634 LINDSAY— SOLDIERS' AND SAILORS' INSURANCE. 



division alone and the volume of its business has not yet reached 

 its maximum proportions. 



Permit me now briefly to describe the three subdivisions of this 

 beneficient law and to summarize its workings, problems and results 

 during the first six months of its history. 



I. Allotments of Pay (Compulsory and Voluntary) and 

 Family Allowances. 



Congress had prepared the way and laid the right foundation for 

 allotments and allowances by raising the pay of enlisted men in 

 the Army and Navy, making the minimum pay for nearly all in 

 the service $30 a month, or double what it was before in most cases, 

 and higher than that of any other army in the world. This was a 

 just measure to protect the highest standards of living in any country 

 when so many of our citizens were called upon to forsake their usual 

 peaceful occupations. But this was not enough to equalize the 

 sacrifices which all citizens must make in time of war. No rate of 

 pay for the army and navy could be made high enough to do that. 

 So Congress proceeded to supplement the regular pay upon the 

 theory that since the call to arms does not annul the moral and legal 

 obligations of every man to support his family and those who have 

 a blood-tie claim upon his earnings, it is the plain duty of the whole 

 country which he serves to aid him financially to do this without 

 undue lowering of his standard of living, and without requiring a 

 disproportionate sacrifice on the part of his dependents. 



This is sound doctrine, however, only when the enlisted man first 

 does his part and contributes from his own resources all he can 

 reasonably spare. Therefore we begin with the allotment which 

 must precede a request for an allowance. Allotments and family 

 allowances are not provided for commissioned officers or for mem- 

 bers of the Nurse Corps (female). The allotment is compulsory 

 for every enlisted man who has a wife, or child under eighteen years 

 of age or of any age if the child is insane or permanently helpless, or 

 a divorced wife to whom alimony has been decreed by a court, and 

 who has not remarried. These persons constitute what is known as 

 " Class A " dependents. A common-law wife is entitled to the same 

 consideration as a legal wife and the claims of a legal wife and of 



