Off Limits – That Veteran’s Bonus (23 December 1946) (original) (raw)
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James M. Fenwick
Off Limits
(23 December 1946)
From Labor Action, Vol. 10 No. 51, 23 December 1946, p. 4.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the ETOL.
The following round-up reveals the current status of the veteran’s bonus throughout the country. Clip it out and keep it for those arguments in the shop.
In the recent elections three states approved the granting of bonuses:
- Illinois, according to Newsweek, “approved overwhelmingly by referendum a proposal to pay the state’s 916,000 veterans a bonus at the rate of 10foreverymonthofdomesticservice,10 for every month of domestic service, 10foreverymonthofdomesticservice,15 for every month overseas, the total not to exceed $882.50.”
- Michigan “approved by a nearly two-to-one vote a bonus financed by a 270,000,006bondissue.ScaledasinIllinois,thetoplimitwassetat270,000,006 bond issue. Scaled as in Illinois, the top limit was set at 270,000,006bondissue.ScaledasinIllinois,thetoplimitwassetat500 ...”
- Rhode Island, “authorized 20,000,000worthofbondstopay90,000servicemenandwomenandmorethan2,000membersofthemerchantmarinecashbonuses,of20,000,000 worth of bonds to pay 90,000 servicemen and women and more than 2,000 members of the merchant marine cash bonuses, of 20,000,000worthofbondstopay90,000servicemenandwomenandmorethan2,000membersofthemerchantmarinecashbonuses,of200 each.”
Several other states prior to the elections had already voted bonuses:
- Massachusetts grants 200forsixmonths’ormoredomesticserviceand200 for six months’ or more domestic service and 200forsixmonths’ormoredomesticserviceand300 for service overseas.
- Vermont provides 10foreachmonthinservice,withamaximumpaymentof10 for each month in service, with a maximum payment of 10foreachmonthinservice,withamaximumpaymentof120.
- New Hampshire similarly grants 10foreachmonthintheservice,butwithamaximumof10 for each month in the service, but with a maximum of 10foreachmonthintheservice,butwithamaximumof100.
“Nothing’s Too Good for the Boys”
When the number of states which have granted bonuses is considered, and when the size of the miserable handouts is taken into account, it is obvious that the bonuses reflect political expediency rather than the needs of the returned soldiers.
The right of the veteran to be granted a bonus cannot be successfully contested. In most cases he was subjected to extreme dangers. Often he was wounded, or he picked up some recurrent disease like malaria. The vicious military life often evoked psychoneurotic disorders. Away from home for long months and years, living under the maddening army discipline, without women, subjected to many privations and indignities, the soldier or sailor lost years of his life which can never be made up.
While he was in the service he could not save money. During this time his family usually lived in reduced circumstances. When he was discharged he often found himself a man without a skill, without a job, or without seniority on his job. Not halting had his own home prior to the war he many times found himself forced to pay exorbitant rents. The rate of unemployment among “vets is even now higher than among the papulation as a whole. Added to all this is the skyrocketing cost of living, which finds the vets at a bad disadvantage.
Yes, the vet deserves his bonus.
The Screamers on This Issue
Those who howl most indignantly, naturally, are the corporations through their paid servants, the newspapers. The capitalists, of course, whose very existence guarantees a succession of bloody wars, made billions in profits during the war and continue today to haul in unprecedented sums. They are interested solely in their profits, not in the anonymous, scared, miserable, human beings who fought their war for them.
The AVC, the most progressive of the current veterans’ organizations is also opposed to the bonus. This flows from several sources: a desire not to appear as indiscriminate freebooters of the treasury, using the veterans as a bludgeon (“Citizens First, Veterans Second!”) a concept which overlooks the special sacrifices which were made by the veteran; the middle-class composition of the AVC, where monetary problems are not so acute as among the working class; the class-collaborationist role of leaders such as Bolte, who get jumpy every time mass action is even suggested.
Our Program for the Veterans
The Workers Party bonus program is very simple: $1,000 for every year or major fraction thereof spent in the armed forces. This money is not to be filched from the people by means of a sales tax but is to be equitably raised through a heavy tax on corporate profits. Let those who benefited from the war pay for it!
Any government which can unblushingly spend $2,000,000,000 for the development of the first atomic bomb and can equally coolly contemplate the expenditure of a similar sum for the development of the long-range, remote-control rocket can easily institute such a bonus program.
We admit, of course, to the gravest defect in our bonus program – it won’t kill anybody.
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