David G. Delaney

The World War Adjusted Compensation Act (43 Stat. 121), known as the Bonus Bill, created a benefit plan for World War I veterans as additional compensation for their military service. It credited servicemembers with "adjusted service certificates" equal to $1.00 per day served in the United States and $1.25 per day served overseas, up to specified limits. The certificates, popularly known as "bonuses" because they supplemented the pay and benefits that servicemembers had received during the war, earned interest and became payable to the veteran in 1945 or to a veteran's family if he died before then. Although many saw the Bonus Bill as a worthwhile program, its $4 billion cost led fiscal conservatives to question the wisdom and necessity of paying servicemembers additional...