service disability-and that service disability has resulted in vocational handicap, we should train him until we have reestablished him again. But my thought is that we can do that, not by the extension necessarily of the vocational rehabilitation act, but in connection with our rehabilitation of these men under the Veterans' Bureau act and the appropriations we get under hospitalization, or whatever we want to call it.

Mr. LUCE. General Hines, how much would it cost to carry out that plan?

General HINES. I feel that it would not cost at the maximum over a million dollars a year. The number of men would have to be determined; in other words, we have now in training approximately 14,000 men. We feel that by June 30, when the vocational training is to cease, that the last month there will be some five or six thousand men in training. Half of those men are taking institutional courses which they will complete, say, on June 30 or in that month. There would be a possible load of 3,000 men that would have to be surveyed to determine just the test that I have specified, whether they have a disability, whether that disability is due to service, and whether it prevents them from carrying on in their old vocation. I feel that a million dollars a year would cover those cases properly. There can be no doubt that some of these men who are in the courses which we have started-I know of some cases that take longer than the course which will end on June 30. Those men properly should be carried to the end of the course.

But the test should not be whether a man, because he has been entered into a course should be carried, but it should be whether that man's disability is due to service and as a result of it he has a handicap.

Mr. CONNERY. Suppose, General, that you had taken a man like that and started him off on a new idea-suppose he was trying to learn to become a candy maker. He had done something else before the war, and you started him on a course that would require_two years, and then you suddenly drop him and say, "No; you have got to go back to your old job of truck driver.

General HINES. I think it should be fair. If the Government has taken on an obligation we should complete that obligation.

Mr. RANKIN. Your proposition would cover, as soon as capable of being reached, those cases which have been ruled as "nonfeasible for vocational rehabilitation "?

General HINES. It would depend on what that nonfeasibility is due to. Some men are nonfeasible for training that were nonfeasible and would have been nonfeasible if we had never had a war. The original law did not contemplate that we would train those men. Some of them got into training, and many of them have been carried through training longer, maybe, than we should have carried them, but not due so much to their handicap, but due to the fact that the Government had assumed the obligation-had started these men along a certain course and, of course, the proper thing to do is to complete the job.

Mrs. ROGERS. General Hines, what do you do in the case of men who change their objective after this last law went into effect? Probably a good many changed the objective in order to complete their course

General HINES. Many objectives had to be changed. For instance, at one time in the bureau's history these men practically selected the objectives that they wanted to be trained for. What was the natural selection? A man would like to be a banker? Yes; and liked to do something that he did not have the qualification to meet. The bureau started off giving them practically their choice.

When they started to supervise carefully the training of those men they found naturally what they would expect to find, that men originally reached for an objective that was impossible, due to grounding, education, and their natural ability. So they changed objectives. There were many changes of objectives.

The men, of course, in my judgment, should not be blamed for that. I think that was poor administration of the law, and what they did the second time by starting a man off on an objective which he could reach was the right thing to do.

Mrs. ROGERS. The men were obliged to reach some objective by June 26, not cases of changed objectives, because they could not be rehabilitated in time. I have in mind a special case where the New York office asked a man to change his objective, so he could be rehabilitated according to law by June 26, and I think there are a good many other cases. Could they go back and continue?

General HINES. We have cases of men we felt should be trained who had handicaps. We knew that if we tried to train them in vocations which some of them desired, we could not make a complete job by June 30. Se we suggested to those men, in order that their training might be of some value to them in that short period of a year, that they take a certain objective which would be in line with the final objective they had in mind; in other words, suppose a man was aspiring to be a business man or head bookkeeper. We would take the preliminary training of those courses and give him that. Which would be of some value to him even if the law was not extended or if he had to go of his own accord. So all that would happen to those cases would be that we would carry them further if they have service disabilities which resulted in handicaps.

Mr. FITZGERALD. General, if not in an amendment, could not this be made definitely to provide if a man was engaged in good training and which he was carrying on with promise of success and finishing, simply should be completed; that is, that the law should provide without any particular limitation the date that those courses should be complete?

General HINES. The bureau would be glad to draw an amendment covering the suggestion and covering that point, if the committee so desires.

