Gilpin observer., 1920-06-03
SOLDIERS BONUS
BILL IN POLITICS
Washington Post Says House
Members are Not Sincere and
Are Playing for Votes.

If the Republicans of the House
of Representatives were actually
moving to impose an additional
tax of $1,276,5 100000 on the peo-
pie at this time for the purpose of
giving bonus to soldiers and
sailors, the move could not be as
cribed to anything but madness.
But as the House Republicans
know very we'll that no such tax
will be imposed, their proposal to
impose it may be set down for
what it really is-a' hypocritical
and disreputable attempt to hood
wink the soldier boys for purposes
of political advantage in the
forthcoming campaign.
The House Republicans are try
ing to make it appear that they
favor the imposition of another
billion-dollar tax upon the people;
that the soldier and sailor boys
must have this bonus; that the
Democrats are opposing the plan.
and the Democratic president is
intent upon vetoing the bill, and
therefore that the Republican
party is the only friend of the SOL
diers and sailors. Hence, if the
soldiers and sailors have any
gratitude they will be expected to
vote the Republican ticket from
president to dog catcher.
The Republicans of the House
would not pass the bonus bill if
they knew it would pass the Sen
ate and be approved by the presi-
dent, for they know that the peo-
pie would relegate all of them to
private life for incompetence in
swelling the public debt at time
when the public back is bending
under an excessive load. The
House Republicans rely upon the
Senate and the president to block
the bill. Thus these Statesmen"
hope to fool the soldiers and sail
ors and yet avoid the wrath of the
taxpayers.
Such is the quality of states
manship exhibited by the majority
of the once great Committee on
Ways and Means and seemingly
approved by the Republican maj
ority of the House.
No more humiliating spectacle
has ever been witnessed in the
capitol than that which will oc-
cur this week if a majority of the
House shall vote in favor of the
bonus bill. The proposal is so
offensive to decency, when strip
ped of it's hypocrisy, that no in
dividual member of the House
would dare to champion it in the
presence of self-respecting SOL
diers and sailors of the recent
war. 1t is an indictment of the
good faith of its supporters, and
the roll call will be used against
them, individually, by their rivals
in their districts. These rivals
will not fail to tell the people how
their Congressman voted for an
additional tax of $1,276,5O0,O0O.
They will fully explain to all SOL
diers and sailors how the vote was
cast in the knowledge that the bill
could not pass-that it was, blunt
ly speaking, swindle disguised
as bribe, intended to deceive
them into voting the Republican
ticket. How can any Congress
man voting for this bill success
fully cope with rival who thrusts
these deadly facts into the cam
paign?
The Congressman engineering
this fraudulent measure confident
ly count upon the ignorance of the
soldiers and sailors. They seem
to regard these young men as too
simple to understand the intricacy
of the scheme that has been hatch
ed. They expect to convince the
, fighting men that a Democratic
minority in Congress, or the DEM
ocratic president, as the case may
be, blocked the bonus which a
grateful Republican party was
anxious to give them. But the SOL
diers and sailors will not be mis-
led. The truth will be conveyed
to them before the bill is voted
down in the Senate or vetoed by
the president.
Should the House pass this bill.
a storm of protest will arise from
the taxpayers. They will speedily
rip off the pretense that now COW