Word: bonus
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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...votes in the Senate should find himself in this strait position was sheer extravaganza. But according to the theory of practical U. S. politics the idea was grimly realistic. For the measure on which the A. P. counted noses called for full and immediate payment of the Soldiers' Bonus, and behind the Bonus is an unbeaten organized minority which knows what it wants...
Thus was the American Legion founded. In 1920 the Legion first proved the potency of its devotion to "mutual helpfulness" when it got the pensions of disabled veterans upped from $30 to $100 a month. A second proof came in 1924 when it induced Congress to vote a bonus payable in 20 years to some 3,500,000 veterans. In 1931 the Legion was back at the Capitol, demanding and getting, under threat of political reprisals, legislation whereby veterans could borrow 50% of the face value of their bonus certificates. And in 1934 it secured the restoration of a large...
...Legion convention in Miami last November. Just prior to that meeting President Roosevelt, in a speech at Roanoke, had called attention to the fact that Legionaries have greater earning power than the average citizen (an indiscreet admission by the American Legion Weekly). Hence, by inference they needed no Bonus. Insulted, the Legionaries at Miami promptly made an outright demand for immediate payment of their Bonus in cash. To get immediate action they elected Frank Nicholas Belgrano Jr. of San Francisco to be their national commander (salary: $9,000). After the War, through which he served in the U. S., emerging...
Mathematics. Two great reasons has the Legion for demanding immediate payment of the Bonus: 1) it is going to be paid sooner or later anyhow and the Government may as well wipe out its debt now; 2) payment now will help recovery. Both reasons are highly susceptible to mathematics. The mathematics of the recovery argument is simple. The Legion has a table prepared by Congressman Patman of how much Bonus money would go into every state: New York, $221,000,000; Pennsylvania, $156,000,000; Illinois, $141,000,000; Missouri, $61,000,000; Georgia, $32,000,000; Maine...
Wrote Pundit Mark Sullivan of the New York Herald Tribune: "The zeal of those promoting the plan is evangelical, almost fanatic. The pressure on Congress is much greater than was ever brought by veterans for the bonus. . . . Promoters of the bill say it is supported by 10,000,000 persons over 60,10,000,000 more who have dependents over 60, and 20,000,000 more who expect to become 60 some time -and to whom the plan looks good. That would be about all the voters there...