Indianapolis Times, Volume 43, Number 293, Indianapolis, Marion County, 16 April 1932 — Page 5

APRIL 16, 1932.

INDIANA VETERANS EXPRESS VIEWS ON BONUS BATTLE

EDITOR TIMES—It is amusing to note the stations in life held by those who have voiced opposition to the so-called soldiers’ “bonus bill” now before congress. In •very instance these remonstrances have come from phy•icians. lawyers, bankers and brokers—the very type of men who have ho conscience when it comes to extracting the last greenback from the purse of a destitute family. * A check would show that if any of these men served overseas they Were so far back of the lines that they did not know a war was in progress. The assertion made by numerous men, starting with our Presi-

A Soldier Speaks for the Bonus

Slapped us on the backs in 1917 and said, "Boys, nothing will be too good for you when you get back.” The ex-service men who are urging passage of this bill would be the last to want an expenditure of this magnitude had it not been that our congress saw fit to give millions of dollars to European countries which did not appreciate it and which will not be satisfied until the whole debt owing us is cancelled; and other millions to bankers of this country from whom it is impossible for those needing money to borrow 10 cents. I am proud of the fact that I served twenty-four months overseas, and that my service record 3hows that I was under shell fire for thirteen months on as many fronts, with the First division. The men who oppose this soldier payment are the ones who profited most by that war, and I as sure I would hesitate to fight their battles again for all the glory to be gained. I commend the past commander of the Columbus Legion post for having nerve enough to voice the true sentiments of 95 per cent of the legion membership. Only good will come from the passage of this bonus payment, and I trust that our congressmen will see the light. ... _ 4U RALPH R. CANTOR. 130 South Elder avenue.

Editor Times Please, will you give us a little chance? I am an exservice man and live in the

Hits Rich Opponent of Bonus

country and I never got the news from the Willard Straight Post at New York until the morning of April 8. I would like for some good post to write me and tell me what the American Legion is. This fellow, was a shavetail, and we had lots of that kind of men in the service. He must have a couple of hundred in the bank and thinks he is a millionaire. If the Legion wants its comrades to stay with it, it should court-martial him and lead him to the whipping post. The war was a one-sided affair. The poor were in and the rich were out. That is who is fighting our bonus. Now I feel that what bonus I have coming is mine, and I am entitled to it for the service I did for the United States. I can’t forget Representative Patman (Dem., Tex.) He has been a man from beginning to ending, as has Maurice Stemfer, New York. These two realize what war is, and I think they are men who want to live and let live. Hoover and some of the rest make me think of a prayer my father has told me of. “God bless me and my wife, my son John and his wife, us four and no more.” To my comrades, one and all: No matter what the politics, vote for the man who votes for us, for you can see what Willard Straight post is doing for you now. Don’t forget Hoover, for he said he would veto the bill if it passed. Hoover times, jowl and beans. WORLD WAR VETERAN. Martinsville.

Editor Times —The article in The Times by Talcott Powell, in which he states Willard

How About All This?

