"Over Here: How the GI Bill Transformed the American Dream" by Edward Humes

[John Kuhlman]

Over Here; How the G.I. Bill transformed the American Dream
By Edward Humes, Harcourt, 2006.
Being nearly half-way through my ninth decade, I find that I am older than most of the cars at an antique car show. When I read current history books, I find that they start and end within my life span; however, in this instance, I ‘lived’ this book, for I was one of those whose life was changed by the GI Bill.
The politicians of the day had vivid memories of 1932 when 20,000 veterans of World War I camped in a shanty-town not far from the White House after some 40,000 participated in the march across the country. They were demanding a bonus for their service in the war. President Hoover ordered the army to disperse the camping veterans which it did with bayonets, tear gas and fire. President Hoover denounced the veterans as communists.
It was with this background that politicians and the public began to worry about what the veterans might do when World War II was concluded. No one wanted a repetition of the disaster that befell the veterans of the First World War. After all, there were some 16 million members of the armed services, and one in eight Americans would serve in the military. Many bills were introduced in Congress, but the final version was a bill crafted by the American Legion. It provided educational benefits, some unemployment insurance, and assistance in buying a house.
The educational benefits, which were available to “veterans attending college, trade school or vocational institute that accepted them,” included a monthly stipend of just less than $100 per month for single veterans to cover board and room. In addition, it covered tuition, fees and books. One didn’t have to pay anything! The duration of the benefits depended on the length of one’s service. Unemployment benefits were $20 per week for 52 weeks, but these benefits were not used by many veterans. The housing program revolutionized home ownership in the United States. A veteran could buy a house with little or no down payment and low interest rates. The government would guarantee the loan in case the veteran defaulted. The only requirement was service during WW II—no matter what one did, the color of one’s skin, or the gender of the service person. If you served, you were eligible!
There was a great deal of opposition to the act. Presidents of some of the most distinguished colleges in the country were sure that the quality of education would fall as soon as the riffraff enrolled. Racists felt that the newly empowered black Americans would be a threat to a long-standing way of life. Just as many felt that women should not be in the service, they also felt that female veterans should return to the traditional roles of women—housekeepers and motherhood. After much jockeying, the GI Bill was passed without any restrictions and President Roosevelt signed it on June 22, 1944—almost a year before the end of the war in Europe—and three days before my 21st birthday.
Rather than relating the wonderful stories of GI’s using the bill that Humes includes, I will take the liberty of relating only one—mine!
I grew up on a wheat farm in eastern Washington State—a very small community. I graduated from high school in May 1941—third from the bottom in a class of five. Living on a farm, we had plenty to eat, but we didn’t have much cash. In September of that year, I enrolled at Washington State College, and a couple of months later, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. My academic career came to a crashing end as I waited for the military to call. In October 1942, I enlisted and went on active duty in March 1943.
Instead of infantry basic training, I was sent to auto mechanics school. That was followed by seven months in the Army Specialized Training at the University of California. When that program was disbanded in March 1944, I was assigned to a combat engineer battalion and went to tractor mechanics school. The battalion was sent to Europe in October, 1944, and I worked in the motor pool driving a truck, running errands and fixing flat tires. When I had been in the Army 18 months and hadn’t been in the guard house, the company commander said he had to promote me to Private First Class. We were on our way to Marseille when the war with Japan ended. We had gotten as far as Henri Chapelle in Belgium when the atomic bombs were dropped and the war in the Far East ended. The thought of an ocean voyage in a troop ship to the Far East was more frightening than the war itself. I shall never forget the joy that we felt. We were going home.
For six months I was in the army of occupation-- doing nothing. However, there was no longer a $50 fine for fraternizing with Germans. In sum, my contribution to victory was de minimus, if not less, but the army’s contribution to my education was beyond measurement. After all, I had never been more than fifty miles away from home when I joined the army. I was discharged in March 1946, and I returned to college on the GI Bill.
It was a piece of cake! I fell in love with the idea of education and college life. I remember inquiring of a faculty member “How do I get to be college professor?” He explained about a PhD and suggested that I apply to the University of Wisconsin, which I did. The last dime in my GI account paid for typing my PhD dissertation. Can you believe that? I went from first grade (kindergarten hadn’t been invented yet) through PhD courtesy of the American taxpayers. I am forever grateful that I was rescued from that bully boy on the bus. From modest beginnings, I became a college professor. I was one of millions who had their life transformed by the GI Bill. I had no debt to pay off when I graduated.
Each veteran had a charge account at the bookstore, and we charged our book purchases and supplies I have no recollection of anyone ‘cheating’ on the GI Bill. We were very busy being students and enjoying, once again, civilian life.
The author summarizes the impact of the GI Bill on education as follows: “14 future Nobel Prize winners, 2 Supreme Court Justices, 3 Presidents, a dozen senators, 24 Pulitzer Prize winners, 238,000 teachers, 91,000 scientists, 67,000 doctors, 450,000 engineers, 240,000 accountants, 17,000 journalists, 22,000 dentists, and millions of others—lawyers, nurses, businessmen, artists, actors, writers, pilots and others.”
A study made by the Joint Economic Committee of the U. S. Congress in 1988 with the dollar figures updated to 2006 dollars “revealed that the costs to the government of sending every G.I. to college who wanted to go after World War II amounted to 51 billion dollars. The return on that investment was found to be 260 billion dollars in increased economic output from those educated G.I.s—their average incomes were that much higher than their peers. Another 93 billion in extra taxes paid on that income rolled in. That’s a gross profit of 383 billion dollars. Seven dollars earned for every dollar invested is a pretty good return.” And this does not include any figures for the improved life style of the veterans.
The impact of the GI Bill on housing in the U.S. was equally dramatic. Prior to WW II, home ownership was beyond the reach of most with down payments of 50% and short repayment periods. There was opposition, of course. Some feared that the working classes would buy houses next to the better off. Racists were fearful that it would lead to desegregation. Financial interests were fearful that lending money under such conditions would create disturbances in the financial markets.
In Hume’s words, “The bill allowed [veterans] to acquire capital without capital investment—no down payment for a new home. It circumvented all state laws on mortgages and lending to allow normally unqualified people to buy. And then it insulated lenders from any risk for these low-interest, low-payment, high-risk loans by guaranteeing the mortgages and assuming responsibility for each home financed, and its resale in the event a veteran defaulted.”
The housing program changed the U. S. from a nation of renters to a nation of homeowners living in suburbia with a substantial increase of the number of people classified as middle class. It was the impelling force for the development of mass production techniques in housing construction and home ownership. Home ownership was an opposing force to socialism and communism. Fortunately, or unfortunately, many who got their first home with the GI Bill became conservative in later years and seem to have forgotten their ‘roots.’ My wife and I bought our first house in 1956 using the GI Bill. As I recall, the monthly payments were $65 a month and the interest rate was 4 percent.
So my focus now shifts to the present and my concerns about our educational system. I have always considered education to be a public good—that is, it is a societal good rather than being purely a personal good. When one drives by a school yard, there is no way to identify future successes and failures. As John Gardner said, “The society which scorns excellence in plumbing as a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exalted activity will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy: neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water.”

