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Mr. NEILL. It was service-connected, but I may receive only outpatient treatment for the service-incurred disability, and no other disability. Because of those facts, we feel that the veterans should receive 5 years of medical care after being discharged. We feel that this change would result in a saving to the Government of a great deal of money by making it possible for veterans to avoid becoming patients in the Veterans' Administration facilities immediately after discharge, and it would reduce the load of the Veterans' Administration facilities in years to come by enabling the veteran completely to restore his health immediately after discharge.

Senator CONNALLY. You would be eligible for compensation, would you not, if you were discharged because of a physical disability, service-connected?

Mr. NEILL. Yes; I receive compensation.

Senator CONNALLY. How much?

Mr. NEILL. I receive 30 percent.

Senator CONNALLY. You receive 30 percent of what?

Mr. NEILL. I receive 30 percent of the total of $115.

Senator CONNALLY. How much do you draw each month?

Mr. NEILL. I was an officer, and because of having a 30 percent disability I receive retirement pay.

Senator CONNALLY. And that is how much?

Mr. NEILL. It is $125 a month.

Mr. Chairman, and members of the committee, the UE-CIO feels that the passage of these amendments would fulfill the promises that were made in the bill, and would make it an instrument of tremendous value to the veterans and to the country.

Senator.JOHNSON. Are there any questions?

No one seems to want to ask any questions, Mr. Neill. We thank you very much.

Is Mr. Floyd, of the Veterans' Administration, here?

Is Mr. E. J. McHale present?

STATEMENT OF EDWARD J. MCHALE, EXECUTIVE SECRETARY OF THE AMERICAN VETERANS COMMITTEE

Senator JOHNSON. You may proceed, Mr. McHale.

Mr. MCHALE. My name is Edward J. McHale. I am executive secretary of the American Veterans Committee, which is a group of veterans of the second war.

I do not have a prepared statement in its entirety, and I hope to make up for it by being brief.

First of all, I may say that the educational provisions of the bill have been discussed quite fully during the course of the hearings. Senator CONNALLY. When was your organization formed? Mr. MCHALE. Approximately a year and a half ago, sir. Senator CONNALLY. How many members do you have?

Mr. MCHALE. As of 3:30 o'clock Tuesday afternoon we had 6,587 members.

Senator LUCAS. Where are your headquarters?

Mr. MCHALE. New York, sir. We have 30 chapters throughout the country, and several service chapters. The Army has relaxed its regulations and has permitted the formation of service groups. We

have chapters organized in Tinian, Guam, Manila, Ọahu, and one is presently forming in Tokyo.

Senator LUCAS. Are you incorporated?

Mr. MCHALE. Yes; in the State of New York.

Senator LUCAS. What are the objects and purposes of the organizafion?

Mr. MCHALE. I have a statement which has been prepared by the committee, which sets forth its objects and purposes.

Senator LUCAS. Will you make it a part of the record?

Mr. MCHALE. I will be glad to do so. Shall I read it into the record?

Senator LUCAS. No; you may just put it in the record.

Mr. MCHALE. Thank you, sir.

(The statement of the American Veterans Committee is as follows:)

AMERICAN VETERANS COMMITTEE A NEW ORGANIZATION FOR THE MEN AND WOMEN OF THIS WAR

Executive offices, 554 Madison Ave., New York 22, N. Y.

If you are in the Army, the Navy, the Marine Corps, the Coast Guard, the merchant marine man or woman in any of these services or veteran This message and invitation are for you

private or admiral

*

*

* * *

* * *

now

What kind of world are you going to find after this war is won? Last time, it wasn't long before veterans were

selling apples on the streets

* * *

standing in line to get fed in soup kitchens *

begging for any kind of underpaid, dirty job * * *

And last time, the world waited only 13 years (the Jap invasion of Manchuria) before starting this business of war all over again.

We can see to it that the same thing doesn't happen again

GI's, sailors, chiefs, tec. 5's, colonels, and commanders too, are getting together now in a new democratic veterans organization, for veterans of this They're working together for

war.

1. Real peace-through international cooperation with teeth in it.

2. Jobs-decent, well-paid, for every American.

3. Security-for all, against the need for soup kitchens and apple-selling. 4. A strong voice in the future of our country.

There is no person, group, or interest behind the American Veterans Committee except servicemen and veterans themselves. AVC is nonpartisan, working both for the veterans and the general good * * * because, what's good for the country and a majority of its citizens is good for the veteran.

