The contact of the U. S. Veterans’ Bureau with the Post Office Department is apparent. It need only be mentioned that to date the U.S. Veterans’ Bureau, representing the consolidated agencies since their organization have received approximately 90,000,000 incoming pieces of mail, and have dispatched approximately 105,000,000 pieces of mail, and the daily average receipt of incoming mail in the Bureau, even under decentralization, is approximately 41,000 pieces of mail per day and the outgoing pieces of mail from the Central Office of the Veterans’ Bureau is approximately 58,000 pieces of mail per day.
The Veterans’ Bureau as you have been informed relative to the care of ex-service men of foreign allied countries and of American soldiers residing in allied countries has a vital contact with the State Department in addressing their communications to the various foreign countries and in the utilization of the various U. S. Consuls.
The Department of Justice has charge of all suits filed against the U. S. Veterans’ Bureau where suit is brought on an insurance contract. The department of Justice also handles all prosecutions where irregularities are found under the act creating the U. S. Veterans’ Bureau.
Under the Interior Department you know of the use made of the St. Elizabeth’s Hospital and of hospitals under the jurisdiction of the Commissioners of Indian Affairs.
The contact is also quite vital with the Department of the Interior in obtaining various information from the Pension Bureau as a person may be filing an application for compensation and also an application for a pension.
The Department of Agriculture has been of very great assistance to the Bureau in rendering advice relative to the training of disabled ex-service men with a vocational handicap who desire to take up agricultural pursuits, and at the present time the Department of Agriculture is rendering most valuable service in mapping out agricultural courses for the first Vocational School of the Government located at Chillicothe, Ohio.
Many disabled ex-service men taking vocational training have been assisted by the Department of Commerce in mapping out their careers for work incident to that of the Department of Commerce.
The Department of Labor has been of very great assistance in aiding the Bureau to find employment objectives for disabled ex-service men undergoing training or who have been rehabilitated by the U. S. Veterans’ Bureau.
This will give you a general view of the relation of the U. S. Veterans’ Bureau to the Executive Departments of the government. The U. S. Veterans’ Bureau naturally must have a close contact with the Congress. Congress continually calls upon the Bureau for data and information which can only be obtained from the other Executive Departments of the government but which immediately relate to the work of the U. S. Veterans’ Bureau.
Inasmuch as you Gentlemen are essentially interested in hospital administration, I should like to speak briefly on the question of hospital records, and what data the Bureau is required to have when it is called before Congress relative to Appropriations. As you know, Congress makes one appropriation to the U. S. Veterans’ Bureau for Medical and Hospitals Services. Sums from this appropriation are in turn allotted to the U.S. Public Health Service, the War and the Navy Departments, the Interior Department, and the National Homes for Disabled Volunteer’ Soldiers. When the U. S. Veterans’ Bureau is called before Congress for every appropriation it must show specifically how the money has been allotted, for what purposes it has been allotted, and the result accomplished.