The Creation of the G.I. Bill of Rights of 1944: Melding Social and Participatory Citizenship Ideals

Journal of Policy History

Volumn 17, Issue 4, 2005, Pages 345-374

  Mettler, Suzanne ^a  

^a SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 34248661573     PISSN: 08980306     EISSN: 15284190     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1353/jph.2005.0022     Document Type: Article

References (129)

1. Michael J. Bennett, When Dreams Come True: The GI Bill and the Making of Modern America (Washington, D.C. 1996)
2. Milton Greenberg, The G.I. Bill: The Law That Changed America (New York, 1997)
3. Reginald Wilson, “GI Bill Expands Access for African Americans,” Educational Record 75 (Fall 1994): 32-39.
4. U.S. President's Commission on Veterans' Pensions, Veterans' Benefits in the United States: Findings and Recommendations (Washington, D.C. 1956), 287, 301.
5. Lizabeth Cohen, A Consumers' Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America (New York, 2003), 156-60;
6. Margot Canaday, “Building a Straight State: Sexuality and Social Citizenship Under the 1944 G.I. Bill,” Journal of American History 90 (December 2003). (26 July 2004), para. 4.
7. Edwin Amenta and Theda Skocpol, “Redefining the New Deal: World War II and the Development of Social Provision in the United States,” in The Politics of Social Policy in the United States, ed. Margaret Weir, Ann Shola Orloff, and Theda Skocpol (Princeton, 1988), 81-122;
8. Ira Katznelson and Bruce Pietrykowski, “Rebuilding the American State: Evidence from the 1940s,” Studies in American Political Development 5 (Fall 1991): 301-39;
9. see also Michael K. Brown, “State Capacity and Political Choice: Interpreting the Failure of the Third New Deal,” Studies in American Political Development 9 (Spring 1995): 187-212;
10. Alan Brinkley, The End of Reform (New York, 1995).
11. David Brody, “The New Deal and World War II,” in The New Deal: The National Level, ed. John Braeman, Robert H. Bremner, and David Brody (Columbus, 1975), 1:267–309;
12. Richard Polenberg, War and Society: The United States, 1941-1945 (Philadelphia, 1972), 73-98.
13. Ira Katznelson, Kim Geiger, and Daniel Kryder, “Limiting Liberalism: The Southern Veto in Congress, 1933-1950,” Political Science Quarterly 108 (Summer 1993): 283-306;
14. James T. Patterson, Congressional Conservatism and the New Deal (Lexington, Ky. 1967).
15. Jerome S. Bruner, Mandate from the People (New York, 1944), 210-22.
16. This analysis builds on the foundational accounts, both Davis R. B. Ross, Preparing for Ulysses: Politics and Veterans During World War II (New York, 1969), and
17. Keith W. Olson, The G.I. Bill, the Veterans, and the Colleges (Lexington, Ky. 1974).
18. Theda Skocpol, “The G.I. Bill and U.S. Social Policy, Past and Future,” Social Philosophy and Policy 14 (Summer 1997).
19. David Camelon, “I Saw the G.I. Bill Written,” American Legion Magazine 47 (October 1949): 52;
20. Raymond Moley Jr. The American Legion Story (New York, 1966), p. 270.
21. T. H. Marshall, “Citizenship and Social Class,” in Class, Citizenship, and Social Development (New York, 1965), 65-122;
22. see also Judith N. Shklar, American Citizenship: The Quest for Inclusion (Cambridge, Mass. 1991).
23. Theda Skocpol, Protecting Soldiers and Mothers: The Political Origins of Social Policy in the United States (Cambridge, Mass. 1992), 102-51.
24. Peter Karsten, “The U.S. Citizens Soldier's Past, Present, and Likely Future,” Parameters (Summer 2001): 61–73;
25. R. Claire Snyder, Citizen-Soldiers and Manly Warriors: Military Service and Gender in the Civic Republican Tradition (Lanham, Md. 1999). For an original defense of this idea from the revolutionary era
26. see George Washington, “Sentiments of a Peace Establishment,” The American Military: Readings in the History of the Military and American Society, ed. Russell Weigley (Reading, Mass. 1969)
27. James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay, The Federalist Papers, ed. Isaac Kramnick (first published 1788; London: Penguin Books, 1987), see nos. 24-29, esp. 29.
28. Kenneth T. Kato, “Veterans' Benefits: An Overview,” in The Encyclopedia of the United State Congress, ed. Donald C. Bacon, Roger H. Davidson, and Morton Keller, vol. 4 (New York, 1994), 2037-40.
29. Theodore J. Lowi, “American Business, Public Policy, Case Studies, and Political Theory,” World Politics 6 (1964): 677-715.
