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Show WIVESOFSBLDIERS WILL GETLESS PAY Every Enlisted Man Is Duty Bound To Allot $15 A Month To His Wife And Children, " To Which The Government Adds $15. Some 250,000 people will be wondering won-dering next month why their allot-, nient and allowance checks from the Bureau of War Risk Insurance are ! reduced In amount, v - The Treasury Department has issued is-sued several releases on this subject; one of which I attach hereto. This is not particularly new, but It tells the Btory better than any others. The Associated Press carried about a' stickful several weeks ago, but this was hardly adequate to drive the lesson les-son home. ' 1 ' " - In spite 6f whatever publicity the Treasury Department has been issuing, issu-ing, it is hardly possible that the situation sit-uation Is understood by the public as yet. Although I have had this subject sub-ject personally in charge for many months, I em myself still quite , shaky on some of the legal aspects of It, and am quite confident that It is not yet familiar to everybody. Every enlisted man In the military or naval service is under duty to allot al-lot $35 a month from his pay to his wife and children. , To these compulsory compul-sory allotments the government adds family allowances, ranging from $5 a month for a motherless child, and 15 for a wife witlfout children, up to a maximum of $00, The compulsory i allotments are the same for all en- j listed mn, regardless of rank or pay. j In addition to the compulsory allotments, al-lotments, the enlisted man may alro J make voluntary allotments to his par-! ents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, or grandchildren, and If they are dependent de-pendent upon him for support, the government may add certain' monthly month-ly allowances. If the enlisted man Is already making mak-ing a compulsory allotment to his ' wife and children, he need allot only $5 additional to his brothers, sisters, 1 parents, grandparents, and grandchildren, grandchil-dren, if he claims a family allowance for them. But it he Is not making a compulsory allotment, he must allot 15 to such .other relatives to obtain a government allowance for them. The Bureau of War Risk Insurance will pay allotments only when they carry with thtm government family allowances, and then only in amounts ' All other allotments will be paid by ' branch of the military or naval' serv-, ice in which the man Is enlisted. The essence of the whole change in dollars and cents Is simply this: Heretofore when an enlisted man allotted more than the required amount the (Bureau of War Risk Insurance In-surance -Included this excess is . the check which It sent to the relative. Now this is changed. All excess allot-1 ments will be paid by the Army, the ! Navy, the Marine Corps and the 1 Coast Guard directly. , ) Another element which will tend ' to reduce the Bureau of War Risk in-'. surance checks is this In the past a compulsory allotment made by an enlisted man to his wife and children varied according to his rank and pay. The amount was not fixed. The only limits were a minimum mini-mum of $15 and a maximum of half the man's pay. Between these two poles, the allotment depended upon the man's pay, the law specifying that be had to equal, if possible, the government allowance. This sliding scale arrangement was changed by an amendment to the War Risk Insurance In-surance Act effective July 1, 1918. Hereafter, allotments, as stated previously, pre-viously, are the same for all enlisted men regardless of rank or pay. In other words, a sergeant making $48 a month, who under the old system sys-tem would have been compelled to allot $24 to his wife and children will We should also remlud people that July allotments are not payable until August that August allotments are not payable until Soptember and so forth. The iBureau of War Risk Insurancd has on the press an explanatory pamphlet pam-phlet which we will send to the State Councils as soon as it is published. At the same time we will send them a copy of the Insurance Act as amended amend-ed to date. Without waiting for these we must do now what we can to forestall confusion con-fusion and avert the worry or misapprehension mis-apprehension likely to foSlow on this purely technical change that Is being made. This is a matter Inseparably linked with the morale of our fighters and the morale of their homes. The information which the State Coun-ieils Coun-ieils can diffuse will go a long way towards buttressing this moralo. ters a day and that complaints and inquiries about specific cases always delay action because they result in the papers being taken out of the files and losing their regular position. We should tell people to wait until the end of the month before writing to anybody. If they have inquiries regarding excess allotments, they should consult the Home Service Sections Sec-tions of the American Red Cross. These sections, because of their intimate inti-mate contact with Soldiers and Sailors Sail-ors families, have already been receiving re-ceiving from their Washington bead-quarters bead-quarters complete and detailed Instructions In-structions as to these changes in law and governmental procedure, with explicit ex-plicit suggestions as to the manner of explaining them to the relatives of enllstsd men. If any Individual cases need attention at Washington they will be referred to the Red Cross to the Quartermasters General of the rmy, the Navy Allotment office, the Paymaster of Marine Corps, or the Captain Commandant of the Coast Guard, (as the case may be) all in Wnsbington, T. C. now be required to allot only $15, thus lopping $9 off the check which the IBureau of War Risk Insurance will send to the sergeant's family. If the sergeant wants to continue to allot al-lot $24, the Bureau of War Risk Insurance In-surance will pay the $15 and the excess ex-cess of $9 will be paid by the War Department through the Quartermaster Quartermas-ter General. . The result of this new system will be to speed up the delivery of checks to dependent relatives, becauee it will reduce the amount of mathematics required re-quired to make awards. The Important thing to tell tho public is that although in some cases the first check tnay be smaller than usual, there will probably be another che!" coming from a different department depart-ment to make up the balance. The relatives should be urged to write to the enlisted man to find out how much he is allotting, and how much of this is paid through the Bureau of War Risk Insurance, and how much by his own service department We must also emphasize the fact that the IBureau of War Risk Insurance Insur-ance Is overloaded with correspondence, correspond-ence, receiving upwards of 20.000 let- |