The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-03-15
"A VORABLE REPORTON BONUS BILL ORDERED
Formal Report Will Be Sub-
 mitted Today or Tomorrow by Chairman Fordney, But
 Measure WflI Not Be Called
 Up for Some Time
By Associated Press

favorable report on the long
 controverted soldiers bonus buI
 was ordered today by the House
 ways and means committee by
 vote of IA to 6. Chairman Ford
 ney plans to submit his fOrmni
 report tomorrow or Thursday,
 but said the time of calling the
 measure op In the House would
 not he fixed definitely until sft-
 CT the return here of Speaker
 GuIett. who is In Florida, with
 President Harding.
 Representative Fordney said he did not expect Speaker Gillett to bring any message on the bonus from the executive and that the subject of the conference with the speaker would be the question of calling up the bill next Monday under suspension or the rules Some members of the House however, expressed the belief trat Mir Gillet would be prepared 10 give the Presidents views on the compromise bill.
 Five Vote No
 The vote on the measure today Tn the committee was taken 10 minutes after Secretary Mellon, Comptroller of the Currency Crissinger and Gov ernor Harding of the federal reserve board, had been questioned for two hours in open session as to their ideas of the bank loan adjusted cer- tificate plan. Five members voting aeainst a favorable report were Gar ner of Texas, Kitchin of North Car oIina and Collier of Mississippi. dem ocrats, and Tready of Massachusetts and Tilson of Connecticut. republi- cans. All members of the committees were present with the exception of Mir. Kitchin and Representative Chandler. republican. Oklahoma, whose votes were cast by proxy.
 Before the final vote the committee re.Sctea fs' sJ- G. a;FN an, erdre.1t of fered by Representative Backarach, republican, New Jersey to impose for a period of three years a 1 per cent tax on wholesales, designed to raise $500 oo0. 900 with which to finance the bonus Those supporting this amend rnent were all republicans, Long i. worth, Ohio; Backarach, Mott. New York Tilson and Watson, Pennsyl- vania.
 Accept Harding Plan Under an amendment suggested ny Governor Harding and adopted by unanimous vote, banks making orig inal loans on the adjusted service certificates could have those certifi- cates rediscounted by other banks authorized to make original loans on the certificates. Governor Harding objected to having tho certificates re- discountable by federal reserve banks, saying the general economic effect would be unfavorable.
 Decision to call the federal re- serve board governor, Secretary Mel lon and MT. Crissinger was reached by the committee at morning secret session The democrats insisted that they should have opportunity to hear these officials and they Hnally car ried their point after a sharp debate, the vote being 13 to II, with seven republicans supporting the motion and two democrats opposing it. The republicans were Longworth. Tilson, Backsrach, Treadway Watson. Young of North Dakota. and Nott and the democrats were Teague, Massachu- setts and Carew of New York.
 Reject Cash Feature
 At this same session the commit tee rejected an amendment by Rep resentatlve Oldfield, democrat, Ar kansas, proposing to restore the original cash provision in place of tho bank loan amendment and to re- impose the excess profits tax as means of raising the required rev enue. Another amendment to restore the war time maximum income tax rate of s5 per cent was rejected.
 Secretary Mellon and Mir. Cris- senger reiterated to the committee their opposition to the adjusted cer- tificate loan plan, but Governor Harding declined to comment on the advisability of bonus legislation at this time other than to say that in his judgment the bank loan plan would help the beneficiary but probably not the banks.
 There developed a difference of opinion between the treasury secre- tary and the comptroller of the cur rency as to advising banks not to m9ke advances to former service men on the certificates. MT. Mellon said the treasury would not feel called upon to give such advice, while MT. Crissinger reiterated trat if national banks asked his opinion he would advise against loans on such security.
 Position Explained
 In explaining his position, the comptroller said there were many banks in the west and also in the east that held an "unbelievable" amount of past due and doubtful paper" and that such banks prob ably could not make the advances He said it would take from one to five years for the banks to work out the paper to which he referred
 Secretary Mellon expressed the view that 1t would be better from an economic standpoint for the treasury to borrow in the first instance the $500, 900, 900 which it was estimated that the banks would be called upon to advance on the certificates in the first three years from the effective date ot the bill.
 All three witnesses were subjected to a cross fire of questions from both democrats and republicans and at times several members of the com mittee attempted to interrogate a witness at one time. There were several tits, most of them good humored between committeeman