Veteran-Aid Policies of the United States

Report Outline
New Veteran Relief Legislation of 1930
Trends in Federal Veteran-Aid Policy
History of the American Pension System
Legislation for World War Veterans
Special Focus

New Veteran Relief Legislation of 1930

The twelfth national convention of the American Legion will meet at Boston on October 6 and will be addressed on the morning of that day by President Hoover. The importance of the legislation on behalf of World War and other veterans enacted at the last session of Congress, and the determined stand taken by the President against some of the veteran-relief projects advanced during the session, make it probable that the Legion convention will stimulate wide public discussion of the policies to be followed in the future by the federal government in extending additional aid to veterans of the World War.

The most important of the veteran-aid measures passed during the 1929–30 session of Congress carried forty amendments to laws previously enacted for the benefit of World War veterans. This measure was signed by the President on the last day of the session, July 3, 1930, after a parliamentary contest lasting many weeks in the course of which the bill first approved by Congress was vetoed by the President. The bill that finally became law omitted provisions liberalizing the compensation of certain categories of veterans which had been opposed by the President, and instead provided for the payment of disability allowances or pensions, ranging from $12 to $40 a month according to the degree of disability, to veterans whose disabilities are not connected with military service.

Congress repassed over the President's veto the Spanish-American War pension bill, increasing the maximum service pension for veterans who served ninety days in that war from $50 to $60 a month, and further providing that veterans who served but seventy days and who are now in some way disabled shall receive pensions of from $12 to $30 a month. The Nelson bill, signed by the President on June 9, 1930, added $10 a month to the higher classes of Civil War pensions, with a maximum of $100 a month, and somewhat liberalized the persons of Civil War widows. A fourth act extended for five years, until 1935, the period during which World War veterans may file applications under the bonus or adjusted compensation act.