As the Administrator of the Veterans' Administration wrote to the chairman on February 12, 1962:

There were 2,533 Civil War widows on the pension rolls as of September 1961. Presumably, the number of surviving widows unable to meet existing marriage requirements who would benefit by this bill would be very small and the cost negligible.

However, concern was expressed that liberalization of marriage requirements of widows of Civil War veterans would set a precedent requiring immediate action of widows of veterans of other wars.

I submit that the only precedent set would be the enactment of such legislation 99 years-almost a full century-after the war had ended. Thus I think we can safely set a precedent for enactment of marriage requirements liberalization in 1998 for widows of the Spanish-American War veterans and in 2018 for widows of World War I veterans.

I think that under these precedents we can assume with reasonable assurance that the number of cases would be very small and the cost negligible but that in each individual case the need would be great. Therefore, I urge the committee to report the bill favorably. Mr. KORNEGAY. Thank you, Mr. Moorhead.

Our next witness will be Congressman Chamberlain, of Michigan. You may proceed, Congressman.

STATEMENT OF HON. CHARLES E. CHAMBERLAIN, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF MICHIGAN

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN. Mr. Chairman and members of the Subcommittee on compensation and pensions, for many years I have been contacted by veterans in my district of Michigan who emphasize the need for increased pensions and the raising of income limitations for eligibility for such pensions.

Among the most active are those who are deeply concerned that the veterans who fought during World War I have not received comparable benefits to those of the veterans of other wars. Most of these men are now reaching the age where they are finding it increasingly difficult to be gainfully employed, and, of course, to maintain a selfrespecting standard of living.

Mr. Chairman, I want to commend you and this committee for your continuing efforts to study and seek solutions to the problems of veterans by holding these hearings and I sincerely hope they will result in constructive recommendations for equitable legislation in behalf of the many Americans who have served our country so well. Mr. KORNEGAY. Thank you, Mr. Chamberlain,

The next witness before the subcommittee will be Mr. Gonzalez, a Member of Congress from Texas. You may proceed, sir.

STATEMENT OF HON. HENRY B. GONZALEZ, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF TEXAS

Mr. GONZALEZ. Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee, I appreciate this opportunity to participate in your heavily scheduled hearings on pending pension legislation.

I am making this statement to urge you to give favorable consideration to H.R. 2332, the proposed World War I Pension Act. This bill should be enacted if the United States is to discharge its obligation to the World War I veteran.

The benefits provided by the bill are adequate but not overly generous. A veteran who meets the requirements of 90 days of honorable service or discharge for a service-connected disability would be granted a pension of $100 a month, with an additional $70 a month if he is helpless, blind, or in need of regular aid and attendance. A veteran's widow would be granted a pension of $75 a month if she meets the rather rigid eligibility requirements of the bill. No pensions would be paid to any single individual whose income exceeds $2,600 a year or to anyone with dependents whose income exceeds $3,600 a year, with a retirement income exclusion for both of $1,200 a year.

As you know, Mr. Chairman, the veterans of all wars prior to World War I have been granted service pensions in their later years, similar to those provided in this bill. The veterans of our most recent_wars have been granted other benefits immediately upon their discharge from the service. The World War I veteran is therefore unique among all the veterans in this country's history. He has received neither a service pension, as have the veterans of prior wars through the Spanish-American War, nor the GI bill of rights, as have the World War II and Korean veterans. I would say that the treatment we have given the World War I veterans suffers by comparison.

As the years pass rapidly by, the ranks of the 1917 and 1918 doughboys become thinner. One-half of their number have already passed away. If ever we are going to try to pay off our debt to them now is the time to do it. Their average age is now close to 70 years. If we wait any longer it will be too late to do anything meaningful for them. By passing this bill, Mr. Chairman, we will be helping also in the current war against poverty. The money these veterans would receive would be put to good use in paying their living and medical expenses. It would flow straight into the economy, giving additional support to it. In all fairness to the World War I veteran-the "forgotten man" among all of our veterans-I think that this bill should be enacted. I urge you to give it your most considerate attention.

