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DID YOU KNOW - HISTORY TIDBIT: Ninety-eight (98) years ago, on September 2, 1914, a VA predecessor, the Bureau of War Risk Insurance (BWRI) was established by Congress as part of the Treasury Department. The Bureau of War Risk Insurance originated as a tiny bureau with a very specific and finite mission, but grew to encompass a wide range of new benefits for World War I veterans.

World War I began in Europe during the summer of 1914. Although the U.S. did not immediately enter the war, due in part to isolationist policies at the time, Congress moved to protect American trade and established the Bureau of War Risk Insurance on September 2, 1914 to provide insurance for U.S. export ships and their cargoes while navigating in European waters. This insurance was a supplement to commercial marine insurance.

The U.S. officially entered World War I on April 6, 1917 and two months later, on June 12, 1917, the War Risk Insurance program was expanded to cover officers and crews of the Merchant Marines and armed forces members. Four months later, on October 6, 1917, the Bureau of War Risk Insurance was expanded, once again, when Congress enacted revolutionary benefits for World War I veterans:

• It created the largest Government insurance system in the world and transformed the small bureau into a vast business enterprise. The amended act provided government insurance policies to servicemen against death or total disability, established a compensation payment schedule, allotments and survivor’s benefits for family support.

• It provided FREE hospital, medical, and surgical services to disabled World War I servicemen, along with artificial limbs and trusses, dental care, and burial expenses. Veterans of earlier wars received these services at branches of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers (VHA origins). The Bureau of War Risk Insurance coordinated with its sister Treasury bureau, the U.S. Public Health Service to provide hospital and medical services to World War I veterans.

At the time of the October 6, 1917 law’s enactment, the Bureau of War Risk Insurance employed 20 people. Overnight their workload mushroomed to include 2 million soldiers, 200,000 sailors, and armed forces growing at the rate of 300,000 per month. The Bureau combed the country for personnel. With a need for 4,000 typists and thousands of potential clerks—90% of them women—men and women of all ages came to Washington looking for jobs. In May 1918, a training school for clerks was organized and Treasury quickly became the largest government agency at the time. Despite having the latest modern equipment, such as addressographs to eliminate typing of envelopes and signographs that allowed 50,000 checks to be signed every day, the Bureau ran months behind in its payments because of sheer volume alone. The Bureau’s 1920 annual report reported that the greatly expanded workforce occupied “warehouses, stores, garages, dance halls, office buildings, and clubhouses, and even the great National Museum [Smithsonian], where stuffed animals and historical exhibits were moved to make room for the patriots engaged in administering the war risk insurance act.”

In February 1919, personnel moved into the new 11-story Bureau of War Risk Insurance (BWRI) Building at Vermont and H Streets across from Lafayette Park and the White House (today’s VA Central Office). The building has been home to the Federal government’s primary veterans benefits agencies ever since. Medical activities of the BWRI became a function of the U.S. Public Health Service in 1919, which was one of Treasury’s oldest bureaus established in 1798.

After the Armistice was signed to end the war on November 11, 1918, the Bureau of War Risk Insurance was faced with thousands of disabled World War 1 veterans presenting claims for medical care. The Public Health Service had an inadequate 7,200 beds available and efforts by the Bureau to get Congress to increase facilities proceeded very slowly.

By 1920, World War I veterans were dealing with at least five separate federal agencies for their benefits: the Bureau of War Risk Insurance, Federal Board of Vocational Education’s Rehabilitation Division, U.S. Public Health Service, the War Department, and Pension Bureau. The processes was cumbersome, slow, and inefficient and the Bureau of War Risk Insurance came under increased criticism from veterans and the public. Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon recommended in his 1921 annual report that control of World War veterans’ benefits be united into one headquarters.

On March 28, 1921, President Warren Harding, in one of his very first acts, appointed a commission headed by Charles G. Dawes to examine the administration of laws for disabled veterans. The Commission’s findings and recommendations echoed Secretary Mellon’s earlier assessment—that a single government agency should handle administration of all veterans’ benefits.

Five months later, on August 9, 1921, Congress created the Veterans Bureau by merging the Bureau of War Risk Insurance, Public Health Service (veterans hospitals), and the Rehabilitation Division of the Federal Board of Vocational Education. All Public Health Service veterans’ hospitals, including those in process of construction, were transferred to the new Veterans Bureau. The act abolished the Bureau of War Risk Insurance and renamed it as the Veterans Bureau. This brought all World War I veterans programs under one administrative bureau. Headquarters for the new Veterans Bureau remained at the former Bureau of War Risk Insurance headquarters location at Vermont Avenue and H Street in Washington, D.C.
By Robert Chadwick

We the People - we are the LAND above - Yahoo Groups

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