HIGHLIGHTS OF THE COMMISSION'S FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS The state of veterans' affairs in the United States is on the whole good. After many years of trial and error this country has developed reasonably successful methods for meeting the needs of its veterans. Veterans today are better off economically than nonveterans in comparable age groups. About 2 million disabled veterans are receiving liberal disability compensation and are in relatively good economic circumstances. The survivors of servicemen who died in line of duty and of veterans deceased from war causes are generally receiving adequate benefits. The readjustment programs are effectively assisting newly discharged war veterans to overcome their temporary handicaps. The veterans' programs, however, are not perfect. Much remains to be done by way of improvements along forward-looking and constructive lines. The dominant problems are the carryover from past decades of a backward-looking pension philosophy and our failure to adjust the existing veterans' programs to fundamental changes in our society. Basic changes in military, economic, and social conditions have outmoded early conceptions of veterans' benefits. The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, which provided the assistance ex-servicemen needed most and at the time their need was greatest, began a new era. The expansion in general social security protection for veterans and nonveterans alike, enables the Government to meet the needs of veterans more effectively than was possible in years gone by. Our philosophy of veterans' benefits must accordingly be modernized and the whole structure of traditional veterans' programs brought up to date. War service in the Armed Forces imposes many special handicaps on those who serve. War sacrifices should be distributed as equally as possible within our society. This is the basic function of our veterans' programs. The Government's obligation is to help veterans overcome special, significant handicaps incurred as a consequence of their military service. The objective should be to return veterans as nearly as possible to the status they would have achieved had they not been in military service. Within the veterans' programs emphasis should be placed on those programs which take care of the needs arising directly out of military service. Particular emphasis should be placed on rehabilitating the service-disabled and maintaining them and their survivors in circumstances as favorable as those of the rest of the people. Their needs must be filled adequately and even generously. More stress should also be placed on providing benefits for those who sacrificed most and who need help most. The Commission found instances in which assistance is not being channeled as much as it should be to those who are in greatest need, particularly in the service-connected disability compensation and the non-service-connected pension programs. Thus while the present programs are on the whole doing a good job, the Commission believes they will be more effective if the emphasis is shifted toward assistance for those whose needs are greatest. For the great majority of veterans, military service entails only temporary handicaps, which the Government as a matter of equity should also help overcome, when they are significant, through readjustment assistance. Veterans have many other needs not connected with military service, which continue after they are through with readjustment-needs that are more or less common to all people. In the opinion of the Commission, veterans with no service-connected disability after readjustment should be considered to be in the same category as citizens who are not veterans. In the last two decades our country has developed important programs for the economic security of all the people. Gradually these programs are assuming the burden of filling the general needs which special veterans' non-service-connected pension pro grams filled in the past. These general programs are not, however, complete and sufficiently comprehensive at present. Under our present social system we accept a responsibility to provide economic assistance for needy citizens who are disabled and unemployable. It can be assumed, therefore, that any veteran in this category will be given assistance through some public agency. While the Commission fails to see how a veteran with no service-connected disability is, after readjustment, entitled to treatment substantially different from nonveteran citizens, it recognizes that disability protection under the general social security programs is still inadequate. The Commission, therefore, believes it is appropriate to continue assistance to veterans who are disabled from non-service-connected causes through the medium of the veterans' pension program, as long as the benefits are based entirely on need and are in line with the amounts provided under the general social security programs. This can be done satisfactorily if the two sets of programs are coordinated so that each properly complements the other. The Commission's proposals with respect to non-service-connected pensions would provide increased benefits for badly disabled veterans with family responsibilities. These proposals would likewise extend the coverage of these programs to more needy families of veterans. The Commission believes that in our rapidly changing society, maintenance of an effective and consistent Federal system of veterans' benefits will require more positive leadership by the Veterans' Administration. The veterans' programs have reached such magnitude, and their impact on the whole people is so great, that they can no longer be run in isolation, but must be coordinated with other Government programs. The status of the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs in the executive branch should be raised and he should exercise a greater role in the formulation of veterans' policies in the executive branch. To discharge this responsibility properly he should have more adequate facilities for research, planning, and program analysis, so that the needs of veterans and the effectiveness of veterans' programs will be analyzed on a continuing basis. At the presidential level, also, there is need for better machinery for interagency coordination of veterans' programs and policies. Improved organization for policy development will help keep the veterans' programs in concert with America's growth-not only economically, but socially as well. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF VETERANS' PROGRAMS Our present veterans' programs have grown up through three periods of American history. The first extended from the Revolutionary War to the decade before World War I. In this period, disability and death compensation for service-connected cases constituted the mainstay programs. Only mustering-out pay and land grants were provided to assist ex-servicemen upon separation. When these veterans grew older there were no general social welfare programs to aid them. The needy were compelled to appeal for charity or reside as paupers at local poorfarm or almshouse. To rectify this situation, veterans' pensions were enacted to provide economic assistance for ex-soldiers regarded as deserving by virtue of former war service. The second period of development dates from the beginning of World War I to 1940. During this period the earlier death and disability-compensation benefits were continued and improved. Meanwhile, a number of constructive and forwardlooking elements were introduced into the veterans'-benefit programs. These included the provision of life insurance, better medical care, and vocational rehabilitation for disabled veterans. During this period the country again failed to give adequate assistance to the ex-servicemen newly returned to civilian life, at the time when they most needed help. So pensions were again enacted. Moreover, in the 1930's a substantial bonus was paid to make up for previous inadequacies. The third period of development began with World War II. Most of the earlier veterans' benefits were continued and expanded, and many were added. Significant innovations were made by the Servicemen's Readjustment Act, which made timely and effective assistance available to all veterans returning to civilian life. Also during this period the general social-security programs began to mature. Important steps toward providing veterans basic income-maintenance protection were taken when military service was made creditable under the general old-age and survivors insurance system (OASI). BASIC FACTORS Significant changes have taken place in our society in recent years changes which fundamentally affect the special veterans' programs. The Commission's studies produced the following general conclusions: 1. Veterans and their families will soon be a majority.-In 1940 there were only 4 million war veterans; there are now over 22 million in civilian life. In 1940 veterans and their families represented only 11 percent of the whole population. Today, veterans and their families number 75 million and constitute 45 percent of our total population-49 percent if those still in the Armed Forces and their families are included. 2. Conditions of military service have changed for the better since the Civil War.-Care, pay, and the civilian usefulness of service training have improved greatly in recent periods. Use of selective service has brought about a more equitable distribution of sacrifice. Mortality in battle and from disease has been reduced to a small fraction of the earlier rates. Soldiers, sailors, and airmen are employed in an increasing proportion of military occupations which have civilian counterparts and transferable skills. Special training in military service has correspondingly increased. Rates of military compensation have been brought more into line with pay for competitive jobs in industry, particularly since the Career Compensation Act of 1949. New benefits have been added and others improved since the Spanish-American War. 3. Changes in our national-security requirements and in the nature of warfare are forcing us to reshape our traditional concepts of military service as the basis for special privilege and benefits. For the first time in our history it has become necessary to maintain substantial Armed Forces and to use conscription in peacetime. An even more drastic factor is foreshadowed by |