White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1932-11-10
Letters From
Our Readers
To the Editor:

made disabled from the other side OF
the question: what do they mean
taken as a whole, to the average small
town or community?
They mean first of all, that the cost
OF maintenance of these disabled men
and their families does not have to be
met entirely by local taxes or contri-
buttons, but are met in part by the
Federal government for which they
fought.
These payments also mean something
in the lives of the local storekeeper
and the local banker. A steady stream
Of funds is brought into the commun-
ity, benefiting all who share in it.
These funds help to make up, to the
communities in question, for the loss
in earning power resulting from dis
ability. A community liability is thus
changed in part, at least, to a commun-
ity asset.
In spite of this propaganda, the SYM
pathies of the American people-the
local taxpayers and home owners
and senators and representatives in the
Congress recognize this fact.
The twenty ne-and- half billions
by-1945 statement has been widely
broadcast by opponents. Although
General Hines has used it since April
1882, the Veterans Administration has
not yet supplied your committee WITH
the calculations upon which this es
innate is made. The reader could infer
that it is proposed to hand out this
sum in cash to the veterans. Of course
this is not true. Administration costs
salaries, hospital expenses and even
World war allotments of soldiers in
service have been included.
This huge sum is, nevertheless, one
of the prize exhibits in the opponents
category of charges against the vet
erans
If true, what does this twenty-one
and one-half billions amount to on an
annual basis from 1918 to 1915?
An average annual expenditure of
$767, $4,000. A nation which has been
expanding more than this sum an
nually on chewing gum, or foreign
travel, or jewelry-a nation which has
had an annual income hundred times
as great as these estimated veterans
costs-can at least afford to examine
veterans costs from the viewpoint of
reason and enlightenment, rather than
in the hasty attitude of unfriendliness
which opponents would invoke.
This $767,857O00 is only one-eighth
of the net income of $4,000 of our tax
payers in 1928.
This $767,857,0OO estimated annual
cost not only includes all legitimate
expenditures on behalf of World War
veterans, past, present, and future, but
also includes hugh sums which should
not be charged to their account by any
stretch of the imagination.
What Is Included
What are some of the various items
(actual and estimateO which go to
make up this "bugaboo" opponents
claim is weighing down the backs of
the common people and menacing their
future?
1. Adjusted Compensation. Without
additional legislation, the bulk of this
will be paid in 1915.
2. The War Risk Insurance, which
the veterans bought and paid for out
of their meager Army and Navy pay
while they were in the service. The cost
figure even omits the credit of 45,O0O,O0O
which the veterans paid the govern
ment in premiums on this insurance
against death and total permanent dis
ability.
8. The total government funds ex-
pended, past, present and future, in
the purchase or construction of hos
pitfalls to care for disabled World War
veterans.
q. The past, present and future
maintenance of veterans hospitals.
5. The past, present and future main
tenance of the medical personnel of
the Veterans Administration, in hos
pitfalls, clinics, regional offices and other
designated places.
6. The hundreds of millions of dol
lars expended by the government
shortly after the war in hurried at
tempt to provide vocational rehabil
tation for the war disabled.
Z. Death compensation, past present
and future, on account of the men
killed in action, died of wounds, or
whose death was otherwise caused by
their World War service
8. Disability compensation, past, pre-
sent and future, for men disabled as
a result of their World War service
9. The administrations initiated dis
ability allowance, which provides
monthly suns to permanently disabled
World War veterans whose disabilities
have not been connected with war SER
vice. This cost has increased more ra-
pidly than any other.
10. The huge Veterans Administra-