The New York herald., 1922-02-16
VETERAN OF navy
DENOUNCES BONUS
w. c. Van Antwerp of San
Francisco Calls Scheme
Unworthy.
NO PAY DUE, HE SAYS
Shows That Service Men
Received Total Equiva-
lent to 500 Monthly.
FEAR PERMANENT LOBBY
Declared Men Privileged to
Defend Country Should Be
Above Gift Seeking.
FEAR PERMANENT LOBBY


Van Antwerp, navy veteran of the
world war, who has telegraphed to
Senator McCumber and Representative
Fordney asking a public hearing for
American Legion men who are opposed
! to bonus, said to-day:
This measure is termed by it's pro-
/ ponents an adjusted compensation act,
thus implying that there is something
to be adjusted in the way of COM
pensation for those who served in
the war. They do not like the term
bonus; indeed many of them deny
that it is a bonus because the word
bonus means a gift or honorarium in
excess of ordinary pay, ard they state
that they do not ask for gifts.
"Their argument is that the man
who served in the armed forces Of the
United States received a rate Of pay
ment fixed by the Government, the
basic rate being $50 month for the
2,679000 men called upon for actual
military service, whereas 5,S97 900 men
registered under the selective Service
law of 1917 and, given deferred classi-
fication. were allowed to work at such
occupations as they chose and for
whatever compensation they could OBJ
tain.
1T is asserted that great financial ad-
vantage accrued to those who remained
in civilian occupations and that this
advantage was shared by all other
Americans who remained at work.
Therefore, what Is now sought is pay
ment in the nature of equalization for
men in the armed forces. to compensate
them for what they profess to have
lost by not working in the shipyards
munition plants, &c.
Denies Unfair Pay.
LET us examine this matter. In the
first place, 1t Is not true that men in
! the armed forces received only their
pay at a basic rate of $50 month. The
Senate committee which reported the
bill estimated that the cost per man
for food, shelter and clothing was $50
additional. or that In pay and in these
necessities each man received approx
mately $50 a month. In other words
the Senate committee itself estimates
that the compensation thus received
was equivalent to the earnings Of man
outside the forces who worked twenty
six days a month at $3.46 a day, which
! is rate of sl,Os0 year.
THAT hoppens to be very little short
! of estimates for the average annual
earnings of employees in all industries
as computed by we'll known economists
and submitted to Congress in October.
! 1921, by the Joint Committee on Agri-
culture The average earnings in all
industries computed for 1918 (the latest
year for which these figures have been
prepared) were $1,094, which, as we
have just seen. is only s14 year more
than our soldiers received.
Cites other Benefits.
"But to the compensation received
by men in the armed forces as outlined
above are to be added other benefits,
which included not merely such in
cidentals as medical attention and pro-
lection of their property against civil
action. &C., but such substantial pro-
visions as allowances fer dependents,
which aggregate s29S. 100000, and as
sumption for men in tls armed forces
OF the whole war cost of insurance
policies aggregating $50, 900. .000.0 900. No
other Government made such generous
provision for the men in its armed
forces and those dependent upon them
Indeed, instead of receiving less than
the men who stayed home our soldiers,
as all this proves. actually received
more. What then is there to adjust"
Why call this measure an adjusted
compensation bill when actually it is
nothing of the sort?
"As for the men who remained at
work in civilian occupations at home,
II ig a fact familiar to every one that
the purchasing power OF their com
pensation during the war was only half
of what it was before the war.
War Profits Gone.
1.-The same is true ot those manufar r.
turers and industrial leaders who
seemed. but only seemed, to be maxim;
large profits III actually there were
large profits. they were subjected to the
most rigorous taxation that any coun-
try ever devised and to such an extent
that to-day those profits are non-exisf-
ent From these hardships of hig
costs and burdensome taxation the mea
under arms were alone immune, and la
addition to that immunity the Govern
ment is faithfully discharging its duty
to the dead. injured and disabled
through insurance and vocational train
ing. which now costs the taxpayers
$3.50, 900 a year. Nor is this all. Sew
enteen States have already provided
S20O,OOOOOO IN cash bonuses TO their vet
Grams and seven other States VIII
shortly swell this total.
"The bonus bill now before Congress
offers to the veteran any one of several
options other than the cash adjustment
above described. He Is thus offered n
preferential right to acquire home
steads upon lands open 60 settlement
ard upon Federal reclamation projects,
with his adjusted service pay plus 40
per cent lie is also offered his bonus
plus 40 per cent. IL he elects to pur-
chase n home, lie is also offered his
bonus plus 30 per cent. IL he chooses an
approved course i'm vocational training.
| Finally. IL he decides upon the out-and-
out bonus the bill provides payments
may be deferred for twenty years. offer
ing as an inducement 40 per cent. plus
~ per cent. compound interest
Notwithstanding the fact that many
Of these options are praiseworthy incen-
tives to thrift. I am opposed to them
ALL first, because the men in our armed
forces have already received adequate
compensation second. because no man
who has enjoyed the blessed privilege OF