AMERICA’S SOLDIERS

Southland Times, Issue 18821, 14 May 1920, Page 2

AMERICA’S SOLDIERS

HARD FIGHT FOE A REWARD. GRIEVANCES UNREDRESSED. LOS ANGELES, March 16. New Zealand and Australia have nothing to learn from America in regard to the treatment of the returned soldiers (says tho correspondent of the Wellington Post). In this country discharged men are to be encountered everywhere. They were given their discharge and 60 dollars—the price of a suit of clothes. They were also given rail warrants to their homes. Most of the men now have a grievance. Thirty-seven States have made provision for soldiers and sailors. Monuments are being raised, bronze medals are being voted, and men are being helped to own a farm or a home. Seven States have given bonuses averaging £2O for each man. It is estimated that £14,000,000 will be paid to 550,000 men from those States. The Federal Government has, however, done very little. It has given the 60 dollars, preferred Civil Service standing, permission to retain unifbrms and equipment, partial relief to the disabled through vocational training laws, incorporation of the American Legion, permanent rank to General Pershing, ten obsolete rifles to Legion posts for funerals, and service men have a 60 days’ prior right to settle on homestead tracts. As all service counts for the purpose of land occupation, a man with two years’ service can dispose of the holding he got for almost nothing in a year, probably at a high value. COMPENSATION SOUGHT. The House of Representatives referred the whole question of soldier relief legislation to the Ways and Moans Committee. The Committee quarrelled over procedure at its first meeting and broke up in some confusion after members had repeated charges made in the House that the measure had been sent to the Committee for burial. The national commander of the legion declared that 3,000,000 soldiers did not ask for a bonus, but felt that the Government owed an obligation to the men who were handicapped bodily or financially. The representatives of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, a separate, organisation, opposed the legion view and urged relief to discharged men at the rate of 30s per week, with a grant of £2O to those who served overseas. A member of the committee said that such an amount could not be raised, as the public debt was now £5,200,000,000, and it would add to the present severe inflation and raise living costs. The Secretary' of the Treasury, Mr Houston, has declared that a bond issue of £500,000.000 to help soldiers might result in disaster. There would be no feeling of patriotism to help in disposing of them. “Mere lip appreciation and nothing more has been given us,” was the comment of one leader of the soldiers. A YEAR’S PAY URGED. Mr Swope, Republican from Kentucky, a doubtful State, urges the adoption of a Bill granting an extra year’s pay to all those in the service except those who served less than two months. He estimated that such a plan would cost £260,000,000. An infantry school major favoured a cash payment plan of £lO a month for each month of service. Replying to a question as to when representatives of soldier organisations might bo expected to make another request for financial aid from Congress, the major said: “Nobody can tell. Any body of men which thinks it can get something out of the rest of the American people will try to get all it can.” It would be very unsafe to prophesy as to whether the men will get anything or not. The plain truth is that the war is over now.