Straight post, American Legion, is protesting further raiding of the treasury by the veterans. We wonder why that post, composed of men with such distinguished war records, did not protest a cancellation of war debts to Europe, the moratoriums to our former enemies which is costing the treasury billions of dollars. Why does not that crop of 25.000 millionaires which the ex-soldier made possible do some of the squawking about the veteran relief? We wonder how much of the treasury deficit was caused by those wooden and concrete ships, Ford's submarine chasers, railroad administration. Liberty motors, etc. Who paid for Mr. Hoover’s food administration to the Belgians, relief to the near and far east? How about those annexations and indemnities? Who paid for the war chest fund, and those myriads of monuments? About widows: The American soldier's widow got, while he was in the trenches, sls a month. The Australian soldier in war received $47 a month and his dependent at home received SBO a month. Why try to stagger the ex-sol-dier and the taxpayer with a $3,000,000,000 deficit? They don’t know how much a billion dollars is. Why not have our greatest of all treasury heads, Andrew Mellon explain to them how much is a billion dollars? Talcott Powell should not be squawking about a budget, giving figures, etc. He sounds like one of those curbstone patriots who waved the flag while the boys marched away to make the world safe for democracy, or someone at the head of a Y. M. C. A. or charity drive. If Talcott Powell knows so much about able-bodied veterans raiding the treasury, syphilitic soldiers and doughboys, why does he r.ot bring the fact before legal authorities and have the rogues fined or imprisoned? We think his object is to try to stagger the veterans info cancelling their bonus, so that a lot of New York bankers can eat it before 1945. Why not ask some of the billionaire dollar war profiteers to cancel their war bonus certificates? What about the millions refunded to corporations that had overpaid their income tax, and Andrew Mellon, who had overpaid his own and refunded the money overpaid with 6 per cent interest for time of overpayment, and refunded to himself overpayments? I w'onder if Mr. Powell has any figures regarding these things. We wonder how much is spent for relief banquets preceding charity drives, etc? Does Mr. Powell expect these disabled veterans to go to a poorhouse or sell apples on the street comers? What became of the third Liberty loan which was for the boys? Anyway, we know that figures never lie, but liars can figure. AN UNEMPLOYED DOUGHBOY.

dent, that the ex-service man is unpatriotic because he asks for that which is his by act of congress In 1924, leaves a bitter feeling in the hearts of the men who have risked lives and endured hardships because of true patriotism. Where were these men during the war? What right have they to question our patriotism? They are the very ones who

Pittance Earned Honestly

bonus. If he has the “guts” he speaks of he would have signed his name. In the first place, all men were not drafted, as several of us enlisted, including yours truly. Second, we left our jobs, with good money, to go, while probably "A Lawyer” was just a shouting. American and flag waver. We also earned our few “bucks” a month honestly for risking our hides to protect his kind. But can he say the same? It doesn’t take "guts” to fight against the ex-service men for what is honestly due them. No, boy, that takes money! Anything pertaining to the good of the service men goes in the middle of the newspaper, but trying to get Theodore Luesse out of jail goes on the front page. Tell A Lawyer” to sign his name and then maybe some of hi socalled “patriots” can tell him personally what they can not in print. GEORGE D. REESE.

Editor Times —I never felt The Times could stoop so low as to publish the statement appearing in the

April 7 edition, wherein Sidney Howard, noted playwright, was reported to have stated, “American soldiers were well paid for their part in the war.” Such a remark is an insult to any man capable of earning more than $1 a day. Why do you not advocate a retroactive tax on all money garnered dining the war, that exceeded the pay of the soldiers? How in the name of sense do you arrive at the absurd conclusion that serving in the army is a patriotic duty, when a great many of those remaining at home in safety are permitted to gouge the country for all it will stand, resulting in the un-American condition of numerous families accumulating wealth to the extent that offsprings who have not earned a penny, never will spend the interest, whereas millions are dependent upon charity, and. thousands of ex-soldiers compelled to rely upon soup lines for sustenance? A large majority of ex-soldiers are not affiliated with the American Legion, therefore neither the national headquarters nor individual posts of this organization have a right to speak for the ex-soldiers outside of their ranks. I served sixteen months in France and as yet have not had to cash my bonus, nor have I been examined for compensation. Unfortunately this can be said for altogether too few ex-soldiers. What has become of the agitation of 1919 to pass a law to conscript wealth as well as soldiers? Os course, this will never be enacted, as history proves greed for profit is the underlying cause of all wars. JOE N. CLINE.

Pleads for Working Man

and hospitalization from the rich class. Now give a little front page space for the views, along the same line, from the poor class. I am of the working class of ex-service men, striving to rear a family on a meager salary, and can represent the sentiment and feelings of this type of ex-service men. The views printed recently on the front page of your paper have made my blood go to 110 degrees, because they have been backed by the men who are not in the class of the majority of ex-service men, but are men who do not need the bonus money, who can pay for the hospitalization they need and who have been turned down for compensation or do not need it. They are afraid they might have to pay a dollar more for taxes if this bonus should go through and, in reality, the working class would shoulder the burden. I wish I were in a position to talk to these men personally, so I could express the views of the other side. This type of men can not see the other side of this question and are striving to push the working man down instead of helping him out. If this depression is to come to an end, it will have to be done by the working man. because business depends on the man who spends the money, and not on the one who tries to corner all the money on the market. In the army the working man dug the trenches and did the dirty work, while the moneyed

