"THE LAW'S DELAY"

A trait for which Americans are wellknown is the rapidity with which they forget--even things which once stirred their emotions to the highest pitch. This trait is being exhibited today in a tragic way, by the people as a whole and by Congress in particular. Thousands of soldiers now lying in hospitals or waiting for training in the officers of the Vocational Board are being neglected while bills that aim to provide for their welfare gather dust in Congressional Committee Cubby-holes. The most recent and important of these is the Rogers Bill which would substitute one Bureau of Veteran Re-establishment for the three present bureaus, each one of which is entangled in its own web of red-tape. But importance would appear to be a minor consideration in the deliberations of Congress.

Last spring Congress took the first step to remedy the dismal failure of the Federal Board for Vocational Training by considering a plan very similar to that contained in the Rogers Bill. No report was made on the plan until the last day of the session and the bill was lost. Consequently a whole summer intervened before this new bill was introduced. Unless Congress will shake off its present lethargy of "politics" and open its eyes to popular appeal this bill will suffer a similar fate.

In three weeks, during which the bill has been in the hands of a sub-committee, Congress has apparently forgotten it. No report on it has yet been made and the day of adjournment is too near to allow further delay.

The blindness which occasions such delay is appalling and yet is well-known. The last days of any Congress are a heetic political scramble in which proportion and discretion are usually lost sight of. Indifference to vital interests has meant the indefinite postponement of too many bills. In the present case, however, there are not only dollars, but lives at stake. It seems incredible that Congress, even though it be nearing its last meeting, should overlook this fact.