The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-05-26
BY WALTER ID. HICKMAN.

BY WALTER ID. HICKMAN.
THE Pulitzer prize awards each
Il year centers interest on the
men whose writings aided a paper
to receive the high honors.
This year the award is no eXcep-
ton to the rule, as Talcott Powell,
who wrote many articles on veteran
relief, is an author Of "Tattered
Banners"
Since the announcement of Pow
ellis part in the New York World
kilograms award, many people
have asked me regarding "Tattered
Banners"
After carefully reading this book,
I was impressed with the argument
as we'll as the wide range of data
used in the general discussion of
the many phases of veteran relief
dating back even to the time Of
julius Caesar and ending with u
present serious problem of the same
subject.
Such a book is "Tattered Ban
ners." It's author has no ak to
grind. Here is an honest and an in
telligent study of just what veteran
relief has meant in dollars and
cents to this country.
One notable advantage this book
has over others dealing with the
same subject matter, is that its au-
thor has spent years studying the
problem from its historical as well
as its economic sources.
Powell went to Washington, D. c.,
studied records and heard the law
makers in debate. He fully realizes
the power the Hobbies exert in put
ting owe special grants which often
have been raids upon the treasury.
In his first chapter, The Savage
Wars of Peace" Powell indicates his
resourcefulneSs by stating, From
the time the first historian cut his
crude letters in stone and baked
brick, the men returned from wars
were problems"
And again, The long shadow of
the lance has ever lain across the
path OF mankind'S progress and the
battered banners of disbanded
armies have always been the stand
ards which drew the forces of ruin
to Them
If you are looking for a readable
record OF our inheritance of this
relief and bonus problem, then you
Will be especially interested in the
chapter on "A Virgin Queen and a
Kings Mistress
Here is an authoritative discus
sion OF the way Queen Elizabeth
and her government tried to solve
the demands of ex-hghters who
staged an attack upon London and
even bothered the court years and
years before the bonus army
marched on Washington.
That is the reason l call the prob
lem an inherited or an acquired one.
Powell is especially clear on trac-
ing the wise and unWiSe methods of
relief, pay and the like from the
early Colonial days up to the pres
ent.
He has record proof of the unwise
Judgment, the un|fairneSS as well as
the graft in the various stages of
the growth of the problem from
Colonial days, through George
Washington. and especially in the
pension problem growing out of the
civil and Spanish wars.
Powell'S solid viewpoint is we'll
expressed when he writes The
mistakes that have been made with
young men who returned from
Marathon, the Teutoburger Forest.
Preston Pans, Saratoga, Waterloo
and Gettysburg have all been
heaped into a vast, inverted pyra-
mid nat is the American pension
system of the Great War"
AlSo-"If it is pushed suddenly.
or if more is piled upon it. it will
crash, carrying to ruin many things
beside the veteran
And this sensible statement -
The task is rather one of pain
stalking reconstruction, one stone at
a time
Speaking seriously of reading in
the theater of realities. I have be-
AUN iAS q 4Alll6 DOOk called Inc
Remedy 1t is more like a PAM
phlet. But it does have a serious
study Of the depression and the
money evil" A. L. WlSker writes
the foreword.
Just how serious the topic is
well read Wisker'S wordS-"Econo-
mistS, statesmen, bankers and plain
men OF business throughout all civ
ilized countries are seeking a cure
for depression
And you have here a program OF
cure" Be your W judge of this
and the hundreds of such. No care
for 1t.
Thanks to the five people who
said in this opinion-"Glad you said
to read The American Gun Mys-
terry Since that suggestion. this
mystery novel has jumped into the
first class Of the ueSt sellers.
Carrying on my mail I still
think you are right to list as a va
cation book, AS the Earth Turns
Thank you. 1t is a grand book.