WE'VE LET THE VETERANS DOWN
McCloud, James Foster
We've Let The Veterans Down By JAMES FOSTER McCLOUD AFTER the last war, there were charges that within a year after the Armistice, the United States forgot its veterans. This time we began letting...
...They said he'd be notified when his application was passed...
...His treatments finally began in April...
...He's a good guy, and I'll get him a job," the sergeant says, "but I don't know what he can do unless he starts as a copy boy in the agency, at about $25 a week...
...A survey of one group showed that 40 per cent of them did not want to return to their homes, preferring to take their chances in a large city...
...The application must first be processed by the bank, then turned over to the VA for a searching examination...
...It is true that in a few cities, such as Bridgeport, Conn., social workers and business experts help rehabilitate the servicemen...
...Most of the hospitals are isolated from civilian medical centers, cut off from new techniques...
...And it has become so wrapped up in red tape that many a veteran is getting the old-fashioned run-around and becoming thoroughly disillusioned in the process...
...The would-be businessman is confronted with other obstacles...
...In spite of high promises, job-hunting veterans are getting little help...
...Yeah...
...More than 10,000 men a month are coming back suffering from nervous disorders—neuropsychiatries...
...The organization is already attempting to deal with the problems of some 3,000,000 veterans...
...Many are on second or third floors, adding to the difficulties of crippled veterans...
...The occasional man feels that the rest of the country should adjust itself to him, that it owes him a living and had better provide it, fast...
...A veteran recently stormed out of an employment office, shouting to other returned men in the line-up: "Imagine...
...ANOTHER man applied at the Philadelphia Naval Hospital in January to get his teeth fixed...
...Do they all expect to get the same job back ? Some plants, especially those related to war production, look for reduced business in the coming years...
...Kinder...
...One said: "If I'd been sick enough, I would have died before they took care of me...
...To the veterans it is now becoming the GI Bill of Gripes...
...And the VA has got around to approving less than half of these...
...But they have learned that the Government will neither set them up in business nor lend them money...
...In such a situation, qualified veterans often find it preferable to deal directly with the bank, rather than invoke the red tape of the Veterans' Administration...
...Ultimately there will be nearly 5 times that many...
...Months pass before a loan is approved...
...but by and large, the VA is staffed by lazy, reactionary duds...
...Until recently, only 2 per cent of the men who had attained certificates of eligibility for such farm loans had actually received their money...
...Kinder, war manpower commissioner for Nebraska, one of the most difficult questions propounded by returning veterans is, "Where are those big-salaried jobs we've heard so much about at the battlefront...
...In some eases the companies for which veterans worked have gone out of business...
...It merely guarantees the banks against loss for half the amount they agree to loan the veteran...
...Their view is that, until material shortages disappear, they're going to take care of their old customers first...
...Thousands of returned veterans— the number may soon grow to millions —are bitter over the treatment they are receiving...
...The same delay and confusion is experienced by men who want to make use of the GI Bill of Rights provisions for buying a farm or opening a business of their own...
...agreed a third, angrily...
...Gen...
...But instead of meeting this GI demand by providing short, speed-up courses, most colleges have announced plans for returning to the old, 4-year course, "so as to reduce strain on both teacher and student...
...They do not realize that the workmen who were making $100 weekly were usually older, highly-skilled men who worked many hours of overtime...
...It is the duty of the rest of the nation to see that these men get the opportunity they need...
...But, at the same time, the rest of the country must make allowance for what these men have been through...
...Although a few men may be gold-brickers, in civilian as well as in service life, the overwhelming majority of veterans want to make good...
...Although most college-bound vets have indicated their desire to take some sort of job and study in the evenings, very few colleges have made any attempt to establish night classes...
...Fantastic...
...Their training as gunnery experts or tank commanders, and their ability to execute a forced march or shoot down an enemy plane offer little prospect of conversion to peacetime occupations...
...Hines so muscle-bound —that even the energetic Bradley will find it difficult to change the situation overnight...
