The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1921-02-01
BONUS BOBS UP LIKE
GHOST; PLAQUES SENATE
ADOPTED BY HOUSE AT LAST
SESSION AS PRE-CAMPAIGN
THUNDER 1T WON'T DOWN.
SOLDIERS HOPES FADE

Economy the Big Barrier Against Ac-
ton by Present Congress, Men
Have Renewed Drive For Meas
IRE of Government Largess.
WASHINGTON, D. C.-Members
of the house and senate are plagued
day after day by the promises they
made in the campaign to vote in ia
vor of generous bonus for former
service men. Scarcely mail reaches
legislator that is not filled with
forceful reminders of the pledges
which were publicly given at time
when votes were needed
Men who were in uniform while the
war was on have renewed their drive
for measure Of government largesse.
They were led to believe, while candi-
dates were electioneering and the
busting resounded with appeals for
support, that no sooner had congress
reconvened than a bonus bill would
be brought to a vote and would be
passed by overwhelming maJorit1es.
See Hopes Fading.
But congress has been in session for
nearly two months and has but one
more than month to run, and there
is not an indication that bonus Diii
will be passed. No committee OF the
senate has recommended it and no
group of leaders in that body has
ehampioned it. Hope of a bonus
check, therefore, is fading from before
the ewes of the boys back home.
The house bill, which passed with
bang just before adjournment early IN
the summer, is still alive. 1t will not
die until the sixty-Sixth congress pass
es out of existence March 4. 1t is the
senate, therefore, which must do the
es of the hide end OF the business,
Job, if it is done.
The bonus-seeker may not under
stand that when the house on the eve
of national campaign voted IN ia
vor of soldier bonus that body was
moved by political expedlency pure
and simple. Not one in 10 who sup
ported the legislation actually wanted
+ TO be enacted. Not one in 20 en-
tertained the notion that the senate
would concur in the action of the
house or that President Wilson would
SUCH dill at " DNNSAAtN -~~t'
even if congress should pass It.
The bill was passed by the house
because virtually every member OF
that body was a candidate for re-elec-
ton and every one who was candI-
date felt that it would be dangerous
TO hv in the face of the soldier vote.
A handful of members were bold
enough to vote against 1t.
Economy the Barrier.
But the situation now has changed.
Legislators. returning to Washington,
realize that it would be almost crime
to paw out an enormous sum OF mon
ey in the form of a bonus at time
when economy is demanded by the
whole nation; when taxation is weigh
ing more heavily upon the people than
ever before, and when national read
iustment forbids any raid upon the
federal treasury, no matter how ap-
pealing the cause.
If a bonus bill should be passed
now most leaders agree, it could only
be financed by popular loan. There
is no conceivable way of taxing the
country for such a purpose without
putting a blight upon business already
sorely disrupted by falling markets
And another popular loan could only
be foated by raising the rate of in
terest to a point which would depress
the value of the more than $20,000,-
100000 in war bonds still outstanding.
The TACT is the senate is less inclin-
ed il anything to pass bonus bill
now than it was last summer when
the house sent the measure to 1t.
Members who will come up for re-
election two years and four years
hence had hoped that the country
would forget the bonus; that the men
who are demanding it would all have
good jobs and would not need the
money, and that they would not be
harried by constituents with an APP
petite for a government appropriation
Instead of diminishing, however, the
demand fer bonus legislation seems
to be increasing.