In Kansas

BONUS

The difficulties of giving the soldiers of the War a bonus caused an extra session of the Kansas Legislature to be called for August 6. A bond issue of $25,000,000 was originally floated to pay the bonus. It is now found to be from $3,000,000 to $10,000,000 less than the needed amount. The cause of the shortage was that the Kansas Legislature knew not what they did. They voted to pay soldiers, sailors and marines one dollar a day for the actual time they were in service during the World War.

Although the Kansas legislators may not have known what they meant to put into this law, the Kansas Supreme Court did. The board in charge of disbursing the bonus decided that men in officers' training camps should receive a bonus only for their service after being commissioned. The Kansas Supreme Court declared they should be paid for the training camp service as well. The board decided that the bonus should continue for service till June 30, 1919. The Supreme Court said the bonus should be paid till the declaration of peace two years later. The board asked whether it should pay bonuses to Kansans in the Regular Army. The Supreme Court said " Yes."

As a result, 70,000 applications for bonuses have been filed. Thirty thousand of these have been examined. The smallest claim was for four dollars, the largest $816, the average $380. But under the Court rulings a man could make a maximum claim for $1,548.