Evening star., 1933-03-19
BY MARK SULLIVAN.

THE veterans, fully nineteen
twentieths of them, think that
their friend, their only friend.
i is the member of Congress who
last week voted against reduc-,
ton of veterans compensation All
over the country, veterans and groups
Of veterans are mobilizing themselves
mentally to vote next year against the
Congressman who voted with President
Roosevelt for reduction and in favor
of the Congressman who opposed Pres
ident Roosevelt and wanted to prevent
reduction of veterans compensations.
The assumption of the veterans about
who is their friend is a mistake One
wonders if it is possible to make this
sufficiently clear for every veteran to
understand
Let us begin by stating one inescap-
able condition: With the dollar at its
present value, the Government cannot
continue to pay billion dollars. year
to veterans. 1t literally cannot.
The Classic Illustration.
This assertion will be instantly, and
angrily. queried by many veterans. But
the assertion is true nevertheless. Let
us see If we can prove it by the case
OF the farmer and his mortgage and
his wheat. The farmer and his mort
gage and his wheat compose the classic
illustration of what we are all up
against"
A farmer n 1929 put mortgage of
$4,000 on his farm At that time wheat
was dollar bushel That is, the
value of dollar was one bushel OF
wheat, Under that condition. with
wheat dollar a bushel, the farmer
could readily pay the interest on his
mortgage and readily pay the principal
when due.
In 1888, however, wheat is less than
so cents bushel To put that the
other war around, the value of a dollar
= Is now two bushels of wheat With
wheat at only so cents a bushel, the
farmer cannot, literally cannot. pay the
interest on his mortgage, or the prin-
cipal when due
Now this the veteran can readily
understand. If he has any difficulty,
let him drive along a country road
until he finds a farmer with a mort
gage, and talk it aver.
Now in that observation we only
need to substitute the Government for
the farmer. The Government in 1929,
or thereabouts. or in earlier years, un-
dertook to pay the veterans a billion
value 1t then had, the Government
could do this. But with the dollar
at the value it now has, the Govern
ment cannot pay that billion dollars a
year any more than the farmer can
pay the interest on his mortgage.
U. S. in Like Condition.
True, the, Government can 60 on pay
ing for a certain time, just as the
farmer can go on paying for a certain
time. For both, the means of going
on is the same. The means is borrow
ing. And for both farmer and the
Government the end is the same. The
end is inability to borrow more.
When the Government can no longer
borrow. it resorts to, OR is forced to. or
drifts to o-e thing. 1t dilutes the dol
lar. The fiilution goes by the name
OF imitation. and it is quite similar to
dlluting rfilk with water. BY dilution,
imitation, lthe dollar becomes 80 cents,
or 30 cents, or so cents, or, if it goes
Sothing 6 hin 4 4 slS all. marx old IN Germany
Dllutlng the dollar can be done in
one or Two ways. The Government can
dilute the dollar furtively by just print
ing more and more of them; or it can
dilute by act Of Congress decreeing that
the dollar hereafter shall be worth only
what, is now 80 cents, or 80 cents, or
30 cents, or what not.
Now this way out through dilution,
Imitation is what most Of the politicians
offer the veterans. They say to the
veteran that they will keep his pension
at, let us say, S100 month. Then they
either say or else they refrain from
saying, but we will dilute each dollar
down to 80 cents or what not.
Calls for Expansion"
Some of the politicians are quite
frank about it. In the debate last week
on President Roosevelt's proposal, Rep
resentative Gerald J. Boileau of Wis
'consin said: I do not believe We are
justified in authorizing these great re-
ductions in the amount of compensa-
tion to veterans l feel
there is better way of handling the
problem 1 am willing to reduce the
purchasing power Of my salary SO per
cent if need be by expansion (this is
the same as dilution or infiation) OF
the currency, by the cheapening OF
those dollars that receive"
Representative Boileau, in short. would
continue to pay typical veteran, for
example. 500 a month-but he would
reduce each of those dollars to the
value of a 50-cent piece.
For the veteran, the alternatives are
clea~. He can accept President Roose-
'velts way. That way is to have his
800 a month cut down to let us say
$50 a month-but with each dollar
Remaining a full dollar. The other
way, the way of the politicians who
would ultimately delude the veteran.
can be stated thus: They would con-
.tinue to give the veteran S100 month,
but they would reduce each dollar TO
the value of 50cent piece.
The magnitude of what has been ac-
complished during the last week can
be expressed in very broad historical
statement to which there is only one
quite small exception.
The broad historical statement can
be made in two parts: No rate of pen
sions to veterans of any war. once
placed on the statute books, has ever
thereafter been reduced.
The statement was good until last
week. The statement is made here
about the United States, but I suspect
1t is true of every country in history
since the fall of Rome. One bit of in
Koruna ton brought to the writer during
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