Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-01-30
HOW TOPAY BONUS
B|GC0NGRESS|SSUE
Frear Assails Sales Tax as Put
ting New Burden on
Consumers
WOULD USE FOREIGN DEBT
By CLINTON W. GILBERT

BN tIINION W. OiIISfiht
stan Correspondent Evening Public Ledger
Copyri0h'. 1882. by Public Ledger Compdnp
washin@ton. Jan. 3O.--The soldiers
bonus may fail in Congress because Of
inability ~ agree upon Il form Cf taxa =
ton which will ratsc the required
amount To- nay it. The President is on
record nVHinst any hill which does not
provide means ~ raise the money.
Everybody Is for t,c soldiers, of
course. There arc 10000 Of them Vot-
ing in The average congressional district.
more thnn 2i.OO0 of them in poDulOua
districts such ms Detroit. Every Com
g"cSSman and senator wants to win the
favor CT these soldiers.
The difficulty lies in extracting some
thrcc billion dollars ar more from the
PUBLIC treasury by such process Of
rircumlocutirr that the already hard
pressed taxpayers woH't miss il. FO" II
must he said the members Uf Congress
are for the taXmyCrS also. The boo Of
tHVuayrr voters even exceeds numcri-
Cnlly the h'or II soldier voter. The
difficulty lies in III" fact that the Con-.
grc:s,mCn need the support of both OF
thCs" grnur~.
Fight War Over Again
Hence It is that the argument over
the bonus must wander fur ateld. In
it's course the World War will be fought
over again: it will involve the difficult
issue of the economic restoration Of
Europe and the payment of the foreign
debt agriculture will be arraycd againkt
manufacturing and trade; the East Will
he asailcd by the South and the West.
md vice versa. The struggle between
Drmocratic and Republican parties. evil
dcnccd with respect to every issue in q
campaign year, will be only one of the
nauy divisions which this measure will
'rcat".
The Republican members Of the House
act in CAUCUS last week and indOrScd
'hr soldiers bonus. The party leaders,
however. did not 80 much as permit
discussion of the moro crucial question
~ To how the bonus cost is TO be met.
The latter subject was passed over with
the assurance that before the bill comes
up for final consideration a second eau
Gus will be held to discuss the financial
provisions.
The day after the caucus was held,
Chairman Joseph w. Fordney. Of the
Ways and Means Committee. announced
that manufacturers sales tax will bt
approved by his committee as tn
.OurCC of bonus revenue. The announce
Ercnt was no more than made than the
row started.
Frear Assails Him
Representative Frcar. of Wisconsin,
Il Republican member OF Mr.. Fordney :
committee. bitterly asSailed the proposal
on the floor Of the House. lie said:
Announcement was made yesterday
bv the gent cman from Michigan (Mr.
th Il Ia
ably bc enacted in order to pay n SOL
d'crs' bonus. calculated by him to reach
81 600 900 900. The cost to consumers
ot course, will be several times tho
amount of the tax and It would mean
that "A new burden OF between four and
five billion dollars would b. laid on tho
American people.
"In the record Of January ,, you
. vii find my prediction that sa,Cs tax
would be urged to finance Il bonus bill.
There | discussed the sales tax and fur
ni>hCd score Of opinions Of tax cx-
rcrtS. representatives Of the American
Federation Of Labor and representatives
nf the four brothcrh"ods of railway
employees They all unqualiiedy con.
dcmnrd the sales tax. Agricultural
organizations are equally opposed To any
form Of consumption tax.
statement of the Canadian situation
where manufacturers sales tax is in
force. There il il condemned by all al
the labor and farmer organizations. II
was chiefly the high prices caused by
the sales tax that recently caused The
overthrow OF the conservative party OF
Canada.
Would Hit Consumers
There is practically the same sit
uGtion in this country. We have en-
acted protective tariff bill greatly in
CreaSing the cOnSumerS' cost of food
Stuff>. We have repealed the excess
Profits tax and the high SJ!rtaxcs and
now We propose Il sales tax.
I'VE were told by President Hard.
ing recently that there would be no
shifting of taxes, that there was ~
b" lifting of taxes all a'ong the
line. We have repealed the cxcass
profits taxes. which brings IN S4jO.
U0 900 annually. We have rcducrd
the surtaxcs by $6l 900 600 Il year, and
We have repealed the luxury taxcS-all
% them lcvieS on profits and wealth -
and the proposition HOW is to place q
consumption tax on the people. which l.
a direct shifting of rho taxes from those
hest able TO pay TO those least able 20
pay.
II do not know whether you gcntlc-
zen realize what that Is going to mean
socially. economically and politically.
\ Republican member from New York
said to me today: We have los. our
State, fear aud said, If "" have
IL consumption tax placed upon the pco-
pie OF the country. between three and
four billions of dollars or more, MS pro
posed, We will lose the whole country.
Would Use Foreign Debts
!, will be noted that Mr.. Fear, while
Ill.,. n. ~