabled Veterans.

STATEMENT OF THOMAS KIRBY, LEGISLATIVE CHAIRMAN DISABLED AMERICAN VETERANS

Senator BARKLEY. How large is your organization, Mr. Kirby? Mr. KIRBY. I would say about 35,000, exclusively disabled men. Senator BARCLAY. How many people?

Mr. KIRBY. I am not prepared to say, except to say it extends into every section of America.

Mr. Chairman, this bill is so long, and the committee is so pressed for time, that it is my purpose to concentrate upon three points in the bill rather than go over in detail the various proposals. So far as administrative proposals are concerned, we find ourselves in general agreement with the director. However, the four points upon which I think something more should be brought out are matters of insurance, the uncompensated men, the amputation cases, and misconduct. In the insurance cases it is impossible now for a man to sue on his insurance contract, due to the time limitation. We feel that Congress should give the men at least one more year. There are two reasons for that. The first is, we find in these suits which the men are bringing against the bureau, the men are winning about one out of two cases, and the ratio is running higher in favor of the men. So we think that that certainly indicates that there is justification for a further extension in justice to the men.

Secondly, we feel, with the highest respect to the administrative officials of the bureau, that if we remove what we might describe as a warning to the bureau, that unless these suits are equitably adjudicated, the man has a recourse to court, and we are liable to find that the bureau will tighten up, so that in the decisions covering the insurance features of the case, that the man will be the loser.

This insurance which the man takes is paid for, and we feel it is distinctly a contract. We feel that if the bureau is so severe in deciding upon a permanent and total rating, that it will act against the insurance as a business, in that the men will lose considerable confidence in the value of the policy.

It was advocated before the House committee and made quite an impression, I think, that there will be written into this law a statutory presumption of permanent total. In other words, if a man has a temporary total rating for six months or a year, he should be assumed and presumed to be permanently and totally disabled, and the insurance should be paid during the totality of his disability. That would be in law the general and permanent total section of the old-line commercial insurance companies, and would do a great deal to clear up this constant controversy that we have over these suits.

However, I think we should be in agreement with the expression of the director in respect to the activities of unscrupulous lawyers in these insurance cases. But I do not think that it is necessary for Congress to change the law in that regard. It is more a matter of conscience and ethics than it is of writing in a prohibition against these lawyers. Certain classes of lawyers have gone into the business. They have communicated with these men, in one case literally overseas, and have convinced these men that they have justification for a suit, and have either threatened suit or entered suit, when, in the judgment of the liaison officers of the service organizations, the man was not able to pay. The answer might be that the lawyer has

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