The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1922-03-16


ly Feels Stronger Than President.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.
Especial Despatch to The Reformer)
Copyright 1922.
WASHINGTON, March 16., - The
house will pass bonus bill and the
senate will shelve it for this session at
least
That's the outlook now that the house
ways and means committee has received
and ignored the advice of the secretary
of the treasury, the comptroller of the
currency and the governor of the fed
eral reserve board to the effect that the
bonus bill would be a bad thing for the
economic condition of the country.
1t doesn't often happen that a com
mittee so important AZ the WAYS and
means summons secretary of the
treasury of its own political afiiliatiOn
and, after listening to his exposition of
the treasury condition, goes ahead in
exactly the opposite direction. 1t
doesn't often happen that a Reputation
Of the secretary of the treasury Is voiced
by whole body in congress but that's
what is coming now. In n parliamen-
tary form of government it would mean
the resignation Of Mr.. Mellon, but the
hOusng OF representatives has passed
many a bill that died in the senate and
designations are never in order here lH-
less the President himself fails to stand
| by a cabinet officer In this instance.
| the PRESIDENT is squarey behind Mr..
| Mellon and if the senate should follow
the hause Il veto is certain for the bonus
| bin.
Senate 10 Fellow Mellon.
But the senate. viii not ignore Mr.
AIellOntS advice Over in the cloak
! rooms Of the upper house the word
| bonus X rarely spoken. II hangs over
| the senate like impending doom Just
/ how the senior body will handle the
question is not yet determined \ tacit
understanding seems to prevail that by
| one parliamentary mancuver or another
something will delay passage of the
| bonus. 1t was the senate which last
summer blocked the bonus bill and
probably upon more words of Warming
! be set aside until the finances of the
government are i'm better condition. As
/ for the issue itself, IL is expected To bob
Iup again in 1924 when the next presi-
! dental primaries are under way. BY
| that time. however. some Republican
i LEADERS hope ta revise the entire revenue
program and To make special provision
| for a fund TO pay the bonus. This re-
| vision will be- attempted by means of a
/ sales tax which Mr.. Harding now openly
| favorS for the soldier bonus. This COM
mitment to the principle Of the sales tax
/ comes at a time when revenue laws are
not being revised but Just the same. it
| has brought deep satisfaction To the
i IfopotcntS of such n tax who would
/ have been greatly assisted a few months
/ ago when they tried 20 get a presidcn-
/ tial declaration ON the subject to help
Il them substitute sales tax for all tho
tothcr kinds of taxes which finally found
their way into the 1921 fevepue law.
Knows He Defied President
Il There's n significant bit of informa-
tion. incidentally, i'm the statement of
Il Representatives Fordnay, chairman of
II the house ways and means committee.
that he did not expect Speaker Gillette.
now in Florida with the chief executive,
To bring back an informal message to
the house on the bonus question Mr..
H Fordney knows the Presidents views
and would prefer not to have them at
his time He could have had them
when be visited Mr.. Harding Just before
the latter left for Florida. The Presi-
dent told callers afterward that the
bonus question was discussed only incl
dentally and that he didn't outline his
views to Mr.. Fordney because they were
II all well known. This incident, together
with the Fordnoy declaration that he
isn't expecting word from the President,
Is generally taken to mean that the
ii chairman OF the house ways ana means
n committee believed it important for the
success Of the Republican party this
fall to go ahead and pass a bonus bin
in the house where 49, members of both
parties are up for reelection. Too
strong opposition from the President
might hinder the passage of the bonus
bill i'm tho house and spoil the record of
the party in the house at least, where
it is ever so much more important than
in the senate where only one-third of the
membership changes in the fall elections,
and of that number certain members
viii be reelected irrespective of how
they vote on the bonus question The
! politics of the situation is to permit the
house to express itself and thereby place
upon the senate and the executive the
responsibility for poStponcment of the
cash bonus.