The subcommittee met at 10.30 o'clock a. m., Hon. Edith N. Rogers presiding. Mrs. ROGERS. The subcommittee will be in order. We have under consideration the omnibus bill introduced by me at the request of the American Legion, H. R. 14059, and in connection therewith this morning we are considering Mr. Tilson's bill, H. R. 16257, which is as follows: [H. R. 16257, Seventy-first Congress, third session] A BILL To authorize enlargement of the Veterans' Bureau hospital in the State of Connecticut Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs is authorized and directed to contract for the enlargement of the Veterans' Bureau hospital in the State of Connecticut to a capacity of five hundred beds, and the necessary appropriation therefor is hereby authorized. The committee is very glad to hear Colonel Tilson, a distinguished veteran and our able Republican floor leader. Colonel Tilson will introduce his witnesses. Mr. TILSON. We have present here some distinguished veterans . from Connecticut, one of whom is Senator Bingham. Mrs. ROGERS. The committee is very glad to hear Senator Bingham, another distinguished veteran. STATEMENT OF HON. HIRAM BINGHAM, UNITED STATES Senator BINGHAM. There are several reasons why I am strongly in favor of the bill offered by my own Congressman, who lives in the same ward I do in New Haven, and who so ably represents not only the State but the Republican Party on the floor of the House. In the first place, I am convinced that the veterans need it and that by the time the new hospital is completed, which will be, I understand, in three or four months, every bed in it will be taken and there will be a waiting list, and it is time that we got the authorization for an increase in the number of beds, because, as we all know, it takes a 48695-31-6 77 long time after the authorization is procured before we get money for beds. If we do not get an authorization at this time it means another long wait and more men who are unable to get hospitalization when they need it and when they are authorized to receive it. At the present time there are some 150 Connecticut veterans who are entitled to hospitalization who can not receive it because there are no hospitals for them to go to anywhere within ordinary reach of their homes. In the second place, I do not need to call anyone's attention to the fact which has been so frequently mentioned on the floor of both Houses of Congress since the present session began, that the country is going through a period of great unemployment due, I believe, in very large part to the fact that people are afraid to build. The number of homes that are being built is smaller than at any time since the war, because people are afraid to invest their money at this time in more building. There is a certain amount of timidity. Therefore, there is a great number of carpenters, painters, masons, builders, and architects and their assistants who are unemployed, and anything which the Government can legitimately do at this time to meet that situation I am convinced it ought to do, and one of the things on which there is unanimous agreement is that construction by the Government of the things it absolutely needs ought to go forward rapidly at this time. For that reason also I favor this bill and hope that it may be reported out promptly and that possibly we may get the money for it in the next deficiency bill. If it is possible for anything to go through rapidly, this is the kind of thing that ought to be put through without any difficulty. There is no question that this hospital at Newington serves over 2,000,000 people about 100,000 veterans. It is within that part of New England where too many people live; and it serves also New York, this combined territory having veterans of three great divisions that served overseas. There is no question that the new hospital which we finally succeeded in getting, due largely to the sympathetic interest of the woman who sits at the head of the table, has justified her attitude in securing it by the large number of applications of veterans who desire to enter it when it is completed. I was amazed to find that the list is already longer than can be accommodated and that there will be a considerable waiting list in a very short time. It seems to me that all the circumstances justify prompt action on this bill. As I came into the room I was handed a letter from Governor Cross, recently inaugurated Governor of Connecticut, in which he says that he would like to have me represent him as favorable to an additional appropriation, which letter I will ask leave to insert in the record. Mrs. ROGERS. The committee will be very glad to have it. (The letter referred to is as follows:) Senator HIRAM BINGHAM, United States Senate, Washington, D. C. JANUARY 28, 1931. DEAR SENATOR BINGHAM: I understand that there is to be a hearing for an additional appropriation for enlarging the United States veterans' hospital at Newington, it being found that the capacity there is not great enough for the needs of those requiring care in Connecticut. I should be very happy to have you represent me as favoring this additional appropriation. Yours very truly, W. L. CROSS. Senator BINGHAM. There are some of our distinguished citizens here who can answer any questions, since they have been more recently in the State and are more intimately in touch with the situation of the disabled veterans than I am. STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN Q. TILSON, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF CONNECTICUT Mr. TILSON. I introduced this bill after I had become convinced from sources upon which I could confidently rely that not only were these additional beds needed but that this was the most economical way possible to provide the additional number of beds that must be had to properly take care of the veterans in this thickly inhabited part of the country, which includes Connecticut, Rhode Island, and part of Massachusetts. I shall not attempt to go into these needs because a number of gentlemen from whim I received the information and by whom I was convinced of this need before introducing the bill are here to-day and prepared to give you the information in authentic fashion, because they know whereof they speak. This hospital represents the desires and wishes of a great many of our veterans who, if they must have hospitalization, wish to have it in proximity to their homes not only for their own sake but for the sake of the dear ones who must be considered in this connection. I think we should go a long way to provide hospital care not only comfortably and up to date in every way but as near as possible to those who need it. I trust the committee will hear these gentlemen to-day and that the members of the committee will find themselves convinced, as I was convinced after hearing the facts presented. Mrs. ROGERS. The committee is very sympathetic to your cause, as you know. Mr. TILSON. I feel what we ask is needed, or I should not be here. Mr. JEFFERS. I will add that I would like for him to be sympathetic to ours some