Evening star., 1933-04-03
Veterans Compensation.

President Roosevelt's executive order
cutting compensation and pensions OF
veterans to the tune of about $400,-
900, 900 was expected. Denunciation OF
the order on the part of those affected
and by their champions also is to be
expected, and already some of the
champions are running true to expected
form, among them Senator Thomas OF
Oklahoma and Representative Rankin
of Mississippi These gentlemen pre-
dict wave of bitterness against the
administration once the cuts in COM
pensation and pensions become effec-
tive. The veterans, under the execu-
tive order Of the President, have until
July / to accustom themselves to the
changed conditions which they must
face Many Of them have come to look
upon the payments made them as
vested rights.
The Presidents executive order, made
in compliance with the terms of the
economy act recently passed by Con-
gress at his urgent insistence, has taken
two lines. 1t has reduced the payments
Of the veterans to conform to the low
cred cost of living and to the pay re-
ductions made to all Federal employees,
civil and military. 1t has removed from
the rolls many Of those veterans whose
disabilities are not traceable to their
military service. It seems impossible
that the great majority Of the veterans
themselves will fail to see the justice
of these moves. The men who shoul-
dered the burden Of war when this
country faced foreign foe are patriots
and have made sacrifices for their
Nation and their homes In the past.
They must realize that with the eco
nomic conditions as they are the coun-
try again faces an emergency, although
there is no blare of trumpets. Those
gentlemen in Congress who undertake
to arouse the resentment Of the vet
Grams against the President and the
executive order he has issued will do
the country no good service.
The effect of the executive order will
be to reduce by $400, 100000 the
1927, 100000 expenditure for the veter-
ans proposed for the fiscal year 1894.
The appropriations for veterans have
increased since the World War in huge
leaps and bounds. The prospects have
been that these expenditures. would in
crease, unless halt were called, to
s2,000.000,000 within a comparatively
few years.
The United States has always been
most generous In its treatment Of war
veterans. 1t has been far more gen.
erous than any other nation in the
amount of money granted to its de-
tenders. There would be q revulsion of
sentiment in this country If 1t were
proposed to cut from the pension rolls
those men who have suffered disability
because they were injured in line of
duty. But there is no such proposal.
The attack is made upon the compen-
sation which has been awarded to vet
Grams who returned to this country in
good physical condition and were in
that condition discharged from the
service. Millions of them never left
the country in the World War, yet
under the laws which have been passed
by Congress, many of them have been
awarded compensation for non-service-
connected disabilities.
President Roosevelt has done the
country necessary service, and the
veterans themselves undoubtedly will
realize this to be a fact. It Is q serv-
ice which must be distasteful to the
Chief Executive. It is q service that re-
quired real courage to perform.