Part 48

The patriotic head of a unit really welcomes this system by which he is given the information which enables him to run the activities of his particular institution in the interest of the Government as a whole.

I repeat you must have that bird’s-eye view of the necessities of the Government as a whole, which alone you can secure through the authority of the President as exercised through the Coordinator of the Board you have here. It is absolutely necessary that there should be no withholding of the spirit of cooperation and loyalty to your Coordinator. There should be no feeling that your independent jurisdiction is going to be unnecessarily curtailed and interfered with. There is the right of appeal, and it is just as important to the proper functioning of the whole governmental business machine that you have courageous defense of the department unit as you have courageous defense of the policies of coordination.

There is no proper room for friction; and so far as the Budget Bureau is concerned and the coordinating agencies headed by Colonel Smithers, we have had a minimum of friction with the departments. There have been transferred over $112,000,000 dollars worth of property between these departments within the last six months. $100,000 per year is being saved in the comparatively small thing right here in the District of Motor transportation.

Anybody who stands against the principle of this thing is a man, in the first place, who is not intelligent. He is a man in the second place who is not loyal; and he is a man, in the third place, who is in danger, in view of the accomplishments of this coordinating work. What excuses are there for anyone not to give his loyal cooperation to the President of the United States, who, for the first time, has undertaken to be responsible for a correct system of routine business?

One other thing in connection with the spirit of economy:—the President of the United States has asked it. He asked it here in the first meeting of the Govt. business organization last June at which some of you were present. That request of his has received response. I find over the country that for the first time in government, economy has become fashionable, and extravagance dangerous; and all over the country, in the post office service, the Army service—in all Govt. activities. There is the spirit of loyal cooperation under the leadership of the President in the matter of economy.

We know, too, what you have been trying to do in that way in your own service is resulting in an immense saving to the Government.

What we need are men in authority to help us find out where savings can be made. We have only scratched the surface, but it is possible now, as we get the business of the Government in the proper, organized shape, to determine where the limit of economy is. We do not know yet, because our reorganization of routine business methods has not gone on long enough. We have only been in operation four or five months. It will be a year or two possibly before the extent of economies can be determined.

But in directing the prevention of duplication, etc., in the general attitude of being desirous to save, as opposed to the old attitude of being desirous to spend,—all that means that the Government of the United States can be run more economically than at present provided the President of the United States gives his attention to the business organization and he will.”

General Dawes concluded his remarks, and as he walked from the stage General Ireland made a suggestion that he say something in connection with coordination within the limits of a department itself. General Dawes then said:

“General Ireland asks that I speak about a most important matter. We cannot get general coordination among the departments unless each department is coordinated within itself. For instance, we found that in the Treasury Department there were about eighteen separate points of purchasing activity. No one man was in touch with all these agencies. The representative of the Treasury department on the coordinating board, therefore, could not speak for the eighteen agencies. Therefore, each institution must coordinate within itself in order that its representative can properly speak for it on the coordinating board, to say nothing about the desirability of coordination from the standpoint of the business of that particular department. Therefore, get your units coordinated.

In connection with this whole matter of hospitalization, the eyes of the country are on you, who are charged with this great responsibility. No body of men in Government service has more complexing situations to meet than you have. You are surrounded by every embarrassment. In these days, when the pinhead demagogues are flourishing; when the mere politician is willing to capitalize anything, even a wounded soldier, to catch votes, you know that you are liable to have your constructive work unjustly attacked. To get into the lime-light many men will sacrifice right principles, and it is distressing to see the antics of the puny men in public life seeking to ingratiate themselves in public favor in connection with soldier relief. The demagogue has no hesitation in attacking those things which are right only provided they happen to be unpopular. His mind, unlike yours, is not on the real good of the soldier. He is thinking what the newspapers may say about him.

You must be courageous; you must work for the real good of the soldier; you must work for the real good of the Government; and I will tell you something. There is no privilege so great, which comes with public life, as to courageously stand for that which is right, and in so doing take castigation from demagogues for doing one’s duty. It all comes out right in the long run.

In the midst of your discouraging embarrassments, when carefully thought out measures of sane relief for wounded veterans are often attacked by unscrupulous men, who thereby can advertise for a little time their insignificant personalities; if you sometimes are tempted to take the easy way and join the yelping pack of destructive critics, be comforted in the thought of that everlasting truth that in the long run the man who fearlessly does right in public place survives, and the man who weakly takes the wrong way because it is easy receives only ignominy.”

GEN. SAWYER: It seems unnecessary for me to say, still it is only fair to General Dawes, that he has injected into the affairs of Government the greatest enthusiasm and the most interest that has been known in Government affairs in all the history of the Republic.

His idea of coordination, which came to him out of the trying experience of the war on the other side has certainly served him a wonderful purpose in the effects that he has brought about in this new plan of conducting the affairs of the Administration on a business basis, and I certainly hope that each of you, as you go back to your fields of activity, will carry with you the idea that you have a most responsible position. No matter how small your institution, the responsibilities, the liabilities and the needs are all the same.