time, too. Mr. TILSON. Whenever the same need is presented I shall be sympathetic, it matters not to me what part of the country is directly affected. Mr. JEFFERS. Do not say anything you may want to take back. Mr. TILSON. It does not matter whether it is in Alabama, in California, or Connecticut; it is all the same to me if it is needed and if this is the sensible and economic way to do it, which I believe is so in this case. The supplying of additional beds can be done more economically now as we propose, which I believe these gentlemen before they are through will clearly demonstrate. Mr. JEFFERS. Perhaps you had better look over your remarks so that you may take out what you will. Mr. TILSON. I shall be very glad to revise my remarks in the record, if necessary. Mrs. ROGERS. We shall be glad to have you do that. STATEMENT OF WATSON B. MILLER Mr. MILLER. This is a resolution passed by the American Legion at the national convention in Paris, which suggested the desira bility of a 500-bed hospital in New England, and, if you are willing, I suggest it may be convenient for the committee now to let Maj. Anson T. McCook, chairman of the national rehabilitation committee for the State of Connecticut, and for a long time associated with our work, proceed to make a statement. Mr. McCook. I think Mr. White will proceed first, if you will let him introduce the successive witnesses. Mr. MILLER. Very well, let us hear Ned White. STATEMENT OF EDWARD L. WHITE Mr. WHITE. Madam Chairman and gentlemen, I am the interlocutor of this affair. Several years ago we came before your committee and first presented our need for a hospital in Connecticut. At that time, I am sorry to say, we based our appearance more upon our own feeling of the needs than reasons, but three years ago, after having had that indorsement of this national convention in Paris to the extent of that 500-bed hospital, we came before you and gained, not only a sympathetic interest but the support of the real fighting blood of the delightful lady who is now the chairman of the subcommittee. Mrs. ROGERS. And the ranking member of this committee, Mr. Fenn, who fought so hard for your cause, is present, and we had the assistance of the gentleman from Alabama, Major Jeffers, who is also present to-day. Mr. WHITE. We were fortunate in getting an appropriation for a hospital, now practically completed, at Newington near Hartford. That hospital was originally intended to be a 300-bed hospital of varied character, both general medical and surgical, tuberculosis and neuropsychiatric. As the plans of the hospital have developed and the needs changed, the hospital now stands practically completed, with accommodations for 232 patients. That is going to be a fine thing for the veterans in southern New England territory, but because of our closer attention to the problem and because of the fact that the problem is getting more and more emergent and we are closer in touch with it, we in Connecticut feel that although 232 beds will be of great benefit to our commerce, that, nevertheless, even now, when the hospital is not yet opened, the 232 beds are not sufficient and that our present load justifies our again appearing before you and asking an addition to that hospital. I do not have to recount the conditions. I do not have to tell you the emergency through which the country is passing. Simply from one standpoint, if you will pardon a personal allusion, I am executive secretary of the committee handling the unemployment problem of New Haven. It is got up to try to find employment for our citizens, and because of my known connection with the Legion, I have hundreds of ex-service men coming to me begging for something to do. I can not give some of them something to do, but so many of them I can recognize as being in the process of dissolution. They are not hospital cases now, but their minds are not going to stand up under this added strain. Within a very short time, even if we do get much relief from the present economic conditions, those men will be Government charges. Now, there are all kinds of sides to this question. I personally am not going to go into them, but merely as your permission to introduce some of these other friends of mine who have come down here, both members of the rehabilitation committee of the Legion and those interested from other standpoints, who will present to you the different aspects of the case. With your permission I will call upon Kenneth T. Cramer, of Hartford, who served with the Twentyninth Division. He happened to go to Princeton, so he had some sympathy with New Jersey after he had come back home, and we are proud to have with us and hope you will listen to him. Mrs. ROGERS. The Rhode Island veterans appeared also for a hospital. Mr. WHITE. More power to them. They need it, too. Mrs. ROGERS. Your hospital will be filled entirely with Connecticut men? Mr. WHITE. Absolutely. Please let me repeat again that, while we were interested particularly in the people of Connecticut, we do not regard it as a Connecticut problem. You know the distances are not very great up there and this hospital serves or could easily. serve not only Connecticut but Rhode Island and western Massachusetts. Mr. FENN. Southeastern Massachusetts. Mr. WHITE. I mean our hospital; also western Massachusetts. They could serve southeastern Massachusetts, but we have enough of a load, as these gentlemen will tell you, to justify not only an addition to the hospital but considerable more hospital beds there. Mr. FENN. You are just asking for hospital beds? Mr. WHITE. Yes. I understand that, although the recreational building has not yet been completed, that will be brought up in this discussion. Mr. FENN. The committee has had under consideration informally and otherwise a proposition for a hospital in southeastern New England. My reason for asking this question is that it appeared, and I am sure it will appear by the testimony to be given here, that the present hospital, Newington, when completed, will be totally inadequate or inadequate to a great degree to accommodate those who need hospitalization in the vicinity of that hospital. I speak of that to ascertain if a 250-bed addition to this hospital would in your opinion accommodate that great population known as southeastern New England; in other words, even if a 500-bed hospital were made, would it not also necessitate in the near future another hospital to accommodate that great population in southeastern New England, Fall River, New Bedford, Taunton, Brockton, which, as I have been given to understand, has 2,000,000 population over there? In other words, if this addition of 250 beds should be made to the Newington hospital, it would not remove the necessity for a new hospital in southeastern New England, to give it that phrase? Mr. WHITE. I am not entirely conversant with the needs of southeastern New England. Mr. FENN. My impression is that 1,000 beds would not be enough to accommodate all of that population there of which I have spoken. Mr. WHITE. I do not think so, taking into account they have a need there. |