The President and his administrative family have in mind, as the basic principle of all hospital service, the very best that can be supplied, measured by real end-results. The Board of Hospitalization represents all of the Departments of the Government directing and controlling the Federal Hospitals of the United States. Each of the Chiefs of these Departments will speak of his particular relation to the subject of Hospitalization as it refers to the World War Veteran, as the program proceeds. In order that each of you may understand the magnitude of the entire subject of Hospitalization of the World War Veteran, I wish to present the following facts; Today there are being hospitalized under Government control, in Federal Hospitals, 22,440 World War Veterans, who are distributed among the various Departments as follows: U.S. Public Health Service 16,373 U.S. Army Hospitals 1,681 U.S. Navy Hospitals 1,059 Soldiers Home Hospitals 2,500 Dept. of the Interior Hospitals 827 —————— A total of 22,440 This does not take into account patients in contract hospitals which now number 9,066. This enumeration demonstrates something of the scope and nature of the work for which the members of the Board of Hospitalization are responsible. It may interest you to know that there are now under construction 7,592 new beds, which will be ready for occupancy within the next few months and that the Government is at present contemplating at least 2,500 more beds under the new Langley Bill, so ultimately the Government will have under its direct administration hospital capacity for a minimum of 32,000 patients, which is estimated to be the peak load. Heretofore there has been no coordinate plan of operation of these various institutions. Under the Board of Hospitalization all of this has been changed and today, you, whether from the Army, Navy, Public Health Service, National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers or the Department of the Interior are all members of one big professional family, each engaged in the same service, under the same regulations, for the care and treatment of the World War Veteran. The Hospitals engaged in this service number at present 107, distributed as follows: 77 Hospitals controlled and operated by the Public Health Service, 6 Hospitals controlled and operated by the War Department, 14 Hospitals controlled and operated by the Navy Department, 9 Hospitals controlled and operated by the Soldiers Homes, 1 Hospitals controlled and operated by the Interior Department. These institutions are located in all sections of the United States from the Atlantic to the Pacific and constitute one of the greatest hospitalization propositions within the history of any country.