...Mounting Difficulties Even those who did work before the war are apt to meet unexpected difficulties...
...That was the GI Bill of Rights—a grossly oversold piece of legislation...
...They said: "Be patient—we're swamped with too much work as it is...
...said another...
...There's a delay in passing disability compensation, too...
...So it is extremely important that they be given proper vocational guidance...
...The man who wants to buy a farm must prove that he is qualified to handle a farm, must have money of his own, must find the farm he wants, and must go back and forth between the banks and the VA...
...This time we began letting the boys down even before the war ends...
...They offered me 50 cents an hour...
...Forty per cent of all veterans who finally did get into business had difficulty in getting supplies...
...At the same time, there were sufficient jobs to take care of all of them in non-metropolitan areas of the same state...
...Many of these boys, however, no longer want to go back to their old jobs...
...Some veterans realize, of course, that even with this confusion, they are looked after much better than were the veterans of previous wars...
...Farms, Homes, And Schools Actually, there are no legal requirements to compel a supplier to set stock aside for veterans starting in business...
...Even the man who gets his loan approved finds that he has only started his battle...
...Don't take it...
...When Brig...
...Yet the institutions generally have taken no steps to increase their teaching staffs...
...the maximum guarantee is $2000...
...A crack fighter pilot, he knew practically nothing about the mechanics of running his section, and relied on his 39-year-old master sergeant to handle details...
...When I tried to arrange for treatment I was shunted from agency to agency and finally ended up at the Veterans' Administration...
...Sometimes, because of new labor-saving machinery, and new industrial techniques, their jobs have disappeared completely...
...Our Army, of course, is composed largely of young men, most of them straight out of school or college...
...Many have quit in disgust...
...Some refuse to make the effort necessary to adapt themselves to civilian life...
...The result is that, in spite of the GI Bill of Rights, the banks usually loan money only to those who qualify for a bank loan under normal circumstances...
...The number of veterans once on one such company's payroll is equal to 25 per cent more than its anticipated postwar staff...
...Omar Bradley, now replacing Brig...
...The rest were either turned down by the banks, or were still waiting...
...On the surface, that looks fine...
...Or a single job may have been held by several men in turn, each of whom has-been inducted into the armed forces...
...The result is that the GI is barred from certain technical training which requires a $500 fee for a short, intensive course...
...The release centers are full of youngsters in their early 20's who have become accustomed to the benefits of commissioned rank—like cinderella at the stroke of midnight, they must soon return to obscure jobs...
...Often the veteran finds that the business he had hoped to buy has been sold to someone else, because the seller couldn't wait indefinitely...
...This development has upset the employment-placement organization...
...His loan can't be guaranteed by the Veterans' Administration until the machinery he hopes to buy is appraised...
...The applications are sometimes lost or misplaced in transit through the VA machinery...
...The jokes of the past are now providing a problem that must be tackled and solved at once by the people at home," warns Mr...
...The services proved that, in an emergency, months of orthodox training could be inculcated in a few weeks of intensive work...
...Banks Play It Safe About 20 per cent of all veterans have signified their desire to go into business for themselves after the war —they had been told that it was easy to get a Government loan for this purpose under the GI Bill of Rights...
...A month went by, and the authorization didn't come through...
...We'll get our guns back and fight for our rights—here at home...
...Of 46,000 listed as eligible for disability re-training, only 9,000 have taken advantage of the plan...
...Some want to make use of the new skills they acquired in the armed forces...
...yet, in an effort to save taxpayers' money, the staff increased during the same time by only 15 per cent...
...This leaves only 500 to cope with the great mass of returning veterans who need psychiatric help, but not admission to a mental institution...
...So he began taking the course...
...The folks at home tend to forget that the boys who have been headlined as Captain Smith, Major Jones, and Colonel Brown were high-school students, lunch-counter waiters, clerks, truck drivers, and farm hands before the war...
...Frank T. Hines took over the administration after World War I, he sought to institute careful checks to prevent any repetition of the scandal which had sent his predecessor to Leavenworth...
