The Barre Daily Times

Provide Now to Maintain Soldiers' Dependents.

Up to the present time the problem of providing for soldiers' dependents has not pressed for federal solution. The regular army men have been following their profession in its ordinary routine. The National Guard has been in the service of the states. But now the guard has become an arm of the United States government, and within a short time several hundred thousand civilians will be withdrawn from their customary pursuits and ordered to duty with the colors.

The protection and support of thousands of persons will immediately become the concern of the national government.

The country knows that they cannot safely be consigned to the guardianship of private charity, or left to the uncoordinated efforts of local authorities. The armies in which they will serve are United States armies: the task of readjusting their incomes to new conditions is a labor the United States must undertake. It alone has the resources of wealth that are necessary to do the work creditably. It alone can create the nation-wide organization that economy and efficiency require.

The first step necessary is the establishment of a federal pay schedule and a bureau of distribution in which no vestige of charitable consideration shall be discernible. The suggestion that the recipients of separation allowances are enrolled as paupers or deserving poor cannot be tolerated for a moment. No trace of humiliation can be allowed to attach to acceptance of the wages earned by men in khaki, but paid to the representatives whom they designate in civil life. The allowance must be treated as soldiers' pay, not as grants in aid.

In addition to insuring this, the government bears responsibility for seeing to it that no fraction of the sums due to soldiers' dependents is diverted from its owners to claim agents, attorneys or other intermediaries. The system of payment must be made so simple that room for misunderstanding cannot arise, and so direct that there will exist no twilight zone to permit the depredations of great or petty money grabbers preying on the weak or inexperienced. There must not be scandals such as once attended pension collection or the disbursement of Indian funds. The government itself must furnish whatever legal assistance is needed, and make its cost a charge against the treasury. Under a proper administration of the funds this charge will be small; whatever the administration may be, it must not cost soldiers' dependents a cent.