The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1934-06-08

Veteran Payment Will Be
Rejected AS 1t Was
Two Years Ago.
BY RUTH FINNEY
Times Special Writer

WASHINGTON, June "a badly
frightened senate voted down the
bonus bill, 81 to Is, two years ago
this month.
No menacing bonus army will
watch when the new vote, just ar
ranged for, is taken. No dramatics
will occur. The bill will be rejected
in routine fashion. The vote against
it probably will be larger than be-
fore
Z Nothing illustrates so wildly the
change that has taken place in the
country since the closing days of
the Hoover administration.
Twenty thousand men were
packed on the senate stairs and in
the big capitol plaza when the roll
was called on the bonus last time
The senate could hear the roar of
their voices through open doors
and windows. Senators slipped from
the chamber to look at the thrOng
from upstairs windows and to shake
their heads gravely.
Times Have Changed
The bonus expeditionary force
had been concentrating in Wash
ington for month. Men and their
families we're camped along Pennsyl-
vania avenue. White House gates
were locked and guarded. One
rumor after another swept the
capital Nothing like it had been
ei,oa0 1909 xryI1oT, rorrOIrrfi IVY
soldiers marched on the continental
congress.
In June, 1882, II 100000 men and
women were unemployed. A small
public works and relief program had
been grudgingly adopted. No plan
for general reduction of unemploy-
ment was being considered. Most
of those who voted for the bonus
did so because some of the veterans
were in distress.
This year, an attempt to march
another bonus army into Washing
ton ended in comic-and wholesome
fashion when recruits deserted to
go to work in CCC camps. Relief
even more costly than the bonus
had been provided, but for all citi-
zens instead of limited number.
Perhaps the most significant
change has been the dissipation of
the myth that the veteran lobby is
all-powerful. Lingering fear of the
lobby caused congress to override
the Roosevelt veterans veto this
spring. But those who supported
it and those who voted against it
have been renominated in the pri-
maries with equal ease:
$4,000, 100000 Is Cost
1t would cost the government ST.
200,000,000 to give veterans the
full face value of their adjusted
compensation certificates now.
When so per cent of the face
value was loaned in 1881 to two
million veterans, less than third
g re number were found to be in
actual need. More than third used
the money for investment, savings,
automobiles and other nonessential
purposes.
Paying the face value now would
COIlSllIuGS grant VI 91,OUU,UOO,OOO
more than the government ever in
tended to pay, says General Frank
Hines, veterans bureau chief.
The amount stamped on the face
of each ertiflcate-which is the
amount the veteran thinks the gov
eminent owes him-is about twice
as great as the bonus originally
voted. 1t includes Is per cent in
crease in the base compensation to
make up for the twenty years the
veteran was to wait for his money.
It also includes 4 per cent interest
compounded annually for twenty
years. The certificates are not
payable until 1915. They constitute
life insurance for veterans until
tn y.
This government has spent APP
proximately SO 100000 for vet
Grams of the World war since 1918.
General Hines figures the annual
expenditures for each soldier who
died or was wounded amount to ST.