The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-11-23
PEOPLES FORUM
Ronu. |. ReaIIv Not a Bonus

Bonus Is Really Not a Bonus
 To the Editor of The Age-Herald:
 It was with much interest that
 read your editorial of the 21st | entitled. "The Fight Against the l Bonus" I agree with this edito-
 rial thoroughly and wish to con graduate you most heartily for
 your position on this question.
 England's national debt is forty seven per cent. of her resources,
 and she paid her soldiers adjusted
 compensation. Frances national
 debt is fifty three per cent. of her
 resources, and she has paid her
 soldiers .arjusted compensation.
 The national debt of the United
 States is only seven per cent. of
 her resources, and she ought to
 pay her soldiers adjusted compen-
 sation. Canada has paid her sol-
 diers $500 each and has passed a
 law to pay them $1,500 more each,
 when she can finance the deal. President Washington drew ad-
 justed compensation of over $64,- 900 after the Revolutionary War from the government and $10,000 from the state of Virginia, and recommended it for all revolu- tionary soldiers. President Lin coin drew adjusted compensation for being a soldier in the "Black Hawk" War, although he himself admitted he never saw a hostile Indian.
 Men, remaining civilians, were getting from s6 to s15 per day for making bullets in the United States during the war, and our soldier boys, from the same walk of life, their companions in peace days, were only getting $1.10 per day overseas as soldiers for stop ping bullets. I say most emphati- cally at least a part of this diff ference in pay Is a debt the gov ernment owes the soldier boys in the form of an adjusted compensa- 'tion and Is not and should not be called a bonus.
 WILLIAM L. WHITE.
 Birmingham, Ala, Nov. 21, 1928. Something Wrong in Agriculture To the Editor of The Age Herald:
 In a recent issue of The Age Herald there appeared an editorial the admonitions of which should make us ruminate seriously. Your editorial writer, commenting upon a Georgia editorial, empha- sizes the fact that there are great opportunities for exploiting the soil within the Southern states, but that the youth of today pre- fer the white collar" job. Many thousands of people are hungry and i'll clad. Thousands of our Our federal and state governments spend millions on agricultural ed- ucation and investigation. Why 1 shouldn't our ambitious young men turn to the soil within their | own townships rather than seek 1 white collar" jobs Tn distant l cities or in cob-web covered will lages?
 I have lived until this fall in the great wheat belts of western | Montana and eastern Washington. | This year the crop has been abun- dant. Last week a banker of that | region wrote me that despite the bumper crop the rancher Gas the | farmer is there called) and the bankers are hard hit, as the wheat | quotations do not pay the cost of | production. Last year at a wheat growers convention in Spokane, Washington, q member asked l those present this question: How many of you have made a profit on the last half-dozen seasons?" Not a man present would admit that he had. And the years under consideration covered the war years of S2.20 wheat! The Walla Walla Valley of southeastern Washington this fall boasted of an enormous crop of plump mel low prunes, They were shipped out of the valley by the carload. Yet the price did not meet the cost of picking and packing the crop. The same can be said of Oregon apples, those big rep de- licious and peerless winter ba- nanas. Conditions in agricultural communities the country over are little better The weevil and army worm played hob with our cotton. But if there had been a larger crop what would the price have been?
 I am not a "kill-joy;" in fact, my friends call me an optimist. But it is evident to any lover of the soil that there is something rotten" with the entire agricul- tural industry in the United States. And what is more, the farmer, rancher and planter seem helpless. Their efforts to improve their condition and to make the basic industry of the world pay is treated with sneers and con- tumely by the business interests. As Governor Nestos Gan anti-non- partisan) said recently: When the manufacturers or. the shipping industry need profit they con- slider it sound business and unsel- fish to demand a protective tariff or ship subsidy But when the farmer demands the same privi- lege he is called selfish hayseed and a bolshevik."
 I hold with Thomas Jefferson that agriculture Is the source of our political and social purity. and virility. But young men will not engage in it if the farmer is ex- pected to work long hours. with out profit, He cannot be ex- pected to voluntarily accept mar tyrdom if he is not accepted as a martyr. The Democratic party was once the party of the soil. If it does not come out definitely for the farmer we may expect that F the farme twill again have party of his own as in the days of Pop ulism. II. A.. TREXLER.
 Birmingham Southern College. EVERYTHING IS