The Veteran
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Radio Audience:
I take this opportunity today to speak on the problem of the veteran. It is my sincere conviction that a candidate for the high position of Congressman should discuss with the electorate the platform on which he stands, rather than indulge in slogans or empty promises. I have, therefore, devoted my first radio talk to such a vital issue as the “Housing Problem,” Wednesday’s talk to "Jobs," and tonight, I would like to treat, in the brief time allotted to me, some of the problems of the veteran.
I do not propose to speak for the veteran. He needs no spokesman. For many long years his deeds have spoken for him eloquently. All too many politicians with catch-all phrases, have tried to be self-appointed spokesmen for the veteran and I definitely avoid that position. But during the war in the Pacific, and since my return, I have had many discussions with the veterans and I believe I know their views. Some of those views I should like to discuss with you tonight.
What is the veteran thinking and what are his needs?
First: All he wants are his rights. Rights that he has earned too often at the cost of his health.
Not long ago, a prominent newspaper, in listing several of the G.I. gripes, gave prominent place to the resentment the veteran felt at being patronized. He has come to feel that he was first in war, last in peace, and last in the hearts of his countrymen. This must not prevail. You and I must not let it prevail.
First and foremost in the veteran’s mind today, is the problem of where to live. The veteran must have adequate and immediate housing accommodations at a fair price he can afford to pay. It must be more than just shelter; it must be a home. I have recently studied surveys which show that 84% of the recently discharged veterans are unable to pay more than $50 a month for rent or carrying charges and that the average purchase price of veterans' homes is around $4700. According to the figures for 1940, the last year in which such figures were compiled, two thirds of the rent payers of greater Boston were spending only between $26 and $40 per month for rent. It is obvious, therefore, that unless we make housing both low-cost and housing, the veteran is being deceived. A Quonset hut may have been adequate in Kisca, but it isn’t much to take the bride home to in Charleston.
To give shelter is not enough. The structure should be a home, with all the comforts and conveniences that modern engineering and science can provide. The same enterprise, skill, and speed that went into the construction of the modern plane in which he fought should go into the house in which he has a right to live.
For years, the quality products of American factories were channeled into the war effort. They must now be channeled into building the American home. That is not too much to ask. That is not too much to attempt.
During the war airplane hangars 200 feet long, 50 feet high, with a span of 197 feet were rolled off the production lines so compactly made that, except for weight, they could be loaded into a single freight car. Why can’t it be tried all over the New England area, and particularly in the 11th Congressional District? There is no reason why we cannot speed production in our mines, our forests and our factories. We did it for war, we certainly can do it for PEACE!
I believe further in a definite program of low cost housing that is really both low cost and housing! I do not believe in fraud. I do not believe in deceit. I do not believe in empty promises. In his desperate need for adequate housing, today’s veteran is often forced, on the one hand, into the cruel bargain of buying a new home at an inflated price he cannot honestly afford to pay, or he is, on the other hand, forced to buy a temporary makeshift structure that can never be a real home and will ultimately end up in the loss of almost his entire investment. This must cease. It is not the way to treat the men who fought so well and risked so much for their country in the darkest hour of its life.
Let us have less talk about conferences, programs, theories, and panel discussions. Homes are not made of talk – they are made with boards, and hammers and nails.
I believe therefore in the following specific recommendations in meeting the present Housing Shortage and the need for low cost homes:
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Continued preference for veterans’ families with appropriate provision for non-veteran cases involving special hardship.
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Greatly expanded mass production of building materials, resulting in lower cost of construction.
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Increased insistence on priorities for home building over deferrable, non-essential commercial construction.
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Wage and price adjustments where necessary and not unduly inflationary, to be absorbed by increased output at lower cost per unit.
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Use of former war plants for production of home building materials, with the skills of war production utilized for peace.
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The revision of archaic, old-fashioned, outmoded building codes that restrict new construction at every turn.
