| OCR Text |
Show DENUNCIATION OF RED TAPE MAY MISLEAD VETERANS The American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars are demanding de-manding the elimination of "red tape" in the administration of laws enacted to benefit the nation's na-tion's veterans. The purpose of the organizations organiza-tions is to assure that veterans receive the full benefit of the laws without becoming entangled in a useless number of regulations and without being required to provide pro-vide information about themselves that is difficult, and often impossible impos-sible to obtain. While in sympathy with the purposes of the veterans' organizations, organi-zations, we must not let a generalized gener-alized denunciation of "red tape" interfere with reasonable provisions provi-sions designed to protect the government gov-ernment from fraud and to pre- handling of claims filed. This would precent the possibility possibil-ity that denunciation of "red tape" may spur the payment of claims that have not been properly presented, pre-sented, verified or established. vent individuals from securing the benefts to which they are entitled. It is entirely reasonable to require re-quire that veterans claiming preferments pre-ferments and benefits shall supply sup-ply information, under oatt to demonstrate the validity of their claims. This is necessary, not only to protect the public treasury, but also to safeguard the interest of veterans entitled to benefits. Dealing with millions of men, scattered throughout the United States, the Veterans' Bureau must establish , regulations to prevent the payment of illegal claims. If the Veterans' Bureau is under-staffed to handle the applications applica-tions that are expected, then Congress Con-gress should make arrangements to provide the necessary workers. It seems to us that the veterans' organizations would be serving the country and the veterans better bet-ter if they took occasion to demand de-mand the employemnt of a suffi-t suffi-t cient staff to facilitate the proper |
