Veterans' Bonus

Report Outline
Grants to Veterans: an American Tradition
Bonus Issue After World War I
World War Ii Veterans and the Bonus

Grants to Veterans: an American Tradition

Movement for World War II Soldier Bonus

New Bills for payment of a bonus to veterans of World War II will be introduced in both houses at the opening of the 80th Congress in January, 1947. Whether bonus legislation is enacted by the new Congress will depend upon changes in the general level of economic activity during its two year term of service. That a bonus will ultimately be authorized for the men and women who served in World War II appears to be accepted as a foregone conclusion. A sharp postwar recession would generate pressure for immediate action by Congress; a continuation of full employment might postpone passage of a bonus bill until well after the 1948 presidential election.

Bills to grant a bonus to veterans of World War II have been offered at each session of Congress since 1942. Little organized pressure was put behind them during the war years or at the first postwar session of Congress in 1946. The principle of a World War II bonus still lacks the endorsement of the American Legion (membership of about 3,500,000), but it has the active support of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (membership about 1,750,000) and of four smaller veterans' organizations.

The American Veterans of World War II is expected to come out for the bonus at its annual convention, Nov. 21-24, at St. Louis. The American Veterans Committee, only other national organization of ex-servicemen to grow out of World War II, rejected a bonus resolution at its 1946 convention in June. A sharp business recession, accompanied by considerable unemployment, could be expected, however, quickly to produce the same united support of veterans for the bonus that developed after World War I.