chairman of the committee, and we are particularly happy, Commander, to have you with us. Your organization, I might say, is highly respected. You are doing a wonderful job, not only in the field of veterans' legislation but in defense of the country and for the general economic and social well-being of our Nation.

Mr. COOPER. I want to assure you, Mr. Chairman, that the good that we have been able to do has been made largely possible by this committee.

Mr. DORN. Thank you, Commander.

Mr. COOPER. Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee. it is with a sober feeling that I appear before you today as national commander of the Disabled American Veterans. I have come with my associates, Albert L. Daniels, chairman of the DAV National Legislative Committee and I might say Mr. Daniels comes from the State of Ohio and I doubt if there is anyone in America who has had a more intimate association with the affairs of veterans and over a longer period of years than Mr. Daniels.

Mr. DORN. Mr. Daniels, we are glad to have you with us.

Mr. COOPER. Also we have Mr. Elmer Freudenberger, national director of legislation; National Director Denvel D. Adams and Assistant Director Charles L. Huber, of our claims service and Frank Wood, director of employment relations.

I have come today to reinforce our previous pleas for certain changes in the compensation structure for the service-connected disabled.

It is no easy responsibility to sit in this witness chair today seeking, with you, to find ways and means of lightening the burden on those who have suffered injury or disease from previous wars even as the storm clouds gather all over the world threatening even our own hemisphere.

It would be easier if I were facing a hostile group today. We have had experience confronting our Nation's enemies; we know what to do under those circumstances. But we are looking across this table today at friends of ours, at friends of the disabled veterans of this land; at Members of Congress who have shown through word and deed, that our interest is their interest, that our cause is their cause. So I say there is no easy posture in this chair-there is no easy posture possible anywhere in this year of our Lord.

Simply to say to you that I have come here with a handful of national convention resolutions is not enough for I would be inadequately armed, indeed, with resolutions alone. During the months since I became national commander I have visited many areas. I have seen many more disabled veterans than ever get to a national convention. Believe me when I report to you that the increases in compensation we seek are not to provide dessert for a well-laden table they represent bread and butter and milk that have gradually diminished from those tables because of steadily increasing costs of the very staples of life.

So when we underscore today the statement that the DAV bills H.R. 879 and H.R. 880 bear the top priority of our legislative objectives we do so with the conviction that they would meet a need that this Nation must try its very best to satisfy.

H.R. 879 would increase by 15 percent the monthly compensation payable for service-connected disability under the 10 to 100 percent schedular ratings assigned by the Veterans' Administration.

H.R. 880 would increase by 10 percent the statutory awards and statutory ratings. If H.R. 879 becomes law then a veteran with a 10 percent service-connected war disability would receive $22 per month and a wartime 100 percent disability would be compensated at the rate of $259 per month, with intermediate ratings receiving proportionate increases.

If H.R. 880 is enacted the statutory awards and statutory ratings would receive a 10 percent increase over the present amounts.

We realize that we are talking about a great deal of money in urging you to report out to the full committee these two bills without amendment. The DAV fully realizes that the total cost will be considerable and that your decision must necessarily be influenced to some extent by the Nation's resources as we face our sovereign responsibilities in a world where civilization, itself, lies uneasily under the sword of an eastern Damocles in the hands of a whirling "cosmonaut.'

Neither of us may escape our responsibilities. It is my task to report the situation in the terms as I view it and what I see are people and their problems. I am confronted by the industrial worker in Ohio and Michigan whose sustenance depends a whole lot upon a regular compensation check.

I must answer the letters from disabled veterans in Del Rio, Tex., of Mexican descent, who cannot understand why they should remain jobless while non-Americans slip across the borders every day to work.

When I try to devise an answer I cannot be unmindful that a a large percentage of the Congressional Medal of Honor winners from my State were of Mexican ancestry.

We must report the picture as viewed through the eyes of our service officers all over the Nation who report to us a constant stream of disabled veterans coming to our offices-veterans upon whom the press of economic circumstances has become impossible to bear alone. We are proud_to_champion their cause.

Mr. DORN. Pardon me, Commander, but we have a group of young people with us this morning from a high school in Bethesda, Md. Miss Jill Teague, the daughter of our distinguished and very able and beloved chairman is among this group, and we are very delighted to have them with us.

