construction of additional hospital facilities and to provide medical, surgical and hospital services and supplies for persons who served in the World War and are patients of the United States Veterans' Bureau.

STATEMENT OF MR. H. H. RAEGE, NATIONAL REHABILITATION COMMITTEE, AMERICAN LEGION.

Mr. RAEGE. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, first, on behalf of the American Legion, I want to thank Congress, and particularly this committee, for the last appropriation of $18,600,000 to begin a permanent building program for the disabled men of this war who need hospital care and treatment. It has gone a long way to alleviate the distressing circumstances in which we find many of these men in poorly constructed hospitals and in some instances hospitals that are run for a profit.

The American Legion at its third national convention at Kansas City recently very heartily approved the work of the White-Billingsly committee appointed by the Secretary of the Treasury to handle this appropriation. They have endeavored, I think, to thoroughly and justly distribute this money where it would do the most good. They have probably made some enemies, but I believe they have worked out a system of providing beds quickly. The Secretary of the Treasury picked out the biggest men in the country, such men as the president of the American Medical Association and other men who are well acquainted with hospital conditions, and by the use of the National Homes for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers and by the purchase of certain sites and the acquis.tion or transferal of governmental property owned by the War Department or the Navy Department the Treasury Department has provided beds much more quickly than it could have been done in any other way. In passing, so that any remarks I may make later may be well understood, I might just as well insert in the record how the $18,600,000 has been allocated. The CHAIRMAN. Yes.

(The statement referred to is as follows:)

Mr. CHINDBLOM. Is that report from the Treasury Department? Mr. RAEGE. Yes. They have yet to locate one hospital of 250 beds in New York City for tuberculosis and to locate another hospital for tuberculosis at Pittsburgh or in the Pittsburgh district. Yesterday the President signed an Executive order transferring certain property of the War Department near Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis, to the Treasury Department so that they could begin there the construction of a $1,000,000 hospital of 250 T. B. beds.

During the last session the Senate approved the report of the White-Billingsly board of hospital consultants, authorized or appointed by the Secretary of the Treasury, and in their second report to the Senate they urged an additional appropriation of $16,350,000 to complete this permanent building program. That Senate select committee investigated the bureaus charged with the responsibility of the care of disabled veterans and they examined hundreds of witnesses and many, many experts, and the American Legion is of the opinion that that Senate committee knew that the recommendation for an additional appropriation was really necessary.

At the third national convention of the American Legion we passed a resolution in favor of using the national homes for disabled volunteer soldiers. That was a point we discussed here last year considerably, but there was always some doubt as to whether or not it would be practicable to use these institutions, but Gen. Wood is segregating the elderly soldiers in other institutions. It would not be practicable to house our men with the older men. I think they would all be delighted to live there, but some of the men in these national homes for disabled volunteer soldiers are pretty old and are subject to certain disciplinary action, and they also wear uniforms and have to stand guard and all that, and it would be very difficult to work out a system to maintain order. The Legion is in favor of using these places because they are for the most part modern buildings well located and can be easily and quickly converted into the right kind of hospitals which has been done, notably at Johnson City, Tenn., and Marion, Ind., and Hot Springs, S. Dak.

Mr. ELLIOTT. Have they taken all of the old soldiers out of Marion and turned that into a hospital?

Mr. RAEGE. It is my understanding, a modern hospital.

Mr. ELLIOTT. Exclusively for veterans of this war?

Mr. ANDREWS. How many vacant available beds have we now? I ask the question because it was stated there were 7,000 available beds in different localities and the completion of those buildings under the charge of the Secretary's consultants would furnish 5,000 more, making practically 12,000 vacant beds. What is the demand over and above that supply?

Mr. RAEGE. I am going to get to that in a moment. May I continue for a moment?

Mr. ANDREWS. I want you to cover that point because it is a material point. Mr. RAEGE. I know it is. I will get to it in about three minutes.

Mr. CHINDBLOM. Let me ask, before you proceed, on the general building program. I observe this bill changes the policy of the Government heretofore by transferring these building activities and the work of the Supervising Architect in connection therewith to the Director of the United States Veterans' Bureau. Does your committee or your organization particularly lay stress on that feature of the bill?

Mr. RAEGE. No; we are not prepared to.
Mr. ANDREWS. That is satisfactory to me.