The CHAIRMAN. Are there any further questions? General Hines, I think that covers the testimony we wanted much to secure from you in these hearings, and on behalf of the committee I desire to thank you for your very frank statements to the committee and for the way you have cooperated with this committee and with the Con- . gress throughout all of the time that this committee has been dealing with legislation, and personally to congratulate you for the fine administration of the Veterans' Bureau.

General HINES. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. FITZGERALD. Could we not add to that the appreciation this committee has for the very accurate and definite knowledge of all these problems by the director?

The CHAIRMAN. I think that that could not be better stated, Mr. Fitzgerald, because it is a fine thing to be able to secure this information, with the executive and the legislative branches cooperating together as they have been and are without thought of politics or any other division. It is certainly improving the conditions of the former service men throughout the entire country. The cooperation of the bureau, the Congress, the American Legion, Disabled American Veterans, and Veterans of Foreign Wars, I think, has been one of the finest things that I have seen in my experience in the Government.

General HINES. Mr. Chairman, you offer me an opportunity to thank you for this kind expression, and also to say that I appreciate greatly the courteous manner in which I have been treated by this committee, and also for the splendid cooperation that I have had since being director of the bureau from the committee as a whole and from the members individually. It is gratifying, of course, to feel that my administration has brought about some good in the bureau. I have tackled the problems without any selfish motives with only one desire, and that was to bring about proper administration. I feel, however, that this committee and the committee of the Senate have made it possible to improve the bureau. Without the legislation which you gentlemen have placed on the statute books it would not have been possible to have changed the bureau as it has been changed. So that I can not accept your very courteous statement and thanks for what I have done without saying that your share, I think, is more than equal with the officials of the bureau in bringing about whatever change has been brought about.

I desire to thank you and I desire to assure you that if there is any information still lacking, if by further hearings I can clear up any further points, I desire to do it; and I am at your call any time. Thank you. [Applause.]

The CHAIRMAN. Thank you, General Hines. It is in the mind of the chairman to hear next from the representatives of the three service organizations that are recognized by both the Congress and the American Legion, Disable American Veterans, and the Veterans of Foreign Wars, who have always cooperated with us.

Next, there are many Members of Congress who have measures before this committee, bills introduced that might properly be coordinated, or possibly could be placed in the bill before us, and I think the committee would desire to give every Member of the House a chance to appear before the committee. If there is no objection, we will proceed with the hearing, commencing at 10 o'clock to morrow, hearing the service organizations; then, from Members of Congress who have previously served on this committee and who desire to come before it, and next from any Member of the House who desires to present any legislative matters.

The committee will now adjourn until 10 o'clock to-morrow. (Thereupon, at 12.10 o'clock p. m., the committee adjourned to meet to-morrow, Friday, January 15, 1926, at 10 o'clock a. m.)

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

COMMITTEE ON WORLD WAR VETERANS' LEGISLATION,

Friday, January 15, 1926. The committee met, pursuant to adjournment, at 10 o'clock a. m., Hon. Royal C. Johnson (chairman) presiding.

The CHAIRMAN. The committee will be in order. We have with us this morning Mr. Edward McE. Lewis, who is connected with the American Legion and who rendered the committee and the Congress much valuable assistance in drafting two legislative bills that have come from this committee and have been later enacted into law.

Connected with Mr. Lewis in this work are Watson B. Miller, I. H. Horton, John Thomas Taylor, and others; and representing the American Legion we desire to hear from those gentlemen later. Mr. Miller, however, is attending a meeting of the executive committee of the American Legion at Indianapolis, and can not be with us to-day, and I have requested Mr. Lewis to give the Legion's viewpoint on the legislative proposals contained in H. R. 4474. Many of these provisions contained in the proposed law were recommended by the American Legion as well as other veteran organizations.

Mr. Lewis, will you give the committee the Legion's viewpoint, as you understand it?

STATEMENT OF EDWARD MCE. LEWIS, EXECUTIVE SECRETARY, NATIONAL LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE, WASHINGTON, D. C.

Mr. LEWIS. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I desire at this point to make a very brief statement concerning the American Legion.

The American Legion, as the committee is aware, has a membership in excess of 600,000, and it has an auxiliary with a membership in excess of 200,000.