For that reason, education has, in the past, been largely financed through local property taxes and paid by people with children in school as well as those without.
It was President Nixon who pushed the idea that the person who gets the benefits from government programs should bear the costs, and, in the case of education, it means that the student should bear the cost. The effects of the GI Bill belie this assumption. There has been another major change in my lifetime. Going into debt was to be avoided—if you can’t pay for it, don’t buy it. Now we have whole industries encouraging people to go into debt. It doesn’t seem to shock anyone that teenagers are borrowing money to go to college, and then graduating with a rather substantial debt to be paid off. We should be embarrassed!
The United States in 1944 was a much different country than it is in 2008. Per capita income was fraction of the figure for today. Personal savings were high whereas today personal savings are negative. A significant part of the War Bonds was sold to the public in WW II, but today consumers are encouraged to spend rather than save by buying government bonds and the government sells bonds to China to finance a war,. After Pearl Harbor, everyone supported the war, but now we have significant voices that see the government to be a threat. Others see public education to be a threat— they teach socialism or communism.
So I leave you with this question. Why did the United States enact and support a program to provide educational benefits to the veterans but is unwilling to do the same today? In view of the tremendous payoff, why do we insist that the education of young people helps only the student but offers no special help to our country? Why don’t we have a public service program that young people could use to finance their education—not just help them pay but totally finance their education?
Why?