THE CONGRESS: Ex-Precedent

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Printing Press Money "The first person injured by sky-rocketing prices is the man on a fixed income. Every disabled veteran on pension or allowance is on fixed income. This bill favors the able-bodied veteran at the expense of the disabled veteran. . . . Every country that has attempted the form of meeting its obligations which is here provided has suffered disastrous consequences. In the majority of cases printing press money has not been retired through taxation. Because of increased costs, caused by inflated prices, new issue has followed new issue, ending in the ultimate wiping out of the currency of the afflicted country.

"The statement . . . that payment will discharge and retire an acknowledged contract obligation of the Government is, I regret to say, not in accordance with the fact. It wholly omits and disregards the fact that this contract obligation is due in 1945 and not today.

"If I, as an individual, owe you, an individual member of the Congress, $1,000 payable in 1945, it is not a correct statement for you to tell me that I owe you $1,000 today. As a matter of practical fact, if I put $750 into a Government savings bond today and make that bond out in your name you will get $1,000 on the due date, ten years from now. My debt to you today, therefore, can not under the remotest possibility be considered more than $750.

"The core of the question is that a man who is sick or under some other special disability because he was a soldier should certainly be assisted as such. But if a man is suffering from economic need because of the Depression, even though he is a veteran, he must be placed on a par with all of the other victims of the Depression. . . .

"I cannot in honesty assert to you that to increase that deficit this year by two billion two hundred million dollars will in itself bankrupt the United States. Today the credit of the United States is safe. But it cannot ultimately be safe if we engage in a policy of yielding to each & all of the groups that are able to enforce upon the Congress claims for special consideration. We can afford all that we need; but we cannot afford all that we want. I do not need to be a prophet to assert that if these certificates, due in 1945, are paid in full today, every candidate for election to the Senate or to the House of Representatives will in the near future be called upon in the name of patriotism to support general pension legislation for all veterans, regardless of need or age. . . .

"I believe the welfare of the nation, as well as the future welfare of the veterans, wholly justifies my disapproval of this measure.

"Therefore, Mr. Speaker, I return, without my approval, House of Representatives Bill No. 3896, providing for the immediate payment to veterans of the 1945 face value of their adjusted service certificates."

322-to-98. So saying, Franklin Roosevelt swung around to the desk above him where Vice President Garner and Speaker Byrns had sat in sphinxlike pomp and handed Speaker Byrns the vetoed Bonus Bill and the original of his speech. While applause rang through the House Speaker Byrns wrung the President's hand, congratulated him.

"Thanks, thanks," said the President.