Mr. KELLY. That is, the first hundred civilian cases? Mr. BYERS. The first hundred civilian cases; and seven of those were subsequently given compensation. So it works out beautifully. The N. P. hospital in Michigan, Hospital 100, at Battle Creek, was originally authorized April 20, 1922. It was opened October 15, 1924, so it was two and one-half years after Congress authorized the hospital before anybody was put to bed there. The original capacity there was 532. That capacity was subsequently raised to 575, without any addition to the hospital whatever. The present official capacity there is 602, and yesterday morning, April 15, they were caring for 607 patients.

Mrs. ROGERS. You want to make it a 1,000-bed hospital?

Mr. BYERS. It should be at least a 1,000-bed, Mrs. Rogers. We ought to have the capacity doubled and then some.

Mrs. ROGERS. And your overhead, of course, is less when you add additional beds to existing facilities?

Mr. BYERS. Certainly. The ground is there. Certain changes in the buildings themselves would make a great difference. Your original bill, last year, the Rogers bill of December, is going to add some beds to the hospital. Our original request was for 500 beds, if you recall.

Mrs. ROGERS. Yes; and you want an addition to the bill that passed in December?

Mr. BYERS. Yes. We need 400 beds in addition to that.

Mrs. ROGERS. May I interrupt you for a moment? Mr. Madigan, have you the history of Camp Custer from the bureau standpoint? Mr. MADIGAN. What the gentleman states is correct so far as the capacity is concerned. The capacity, as he stated, was 575, and then it was increased, I think, to 602. Under the act of December . 23, 1929, there was an amount included for an addition to Camp Custer, and the bureau expects under that authorization to get 200 beds, more or less.

Mrs. ROGERS. So that will bring it up to 800?

Mr. MADIGAN. Approximately.

Mrs. ROGERS. And you want an additional 400?
Mr. BYERS. Yes.

Mrs. ROGERS. That will make 1.200.

Mr BYERS. Yes.

Mrs. ROGERS. Mr. Madigan, when do you think the bureau will have an additional ward ready?

Mr MADIGAN. For the purposes of the Bureau of the Budget, we submitted an estimate showing the completion dates of the various projects, and we have Camp Custer listed here as October 1, 1931.

Mr. BYERS. I told you that we had 239 of these N. P. veterans in State hospitals in Michigan. I do not know whether Michigan is any different from any other State, but there are 3,000 on the waiting list to be hospitalized in Michigan to-day.

Mrs. ROGERS. That is true practically all over the country. I have made a survey of the State and county hospitals.

Mr. BYERS. I might say that we have, at great expense to the State, inaugurated a building program which, for insane cases alone, in the four years that it proposes to run, will cost the State of Michigan approximately $12,000,000.

In answer to direct questions to the hospital commission as to whether or not the possibility of increase in the service load was taken into consideration at all, the reply was "No "; it had not been. There has not been any consideration given in this program to the possible increase in this load from service cases.

Mr. FENN. The idea is that the Government should take charge and care of the service men?

Mr. BYERS. It would indicate that, would it not?

Mr. FENN. It certainly indicates that. I mean, I think the Government ought to. You are referring to mental cases?

Mr. BYERS. Mental cases; yes.

In that regard, we have always felt this way about it in Michigan. If a man is going to be given hospital care because of having served his country and having worn the uniform, in the first place it ought to be standardized care. There is no reason in the world why a service man should get anything better from a wealthy State than from a poorer State. The only way we can get standardized care, of course, is by Federal Government hospitalization.

Mr. FENN. You look at it as a national proposition?

Mr. BYERS. Absolutely.

Mrs. ROGERS. I think the Government would have to build anyway, whether the States contribute anything to the maintenance or not. That question does not make any difference, so long as the men are cared for properly.

Mr. BYERS. Yes. We pay the bill just the same.

Mrs. ROGERS. Anyway, it does not make any real difference.

Mr. BYERS. Are there any other points, Mr. Commander?

Mr. KELLY. Did you cover the area that this hospital is intended to cover?

Mr. BYERS. I did not mention that.

Mrs. ROGERS. And also whether you have men from other States. Mr. BYERS. Hospital 100 is supposed to serve the following regional offices: Cleveland, Indianapolis, Chicago, Detroit, and Milwaukee.

Mrs. ROGERS. How many miles, approximately, would they have to travel to get there?

Mr. HOOPER. Will you permit me to place in the record this memorandum which has been prepared?

Mrs. ROGERS. I wish you would.

Mr. HOOPER. I will file it with the chairman. It covers some of these points, which Mr. Byers will also tell you about.

Mr. KELLY. Attached to that is the list of the five States, the wait

ing list, and the present population.

Mrs. ROGERS. We want those figures very much.

(The matter referred to is as follows:)

United States Veterans' Hospital No. 100 as of October 15, 1929: authorized, April 20, 1922; opened, October 15, 1924; original capacity, 532; subsequent capacity, 575; present official capacity, 602.

Michigan potential load, March 31, 1930: State and county institutions, 239; United States Veterans' Bureau regional office and hospital No. 100 waiting list, 165; service-connected N. P.'s at large under guardianship, 352; total known potential load, 756.

United States Veterans' Hospital No. 100 is intended to serve the following regional offices: Cleveland, Indianapolis, Chicago, Detroit, and Milwaukee.

Newberry State Hospital, Newberry, Mich_

State Psychopathic Hospital, Ann Arbor, Mich.