GI'S BEGAN AVC, BACK AVC, RUN AVC

Began it: In January 1943 a corporal in the AAF and a group of his friends in service began exchanging ideas on how to provide the peace, jobs, and freedom their comrades were earning on the battlefields. Before the corporal and his friends were shipped, they decided that to get this peace, these jobs, and this freedom, veterans would have to organize and work together after the war was won. So the American Veterans Committee was born, and the job of running it fell to some fighting men who were home for good, after leaving pieces of themselves in north Africa or the South Pacific. Back it: AVC grew fast. Each time there was a news story about it in civilian or military papers, inquiries poured in. A temporary headquarters was set up in New York, the staff was expanded, and a planning committee of veterans was formed. Local chapters of veterans were formed at key spots across the country. A news letter was written and sent out twice a month to the full membership-now well up in the thousands.

Run it: Through its news letter, the Bulletin, the planning committee keeps in constant touch with AVC members in service overseas, as well as with veterans and servicemen at home. Their letters, articles, and opinions are published fully. It is they who govern and control AVC's policies. The comparative handful of veterans at home have set the machinery in motion, represent the members now, but AVC is primarily the serviceman's, to take over and use when he comes back.

This is what we want:

The American Veterans' Committee to achieve a more democratic and prosperous America and a more stable world.

STATEMENT OF INTENTIONS

We look forward to becoming civilians, making a decent living, raising a family, and living in freedom from the threat of another war. But that was what most Americans wanted from the last war. They found that military victory does not automatically bring peace, jobs, or freedom. To guarantee our interests, which are those of our country, we must work for what we want.

Therefore we are associating ourselves with American men and women, regardless of race, creed, or color, who are serving with or have been honorably discharged from our armed forces, merchant marine, or allied forces. When we

are demobilized it will be up to all of us to decide what action can best further our aims.

These will include:

Adequate financial, medical, vocational, and educational assistance for every veteran.

A job for every veteran, under a system of private enterprise in which business, labor, agriculture, and Government work together to provide full employment and full production for the Nation.

Thorough social and economic security.

Free speech, press, worship, assembly, and ballot.

Disarmament of Germany and Japan and the elimination of the power of their militarist classes.

Active participation of the United States in the United Nations Organization to stop any threat of aggression and to promote social and economic measures which will remove the causes of war.

Establishment of an international veterans' council for the furtherance of world peace and justice among the peoples of all nations.

This is what we are doing:

The AVC publishes a bulletin which is issued twice a month and sent free to all members.

The Bulletin's purpose is to keep AVC members, especially those overseas, properly informed on those events which will affect them personally in the postwar world. The Bulletin also carries a progress report on AVC; and a letters section which serves as a forum for the members.

Local chapters of AVC have been formed in New York, Jersey City, Washington, Cleveland, Chicago, and Los Angeles; others are being formed now. For the duration AVC's planning committee is issuing public statements and taking political or social action relating to matters of national concern, after referral to all the members through the Bulletin; the chapters have complete autonomy with respect to city, county, or State matters. All such activities must follow the general principles laid down in the statement of intentions.

AVC is getting increasingly wider recognition as a spokesman for the fighting men of this war—men who until now have had no such spokesman. Members of the planning committee are speaking at public meetings and on the air, cooperating with other agencies and organizations concerned about the future of America and its veterans, telling Congressmen what AVC's members need and what they want. AVC is now setting up a legislative research office in Washington and an information center to advise returning members on jobs, education, and claims. At AVC's post-demobilization convention, the present planning committee will pass out of existence and the members will decide democratically on officers and on specific means of achieving our aims.

Is a new organization for the veterans of this war a good and needed thing?

Read what our members say:

* * We need a new organization because we have new problems. If we go into the old organization there'd be continual quarreling between our generation and our fathers' generation, and we'd always remember that the old organizations, despite their success with the bonus, didn't do much about peace, jobs, and freedom-which are a hell of a lot more important.-Sgt. BILL CALDWELL, AAF. * * * I am, of course, interested in any movement which is democratic and progressive. I have thought a good deal about a veterans organization that would be truly democratic and progressive. * * * I am glad that you and others there have taken the bull by the horns and started things moving in the right direction.-Col. EVANS F. CARLSON, USMC.

* * We are not fighting simply for the "old order of things," as some national manufacturers would have us believe. It was the "old order of things" which insured us unemployment in the millions, slum areas in large cities, tattered cotton-picking sharecroppers, people hungering for food while land was being plowed under at the request of the Government. If we can produce plenty for a mammoth military machine in wartime then we can certainly produce plenty for an economy of peace. The latter is what we want, what we can do, and we must notify our legislators, now, that that is what we want, not a return to the "old order of things."-Sgt. BERNIE BELLUSH, Ord. Am. Co.

* * Nearly all of us have agreed that rather than having others speak for us we would like to get our own say-in. After all, all of this planning is for us, so who has a better right to speak about it?-RM2-C ELMER R. HUBBARD, Beach Bn.

