Evening star., 1930-06-23
HOOVER VICTORY
|. ON PENSIONS SEEN
Tax Increase Threat Is Held
Whip to Force Congress
Into Line.
BY DAVID LAWRENCE.

President Hoover has started battle
with Congress which he is likely to win.
He wants the Senate to modify the
House bill which would involve an ad-
ditional expenditure of more than
a hundred millions dollars next year
and ultimately quarter of a billion
dollars every year for the care OF war
veterans.
Stimulated by the fact that Congress
overrode the Presidents veto of the
Spanish American War legislation,
there has been pressure to broaden the
Government system of compensation by
virtual extension OF the pension sys-
tenn.
The Government has been having
hard enough time figuring out how to
avoid a deficit at the close of the fiscal
year 1891 next June; but now If the
pension legislation goes through, the
administration is prepared to ask for
a repeal of previous tax legislation so as
to increase income taxes.
High-Tax Idea Is Unwelcome.
The suggestion of higher taxes is not
relished by members of Congress, be-
cause far larger group of voters would
be affected by such a step than by the
moreover, takes the position that Con-
gress does not have TO pass the pending
bills, because they do not represent
the real views of the veterans organiza-
tions." He declares that the American
Legion, after a careful study, proposed
legislation which would require addi-
tional expenditures of only $4,000, 900
per year. Gen. Hines head of the Vet
Grams Bureau, objects to the principles
in the proposed bills as departing lab
solutely from the original conception of
assistance to World War veterans based
upon inability to earn their living be-
cause of injury or disease arising out
of the World War"
Most certainly we should diStin-
gulsh," says Gen. Hines, between those
veterans whose injuries and disabilities
were incurred in service and those whose
liabilities have been brought about after
service" The head of the Veterans
Bureau claims that If the principles III
the pending bill are adopted the door
would be opened ito a general pension
system at the same rates of compensa-
ton given to men who actually suffered
in the war" and that the potential cost
to the Government may quite well run
into hundreds of millions of dollars"
Border Line Cases Puzzle.
The difficulty is that there are some
meritoriouS cases of disability whose
origin it is impossible to determine ex-
actly and the Veterans Bureau is in
clned to recommend that the present
law pe liberalized to permit adjudication
of border line cases.
There are indications that the Presi-
dent would approve a bill in line with
the ideas of the Veterans Bureau and
there is a sentiment in Congress in
favor of substitute measure.
Just the same the whole episode fore
casts study of the pension problem as
it relates to World War veterans some
thing which has for the last few years
been looming up as a possibility and
which now has taken the form of a
probability.
Heretofore, soldier bonus legislation
has been opposed on the ground that
the Government could not afford to
increase taxes to take care of the vet
Grams, beyond the provisions already
made. The veterans organizations have
not relaxed their efforts, however, and
as many of their members grow older
and need aid, the pressure for action
has been brewing. With the develop
ment of the Nations prosperity incGme
taxes have been gradually reduced so
that relatively few persons pay the tax
bill. There is likelihood of further
governmental expenditures for the vet
erans in the next five years which may
not mean increased taxation, but which
at least will have the effect of prevent
/ ing further tax reductions. There are
some members of Congress who think
that it might have been better to retain
a very small tax on the incomes in the
lower brackets than to have made so
many people exempt from the payment
of any taxes to the Federal Govern
ment.
Copyright, 1e30)