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I have had some contact with some pretty important people. Out of all these Moro veterans that still exist and live, some of them have been successful in their economic life and don't look forward to this bill.

I have here a very fine statement from a major down in Georgia who participated in this campaign, and he himself admits that there is nothing in this bill that he looks forward to except to render a service and do his part in carrying on this campaign to reward and make it possible for a little better sunset for these people.

Mr. BOYKIN. Don't you think we ought to put his name in the record?

Mr. WIER. I am going to.

Now then this legislation has been before the Congress over a long period of time. This communication that Major Kemp sent me Ï think outlines for the benefit of the committee and the record 11 reasons in defense of this action.

In my community, Minneapolis, I have contact with possibly 35 of these remaining veterans. I know that they are all Moro veterans, but I don't know that that is all there is left in Minneapolis. It is not over 40 or 50 that are left. I would say that 85 to 90 percent of those veterans out of that campaign are men of need today. They are men who have deteriorated. There are a half dozen of them in the Minnesota State Soldiers Home where they merely get an existenceno money. But they get a roof, shelter, and food and lodging.

The rest of them are ekeing out a living at the expense of friends and relatives.

So to me it was indeed a pitiful scene.

The time in this Moro insurrection was underestimated. Major Kemp sent me along some of the battle scenes. Here is a photograph of the bodies of many of the boys who participated being shipped back to the United States. Here they are being buried in a trench.

And he goes on to make known that this was not just a police action; this was a most vigorous campaign in a foreign country and under the most terrible conditions, to which our South Pacific boys can testify.

So I am going to turn this over, Mr. Chairman, this material here and these 11 reasons. In these 11 reasons he gives the history of this legislation. He says, "The wording of this bill-" referring to the bill of former Congressman Rankin who headed this committee for many years

Mr. BOYKIN. Bless his heart. He was a great man.

Mr. WIER. That is right.

And, speaking of H. R. 5932, he says about the bill:

The wording of this bill is that of General Hines when Administrator of Veterans' Affairs so as to eliminate previous objections that had been raised by either the War Department or Veterans' Administration. A somewhat similar bill that would have accomplished the same purpose has passed the House twice and the Senate once.

Then he goes on to give the number of veterans that were engaged in that activity, the number who lost their lives, the number who were crippled and so on and so forth. And he goes on to give the number who were alive in 1949. It is very interesting, and I think answers all of the questions.

I have heard the reasons given here for 6 years as to why these bills don't pass. I want to give credit to Congressman Mack for the job that he did last year in getting out of this committee his bill and getting it to the Rules Committee. But the Rules Committee, for one reason or another, failed to give it a rule and permit it to get on the House floor.

As the gentlemen have said, it has passed the House twice and the Senate once, the same identical bill. This resolution is the same as Congressman Mack's.

The only thing that I have ever heard around here in opposition to this bill is not the cost of it, not the fact that these veterans of Moro fought the same kind of war and fought a supplemental war to the Spanish-American War, but the only logic that was raised-and it is not raised any more since the Korean war-was that this was an undeclared war.

As to the Moro insurrection, if you will remember, we had reached peace with Spain, and the war was declared at an end. Then the Filipino insurrectionists, under the leadership of General Aguinaldo, started a campaign of their own for the freedom of the Philippines, which resulted in the United States sending our troops over there. These were the Moro insurrectionists.

And because it wasn't a declared war, these men have been denied the benefits that have been approved for the Spanish-American War

veterans.

So I make my plea here again today. If it doesn't pass in this Congress and I come back to the 85th this will be here again. As long as there is one of those men living I will be before this committee asking for the passage of this bill. I am going to introduce this material, Mr. Chairman, because I think it will be helpful to you.

Mr. BOYKIN. Without objection, it is so ordered.

Mr. WIER. It will be helpful in bringing it to the House floor or to the Rules Committee. I want to thank you for this opportunity. I hope you don't make it necessary for me to come back next session.

Mr. BOYKIN. Congressman, you have made a marvelous statement, and you have a wonderful lot of information that is going to be very helpful to this committee.

Mr. WIER. If you need more than there is some more.

Mr. BOYKIN. Good. We appreciate your coming here this morning. I think there is a question.

Mr. FINO. Congressman, you testified that similar bills have previously passed either the House or the Senate but never both Houses, and had never gone to the President.

Mr. WIER. The one that the Senate passed and the House passed the President vetoed.

Mr. FINO. Was there any memorandum that accompanied the veto of this bill?

Mr. WIER. It is in the records of the committee here, yes. Since the President vetoed the bill on those grounds the House has since passed it twice, but not the Senate.

Mr. BOYKIN. Congressman, you mentioned a man whose portrait is up here right behind you, John Rankin of Mississippi. I think John Rankin, who was here for many, many years, did as much for the veterans of all wars as any man on earth.

Mr. WEIR. John Rankin got this bill through his committee and though the House twice after the President vetoed it.

Mr. BOYKIN. And I will do my best to get it through the committee

now.

Mr. WIER. That I know. Thank you so much.