* * * We all know by this time that if anyone is going to preserve the peace it will have to be the veterans of this war who have been through the mill. Perhaps we can learn from the mistakes which our predecessors made. When a man has served overseas for a year or more he knows that it is going to be up to him and his buddies to keep the peace, no one else will, that has been proven.— Corps. DONALD CATTANACH and CLIFFORD NORRIS.

* * * The statement of intentions represents a declaration to America and to the world that we are tired of going to war like our fathers, we are tired of hatred and persecution, and we want to live in peace and build a worth-while civilization.-Pfc SIDNEY BERNSTEIN, ATC.

* * * As civilians in uniform who, out of this grim experience of being at war, have learned how great a sacrifice it is sometimes necessary to make in the name of democracy, we must pool our knowledge and experience to fight those forces which brought about this terrible mess.-Sgt. WALTER PICK, Signal Corps.

YOUR APPLICATION FOR MEMBERSHIP

AMERICAN VETERANS COMMITTEE,

554 Madison Avenue, New York 22, N. Y.

I hereby subscribe to the American Veterans Committee's statement of intentions and apply for active membership in the American Veterans Committee.

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and understand that you will start mailing me the Bulletin at once.

The American Veterans Committee, a nonprofit membership association, with executive offices at 554 Madison Avenue, New York 22, N. Y. National planning committee: Charles G. Bolté, chairman; Lincoln W. Lauterstein, vice chairman; Max Roller, secretary; William J. Caldwell, treasurer; Lester Meyers, assistant treasurer; William Best, Jr.; Arthur W. Coats, Jr.; Vernon A. Eagle; Lewis C. Frank, Jr.; Grant Reynolds; Kermit Walker; Harry H. Zucker; Frances Borden; Arthur P. McNulty; Merle Miller; and William W. Goodman. Armed forces advisory committee: Col. Evans F. Carlson, USMC; Lt. C. C. Dancer, AAF; Capt. Alice B. Davey, WAC; Cpl. G. A. Harrison, AAF; Cpl. Edward T. Ladd, AUS; Sgt. Wadsworth Likely, AAF; Lt. Comdr. Oren Root, USNR; Capt. S. R. Spencer, Jr., AUS; Lt. Michael Straight, AAF; A/T Harris Wofford, AAF; Sgt. Alan Manson, AUS; Sgt. John MacCauley, AAF; and Sgt. Walter Pick, AUS.

Mr. MCHALE. As I have already said, the educational features of the bill have been covered quite fully. It is suffice to say that we should like to have removed from the bill any reference to an interruption of education, and make the benefits available regardless of whether the individual's education was impeded or interfered with by reason of having been inducted into service. We should like to see removed from the bill the distinction which has been made between veterans over 25 years of age at time of induction, and those under that age. We believe that special provisions should be made in order that the maximum benefit be increased to 7 years regardless of length of service. At this point I should like to concentrate more on the loan features of the bill, taking up first of all the housing and business loans. I have had two reports prepared for me by subcommittees of our major committee, and I should like to read one of them in its entirety, as well as extracts from the second report, and then submit the entire report for the record.

Senator LUCAS. Who is the head of your organization?

Mr. MCHALE. Charles Bolte is chairman of the committee.
Senator LUCAS. How was he elected?

Mr. MCHALE. He was not elected. He was selected. We have not yet had our initial national convention, and until that time all officers and positions on the committee are temporary. We feel that any convention which might be held now would be premature and would deprive many of our members who are still in service of a democratic means of voicing their opinions as to who should be made members of the permanent committee.

Senator LUCAS. Are your officers compensated?

Mr. MCHALE. I am the only paid member of the committee. The provisions of the GI bill of rights with respect to home loans are, we believe, basically sound. We desire to make several suggestions for amendments which, if adopted, we believe will strengthen the act, simplify its administration, and aid the veteran in financing the building or purchase of his or her home.

These recommendations have not been drafted in the form of amendments, but are stated in the terms of suggestions which have been made to us by various members of the American Veterans' Committee. They have been carefully thought out, and we respectfully urge their adoption.

First, we believe that the home loan provisions of the GI bill should be administered by one of the Government agencies that has been created to deal with homes, rather than by the Veterans' Administration. We suggest that one of the offices of the National Housing Agency would have the skills and know how essential proper administration is to a fair and equitable handling of the problems involved. The Federal Home Loan Bank System, which supervises a great number of the institutions that will actually make the loans, and which had the experience of operating the Home Owners' Loan Corporation, we believe could much more successfully administer the act than the Veterans' Administration, which is a neophyte in this business. Or the Federal Housing Administration could be more effective than the Veterans' Administration, to which home loans are a new and unfamiliar business.

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