Peace-Time Patriotism

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

The vital question of the Soldier Bonus raised recently in your columns, has brought forth strong comment by Mr. Baxter in your issue of March 15.

Although agreeing with Mr. Baxter in what he says, I yet believe that he has not gone far enough into the matter. The time for the government to have given us a substantial bonus,-instead of the sixty dollars which was too little to accomplish anything with,-was at the time of discharge, after our return from overseas service, and not now. Two years have gone by; two years in which any of us left physically able, have become more or less settled, whether in college, business or profession. A real bonus at the present time, although very helpful to receive, would not effect the relief it might have, if presented long ago. I am not denying that many need that bonus badly, but I do not think that the majority do, as we have been compelled to work out our own salvation, funds or no funds.

Then there is the national side of the question. This country, together with most of the rest of the world, is in a period of great financial stress. The nation is suffering from money inflation, severe taxation, and loans to our allies are in a state of stagnation, so that the interest cannot be collected. Appeals for economy in all lines have been issued. Congress is at last awake and we are to have a budget system. This is not the time to increase the bonded indebtedness of the National Government. Pure justice can be better satisfied by the application of funds to the the alleviation of the lot of the many almost forgotten medical cases.

No one doubted Patriotism in the late war, so let us not forget that there is a Patriotism in peace as well as war. Now is the time for the ex-service man to work with all his ability for hospital facilities for the sick and wounded, while at the same time disclaiming all share in a bonus for himself, and in the larger interests of financial recuperation and national well-being, to prove to all people that our wartime patriotism did not end with peace. A. A. RUBET, '23. March 15, 1921.