man did the “bossing,” and now the working man wants what is coming to him from the government, as he earned every dollar of it protecting the rich man’s interests. The government could obtain a large per cent of this bonus money by cutting salaries of officials and politicians and disposing of men drawing big salaries off the government and not doing a thing to earn it. Working men have been cut from 25 to 75 per cent, but I have not read where any government official has taken any cuts. They do not even know the depression is on. Let them collect their foreign debts and they will have plenty of money on hand to meet their obligations, or abolish prohibition and save the millions they are spending annually to enforce it, which can never be done. The members listed on the telegram from the American Legion post in New York are men who would starve to death on a salary of $75 a month, but they are against the bonus simply because they do not need it and are afraid it might cost them a dollar. The soldiers risked their lives and worked twenty-four hours a day for a dollar a day, while the men at home were making $lO a day and taking life easy, so why not let the ex-service men have their share of those war-time profits now? G. M. WHICKER. 209 West College street, Crawfordsville, Ind. ,

Editor Times —J us t a few lines to the gent who signed his name A Lawyer to the letter assailing the

Who Won This War forU. S.?

claims of war contractors, and of railroads for losses they claimed as incidental to war-time operation as an agency of national defense? And do you know, my dear editor, that the government paid its half million civilian employes a bonus of $240 a year? Then, too, thousands of ablebodied civilians employed by the government got $6 to sl2 a day. The profiteers robbed the government as well as the people. Twenty-three hundred new millionaires were created and everybody prospered at home, while the soldiers got $1 a day. Do you think they got a square deal? Nothing was to be denied them. Nothing was too good for them. They were heroes then, but now what? Some beggars I would like to know who won the war the editors or Talcott Powell? Every one is for this bonus except some slackers who did not have the “guts” to fight for our country in her time of need. The soldiers won the war and saved this country for Americans. The people know this and are for the soldiers and the bonus. Tell the truth about this bonus bill and give us a break. L. W. WOLFE.

Insult to Veterans

Editor Times —Reading your article of April 7 regarding the soldier bonus and disability

allowance, I am very sorry that it had to be The Indianapolis Times which takes that attitude toward the veterans. I always have been an admirer of The Times and its principles. I enlisted at the outbreak of the World war. served two years, lost the sight of my left eye and incurred other disabilities which I could not prove by my medical record. Therefore, I made claim under the new law and was granted 52 per cent. I am an active member of the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars. The way I feel toward your paper now, I do not want it in my home and I believe other veterans will take the same attitude. I have a small lunchroom and have fought hard through this depression. Seems like I have read or been told that the government lets banks and other big business have money, but I am just a little exsoldier. I can’t have any money to hold my business, which probably your own paper promised me back in T 8 when I was hungry, cold, and wallowing in the mud in France. WILLIAM BRAMBLETT.

Editor Times —Y o u have given front page views concerning the soldiers’ bonus, compens a t i o n

He Waits and Also Thinks

Look them over doctors, attorneys, artists, newspaper publishers, and professors, men who have plenty and don't know what it is to be hungry. I’ll say 95 per cent of the ex-service men want and need their money now as never before. As for the treasury of the richest nation on earth, it can loan billions to the railroads to pay the interest on debts, but charges us 4*4 per cent interest on our own money, and I’ve paid as high as 7 per cent. If we don’t get the rest before 1945, we won’t have any coming, as the interest will eat up the balance. Canada paid her soldiers from SI,OOO-to SI,BOO each and they had it long ago. I work two days for the trustee each week for a basket of groceries, but that doesn't pay my rent or put clothes on my back. They say the trustees are getting short of money and soon will have to stop the baskets. I’ve been waiter before, but now my

The Times herewith presents the views of a representative group of Indiana World war veterans—and veterans ' wives—on immediate payment of the bonus to ex-service men. For several days a series of stories by Talcott Powell has been running in The Times, giving facts and figures on cost to the government of compensation of former service men. He has told how many veterans, wounded or otherwise disabled in foreign service, have received benefits in lesser degree than many who never saw service on

Editor Tim es —Why so bitter against the bonus? Have you forgotten that the government adjusted the

Lost His Sight in Service

Editor Times— So a New York post of the legion says to pay the soldier bonus is a raid on the treasury?

