Evening star., 1933-06-07
POLITICS MUDDLE
VETERAN PAY ISSUE
Capital Expects Country to
Support President in Row
With Congress.
BY MARK SULLIVAN,


That the country will support Presi
dent Roosevelt on the issue between
him and Congress about veterans com
pensation is universally assumed in
| Washington. Congress really expect:
the country to support the President anc
does not much care Congress, in the
END, may even back down" and still
feei that as individuals they have wor
what they most want
Understanding of this conflict should
begin by dismissing the notion that it il
great struggle between Congress ant
President over prerogative or on fun
demental issue. 1t has no such dignity
I as that
In another quarter there is the ma
terial for such a lofty struggle If Con-
gress were seeking one The proposa
to give the President power to require
every. business concern doing an inter
state business to take out license ano
giving the President power to take away
the license at will goes to the very heart
OF the distinction between individualisn
and State control. There are some signs
there may yet be a debate on this issue
proportionate in elevation to the change
in the social system that is involved.
Issue of Local Politics.
The struggle about veterans compen-
sation, however. has no such loftiness
This conflict Is politics and nothing
else, and 1t is local politics as distin-
guished from national politics.
To understand the veterans compen-
sation question, begin by bearing in
mind that every one of the 435 members
OF the House and one-third of the Sen
ate. 80, must fight next year to hold his
seat. The nominations begin as early
as nine months from now
In every congressional district the
sitting member has good reason to feel
that If he runs on a record of having
voted to support reductions in veterans
compensation, he will have the opposi-
ton OF the largest. most highly organ
lied and most politically conscious
group of voters in his district, the
He WILL speaking broadly, have the op-
position of all veterans, not merely
those affected by President Roosevelt's
reductions and removals from the list.
for every veteran regards himself as
some time potential pensioner just as
every veteran of the Civil War became,
with the passage of time, a pensioner
Every Congressman knows this. If
he Is Congressman who in March
voted for the bill authorizing the Presl-
dent to make these cuts, he knows that
some ambitious person in the district
Will run against him on promise to
restore the compensation and enlarge
the number Of beneficiaries
That Is the secret of this struggle
1t Is accompanied by one condition
favorable to the Presidents side. What
a Congressman wants most and wha.
he may be satisfied with Is merely to
be on record as having voted for larger
compensation If the President takes
the responsibility for vetoing the bill,
the Congressman is practically as we'll
satisfied as il the higher compensation
were enacted. 1t has happened often
in the past since Civil War times
though not In the present case-that
there is kind of tacit collusion be-
tween President and the leaders of his
party in Congress Congress makes =
record of having favored pensions and
the President takes responsibility for
preventing them.
An Act Of High Courage.
This brings us to the presidential
politics. That does not figure now, be-
cause the presidential campaign is
three years ahead, while the congress
sional one comes next year. Mr. Roose-
velt's bringing about of cut of some
40 per cent Of the total compensation
to veterans of all wars was an act of
almost unparalleled political courage.
Ordinarily President serving his first
term and presumably likely to run
again would be reluctant to take such a
step, and party leaders would beseech
him not to saddle the party with such
record
On the side of the protesting vet
erans something is to be said in fair
ness. In many individual cases the
reductions went too far President
Roosevelt freely admits this, and has
under way machinery to review de-
ference between President and Con-
gress may be stated thus: The Presi-
dent is willing to restore individuals
as individuals. Congress wants to re-
store large groups of veterans as groups.
On the side of the veterans also
there should be understanding Of the
human psychology involved They were
on the lists; they, therefore, had a
feeling that their compensation was a
right and they see the Presidents
action as deprival of right.
The unhappy mischief arose, as much
else arose, during the lavish days of
boom. In Congress, Democrats as a
party We'd with Republicans as a party
in a race of which the prize was to
establish the winner in the minds of
veterans as the most generous with
Government largesse. Individual Con-
gressmen Wed with each other to make
a record OF getting the largest number
Of veterans on the rolls Community
We'd with community to be the loca-
tions of hospitals and otherwise to
get most from the national Treasury.
The undoing Of all that is what Mr..
Roosevelt has undertaken and 1t con-
stitutes an immense detail of the
liquidation of the boom
tCopyright, 1887