Mr. COOPER. I know of no one I would rather yield to.

Mr. DORN. I know that and I appreciate it. I want to say to these young people I am glad you are observing the committee at work. So many of our people who come here seem to think everything is done on the floor, but most of the work is done in committees under men like our distinguished chairman, Mr. Teague, and I might say this, too, that when you study the sciences and technology and history and all of those things, and we are putting a lot of emphasis on science at this time, but we should know the No. 1 importance of this, "Science To Defend and Protect What?" and the important and No. 1 thing is Americanism; so I am glad that you are here to see this committee in action and see how your Congress operates, which is your agent, which is made up of the representatives of the people, particularly like this gentleman with us who is the national commander of the Disabled American Veterans, the people who suffered

to defend this country and keep it free. This is Mr. Cooper, the national commander, who is now before us. Go right ahead.

Mr. COOPER. We know you have grave responsibilities, too. We do not envy you them. We know this committee has a reputation for facing up to the problems of veterans courageously and realistically. It is known by us all that the Congress as a whole respects this committee for the thoroughness of its work and we share that confidence with them. That is why we feel no restraint when you call upon us to lay these problems before you. That is why I can assure you today that your ultimate judgment will be accepted by us with grace.

Proceeding to the consideration of other pending compensation bills on your list with special attention to those we support and endorse on the basis of national convention resolutions or other official action by this organization I will comment on the following:

H.R. 109 would grant service connection for a disability not noted and made of record during the first 90 days of a veteran's service but which condition is detected and made of record in the same period of active service in the Armed Forces after the first 90 days of such service.

The former World War Veterans' Act, 1924, as amended, was far more liberal than the present law. It even went considerably beyond our proposal in that it provided that a condition noted in service but not detected at enlistment was to be held service connected.

We believe that if a disability was not found by the service medical authorities during the strenuous period of basic training or until after the first 90 days of service, that the chances are overwhelmingly in favor of the fact that it was incurred in service. This bill not only has great merit both from the standpoints of Government and the veterans but it would also result in far more uniform and equitable decisions by the rating officials of the VA. We urge the approval of H.R. 109.

H.R. 875 would extend the period of presumptive service connection to 7 years for multiple sclerosis. It is well known that the medical authorities do not as yet know the origin or cause of this mysterious and tragic disease. The present presumption may indeed be too low for this condition, as contended by many, and the DAV Seattle national convention adopted a resolution to allow adequate time after discharge for a veteran who is a victim of this dire affliction to obtain a status of service origin under the presumptive regulations of the VA.

A 2-year presumption for the psychoses, instead of the present 1 year, as proposed by H.R. 876, would seem to be a reasonable request, and this is also true in the case of H.R. 877, which asks for a 2-year presumption for malignant tumor (cancer).

The DAV claims service has seen case after case where the psychosis or cancer was first diagnosed between 1 and 2 years after release from active service and, despite prolonged dangers and hardships of active duty, it was necessary under the law for the VA to disallow the claim for service connection. It would alleviate some very distressing situations if the Congress would extend the presumptive period from 1 to 2 years for both psychosis and cancer.

It has long been a sore spot with war veterans in receipt of compensation for service-connected disability that they had to surrender such compensation if they became permanently and totally disabled

from other conditions, in order to receive a pension as the greater benefit.

H.R. 878 would not permit such a veteran to receive the full amount of his compensation and the full amount of a pension. He would merely receive his whole compensation payments plus a prorated amount of pension under a simple formula. For example, if he is rated 60 percent for his service-connected condition, he would receive the full rate of $120 compensation plus 40 percent of the pension ordinarily payable in his case. The figure 40 percent is obtained by deducting the compensation evaluation of 60 percent from the factor 100 percent, the latter figure representing the whole man. The DAV strongly urges recognition of this problem and its solution as proposed in H.R. 878

Long experience by the officers heading the DAV claims service and our national service officers with the VA rating schedules, their application, and amendments from time to time, has impelled this organization to seek legislation designed to "freeze" the rating schedule and to permit changes, deletions, and revisions to be made only as approved by the Congress. The position of the DAV on this matter has resulted from the actions of the VA during the past decade in instituting changes in the schedule inimical to many veterans.

