Mr. CONNERY. His military duty was supposed to be with his regiment at the front and, when he was put into a labor battalion, he was being punished the same as going to jail. Mr. TAYLOR. Should not the word "willful" be out of there? The CHAIRMAN. That word "willful" should be stricken out and leave it "by reason of misconduct"; and strike out the word "full" in line 10; would not that cure the objection that you raise? Mr. BRADY. It would certainly minimize the objection. Mr. CONNERY. It would only minimize it, because the performance of military duty-if that jumping a freight train-if he was supposed to do guard duty, or was a sergeant, or something else, and was in the hospital, through his own misconduct or what they call misconductthe general and I do not agree that jumping a freight train is misconduct, but he could not do any military duty Mr. BRADY. No; he probably could not do any military duty in that case. The CHAIRMAN. If you strike out the whole proviso, Mr. Brady, here is what I am afraid of: That a man who was injured, we will say, running away from service, or a man who shot his fingers off to get out of service, a man who mutilated himself otherwise to keep out of the service if that proviso was stricken out, it would take him in. We do not want to do that. Mr. BRADY. General Hines suggested that I say to the committee that many of those cases were perhaps covered by the men being caught and given dishonorable discharges and thus were probably taken care of without anything further. The CHAIRMAN. Do you think they have already been eliminated? Mr. BRADY. I do not want to say they have all been eliminated. The CHAIRMAN. Now, General, right on this point, suppose this bill were passed and a man was to come up who had a case-a case had come up of a man who had mutilated himself and in that way became disabled and had not been dishonorably discharged General HINES. I think that where a man had disabled himself so he was not able to perform his duty-under such circumstances, certainly, when the Army or Navy could find that, the charge would stand, he would be tried, and I think, in most cases, given a dishonorable discharge. I doubt if you have many of those cases. As I understand it, the committee is desirous of taking in those men who have rendered good service rather than those who have rendered doubtful service; and the matter of the discharge sets that standard up very well. Mr. CONNERY. The chairman and I were talking about this question: That if you strike out "willful" and you strike out the entire provision, you do not feel any hardship would come on the Government in regard to the S. I. W. cases, or cases similar to that? General HINES. No; but I would not like to see the word "willful misconduct'-just the word "willful" should be taken out and "misconduct", which is a broader term and in favor of the veteran, left in; and, as Mr. Brady has suggested, I think you could very well leave this proviso out and we could cover it by suitable regulations, knowing the intent of the committee. Mrs. ROGERS. Will you explain again what you mean by including "presumptively service connected"? General HINES. We have a number of cases that, under the law, are given service connection by presumption, and others that are given directly. Those by presumption are specified, and the service connections are established by law; as a typical case, tuberculosis and Mrs. ROGERS. Within a certain period? General HINES. Up to January 1, 1925, any man who shows up with a class of disability, it is presumed that his disability is due to the service. So in order to cover both groups, we use "directly” and "presumptively." The CHAIRMAN. Thank you very much, General. Now, the committee will go into executive session for a moment. (Thereupon the committee proceeded into executive session.) TO AMEND CERTAIN LAWS AND VETERANS' REGULATIONS AFFECTING WORLD WAR VETERANS AND THEIR DEPENDENTS TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1937 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, COMMITTEE ON WORLD WAR VETERANS' LEGISLATION, Washington, D. C. The committee met at 10:30 a. m., Hon. Hon. John E. Rankin (chairman) presiding. The CHAIRMAN. The committee will please come to order. Gentlemen, I am going to ask the representatives of the veterans' organizations, if you do not mind, to move up to this other table. We are going to start this morning with Col. John Thomas Taylor, of the American Legion. STATEMENT OF COL. JOHN THOMAS TAYLOR, REPRESENTING THE AMERICAN LEGION Colonel TAYLOR. Mr. Chairman and lady and gentlemen of the committee, the chairman has suggested that the program of the American Legion dealing with this question of disabled men be presented to the committee, and I now do that. I hand it to the reporter, saying that we will confine our remarks this morning to H. R. 1539, which I will ask to have included in the record, it being the so-called widows' and orphans' bill. The CHAIRMAN. Without objection, it will go in the record at this point. A large number of resolutions were adopted by the American Legion at its last national convention, held at Cleveland, Ohio, on September 21, to 24 1936, which pertain to our disabled comrades. The resolutions which call for legislation that must be considered by the World War Veterans' Legislative Committee of the House of Representatives are as follows: BURIAL CLAIMS 1. "Resolved, That the American Legion in convention assembled recommends that the time limit for filing burial claims be removed." Formerly, by regulation and since March 20, 1935 by law, the time limit for filing claims for burial allowance was 1 year; with 6 months in which to perfect evidence. This resolution proposes to do away with any limit whatsoever. The sum of $100 is allowed in each case. Also formerly, if a veteran left assets of $1,000 or more, he was not entitled to this allowance. Government insurance was not considered in the assets but private insurance was. Under the provisions of Public, No. 844, Seventy-fourth Congress, title IV, section 401, the provision as to a veteran's net assets was removed; and under section 402, it provided claims for reimbursement must be filed within 1 year subsequent to the date of burial of the veteran and in the event the claimant's application is not complete at the time of original submission the Veterans' Administration will notify the claimant of the evidence necessary to complete the application and if such evidence is not received within 1 year from the date of the request therefor no allowance may be paid. BURIAL FLAGS 2. "Resolved, By the American Legion in Convention assembled that we favor legislation permitting the issuance of burial flags to veterans' organizations for military funerals at all first- and second-class post offices, with further recommendations that this be extended to all post offices, if possible." Burial flags are issued to veterans' organizations for military funerals today at county seat post offices, and in sparsely settled sections of the country this sometimes necessitates a trip of many miles to procure such a flag. The accomplishment of this resolution would result in the issuance of the burial flags