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

clothes are so shabby I can’t even look for that kind of work, so I’ve got to take anything I can get where clothes don’t count, but so do the other unemployed. * If the government paid the bonus, the good landlord would get his back rent and so be able to pay his taxes, too. The clothing and shoe merchant’s would sell some of their goods, so that would help some, but of course if it’s more important to feed the poor in China, why—? I’m a waiter, and, while I’m waiting, I’m also thinking. THINKING WAITER.

Editor Times —ln reading the People’s Voice in your paper, I noticed the article about the bonus signed,

Lawyer Hit for His Stand

A Lawyer. In most cases that readily should explain the contents. In my opinion, if this country had just about 25 per cent more lawyers, it would be broke without the aid of anything else. It is my opinion that all that is making him peeved is that somebody else besides him and the other members of his profession have something coming from the government. The body of men that admitted and passed a law to the effect that the government owed the soldiers that bonus were mostly lawyers, and I think they were a lot higher in the profession than the one I am speaking of. If he is trying to get on the right side of the big money by putting articles like this in the paper, he would better quit, as I don’t think it will net him much profit. Most of the communities are talking about racketeering. Well, the sooner they get after the lawyers and their friends, the sooner they will have no more rackets. You will find behind any scheme that amounts to anything a lawyer in the driver’s seat. A WORKING MAN. # #

Editor Times —I have read with considerable interest the articles in your paper by Talcott Powell, in

Case Is Declared Just

which he empties his vials of calumny and detraction upon the heads of the men who offered their lives during 1917 and 1918 that this nation and free government throughout the world might live. Now that the danger seems for the moment passed, and the mission of these men successful, they are denounced for asking the government to pay them the adjusted compensation now, when it would be a life saver to many of them in this crucial hour of our history. It should be remembered that men who worked in the shipyards and other industries did not need any adjustment, as they were paid up to $lB a day, and, as Will Rogers said, "Nailed in shipyards in silk shirts.” The railroads, after close of the war, demanded and received their adjusted compensation cash on the barrel head. Some of the European nations came to our treasury and got sufficient funds to pay their soldiers adjusted compensation shortly after they ceased fighting, and recently the House of Morgan made a raid on the finance corporation and unloaded some bad loans that the Missouri Pacific railroad owed them. Why don’t Mr. Powell use the Morgan raid for his next theme? We understand why he won’t. We know that all the predatory interests in this country are against us, and we believe that when the people understand it “they will love us for the enemies we have made”: “Pleasant it is for the little tin rods When the treat* Jove nods But the little tin rods make their mistake When they miss the hour that the treat Jove wakes.'” Congressman Patman stands in the national capitol at Washington, the champion of Lazarus at- the gates of Dives. The Roman ambassador stood before the Carthaginan senate and said: “I hold peace and war in the folds of my toga—which shall 1 shake out for you?” The Carthaginans replied: “War,” and were swept from the earth. Despite all the efforts of the predatory interests, our cause is just and will become a law. If this congress does not take action anew bunch of faces will be in Washington at the next session and will pass it quickly. JOHN FOX.

