No more important duty falls on the Government of the United States than the adequate care of its veterans.  Those suffering disabilities incurred in the service must have sufficient hospital relief and compensation.  Their dependents must be supported.  Rehabilitation and vocational training must be completed.  All of this service must be clean, must be prompt and effective, and it must be administered in a spirit of the broadest and deepest human sympathy.  If investigation reveals any present defects of administration or need Of legislation, orders will be given for the immediate correction of administration, and recommendations for legislation should be given the highest preference.

At present there are 9,500 vacant beds in Government hospitals, I recommend that all hospitals be authorized at once to receive and care for, without hospital pay, the veterans of all wars needing such care, whenever there are vacant beds, and that immediate steps be taken to enlarge and build new hospitals to serve all such cases.

The American Legion will present to the Congress a legislative program too extensive for detailed discussion here.  It is a carefully matured plan.  While some of it I do not favor, with much of it I am in hearty accord, and I recommend that a most painstaking effort be made to provide remedies for any defects in the administration of the present laws which their experience has revealed.  The attitude of the Government toward these proposals should be one of generosity.  But I do not favor the granting of a bonus.

COAL

The cost of coal has become unbearably high.  It places a great burden on our industrial and domestic life.  The public welfare requires a reduction in the price of fuel.  With the enormous deposits in existence, failure of supply ought not to be tolerated.  Those responsible for the conditions in this industry should undertake its reform and free it from any charge of profiteering.

The report of the Coal Commission will be before the Congress.  It comprises all the facts.  It represents the mature deliberations and conclusions of the best talent and experience that ever made a national survey of the production and distribution of fuel.  I do not favor Government ownership or operation of coal mines.  The need is for action under private ownership that will secure greater continuity of production and greater public protection.  The Federal Government probably has no peacetime authority to regulate wages, prices, or profits in coal at the mines or among dealers, but by ascertaining and publishing facts it can exercise great influence.

The source of the difficulty in the bituminous coal fields is the intermittence of operation which causes great waste of both capital and labor.  That part of the report dealing with this problem has much significance, and is suggestive of necessary remedies.  By amending, the car rules, by encouraging greater unity of ownership, and possibly by permitting common selling agents for limited districts on condition that they accept adequate regulations and guarantee that competition between districts be unlimited, distribution, storage, and continuity ought to be improved.