The Winslow mail., 1920-04-30
SOLDIERS BONUS.

Illinois. second ranking Democrat on
the Ways and Means committee. has
delivered in the House one of the
strongest speeches heard in months
attacking partisan consideration of
the soldier bonus question
Accusing Republican members of
the committee of excluding Democra-
tic members while framing their bill,
Representative Rainey showed that as
now drawn, the bill constitutes rather
bid for soldier votes raher than an
attempt to deal comprehensively and
sympathetically with the bonus ques-
tion and the program of relief asked
by the American Legion. Democrats
of the committee. Mr.. Rainey showed.
want to consider the four-fold pro-
position presented by the soldiers
and to raise the bonus cost by levy
ing taxes on excess war profits The
Republicans. he pointed out, propose
a cash bonus and would levy a con-
sumption and sales tax, hitting every
home in the land. to pay for the bo-
nus. a &
In part, Representative Rainey
said:
1.-The war is not yet over An ar
mistice has merely been declared. In
the nations of the world war still,
continues. No man can tell how soor
we will be engulfed again in these
world struggles with these new worl(
issues. The membership of this
House has changed. The majorit!
sits on that side of the aisle. MOI
where it sat during the years of the
war. And already. with the approach
Of the campaign, the majority as re
presented on the great Ways anC
Means Committee. forgetting the ge-
nerosity of the Democratic majority
during the war. anxious only to seize
mean, small partisan advantage
have excluded from their delibera
tions the Democratic members of tina
committee and are today engaged i
framing the most important war b
because that is what that is. that has
ever been presented since this wal
stared, since we became involved {
bill to comply with the request Of a.
100000 of our brave soldiers, an6
they propose now to say to these
young men-and nearly all of then
will be voting this fall-they propose
to say to these young men, "a Demo
cratic Congress sent you to the wal
but a Republican Congress has franz
ed this bill for your relief. A Re
publican Congress is giving you now
the equalized pay that you have re-
quested The Democrats have had
nothing to do with it. We have ex
cluded them from our committee
rooms. 3+1
$50 the proceeded to draft a bill |
end Republican members have been
summoned from far and near to re-
spond to the party whip and the par
ty mandate and make it possible for
the Republican party to fool the a.
100000 young men and to say to them
We gave you this bonus
"On behalf of these young men !
repudiate the insult rendered by the
Republican majority in this House
deny that they can be fooled by any
such mean poor, little tactics as
those on the part of the Republican
majority. Oh, you can not help it. In
these days Of danger here, danger tC
our institutions and danger abroad
the cloven foot appears as it always
has in the history Of our party and
as it always will You are in posi-
ton today, after the meeting of your
steering committee yesterday-the re-
suits Of which were announced in the
papers this mOrning-you are in the
position. and unblushingly you oc
cupy it. of saying to the 4,500.00|
brave soldiers and sailors, brave
boys who can see int these things
;is cltd.lv 81 you can. = he Replbij
clE r"ity In the >ti reaching elef
tiuns are cTering y'.u :: 25 day foI
your votes this fall
"Let me tell you what you have
DONE If we are to believe the state
ments you have. given out to the
morning papers you propose to col
lect this tax, this bonus. the charac-
ter of tax which has not been ex-
tensively imposed in the world since
the feudal ages. the character of tax
which no nation in the world at
tempts to any degree to impose at
the present time except unfortunate
misgoverned Mexico and the small
IL L..