30. Skocpol, Protecting Soldiers and Mothers, 143–48.
31. Kato, “Veterans' Benefits,” 2038-39.
32. William Pyrle Dillingham, Federal Aid to Veterans, 1917-1941 (Gainesville, Fla. 1952), 131-44.
33. U.S. Congress, Proceedings of the 15th National Convention of the American Legion, Chicago, Illinois, October 2-5, 1933, House Document No. 154, 73th Cong. 2d sess. (Washington, D.C. 1934), 16;
34. Kato, “Veterans' Benefits,” 2039;
35. William E. Leuchtenburg, Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal, 1932-1940 (New York, 1963), 147, 171.
36. Gary Dean Best, FDR and the Bonus Marchers, 1933-1935 (Westport, Conn. 1992).
37. Suzanne Mettler, Dividing Citizens: Gender and Federalism in New Deal Public Policy (Ithaca, 1998).
38. Franklin D. Roosevelt, “The Annual Message to Congress, January 6, 1941,” in The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt, ed. Samuel I. Rosenman (New York, 1941), 1940 vol. 672.
39. The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt
40. The agency was built on the foundation of the National Resources Board and the subsequent National Resources Committee. See Arthur M. Schlesinger, The Coming of the New Deal (Boston, 1959), 350-52;
41. Patrick D. Reagan, Designing a New America: The Origins of New Deal Planning, 1890-1943 (Amherst, 1999), on postwar planning, see esp. chap. 8;
42. Philip W. Warken, A History of the National Resources Planning Board, 1933-1943 (New York, 1979).
43. Peri E. Arnold, Making the Managerial Presidency: Comprehensive Reorganization Planning, 1905-1980 (Princeton, 1986), 91.
44. U.S. National Resources Planning Board (hereafter NRPB), Memorandum for the President, 14 March 1941, Official File of the President (hereafter OF) 1092, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library (hereafter FDR), Hyde Park, N.Y. NRPB, Box 4, pp. 1-2, emphasis mine.
45. NRPB, “Draft Message to Congress,” 23 July 1941, OF 1092, FDR, NRPB, Box 4, p. 5. This message was transmitted to Congress on 14 January 1942, when the president submitted the NRPB's report, “Development of National Resources–Report for 1942.”
46. See The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt, ed. Rosenman, 1942 vol. 54 emphasis mine.
47. On Burns generally, see Linda R. Wolf Jones, Eveline M. Burns and the American Social Security System, 1935-1960 (New York, 1991), 27-33.
48. Eveline M. Burns, “Comparison of the NRPB Report with the Beveridge Report,” 26 December 1942, NRPB, Records of the Office of the Director, Records of the Post-war Agenda Sections, Box 4, National Archives, Washington, D.C. (hereafter NA), Record Group (RG) 187, p. 1.
49. NRPB, Security, Work, and Relief Policies (Washington, D.C. 1942), 489.
50. NRPB, Security, Work and Relief Policies, 3.
51. See also Ross, Preparing for Ulysses, 68–69.
52. NRPB, “Draft Message to Congress,” 6.
53. NRPB, National Resources Development: Report for 1943;
54. Part I. Post War Plan and Program (Washington, D.C. 1943), 2.
55. Part I. Post War Plan and Program 68.
56. NRPB, Security, Work and Relief Policies, 492–93.
57. The American Council on Education maintained close ties with Reeves, offering advice in the course of PMC proceedings. Letter, George F. Zook to Marvin H. McIntyre, 16 November 1942, OF 5182, “Armed Forces Committee on Postwar Educational Opportunities for Service Personnel, 1942-44,” FDR.
58. Reeves persuaded the president that the committee should investigate needs in other areas of adult education as well. Carl Thomas Pacacha, “Floyd Wesley Reeves: Pioneer in Shaping Federal Legislation in Support of Adult Education” (Ph.D. diss. Michigan State University, 1970). The legislation that emerged from the report, the Federal Aid to Education Act of 1939, would have given the federal government a considerably larger role in education policy, and on those grounds it was defeated in the increasingly conservative Congress.
59. Report on the Advisory Committee on Education, Message from the President of the United States, 75th Cong. 3d sess. House document no. 529 (Washington, D.C. 1938)
60. U.S. Congress, Senate, Federal Aid to Education Act of 1939, Hearings Before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Education and Labor, 76th Cong. 1st sess. 2, 3, and 10 March 1939.
61. Mary Ann Diller, “Individual and Social Benefits of Federally Supported Continuing Education: An Effort to Assess, Over a Quarter Century and Within a Mid- American Community, Impact of the Servicemen's Readjustment Act (G.I. Bill) upon Individuals, Their Families, and Their Community” (Ph.D. diss. Michigan State University, 1973).