The VA contends that their changes are the result of the studies made in the light of the advancement of medical knowledge. The spirit of progress is commendable but we recognize the truism that medicine is not an exact science in many respects and that there is no end to the search for a "better pill" or an improved method of treatment to lessen or negate disability.

We cannot share the view that because of improved medical techniques, the VA rating schedule should be changed and revised in large part or wholly, to diminish the degrees of rating and amounts of compensation veterans receive for service-connected disabilities. The actual effects of some of these so-called improved methods may not be recognized for decades.

However they may protest to the contrary, we of the DAV believe that the underlying reason for changing the schedule is based on the philosophy of need. That philosophy takes into consideration only the immediate situation that does not encompass the broader aspects of disability. We contend that disability has three major aspects: 1. The immediate effect on the individual.

2. The effect of the condition on securing employment and in job retention, and job advancement.

3. The effect of the disability upon the vocational longevity of the disabled person.

We believe that this third item, above, is one that has never been properly explored and we feel that it is timely to consider this problem which is discerned in better perspective today than ever before. With the aging process disabilities acquired through a lifetime become an increasingly greater factor in the disabled veteran's ability to work and perform functions that others of the same age are able to do. We all know that disability does affect and often shorten the individual's vocational life. The need theory does not take this into consideration. We reject the need theory as entirely unrealistic, calculated to limit consideration of the disability to the present only,

with no thought to the future problems inherent in all disability considerations.

The payment of compensation to a service-connected veteran has been an important factor in assisting him to achieve a more rapid rehabilitation, mentally, spiritually, and economically. He has become adjusted to a rate of compensation which we and you have tried to keep on a par with living conditions, all to the end that he may have a measure of security as he goes through life and rears his family. When a drastic reduction in compensation takes place his whole economy is disrupted. The changes made in the VA rating schedule in many instances have caused a reduction in compensation without any improvement in disability. Outstanding examples of what we mean are in the fields of gastric resection ratings and ratings for loss of hearing.

The bill we endorse in the above connection, H.R. 881, would not prevent the VA from continuing to study rating evaluations, and recommendations for changes in the schedule could be submitted to the Congress. All representations of the VA, the veterans' organizations, and other interested groups could be considered by the Congress and determinations made as to schedular changes that would have the respect and confidence of all and this would make for much better control of the content of the VA rating schedule than obtains under the present system.

In our opinion the time is here for steps to be taken to accord our wartime disabled veterans some degree of security in the knowledge that the compensation payments received have a high degree of permanence and that downward changes will not be made because of some arbitrary changes in the rating schedule put into effect by the VA on its own. The VA is completing a review of thousands of cases which should have resulted in the weeding out of any inequitable ratings. So now is the time to make a giant stride forward to attain greater stability in compensation ratings and to that end we recommend approval of H.R. 881.

In the pages immediately following, prior to resuming my narrative statement, are a number of case histories to support our position. (The information is as follows:)

CASES HISTORIES

CASE NO. 1. SERVICE-CONNECTED HEARING CONDITION

This veteran's claim for disability compensation was initially rated on August 15, 1944, at 50 percent for defective hearing, effective the date following his discharge from service.

He was examined by the Veterans' Administration on August 3, 1944, and disability rating was increased from 50 to 80 percent for: Hearing 0 foot right; 0 foot left; absence of air and bone conduction, bilateral.

The case was again reviewed on June 29, 1948, in accordance with Public Law 458, 79th Congress and an 80-percent rating was confirmed and continued.

The case was again considered by the Rating Board under extension 8-A on March 3, 1953, and his hearing disability was increased from 80 to 100 percent, effective February 9, 1953. No future examinations were scheduled for rating purposes at that time.

The case was again reviewed, based on the Deputy Administrator's letter dated December 14, 1954, and an examination was scheduled for rating purposes. The veteran was advised that "On the basis of this examination, it has been determined that the evaluation of your service-connected defective hearing condition will be reduced from 100-percent disabling to 40-percent disabling from March 22, 1958. This reduction is not a result of any improvement in your condition, but