(The material submitted by Mr. Wier is as follows:)

PHILIPPINE-PACIFIC WAR VETERANS

National Headquarters

MINNEAPOLIS 10, MINN.

ELEVEN REASONS WHY H. R. 5932, INTRODUCED BY MR. RANKIN, COVERING THE PULAJANE AND MORO CAMPAIGNS FROM JULY 4, 1902, TO DECEMBER 31, 1913, SHOULD BE APPROVED BY THE 2D SESSION OF THE 81ST CONGRESS

1. The wording of this bill is that of General Hines, when Administrator of Veterans' Affairs, so as to eliminate previous objections that had been raised by either the War Department or Veterans' Administration. A somewhat similar bill, that would have accomplished the same purpose, has passed the House twice and the Senate once.

2. A near-accurate estimate of the surviving veterans affected places the number under 2,000, with around 200 unremarried widows still living. The average age of these veterans is now 68.

3. Comparing the small number of men taking part in the Pulajane and Moro wars with an equal number engaged in the Spanish-American War, Boxer Rebellion, or Philippine Insurrection, the records will show the percent of battle casualties far greater in the Pulajane and Moro wars between July 4, 1902, and December 31, 1913, than during the period from April 1898 to July 4, 1902. Citing but 2 instances as examples, in 1 Moro engagement 34 percent of the American soldiers taking part were killed, while at the battle of Bud-Dajo, in April 1906, more Americans were killed and wounded than met a similar fate in August 1898, during the naval and military bombardment and capture of Manila. The total killed at Bud-Dajo, Americans and Moros, amounted to over 1,000 with an unknown number wounded.

4. Casualties in the Philippines up to noon on July 4, 1902, are classed as wartime casualties incident to the Philippine Insurrection, surviving veterans now being entitled to wartime disability and service pensions. Casualties occurring after noon on July 4, 1902, are classed as peacetime casualties incident to military operations against hostile Pulajanes and savage Moros, surviving veterans being denied the same disability pension, and no service pension at all, such as is now granted their comrades who served in the same war prior to noon on July 4, 1902.

5. Had there been no Spanish-American War, there would have been no Philippine Insurrection. Had there been no insurrection, there would not have followed, without a break in military operations, the so-called peacetime Pulajane and Moro wars which took place between the dates of July 4, 1902, and December 31, 1913.

6. No other peacetime campaign, expedition, or occupation compares with, or was of a similar nature, as the Pulajane and Moro wars, due to the fact that the Pulajane and Moro wars were but the natural and to be expected continuation of the original Philippine Insurrection which did not by any means terminate at high noon on July 4, 1902, as the expected result of the President's ill-timed Proclamation of Peace.

7. Changes in military operations after this premature peace date were in name only, that is, prior to July 4, 1902, we were engaged in an undeclared war against Filipino insurgents, including the Moro tribes, but after that date the words "war" and "insurrections," for political reasons, were dropped and we were thereafter engaged in peacetime activities against hostile Pulajanes on the islands of Samar and Leyte and savage Moros on the island of Mindanao, including the Moro Province, all of whom were still in open rebellion against the authority of the United States Government.

8. Strange as it may appear, American soldiers killed in action or dying as a result of wounds or injuries, while engaged in peacetime combat against hostile Pulajanes or savage Moros between July 4, 1902, and December 31,

1913, were just as dead and had suffered the same agony as their comrades who met a like fate in the official Philippine Insurrection prior to July 4, 1902. 9. Military records sustain the fact that the Pulajane and Moro war veterans actually served in the same war, under the same conditions, same enlistment contract, received the same wartime pay of $15.60 per month, same poor and scanty rations, were exposed to the same combat and tropical disease hazards, and subject to the same inadequate medical attention as those who served prior to July 4, 1902. However, through some peculiar quirk or screwy action of the mind, both the present-day War Department and Veterans' Administration officials object to these few veterans being granted the pension to which their wartime service entitles them.

10. The War Department of 40 years ago, whose officials at that time were nearly all veterans of the Spanish-American War, recognized combat service against the hostile Pulajanes and savage Moros as wartime service when Congress issued the same Philippine War Medal, same Medal of Honor, same Certificate of Merit, and, later on, same Purple Heart to these veterans as it had issued those who had served in the Philippine Insurrection prior to July 4, 1902. 11. War medals, medals for valor displayed on the field of battle, and Purple Hearts are not, and never have been, issued to commemorate peacetime or parade ground service, hence a state of war must have existed on the islands of Samar and Leyte until June 30, 1907, and on the island of Mindanao, including the Moro Province, to December 31, 1913, else these veterans would not have been issued the wartime medals referred to. This line of reasoning being founded on facts, then the veterans covered by H. R. 5932, by all legal and moral rights should be entitled to the same pension privileges as those with like service who served in the same war prior to July 4, 1902.

GEORGE J. DIDYOUNG,

Official:

National Commander. JOHN U. SHROYER,

Chairman, National Legislative Commission.

CHARLES V. STEVENS, N. A.

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