62. At the time, Brown was serving as education adviser to the Joint Army-Navy Committee on Welfare and Recreation, and as secretary to the Committee on Military Affairs for the American Council on Education. Spaulding was chief, Education Branch, Special Service Division of the War Department and Report, “Demobilization and Readjustment Report of the Conference on Postwar Readjustment of Civilian and Military Personnel,” OF 1092, FDR, NRPB, “Conference on Postwar Readjustment of Civilian and Military Personnel (hereafter PMC),” Box 16, File 1092d, pp. 1–2;
63. Francis J. Brown, Educational Opportunities for Veterans (Washington, D.C. 1946)
64. Olson, The G.I. Bill, the Veterans, and the Colleges, 6.
65. “Minutes of the Executive Committee of the Committee on the Relationships of Higher Education to the Federal Government,” 11 April 1944;
66. “Suggested Agenda for July 17 Meeting of the Conference on Post-war Readjustments of Civilian and Military Personnel,” NRPB, Central Office Records, Central Office Classified Correspondence and Related Records, 1931-1943, File 830.1, RG 187, NA.
67. Minutes, PMC Meeting, 17 July 1942, NRPB, Central Office Records, File 830.1, pp. 2, 8, RG 187, NA.
68. Mettler, Dividing Citizens, 57–58, 121-22, 124.
69. Report to Conference on PMC, “The Wisconsin Educational Bonus Law of 1919,” NRPB, Central Office Records, File 830.1, quote on 4; see also 1.
70. The Wisconsin Educational Bonus Law of 1919 2-3.
71. Olson, The G.I. Bill, the Veterans, and the Colleges, 7–8.
72. Minutes, PMC Meeting, 27 August 1942, NRPB, Central Office Records, File 830.1, pp. 6-10, RG 187, NA.
73. NRPB, “The Role of Organized Education in Post-war Occupational Adjustment,” NRPB, Central Office Records, File 830.1, RG 187, NA.
74. The Role of Organized Education in Post-war Occupational Adjustment 8-9.
75. NRPB, Records of the Office of the Director, Post War Agenda Section, Box 4, untitled document in file entitled “Reeves Committee, cont.” 11-12, RG 187, NA.
76. PMC, “Demobilization and Readjustment” (Washington, D.C. June 1943)
77. Franklin D. Roosevelt, “The Nine Hundred and Twelfth Press Conference,” 30 July 1943, in The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt ed. Rosenman, 1943 vol. 341-44; quotations on 344.
78. Franklin D. Roosevelt, “Fireside Chat on the Progress of the War and Plans for Peace,” 28 July 1943, Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt ed. Rosenman, 1943 vol. 334.
79. Bruner, Mandate from the People, 159–64.
80. Mandate from the People 210-17.
81. “Editorial Reaction to NRPB Reports,” 089, Entry 8, Box 136, RG 187, NA.
82. “Press and Radio Reactions to NRPB's postwar reports form OWI's Weekly Media Report,” 25 March 1943, NRPB, Office of the Director, Postwar Planning Section, Box 1, “Climate of Opinion,” RG 187, NA.
83. Ross, Preparing for Ulysses, 63.
84. Olson, The G.I. Bill, the Veterans, and the Colleges, 9–10.
85. Franklin D. Roosevelt, “Statement of Signing the Bill Reducing the Draft Age,” 13 November 1942, in The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt, ed. Rosenman, 1942 vol. 470.
86. George A. Flynn, The Draft, 1940-1973 (Lawrence, Kan. 1993), 71-72.
87. Letter, F. H. Osborn to Franklin D. Roosevelt, 30 July 1945, OF 5182, “Armed Forces Committee on Postwar Educational Opportunities for Service Personnel, 1942-1944,” FDR.
88. “Preliminary Report to the President of the United States from the Armed Forces Committee on Postwar Educational Opportunities for Service Personnel,” 30 July 1945, OF 5182
89. “Armed Forces Committee on Postwar Educational Opportunities for Service Personnel, 1942-1944,” FDR, 17–18.
90. Armed Forces Committee on Postwar Educational Opportunities for Service Personnel, 1942-1944 11, 14, 15.
91. William Pencak, “Veterans' Movements,” Encyclopedia of American Political History: Studies of the Principal Movements and Ideas, ed. Jack P. Greene (New York, 1984), 3:1341.
92. Franklin D. Roosevelt, “Message to the Congress on Education of War Veterans,” The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt, ed. Rosenman, 1943 vol. 450.
