Everything's Up to Date

Kansas City also had a veterans' convention last week, with parade, outlandish costumes, drum, corps and sore feet. But at the 49th annual encampment of the United Spanish War Veterans (average age: 72), there was little tipping and no water-squirting. The boys of Santiago Bay, San Juan hill and the Philippines just wanted to sit and bat the breeze about their experiences back in '98.*

But when it came to fist-shaking, everything was up to date in Kansas City. The Naval and Military Order of the U.S.W.V., an outfit of former officers, set the tone. Said its retiring commander, 78-year-old Patrick Ratigan: "Remember the Maine? If we were not skeptical of the Russians and everybody took a noncommittal attitude like we did with Spain . . . we'd wake up some morning and learn that we'd lost more than a boat." Cried the Order's new commander, 71-year-old J. Clark Mansfield: "Teddy Roosevelt would have rolled up his sleeves, pulled Joe Stalin across the conference table by the mustache and told Stalin to get the hell out of Europe."

Like the Legionnaires in Manhattan, the 1,329 delegates passed resolutions endorsing universal military training, a big and ready air force and preparedness in general. As a band played their old favorite, Break the News to Mother, many of them wept.

*There are now 113,916 Spanish American War veterans receiving an average pension of $75 a month from the Veterans Administration. The number is declining at the rate of about 900 a month. There are also 75,414 dependents receiving an average of $43 a month, and this number is still rising. As of Oct. 1, pensioners and dependents will receive 20% more, thanks to Congress. Estimated cost of Spanish American War pensions and dependency payments during fiscal 1948: $175 million.

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