A compilation as of March 30, 1930, showing the number of neuropsychiatric war veterans of Michigan eligible to Federal Government hospitalization under section 202 (10) of the World War veterans' act

Traverse City State Hospital, Traverse City, Mich_
Kalamazoo State Hospital, Kalamazoo, Mich.

Pontiac State Hospital, Pontiac, Mich__-.

14

23

25

26

Eloise Hospital (county institution) (Wayne County), Eloise, Mich.

80

St. Joseph's Retreat, Dearborn, Mich_.

Ionia State Hospital, Ionia, Mich____

63

United States Hospital No. 100, Camp Custer, Mich__

112

United States Veterans' Bureau waiting list, Detroit, Mich., general medical and surgical (205).

Neuropsychiatrics

Grand total

152

53

556

152

404

N. B.-In addition to the above figures might well be added the number of World War veterans at large in Michigan under guardianship, 352, as of March 31, 1930 (the foregoing figures are the latest available), everyone of whom is a potential hospital case. United States Veterans' Hospital No. 100 when opened was said to have a capacity of 532 beds. This official capacity was increased to 575 and lately to 602, without any physical additions having been made to the hospital itself.

Partial list of Michigan's expenditures for veterans from July 1, 1917, to June 30, 1929

Bonus for World War veterans_

Taxes on soldiers' land____

American Legion welfare fund___

American Legion Hospital for T. B. veterans.

American Legion children's billet_

Michigan Soldiers' Home..........

Miscellaneous (war trophies, reunions, expeditions, bounties,

etc.)--

Total___

$31, 328, 357.77 2, 900, 725.97 372, 505. 26 869, 425. 57 140, 621. 65

3,962, 174. 45

296, 677. 23

39, 870, 487.90

Mr. BYERS. That is a big territory, Mrs. Rogers.
Mrs. ROGERS. Yes; it is a very big territory.

Mr. BYERS. When the hospital was originally constructed we were asked why we wanted a hospital in Michigan. They said that Michigan men would only fill one-quarter of it; one corner of it, they said. As a matter of fact, six months after the hospital was opened it was practically up to capacity, and 85 per cent of the men in the hospital were Michigan men. And the same is true to-day of the men hospitalized there as of April 15; of the 601 men in the hospital, 346 are Michigan men; and on the waiting list-our potential load, to get into the hospital-there are 165.

Mrs. ROGERS. How long is it estimated they will have to wait before being hospitalized?

Mr. BYERS. I think it depends on you, Mrs. Rogers, as to when we are going to get additional facilities.

Mrs. ROGERS. It depends also upon the bureau-when they build them.

Mr. BYERS. That is true.

Mr. KELLY. May I clear up this one matter? That list that was just put into the record, Mr. Byers, is just the list of those awaiting admission to the hospital; this list does not include the waiting list at the Veterans' Bureau?

Mr. BYERS. That is right.

Mrs. ROGERS. As you possibly know, the Congress has never actually authorized the building for the nonservice-connected cases. But it is mandatory to hospitalize the T. B. and N. P. cases just as if they were service-connected cases.

Mr. BYERS. When facilities are available.

Mrs. ROGERS. Yes. It is mandatory; and, of course, they occupy the beds that might be used for service-connected cases. So I think we are really authorized now to build for N. P. and T. B. cases, but not as yet for the general medical and surgical cases, although we have been doing some building for them, as a matter of fact.

Mr. BYERS. We feel that facilities should be built for the nonservice-connected cases.

Mrs. ROGERS. That is one reason we are having these hearings. We want to settle the problem for all time.

Mr. HOOPER. It is a question or formulating a policy.

Mrs. ROGERS. That is right. It is not fair to the veterans and it is not fair to anybody to leave it unsettled.

Mr. HOOPER. Does that complete your statement, Mr. Byers?
Mr. BYERS. Yes, sir; I think it does.

Mr. HOOPER. I will call on Colonel Emery, former national commander of the American Legion, for a brief statement.

STATEMENT OF COLONEL EMERY, FORMER NATIONAL COM-
MANDER OF THE AMERICAN LEGION

Colonel EMERY. Madam Chairman and gentlemen of the committee, I feel that there is nothing material that I can add except that, as a business man, it appeals to me that if this were being done by Henry Ford, General Motors, or any other large institution, with a plan already in operation, and if they were going to provide additional beds, they would add them at that point, because we know that this item of overhead, which works day and night, is ever with us, and the overhead could be much cheaper.

Michigan is rather proud of its record, because from 1917 to 1929 the taxpayers of Michigan have spent $39,000,000 on its veteransno mean sum for a State to raise from its own people through these bonuses; through the American Legion Hospital, which Marshal Foch dedicated, by the way, when he was here in 1921; through the American Legion children's billet-Michigan was the first State to have a billet for the needy children of veterans-and through its soldiers' home and its other activities. So Michigan has done its utmost to take care of its veterans.

Mrs. ROGERS. You are setting a laudable example.

Colonel EMERY. We feel that we are. We are very proud of Michigan's record; and the Legion has been at the forefront in inaugurating these things for the State to do; so that we do feel that the principle that it is a Federal Government obligation is foremost. It is absolutely the Federal Government's obligation to these men.

I personally think that the two most insidious words ever spoken in the English language are "service connected." However, they are used a great deal and we will have to suffer with them, I suppose. Mrs. ROGERS. Do you want a disability pension?