, 1921-07-17
BONUS BILL

The senate has -recommitted the soldiers bonus bill
TO the finance committee. All circumstances consid-
cred this is the very proper thing to do. 1t means
postponement of favorable action to a later date
when the financial affairs of the government are bet
ter able to care for so important an undertaking. At
the present time an additional drain of five billion dol
lars upon the treasury is simply out of the question
with the heavy obligations to which the government
is already committed.
There are certain timid persons who imagine such
action as the senate has taken will endanger the for
tunes of the Republican party in elections occurring
next year. If such a matter as the bonus to soldiers
10 to become q matter of elections then we may as
well turn the legislative branch of the government
into an auction business and be done with it. Such
fears as are expressed, that the veterans of the world
war will vote the Democratic ticket out of spite to
punish the administration is not complimentary to the
veterans. Placing the desire of the veterans for the
welfare of the country for which they fought below a
five hundred dollar tip does not seem much like the
veterans we know. We do not believe their political
sentiment can be dictated by any such selfish policy.
True, some Of the fighters will vote the Democratic
ticket Some because they were brought up that way,
others because of their sectional location and others
because they honestly hold to Democratic principles,
notwithstanding their party leaders have abandoned
such principles. The e~X-soldier, who casts a spite bal.
lot for n Democratic candidate, simply because the
bonus bill failed may just as well continue to travel
with the party whose criminal waste of the public
funds is the chief reason why the nation is unable to
grant the extra compensation at this time.
If the nation could afford it there might be justi-
hcation in a proper honorarium. We should not call
it a bonus. But since the Wilson administration has
all but pankrupted the country to insist upon a bonus
at this time is in the nature of a hold up. We re-
fuse to believe that the boys who fought in France
belong to that class.
The Republican party did not seek power by any
such cheap attempt to purchase honorable soldiers.
The Platform of 1920 said: 1--WE hold in imperish-
able remembrance the valor and the patriotism of the
soldiers and sailors of America who fought in the
great war for human liberty, and we pledge ourselves
to discharge to the fullest the obligations which a
grateful nation justly should fulfil, in appreciation
of the services rendered by its defenders on sea and
on land"
Liberal legislation fod the care of the disabled and,
infrm and their dependents has always marked Re-
publican policy toward the soldiers and sailors of all
the wars in which we have participated.
The amount already applied and authorized for the
hscal year ls20-21 TO- this purpose reaches the sum
Of S1,ls0,57l,s 1898. This legislation is guarantee suf-
hhcient Of the purpose of the Republican party to care
for the disabled men of the European war.
During the present congress many additional mil
hons have been provided for the disabled and manned
heroes of the war. So far as that Republican Mat
form pledge is concerned it is being redeemed. And
In these things the entire administration is faithfully
supporting this good work. In advising against the
passage OF the bonus bill at this time Secretarv Mel
lon said 70 the senate: "our first concern, of coarse,
should be to make full provision for the needs of dis.
abled veterans. To that object the country is pledged
to give without stint of its resources. It would he
unfortunate in the extreme, while we are still strur-
Cling with that problem, TO dissipate our resources in
a sweeping plan for cash payments to able-bodied ex-
soldiers and sailors"
It is one Of the results Of the Democratic ,saturna-
ia OF spending that proponents of the bonus bill, at
least seem to have lost appreciation of what a bill.
bon dollars means to the country. And the bonus
bill ~contemplates five billions according to the treas.
nry estimate. Wilson authorized and McAdoo wrote
checks with the flourish Of a Louis XIV. disbursins
hundreds Of thousands. The Republican partv has
fallen heir to those colossal obligations. and tbe Are-
lean people have been mortgaged BY their reckIess
former stewards to ~liquidate them. Until tbe H.
nances of the government improve and some nrac-
Aca! plan has been worked out rewards necessarily
must be deferred.