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Show DISABLED CASES CALL FORAGTION All Bureaus Should Be Made One For Handling War Risk Cases MEN DIE WAITING ON - , GOVERNMENT RED TAPE Keliar's Case is Sample of Many Hundreds All Over the Nation Rogers-Capper Bill Should be Enacted by Congress. One fine morning three years ago, John Claude Kellnr of Glean, New York, slung his pack on his bad:, marched aboard a transport nnd put to sea, just as many thousand other rood Americans did the same week. France, rest camps and training sectors sec-tors and marching nnd inud and the trenches and then gas and influenza and the armistice that was the war diary of Kellar, as it was of many thousand more. Finally Kellar came home. He wad discharged from the nrtny and went to work. He soon found that his lungs were going bad on him. He stopped work and went to a hospital. He put in a claim for compensation from the government. The Government granted him about one-half the-nmounfc he thought-he wins entitled to undor the law. Kellar protested. pro-tested. He protested in person to the Government agents whom he could sec. He protested in writing to the bureau of war risk insurance in Washington. Weeks passed and months. He was moved from ono hospital to another, eventually being sent to ono at Washington. Wash-ington. His health was not improving. Worry nnd uncertainty over his claim for compensation aggravated his condition. con-dition. Finally early last month his claim was allowed in full. The (.'nriiiiment in effect ndmittcd its error. There had been a technicality in the Jaw. The point required a hair-lhic ruling by the Treasury department. The treasury treas-ury department after pondering the matter for a year or two had reached its decision. The day after Keliar's claim was granted but before word had reached him Kellar walked into the ten-story headquarters of the bureau bu-reau of war risk insurance in Washington Wash-ington to make a last desperate appeal ap-peal for his cause Before he could voice h'ls claim he was siezed with a pulmonary hemorrhage nnd died. Keller is dead, and there are many Kellers, casuals of misfortune, dying day by day Kellars whom it is the peculiar duty of the American Legion to look after. They are tltc victims of the combination of bad laws, inadequate inade-quate facilities, technicalities, red tape, lack of coordination and inetlleiency, which marks the govcrnmcnt'3 care of its disabled charges. Just ar, present conditions make possible, such cases, they make impossible and fruitless any attempt definitely to fix the blame for them. That is one of the principal reasons why the American Legion is insisting that the Bureau of War Risk Insurance, Insur-ance, tho Public Health Service, and the Federal Board for Vocational Education Edu-cation be coordinated under ono responsible re-sponsible head in one department of the government. Keliar's case is conspicuous con-spicuous only because he died on his country's doorstep in Washington. The Rogers-Capper Bill offers the only way out of the irresponsible, loosejointed uncoordinated system under un-der which nt the present time enses like those cited above are clogging up . the disabled man's way to rehabilitn- (Continued on page five.) ' Neverl MlW w nam " ACTION FOR DISABLED (Continued from first page) tion. When the bill becomes n law, the Bureau of War Risk Insurance, the Public Health Service, and the Rehabilitation Rehab-ilitation Division of the Federal Board will no longer bo able to shoot the buck back and forth between them. The disabled man's papers will no longer bo scattered in two or three jepnratc files. Disabled men will no longer be lost track of when they pass from the jurisdiction of one agency to thnt of another. Best of all, it will nt last be possible to go to some one man, put your finger on him, and sny, "Such nnd such is the condition. You are responsible. Get busy." THE AMERICAN LEGION WEEKLY. |