Mr. KORNEGAY. Thank you, Mr. Gonzalez.

The next witness will be Congressman Ralph Harding of Idaho. You may proceed, Congressman.

STATEMENT OF HON. RALPH R. HARDING, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF IDAHO, REGARDING H.R. 2332

Mr. HARDING. Mr. Chairman, thank you for permitting me to present my views to your committee on pensions for World War I veterans and particularly my bill, H.R. 5668, which is identical to H.R.

2332.

There is great concern today in this country about people whose income is less than $3,000. The economic advisers to our President have made the judgment that anyone who does not have a minimum income of $3,000 does not have an adequate standard of living.

Surveys indicate that many veterans are actually in this low-income group. It seems ironic that in a country of such great plenty, when

the per capita average income is at an alltime high, we allow some men who fought for our country in the First World War to remain without the necessities of a comfortable life.

Undoubtedly many of the veterans who are really in need could go to their local departments of public assistance and obtain the basic necessities which in some cases might come close to the amount provided for in this legislation. The most undesirable aspect of this solution is the knowledge that they would be accepting charity which to these proud men is most difficult. These veterans should be able to meet their living costs with the same pride with which they fought for their country.

Many who are affected under this bill could have attained financial independence early in life if they had not accepted their country's call to arms and had instead launched their careers in the most opportune time of their lives.

In contrast to the benefits allowed to us who served in the later conflicts those veterans who served in the First World War were left to the uncertainties of starting out anew after their discharge. Then many had just gotten settled in civilian life with jobs or businesses when the great depression ruined their plans.

Mr. Chairman, I am proud of the example set by the Congress in meeting our responsibility to our veterans in World War II and the Korean war. I believe that the educational aid, housing provisions and other benefits have helped us reach the great standard of living that not only those of us who are veterans enjoy but the entire Nation enjoys. I submit that the boost given to our gross national product by these veterans' programs has improved the tax base to such an extent that the income received from this tax base alone will finance the program asked for today.

I urge your committee to consider favorably this legislation. The limited costs in meeting our obligations in this area is justified alone by the increased comforts to those of our senior citizens who served our country so well in the First World War.

Mr. KORNEGAY. Thank you very much, sir.

I now call Congressman Staggers of West Virginia. You may proceed, Mr. Staggers.

STATEMENT OF HON. HARLEY 0. STAGGERS, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF WEST VIRGINIA

Mr. STAGGERS. Mr. Chairman, it is now 46 years since the veterans of World War I sloshed through the mud and barbed wire of France, across the Rhine and into Germany. Their minimum age now must be 65. They are old men as well as veterans.

It is almost impossible for us of a younger generation to comprehend the world which these men left and to which they returned a few years later. President Wilson in asking Congress for a declaration of war in April 1917, said that it was a fearful thing to call a nation from the pursuits of peace to the horrors of war. It was, and just how terrible few people realized at the time.

I call to your attention a few facts. The United States had never before engaged in a foreign war, except for minor incursions into nearby Cuba, Mexico, and the Philippine Islands. The Regular Army

was a mere handful, hardly big enough to police a large city. The remainder of the youth of the Nation were preparing themselves for civilian life. Universal education was a goal well in sight. Industry was making giant strides, and new and challenging opportunities were opening up for those who prepared themselves. The whole field of personal service was just being developed, and here too was employment for those interested and capable. Probably no period in all history ever looked more promising than the decade and a half which preceded 1915.

From this bright prospect, several million young men, volunteers and draftees, were dragged into a situation for which no experience had prepared them. In a hurry they had to learn new skills and techniques. War was acquiring new horrors by the hour-submarines, bomb-carrying airplanes, filthy trenches, tanks, poison gas. Sanitary provisions were still primitive, and disease ravaged the both on this side and across the Atlantic.

camps

An unusually virulent attack of what was called simply "the flu" took its toll and filled thousands of graves before a hostile shot could be fired. Against fearful odds some 2 or 3 million men got across the Atlantic and hastened toward the firing line. Time was of the essence of the contract and, illy or improperly prepared, they had to be thrown into the conflict. They entered with a jauntiness and verve which defied peril. For these men were patriots. They really thought they were engaged in a "war to end war," to perpetuate the sort of society which they were building when they took the oath of office.

