The Connecticut labor news., 1922-03-10
HARDING APPEAL FOR SHIP SUBSIDY
 INSULTS SOLDIERS
Crippled Veterans Who Heard Presi- dents Plea Had Much to
 Think About.
By CHARLES M. KELLEY


 galleries when President Harding made his fervid appeal for subsidy ot mil lions of dollars to American ship own CTS. :,
 These veterans who contributed their limbs and many years of their lives to the seemingly thankless task ot making the world safe for democracy hobble daily up into the Congressional galleries where they take note of what IS sad and done ill reference to their adjusted com- pensation appeals. .,,.
 Thy are Lobbyists" for four million other former service men. They have no slush funds to lavish where such funds usually do the most good. They employ no eloquent advocates to plead thir cause They have only stu1nps ot legs and arms, ghastly scars and broken bodies to speak for them. Eloquent as are these appeals for justice, these man gled soldiers find themselves caught III a welter of most disgusting politics and made the football of scheming politicians who are carefully balancing what should be a simple and spontaneous act of de- cency against its possibl influence upon their personal fortunes.
 The faces of these boys were study as they listened to the presidents de- mand for a bonus for prohteerlng and piratical ShipoWnerS. It was possible almost to tell of what they were think ing.
 Some of them recalled that only few months ago the president walked down to the Capitol and called together i'll pri- vate conference a few of his former cronis and warned them that the condi- ton of the nations finances would not permit the granting of soldier bonus.
 All of them remembered that just few days before the president again confrred with lawmakers and told them that If bonus were given, It must be attached to the most odiouS form of tax ation that can be devised. Not one of them could have been deceivd as to the presidents real purpose. In forcing would take food from the stomachs of millions who are crowding the border line of poverty, MT. Harding was at tempting in another way what he ac- cornplished last year.
 But when MT. Harding wanted mill lions for shipowners, he did not slip in the back door of the Capitol and hold secret barley with the senate oligarchy. Bold and unafraid, he looked the world straight in the eyes and told 1t that it must do thus and so. He was then the real Harding. He was the agent of the large business combinations that financed his campaign. He was serving those who claim. him as their own and exclu- sive president.
 It must have struck those crippled soldiers as most unusual that this great and rich nation can, when 1t wills, rake up any number of millions for big mon opolies when it so readily pleads poverty when any of its humber citizens are ask ing consideration.
 Being human, they naturally contrast ed the service of the ship owners during the war with that of the soldiers who offered up their lives, and also the re- spective rewards that are being given by their government.
 When these boys were being shot to pieces the shipownrs were holding high revel at home. They were stealing bil- lions of dollars from their government. Four billion dollars were contributed by bond buyers to the building of ships, and not a ship had been completed when the armistice was completed.
 The Piezs, the Schwabs, the Hurleys and many others were pouring money like water into the grasping hands of as bloodlesS a lot of freebooters as ever fastened themselves upon a supine na- ton.
 After the war, when the soldiers came home and were turned into the streets without jobs or money, the shipping pirates continued to ply their craft They took every loose dollar in sight They robbed Uncle Sam clean to the bones
 When no more money was to be had or it became a trifle difficult to get it, these vultures conceived the idea of talk ing over tn ships that the peoples money built. They are about to get them-every bit of property represented by that four billion outlay. And they are getting all these ships and supplies for a mere fraction of what they are worth The government Is turning over to them for $200,000,000, vessels that cost Is times that sum to build.
 As a reward for this betrayal of their nation, for this highhanded footing of the public treasury, these ship crooks are to get additional millions as bonus. President Harding has asked for it, and he put back of his appeal every argu- ment that he could advance.
 The soldiers, what do they get Promises. And more promises A great deal of abuse and misrepresentation. Eventually they will get some attention, but not as the gracious act of a grate- ful nation. Their bonus will be thrown at them as bone is tossed to a dog. It will not come to them as a goodwill offering, but something to appease their resentment for too-long neglect
 The Harding administration is just closing its first year. During that period it has given a bonus of hundreds of mil lions to the railroads It has helped in- numerable business men through its war finance corporation. It has always turned willing ear to the appeals of privileges and monopoly.
 But when the farmers asked help they got tract. When the workers asked for the right to labor, they got abuse. When the soldiers demand justice they gt dirty politics and the sort of charity that goes to panhandler.
 Verify, this administration has liter ally followed the Biblical injunction that