WHEN JOHNNY COMES MARCHING HOME
Follette, Sen. Robert M. La Jr.
When Johnny Comes Marching Home By SEN. ROBERT M. LA FOLLETTE, Jr UNFORTUNATELY we cannot achieve absolute equality of sacrifice in war. Nothing compares with the great sacrifices hundreds of...
...It sets up special administrative machinery whereby he will be given special consideration by the Federal and State Employment Service offices in helping him find a job...
...Monopoly will throttle America's productive capacity which has been so greatly expanded to meet wartime production needs...
...They will have disappeared through the normal and inevitable process of business adjustment and mortality...
...Congress and the Federal Government are making a sincere and conscientious effort to treat the men and women in our armed forces as generously as befits a great nation such as the United States of America...
...We must restore competition and the opportunity for independent enterprise in private business...
...Current Pay Provisions We can be proud that the armed services of the United States of America are more generously paid than those of any other country in the world...
...Of this amount, $22 was deducted from the soldier's pay, and the balance was paid by the Government...
...G. I. Bill Proposals Mustering-out pay does not meet the problem of returning veterans in finding their places in civilian life...
...A re-employment guarantee does not help the returning veteran who was self-employed...
...Many of them will have been in the armed forces for a period of four or five years or longer...
...It must provide the veteran every possible assistance in reestablishing himself in civilian life when he has completed his military service...
...Congress enacted a system of dependency allotments in an effort to provide minimum assistance for the support of the families of those in the armed services...
...It is important to him, it is important to his family, and in a larger sense it is vitally important to the entire nation...
...Congress is working on some of these problems in the Veterans' Omnibus Bill, which has passed both Houses and is now in conference...
...It is our solemn duty on the home front to make certain that each and every American citizen who has given so freely to this country in this time of crisis will know that the sacrifice has not been in vain...
...Nevertheless, over a period of four or five years some of the jobs veterans left when they went into service will no longer be there when they return...
...The bill also provides that the Veterans' Administration may lend him up to $1,000 to help in establishing him in business or agriculture...
...Nor can we compensate a family for the loss of a father, a son, a husband, or a brother...
...In June of 1942 Congress raised the base pay to $50 a month and granted other increases in other classifications above the base level...
...Because I led the fight for $50 in the Senate, I know from the countless letters I have received from soldiers how much even these few additional dollars have meant to them...
...In the last analysis, the only compensation that we can offer in appreciation of the blood and sweat our fighting forces are pouring out in this war will be to put forth our utmost in the war effort...
...We must not yield to the powerful pressure of monopoly...
...Nothing compares with the great sacrifices hundreds of thousands of our soldiers, sailors, and marines are called upon to make in battle...
...A member of the armed services who has been on active duty for 60 days or more and has in that period served outside the continental limits of the United States, or in Alaska, will receive $300 mustering-out pay...
...It proposes to eliminate difficulties in clearing his records and starting him back on the road to successful civilian life...
...It is with that in mind that Congress has undertaken to provide more liberally than ever before for the members of the armed forces, their families, and their futures...
...He may choose some kind of vocational training, or he may choose to finish up his school work, or he may choose to start professional or graduate schooling...
...One serving on active duty for 60 days or more in the continental limits of the United States will get $200 mustering-out pay...
...This important principle should be applied right down the line in public and in private employment alike...
...Many of the veterans who went into the service and left businesses of their own, or professional practices, will find it extremely difficult to reestablish themselves...
...The peace and happiness of our national community in the years to come will depend to a great extent upon our success in welcoming home our war veterans and giving them at once the place and opportunities in civilian life they have looked forward to and have fought for...
...This bill provides for streamlining the administrative relationship between the War and Navy Departments and the Veterans' Administration, so that the rights of an honorably discharged veteran to the various kinds of government assistance will be fully protected...
...It is commonly known as the G.I...
...Payments and aids and programs of various kinds are fine as far as they go, but the full measure of economic opportunity which the young men and women returning from the service will want and expect depend upon the kind of an economic system we create when we reconvert America's economy from a wartime to a peacetime basis...
...It will make available to him a full year of education at the Government's expense...
...We went into this war with a base pay of $21 per month in the army...
...Congress passed legislation establishing the veteran's right to reemployment in his former civilian job...
...To help the returning veteran to bridge the gap between military service and civilian life, the Congress has already enacted legislation providing for muster-ing-out pay...
...It will provide him with a subsistence allowance of $50 a month while he is receiving educational training and an additional $25 a month if he has a family dependent upon him...
...They will have acquired new skills and new interests which they are anxious to put to use in civilian life...
...The Broader Challenge The assistance that has been or is being provided for the veteran while he is in the service and when he comes home is tremendously important...
...Many of them will need to brush up on the skills they used in civilian life but had no occasion to use while in the armed forces...
...Whatever he chooses, so long as he is willing to take his work in an educational institution which meets the standards of the Veterans' Administration, the Federal Government will pay his tuition and other fees up to $500 for the school year...
...It makes him eligible for unemployment benefits of $15 per week plus $5 if he has one dependent, $8 if he has two dependents, and $10 if he has three or more dependents, for a period not to exceed 52 weeks while he is looking for a job...
...We must utilize the energies and talents of every able-bodied American man and woman for producing the tools of peace just as we have in producing the tools of war...
...This means that a soldier or a sailor or a marine with a wife and two children left at home knows that they are getting at least $100 a month...
...This must be done on a generous and respectable basis...
...For those serving 60 days or less, mustering-out pay will be $100...
...If monopoly interests dictate the policies of reconversion and the disposal of the 15 billion dollars of new plants built by the Government, the returning veteran and displaced war worker will not find the equality of economic opportunity to which they are entitled...
...But even though we cannot compensate in a material way for what the men and women in the armed forces are giving up in their country's service, we have a compelling moral obligation to provide for their material needs...
...Originally it provided that the wife of a man in the service would receive $50 a month, $12 additional for one child, and $10 more for each added child in the family...
...No amount of money or Government aid will repay a boy for an arm gone or a leg lost...
...Even the most generous material compensation does not measure up to such sacrifices...
...Moreover, many of these veterans will no longer be interested in their old jobs...
...The challenge before us is to put our entire productive capacity to work...
...Bill...
...The Government's contribution has been increased in the past year to provide an income of $50 a month for each soldier's wife, $30 additional for one child, and $20 each for the rest of the children in the family...
...There are broader aspects to this problem that go far beyond the specific and direct aids I have outlined...
Vol. 8 • June 1944 • No. 23
