The Lexington progress. (Lexington, Tenn.) 1884-current, 1922-03-17

there is no way to raise the money.
They didn't talk that way in Wall
Street among themselves. They know
better. That talk is only good enough
for few honest and easily-alarmed
citizens of the rest of the country, to
stir them up to write letters to their
Congressman protesting against the
Adjusted Compensation Bill.
The Journal" betrays an apprecia-
ton of propriety when it remarked
that financial interests and even the
Treasury are not the people to make
the right answer to the bonus claim"
1t probably realizes only too we'll that
the country at large knows how to
weigh the kind of answer they
give. That answer is worth .02 on a
par valuation of 100.
Here is a delightful pleasantly
from from the "Wall Street Journal
of January Goth:
Zone fact which seems disagreeable
to those who are conducting the agi-
tation for the bonus is that the best
men who served in the Army abroad
and at home do not want bonus"
BY "best men," we presume the
the journal" means clubmen and
other prosperous ex-service men who
set themselves up in pharisaical patri-
otto righteousness and sneer snob-
bishly at the basically honest and hon.
estly represented claim of the great ma.
jority of ex-service men for whom the
war meant financial hardship. II
probably means that the small GROUP
of ex-service men who found accu
mulated interest on investments wait
ing for them upon their discharge
from the service, or men with famil.
backing to help them regain a foot
hold in their interrupted civilian life
By "best men," it means the "sill
stocking" opposition to compensation
But the Journal" is wrong, even II
its own reconing. The great majorit.
Of ex-service men who are financial,
prosperous and are leaders in thei
communities do not oppose compensa
ton. They are fair enough to recog
nize the need of recompense by tn,
greater number.
And it is to the Journal" that W,
must go for the truth about unem
ployment among ex-service men. tn,
Legion's estimate of 100000 to 700,
600 jobless veterans and Secretar!
Hoover's figures are wrong. For tn,
Journal" on January 30th, tells us
"The most extreme and depressing
figures of unemployment among thos,
who are said to need the bonus ar,
less than three per cent. of the Who'll,
and these are deliberately padded by
duplication"
That statement doesn't require any
further comment.
ut would be hard to find G. A. R
man who would endorse the brazer
bonus proposal. They are citizens o.
another fatherhood than those 300 pei
cent. Americans with a discount fol
cash."
Is the wall Street Journal" so ig
norant that it does not know of tn,
bounty system of the Civil War, b,
which men who enlist got an adjust
ment of compensation in advance
Does it not know that the G. A. r. il
its early history was compelled t
fight strenously to obtain and pro
tect tie simplest rights of its mem
bers and to effect fulfillment of tn,
Governments duty toward them?
But here is one kind of compensa
ton that the "Wall Street Journal
solidly is for. 1t seems that the gov
eminent drafted the railroads during
the war, and the journal" of Febru
airy 18th, remarks:
The railroads are short not les:
than $350,000,000 of compensation
both morally and legally due them"
The "Wall Street Journal" isn't I,
be blamed for its words, perhaps. I
is serving well the interests for whicl
it stands But the country shout,
know just whom it is serving. Let tn,
people of America scrutinize the hun
dreds of arguments against compen
sation. Let them look for the mark
Made in Wall Street. American
Legion Weekly. @s'