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Cooperation by local cities and towns in installing utility facilities to reduce cost of the building.
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Channeling the greatest amount of building materials into the lower cost homes.
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An emphasis on the IMMEDIATE conversion of large partly used houses into available three and four room attractive kitchenette apartments for the veteran who is not yet ready for home ownership.
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Putting an end to inflationary speculative dealing in housing. Houses must be sold for homes, not for speculation.
The housing problem like our other great political, social, and industrial problems facing Congress today, must be studied and noted upon by alert Congressmen, willing and able to study intricate matters debated by expert witnesses. Our legislation can be only as good as the quality of the Congressmen who serve. The stream cannot rise above its source.
It is time to retire the political hacks – it is a time for honesty – it is a time for action – it is a time for STATESMANSHIP. I speak sincerely, therefore, from my deep conviction.
Secondly, there must be a complete review of the problem of disabled veteran. No longer must the veteran be pauperized in order to obtain adequate hospital care. A grateful public has been deeply shocked at news articles disclosing hospitalized war veterans in certain cases, receiving a total income of 26¢ a day. Long, painful days running into weeks, your veteran has been allowed to linger on at less pay than that of the Chinese coolie he perhaps helped to save. If the hospitalized veteran, without dependents, had a service-connected disability, he is allowed the princely and fabulous stipend of sixty-eight cents a day. What injustice. What ingratitude. What a repudiation of the debt and promise of a self-respecting nation.
Thirdly, the veteran must have an adequate and fair opportunity to take advantage of the educational program under the G. I. Bill legislation.
[Missing words] accumulated during this past war was a deficit in education as millions of young men and women left behind them their books, and their schools and their colleges to go to war. Not only gratitude, but our national self-preservation as well, requires that this national deficit be diminished or wiped out. There are those who said that only a handful of veterans would desire to go back to school. These men were wrong. The problem is not the lack of vets seeking education. The problem is to provide accommodations for those who seek it. This is an obligation that our colleges and universities must solve. These men and women will be our leaders. This is a challenge that our colleges must meet.
The Bill of Rights is an empty gesture if the college doors continue to close in the veteran’s face.
During the war, when the country needed expanded educational facilities for training thousands of radar men, supply men, electrical men, and other experts, the colleges were quickly expanded to make room for them. If the colleges can educate these young men in the ways of war, I maintain they have an equal duty to make room for them in the education for peace. They can do it. They will have to do it.
Fourth: there must be jobs for the veterans. There must be a continuance and an acceleration of the apprentice on-the-job training program so that the veteran and labor may join hand-in-hand in avoiding one of the greatest bottle-necks threatening the coming building programs. I shall do everything. I shall work day and night to encourage this essential service when I go to Washington.
Fifth: I respectfully call attention to those shameful cases in which the veteran, seeking rehabilitation, has been aggrieved by gross bungling on the part of the War Assets Corporation which has resulted in his chasing hither, thither, and yon in a pathetic attempt to buy trucks, jeeps, and other surplus materials with which to reestablish himself in business.
The veteran must be protected from the high-powered, well-heeled group of speculators who have jockeyed themselves into a favorable position.
Must we find speculators buying surplus goods for re-sale at a profit while the veteran goes begging? Here, as in other fields, it is our solemn duty to see that the veteran doesn’t get the proverbial run-around or, what he calls in his own language, the swerve.
I regret that limited radio time prevents covering the vast problem of the veteran in its entirety. I trust, however, I have been able to suggest the immensity of the problem and the fact that it can be solved only by a sincere approach, and not by any cure-all vote-catching slogan.
I promise to bend every effort to meeting squarely the problem of the veterans for it can only be solved by an alert Congress, ready, willing, and able to see the problem through. And it must be solved in the next two years.
The veterans saved America. America MUST serve and sustain the veterans.
Source: David F. Powers Personal Papers, Box 28, "WNAC Radio Broadcast, MA, 16 May 1946." John F. Kennedy Presidential Library.