Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1920-05-06
Bonus Legislation Doomed

THE further this Congress proceeds in
; its effort to evolve a system Of soldier
bonuses and a corresponding system of
taxation. in order to pay the bonus. the
more manifest ii becomes that there will
be no legislation at all upon this question.
The House and Senate will drift along with
make believe policy. then recess until
after the national election and, after that,
will find it unnecessary to bother about the
matter FOR another year or more.
Already the proposition has boiled itself
down to question whether or not it is
more expedient for the party in control of
Congress to pay soldier bonus. thereby
satisfying the soldier vote. or TO relieve the
mind OF the country at large on the issue
OF higher taxation. To all appearances the
Republican leaders OF tho House have de-
cidcd that the lesser risk involved is in
tho direction of the bonus. in other words,
there is no principle concerned in this stu
alton. II is purely a case OF practical
politics.
But the House Republicans cannot agree
among themselves on the bonus question or
any phase of it. Enough OF them are will
ing to vote for some sort of bonus to dom-
nate the Republican caucus. but there are
both divisions and subdivisions within that
body as 10 the kind OF gratuity which should
be authorized. Then too. the majority is
split in almost innumerablc factions over
the system of taxation which il will be
necessary to provide II the $500, 900. 900
or more bonus bill is paid. Some leaders
favor n sales tax; others, a consumption
tax; others, retroactive war tax on profits,
and others. q series Of schedules.
For weeks the House has done nothing
but hicker upon this question, and is no
nearer a concrete policy than it was in the
beginning. The Senute has not even ap-
preached the proposition. and il may be
taken for granted that that body, given as
ii is to unlimited discussion. will devote
many long weeks to debating bonus issue
once the question comes up.
In another month the two houses OF Con-
grcss will recess for the national conven-
lions. They will remain in recess for a
month perhaps longer. Afterward they
will reconvene on three-day recess basis
ard probably will keep that sort of thing
up during most of the summer and fall.
No debatable legislation can pass when a
quorum of body is needed and more than
n bare quorum will be needed to pass the
bonus bill through the Senate.
The more courageous thing for the Con-
gress to do would be to tell the soldier
voters once and for all that the bonus legis-
lation is hopeless; that the government will
exert itself 10 the limit OF its resources IL
take care OF the disabled veterans of the
war, but it is not minded to tax the whole
country for a generation in order to make
cash present to three or four million men
who came out OF the war without disability.
Instead OF this, the present leaders Of
the House and Senate appear to be engaged
in wholesale conspiracy to deceive the
soldier voters of the country and keep them
blindfodcd until the time has passed when
their suffrage Will have any effect upon the
election OF the next President and Congress