East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1922-02-18

WELDING g. to the impilse of the moment, revealing thus an
anxious attention to the party problem Of the day, Presi-
dent Harding made a plea Saturday night before the
League Of Republican State Clubs for a return to representative
popular government through political party" Placing unshak-
expressing the conscience of its membership in representative
convention as opposed to the passing .whims Of public life"
ne deprecated the tendency to give popular support to "the
appeal of the individual for his particular locality"
1t is not strange that in his present preoccupation with the
exactions Of the farm bloc the president somewhat idealizes the
party convention and its decisions. The appeal of particular
localities and particular interests for mostfavored treatment is
not more unknown in the Hobbies of national conventions than in
the lobbies of congress. Massachusetts and Pennsylvania Big
Business has moi commonly been so absorbed in framing tariff
laws as to neglect altogether the framing of tariff policies. The
farm bloc is less novel in principle than in the principles appli-
cation.
The answer to the presidents appeal had in effect been ut
tered some hours earlier. In a letter to Chairman Fordney, DR..
I. Z. Atkeson, Washington agent of the National Grange, says
OF the "~eight-pont tax program in the ways and means COM
mittee that 1T violates every principle of taxation Endorsed by
the recent agricultural conference" opened by the president
himself, and that 1t passes by, apparently without considera-
ton, the recommendations Of that conference, Of the National
Grange and every other farmers organization"
DR.. Atkeson seems to think that this settles the eight point
program II. 9. Mckenzie, tax expert of the powerful Farm
Bureau Federation, also calls attention to the "frictions which
would be developed by raising the parceLpost rates, taxing gas
oline and automobiles and the increased annoyance caused by
the stamp tax" Similar language as to the gasoline and auto
mobile taxes is held by the American Automobile Association
and the National Automobile Chamber of Commerce, the. latter
an industrial bloc of the kind that the majority party has always
treated with Difference.
All these advisers are more interested in what not to tax
than what to tax, but Messrs. Atkeson and Mckenzie agree for
the farmers that if money is needed to pay for the soldiers
bonus 1t should be raised by 're-enactment and re-extension of
the excess-profts x'-which would grievously offend a bust
ness bloc not hitherto without a hearing in the capital. Incident
ally, Wall street is not exactly receptive to the idea of stock
transfer taxation.
In asserting his power as the president not of a party but of
o people, in defending the rights and interests of all the people
against any particular localities and interests, Mr.. Harding
would have and should have the support of thinking citizens. II
the quandry OF his party over raising money by taxation has
reached such a pass as to threaten its disintegration into dis
cordant elements, it is mainly because he has not with a firm
hand checked the money waste, past or projected, that makes
heavier taxation imperative. The penalty Of drift is dsorgan
ization. The way of unity is eadership.-New York World.
M ~~~~~~
The trouble with the sales tax idea is that the manufacture,
can pass the tax along to the consumer but the farmer canno
do so; if the tax applies to sale of farm products a farmer would
have to pay a tax on his crop even though he lost money on tn,
crop.
~~%~~~
The giant airship Roma, purchased by the American gov
eminent from the Italian government, is going to make a swim
around the country in the spring; the ship is equipped with 81
liberty motors.
Pretty soon there may be so many men in the race for cove
nor that one will have to arrange them in alphabetical order
keep track of them.
What navy we are to have should be kept in ship shane co,
dition even though the millneum is at hand.
GA@
If the weather man does the right thing Sunday should be
good day for hunting COLTS.
n0lIrTnTkInT Tn nr IIrI n omlcs women of thu reae,a, hoard