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Government Compensation Provides Means for the Handicapped Fighter

MEN who go forth to battle, though in no sense cowards, are not without fear. But it is not, except in the rarest cases, a fear of bodily injury that possesses them; the real source of anxiety is that their families may suffer, or become objects of charity.

The brilliancy of our expeditionary forces in action, their impatience to carry on against the common enemy is an inspiring evidence of the American soldier's dash and courage when the liberty of his country is at stake. Once he has entered the military establishment he is eager for battle.

But the fitness and bravery of our soldier or sailor are predicated on his peace of mind. Unless he is free from a nagging sense of responsibility, unless he feels assured of the independence of the family he left behind -- his wife, his children, his mother -- he cannot serve with the spirit that has always pervaded our arms. The security of their dependents is as vital to the morale of our military forces as is the physical condition of the men.

And so when the Government, by the passage of the War Risk Insurance Bill, provided in generous measure for the support of the fighter's family, it performed a duty as obvious as the cause for which the country is giving its men, its money, and its resources. This Act, complex to the laymen in some of its technical phases, is simply an instrument whereby the Government aims to dispel the one fear of its fighting men: that their families are going to be dependent on others while they are away. Through it his Government assures the soldier and sailor that, while it may not be possible in every case to replace the individual combatant in precisely the same situation he occupied before his country called him, yet at any rate his family, as well as himself, will be saved from a humiliating dependence on others for the necessities of life.

In many instances, I believe, the returned soldier, although physically handicapped will find his way back to industrial and social life, intellectually and financially stronger than when he left it. The country has unlimited confidence in the ability and resourcefulness of the Surgeon General and his department to give every aid and comfort to the wounded and disabled, and to restore them as nearly as is humanly possible to a normal physical and economic condition. The Federal Board for Vocational Education, in re-educating those who must be taught new vocations; the Bureau of War Risk Insurance carrying out the provisions of the Act; the American Red Cross on constant watch over the families at home -- these and other competent organizations in all parts of the United States constitute a bulwark of protection and comfort to our fighters, whose importance cannot be over-estimated.

IN SERVICE AND AFTER

In the framing of this Act, the question of stiffening the morale of our men was uppermost. Congress, in enacting the Bill, exercised great vision, not only by providing for allotments and allowances to the families of men while in the service but for the after-care of our wounded through war insurance and compensation. So closely knit is the relationship between rehabilitation of the disabled and compensation for injuries that the former depends almost entirely upon the latter.

By this I mean that the disabled returned soldier, upon his discharge from the army, receives a compensation which will ensure, to some degree at least, his independence. If he requires a new vocation, the money the Government gives him will help carry him through, will fire his ambition to go ahead and regain his former place in society or a better one. It will stabilize his peace of mind, and keep him contented in the thought that his family is being provided for while he is being trained to earn a good living for the future.

It seems unnecessary, here, to discuss in detail the thousand and one points bearing on compensation that may be brought up from time to time, but there are two facts that I should like to emphasize emphatically. They are these:

Compensation will be paid to the disabled soldier and sailor irrespective of his earning capacity after the war: but it may be suspended if the man unreasonably refuses to fit himself for active civilian life through the vocational opportunities that the Government will provide.

The purpose of these measures is to stimulate the disabled man to lift himself from the dead level of the Government compensation to the highest economic condition within his powers: to create a healthy discontent with a life that too many injured men sure of the bare needs of existence are led to accept. The country wants its heroes to develop every latent possibility.

This should be given the widest possible publicity. In England and Canada one of the most difficult problems to be overcome at the outset of the war in getting the men to take courses in re-education was the fear that they would be deprived of their compensation if they learned trades and earned good incomes. "What is the use," they asked, "why should we work?" By vigorous publicity our Allies overcame this misunderstanding and recently have experienced no opposition because of it.