Editor Times —I would like for you to print the following in regard to whether the exservice men are

Pay Us What We Deserve

entitled to their bonus. It is an established fact that high finance has been responsible for all wars, but it didn’t leak out until away back at the Battle of Waterloo, when Rothschild stole away in the dead of night and told the English people that Wellington had been defeated and bought up all their stocks and bonds at a trifle. We boys didn't cause the war. nor did we even ask for a bonus. Our congress gave it to us and have been 'playing football with it ever since. And since it has been given, why don't they pay what they gave? Congress paid $3,500,000,000 to the packers. It gave tfie railroads $2,500,000,000. It handed out '

the other side; how an able-bodied man who incurred Usability in dvil life years after the war may be receiving more compensation than widows and orphans of those who gave their lives overseas. He has cited figures to support the contention that immediate payment of the bonus would bring disaster to the nation’s financial structure.. That is his side of the argument. In all fairness, the veterans have been given opportunity to present their side of the controversy.. Here it is.

money right and left, so why shouldn’t it pay an honest debt which ft gave us? In April, 1917, congress passed the draft. Hundreds of thousands enlisted rather than be drafted. Thousands were drafted and sent to cantonments, to be made into machines of death. Other men were arrested for making seditious remarks, others were braided slackers. They stayed at home and they are the ones who have the positions and seniority of employment today. I have had men my junior say they were too young to enlist, or that they had dependents. Now, Mr. Big Shot correspondent, I will assume from the stand that you are taking that you are going to be well paid for your articles. You are the same stand that the slacker took and the one who claimed he was too young. The only ones that don’t want to. You couldn’t see all that drilling in a southern camp from 6 until 6 in the sweltering heat for about three or four months, only to be grabbed up and hustled to a train, sent to a port of embarkation, and shoved into the dirty hold of a ship. Then into an English rest camp No. 2, and a bath, a drip bath. After the bath, we were led over to mess, and a mess it was. All I ever ate in two days while there was boiled potatoes. Then training camp, cooties, bombardments day and night, gas and machine gun fire for days. We lived as rats; but did we complain? Not in the least.. Now, since capital is responsible for the war and congress gave us the money, there is only one thing to do. Pay the debt. FRANK M. HARKINS.

Editor TimevS —Reading your article of April 8 on soldiers’ pensions and how they got them, I couldn’t

Put the Blame on Doctors

help noticing two or three lines the second time about men going into the service with certain ailments. I am not speaking for myself. I was a volunteer and went through the strenuous examination of the regular army, and gave my services for sls a month, and whatever congress does on the bonus question I will have no grievances. Now these men who were drafted into the service with certain ailments, several that’" I know, how can they be blamed? Why not blame the doctors who passed them, and took them into the service when they were not physically fit? EDWIN B. HOLMES. n tt tt

Editor Times —I am a constant reader of The Times and read in the April 13 edition that ex-service

Pay Now, Not After He Is Dead

men were writing in on why they wanted the bonus paid. I am an ex-service man. I served eighteen months overseas and was in\ all the heavy fighting. My health has been ruined and I am out of work, without funds and heavily,in debt. There are six in my family and only a trustee basket for food that I work two days each week to get. If the bonus were paid, we could pay our rent, get clothes and groceries, and pay off our many debts. Many a person who does not know where the next meal is coming from would thank God if he had the bonus now when he needs it, not after he is dead and gone. We gave the best days of our life when our country needed us and gave - them gladly, and we sacrificed our health. Why not give us what is due us, now that we need help? We surely would appreciate it. I'm all for the cash bonus payment now. LEROY INGRAM.

Editor Times— This letter is written by two ex-service men in regard to the bonus. We feel that an ex-serv-

Entitled to Bonus , They Say

ice man who wants and needs his bonus is entitled to it. We will bet our lives that the ones who don't need it will be the ones to apply for it first. We fought for our God and our country and won to make it safe for our dear ones and citizens of this free country to live in. So now is the time to help the service man and not starve him and his family. If the government can not pay this bonus, why should it charge us 4Vs per cent when it borrows the money for 1% per cent. In 1945 how much will there be left for the ex-service man to collect? If the government has plenty of money to loan foreign countries, why doesn’t the government help its outi needy? If William Wolff Smith receives $187.50 retirement pay and $9,000 a year as a general counsel for the veterans’ administration, w r e feel that the unfortunate buddie should a have a chance. BERT AND GEORGE.

Editor Times —Talcott Powell states that all a man has to do to obtain free medical aid from the gov-

Medical Aid Free? Not So

ernment is to 1 show service connection, and treatment is immediate. I want to refute that statement, for I can bring before him a man who suffered trouble with his teeth while serving in France and a few years ago the trouble came back. The doctors pronounced it trench mouth. He has lost a few of his teeth because of the disease.

