Fourteen million World War II servicemen have returned to civil life. The
great majority have found their places as citizens of their communities and
their Nation. It is a tribute to the fiber of our servicemen and to the
flexibility of our economy that these adjustments have been made so rapidly
and so successfully.
More than two million of these veterans are attending schools or acquiring
job skills through the financial assistance of the Federal Government.
Thousands of sick and wounded veterans are daily receiving the best of
medical and hospital care. Half a million have obtained loans, with
Government guarantees, to purchase homes or farms or to embark upon new
businesses. Compensation is being paid in almost two million cases for
disabilities or death. More than three million are continuing to maintain
their low-cost National Service Life Insurance policies. Almost seven
million veterans have been aided by unemployment and self-employment
allowances.
Exclusive of mustering-out payments and terminal leave pay, the program for
veterans of all wars is costing over seven billion dollars a
year--one-fifth of our total federal budget. This is the most far-reaching
and complete veterans program ever conceived by any nation.
Except for minor adjustments, I believe that our program of benefits for
veterans is now complete. In the long run, the success of the program will
not be measured by the number of veterans receiving financial aid or by the
number of dollars we spend. History will judge us not by the money we
spend, but by the further contribution we enable our veterans to make to
their country. In considering any additional legislation, that must be our
criterion.