at all first- and second-class post offices, and if possible, at all post offices. WIDOWS AND DEPENDENTS Resolution no. 32, coming out of the rehabilitation committee, reads: "Be it Resolved, That greater monthly benefits be allowed to widows and dependents of World War Veterans." At the present time the widow receives $30 per month and the dependent children $10 for the first child and $6 for each additional child; and dependent parents receive $15 each, if both are living, or $20 for one. For several years we have been asking that these various amounts be increased and there is no question at all but what they should. By Executive order, dated March 19, 1935, the pension of the widow is increased, after she becomes 50 years of age, to $35 per month and after 65 years of age to $40 per month; and the pension to children increased to $10 and after 10 years of age, to $15; with $8 for each additional child. But no increases were provided for dependent parents. As to amount of increases, it was generally understood that this should be worked out by the legislative and rehabilitation committees. WIDOW Another resolution calls for a change in the definition of "Widow" in veterans' laws and reads as follows: "It is resolved, That this convention go on record as favoring the extension of the definition of a widow of a World War veteran to read as follows: "The term 'widow of a World War Veteran' shall mean a person who married the veteran prior to July 3, 1931, or one who married the veteran subsequent to that date, and who has lived with the veteran continuously for a period of 3 years next preceding the veteran's death." The convention rehabilitation committee amended this resolution to add to it "also to include those widows having surviving issue of a veteran." Under the present law a widow must have been married to her deceased veteran husband prior to July 3, 1931. If she was married after that date, even though he died from service-connected disability, she receives nothing. We are requesting in this resolution that the date limitation be wiped out in cases of widows "who have lived with the veteran continuously for a period of 3 years next preceding the veteran's death", or in cases of those widows "having surviving issue of a veteran." In the last Congress we requested the marriage date be extended 10 years. PRESUMPTIVES A resolution concerning presumptive cases reads: "Resolved, That the American Legion in convention assembled approves the proposition of having the presumptive service-connected cases restored to full compensation as outlined in our four-point program. Under Public Law, 141, Seventy-third Congress, it will be recalled that some 21,000 presumptives were considered in fact "service-connected" but were granted but 75 percent of the amount which they had been drawing instead of the full 100 percent. This resolution proposes that there be no discrimination whatsoever in the amount of compensation for such disability, thus restoring the full 100-percent compensation in these cases. This resolution is as follows: WOMEN VETERANS "Be it resolved, That the American Legion, assembled in its eighteenth annual convention, reaffirms its formal action recommending the proposal that $50, in lieu of allowance, be made to women veterans entitled to, but not availing themselves of domiciliary care.' At the present time women veterans are treated exactly the same as men veterans. If they are service-connected and go to a soldiers' home or have domiciliary care, their compensation is reduced to $15 per month if without dependents; if not service-connected and are permanently totally disabled, their pensions would be reduced to $6 per month. If not service-connected and permanently totally disabled and they remain outside of the soldiers' home, their pensions would be $30 per month. What this resolution proposes is that women veterans who elect to remain outside a soldiers' home, who are eligible for domiciliary care, receive a cash allowance of at least $50 per month in lieu of such domiciliary care. HOSPITALIZATION AND TREATMENT OF VETERANS OUTSIDE UNITED STATES Another resolution coming out of the convention rehabilitation committee "requests that legislation be enacted to provide for hospitalization and treatment of service-connected veterans of all wars residing outside of the continental limits of the United States. It is proposed that in such legislation the Veterans' Administration make contracts not to exceed the present fee table in use by the Veterans Administration, and that payment on such contracts be made in American dollars." Hospitalization was provided in the World War Veterans' Act of 1924, as amended, which was repealed by Public, No. 2, the Economy Act, and this resolution asks for the reestablishment of this benefit. HOSPITAL CONSTRUCTION Twenty-five resolutions dealing with hospital construction in various localities of the United States were considered and the convention national rehabilitation committee went on record as approving the various items under the following substitute resolution. Some of the resolutions dealt with construction either fully or wholly under way, others merely requested the speeding up of certain approved building projects, whereas the majority dealt with either the additional construction of buildings at existing facilities or requested new hospital construction. The substitute resolution embracing these various items is as follows: "Whereas hospital cases among veterans are on the increase and the situation in some specific localities is becoming especially acute as shown by the attached resolutions from various State departments; and "Whereas this distressing situation is recognized by the Legion national rehabilitation committee; Now, therefore, be it "Resolved, by the American Legion in national convention assembled, that funds be made available immediately sufficient to permit sufficient beds for the care of all veterans in suitable localities, that will not necessitate undue expense or inconvenience in travel from veterans' homes thereto; and be it further "Resolved, That the National Rehabilitation Committee is hereby instructed to keep constantly before the United States Veterans' Administration and the Congress the urgency of the situation disclosed by the facts recounted in the attached resolutions approved by the Eighteenth Annual Convention of the American Legion until said situations are properly and fully relieved." The specific resolutions referred to are numbered as follows: 358, 233, 236, 359, 366, 362, 39, 263, 405, 302, 446, 427, 478, 476, 118, 484, 167, 536, 548, 522, 101, 148, 425, 425a, and 425b. The Independent Offices Appropriation Act, 1937, carried an appropriation for new hospital construction in the amount of $4,000,000. The appropriation available for hospitals, including the unexpended balance from former acts, is as follows: Appropriated in Deficiency Act, Aug. 12, 1935-.-. Unexpended balance remaining from appropriation for soldiers' Appropriated in Independent Offices Act, Feb. 20, 1935- $21, 250, 000 882, 000 1, 907, 000 925, 000 4, 000, 000 28, 964, 000 Total available during current period for hospital program_-_ |