The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1922-02-10
BY DAVID LAWRENCE

BY DAVID LAWRENCE
Especial Despatch to The Reformer.)
Copyright 1922.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 10.-The sol
dier bonus has become the biggest politi-
States government.
President Harding's firm refusal to
permit the money expected to be received
from the allied war debt to be used as a
basis for payment in bonds or borrowing
has led congress to explore all the vari-
Gus means of direct taxation that can be
depended upon as source of revenue.
As congress looks around for things to
be taxed and sees political dangers aris-
| ing from non-soldier muititudes, the task
of voting the bonus becomes increasingly
diStasteful. The secretary of the treas
| ury has told congress that the money for
a bonus can be raised by taxing tobacco
and cigarettes, gasoline. as well a. each
| automobile depending upon the horse
power, by taxing documents in real es-
! tate and legal transactions and by re-
! quiring everybody who caShcS a check To
| atfiX a stamp thereto on presenting it for
! payment Besides this an increase from
| two cents TO three cents postage is be-
| ing seriously considered.
Some of the government experts figure
| it out that the effect of bonus raised in
! that way will be TO make the soldier him
| self and the members of his family pay
| out of one pocket what he will be receiv-
ing in another. Already the congress
| fears the political wrath of the country
! for failing To reduce taxes appreciably
| this year and now to add instead of sub
| tract taxes is something which Republic
cans as we'll as Democrats admit may
| bring political disadvantages far to-
gethcr than the advantages of fayoring
the soldiers.
The Real Trouble.
| The real trouble about the soldier sent
iment as it is waited here is that while
many soldiers do not need Il bonus or
want it they are ready TO jump on any
| body who says they do not deserve it.
Some of the letters coming into the CAPT
tol from all parts of the country reflect
| 4 bitterness such as congressional mail
/ has rarely witnessed.
The fact that there * even a reluct-
anCe. to grant a bonus is in itself con-
demned and the ideas that the money
( isn't available carries little conviction
with the soldier folks who are all the
more irritated because congress provided
for everything else before even consider
ing bonus. To those who fought 10
Ipreserve the government, the thought at
paying out money for new govern
meHt activities of any kind is contra
/ dlCtlon OF PATRIOTISM.
Might Nor ReciprOeate.
Those who have been studying the poll
| tical effects of granting the bonus wonder
whether the soldiers win take up the
cudgels for the Republicans who voted il
and offset the criticism of the others who
are compelled 10 pay the bonus. If the
| Republicans could depend upon such Il
group of active workers they would not
| need to worry. But the fear is that the
1 ri . b, -,
/ power very much as Il debtor does who
! has waited many months for a bill to
, be paid which he knows is due but which
the creditor takes time to pay while he
pays other debtors perhaps not so deserv-
| ing.
The feeling of the returned soldier
that he has been neglected by congress
I ever since he came back from the war is
coming to the surface in the demand for
a bonus. Those who had no way of
showing their dissatisfaction before with
governmental indifferences now are de