Be it further recommended that the following additional improvements be made at Hospital No. 97 immediately:

1. Porches be provided on all buildings housing patients.

2. That the basement in building No. 24 be completed so that it can be used for the necessary purposes of the institution.

3. That repairs be made to all roads, walks, and curbings which are now in bad condition.

4. That the present greenhouses be enlarged for occupational therapy purposes.

5. That garage facilities be provided to house automobiles of employees and personnel of the institution.

6. Additional building for 150 patients be provided. Be it further

Resolved, That copies of this resolution be forwarded to the Director of the United States Veterans' Bureau and chairman of the National Rehabilitation Committee of the American Legion.

J. J. SASLAVSKY,

Adjutant, Ohio.

STATEMENT OF J. J. SASLAVSKY, ADJUTANT AMERICAN LEGION, DEPARTMENT OF OHIO

Mr. SASLAVSKY. Gentlemen, I will try to be as brief as possible and yet give you some facts about the hospital situation in Ohio. We have only one Veterans' Bureau Hospital, No. 97, at this time. That hospital has a capacity of 614, and in that hospital to-day are 655 patients. We have a waiting list which was furnished to us the 6th of January from the Veterans' Bureau, both at Cincinnati, Cleveland, Charleston, W. Va., and Pittsburgh, showing 279 N. P. cases waiting for hospitalization, 21 tubercular patients waiting for hospitalization, and 304 general medical cases waiting for hospitalization. In addition to that we have 488 housed in State institutions, all of which are mental cases. Now, we feel that additional hospitals are necessary in Ohio to take care of this load, and especially to transfer those cases from the State institutions, where they are a burden upon the State, and place them upon the Government, where they belong. There is no day passes but what we get disabled men, coming from all parts of the State of Ohio, coming through State headquarters asking for hospitalization. Just yesterday before we left for Washington we had a man come in with a tubercular fistula, on the hospital waiting list for six weeks, and when we called the Veterans' Bureau at Chillicothe and the National Soldiers' Home at Dayton we were told there was no opportunity at all to accept that man. Some of these men are on the hospital waiting list for three months, and nobody knows what becomes of them, but they do become a burden on the community from which they come or the State of Ohio. That is all I have to say with regard to the need for hospitalization in Ohio. I would like you to hear Mr. Laeger, chairman of our hospital committee.

Mr. FENN. Do you apply your remarks to either or both of these bills?

Mr. SASLAVSKY. I am representing the State of Ohio for additions to hospital No. 97, as resolved by our last department convention. Mr. FENN. Is there a preference on the part of the gentlemen from Ohio in regard to either of the bills?

Mr. SASLAVSKY. No; there is no preference.

Mr. TAYLOR. The next witness is Mr. Laeger, chairman of the hospital committee.

STATEMENT OF LOUIS LAEGER, CHAIRMAN AMERICAN LEGION
INSTITUTION COMMITTEE, CHILLICOTHE, OHIO

Mr. LAEGER. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, Mr. Saslavsky and I are here representing the American Legion of Ohio and primarily are interested in furthering the program of the American Legion as adopted by the State and national conventions. As has been stated to you by Mr. Saslavsky, there is a very definite and mandatory need for additional hospital beds for N. P. cases. There is one situation that surrounds the hospital at Chillicothe which we consider very important. This hospital was opened about 6 years ago with an original capacity of 452 beds. During construction the appropriations for this institution were cut with the result that this hospital was never completely built. Many facilities were not provided. Necessary and vital parts of a neuropsychiatric institution were not provided. However, small additions were made from time to time from the general funds which the bureau made available.

On February 24, 1930, an additional building of 150 beds capacity was opened, and it was opened incomplete. There were no additional facilities provided to an already inadequate institution. The result is to-day that we have a hospital of an original 452-bed capacity increased to 614, lacking many facilities that are considered vital and necessary to the proper conduct of such an institution. The occupational therapy work is carried on in wooden buildings of wartime construction which were moved up from the camp reservation and constitute a very dangerous fire hazard. As you know, all these patients are mentally disabled in one form or another. The personnel, a good portion of it, are housed in wooden-constructed buildings, one of which had to be vacated because it was vermin infested. The fire-fighting equipment is also housed in a wooden building of war-time construction and is the first thing that crosses the eye on entering the reservation. This is entirely incongruous with the rest of the institution, which is modern and in keeping with the standards set up by the latest bureau construction.

