(The following letter was submitted for the record:)

COMMITTEE ON JUDICIARY,
Senate of the United States,

Washington, D. C.

REGULAR VETERANS ASSOCIATION,
Washington 5, D. C., March 25, 1946.

(Attention: Clerk of the Committee.)

GENTLEMEN: In connection with the hearing on H. R. 1128 at 11 a. m., Friday, March 22, 1946, the chairman of the committee instructed me to check the records of this organization and report the status of the incorporators named in the bill. This is to report that our records have been checked carefully and we find that all of the incorporators are alive.

Very truly yours,

VICTOR E. DEvereaux,
National Service Officer.

H. R. 1128

STATEMENT OF VICTOR E. DEVEREAUX

Mr. DEVEREAUX. The national service office of the Regular Veterans Association is the one that I represent. There is not a great deal to add to what Representatives Hagen and Sparkman have said except that our organization is definitely a veterans' group as distinguished from patriotic organizations.

We have been in existence since 1930 and during 15 years we have worked for the peacetime veteran.

Of course, when the war came on, all of our members became World War veterans, but they are now enlisting and being drafted in the Regular Establishment, many men who have not seen war service, who were too young for that.

So, our group of the new peacetime veterans, is continually growing. Our bylaws and national constitution are consistently American and set out definitely the objectives of the Regular Veterans Association towards all veterans.

Senator KILGORE. Do you have a copy to furnish the committee? Mr. DEVEREAUX. Yes, sir. I have and I also have a copy of the history of the organization which the committee may desire.

We are doing the same work as the other veteran groups; we are recognized by the Veterans' Administration to prosecute claims and we are taking care of thousands of claims each month on the same basis as the other groups. While we are a very much smaller organization as an organization, and the extent of our activities are limited because of that, nevertheless, we are taking proportionately the same responsibilities as the larger groups.

One of the reasons that the Regular Veterans Association requests that it be chartered by the Congress is due to the fact that we have found out from the War Department this is merely one of a number of things that our organization, which has about 400 posts in the field, cannot secure from the War Department the rifles and ammunition necessary for military burials in the same manner as the other groups do.

In many cities the RVA posts are larger than the Legion posts or larger than the Veterans of Foreign Wars posts, and we always receive a come-back on a military burial of one of our comrades when the larger post is subordinated to the smaller post.

Senator KILGORE. That, however, is not a matter of law. That is a matter of regulation by the War Department and not a matter of law. Mr. DEVEREAUX. The War Department states that only those who are recognized by congressional charter can receive those rifles. Senator KILGORE. That is a matter of regulation, of their own regulations, and not a matter of law. There is no such law.

Mr. DEVEREAUX. I am only quoting the Adjutant General. Senator KILGORE. I know, I say that it is a matter of regulation, pure and simple.

Representative SPARKMAN. May I say that I do not believe that your interpretation is correct? I am relying here on a letter from the War Department in which they cite the law which specifically names the organizations that may receive these rifles, and the War Department, for that reason, says that they cannot give this organization rifles.

Senator KILGORE. There is no such law that only those chartered by Congress can receive them. That is the point that I am making. Representative SPARKMAN. The Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Navy are authorized in their discretion to loan or give to soldiers, monument associations, posts, and the Grand Army of the Republic posts, Veterans of Foreign Wars posts, posts of the American Legion, and other recognized war veteran associations, State museums and incorporated museums, only whose charters deny them the right to operate for profit, municipal corporations, and posts of the Sons of Veterans, condemned or obsolete guns or projectiles which may not be needed, and so forth. That is the way the letter reads. So it is rather specific.

Senator KILGORE. But it simply names and specifies certain organizations. That law will have to be amended. You have a loophole there in what are considered recognized organizations and associations.

Representative SPARKMAN. It goes on to say that war veterans' organizations qualifying under this law may be found in title 36 of the United States Code, annotated, and are as follows, and then they name them.

Senator KILGORE. What I mean is that you are going to have to amend that law to take care of the situation anyway.

Mr. DEVEREAUX. At any rate, this will help us get that privilege. We have members, of course, who are just as proud of their smaller regular veterans' group as those of the other groups, and their families like to have the regular veterans officiate at their burials, and so on.

I have here many of the resolutions, or all of the resolutions, that we passed in the last 3 years. I do not know whether the committee would want to look at them, to get the gist or content of them or not. Senator KILGORE. I do not think that is necessary.

Senator STANFILL. I do think he should file a copy of the constitution and the other pamphlet that he has there.

Senator KILGORE. Yes, sir.

Mr. DEVEREAUX. That is all I have to say, and to request the committee to give favorable action to it.

Senator KILGORE. We want those exhibits. We will mark them exhibits A and B for the files.

S. 28

AMERICAN WOMEN'S VOLUNTARY SERVICES

Senator KILGORE. We will next hear from the representative of the American Women's Voluntary Services.

Miss Lewinson, will you please raise your right hand and be sworn.

STATEMENT OF MISS RUTH LEWINSON, NEW YORK CITY

(The witness was sworn.)

Miss LEWINSON. Our bill is S. 28, one of the bills that was suspended during the war.

The American Women's Voluntary Services is an organization that was founded before the war. It was founded in 1940.

We ask here to incorporate A. W. V. S., the intials of the American Women's Voluntary Services, under a national charter for various reasons, the principal one of which is that it is an organization national in scope and has rendered service and continues to render service in every State of the United States and Alaska. And if it were under a national charter, it would, of course, make it easier to function on a national level, rather than to have a New York corporation as we now have, going into other States where it must incorporate and be filed and must set up under various statutes and conform to various laws.

