The Tomahawk., 1919-06-19

Washington, D.. C.-What ! shall
Uncle Sam do for the returned SOL
diers? Shall the distribution of new
farms or of homesteads be made only
to returned soldiers and sailors, or to
all citizens ready to cultivate them?
These two questions are being
threshed out before the house COM
mittee on public lands. Bills of all
sorts have been offered. No agree
ment is yet in sight.
Secretary of the Interior Lane
wants congress to appropriate several
hundred million dollars to be used in
wholesale reclamation of cutover, arid
and swamp lands in big tracts, and for
the making of well-equipped farms,
in community. groups, from these re-
claimed lands. He would have the
soldiers and sailors take the farms
under contract to purchase them by
payments distributed over 80 years.
Secretary of Labor Wilson asks that
congress follow this general scheme
until the point of sale is reached,
when he would have the farms leased
for life to the settlers, on easy terms,
but would not permit the settlers to
secure a title which could be used for
speculative profits. He would have
civilians as we'll as soldiers and sailors
admitted to the privilege of the plan.
Against Direct Aid.
Majority Leader Mondell proposes
to distribute raw lands to returned SOL
diers, and to loan them money with
which to do their own clearing, drain
ing or other improvements before
planting could begin. Senator Smoot
has offered a similar bill in the upper
branch of congress. They are very
firmly opposed to any governmental
connection with the settler, once he
has been given his land.
Men, Favor eaer-Gronna Bill. ..
The Soldiers, Sailors and Marines
National Weekly News, which is pro-
noting the Baer-Gronna bill providing
for a payment of bonus of $500 cash
to every discharged service man re.
gardless of rank, is not impressed, with
the Mondell or Lane plans. 1t declares
that the doughboy will be the best
Judge of his own needs after he gets
the cash, and that 1t is foolish to offer
q farm to a man who knows and cares
nothing about farming. The Private
Soldiers and Sailors Legion goes this
paper one better by demanding cash
bonus of $500 for every man, and the
opening up of unused public lands for
them besides.
Bio Deficit Worries.
When the agricultural appropriation
bill was being debated in the house,
Representative Moore of Pennsylva-
MIA, one of the new organization con-
the majority, began trying to
cut out various items which the COM
mittee had recommended.
III am preaching an unwise or un-
fair doctrine to my Republican
he said In defending his
action, II hope l may be pardoned;
but l wish to observe that unless this
side of the house begins to retrench
it will have a mighty poor excuse with
which to go to the country when we
are charged with levying additional
taxes upon the people, as we may be
charged in the very near future.
81 want my Republican brethren to
know what they are up against. Next
year they will be called upon to meet
a deficiency which the Democrats left
on our hands of nearly $4,000, 900, ,O00."
A member who had been studying
the estimates corrected Moore by
stating that the deficit would be $780,
900 100000
. OF course the small progressive ele-
ment, led by La Toilette and johnson
Of California in the senate, has been
pointing out the utter inadequacy OF
the. taxation schemes adopted by the
and Republican majority
ever since the first war revenue bill
was reported. But it has taken until
the end of May, 1919, for the stand
patters to discover that letting the
profiteers off lightly in the tax legis-
lation does not solve the problem OF
national revenue.
kendrick Bill May Pass.
Senator Gronna Of North Dakota
predicts that the new congress will
pass the Kendrick bill, which places
the meat packing industry and the
business under federal H.
cense. He says that the Kendrick bill
ls to be materially improved, although
he does not expect that even In Its
final form It will meet his view OF
what is necessary to break the pack
ers' combine and dissolve the food
AS chairman of the senate
committee on agriculture he is going
TO do all in his power to finally enact
Into law the program urged by the
federal trade commission In its report
of last summer. This program calls
for public ownership and operation of
stock cars and cold stor-
axe warehouses. The Kendrick bill ig-
nores the principle Of public owner
ship.
Permit System Again.
Walker D. Hines, railroad admints-
traitor, announces that the permit sys-
tenn for controlling shipment of the
Eraiu crop to market will be applied
his year the same as last year. At
T. J~A . h%No