It may interest you to know that in the few weeks this present Board has existed, we have been able to turn over to the various hospitals of the country in which we have been particularly and necessarily interested, in a hurry, several million dollars worth of property. Arrangements are now in operation whereby in caring and preparing for nearly 11,000 new beds, we have in mind to avail ourselves of the great resources of the Army and Navy in supplying these needs; and I must say out of fairness to the heads of those Departments, as represented by the medical departments, that more hearty cooperation could not be obtained. To give you an evidence of something of the difference of today and yesterday, early last summer an appeal came to me to provide some cots for one of your institutions. It was impossible for me to locate cots that I could make accessible for the purpose, and one day one of our own representatives from this Board looking about found 80 car-loads of these cots at Des Moines, Iowa. Now when we are in need of cots, we know where to find them and know how to get possession of them; and this is true of all the things that are really necessary in the conduct of your affairs.

I am here to say to you without any fear of contradiction that this Hospitalization Board has already accomplished some very helpful things, and we have many more things in mind. One thing we do not assume, and that is authority. We have no idea or desire of being autocratic in our administration but we have a firm determination that regardless of any sentiment or any emotion which may be brought to influence the affairs of this Board, we will go on with what we believe to be the best thing for the men we are trying to serve.

I believe that the service we should render and that we must render, and the only service that is worth while to the veteran, is to make him well if possible, and, if not, to make him as nearly well as he can be and as resourceful as he can be and put him back into life again with confidence in himself, with respect to his Government and with ambition to make America the leading Government of all the governments of the world.

I am here to say to you that while you are talking to your patients about the affairs that arise with you each day, do not forget as a part of your responsibility and your duty that you help to create a spirit and a determination on the part of the man you are serving to get back into life again. Discourage in every way you possibly can the idea of his becoming a barnacle upon this great Ship of State. Encourage him to believe that the responsibility of the debts that are incurred here now are debts his children and his grandchildren will have to pay; and so, while we are talking economy to you, I would impress upon you this one thought: that economy is only the assurance to yourself that every hundred cents buys a dollar’s worth. We do not mean by the economy we are trying to preach here economy that might be regarded as penuriousness. We want you to have all you need in the best way that it can be provided for you, but we want you to have concern enough in the property that is turned over to you to see that it is worth what you pay for it and that it is used to the best advantage possible.

Yesterday, we decided, I believe, that we would devote an hour this morning to the answering of some miscellaneous interrogations. Dr. White, have you received any?

DR. WHITE: No.

SURGEON W. H. SANFORD (R): Having spent the last year and a half in the Inspection Division, the subject of this excessive amount of money in the hands of the sick soldier has impressed itself on me more and more as I inspected the hospitals. It was the cause of great trouble, and is in my opinion doing more to hinder the patient than any one factor. Without this $80.00 or $157.50 a month, the vice and crime and drinking around the institutions could not exist, and therefore I believe that one of the greatest things that could be accomplished at this Conference would be for the Committee to promulgate some way of preventing these men from using that money in the way it is being used today.

I have inspected Ft. Bayard, Ft. Stanton and other large institutions in the West, and I know these men in charge will agree with me when I say that the thing that hampers the recovery of the patients is their right to expend the money the way they want. If they didn’t have it, the rum-runner and the other vices that come would not be there. I think it is one of the most important subjects we could settle, and suggest that it would be well if the Committee would recommend that we give these men, say, $15.00 a month, and take care of the rest of their money until they are ready to go back to their homes.

SURGEON J. E. MILLER (R): At our hospital we have a canteen. I suppose most hospitals have canteens. We have had $3,000 paid into the hospital—$3,000 a year profit on sales to soldiers. I think such money could be turned in for the benefit of the soldiers, for entertainments, Christmas dinners, etc., as that seems the proper place for it.

MR. M. SANGER (St. Elizabeths Hospital): With reference to those funds of the beneficiaries who are in hospitals, a similar condition

existed for a while with reference to those drawing pensions. That proposition had to be met. Congress passed a law whereby those people receiving pensions, who entered soldiers’ homes or hospitals had to pay that money either to the superintendent of the hospital, the President of the Soldiers’ Home, or the Governor of the Home, to be cared for the benefit of the pensioner. Those who had beneficiaries at home received the benefit of their portion of the pension under supervision of the Pension Office, the Pension Office having machinery to find out what beneficiaries had dependents, etc., and what proportion of the pension should be paid to them.

The only thing in connection with these funds paid to the hospitals which led to complaint was the money paid to heads of hospitals or Soldiers’ Homes for deposit in the Treasury, but which was not drawing interest. This needs corrective legislation. Precedents are at hand. Moneys paid into the Treasury by beneficiaries or enlisted men of the Army or Navy are drawing interest. The money from these pensioners should be drawing interest. These funds, whether from the pensioners or beneficiaries of the War Risk Bureau should be used as a sinking-fund possibly to retire the debt of the Government and in that manner to draw interest. It would help the Government in becoming part of the sinking-fund; it would help the veteran in that it would permit the money received to be deposited for his benefit, and would give an opportunity for regulations to be made to safeguard him; to prevent these people from coming around the institutions by preventing his having excessive money to spend. Then when the man is discharged, he would have an estate with which to begin life and to provide for the future.

I think this organization should give some consideration to this matter. I refer to Acts of February 20, 1905 and February 7, 1909, and similar acts in regard to Soldiers’ Homes. I think the one thing to be considered is a means of investing these funds for drawing interest.