He tried to get them treated. Did he? No! I only wish Talcott Powell should suffer one hour with trench mouth and I guarantee you he will retract that statement. This is only one case. There are more cases of different diseases. I think the time to help the largest part of the boys who served is to pay the rest of their money before they pass beyond. They were the ones who fought and it should have been paid a long time ago. The government never can pay in money for what a lot of the boys went through. ONE WHO KNOWS.

Editor Times your stand on the bonus question, allow me to present my views, the same

War Wage Held Long Overdue

as held by hundreds of veterans with whom I have come in contact. We are the common class, the uneducated “buck private” class of veterans. I believe that it is wrong to bleed the treasury of the United States at this, a critical time. Had the money we deserved been paid at the proper time, it would have long been forgotten. How many men worked for $1 a day during the war, outside the service? Very few, if i know anything about it. Now, because we are demanding our long overdue “wages.” every one seems to be up in the air about it. How many of your politicians took a pay cut down to'sl a day'during or since the war? Yes, there were a few men on the dollar-a-year list, men financially able, not men of the ranks, who depended upon their daily wages. What did the government do in regard to the railroad men? Gave them their bonus of back pay in full when the country was in as critical a state as it is now. Wyh not put a deficit on the government’s books and erect a wonderful monument to the heroes of the world, the same as the state did? What good is that marvelous and beautiful World war memorial to the men and their families who are starving? The very men it was erected for are going hungry, with no homes, no clothing, and in destitute circumstances. They can’t eat limestone and marble. They feel as though what they did for you and every one has gone unappreciated. In their uneducated and uncouth ways can they appreciate a work of art? No! It’s like a slap in the face. I say, let Uncle Sam pay the bonus in full. It’s back wages for us. It isn’t compulsory for your patriotic politicians, nor your business men with jobs to accept this bonus, but every mother’s son who is hungry will say he thinks he deserves it, Cut some of your high-salaried officials down to a dollar a day long enough to meet this deficit and listen to them rave. Who is Talcott Powell? Is he employed or one of the hungry unemployed? A FORMER BUCK PRIVATE.

Editor Times —I have been a reader of your paper for years and like the way you have fought for the

Give Us an Even Break

rights of us poor people. You have stood by the poor year by year. You and our good old Democrat mayor have had our water rates cut down. You have done more than all the other papers combined, but I don’t like the way you are giving the veteran the devil. I will admit the veterans are costing the people lots of money, but if all the vets were dead and gone, taxes would not be a bit lower, and you are all wrong on some of your information. If you are going to howl, then raise the dickens about some of these birds drawing $75 to $l5O a month and some holding down government jobs. I am a veteran, was twenty months in the army, eight months of which I spent in France, not all behind the lines. Was two months in the front lines and exposed to shells day after day. I suffered from gas, am still coughing from it. Night after night we stood our watch over No Man’s land and what are we getting for it? The bird who got out of it and made big money at home owns his home today and is settled pretty. You are all O. K. on getting after some of the boys who are getting big money and never even went across, but under that new law passed several years ago, try to get more than S4O a month! I am married, have five children and walking the streets, why? I think all veterans should get pensions, a little at first and more later as the years go by. As for the bonus, I say, pass it. Pay it gradually. The $2,000,000,000 Mr. Hoover okayed for the bankers never broke the country, did it? Or the $12,000,000,000 the Allies owes us? We are still marching on and the bonus will do a world of good for at least 700,000 veterans who are walking the streets like I am, with seven hungry mouths to feed, with one of them suffering from T. B. from the lack of milk. Now, Mr. Editor, if you are bound to make war on the veteran, please pick on some of these soft berth birds, getting from $75 to $l5O just because they belong to the American Legion and have someone to back them, also because they are READER.

