Bill Tuttle: The history of the GI Bill in some ways begins with the WWI veterans, who were promised a bonus in 1919 payable in 25 years, 1944, but in 1932 there was a great depression and they were broke. They wanted the bonus immediately. So they marched to Washington. And the bonus marchers were met with military force, led by General Douglas MacAuthur, and major Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Major George S. Patton, the bonus marchers were routed from Washington, it was a terrible, terrible thing. Men who had fought for their country in W.W.I who were being tear gassed and beaten with billyclubs by the military and by the police in Washington in 1932. There was a lot of concern with veterans, because veterans are viewed potentially unstable elements, potentially dangerous people. Because veterans come back to the country. They know how to use arms. They know how to kill people. They are angry. A lot of them feel they have given the best years of their lives to their country, they are not getting much back.
Narrator: To avoid problems again after W.W.II, the American Legion pushed for new veterans benefits, which resulted in Roosevelt signing the GI Bill in 1944.
Bill: A lot of politicians didn't want it. They thought that service people didn't deserve it. And there were a lot of very conservative politicians who thought it would be terrible for the country to send these service people, these veterans, to colleges and universities to be taught by left wing professors.
Bill: It's interesting, it addressed four issues. And one was called readjustment allowances. So when the GIs came back, a lot of them couldn't find work immediately. So one part of the GI Bill was 52 weeks of a readjustment allowance of $20 a week to help them live until they could find work. Another part of the GI bill addressed the concerns and needs of the disabled veterans. Special training programs for them. And then of course there was education and there was housing.
Narrator: College and Universities were flooded with scholars eager to use the GI Bill for their education.
Bill: The educational benefit was up to 48 months, four years of college or vocational education for the veterans. And what it meant was a lot of veterans who would never have thought about going to college did, because they had an opportunity to do it. And the tuition and fees were paid up to $500 a year, well $500 would pay your tuition at Harvard in 1946, so with the GI Bill you could actually afford to go to best college or university in the country.
Narrator: Retired KU professor Walter "Hob" Crockett was one of the recipients of the GI Bill, and used the money for his education and housing needs during and after the war.
Walter: Well I was in the Kansas National Guard, an infantry company in Emporia. We were mobilized in the 1940, December 23rd. And after a year or so in the infantry I transferred into the Air Force and went to flying training. Graduated and flew for a while cargo in this country and, then went to India and flew cargo in India, until I was discharged in July of 1945. So I spent little over 4 and 1/2 years in the military. By the time the war ended I was married and we had a child. And, well the GI Bill gave you a month of university or college training for every month you were in the army. So I had 4 years available. I had had a year and a half at emporia state before the war. And I came back here after the war and got an undergraduate degree and then a masters degree. It made it all together possible to get an education without really having to ever go into dept. And I must say it changed the lives of a whole lot of people who would never have been able to go to, or thought of going to a university or college and all at once found it possible to do so.
Narrator: To accommodate all the students, universities had to find novel solutions in a hurry. KU, for example, created housing below University structures.
Bill: There was university housing located under the football stadium. Veterans lived in the basement of old Robinson Gym. They lived in the basement of the anthropology museum in the old Spooner library. And than after the war, and this was true of other universities as well, universities were able to acquire surplus government housing. So buildings were actually moved here. And where Summerfield hall is today, there were the Sunnyside apartments, and it was I think 31 buildings, 168 units. Initially for young faculty members, later on for married couples as well.
Walter: Sunnyside was constructed, reconstructed two-story buildings, wooden barracks from some military camp that they were disabling, and almost every new faculty member at the university of Kansas lived there at one time or another. It was also at a time of a housing shortage, it was a very great boon to young families who were just getting started.
Narrator: After graduation, many veterans used the GI bill to obtain low-interest loans for home purchase.
Bill: There are actually, I think, in the first 10 years of the GI Bill, were well over 4 million homes bought with VA loans. And the suburbs is where a lot of them want to go. Because these are nice houses. They are away from the cities. Between 1946 and 1948 there were about 2 million college students in the United States. One half of them were veterans. From 1944 for the next 30 or so years, about 70 billion dollars was spent on the GI bill. And what people have estimated is that, because of the income potential that people gained as a result of this training and education, that they have paid taxes 8 times 70 billion dollars. So well over 500 billion dollars in taxes paid on this 70 billion dollar investment, so that its paid of handsomely.