Mr. RANKIN. You say they had to abandon a building because it was vermin infested?

Mr. LAEGER. Yes.

Mr. RANKIN. What is the matter with the force there that they did not disinfect it and clean it out?

Mr. LAEGER. It is almost impossible to keep a building of that type clean. The building was constructed by joining together several wartime barracks and was built only temporarily many years ago some five or six years ago-with the understanding that they would be replaced by permanent buildings at an early date. However, this has never been done. The foundations are more or less opened and the result is that all of the vermin of the field get into it. It is just an ordinary frame timber building lined with paper walls.

Mr. RANKIN. What size is it?

Mr. LAEGER. I would say it is approximately 65 feet long by about 22 feet wide.

Mr. RANKIN. Which building is that?

Mr. LAEGER. There is a personnel building. Here is a front and side view.

Mr. RANKIN. They are not using it now?

Mr. LAEGER. Just one is being used. This one is vacant because it is vermin infested and that one is being used. This is the west side and this is the east. The buildings run north and south.

Mr. RANKIN. This is a Veterans' Bureau hospital?

Mr. LAEGER. Yes.

Mr. RANKIN. And they abandon a building simply because it is vermin infested?

Mr. LAEGER. That is true.

Mr. RANKIN. There is something wrong with the Veterans' Bureau there, then.

Mr. LAEGER. Those are the facts.

Mr. RANKIN. I am not taking issue with the gentleman on the hospital need, but then I do say that anybody that abandons a building merely because it is vermin infested in this country is running away from work, it seems to me.

Mr. LAEGER. You understand there is a rental charge made on these employees who occupy those quarters.

Mr. RANKIN. Rental charge in the building?

Mr. LAEGER. By the Government.

Mr. RANKIN. To the people who occupy them?
Mr. LAEGER. That is right.

Mr. RANKIN. To the veterans who occupy them?

Mr. LAEGER. No; the personnel. Those buildings are occupied by employee personnel.

Mr. RANKIN. Maybe that is the reason they abandon it. The personnel wants some other place to live.

Mr. LAEGER. Those buildings are certainly not in keeping with the rest of the institution, and particularly in occupational therapy; those are wooden shacks that were moved up there from the camp reservation proper and have been used for the past five years for that purpose. The fire-fighting equipment is housed in a wooden building of a similar type and there is a most dangerous fire hazard on the reservation. They have no suitable recreation building and gymnasium there. A refrigeration plant is necessary. As I pointed out before, there was no increase in any of the facilities when those 150 additional beds were opened, with the result that kitchens and mess facilities are inadequate at the present time to meet the increased demands at that institution. There were no additional warehouse facilities furnished for the storage of supplies and foodstuffs. These are very necessary.

In connection with the need I want to point out to you that on a personal investigation made last Friday it was admitted to me by the regional manager of the United States Veterans' Bureau in Cincinnati that their so-called waiting list is a rather indefinite proposition. They attempt to keep this list current, and it is an unknown quantity as to what becomes of the men whose names are 60 days or more on the waiting list. We show here that the regional offices which feed 97 have a total waiting list at this time of 279. I would like to have it noted that the regional offices of Cleveland; Cincinnati; Pittsburgh; Louisville, Ky., and Charleston, W. Va., feed hospital 97 at Chilicothe with their N. P. cases. In connection with our load, there are 488 men now in the State insane hospitals, and 123 of them we definitely know are receiving compensation for service

i

connected disabilities. This is a definite figure, although we have every reason to believe that there are more veterans of this type in State institutions. One of the largest institutions was unable to report the compensation status of the veterans which it housed. The conditions under which they are now hospitalized can be graphically demonstrated by the condition which exists at Longview State Hospital, Cincinnati. This institution has an original bed capacity of 1,659 patients, and now houses 2,061 patients. Of those 77 were World War veterans. The Cleveland State Hospital, with an original bed capacity of 1,700, houses 2,355 patients. Of those 74 are World War veterans, and so on down the line. We have nine State insane hospitals, each one housing some number of World War veterans.

