Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-12-08
PRESIDENT s STAND
AGAINST BONUS To
EMBARRASS SOLONS
Must Break With ConStitu-
ents or Party Chief Some
Observers Fear Program
Will Cost Many Votes
RY DAVID LAWRENCE

| PRESIDENTIAL
years, crisp and to the point, deVold
of long argument. full OF speclIlc
recommendation with positive state
ments, written more in the style OF
q national political platform than in
the form of d speech or brief, the
document read in person by CALVIN
Coolidge to both houses of congress
today breaks a silence of four
months, and discloses the program
of the new president on which he
will seek mother four-year term.
For several days the message has
been in the hands of the leaders,
whose comment is, therefore, well
known. What they will say for pub
LEGATION does not always coincide
with how they feel in private. But
| the differences of opinion are not,
curiously enough, on the merit of
Mr.. Coolidges arguments, but on the
political wisdom thereof. One of the
most interesting comments, for in
stance, comes from prominent in
dependent who speaks of the mes
sage as economically sound, but
politi ally unsound."
| This observation is due to the fact
| that the president, first of all, makes
it clear that he does not favor grant
ing a bonus to the able bodied ex.
service men. Members of congress
have been committing themselves in
personal pledges to vote for bonus.
| TO do so now means to break with
the president, and the members must
choose between that or the hostility
of the American Legion. The poll
tician thinks naturally that the DO.
nus is more important than anything
else just now. Mr.. Coolidge believes
that tax reduction cannot be accom-
plished if a bonus is to be paid.
Clash ON SurtaX Seen
The president uses the words "un-
qualified approval in referring to
the plan of Secretary of the Treas
ury Mellon to reduce taxes. This
means that he will throw the sup
port of the administration to that
plan and fight against efforts to
emasculate it.
He-~has 40 hesitancy in saying.
that revision of surfaces will not
only provide additional money for
capital investment, thus stimulating
industry and employing more laoor,
but will not greatly reduce the reve.
nue. from that source, but may in
the future actually increase it,"
The struggle will not be over the
reduction of lower incomes, but over
the SurtaX rates. Mr.. Coolidge's in
dorsement is considered economical
ly sound, but the question raised by
the politicians is whether the people
will understand it and whether it
will not be the basis for attacks on
the ground that the president favors
the relief of the burdens Of the
higher incomes.
Mr.. Coolidge tried hard to satisfy
Senator Henry Cabot Lodge in
writing the plank on foreign rela-
tions and finally used the following
sentence which probably will open
political sores anew:
"Our country has definitely re-
fused to adopt and ratify the cove
nant of the League of Nations. The
incident so far as we are concerned
is closed"
In answer to that the critics are
already saying that Mr.. Coolidge
must be referring to the election of
1920 which was the last time the
league was under discussion in a
national election. In that campaign,
thirty-one leading Republicans, IN
Guiding Charles Evans Hughes, now
secretary of state, announced tkat
a vote for Harding was a vote Tor
the League of Nations with proper
reservations, and that vote for Cox
was a vote that would not LEAD 70
American entry into the league De
cause his party was committed u
reservations that would not be &C
ceptable to the senate.
Plank for League Group
There is no way of telling how
i
in the belief that Mr.. Harding would
draft program of American par
ticipation in the league, with reser-
vations. That element in the Re
publican party has, however, been
active ever since and has been in
strumental in committing the Re
publican administration to the sup
port Of the international court
created by the league. This, Mr..
Coolidge speaks OF as presenting
1.-The only practical plan on which
MANY nations have ever agreed,
though it may not meet every desire.
I therefore commend it to the IA
yorable consideration of the senate,
with the proposed reservations clear
ly indicating our refusal to adhere
to the League of Nations"
This plank is intended to preserve
the support of the groups in the Re
publican party who favor the league
and are inclined to be satisfied at
present with membership in the
world court. They believe that once
this action is taken the same argu-
ment will apply to the league prop
er, for of it, they say, too, that it
represents the only practical plan
on which so many nations have ever
agreed-all except three or four
countries in the whole world. They
point also to the votes in the senate,
which always were more than two
thirds for the league with reserva-
tions. Had Mr.. Wilson accepted the
| reservations, the United States
would now be i'll the league. The
point is that the record of the SEN
ate on all votes favors the league
| with reservations.
On the whole the message is re-
i garded as a conservative statement
of the nations duty toward various
| economic questions. Whether it is
too conservative or whether the rad
| tCals will use it as a basis for an
| other cutlery of ''progressivism" de-
ponds on the reaction of the Ameri-
can people to the various recon-
mendations made by the president.
His political future has been made
or unmade by the message. 1t gives
| the key to his political and economic
| philosophy.
The question what does Mr. Cool
idge stand for" has been explicitly
| answered