...They had been told that college and technical schools would be open to them, with all expenses paid...
...A few months ago a 21-year-old officer who had been decorated twice came home to a fanfare of brass bands and the cheers of his townspeople...
...Although Congress has appropriated large sums of money to build new veterans' hospitals, construction is not keeping up with the need...
...Whole armies of teachers will be required if the potential post V-J Day demand by the GI's is to be met...
...Bradley, fresh from the fighting zone, is able to appreciate the viewpoint of the impatient veterans of World War II...
...Only 25 per cent Qf them had regular jobs before the war...
...Nor have they planned to institute courses on a year-round basis...
...Here is the legacy of red tape he has been handed: No less than 62 organizations, designed to aid returning veterans, are recognized by the Veterans' Administration...
...After several more months, his money gave out and the school demanded that his tuition fees be paid...
...He must get equipment and supplies...
...After giving the best years of their lives to serving their country, they must start again from scratch...
...But when he mentions this, wholesalers shrug their shoulders—it's all news to them...
...He went back, to hurry them up...
...Many veterans have already been turned away because of lack of accommodation...
...The catch is that a veteran can't get even options on machinery until he has his loan...
...Lawrence S. Kubie, of the National Committee for Mental Hygiene, estimates that the United States will need 20,000 psychiatrists when the war is over...
...THE difficulty of rehabilitating veterans is accentuated because many of them are deprived of the stabilizing influence of their homes and home-town environments...
...It is cluttered with paper work, which robs too many hours of the physician's time from clinical and scientific work...
...About 96 per cent were dissuaded, mainly by Government counselors who explained the hazards involved...
...Disabled veterans, too, tend to shy away from the Government's schooling program...
...as a last parting slap, will do to tens of thousands of young officers...
...Most GIs have been used to studying, working, and fighting overseas to make up for lost time...
...the Government refuses to meet these charges in full, but will pay on a length-of-time basis...
...In Philadelphia, for example, veterans' agencies are scattered all over from Tacony to West Philadelphia, from the Navy Yard to Germantown...
...The other 75 per cent will have to scrounge for jobs without benefit of peacetime skills or knowledge of how to go about it...
...The veteran must apply to separate places for a job, legal advice, medical service, financial aid, and so on...
...The Government-backed loan won't be approved if his business is to be incorporated...
...But VA has grown overnight into a colossus...
...Many of these fighting men believe that $100 a week has been the prevailing wage in this country...
...But so far, only one man in 50 has yet made formal application...
...The lousy so-and-so's...
...Frank T. Hines as head of the Veterans' Administration...
...Although VA promises to assume giant proportions in our postwar national economy, it still wears its administrative diapers...
...With few exceptions, the agencies which are supposed to handle the work are badly understaffed, and employment counselors often lack training, understanding, and up-to-date information on job opportunities...
...Said one man: "I came back from the South Pacific suffering from malaria...
...In some cases, the veteran is admittedly at fault...
...Yet a few weeks later, while on leave awaiting discharge, he tired of idleness and resumed his prewar job delivering groceries...
...The red tape was originally intended to prevent unscrupulous promoters and chiselers from fleecing the veteran out of his rehabilitation money, and to protect the VA from "inside" graft...
...Perhaps the most disappointed of all is the GI who was given to understand that a job would be found for him on his return home, and learns that the bill only promises that men who had permanent jobs before they went overseas would get them back...
...They had been led to expect high-salaried jobs, money with which to buy homes, ample loans with which to finance new business, and regular, prompt pay checks from the Government to tide them over while waiting for a job...
...Returned men who need medical care often get the same run-around...
...Delivering groceries is all right...
...Actually, at this time, Government employment offices are finding it hard to place veterans in new jobs at 55 cents an hour...
...But they didn't want to go to "the sticks...
...Some 10 per cent—as high as 30 per cent in some units—of veterans reported their intention of resuming their education...
...He has heard that there were to be priorities for servicemen going into business...
...Later," he told reporters, "I intend to continue my education and learn to be a motor engineer...
