Bonanza

The 80th Congress had done all right by its 18 million veteran-constituents. Adding up the score last week, veterans could count at least 57 new laws designed to keep them financially solvent and politically grateful. The biggest single gift was the law permitting 8,500,000 ex-enlisted men to cash in $2 billion worth of World War II terminal-leave bonds, beginning next month. The rest of the bonanza added another round $200 million. Items:

P: Another $5,000,000 worth of specially equipped automobiles for amputees.

P: An increase in minimum subsistence and pension allowances (from $105 to $115 a month) for disabled veterans taking rehabilitation training.

P: Full subsistence payments for on-the-farm training.

P: Cancellation of back taxes for war dead.

P: Special immigration rights to alien fiancees.

P: Reinstatement of lapsed National Service Insurance policies (by the payment of two months' premiums),

P: $35 million to convert wartime barracks into veterans' housing.

P: An increase of 20% in pensions for survivors of the Spanish-American and Civil Wars and their dependents.

In its anxiety over the veterans themselves, Congress did not forget the veterans' kin. One bill started the ball rolling on designs for a "Gold Star Lapel Button." Parents of men killed in World War II will get them free; brothers and sisters, at cost.

But Congress had barely whetted veterans' hopes. Still hanging over for next session were bills to lift subsistence rates and on-the-job training ceilings which would make this year's bonanza look like a miserly down payment. And even the most economy-minded Congressman could not forget one Veterans Administration estimate: by 1952, veterans and their families will make up 43% of the nation's population.

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