Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 221, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 September 1919 — EXTORTING BLOOD MONEY FROM SOLDIERS. [ARTICLE]

EXTORTING BLOOD MONEY FROM SOLDIERS.

Lafayette Journal — I If you, reader, happened to be employed in the machine shop of the Bethlehem plant of Bethlehem Steel company between August 1, 1918, and March 1, 1919, the government is anxious to make you a present of a wad of money. It is said that approximately 9,000 machinist employes of feat concern have been laid off since the signing of the armistice and each one of them is to receive back pay. The National War Labor board and the Ordnance department of the War department- is. now at work computing the retroactive pay for these men. 1 The announcement comes somewhat as a surprise and would seem to indicate that retroactive pay is to be awarded to all machinists who were employed in plants engaged in war work. Perhaps we shall next' hear that retroactive pay is to be given to all men who were engaged in war work at home at high prices while the army was undergoing all sorts of hardships, facing danger and dying if need fee, for a dollar a day and board that lacked much of being home cocked. |. There isn’t any ‘ more reason why former employes of the Bethlehem steel plant should be permitted to -bhrust their hands into the U. S. treasury and get away with the loot than there is for pensioning all men or all pug-nosed ! women. It is announced .that between two and three million dollars will be ' distributed among the former eml pi oyes of this one plsnt. The reader •can imagine what the amount will be if the war department is going to follow the same policy in all the plants that were engaged in war work. The patriotism of the ex-soldiers is being tried pretty severely and the patience of the people is being put to a test even more severe. .It is a fine spectacle to see the men who did the fighting for a compensation of a dollar a day returning home to be taxed to the end that those who pursued the even tenor of their way, at the highest wages they ever received, may 'be given something they never expected to receive, something that was not in the bargain, something to which they are not entitled, and something they should not have. Those payments represent blood money extorted from the men who have served where duty called. To hell with such ideas of justice and equity.