Marching Orders

It is customary for a major Congressional bill to be prefaced by a patriotic statement of the reasons for its introduction, the ways in which the public welfare will presumably be benefited by its adop- tion. Last week a bill before the House for immediate payment of the Bonus bore the following preamble:

Whereas, the American Legion, the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States and the Disabled American Veterans of the World War, in their national conventions assembled in 1935, unanimously adopted resolutions . . . and

Whereas, said organizations have united upon this measure to carry into effect their said resolutions:

Therefore, be it enacted . . .

The three major veterans' organizations responsible for the bill had settled their long-standing differences over Bonus payment by demanding more from the Government than any of them had ever formally asked before. The full maturity value of a Bonus certificate represents, in almost equal proportions, the Government's original grant in 1925 and interest to accrue on that grant until 1945. For the reasons stated in their preamble, the veterans' leaders demanded: 1) immediate payment of the full 1945 value of each certificate, less only the amount the holder had borrowed on it; 2) a refund of interest paid on such borrowings or cancellation of interest accrued and unpaid. As their new and crowning stroke, the Bonuseers proposed to pile unearned interest on unearned interest by directing that any veteran who had not chosen to cash in his certificate for its 1945 value by April 6, 1937 should receive 3% interest on that value each year he kept his certificate until 1945.

Of methods of raising Bonus cash, the "united front" bill said not a word. But its authors asserted that it would require an immediate cash outlay of only about $1,000,000,000, instead of the expected $2,000,000,000. The Treasury could, they suggested, substitute a new issue of bonds for the half-billion dollars worth of Bonus certificates held by the U. S. Government Life Insurance Fund as security for veterans' loans. Holders of another half-billion dollars worth of certificates would, they guessed, choose to keep them for the sake of the new interest.

Having received its orders, the House marched. The Ways & Means Committee made only one major change in the "united front" bill. Because the amount involved was only some $10,000,000 and a great deal of bookkeeping would be required to refund it, the Committee proposed that veterans who had paid interest on their Bonus loans should be declared out of pocket. Veterans who had shirked their interest obligations would be permitted to keep the money. Thereupon the Committee reported the Bonus Bill out three days after receiving it. Four days the bill was passed by a thumping 356-to-59, biggest vote ever rolled up for the Bonus.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.