conditions which existed in those days were thoroughly investigated by the Dawes committee, headed by former Vice President Charles G. Dawes. As a result of their investigation, the Dawes committee recommended that all phases of Government activity having to do with the care of disabled veterans be under the administrative jurisdiction of one person.

The result of the Dawes committee report was the passage of a bill by Congress authorizing the establishment of the United States Veterans' Bureau, which organization was later changed to the present Veterans' Administration with the inclusion of certain other phases of veteran care having to do with the veterans of the Spanish and Civil Wars.

When the Hoover task force report was first made public, I wrote to Mr. Hoover as per the enclosed copy, and gave him certain reasons predicated upon experience why the proposal of the Committee on Federal Medical Services should not receive his approval. Later, I received an acknowledgment from Mr. Hoover thanking me for my, letter but making no reference to the suggested conference which I had proposed. It is our firm opinion predicated upon the personal experience of officials of the Veterans of Foreign Wars that the plan proposed by the Committee on Federal Medical Services which seeks to separate the veterans' 'hospitals and medical personnel from the present Veterans' Administration will lead to certain chaos and criticism.

Consequently, the national welfare and service committee of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, which has control of our rehabilitation work, passed the attached resolution on February 18, 1949, strenuously opposing any plan which would take from the immediate control and jurisdiction of the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs any of the functions of Government which have to do with the care and treatment of veterans.

The undersigned was instructed to present the views of the Veterans of Foreign Wars to you. I have the honor to present this resolution herewith, and I sincerely hope you will not approve the return to an organization which was found to be chaotic and inoperable when we had less than 5,000,000 veterans to care for, especially in view of the fact that latest estimates indicate there are now almost 19,000,000 veterans eligible to the benefits enacted by Congress. Very respectfully,

GEORGE E. IJAMS, Director.

Whereas efficient administration of veteran benefit laws requires an organization of Government fully equipped to administer all veteran benefits under the administrative control of one responsible official; and

Whereas any other form of administration separating the administration of one type of veteran benefit from the others would not only divide responsibility, but would be turning the pages of history back 30 years to a type of organization which was proven to be ineffective and inefficient when the various benefits were administered under separate control; and

Whereas the present functional type of organization of the Veterans' Administration was created after a thorough and exhaustive study by competent and experienced businessmen who realized that adequate service could not be given if the responsibility of control were divided; and

Whereas attempts are now being made to again separate the component units of the Veterans' Administration, thus taking from the control of the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs the essential medical and hospital functions of the Veterans' Administration as proposed in the so-called Hoover task force recommendations: now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the national welfare and service committee of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States in meeting in Washington, D. C., February 18, 1949, That we do strenuously oppose any plan which would take from the immediate control and jurisdiction of the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs any of the functions of government which have to do with the care and treatment of veterans; and be it further

Resolved, That a copy of this resolution be sent to the President of the United States, to the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs, and to appropriate committees and Representatives in the Congress of the United States.

Mr. IJAMS. I may say, Mr. Chairman, that the committee which made a study of the situation in 1919, which study was brought about by the chaos which existed in the care of veterans right here in Washington, was headed by Gen. Charles G. Dawes, who was later Vice President of the United States. General Dawes had with him on that

committee Mr. F. W. Galbraith, Jr., who was then or had been a national commander of the American Legion; Mrs. Henry R. Rea, Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.; Mabel T. Boardman, of the Red Cross; Thomas W. Miller; Henry S. Berry; Milton J. Foreman; T. V. O'Connor; Franklin D'Olier, another former commander of the Legion; and John L. Lewis. This committee went into the situation very carefully and made a report, which recommended that the veterans. activities of the Federal Government in their entirety must be the responsibility of one administrator.

You cannot-and I say this with a background of 27 years as Assistant Administrator in the Veterans' Administration and predecessor organizations-separate the medical functions of that organization from insurance, compensation, pensions, construction, or any other phase of veteran activity. Those things are so interrelated that to separate one phase of it, one of the important phases, the medical phase, from the rest of it would certainly bring chaos.

The CHAIRMAN. All right, Colonel. Thank you very much.
Are there any questions?

Senator IVES. I want to ask the colonel one thing.

