1945

Thirteen years ago a group of men gathered together to form an organization for the declared purpose of "preserving the memories and incidents of association in the war, inculcating a sense of individual obligation to the community, to the state, to the nation, and making right the master of might." How far the American Legion has wandered from these expressed principles of its constitution has been brought into sharp relief by the activity of the National Economy League. Starting with such praiseworthy determinations, the Legion has finished with an attempt to blood a nation for its private class legislation.

At this moment, when the country is in the midst of economic troubles causing suffering comparable to that of war, when the obvious solution is a radical cut in government cost, the Legion is not only intensively advocating immediate payment of some two billions of dollars which are not due until 1945, but also refuses to help prevent the $450,000,000 yearly waste in payments to "Veterans" who suffered no disabilities in the World War and many of whom saw no service abroad.

While many veterans have refused to prostitute their patriotic services and to accept pay for having done their natural and fundamental duty, a large number have assumed the attitude that the government should be mulcted of as much money as possible. This last group fails to realize that the burden of the proposed immediate bonus payments and the load of the wasted millions falls directly on all the people in the shape of taxes, and particularly on this younger generation to which the Great War is only a dim reality. Congress has already permitted veterans to borrow on their bonus certificates a sum practically equal to what would have been the amount of the bonus if payed in 1926. The Legion, entirely overlooking the compound interest involved in the 1945 payments, asks in effect that the government pay twice as much as it owes.

No one will disagree with the moral responsibility of the government for the care of the disabled in the war or of the dependents of those who died in the line of duty. However, the American Legion is going so far beyond its just and natural demands that it may contribute no little to an economic chaos. As a strongly organized minority, it has effectually prevented the vote-loving politicians and officials of the country from any attempt to reform the present evils in the administration of veteran payments.

Only the hitherto passive members of the Legion or an organized opposition such as the National Economy League can force the leaders of the American Legion to follow their sense of obligation to the nation and to "make right the master of might."