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Dishonorable discharge terminates the right to the compensation. Compensation is not assignable and is exempt from attachment execution and from all taxation, and the law providing for gratuity of payments for death in the service and all existing pension laws does not apply to persons in the active service at the time of the passage of this act, or to those entering into the active service after, or to their widows, children or dependents, except in so far as rights under such laws shall have heretofore accrued. In addition to the benefits mentioned there is provision for the payment by the United States of burial expenses not to exceed $100. The compensation to a widow or widowed mother ceases upon her remarriage, and to a child when it reaches the age of 18 years or marries, unless the child be incapable because of insanity, idiocy, or being otherwise permanently helpless, in which case it continues during such incapacity.

In the interpretation of the compensation provision, the Bureau of War Risk Insurance has endeavored to be as liberal as the spirit of the law permits. An illustration of this is found in the definition by regulation of the term "total disability," which is defined as "an impairment of the mind or body which renders it impossible for the disabled person to follow a gainful occupation," and again in the regulation which says that "total disability is deemed to be permanent whenever it is founded upon conditions which render it reasonably certain that it will continue throughout the life of the person suffering from it."

In addition to providing compensation for disability and death, the government promises in this act to do everything in its power to restore a man who has been injured by accident or diseases incurred in the line of duty to the fullest possible physical and economic power. The people of the United States do not want this war to produce a large crop of "corner loafers," that is, men who will come back injured more or less seriously by their war experience, and without ambition, to rely upon what the government will do for them and consider that it owes them a living. They will be far happier if they can be restored in part, if not in whole, to their previ- ous earning ability and have found for them some new occupation which they can successfully pursue even though maimed and impaired in physical powers. Courses of education and rehabilitation will be provided by the United States.

Already rehabilitation work and vocational training have been begun by the Surgeon General of the Army and by the Surgeon General of the Navy, who make provision for bedside instruction and training during convalescence until the men are discharged from the service. The Vocational Rehabilitation Act of June 27, 1918, makes provisions whereby the Federal Board for Vocational Education is authorized and directed to furnish, where vocational rehabilitation is feasible, such courses as it may prescribe, to every person who is disabled under circumstances entitling him after discharge from the military or naval forces of the United States to compensation under the War Risk Insurance Act. While taking such courses the injured person receives monthly compensation equal to the amount of his monthly pay for the last month of his active service, or equal to the amount of his compensation under the War Risk Insurance Act, whichever amount is the greater: and in the case of an enlisted man, his family receives compulsory allotment and family allowance in the same way as provided for enlisted men in active service. It also authorizes the bureau to withhold the payment of compensation during the period of any wilful failure to follow any prescribed course of rehabilitation or to submit to medical examination whenever required to do so, or to enlist in any service established for the purpose of rehabilitation, re-education or vocational training. The board may also pay additional expenses where necessary to enable injured men to follow successfully its prescribed courses of rehabilitation.

III. Insurance Against Death and Permanent and Total Disability as Added Protection

The third great national service provided for the military and naval forces by the War Risk Insurance Bureau is intended to copper rivet the protection afforded by the other two -- allotments and family allowances, and compensation and indemnity. It is what is generally known as annual, renewable, term insurance with premiums paid monthly. It is voluntary but may be taken by officers, enlisted men, and members of the army or navy nurse corps (female) in amounts of not less than $1,000, in multiples of $500 up to a maximum of $10,000. Its chief purpose is to restore the insurability which a man in prime physical condition who passes the medical tests required for active military or naval service, either loses or finds impaired when he enters such service. This lost or impaired insurability is restored by giving him the opportunity to buy insurance at peace rate cost renewable from year to year, and convertible into any of the ordinary forms of insurance within five years after the end of the war, without physical examination.