Antis

The opponents of the bonus have made their arguments chiefly on two points:

1) That a bonus would be bad for business and would react to the disadvantage of every citizen including the ex-service men, draining the Treasury of several millions a year for two or three generations.

2) That the majority of ex-service men do not want a bonus. Edward L. Allen, National Director of the Ex-Service Men's Anti-Bonus League, wrote to Representative Green: "There are approximately 3,700,000 ex-service men in the country. But a few more than 400,000 of them are members of the American Legion. If the ex-service men were in immediate need, if they were even demanding assistance at some future date, is it not indeed strange that they have so carefully refrained from becoming identified with an organization that devotes its energies to bonus-seeking ? "

The United States Chamber of Commerce compiled the following statistics on soldier bonuses paid or being paid in this country:

Illinois $55,000,000

Iowa 22,000,000

Kansas 25,000,000

Maine 3,000,000

Massachusetts 32,000,000

Michigan 30,000,000

Minnesota 23,000,000

Missouri 15,000,000

New Hampshire 1,500,000

New Jersey 12,000,000

New York 45,000,000

North Dakota 11,000,000

Ohio 32,500,000

Oregon 30,600,000

Rhode Island 2,500,000

South Dakota 6,000,000

Vermont 1,500,000

Washington 12,500,000

Wisconsin 2,000,000

States' total $380,600,000

Federal Bonus of $60 270,000,000

Grand total $650,600,000

Of 4,582,393 men called into service, 2,348,655 benefited by state bonuses. Arizona, Delaware, Indiana, Kentucky, Nebraska, Oklahoma are the only states which defeated bonus measures. Bonuses are pending the vote of the people in Colorado, Montana, Pennsylvania.

The total of $650,600,000 in bonuses paid in this country compares as follows with bonuses of other countries:

Great Britain--$275,910,446.

France--$373,371,150.

Canada--$147,600,000.

Australia--$105,000,000.

New Zealand--$18,290,650.

Belgium--$10,592,250.