The CHAIRMAN. As the author of the bill, I desire to say that was only tentative. I have no pride of opinion on the point. All I want is to hurry this relief for our disabled veterans with all possible speed.

Mr. ANDREWS. May I be permitted to call attention for the record at this point to the statement that Mr. Raege has already made concerning the satisfactory way in which the Treasury Department has worked out the matter of the expenditure of the $18,600,000?

Mr. RAEGE. Yes.

Mr. ANDREWS. I would like that to stand in the record at this point.
Mr. RAEGE. Yes.

The CHAIRMAN. That is my information, that it has been entirely satisfactory.

Mr. RAEGE. Absolutely, to the American Legion, and, I think, to everybody else concerned.

The CHAIRMAN. That is my understanding.

Mr. RAEGE. The American Legion also at its third national convention adopted a resolution urging the Government to discontinue the use of such institutions as Fort McHenry and the public-service hospital at Houston, Tex., and at Oteen. These are temporary buildings put up during the war, and while they may be thoroughly equipped they are deteriorating rapidly, and we do not believe that they can be used much longer.

Mr. LYON. Let me ask you a question. Is it your idea that the $18,600,000 providing for only 200 beds in Oteen would be all the hospital facilities provided there, or would it propose to keep the present buildings, those that can be used now, having 1,500 beds at Oteen?

Mr. RAEGE. I do not know exactly how Dr. White expects to work that out. I know that a certain part of the $18,000,000 has been allocated to that point. As I recall it, it is subject also to acquiring title to a site. It may be that they are planning to build an institution there. I believe that the United States Veterans' Bureau, following out the insistent demands of the American Legion that these temporary structures be abandoned, will during the next year lose something like 4,249 beds by not renewing leases that they have on these properties. So of the total number of beds which the $18,600,000 will provide, I think the total is 5,974, and deducting 4,342 that they will abandon during 1922, you have left 1,632 beds, which will not be available until the summer of 1923. You are confronted right there with a loss of something over 4,000 beds. I believe that it would be the sentiment of most of the members of this committee, and also of all governmental agencies concerned, that if possible these wooden structures ought to be abandoned. Mr. ANDREWs. Just at this point may I ask a question?

Mr. RAEGE. Certainly.

Mr. ANDREWS. Is it probable that the Secretary's consultants will submit to us a report on that question?

Mr. RAEGE. I understand from Dr. White that he would like to appear before I this committee and will make recommendations regarding what he believes to be necessary to complete this program. I understand that the recommendations which have gone to the Walsh-Sutherland committee of the Senate some three or four months ago will have to be modfied.

Mr. ANDREWS. I should think so.

Mr. RAEGE. It seems to be the general opinion that the peak of the load has been reached; that is, you have about as many patients now as you will ever have, and I gathered that probably his recommendations will not be quite the same as made to the Walsh-Sutherland committee.

Mr. ANDREWS. They have already found that they are about five years out of date.

The CHAIRMAN. I might add there that Col. Forbes and Assistant Secretary Clifford have both indicated their desire to be heard on this subject at a later meeting of the committee.

Mr. ANDREWS. What I wanted to get at, if I may be permitted at this point, is that I wanted to ascertain how far Mr. Raege and his committee had been in consultation with these other authorities, so that when we take up the question coming from the Legion we would know something about how far they had conferred with the committees in charge under the Secretary of the Treasury. Mr. RAEGE. We have cooperated with them as closely as possible. Mr. ANDREWS. I assumed you had, of course. On December 23, 1920, there were 8,599 men in contract beds. On December 29, 1921, just a few days ago, there were 8,908 men in contract beds. The American Legion has felt all the time that the use of contract beds was unavoidable during the emergency. had to have some place to put the men, but it is impossible to tell what kind of treatment they get in the contract beds. The Veterans' Bureau has promulgated an order to abandon these contract beds if it is possible; that is, to dispense with their use, but you will note that during the year from December 30, 1920. to December 29, 1921, that there was an increase of almost 500 men in contract beds, even though the Veterans' Bureau was trying to dispense with the use of contract beds.

We

Mr. CHINDBLOM. Is there any way in which you can classify these contract beds? Are some of them more objectionable than others?

Mr. RAEGE. Mr. Congressman, it is very difficult for any layman or any expert that the American Legion may have on its committee to come here and say that such a hospital—

Mr. CHINDBLOM (interposing). I do not mean individual hospitals; some of them are Public Health institutions, are they not?