638 LINDSAY— SOLDIERS' AND SAILORS' INSURANCE. 



The conditions of dependency and habitual contribution make 

 investigation to prevent fraud, and adjustment to the changing con- 

 ditions affecting dependents, such as births and deaths in the family, 

 children reaching the age of eighteen, or contracting marriage before 

 that age, and economic conditions affecting the family income, of 

 the greatest complexity and difficulty in maintaining the necessary 

 records in the War Risk Bureau in order that awards may be made 

 promptly and allowances paid accurately each month as they be- 

 come due. Severe penalties are provided for intentional fraud. 

 Anyone knowingly making a false statement of a material fact in 

 connection with claims under the act is guilty of perjury and will 

 be punished by a fine up to $5,000, or by imprisonment up to two 

 years, or both. A beneficiary, whose right to payments under the 

 act ceases, and who fraudulently accepts such payments thereafter, 

 will be punished by a fine up to $2,000, or by imprisonment up to 

 one year, or both. 



Only great loyalty and patriotism on the part of several thou- 

 sand employes of all grades has made it possible to establish a new- 

 organization, housed in several different buildings, working under 

 the greatest physical limitations under present circumstances in 

 Washington, and to get this work reasonably well started. 



Within the first four months after family allowances became 

 payable, over a million checks have been sent out, aggregating more 

 than $18,000,000 for allotments and $11,000,000 for allowances. 

 Over a million index cards have been prepared and properly filed, 

 and only 15,000 applications were held in suspense at the end of 

 this period for further correspondence and investigation before 

 awards were made. 



Delays have been inevitable. The government has had to rely 

 upon outside agencies to tide over cases of need until its relief could 

 be made effective. The patience of many beneficiaries whose claims 

 could not be adjusted as promptly as the government desired, has 

 doubtless been taxed. The difficulties of making records or getting 

 information concerning men scattered all over the world, in military 

 camps, in the expeditionary forces, and on ships at sea, can not be 

 fully appreciated by every family whose interests naturally seem to 

 them to be of paramount importance. The work is rapidly being 



