The Washington times., 1922-09-15
Six Reasons
FOrtheBOnus


tn day one of his questions was
"Do You Approve of the Soldier
Bonus, and Whyf"
Mr.. Hearst's answer follows:
THE SOLDIERS BONUS.
I certainly approve. of the SOL
diers' bonus. 1t is a moral obliga-
ton which it would be shameful
to avoid.
My reasons for approving it are {:
FIRST, the Republican Party,
which controls the present Con-
gress, declared in its national plat
form in favor of the soldier bonus,
and went before the country with
that as one of it's main issues.
If the elected Congress fails to
carry out it's formal platform
pledge, the Senators and Represent
atives will be in the contemplate
position of having professed a pa
triotic sentiment which they did
not feel in order to secure votes
and then having repudiated their
pledges upon which they had been
elected.
ESTABLISHED PRINCIPLE.
SECOND, because it is the estab-
lished principle of this country to
give soldiers bonuses.
After the Civil War bonuses were
given to the. soldiers, and even
some of the Congressional op-
ponents of the bonus like Senator
Knute Nelson of Minnesota and
Senator Francis E. Warren of
Wyoming, received their bonuses
after the Civil War without protest.
Even so distinguished a soldier
and patriot as Gen. George Wash
ington received a large bonus of
public lands for his services during
the Revolutionary War, and did
not hesitate to accept it.
THIRD, because England and
France and most of the Allies en-
gagged in the great war have paid
their soldiers bonuses and have
paid these bonuses out of OUR
money.
And there seems to be no good
reason why we should not use
some of our money to pay our own
soldiers a bonus instead of pro-
viding it so literally to other ma
tions to pay THEIR soldiers
bonuses.
FOURTH, because the average
wage before the war was at least
five dollars a day. But during the
war the soldiers who went abroad
and fought in the trenches received
only one dollar a day, while the
workers who stayed at home and
worked in factories under high war
wages received approximately ten
dollars a day.
The men who did the fighting
got one-fifth the average wage,
while the men who did not do the
fighting got twice the average
wage.
1t is but poor and inadequate
compensation to give those men
who fought so bravely, who ran so
much risk and. endured so much
hardship and privation, very
small part of what they were de-
prived of during the war which
they won.
PEOPLE DEMAND 1T.
FIFTH, because the will of the
people of the United States should
be the guiding principle in legis-
lation, and in nearly every State
where the question of a soldier
bonus has come before the people
in a referendum the people have
voted by large majorities in favor
YEA the soldier bonus.
SIXTH, because the classes who
rare, opposed to the soldier bonus
E|s |s Sxe% largely the big business inter
ErI.SssSts,o and the privileged financial
and social classes, who are afraid
Ethat- they will have to pay taxes
for the soldier bonus.
VTbse big financial leaders and
s. Vcit I leaders are the people who
wanted the war and clamored for
tRe War and finally succeeded in
projecting the United States into
tbenWar, largely on account of
their sympathies with foreign
countries with which they had con-
nectf8nS.
Now, they have had their war
and they do not want to pay for
it. They profiteered during the