The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1922-02-18
SOLDIER BONUS
BILL DEAD AGAIN
Congress VIII Not Pass
Sales Tax to Provide
Required Revenue
HARDING'S MOVE
CALLED SHREWD ONE
No Definite Scheme of Sales Tax Before
Congress - -Four Propositions - Ag-
ricuIturaI Bloc Fears Sales Tax
Would Again Raise Cost of Living

Would Again Raise Cost of Living.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.
fSrecial Despatch to The Reformer)
Copyright 1922.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 1S.-The sol
dier bonus with It's multitude of lives is
dead again.
Whether it will bob up once more de-
ponds upon the agricultural bloc, which
group never had more friends, politically
speaking, than it has today. For the
agriCulturists who have from the first
opposed sales tax as means of rais-
ing revenue are not likely To accept it
as the best way to pay the soldier bonus
and President Harding's ultimatum to
the congress of the United States is final
either pass a sales tax or postpone the
payment of the bonus indefinitely. ~.
The maneuvre of the chief executive
is considered one of the shrewGest bits
of strategy of recent years. 1t was a
political situation which troubled Mr..
Harding from the beginning by his own
admission and it is a political situation
which he has created as a means of eX-
Treating himself from the dilemma which
his party leaders forced upon him that
Mr. Harding does not believe sales tax
can pass congress-he feared as much in
his letter to Chairman FOrdney of the
house ways and means committee. The
canvass of the house on previous Ocea-
sions indicated that the sales tax didn t
! have more than 50 votes and the strength
| of the proponents of the scheme is not
| any greater today than 1t was. The OBJ
! jectionS to sales tax are multiple.
| No Plan Agreed Upon.
| Nobody has ever worked out a plan
q, oil IN all II
could agree. In principle, the plan has
received enthusiastic support but I'm
| formulas of application there have been
wide differences of opinion.
| In fact. few men in congress or in the
treasury department could today give a
| definite answer to what is meant by a
sales tax. Here are the various pro-
poSaIS:
First. a general tax on manufacturers
and producers collected at the source
hut admittedly passed on To the retailer
and finally to the consumer.
Second. a tax on retail sales only
also passed on to the consumer.
Third a turnover tax on all things,
being a tax of small per cent on gross
receipts. This also would be passed on
To the consumer To pay.
Fourth. a tax 0iI q well defined list of
commodities. This would be reflected in
the final. prices Of goods hought by the
consumer
Many advocates of sales tax make
no bones about what they mean by Il
sales tax and they frankly call it a
consumption tax" That's why the
Spokesman of farmers and laboring
folks here have fought the sales tax.
They believe it will mean a higher cost
of living for the average man-that il
will give sellers of commodities an Op-
portunity TO increase prices beyond the
amount of the tax.
The fear is that the curve which
started downward in the cost Of living
chart viii turn upward again. There
| is small chance of the agricultural bloc
agreeing to tax which might mean
more taxes on the produce of the farm
and a higher cost to the farmer on things
he must buy for his farm and family.
Means Indefinite PostpOnement.
In a nutshell. therefore, the President
has proposed a solution which means
nostponement of the bonus payments.
The sales tax cannot gather enough
votes to pass congress unless all other
taxes are repealed and the whole revenue
hin IS revised As n substitute for all
taxes it had many friends. As an add
tional means of taxation, especially IN
the midst of a business year fraught
with so much uncertainty, anyhow, the
chances are congress viii accept Bresl-
dent Harding'S formula sales tax
will bc proposed and shelved and the
bonus will be postponed. The certainty
of a presidential veto of any bill provid-
ing for direct taxes or a revival OF taxes
already repealed or for bond issue has
changed the whole situation. congress
hasn't wanted to pass a bonus blll. TO
itical pressure from the soldier vote
stirred both houses Now political pres
sure from business interests on the one
hand and the consumers on the other IS
turning congress away from the bonus
The truth is soldier bonus bill might
have been passed if the agitation had
como TO a head when congress was con-
sidering the revenue bill last autumn
President Harding has promised to make
recommendations for a revision of the
revenue bill This will come after the
congressional elections next November
Unless all signs fail. the bonus is doomed
n, SIMMER until late in the year of 1922