Their spirit and their valor were determinant. Their war machines ground out to victory. In a short time they returned to their homeland to receive the plaudits and adulation of the Nation. Then, suddenly, the spark flickered out.

What they returned to was far different from what they left. A violent current of reaction had set in. The United States was determined to forget the war-and those who had fought it. There were no provisions to restore them to the jobs they had left. New and eager employees filled them and hung to them. There were no provisions for free training in schools and colleges. Many of the veterans had saved a part of their meager pay and invested in war bonds. Slimy speculators managed to depress the value of these bonds, and some of the veterans were forced to sell at a fraction of their face value. It is the shame of this Government that it permitted the price of its bonds to fall far below par in the legal markets.

For a short period, business and industry flourished fit fully. Then the bottom dropped out. Conflict between labor and management produced some disastrous strikes, with no guidance from Government. The labor organizations were almost ruined. In a few years a third of the Nation was out of jobs, and the veterans most of all. For it was they who had been required to relinquish the race at the time they were getting started, and they never again had a chance to seize the place and position which they had been establishing when inducted into service.

Still the Nation was reluctant to acknowledge its responsibility for these men and their dependents. A few of the States granted small pensions. It was 15 years before the Central Government took any remedial action. By then we were in the middle of the great

depression. This was, in truth, the "lost generation." It is little wonder that World War II was attended with no such enthusiasm as World War I. We had lost our ideals. The war was something to be endured, but not with hope. At its end the Government acted with more liberality and more realization of its responsibility to those who had taken part in it. For the veterans of World War I, our indifference has still not been dispelled. They have been, and still are, underprivileged.

H.R. 2332 would make up, in part, for what we have hitherto left undone. I need not rehearse its provisions. In truth, I feel some shame in considering how scanty they are. I sincerely trust that immediate favorable consideration will be given to this bill.

Mr. KORNEGAY. Thank you so much, Mr. Staggers.

I now call Congressman Harvey of Indiana. You may proceed, sir.

STATEMENT OF HON. RALPH HARVEY, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF INDIANA

Mr. HARVEY. Mr. Chairman, the other day in my mail I received a reprint of the late General MacArthur's final address to the corps of cadets at West Point. To those of you that have not read this, I commend it to your reading for it is indeed a wonderful tribute to our American ideals and it richly pays tribute to the contributions of the American serviceman in time of war. As I recall the general's remarks, one thing seems to stand out in my memory. The general, in propounding a question to these future officers, said, and I quote, "Will your men be reliable?" Gentlemen, the answer to that question is obvious to all of us because it is written in the pages of our history as a great and powerful nation. Certainly the contributions made by our veterans, both living and dead, enable us to be here today to consider the legislation before us.

It is my understanding that there are presently over 150 veterans' pension measures to be considered. These bills would do everything from providing a $100-a-month benefit regardless of disability, to the elimination of non-service-connected pension payments to any alien who is not a resident of the United States.

I do not consider myself to be an expert on veterans' affairs. While I am most sympathetic with the problems facing veterans, and widows, and children of veterans, I believe the enactment of certain legislation would set a precedent so far reaching and costly that ultimately the costs of certain programs would endanger the very things that our veterans fought so valiantly to preserve.

Recognizing, however, that inequities do exist, I am appreciative of this opportunity to register my support for legislation that would substantially increase the amount of money a veteran can earn and still receive the compensation to which he is entitled. The enactment of legislation along this line would, in my opinion, enable the veteran to augment his income in a dignified manner in keeping with the best of our American free-enterprise traditions. Thank you again, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. KORNEGAY. Thank you, Mr. Harvey.

Our next witness will be Congressman Goodell, of New York. You may proceed, Mr. Goodell.