EDITOR TIMES—As an ex-soldier of the World war, I, for one, as well as millions of others, not big men, but working men with faipilies, approve the passing of the soldiers’ bonus. I need mine and I need it badly. We served over there for $1 a day, no limit on hours, in mud, rain, blood and slum, with little to eat at times, while thousands of others made their $5, $lO and sls a day for eight hours’ work. Some of them now are living off their interest. I, as well as my four brothers, who stuck and fought for our country, am down and out. And we all have families. What would you

people who are opposing this bill do if you had money coming to you from a job and it was held back while the interest ate it up? Answer that and tell the truth. I know what you would do. The same as we are doing. You would want your money, and you wouldn’t thank any one for butting in. trying to keep you from getting it. §o why don’t you people with wealth,

you who made your fortune while we defended you, keep your mouths shut and let the boys who deserve it get it? What has Hoover done for us? What has Stevens done for us? Nothing. I am a Republican, have been for thirty-two years, but never again, as long as we have a bunch like we have now. Watch the change of our next election, if this bill is passed by the house. See who the boys are for. They don’t forget. Never. I think Stevens is a poor, very poor legionnaire. How did he ever get in? Why don’t they throw him out, as they did his friend in North Carolina? The money lies there to pay us off. Why don’t they pay it? I’ll tell you. About fifty men are running this country. All money men. None saw any service in the blood fields of Flanders. They're just a bunch of punks, green from the start, and our President listens to them. They’re getting our bonus, little by little, from the interest. If your paper is for the hard-up men and their families, then show your grit and publish this for the benefit of our lads who fought through blood, rain, and slum to protect the lives of the rich. Perhaps some day we'll have another war, and, as I said, we never forget. Do unto others as you wish to be done by. RAINBOW DIVISION VETERAN.

Talcott Powell —Please be advised that any government worker does get retirement benefits at the end

Benefits A re Paid by U. S.

of his required period as a government employe. And any ex-service man with an honorable discharge, after his emergency period has terminated, is just as entitled to hospitalization. Who are you supposed to be, taking up such questions? Hoping to see your answers through your paper, also let us know when the price of same will come back to 1 cent, like it used to be? ANOTHER EX-SERVICE MAN. Delphi, Ind.

Editor Times —I wish to deny the charges of Talcott Powell that the veterans are grabbers and are

They Keep Big Profits

showing less patriotism now than during the war. We were paid five and one-twenty-fourth cents and hour above our living expense. Making allowance to all civilians the rate the government had for each man in the service and the same rate of pay, now ask them to refund all the excessive wages they made over that. You know their patriotism won’t quite come up to the sacrifice the service man made. There is a big difference between five and one-twenty-fourth cents clear profit per, to anywhere from 50 cents to a dollar profit an hour. Next take the manufacturer, who also demanded a huge profit, to show his patriotism. Ask him to refund some of the profits of which he robbed the government and also the people. Give him, say, $2 an hour over operating and living expense. Will he do that? No. You and I and every one else knows that. Why? Because the rich are about to die from a small income tax our government asks of them. They would rather the country go bankrupt. They won’t do that for our government, but our government made a refund of income tax after the stock market crash. And now they have given the banks a golden egg to borrow so they may keep their heads above water, while the service man was underpaid, according to what was paid civilians. Now, if our government well could afford to pay the huge profits and excessive wages without going bankrupt, refund income taxes, loan golden eggs to banks, pay out millions trying to enforce the prohibition law, and on top of that, with our freeheartedness, donate the wonderful revenues which would help our treasury, to the bootleggers, then I say we were the most underpaid and lost more than any one else. I, for one, resent Talcott Powell's poems he is writing under the heading, “Veterans Are Begging the Country for a Dole.” I wonder what Mr. Powell did during the war. and what was his rate of pay, and if he got his old job back, and as an old man or anew man. ANONYMOUS.