93. The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt 451.
94. The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt
95. Ross, Preparing for Ulysses, 93.
96. Official Legion accounts include those by David Camelon, “I Saw the G.I. Bill Written,” American Legion Magazine 47 (September-November 1949), parts 1-3
97. Raymond Moley Jr. The American Legion Story (New York, 1966).
98. Skocpol, “The G.I. Bill and U.S. Social Policy, Past and Future.”
99. Camelon, “I Saw the G.I. Bill Written,” American Legion Magazine 47, part 1 (September 1949): 47.
100. U.S. Congress, Proceedings of the 25th National Convention of the American Legion, Omaha, Nebraska, September 21-23, 1943, House Document No. 364, 78th Cong. 1st sess. (Washington, D.C. 1944), 102-3.
101. “Some G.I. Bill Authors Today,” American Legion Magazine (May 1969): 33.
102. U.S. Congress, Proceedings of the 25th National Convention of the American Legion, 106.
103. Pencak, “Veterans' Movements,” 3:1338–40.
104. Original notes by Harry W. Colmery, “U.S.–Manpower Benefits,” G.I. Bill Correspondence, National Headquarters of the American Legion, Indianapolis (hereafter “AL”).
105. U.S. Congress, Proceedings of the 25th National Convention of the American Legion, 133.
106. Moley, The American Legion Story, 273.
107. U.S. Congress, Senate, Hearings Before the Committee on Education and Labor on S. 1295 and S. 1509, 78th Cong. 1st sess. 13, 14, and 15 December;
108. Camelon, “I Saw the G.I. Bill Written,” October 1949, 52.
109. Olson, The G.I. Bill, the Veterans, and the Colleges, 16–17.
110. U.S. Congress, Senate, Hearings Before the Committee on Education and Labor on S. 1295 and S. 1509, 78th Cong. 1st sess. 13, 14, and 15 December, 15.
111. Memo in Harry Colmery's handwriting, from Mayflower Hotel room, “G.I. Bill” cabinet, AL; U.S. Congress, Senate, 78th Cong. 2d sess. Hearings Before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Finance on S. 1617, 14 January-10 March 1944, 252-53;
112. U.S. Congress, House of Representatives, 78th Cong. 2d sess. Hearings Before the Committee on World War Veterans' Legislation on H.R. 3917 and S. 1767, 11 January-31 March 1944, 421.
113. U.S. Congress, Senate, Hearings Before the Committee on Education and Labor on S. 1295 and S. 1509, 78th Cong. 1st sess. 13, 14, and 15 December, 23.
114. “Publicity Outline Supporting Legion Bill,” folder marked “U.S.-Manpower Benefits–G.I. Bill,” G.I. Bill correspondence, AL;
115. See also Theda Skocpol, “The G.I. Bill and U.S. Social Policy, Past and Future,” Social Philosophy and Policy 14 (Summer 1997): 106.
116. “The Editor Speaks,” Washington, D.C. May 1944, “U.S.–Manpower Benefits”, folder no. 6, G.I. Bill correspondence, AL.
117. “G.I. Bill of Rights Does More Harm than Good, DAV Official Asserts,” Rocky Mountain News, 12 September 1944, 5;
118. Letter, Millard W. Rice to Honorable Walter F. George, Chairman, Committee on Finance, U.S. Senate, 22 February 1944, G.I. Bill correspondence, “U.S.–Manpower–Legion Bill,” folder no. 2, AL.
119. U.S. Congress, House of Representatives, 78th Cong. 2d sess. Hearings Before the Committee on World War Veterans' Legislation on H.R. 3917 and S. 1767, 11 January-31 March 1944, 350-52;
120. “G.I. Enemy No. 1,” Nation (6 May 1944): 527-28.
121. Quoted in Ross, Preparing for Ulysses, 108.
122. Camelon, “I Saw the G.I. Bill Written,” American Legion Magazine (November 1949), part 3, 47–48.
123. Olson, The G.I. Bill, the Veterans, and the Colleges, 16–17.
124. U.S. Congress, House of Representatives, 79th Cong. 2d sess.
125. “Investigations of the National War Effort,” Report issued by the Committee on Military Affairs, 30 January 1946, 2. Such individuals were meant to be included in the provisions of the G.I. Bill. For more thorough treatment, see Canaday, “Building a Straight State.”
126. Olson, The G.I. Bill, the Veterans, and the Colleges, 17.
127. These policy categories appear in Theodore J. Lowi, “American Business, Public Policy, Case Studies, and Political Theory,” World Politics 6 (1964): 677-715.
128. For a discussion of their relationship to citizenship, see Suzanne Mettler, “Social Citizens of Separate Sovereignties: Governance in the New Deal Welfare State,” in The New Deal and the Triumph of Liberalism, ed. Sidney M. Milkis and Jerome M. Mileur (Amherst, 2002), 231-71.
129. Kato, “Veterans' Benefits,” 2037-38.