The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1922-01-16

USSiUN SAWS IAN w III ASC
to Pay Political Bait to Solliers-aiore
Bonus May Be Demanded at Next
Election.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE
Especial Dispatch to The ReformerD |
Copyright 1922.
WASHINGTON. Jan. 16.-Al idea |
that the American soldiers will be paid
bonus out of the proceeds of the allied
war debt may be abandoned.
There~will be a bonus paid. however. |
1t will be raised by direct taxation. |
PRESIDENT Harding announces that he |
favors the enactment of Il bonus law and |
that. he will not oppose sales tax as
the method of raising the money. Whe-
Their public sentiment will approve AMI
other tax imposition is quite another
matter but Republicans believe it is es-|
sentiai to success in the fall elections
that they put the measure through and
they plan to do so within the next few
weeks.
Practical obstacles have arisen to pre-
vent the linking UP of the bonus with the
proceeds of the allied war debt. One isl
| the fact that the original Liberty loan
| acts provide that any payments made on
| the principal of the money lent to for
L tiGu -DNtIulneUIS snail De IidCpu 10 tuR
| payment of Liberty loan bonds and inter
| est thereon. If the plans which have
| been discussed for the last week to col
| lect interest on the foreoign debt and
| pay it to the soldiers were to go through.
/ ii would mean the repeal of that pro-
/ vision for the Liberty loan act of Sep
| TENDER, 1917, and would compel the fed
eral government to keep on taxing the
American people not merely to collect
| the interest on the Liberty bonds but
| the principal as well.
Would Have to Keep Borrowing
As matters stand now, the government
here must annually provide about 1910
100000 to pay Liberty bond holders the
interest that is due them. Where is that
/ money secured: BY the income tax. cor
H pOratiou tax. and all the other levieS of
Il the new revenue act, Relief from this
H immense burden-one-fourth of the an
lnual budget-has been expected To come
4 eventually from the payments by foreign
1 governments of the interest and princi-
4 pal of their war debt. If. instead, the
II soldiers get it.. this means that the gov
4 eminent would have to keep on borrow
/ ing from the American people by regular
/ bond issues and would not be able to re-
/ dUce the tax burden for a generation at
/ least.
i Liberty bonds and Victory bonds now
adayS are around par and the govern
lHent is gratifed that they have returned
u 10 iL'i Aldt AGlut bAt At'itN dlt EhAei-
ltained that if the proceeds Of the allied
lwar debts are somehow made payable
II To the soldiers a. q bonus. the Liberty
4 bonds held by SO many millions of small
IinveStorS will be adversely affected and
II the resultant impression on the clector-
ate 50 far as the fall elections are con-
Il cerned is to be taken into consideration
l! by the administration as n possible
boomerang. There are something like
II 160OO0O0 benGholders. There are
100000 soldiers and many of them hold
bonds, too.
The tendency therefore will lie to steer
clear of the allied war debt and find
some other means of raising the bonus.
i The sales tax has executive sympathy.
though not full approval yet. because il
means the Inauguration of a new system
of taxation which its advocates insist
will eventually make it possible to do
away with the present levieS of the
revenue act. especially on corporations.
and give the government practically all
the revenue desired for the annual bud
get. Some of the champions of the sales
tax are 50 ardently in favor of it that
they really welcome the soldier bonus as
a way to demonstrate the practicability
of this new method of taxation.
Means Added Tax Burden.
Some of these. however. who have
nothing to do with the reelection
troubles of members of congress. point
called-Salcs tax or anything elsc-it
means an added tax burden to American
business and that the real danger in the
soldier bonus it that what appears III
be a single expenditure of $1,000 900
600 now may easily become triennial
or a quadrennial affair. dependent upon
American political contests. anti that the
J the grant of bonus now viii establish
AN important precedent for the future
The American government has been pay
ing an average of 27J.000000 during
the last four years to Civil war veter-
ans and the fact that the United States
has paid pensions to the soldiers of other
wars will be seized upon. it is predicted
as Justification for making the soldier
bonus permanent source of income, eS.
pecially if the sales tax is once imposed
and the money appears to be easy of col
lection from that source.
! Treasury officials say that no matter
what the title or form of taxation the
luew sums must come out of the pockets
tof the American taxpayers as whole
1t is beginning to look as if the issue OF
Il the next congressional campaign will be
In postponed reconstruction with bonus
| to those who made sacrifices during the
war or an early reconstruction with
tpromises of increased prosperity to sol
diers as we'll as civilians.