Editor Times —To the World war veterans who are in need of their bonus money, please

t( Not Beer We Wanr

write to Representative Patman of Texas, and do not let the higher-ups in the American Legion stop the bill that will pay you the bonus. It is not beer that we want. It is money to buy our families something to eat. On April 6 I read what the American Legion officers and wearers of the D. S. C. had to say against the bonus. These men have good jobs or have parents to finance their means through life. Do not let such men as these stop you from getting what is coming to you—your bonus. If the President should die, Mrs. Hoover would be after her $5,000 a year, and there would be no objections if she would get the money. Furthermore, the American Legion never has thought how many ex-service men are staying in the soldiers’ homes throughout the United States because they have no financial means to keep them outside the hom6. These men would leave the homes as soon as they received their bonus. It is true that some men will blow their money in and have nothing to show for it, but ninetynine out of 100 will put it to good use. There are just as many holding D. S. C.’s who want the bonus as there are those who do not want it. Write to your congressman, for $2,000,000,000 will help a lot, out in circulation. CHARLES FCAfLER.

PAGE 5

Pleads for Aid in Hour of His Need

Editor Times —As you've invited letters of personal views on the bonus situation, I feel that I, as a

Suffered, Asks Only Justice

subscriber of your good paper and a veteran, am entitled to a small space in this affair. I am a veteran and served overseas in actual service, was subject to the treatment of the ordinary doughboy, who saw actual service and that treatment was sleeping in mud and water when an opportunity came to sleep. Dug into holes where water collected and slept like varmints. Hiked through mud and water with pack and rifle, etc., weighing 117 pounds by actual weight. Forced to wear English issue shoes which were made for either foot and fit neither and by so doing my toes had to overlap each other and the toe nails were half black from blood blisters under them, yet I hiked just the same. Never had my clothes off, except to bathe, for eight months. Was sick and confined with no care except what my buddies gave me, and thanks to them. It was a brother’s care as far as they knew how. I’ve hiked without food and fought for as much as four days without food, then only turnips and water, no salt or pepper. All this lor $1.25 a day. And now they call that good pay. You can’t say that included food and medical care, for we didn’t have that all the time and not in sufficient quantity at any time. Ten times that pay wouldn’t have been enough for most of these people who are “squawking” and most of them wouldn’t have gone at any price. We were good enough to fight for these yellowbacks, but now we are not fit even to enjoy the pursuit of happiness which we are supposed to have. Did we get preference, of jobs when we came back? No. And now if you were an ex-soldier you don’t even stand a fifty-fifty show. The taxpayer isn’t opposing the bonus. Big corporations and Wall Street oppose it, but the man it really hurts is the small taxpayer and he isn’t opposed to it for he understands better the condition of the needy and disabled soldier. I have paid more back in taxes of various kinds than the government ever paid me in salary. After all my opinion is as good as Mr. Powell’s. Likely he’s only a man, too. So let’s have the bonus. Now. A. P. O. 778

Editor Times —Here is another answer to the lawyer who c o m p 1 imented The Times on its bonus stories.

Try This Diet on Family

I’ll bet he was one of those boys who stayed home and made his jack while the making was good. I am a veteran’s wife. We have three boys. I wonder how Mr. Lawyer would like to sit down to beans and jowl bacon three times a day, day after day, and see his children go to school in rags and on that kind of food, and hi* wife never have a change of dresses or hose or any thread to sew with. To do without everything that makes life half worth living. We think he has lots of “guts.” Let him give up his automobile, his radio, electric lights, steam heat and get a job with the county two days a week, and eat Hoover ham and beans. Maybe that would make him see the bonus in a different light. I don’t have a stamp so am sending this letter with a friend. FIVE WHO NEED THE BONUS.

Editor Times— I have read this paper since it was called The India nap o 1 is Sun and I surely am stunned

Need Is Cited by Wife

at the stand you are taking, holding up for the moneyed man. I wonder if you have the nerve to print this answer to a lawyer: I wonder if you are one of the brave boys who stayed at home, had a soft job, and made big money while the cowards took a chance of being a target for the enemy bullets. Left mothers, wives, children and all, not knowing whether they would come back or not, and we thought it would be a glory to make the country safe for men like you. My husband has not worked for two years and the bonus would be a Godsend to us, but there are so many like you I am afraid we won’t get it. But if you thought there was any danger of another war, you would be out shaking hands and patting the “so-called patriots” on the back. I am the mother of five and have to live on $3.50 a wjek—not money, but groceries given for made work. VETERAN’S WIFE.