We urge you to give serious consideration to the recommendation of our organization, and we feel that in requesting 150 additional beds we are not unreasonable. We feel that we could use a great many more. We also consider it very vital and necessary that these additional needed facilities are also necessary if it is going to be the policy to continue to add beds without adding the facilities that should go with these beds, as it will not only be an injustice to the patients but a manifest handicap to the bureau to properly administer those patients.

Mrs. ROGERS. Your State institutions are overcrowded, are they not?

Mr. LAEGER. Yes.

Mrs. ROGERS. You can not find beds anywhere?

Mr. LAEGER. We are up against it.

Mr. RANKIN. You are speaking now with respect to the N. P. cases?

Mr. LAEGER. Yes.

Mr. RANKIN. How many of them are in your State institutions?
Mr. LAEGER. Four hundred and eighty-eight.

Mr. RANKIN. World War veterans?

Mr. LAEGER. Yes.

Mr. RANKIN. Do you not think that since the Government has embarked upon this policy that it ought to take care of veterans' cases without calling upon the States to do so, and let the States use their facilities for their nonveteran cases.

Mr. LAEGER. I absolutely feel that way.

Mr. RANKIN. And that is the position of the American Legion of Ohio.

Mr. LAEGER. It is.

Mrs. ROGERS. You are very well satisfied with your diagnostic center there?

Mr. LAEGER. In Cincinnati we think a great deal of it.

Mrs. ROGERS. We have very good reports from the boys that go there.

Mr. LAEGER. It is one of the finest institutions in the bureau's set-up.

Mr. RANKIN. You say you have more than 400 insane in the State hospitals?

Mr. LAEGER. 488.

Mr. RANKIN. Where is that N. P. hospital?

Mr. LAEGER. Chillicothe.

Mr. RANKIN. You are asking for an increase in size of the hospital to take care of this load. Is that right?

Mr. LAEGER. Yes.

Mr. RANKIN. How much increase are you asking for there?

Mr. LAEGER. For 150 additional beds.

Mr. RANKIN. Would that take care of this load?

Mr. LAEGER. No, sir.

Mr. RANKIN. If you are going to take care of the veterans' cases and relieve the State of that burden, will you not have to have more than 400 additional beds?

Mr. LAEGER. We can easily fill 700 beds, but our past experience has taught us to ask for what we think we can get.

Mr. RANKIN. Possibly there is some liberalization on the part of

some.

Mr. LAEGER. We will be very glad to amend our request to 700 beds, and have the figures to substantiate that.

Mr. RANKIN. I am not asking questions to take up your time, because I am interested in this proposition that if we are going to hospitalize these men whose disabilities are nonservice connected, approximately all N. P. men, we should take that burden off the . State.

Mr. LAEGER. That shows a waiting list of 279 now, and it will more than doubly fill the 150 beds we are asking for; and we do not think that is the correct figure, because any names that are on this waiting list 60 days or more disappear. They attempt to keep the waiting list current.

Mr. RANKIN. How many of these men in the Chillicothe institution are from outside the State?

Mr. LAEGER. I can not answer that question accurately, but I would say about 50 per cent.

Mr. RANKIN. There are how many in all there?

Mr. LAEGER. Six hundred and sixty-five. The institution has a capacity of 614.

Mr. RANKIN. If those men were removed to institutions in their own States, this 150 beds additional would take care of the N. P. load of Ohio?

Mr. LAEGER. It possibly would.

Mrs. ROGERS. There is a telegram here from Congressman Underwood. of the eleventh district of Ohio.

Mr. LAEGER. I saw that.

Mrs. ROGERS. I will have it inserted in the record.

(The telegram referred to is as follows:)

L. H. WINE,

416 House Office Building:

NEW LEXINGTON, OHIO, January 7, 1931.

Advise Congressman Rogers, of the Veterans' Committee, that I am detained here by serious illness in the family and will be unable to attend the hearing Thursday. Tell her I have parties in addition to myself who desire to be heard on the bill at a later date.

MELL G. UNDERWOOD, M. C.,
Eleventh District, Ohio.

Mr. LAEGER. There is only one more point I would like to bring out. The power plant for this institution is large enough to take care of approximately a 900-bed hospital. It would be a matter of