Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-02-20
Expense Be Damned!

Expense Be Damned!
The soldiers bonus loan bill Ia!
passed the Senate by an Overwhelming
vote, II to IL. If the entire member
ship of the Senate were accounted for
including absentees and pairs, the tota
number for the bill would be 80 an6
the total against it 16. The only diff
ference between the action Of the Sen
ate and that Of the House on the meas
ure Is that in the Senate almost six
hours were used in debate and In the
House only forty minutes. The Senate
accepted the House bill without crossing
1T" or dotting an d" 1t now goes TO
the President, who is expected to veto 1t
promptly. The unfortunate part CT the
matter is that the veto will not stick
if the leaders on Capitol Hill are to be
believed Both houses, they say, VIII
vote to pass the bill notwithstanding
the disapproval Of the President. This
, requires a two-thirds vote in House and
Senate.
The House having swallowed the
bonus loan bill, hook line and sinker,
the Senate has said, me. too" "Ex-
pediency," which translated into po-
litical terms means the need of obtain
ing the votes of organized minorities,
rules on Capitol Hill. The motto Is
Expense be damnedl" and the general
public along with it, provided 1t is
necessary to make votes.
Although many of the members OF
the House and the Senate who sup
ported the bonus loan bill have asserted
that, in thsir opinion, the provisions
of the measure should be limited to
veterans of the World War actually In
distress and in need of money for
necessities, no serious attempt has been
made to amend the bill in that respect
1t is obvious that no such attempt was
made merely because it would have
b.en displeasing to those whom the
legislators are trying to please. Sup
pose, for example, it turned out that
only a small percentage of the veterans
were in nesd and could so prove. 1t
early became clear that If the measure
was to be Of political benefit to its
supporters, it must cover all the vet
Grams, whether they were in need Of
money or not.
President Hoover would be entirely
Justified if he called special session Of
Congress soon after March 4 to put
through legislation to meet the heavy
drains on the Federal Treasury imposed
by the bonus loan bill. He and Secre-
tary Mellon have on several occasions
pointed out to the Senate and the House
the need for curtailing governmental
expense. They have explained that the
Treasury now faces q $500, ooo, 900 deficit
at the end Of the present fiscal year.
They have gone further and told the
Congress that the bonus loan bill will
require the Government to raise an
other $1,ooo,o 100000 without delay to
meet the demands Of the veterans for
loans A call by the President for q
special session would put the problem
Of Government finance squarely up TO
the men who are demanding that these
expenditures be made. It would also
place the responsibility for increases in
taxation, which probably must follow,
squarely on the legislators, where it
belongs. Whether a warning by the
President that a special session to in
creases taxes would give them pause
when they come to vote on the vetoed
bonus loan bill is a question. Most of
the members do not wish a special ses-
sion, and a great many of them shy
at the idea of increased taxes.
The bonus loan bill is poor thing
at best. 1t was conceived, presumably,
to aid the needy veterans of the World
War, In these times Of depression. If
the measure had been confined to the
needy, and had provided for the pay
ment of fifty per cent Of the face value
of the bonus certificates held by them,
instead Of loan, it would have been
a much fairer proposition for the
veterans and for the country. AS 1t IS,
the needy veterans who borrow fifty
per cent Of the face value of their
bonus certificates and are compelled to
pay four and one-half per cent interest,
compounded annually. on their loans,
will in all probability lose the other
nifty per cent Of their certificates. They
will be unable to repay the loans.
An argument advanced by some of
those who oppose combining the loans
TO veterans who can claim need of
necessities is that it would be en-
barrassing to the veterans, would make
them appear as paupers. This is
absurd. BY the same token every
citizen who goes to a bank and
asks for a loan IS placed In an
embarrassing position. In this case,
however, the veteran In need would
merely apply as a right to his Govern
ment for the loan. He would have the
advantage of knowing, also, that the
loan would be made to him, an ad-
vantage which the ordinary citizen does
not have when he approaches a bank
odicial for accommodation.