Arizona republican., 1921-08-21
THE ARITHMETIC
 OF COMPE ENSATION

or the nunDGT OI men hiiO WILL dC- mand the mash payment.
 Were it a question of the country s treasury being called upon to meet this obligation in a lump sum this year or in several sums during the next two or three years, there would be justification for the position that we cannot afford it. But payments under the bill are to be scattered over the twenty years between 1923 and 1943 and the greatest amount due in any one year will probably not exceed 200,000,000. Saying that the nation cannot afford to pay her veterans adjusted compensation un- der these circumstances is like say ing that a man cannot afford to pur- chase a s10000 house, $1,500 down and the balance in twenty years, just because he cannot raise the s1O0OO at the date of purchase
 Another one of the fallacies which seems to have found it's way into quite general acceptance is that the country when it will have paid out this $200, ,000,000 a year will have lost it, that the money, once paid out, Will disappear as if by magic touch from the face of the earth. Sight is lost altogether of the fact that the money will go out into rapid circulation and much of it into the most productive of channels. particularly in the ad- justed certificate. farm and home aid and vocational education features or the bill, which will be a great boon to the economic stability and pros perity of the country.
 I will not here go deeply into the question of whether or not the great United States of America, the richest ,tl n world, can afford an outlay of $200.- O00. 900 a year, in order to meet what I believe to be sacred financial ob- ligation. to it's veterans of the World War. This country can certainly do for it's veterans what the poverty- stricken debt ridden. and tax-bur- dened countries of Europe have all ready done for their fighting men of the World War.
 The country not only can afford to pay adjusted compensation but 1t can pay it without increasing taxes. It was not without significance that the senate committee on finance clipped off from the Adjusted Com pensation Bill as it was passed by the house of representatives it's taxation features. This was done largely be- cause of the belief that payments under the bill could not be met from the treasury without the imposition of new taReS.
 Promise is being held out that the inauguration of a national budget system is to save the taxpayers of the country anywhere from half a billion to a billion dollars a year Surely the veterans of the country have a right to demand, if necessary that out of such savings the nation shall meet this just and overdue ob- ligation to them.
 There is yet another way, however in which the obligation may be me' without the imposition of new taxes and with the savings under the bud get system applied to the reduction of taxes that already exist. I refer to the $10. .000, 100000 which our late associates in the World War owe us The interest alone on these debts will more than care for the payments necessary each year to meet the re- quirements' of the Adjusted Compen- sation Bill. The amount of interest past due on the debts will take very good care of the financial conse- quences of adjusted compensation for the first four or five years. Where there Is a will, there's always a way and in the case of adjusted compen- sation the will is strong both witf congress and the people to do jus tice to the ex-service men of the country. The senate recommitmeni of the bill only served to make surel it's ultimate enactment, which, I re- peat, believe will come well before July 1. 1922.
 Both in presenting and pressing the claim of the ex-service man to ar adjustment of compensation, Int American Legion has, 1t seems te me. been fair and faithful to the in 1 terests of the whole country. ", should be equally fair and faithful tt
 them.
 'In the beginning the other Repub l lican senators seem to have beer willing to let Senator McCumber ge l the credit for activity in favor of tn
 bill without intending that it shoul' 1 go as far as 1t ultimately did. Blu Senator McCumber took the bit il his teeth to a degree his fellow Re
 publicans did not anticipate" Thi
 is the comment of Mark Sullivan former editor of Golfers, now one Q
 the most widely syndicated of Wash ington correspondents, in discussini
 some inside history of the recommit
 ment of the Adjusted Compensation l Bill. Senator McCumber's politica I career antedates the admission o I his home state, North Dakota, to tn lunion, for he served as a member o l the territorial house of representa- tives from 1885 to 1889. He has beel | United States senator from Nortl Dakota continuously since 1899. Hi
 prosanf term oynirpS in 1992 Tn thi