STATEMENT OF MR. UEL W. LAMKIN, CHIEF DIVISION OF REHABILITATION, FEDERAL BOARD FOR VOCATIONAL EDUCATION.

(The witness was duly sworn by the acting chairman.)

Mr. TOWNER. Give your name and address to the stenographer. Mr. LAMKIN. My name is Uel W. Lamkin; my legal residence is in Missouri, and my present residence is in Congress Hall Hotel, Washington, D. C., which is my present address.

Mr. TOWNER. What is your present position with the Federal board?

Mr. LAMKIN. Chief Division of Rehabilitation.

Mr. TOWNER. When did you enter upon your duties?

Mr. LAMKIN. As chief?

Mr. TOWNER. Yes, sir.

Mr. LAMKIN. September 15, 1919.

Mr. TOWNER. What was your prior cccupation?

Mr. LAMKIN. May I make rather an extended statement about that?

Mr. TOWNER. Just as you choose about that.

Mr. LAMKIN. I spent most of my life in administrative school work. That is what my chief occupation has been, although my education was for law. I was admitted to the bar and went back to school administration immediately upon admission. On account of the economic conditions facing school-teachers, I went into business and was in business in September, 1916, when the State superintendent of schools of the State of Missouri died. The governor of Missouri, without solicitation on my part, appointed me to succeed him. I was State superintendent of schools at the outbreak of the war. I would like to make this statement because of the background, which may be valuable in your considering all the phases of the administration of the rehabilitation act. Before the war was declared the schools of Missouri had started on a food-production campaign that, I think, was not excelled by any State in the Union. During the war I did my part as a State official. I am now 43 years old and was then 41. I did not see military service, although I made inquiry as to enlisting and was told that I might get a place in the Army, detailed to Washington. There was no chance for any overseas service or any active service, and I remained where I was. I claimed no exemption, although a State officer, although married, and with a boy whose physical condition has always given us a good deal of concern. State superintendent of schools it was my privilege to take a very decided stand in regard to the teaching of foreign languages in the elementary schools of the State, and whether anyone agrees or disagrees with my position on that subject, I lost enough votes in the counties where the German language was the language of the playground to make a difference in the election. Just after the election, in which I was defeated for reelection in a popular vote of about 1.000, while the head of the ticket-I being in second place on the ticket-was defeated by 36,000, the then Chief of the Division of Rehabilitation. Dr. Chandler, wired me asking if I would take charge of the St. Louis office of this board. I agreed to do so.

Early in January I became district 'vocational adviser in St. Louis. I remained there until the 1st of July.

Mr. BURROUGHS. What year was that?

Mr. LAMKIN. 1919. I remained there until the 1st of July, 1919, when I was asked to come to the central office as field organizer. I came. My first assignment was to Philadelphia to succeed Dr. A. J. Roland who was resigning to enter into industrial education work in the city of Milwaukee. I was in charge of the Philadelphia office until the new district vocational officer was appointed. If I remember correctly, Mr. Charles E. Cullen was appointed in Philadelphia about July 23, 1919. I was there until the latter part of July.

Mr. Arthur W. Griffin was being replaced in New York at that timew hile Mr. S. E. Farwell was being transferred to the Boston office. I was asked to take charge of the New York office during the interim of 10 days. I did so and was in charge for 10 days in New York until Mr. Farwell reached there. I then was in the field until the 15th of September. I think I got back to Washington the 11th or 12th and assumed charge of the Rehabilitation Division of the Federal board on September 15, 1919.

I am very glad in this investigation, Mr. Chairman, to answer any questions that I can, but I would like to have it remembered that prior to September 15 my testimony will have to be as a district officer or will have to be taken from the records as I find them in the central office. Since September 15, 1919, I shall be glad to testify concerning my relations as Chief of the Division of Rehabilitation.

Mr. TOWNER. I think the committee will be glad to have you state in your own way the conditions as you fonud them to exist here in Washington at the time when you assumed charge of this rehabilitation work.

Mr. LAMKIN. Now, Mr. Chairman, I hardly know just how to answer your question. I think in order that this committee should get a comprehensive view of the whole situation some statement and explanation should be made concerning the work of the board and the organization of the board, as a whole, if you would care to have that done.

Mr. TOWNER. We will be very glad to have it.

Mr. LAMKIN. Then I shall be very glad to tell you what the situation was as I saw it here when I came.

I have here a chart showing the organization of the office.

Mr. TOWNER. We would like to have that. I think the committee would like to have that inserted in the record.

Mr. LAMKIN. I will be very glad to do that and I have here several copies.

(Mr. Lamkin distributed copies to each member of the committee.) Mr. TOWNER. I think that will enable your testimony to be followed more intelligently.

(The chart referred to follows.)