...Early this Summer thousands of unemployed veterans in New York City were drawing Government unemployment compensation...
...The toughest thing is going to be for my wife and me to get used to living on a reduced income...
...THEIR hopes have been built up by rumors and misstatements regarding fabulous wages paid at home...
...Most of our educational institutions were already overcrowded...
...A prominent physician recently referred to the VA hospitals as "the backwaters of American medicine...
...He is forbidden to borrow for inventory and working capital...
...This bill, passed by Congress with the best of intentions in compliance with the public's assertion that nothing was too good for the boys, was so loosely worded that many of its promises have proved to be empty...
...Last year, the total number of men in this group had already exceeded 300,000...
...They told me I'd better go to a private doctor...
...We'll show them...
...Others, who were once elevator boys, minor clerks, or delivery men, are much more mature now, and feel they should have something better...
...The sergeant, who was a successful accounting executive before he was inducted, has a good job and a high income to come back to...
...Many of these disabled men were already disillusioned by the treatment—or lack of it—that they had been getting at overcrowded and understaffed veterans' hospitals...
...But there are cases of vets who have gone to college under this offer, and have waited for 4 or 5 months for their living allowance to come through...
...Others have found that the $500 fee will be paid only for a course that lasts the regular school year...
...Not at all...
...Their duties overlap so badly that the result is appalling confusion...
...Many an institution is more interested in getting the tuition fee than in giving value received...
...Eighteen per cent of those holding certificates of eligibility have succeeded in getting the loan, but they have no special priority on building materials...
...To straighten out the muddle before it is too late is the presidential order to Gen...
...As a VA doctor said: "Of course, we have some physicians here who are competent and^diligent...
...So he had to quit his course, and find a low-paying job in order to live...
...There are interminable delays until his application is approved...
...In the past few months its work has increased over 300 per cent...
...Even in the case of Federal surpluses, placed on sale by the Federal Government itself, the veteran gets no special consideration...
...Most veterans can't fill out these complicated forms without professional advice, for which they usually have to pay...
...The men who need help the most—veterans who are still shaken by their experiences overseas—are often frustrated and embittered by endless delays, caused by the maze of different organizations that shunt them back and forth...
...So this is the situation facing the country and the returning veterans...
...But the major hasn't, even though his present income is probably four times that of the sergeant...
...Too often there is no provision for individualized assistance, such as is needed by the man who has been out of touch with civilian affairs for years...
...How The GI Bill Of Gripes Works One veteran applied at the VA (Veterans' Administration) for a course in radio...
...Endless Delays That is what war...
...BUT even if he can get along on $50 a month at present high living costs, the veteran often discovers that the colleges are unprepared for him...
...He wants to go into advertising after the war...
...Let's none of us take money like that...
...The final decision of whether or not to loan money is up to the banks...
...Those who wish to borrow money for a home are slightly better off...
...Of the veterans who finally got certificates of eligibility for loans, only 2 per cent had succeeded in borrowing by the spring of this year...
...But the task ahead is so big —the machinery set up by Gen...
...But this is not a general practice...
...According to Mr...
...If the veteran desires to continue his education, the government agrees to pay up to $500 a term' for tuition, plus $50 a month living allowance and $25 a month for each dependent...
...One man reported that 7 weeks elapsed between the time he handed in his application and the date the money started to come through...
...The education influx is only now starting...
...Take the case of a 24-year-old major in charge of the reassignment section of an Army Air Force redistribution center...
...He had earned more than $3,500 a year...
...But they insist that they are still not getting what they were promised, and warn that the situation will get worse as more and more men come back...
...Hines was so determined that the veterans will not be used as "guinea pigs" for medical research that VA doctors hesitated to try any of the newer treatments for fear of being criticized...
...Of the 3,000 in the country at present, 2,500 are hospital psychiatrists, caring for insane patients...
...THOSE who do try for Government help on a bust-ness loan are confronted by a confusing array of questionnaires and forms, one of them measuring three-and-a-half feet on each side...
Vol. 9 • July 1945 • No. 29
