Evening star., 1936-05-19
BONUS DEFENDED
ASDEBT LONG DUE
Senator Clark, in Forum
Speech, Cites Fight by
ProfiteerS.
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(ConCinued From Page B-13)
men and officers not above the rank
Of captain.
I think and have always thought
that the debt from the Government
to these men accrued on November
IL, 1918, and that the Government
on their discharge from the service,
or very soon thereafter, should have
made a payment to them in cash of
o sum SUFFICIENT to at least in some
degree compensate them for the eco
nomic loss suffered through their
service. It would have been much
cheaper to have handled it in that
way. It could then have been
handled on the same basis of com-
- pensation as Is now under way for
an outlay of less than 81 900 900 600
for be it remembered that the greater
part of the cost of the adjusted COM
pensation represents interest and the
costs of deferred payment. The cost
Of q cash payment at the time it
was really due and the time it would
would have been relatively small in
comparison with the vast outlays
already made on account of the
war.
But the pressure of the great in
terests, intent on the excess profits tax
and other wartime taxes, was so great
that nothing was done toward either
= o recognition or settlement of the
debt and the veterans were left to
relocate themselves in civil life as
best they could and If they could not
to suffer the consequences. Every
contractor with claim against the
Government growing out Of the war
could enforce and obtain payment
with 6 per cent interest, but the men
who were prepared to bare their
breasts to the storm had only a
moral and not legal claim and were
left in the humiliating position Of
being suppliants to Congress for re-
lief. The Government was under
the fiscal dictatorship of the arch
enemy of their claims, the typical
representative of those who profited
most by the removal of the excess
profits tax-Andrew Mellon.
DUTY" Claims Heard.
We have all seen blatantly dis
played in the newspapers, we have
all heard stridently proclaimed over
the radio statements from ex-service
men who decried the principle of ad-
justed compensation and abused all
who advocated 1t. I have no patience
whatever with such expressions. Al
most without exception they came
either from those who themselves
were so comfortably placed from an
economic standpoint that they had
no conception of the plight of their
less fortunate comrades or else from
those who we're themselves making a
living on the pay of the great finan-
cial interests who were opposed to
paying the debts of the last war but
in favor of squandering huge sums
of money in preparation for a future
war.
They complacently asserted that the
men who wore the uniform had done
no more than their duty. that their
pay of 81 or S125 day was all that
they deserved, and that the argument
as to their economic hardship due to
service was based upon pure myth and
fable Against such callous statements
place my own experience. In my
capacity as past official of the Amer
ican Legion and my capacity as a
former Infantry officer, I have had
occasion to investigate and be familiar
with hundreds Of cases, many of them
from my own regiment who I knew
Of my own knowledge had been excel
lent soldiers. In distressingly large
number of cases found men who had
CALAMITY served their country and been
summary cast of who had never been
able to re-establish themselves eco
nomically.
The leading munition makers in the
United States, the greatest profiteers
during the period of the war. financed
organizations in opposition to doing
Justice to the veterans of the last war.
Among the bitterest opponents, first
r OF the enactment of the compensation
law and then to immediate payment,
was one firm which has recently been
exposed by the Munitions Committee
OF the Senate as having held up con-
struction Of vitality needed power plants
during the crisis of the war while it
haggled with the Government about
its own compensation and demanded
huge bonuses for its executives and
civilian employees American boys
were dying In the front-line trenches
In France.
! have myself within the year heard
the head Of great munition COM
pany-who himself received bonuses Of
$500. 900 during the two years of our
participation In the war for perform
ing . good, safe civilian job-smugly
testify on the witness stand that he
would regard demand for immediate
payment of the soldiers bonus as un-
wise snd unpatriotic. With such I
have no patience whatever.
Congress Acts.
1t Is not necessary to trace the strug-
gle for adjusted compensation. BY
1925 the demand for it had become so
strong and universal that Congress
overrode the Mellon-induced presiden-
tial veto and enacted it into law. It
Is important, however, to remember
that Congress and not the veterans
prescribed the terms of this act. Al
though the debt was then already seven
years overdue, the Congress elected at
the time not to pay in cash, but In
obligations maturing in 20 years and
bearing interest meanwhile at a very
low rate Of interest-far below the rate
accorded to wartime contractors.