COL. BRATTON: answered that he found it very cumbersome; that he has to make triplicates; that two of these copies go to the District Manager who sends one to Washington.
COL. FORBES: said he wished he would suggest to General Ireland a medium for reducing this.
COL. BRATTON: said that he was running two sets of records,—Bureau and Army.
COL. FORBES: replied that he was dealing with two distinct sets of men.
COL. BRATTON: stated that he had just made out his annual report. He said his place had treated 851 Veterans’ Bureau patients the last year, and he told the different diseases involved. Added that in many cases referred to them no trace of disease was found; also, that one man was sent from Oklahoma and the only ailment discovered was one decayed tooth.
COL. FORBES: replied to the effect that that man is entitled to vocational training under Section 2.
SURGEON GARDNER (St. Paul): expressed himself as being in favor of the dispensary project, as it would assist the medical officers greatly. He added that he has two patients suffering from paralysis, and does not know where to place them.
LIEUT. COMMANDER HIGGINS: stated that he is not in a hospital, but one thing that impressed him in his contact with men in hospitals was Dr. White’s “third class”, the border-line mental types. He said this type gave the most trouble in hospitals, but that they do not get the sympathy of many medical officers not accustomed to dealing with that type.
COL. FORBES: asked if he believed there were a lot of men hospitalized, drawing compensation and taking vocational training from the Government, who are not entitled to such.
LIEUT. COMMANDER HIGGINS: replied that it would be a very hazardous thing for him to say because he had not been in contact with them; but that from a civil standpoint that might be true.