I do not think I got the organizations which you said you represented. You stated in the first instance that you represented the Veterans of Foreign Wars, but are you speaking for any other veterans' organization?

Mr. IJAMS. No, sir.

Senator IVES. Do you happen to know whether the American Legion and the Disabled War Veterans and other organizations of that type take the same viewpoint that you are taking?

Mr. IJAMS. Naturally, Senator, I can't speak for them; but I have discussed it with them, and I have found there is a unanimity of opinion on the part of all the veterans' organizations. And I would like to call the committee's attention to House Committee Print No. 114, Comments of the Veterans' Administration on the Recommendations of the Commission on Organization of the Executive Branch of the Government as Applied to the Activities of the Veterans' Administration. It is dated July 6, 1949. I really believe that every member of this committee should read this House committee print. It contains a very interesting statement from General Gray on all of the Hoover task force reports as they affect the Veterans' Administration activities. And I will be glad to place this in the record if you would like.

The CHAIRMAN. Is that the document that actually is a letter that was written to me, as chairman of this committee, which someone in the House picked up, deleting the name and the address, and made a House document? Is that correct?

Mr. IJAMS. I couldn't say as to that, Senator.

The CHAIRMAN. If you go into the background of it a little, you will find that that is true.

Mr. IJAMS. Those things frequently happen.

Senator IVES. Colonel, I happen to be a member of the VFW and the American Legion and have been more or less active at one time or another in both organizations, and it is my recollection that what you state with respect to the status of the veterans and their care and the governmental functions regarding them is a matter of historic tradition, one might say, where veterans are concerned in this country.

Mr. IJAMS. That is quite true, sir.

Senator IVES. I do not recall an instance where there has been any variation.

Mr. IJAMS. That is quite true. I wrote a little pamphlet on veterans' care many years ago, and I note that that has been quoted in here, too, incidentally. I was delighted to see it. We started with the Plymouth Colony and come on down to my native State of Maryland, and all the rest of them. And the veterans have always been treated as a group who have done something for this country, in offering their lives in time of war. If you will go back through congressional enactments of the last 30 years—and I have been here 30 years last month and have done this sort of thing every minute of that time— you will find that Congress has repeatedly consolidated activities of Government which had never theretofore been consolidated, under the one organization, which is now the Veterans' Administration.

Back in 1930, the United States Veterans' Bureau came into existence. Mr. Hoover was then President. And incidentally, he appointed me Director of the United States Veterans' Bureau for the last year of its existence.

All the way through our history, we have had the tendency in Government to consolidate those activities of Government which had to do with the care of veterans. This is the first attempt, in my 30 years here, to break away from that well-considered plan and to take one of the major activities, which is interrelated with all the other phases of veteran care, and set it up in a separate department, and go back to an organization which existed in 1919, when I came here, and which everybody who has been in this work any length of time knows cannot successfully operate.

The CHAIRMAN. Senator Smith? Any questions?

Senator SMITH. I have no questions. I am glad to see you up here, Colonel.

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you very much, Mr. Ijams.

Mr. IJAMS. Thank you.

(Thereupon, at 11:30 a. m., the hearing on Reorganization Plan No. 1 was recessed, to reconvene at 10 a. m., Friday, July 22, 1949.)

REORGANIZATION PLAN NO. 1 OF 1949-PROVIDING FOR

A DEPARTMENT OF WELFARE

FRIDAY, JULY 22, 1949

UNITED STATES SENATE,

COMMITTEE ON EXPENDITURES IN
THE EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS,
Washington, D. C.

The committee met at 10: 15 a. m., pursuant to adjournment, in room 357, Senate Office Building, Senator John L. McClellan (chairman) presiding.

Present: Senators McClellan, Taylor, Long, Ives, Smith, and Schoeppel.

Present also: Walter L. Reynolds, chief clerk.

The CHAIRMAN. The committee will come to order.

We resume hearings this morning on Reorganization Plan No. 1. A number of witnesses have been scheduled. We regret we are a little late getting started, but that is understandable to anyone who knows the problems which exist in connection with the burden of work which is now in the Congress.

