The New Veteran

CHARLES BOLTE is the ardent spokesman for an ever expanding group of American veterans who have banded together to win a further meaning for their triumph of arms. In opposition to all veterans’ organizations which seek special privileges for former servicemen as a class apart from the community, the American Veterans Committee, with Bolte as chairman, is working for peace, jobs, and freedom for all Americans. The serviceman must become a conscientious citizen, not a professional veteran, according to Bolte, because the welfare of veterans is inextricably hound up with the welfare of us all.

Drawing upon his own war experiences, which cost him a leg, and upon those of hundreds of veterans who write more thoughtful letters to the A.V.C. than to their own parents, Charles Bolte has made The New Veteran the voice of young, hopeful Americans returning from the wars. Through his frankness and insight, the serviceman has been rescued from the hands of advertising copy writers, sentimental columnists, and old-guard veterans’ groups that pretend to speak for the new generation. He becomes a very human being, not half hero and half problem child.

The veteran wants more out of the post-war world than “Mom and blueberry pie" and less than dictatorial power over American politics. His personal desires, as Bolte points out, are closely akin to those held in common by all Americans. But he is positive that neither money rewards nor special privileges will lure him into accepting a pre-war world of insecurity, racial discrimination, class warfare, and unequal rights to work and enjoy the fruits of his work.

Wounded and shipped home from the wars before many Americans had left for overseas, Bolte had a one-legged jump on most of the men who must face the future as former servicemen. His personal story is intertwined with the organization of the A.V.C. because his search for rehabilitation and a satisfactory way to gain recompense for his lost leg resulted in his becoming the vocal point of a loosely organized correspondence group of men still in the service. In their name he investigated the American Legion and similar organizations and found them inadequate to speak for the soldiers of this war. He piled up documentary evidence against other veterans’ groups, set up by American fascists, which seek to generate social and economic discontent.

Bolte came to the conclusion that the veterans of this war have to have their own organization. He and his comrades, now joined in a well-organized pressure group, are prepared to fight for the things which make up each man’s America. They know what they want, and anyone reading The New Veteran can only hope, for everyone’s sake, that they get it. In my opinion, — and I am speaking first as a citizen and second as a veteran, — the future of America depends largely upon how many former servicemen adhere to the principles set forth in this most important of all handbooks on rehabilitation.

EDGAR L. JONES