The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-10-17
LANE LAND BILL FOR SERVICE MEN TO BE PASSED Parties Agree to Put Meas ure Through Congress
 At Once. REPUBLICANS HAD COLD FEET ATTACK Feared That Bonus Seekers Would Not Approve
 Act.

Washington. D. C., oct. 17-Re-
 ports of an understanding that fore
 casts passage of the Lane soldiers
 land bill, popularIy known as the
 MondelI land bill, are beginning to
 emanate from the committee on . Public Lands of the House of Rep- . resentatives. This bill, considered
 so good by the Republicans that 1t
 had to be introduced early in the |,
 present extra session, by the Repub- {
 Iican floor leader, Mondeu, from
 whom it now takes it's name, has
 been allowed to lie in committee
 for months because the Republican leaders were suffering from what is known in slang as "cOld feet or plain political fear. Questions have been raised about it, hearings run ming into months have been held on it, but it has been allowed to lie dormant until some positive political advantage could be seen in its pass age. Although it is generally claimed
 that the city boy is more interested in the bonus than in an opportunity for obtaining land, the sentiment of i the ex-service men from the rural i districts is now beginning to make itself left and renewed effort is ap- | t'SA1 CA4L O1A tAAS I'SAi CA '4i1 ANSt'NN''A- can leaders. For awhile those | fathering the bill, including both Democrats and Republicans, began l to feel that it was foredoomed to de 1 feat because of the adverse sentiment | created against it. In the light of | new explanations of the bill, and be- 1 cause of the agreement said to have been reached in the committee, 1t 1 is now predicted that the bill will | pass and give to the boy interested in l land and farm projects and who 1 fought for hfs country an oppor-
 tunity to develop his future in an
 ex-soldier's farming community
 Opponents of the bill, who were i chiefly those who feared that it | would minimize the chances of a 1 bonus being granted to all ex-service men, at first brought up the objec- 1 tion that the measure was really a i project to develop certain sectional areas for the advantage of land 1 profiteers and certain sections such | as the South and West. The bill was never intended for this purpose, | and to overcome this wrong impress sion it is reported that the commit
 tee has practically agreed to amend | the bill so as to make such a pro- | ject impossible. In other words the I 1 tions of twelve states each with a provision that not more than one 1 fourth of any appropriation for the l development of these soldier lands | will be spent in any one section, and l each fourth to be divided in turn l among the projects in each of the
 twelve states. In this way, instead ! of being a sectional development bill i it is assured of becoming an oppor- tunity carried to men living in rural communities and who want to take | up farming in their own section of | the country.
 i Instead of being a hindrance to 1 the soldiers, sailors and marines bo- i nus measure this land bill stands on ! it's own feet as an added advantage | to the men who served their country | during the war. It will require no 1 actual expenditure of money out of l the Federal Treasury except in the 1 form of a loan for financing the men | who go into tho land projects. plus | of course the administrative expen- 1 ditures. Where the first halt came i in the bill on this score actually was | that the Republican majority, cast ing about in the early days of the present Congress for an inexpensive way of compensating the soldier, tried to play this bill up as the 1 great soldiers relief measure. That it did not fill that bill and that it was not intended to fill that bill was
 seen by even some of the RepubH- can leaders, and because it was not complete in that sense it was argued
 that it was no boon to the soldier. When, after more than six months,