It will be necessary for us to conclude by 12 o'clock, when the Senate convenes, because some important matters are coming up on the floor that will require the presence of the members of the committee; so we will ask the witnesses to be as brief as possible. We do not want to hinder them in any way from giving us a full discussion of their views, but if we are to conclude and give everyone an opportunity, we may have to ask you to be comparatively brief.

The first witness this morning is Dr. J. R. Miller.
Will you come around, Dr. Miller, please?

Doctor, I believe you have a prepared statement.

STATEMENT OF DR. JAMES R. MILLER, CHAIRMAN, EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE, BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION

Dr. MILLER. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. Do you wish to read it or just comment on it? Dr. MILLER. No; I do not wish to read it. I can condense it, very briefly.

The CHAIRMAN. Then let Dr. Miller's statement be made a part of the record.

31

(The prepared statement of Dr. Miller is as follows:)

STATEMENT OF DR. JAMES R. MILLER, ON BEHALF OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION, SUBMITTED TO THE SENATE COMMITTEE ON EXPENDITURES IN THE EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS ON THE PRESIDENT'S REORGANIZATION PLAN NO. 1 Of 1949 My name is James Raglan Miller. I have been a practicing physician since 1915 in Hartford, Conn. I am speaking today as chairman of the executive committee of the board of trustees of the American Medical Association and on behalf of 140,000 physicians who are members of that association, and I am here to express opposition to the President's Reorganization Plan No. 1 of 1949 proposing the creation of a Department of Welfare.

In February of 1949 the American Medical Association issued a revised 12-point program for the advancement of medicine and public health. Point 1 of this 12-point program is as follows:

"1. A Federal Department of Health.-Creation of a Federal Department of Health of Cabinet status with a Secretary who is a doctor of medicine, and the coordination and integration of all Federal health activities under this Department, except for the military activities of the medical services of the armed forces."

Since 1884, the American Medical Association has demanded a Federal Department of Health with a Secretary who is a physician in charge. At present the various agencies concerned with health are distributed in various Government departments. It would be in the interest of efficiency and economy to have them under one head to avoid duplication of effort and diversion of activity. Various suggestions have been made to establish a Department of Welfare; a Department of Education, Health, and Welfare; and an Independent Health Agency. The health of the people is certainly important enough to warrant an independent agency, in accordance with the recommendations of the Hoover Commission. The argument has been made that it is not the policy of our Government to have an expert in charge of a department, but that the experts should be subservient to the chief of the department. In answer to this, the American Medical Association feels that no other Government department is so closely concerned with the individual as would be a Department of Health. Other departments deal as a rule with the population as a group. Matters of health are often individual and no one could be better qualified to superintend matters of individual health than a physician. At this time we urge support of the report of the Hoover Commission on this subject, which recommends an Independent Health Agency under which will be assembled all activities concerned with health except those of the armed forces and Veterans' Administration.

Current opinion in the association at the present time is to the effect that this Department should be an agency separated from other activities of the Government. There are at least two outstanding reasons why such a feeling exists. In the first place, the magnitude of the duties devolving upon a single Department of Welfare, including health, education, and social welfare or security activities, is such that it would be impracticable and too important for one man to supervise and properly take care of them. The health of the Nation, on the other hand, is of sufficient importance to rate a department of its own. It has been estimated that educators are concerned in some manner with approximately 28,000,000 members of the population. Social security has contact with about 51,000,000 people including recipients as well as taxpayers. Just for purposes of further comparison, it is interesting to note that an estimated 4.6 percent of the population is engaged in agriculture, but there is a separate Department of Agriculture; 34.6 percent of the population is engaged in commerce and labor, and there are separate Departments of Commerce and Labor. One hundred percent of the population, however, is vitally concerned with matters of health. Surely that is sufficient to warrant a separate department of health.

In the second place, the variety of functions which would be squeezed into the proposed department does not lend itself to competent and thoughtful administration. Equal attention to health, education, and security could hardly be expected in times of hardship when relief measures are uppermost in the minds of both Congress and the people. For example, it is to be hoped that the Nation will not again face an economic crisis such as that of the thirties, with widespread unemployment and acute distress. Nevertheless, the possibility must be faced. During that period, the Federal administration obtained congressional approval for unprecedented welfare measures. A large group of powerful independent agencies was established for direct and work relief, including the Civil