WORLD WAR VETERANS' LEGISLATION HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, COMMITTEE ON WORLD WAR VETERANS' LEGISLATION, Wednesday, January 6, 1926. The committee met, pursuant to call, at 10 o'clock a. m., in room 525, House Office Building, Hon. Royal C. Johnson (chairman) presiding. The CHAIRMAN. The committee will now please be in order. I have invited the national commanders of the American Legion, the Disabled American Veterans, and the Veterans of Foreign Wars to meet with us. None could be present except Commander Fred Stover, who is head of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, who will speak to us at this time. We are very glad to have you with us, Commander, and if there is anything which you care to say before the committee at this time we shall be glad to hear you. Mr. FRED STOVER. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, it is indeed a great pleasure and privilege to be with you to-day as the commander in chief of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States, and to assist and cooperate with you in starting off the new year so well by immediately tackling the problem of the necessary corrective legislation in behalf of the country's veterans and their dependents. You are to be envied in your position, because no member of Congress can be priveleged to be engaged in more laudable work, namely, that of assisting the Government to aid the warriors of the country, who themselves had aided her in time of emergency. I am sure that General Hines here, the Director of the United States Veterans' Bureau, as well as my good friend Commander McQuigg, of the American Legion and National Commander John W. Mahan, of the Disabled American Veterans of the World War, surrounded by their legislative chairmen, have but one thought in mind and that is, first to help the veteran reestablish himself as best the circumstances will permit and above all, to bring aid and comfort to his widow and dependents. To you, Mr. Johnson, as chairman of this important committee, and to your associates, I bring the greetings from the Twenty-sixth national encampment of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, held at Tulsa, Okla., last September. The veterans throughout this country have the utmost confidence in you and your committee, as well as in the Congress itself. They are keenly appreciative of your past labor in their behalf and they feel sure that their cause is in most capable hands. We bid you Godspeed in your work during the coming ses 1 |