It has been found in the past that foundations dealing with scholarly or charitable purposes or something of the nature of the Sarah Delano Roosevelt Memorial House benefit very much from Government charters. Those are, of course, State charters; that is, incorporation by act of the legislature, but they benefit enormously, not only in the prestige which it brings to the organization, but in the ability of the organization to function in the community.

Primarily, AWVS is an organization to train volunteers. There have been in the past enormous numbers of volunteers in emergencies and between emergencies, but not trained, that is, well-intentioned persons who offer their services, but AWVS actually trained the volunteers to the extent of a million persons during the war emergency, and approximately 350,000 at this moment are organized throughout 35 States. They train them, for instance, to man the radio listening posts, and they train them to man the switchboards. They have currently trained them in small units in physical therapy to work with veterans. They have trained them for safety, for child care. Wherever there is an existing organization like the cancer set-up, or any other, including the Red Cross, we train volunteers to meet the needs where a trained person is needed. There is no existing conflict with any other organization.

During the war, we had some very satisfactory conferences with the American Red Cross where, not unlike ordinary situations, there were some jealousies, where our activity crossed theirs, and it was found that what we were doing was a single job, and we furnished volunteers trained for particular jobs which they had.

Moreover, a national charter would help us very much to work with the accredited existing national organizations, Government agencies. We are currently working with UNRRA in aiding in the food

situation. We work in the remaking of clothing. We send a national exhibit from city to city to show people what they can do with old clothes, to make them over, men's clothes for women's clothes, big ones for little ones, and to utilize what there is.

Working with the Veterans' Administration our Motor Transport does a tremendous job in taking the veterans back and forth, to take visitors to the forgotten men, so known, who have been in the hospitals since the last war and no longer have visitors. The women fill that need. They go to the hospitals on visiting days and visit men who otherwise would not have any visitors.

Now we have achieved some recognition on the international level, having had a preliminary meeting, at an international meeting of women to set up a program for useful service which will be international in scope. Of course, under a national charter it would have a great deal more weight and carry a great deal more dignity.

I brought with me for your committee a copy of our bylaws with our purpose clause, a copy of our national magazine, a press release which shows what we are currently doing as well as a copy of the memorandum which had been filed when the bill was originally introduced, and I ask you to be good enough to consider these.

Senator KILGORE. We will file them as exhibits.

(The papers referred to, being respectively the bylaws of the American Women's Voluntary Services, the National Bulletin of the AWVS, a news release, and memorandum, were respectively marked "Exhibits C, D, D-1, and D-2.")

Miss LEWINSON. Mrs. McLean, our national president and founder, always says the right thing at the right time, and I am sure you will be very glad to hear her.

Senator KILGORE. May I ask you a question right now? You have a great number of persons' and parties' names here. Shall I say that they are from most of the States and Territories as incorporators. Are all of those now living or are any of them dead?

Miss LEWINSON. I would have to check on that.

Senator KILGORE. Will you check that and furnish it to the clerk of the committee?

Miss LEWINSON. Yes, sir.

Senator KILGORE. So that the necessary amendments may be made. And if you have names to substitute in place of those, furnish those names also.

STATEMENT OF MRS. ALICE T. McLEAN, NATIONAL PRESIDENT, AMERICAN WOMEN'S VOLUNTARY SERVICES

Mr.s MCLEAN. I think Miss Lewinson has covered the ground pretty thoroughly. I would like to say that these women have worked hard and have done a superb job. There is hardly a place that they have not had a citation from the Army and the Navy during the war. There is plenty of work to do, but I think it would give them just that bit of background that we need when we have done something that they could say, when they are asked "Have you a congressional charter?" they could say, "Yes." It helps them a lot, and it would help them in their work.

We found that during the war, in various places, they even tried to stop the girls from getting gasoline for the hospitals because we had not had a congressional charter. It would help a great deal.

Thank you very much.

Senator KILGORE. Do you have any questions, Senator Stanfill?
Senator STANFILL. No.

THE MOTHERS OF WORLD WAR NO. 2 (H. R. 2538)

Senator KILGORE. We will next hear from the representative of the Mothers of World War No. 2.

Congressman Springer, are you ready to go ahead with that? Representative SPRINGER. Yes.

Senator KILGORE. All right, will you hold up your right hand, please.

STATEMENT OF HON. RAYMOND S. SPRINGER, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF INDIANA

(Witness sworn.)

Representative SPRINGER. This bill is H. R. 2538. As you know it for the incorporation of the Mothers of World War No. 2. This organization was started back about the time the war started or a little afterward. They have organized. They have a national organization. They are now incorporated in 32 States with a total membership paid up to date of 139,000 mothers.

She

Mrs. Gretta Roush is the national president of the group. was unable to come. I did not get a notice until late this week, and she was unable to come from the national headquarters which is located at Indianapolis, and she was unable to get any of the others to come. Senator Capehart was to have been here. He is familiar with the situation, and I know a number of the Senators are.

I have a letter from Mrs. Roush that I thought perhaps would be interesting to the committee. She gives the data which they have as to what they have done during the late war.

In that letter she states:

We have 139,000 members to date in the States listed below: Arizona, Delaware, Kansas, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Pennsyl vania, Texas, West Virginia, California, Florida, Kentucky, Illinois, Mexico, Missouri, Nevada, Ohio, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, Wyoming, Colorado, Georgia, Louisiana, Iowa, Massachusetts, Nebraska, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, and Washington.

They are organizing in the other States, too.

It is a nonprofit organization. Their finances have been limited. Dues, as I recall, for national purposes, are 50 cents per year for each member who belongs to the organization.

She also sets forth in this letter the assistance that they have given during the war:

Aid to veterans in cash____.

$10,000

and they earned this money by holding little socials and in any way that they could earn money.

Supplies sent to hospitals, in cash value..

300,000

Gifts to veterans direct, that is, in boxes and things that were sent