Mr. LAMKIN. The Federal Board for Vocational Education, as has been stated, is composed of seven members. The active members who are on the job all the time are the members of the standing committee, three members. The work of the board falls under two heads, for which there are separate chiefs of divisions and separate appropriations, entirely distinct and separate work. One is the Division of Vocational Education and the other is the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation. The work of the Vocational Education Division, as you know, has to do with the cooperation with the States in promoting vocational education among the schools. The Vocational education is the division which is established for the purpose of rehabilitating the disabled soldiers, sailors, and marines. The executive officer of the Vocational Rehabilitation Division is called the chief.

I may say that the executive officer of the whole board, prior to my coming, was called a director. That man was Dr. C. A. Prosser, who resigned October 1, 1915. He acted as executive of the standing committee for both divisions, but since Dr. Prosser's resignation there has been no director, but there have been two chiefs. The chief has as assistants in the central office the chief medical officer, a superintendent of advisement training, a superintendent of placement, a case board, which is headed by the chairman..

I will discuss what the superintendent of records and returns and the case superintendent do a little later, if I may. There is the personnel officer and the chief clerk, the auditor, and the disbursing officer. The corresponding officer in the district is called a district Vocational officer. Personal contact with the district vocational officer is made through the field organizers, of whom we have two. These two field organizers are Mr. R. T. Fisher, who was district. Vocational officer at San Francisco, and Mr. W. F. Shaw, formerly district vocational officer at Cincinnati.

In the district you will find the district medical officer, the supervisor of advisement and training, the supervisor of placement, the case officer, the case board, and the chief clerk. You will find that where we refer to the superintendent of advisement and training it refers to a man in the central office, whereas when referring to the supervisor of training it refers to the man in the district office.

The chief medical officer has, of course, supervisory control only and is the advisor, I should say, as well as supervisor, over the district medical officer. It is the same with the supervisor of advisement and the superintendent of placement. The functions of the case board, records and returns, and the case superintendent are combined in the district under the case officer. The functions of personnel clerk, chief clerk, and auditor and disbursement officer are in the districts under the chief clerk. The supervisor of advisement and training, for instance, keeps in touch with the various educational opportunities in the various districts. also acts as a clearing house for all questions of advisements, and helps to direct the vocational advisors in the field in their contact with the men. He also has general supervision over the work of follow up of the men in institutional training, as we call it. I do not like the words institutional training. I would like to say training in institutions rather than to call it institutional training. At

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the conclusion of it the men are turned over to the placement section. The placement section has a double duty. In the first place, it supervises the instruction of the men on the job, or, as we call it, in placement training. In the second place, after the men have been trained in institutions, it is the placement sections duty to see that they are placed in employment and that they can "carry on" in employment.

The case board in both district and central office passes on the cases on the legal evidence, in the first place, and in the second place, as to whether or not the recommendations of the advisors are sound. The records and returns section of the central office, as you can readily surmise, is the department that has charge of the records that are sent in here. The case superintendent in central office passes on matters concerning dependency and claims, and keeps records as to whether or not the man has been in training for the period for which he is placed, and passes on legal questions. He is legal advisor as well as case superintendent. The personnel officer has charge of the personnel of employees in the central office. The chief clerk has charge of the property of the board, of the file room, and performs the ordinary duties of a chief clerk. The auditor or accounting officer is the person who audits the accounts and the disbursing officer pays them.

Now, in the districts, Mr. Chairman, we have similar organizations, except that they are in direct touch with the men. You will notice that the medical officer, supervisor of advisement and training, and the supervisor of placement are similar. Our central office case board has been reduced in the past few months from about 25 or 26 men to 8. Within the next week or so it will be reduced to two or three at the outside. The reason for the reduction is that we are putting the functions of the case board, practically all of them, more largely all the time in the hands of the districts, so that our case board in the central office will pass only on cases that are appealed from the districts here. If the district says "yes" to the boys, the board will stand back of it; and if it says "no" the boys have the right to appeal to the central authorities. The chief clerk of the district performs, as is noted on this chart, duties which correspond to those of chief clerk, auditor, disbursing officer, and personnel officer in the central office. We have not yet decentralized our audit and disbursing functions of the board. There is reason for it. In the first place, I have felt that it was more important to decentralize the other functions first. In the second place, Treasury regulations are rather technical and difficult to meet, and we have not 14 men who know Treasury regulations whom we can place in the 14 districts, and we can rely upon to see that the legal requirements are met, and we have to keep a hand on that part of the work here in central office until we can ge the men and get them trained and put them in the districts. The records and returns will be kept, at least, for a while here, because of the fact that the numbers of men in the several districts are not large enough to justify the overhead of 14 statistical agencies, and so one is kept.

On the other hand, the functions of the board so far as passing on the cases of the men, the advising with them, of approving their training, of putting them in training, of supervising them and following