Cuts Cut

When President Roosevelt signed his Economy Bill last March and decreed drastic reductions in the pension rolls, he was one long lap ahead of the veterans' lobby. By last week the veterans' lobby had not only caught up with him but was rapidly undoing his Budget savings. At its prodding the Senate had openly revolted against the President and Speaker Rainey was predicting that the House could no longer be held in line.

Under the Economy Act, President Roosevelt set up a new military pension system, effective July 1, which was to cut veterans' expenditures almost in half--a clear saving of $460,000,000 per year and the keystone of his Budget balancing program. This economy was to be accomplished by: 1) confining null null pensions to those actually hurt in military service before Nov. 11, 1918; 2) reducing their allowances sharply after reclassifying their injuries; 3) striking from the rolls all Spanish War veterans under 62 who could not show service-connected disabilities. Principal losers of pensions were veterans partly disabled in civil life and veterans with ailments developed before Jan. 1, 1925 which a generous law "presumed" to have resulted from the War. The President screwed his system down tight on the veterans, with the idea of easing it up here & there when it was found to pinch too hard.

Yet to be supplied, however, was money to put these new pension ratings into effect. Last month an obedient House passed the Independent Offices Appropriation Bill, carrying $493,000,000 for vet- erans--just the figure the President wanted. Last week when the measure came up in the Senate, the veterans' storm broke. Before it cleared, the Senate had set the President's economy program back by nearly $170,000,000.

Senator after Senator leaped to his feet to describe how the President's decree caused suffering and destitution among disabled veterans. West Virginia's Hatfield, a physician, produced an x-ray picture of a man whose thigh had been shot away and whose spine was full of shrapnel splinters. "A hopeless cripple," pronounced Dr. Hatfield, "and his allowance is to be cut from $120 to $80 per month." Pennsylvania's Reed told of a veteran with one leg shot off in battle who that very morning had hobbled into his office to protest a cut in his disability compensation from $100 to $40. Michigan's Vandenberg told of a veteran suffering with gunshot wounds in the back, hernia, arthritis and chronic nervousness who was about to lose $82 of his $90 monthly pension. "That means," cried Senator Vandenberg, "he'll get shot in the back a second time--this time by the Govern-ment." The chamber rang with protests against "the horrors of this new deal . . . its unspeakable cruelties . . . its indefensible hardships." Vainly did the President's spokesmen promise that he was about to remedy these injustices. Senators had heard from home and Demo-crats and Republicans alike were afraid to return there without standing and fighting for the voter-veteran.

Upshot was the Senate's adoption of an amendment to the supply bill which prevented the President from cutting by more than 25% the pension of any veteran on the rolls March 15, 1933 with a service-connected disability. The vote was a tie (42-10-42) which Vice President Garner broke in favor of the veterans for fear the White House would be given a worse drubbing by alternative proposals. The Veterans' Administration figured that this change would add about $156,000,000 to pension costs. It would not only reduce economies on battle-scarred veterans by about $25,000,000 but it would add $57,000,000 by putting back on the rolls hundreds of thousands of veterans whose peacetime ailments were on March 15 legally "presumed" to have originated in the War. Some 178,000 Spanish War veterans were likewise to keep their pensions.

Because the House was itching not only to accept the Senate's 25% limitation but to cut the cuts back to 15%. President Roosevelt called a Sunday night conference at the White House on his return from a cruise down the Potomac on the Sequoia. To it he summoned Speaker Rainey, Majority Leader Byrns, half a dozen important House Democrats. For three hours he gave them a heart-to-heart. Director of the Budget Douglas had advised him to veto the whole appropriation bill, take the economy issue to the country by radio if Congress insisted upon a pension boost. The President did not want to do that if he could help it. BUT THE BUDGET MUST BE BALANCED, he told his House visitors, and if Congress wanted to add $170,000,000 to veterans' cost. Congress could find $170,000,000 worth of new taxes to foot the bill. The President was prepared, if necessary, to keep Congress sitting all summer to win his point, although he would like to see it adjourned before the World Economic Conference opened in London, June 12.

Speaker Rainey & friends marched out of the White House looking glum and worried. The President had not succeeded in definitely killing the pension boost but he had made it seem much less attractive politically to the House leaders.

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