The Legion is divided into 49 departments in the United States. It has 11,000 posts, and those, in turn, report to a department, one of which is organized in each State in the Union and one in the District of Columbia. Each year each one of these departments hold a convention at which recommendations for legislation, brought to these conventions by the various posts of the Legion, are carefully considered.

Those department conventions in turn adopt resolutions on legislation, which are forwarded to our national convention, which is held each fall. A great many of these resolutions have to do with. rehabilitation and the care of the disabled men; for instance, at the last convention we had something in excess of 200 resolutions which were recommended by various departments of the Legion for adoption by the annual convention. Now, prior to the annual convention meeting, there is a meeting of what we call our national rehabilitation committee.

I would like, Mr. Chairman, to insert in the record here a statement concerning that committee.

The CHAIRMAN. You can insert it at this point in your testimony, Mr. Lewis.

(The statement referred to is as follows:)

STATEMENT

The American Legion has always placed the interests of disabled veterans first in its considerations. We have felt from the very beginning that the proper care and treatment of the men who suffered physical or mental injury through their participation in the World War should be the paramount obligation of the Nation, and at each annual convention the American Legion has dedicated itself to assist whole-heartedly in this endeavor.

To make its effort effective the Legion created its national rehabilitation committee, with head offices in Washington and field offices throughout the United States. Watson B. Miller, who will appear before you at a later moment, is entering upon his third year as chairman of that committee. The committee is set up along lines similar to the central and field organization of the United States Veterans' Bureau. In the Washington offices there is a staff of experts in all matters affecting disabled and well veterans. The committee proper is composed of 49 general or State members, representing the States and the District of Columbia, and an advisory staff of medical, legal, and technical experts. Under the direct control of the chairman is a staff of 13 full-time salaried field representatives, located at strategical points throughout the country, who travel throughout their respective territories at the direction of the chairman.

The general membership of the committee is divided into five area committees, following the lines of the five control areas in which the Veterans' Bureau has divided the country. The chairmen and vice chairmen of these area committees, 10 in number, constitute the executive committee of the national rehabilitation committee, which meets on call by the chairman to discuss and dec'de questions of Legion policy of a national character concerning disabled veterans on situations and matters which arise between the regular annual conventions of the Legion.

Going further down in our rehabilitation organization, the general or State members of the national rehabilitation committee also head up the rehabilitation activities in their respective State departments of the Legion, and under them are organized the county and post rehabilitation committees, reaching right down into each community.

With these numerous points of constant contact in the States and local communities, and with his permanent staff of direct field representatives, the chairman of the national rehabilitation committee at Washington is able at all times to know conditions in the field as they actually exist; he is able to secure information and data through reliable first-hand sources; and he is able in turn to keep the field generally advised as to the policies and plans of the Veterans' Bureau and of the Legion nationally as to disabled-veteran matters.

Thus the information which the Legion presents to your committee, or which you may require of it, in connection with its legislative proposals, has come from authoritative sources, either from these field representatives based upon their long experience and contact with the work or by virtue of the knowledge and experience of the members of the national rehabilitation committee proper, all of whom have been actively engaged in the work since its inception.

The largest specific activity of the national rehabilitation committee is its claims work, carried on by its service division. This involves the handling of thousands of claims annually and personal appearance in behalf of disabled veterans before the appeal agencies of the Veterans' Bureau, both in the field and in Washington. It may be of interest to state that during the year just past in excess of $2,000,000 in cash benefits were recovered for disabled veterans through the direct instrumentality of this service.

With the permission of your committee, I should like to insert in the record the names and places of residence of the members of the national rehabilitation committee, which are as follows:

American Legion national rehabilitation committee: Watson B. Miller, national chairman; C. C. Brown, service officer; I. H. Horton, secretary.

National advisory members: Dr. H. Kennon Dunham, Cincinnati, Ohio; Dr. William Le Roy Dunn, Asheville, N. C.; Prof. Charles W. Kofoid, Berkeley, Calif.; Dr. B. C. MacNeil, Washington, D. C.; Dr. William F. Lorenz, Mendota, Wis.; Robert E. Bondy, Washington, D. C.; Daniel J. Callahan, Washington, D. C.; Judge Frank M. Dineen, Omaha, Nebr.; George Mathers, Bennington, Vt.; Dr. Hugh H. Young, Baltimore, Md.; Mrs. Hazel L. Workman, Indianapolis, Ind.