Evening star., 1922-08-21
EXTENDED TlE-UP
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Continued from First Page.)

thirds are available in both houses.
In the face of the known disap-
proval by President Harding OF the
bonus measure and the repeated state
ments of Treasury officials that the
bin would add something like -FOUR
billion dollars to the public debt. Con-
gress is going ahead. To the average
observer this must seem curious
state of affairs, but the truth is the
members of Congress do not share the
pessimism Of the officials in the execu-
tive branch Of the government.
to carry the burden and they insist
especially in their private talks on
the subject that the refunding op-
erations OF the government are being
carried on much more smoothly than
the public knows and that the finan-
cial capacity Of the nation to absorb
the new debt is greater than Is COM
monty supposed. 1t is true that the
government has managed since the
arlnistice to reduce the public debt
by more than three billions of dol
lars. so that S4s- increaAaof four bill
lions will leave the country more
or less in the SAne position as it
was when the war ended.
Congress Not to bend.
Members OF Congress are OF the
opinion that tho country can absorb
the new indebtedness and should take
chance for the benefit of the SOL
dier element. In other words. those
in the Senate and House who favor
the bill are stacking their judgment
of the future against that of the
Secretary Of the Treasury and the
President and are tenaciously cling
ing to their own opinion.
No amount of argument from the
executive or his advisers can bulge
Congress. It's mind is set and the
votes are pledged. The rest Is purely
perfunctory. The only chance Of de-
DENTAL veto. but even this will be
discounted the moment the votes are
counted in the Senate, for 1t will show
conclusively how many votes there
are short Of or in excess of the: re-
Quired tw0-thirds.
Politically speaking. the adjusted
compensation measure is a doubtful
quantity. Both democrats and repub-
licans are. afraid to antagonize the
soldier vote. and yet they know that the
passage Of the adjusted compensation
bill will just about kill all hope of
reduction Of taxes in the next five
or six years, as the sums needed for
the bill are progressively increased
until 1926, when the estimated ex-
pense will be $370,000.0Oo. Besides
the coming year Of nearly 100000
900. The soldier element feels that
economies can be best made in other
directions. however, and that the
soldier should get his compensation,
which the American Legion spokes-
men say has been TOO long delayed
anyhow.
G. o. p. To suffer Most.
The republicans will suffer most
from their act. They will no doubt
earn the gratitude of the soldiers, but
when election time rolls around every
two years the fact that taxes are
high will be an increasing cause Of
discomfort.
The democrats. on the other hand,
might dodge the issEe Of adjusted
compensation for the war veterans
and leave the problem to be handled
by a democratic Congress. That's
why the democrats have been SO
active in Senate and House in forcing
bonus bill could not override q presi-
Dental veto without substantial aid
from democrats. But since the demo-
Gratis are not in power they will not
be hurt by such dissatisfaction as
may arise over the high cost of gov
ernment OF tne IalIuro OF the re-
pubiicans to reduce taxes. The demo-
Gratis will profit politically by what
the republicans are doing.
Many republicans concede this, but
see no way of curing the situation, for
the immediate danger which confronts
them is the soldier vote, which they
feel should not be antagonized within
q few weeks Of congressional election.
They prefer to take their chances on
other forms Of discomfort later on and
meet each political problem when it
becomes acute.
(CopyrisAt. 1927