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Show L10 BILL FAVORED BY RETURIED HEROES Lieutenant Green of Buhl, Iddu, Testifies Regarding Regard-ing Mondell Act Cash Bonus Declared Inadequate, In-adequate, as Men Would Squander Money. Special to The Tribune. WASHINGTON. July 16. One of the BoMler witnesses to appear before the house committee on public lards In support sup-port of thfi Monuell soldier kind reclamation reclama-tion bill was Lieutenant W. It. Green of Buhl, Idaho, son of Congressman Green of Iowa. Lieutenant Green was able to apeak on this fiubjet from tiie soldier viewpoint and he Indorsed tho hill, saying say-ing It was In great favor with the soldiers, sol-diers, who were looking to congress for Its early passage. In the course of his testimony Lieutenant Green said: "I - came here as the representative of tho soldifrs and citizens of Twin Falls county, Idaho. I put in eighteen moot ha In the army, and am thoroughly fn miliar with the soldiers. I think I knmv I hem probably as well as the average man would who had been in for that length of t Imo. I wa nt tn say that after we caught our breath a fter the start of the Mar t he men were wondering what was FOing to h:i ppf-i to them after they got out, and whether T'ncle Sam was going to favor them in any 'way, and continually I he-ard tail; and diseiissinn of the question ques-tion of Home sort of farms for the returning return-ing soldiers. Ernest cad Land Scarce. ie western boys were not satisfied Wk.. the prospect of homesteads, heeause they knew, as I knew, that there was very little desirable homestead land left, and they felt that there was not anything left to be had unless the government took some flort of steps or action to develop lands for them. They felt that the lands were not available and satisfactory under un-der tho present conditions. I have had occasion lo talk to a great many soldiers sol-diers lately, not only in my own community, com-munity, hut on my way down here I met a number of them, and they are all Interested In-terested in this. To say that they would all want to lake farms would, of course, he too strong a statement, hut I mean those who are Interested in it. Of course, a lot of them will say, 'I have a good job and do not care,' hut a lot of them want a good place to take a home, and they are looking to congress to provide It for them. They feel that they are entitled en-titled to it. Desire Outdoor Life. "You would be surprised to fin A the number of men out of the cities who, by reason of their outdoor life in the army, and particularly by reason of the fact that tTiey became familiar with the operation op-eration of the pick and shovel, have acquired ac-quired an inclination for outdoor hie, and they want it. They have been taken away from the congested conditions of tiie cities, and ihey have been living In the fresh air, and as they come back they find that the congested ci ty conditions pinch them in very much the same way that the English walking shoe docs when they first put it on. They do not like It, and t hey soon begin to foul cramped. There la only one way, ami that is to provide farms for them. They will not he satisfied with a cash bonus or would not after the money has been in their hands lor thirty days and 1 do not think that anybody after careful consideration would ever favor such a proposition. Do Not Want Money Bonus. "Possibly, as the sergeant said here the other day, the govermont may owe them a little. I do not know about that, and I do not care to go into that, but those funds will be dissipated just as 1 surely as the world stands. I have known men to draw three months' pay and shoot It nway in craps in- two hours. I know how these men In the army spend money, and they are no better now than they were then. They are' just the same as they were when they went into the army and have the same ideas with regard to hanging onto their money. They spend it. "To my mind, the government owes a certain duty to these men besides providing pro-viding for them with cash compensation. These are young men, most of them ranging rang-ing from 21 to lil years of age. You have got to take care of them. It is true that all of these men, or '.some of them, have not received the educational advantages that I have had, but, as I have said, if a cash bonus is given them, that money will go. I cannot speak of the possibilities possibili-ties of success in other states except my own. I know about Idaho and her Irrigation Irri-gation projects, and I know of the success suc-cess that can be attained there. I know tha t from persona observation. I have seen men on tracts of land of comparatively compara-tively small area, ranging from ten to thirty acres, take from four to five nun-, dred dollars' worth of actual crops per acre. Men Are Capable. "T know what they do, and I know what the possibilities of success there are. The reason I make that statement is this, that without doubt there will be a lot of soldiers who would be in favor of selecting farms in their own communities, communi-ties, and who believe that you should back the soldier wherever he wants to go. That is fair. If he cannot pick up and leave, put htm on a farm at home; but you owo it to the man who is willing to go lo provide him with the best public lands that you can obtain under any form of action possible, or I should say public or private lands, but where public lands are open they are the best for the purpose. pur-pose. These lads are no longer tied to their homes, as they were before they went into the army. "They have learned to hold up their heads, and they have met conditions far more difficult to overcome than any they will ever meet 'on a new piece of land. Pioneering Is nothing to them now. I did not go overseas myself, but I know what hey met, and I know something of what they met on this side. I know that they will not be afraid. I say to you that if you provide one good tract of land, or one of the very best that this country affords, and will say to the soldiers who want to make homes on it, 'This is the best thing we have and the best thing we can find ; come upon it,' gentlemen, they will come. That is my idea; and then, I say,, go ahead and develop that tract. Will End Bolshevism. "Do not content yourself with simply putting in a few Improvements that will make it possible for a man to go on there, but make it desirable for a man to go on there. Build him roads, build him schoolhouses, and it is a question whether you should build , churches, because you get pretty close to him there, but build a community center of some kind and give him a telephone and the things that go to make a pilace look very desirable and inviting. As soon as you give him a home there he is a good citizen for life. He has no Bolshevistic or anarchistic tendencies and he does not throw bombs. Really, that i3 the serious thing, and if you would get 5000 men safely planted on farms you would have done a great work, let alone placing 100,000 men on farms." , |