Evening star., 1936-05-19


upon Congress. pass over one OF
the most disgraceful incidents in
American history when, during the
later days of the Hoover administra-
ton the well-fed, well-equipped Regu-
lar Army was turned loose to drive
by flame and sword from the miserable
novels in which they were sheltering
their women and children, unarmed
men who had once upon time with
guns in their hands stood between this
country and the mightiest military
nation in the world.
Rooseyelt's Stand Recalled.
President Roosevelt was elected to
the presidency in 1882, after a frank
and explicit statement that he would
not favor the immediate payment of
the bonus until in his opinion the
condition of the Treasury justified 1t.
honor him for that statement. I
entertained similar views and volun-
tarily expressed them from the stump
when was a candidate for the Sen
ate. The overwhelming majority of
the American people, including an
overwhelming majority of the holders
of adjustable service certificates-who
have certainly proved that they are as
patriotic and self lf-sacrificing as any
body Of men and women within the
Nation-agreed with this principle.
In accordance with this principle I
myself, in company with many others,
since ] have been q member of the
Senate. voted three times against the
immediate payment of the bonus. I
have no regrets for those votes And
I may say that in all my very large
acquaintance among the veterans of
Missouri I found only one or two
to criticize me for those votes. But
when 1t became a settled policy of the
Government to try to defeat the de-
preston by increasing buying power
of the Nation at large and putting
money In circulation, when we were
spending four billions here and three
billions there, when we were running
up the biggest bills in our peace time
history for the support of Army and
Navy in preparation for q new war,
many of. us could not reconcile our
consciences to the opposing the i'm
mediate payment of a debt which
we have always believed to have been
many years overdue.
Imitation Plan Vetoed.
At the last session of the Congress,
a very large majority of both branches
favored the immediate liquidation of
this debt. BY very skillful manage
ment on the part of those opposed
to payment, the issue was finally pre-
sented complicated by the addition Of
an entirely separate and highly con-
troversial matter-that of currency
imitation, a subject in no wise con-
nected with the payment of the bonus.
The President properly vetoed the bill
and his veto was sustained in the
Senate.
At the beginning Of the present
session of Congress, the sponsors in
the House of the various plans for
the immediate payment of the COM
pensation certificates, and the repre-
sentatives of the various service mems
organizations composed their previous
differences and agreed upon a bill
which was introduced into the House
by Representative Vinson of Ken
lucky, and Representative McCor-
mack of Massachusetts,, later joined
by Representative Patman of Texas,
who had formerly sponsored differ
ent and somewhat antagonistic plan.
This measure subsequently passed the
House by an overwhelming vote.
I was requested to introduce an
Identical bill in the Senate and was
prepared to do so with no doubt as
TO its successful passage in the Senate
But because I was primarily concerned
in the successful consummation of
the act rather than In mere passage
through the Senate. I Immediately
sought consultation with two of the
most astute and devoted friends of
the veterans in the Ssnate-Senator
James F. Byrnes of South Carolina
and Senator Frederic Steiwer of
oregon. These Senators had jointly
introduced a bill following the veto
in the preceding session which pro-
vided for immediate payment on q
basis of nearly a hundred per cent.
Together we sweated over the matter.
We took stock of the situation. We
concluded that we could pass either
the House bill or the Byrnes- -Steiwer
bill without difficulty. But we esti-
mated that we would need additional
and powerful assistance to pass our
bill over a possible presidential veto.
Harrison's Aid Won.
We interviewed Senator Pat Har-
rison, the influential chairman of the
powerful Finance Committee, which
passes on veterans measures Pat
had always been extremely sympa-
thetic to the service men, but had
opposed immediate payment of the
bonus through his loyalty to the ad-
We found that he was
anxious to cooperate with us provided
a plan could be devised which would
fully protect the interest of the Gov
ernment as well as the veteran.
For the modified plan, which be-
came the final enactment, the credit
Is primarily due to Senator Harrison
and Senator Byrnes. They worked
out an additional feature to the House
bill which is calculated both to cut
down immediate Government expen-
ditures and to protect the interest Of
the thrifty veteran who does not de-
sire to cash his certificate now. In
other words, they devised q plan for
an incentive In the form
of a safe investment for certificate
holders not to cash the bonds which
they will receive. This modified plan
was introduced jointly into the Sen
ate by Senators Harrison, Byrnes,
Steiwer and myself.
With the powerful and invaluable
assistance of Senator Joseph T. Rob-
inson, the majority leader in the Sen
ate. as well as that of Minority Leader
McNary, the bill was passed through
the Senate by a large majority and
later successfully passed over the
Presidents veto.
Let me say that the difference be-
tween the President and the Congress