Disabled Soldiers Slowly but Surely Repaying Elks Club Loans, Dec. 11, 1919

From The Daily Times, Wilson, N.C., Dec. 11, 1919.

American Soldiers Will Meet Their Obligations

“Be it said to the ever-lasting credit of the American veteran that there does not show on our books that any one of them has shown a disposition to deny his obligations or refuse to meet them,” says Aronnoff, secretary for the Federal board for vocational education.

The statement was made by the secretary of the board while being interviewed regarding the use of a revolving fund of $200,000 advanced by the Elks for use of the disabled soldiers. The books show that more than $230,000 has been loaned, the more than $100,000 has been returned in small payments and that the fund was of great benefit to every disabled man. This money was advanced to the veterans to tide them over the interval between the time they went into training and the arrival of their first bi-monthly check. They are allowed to take from one to six months to refund the loan.

The Elks distributed this $200,000 loan among the 14 districts of the Federal board for vocational education, giving each district vocational officer monies to use at his discretion. In speaking of the loan the district officers united in saying, “The loan has been a God-send to us and to the disable men.”