Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1932-09-01
THE SOLDIERS BONUS
Senator Henrik Shipstead del

THE SOLDIERS BONUS
Senator Henrik Shipstead DEW
cred an address in the senate re-
GENTLY, on the question Of the sol
diers' bonus, which he advocated
as a relief measure for the coun-
try as it would add to the money
in circulation besides being of
help to the men who served in
the World war. Among ether re-
marks on the subject Senator
Shipstead said:
"Mr. President, I think it is we'll
known that If you are going to fer
tilize a tree, you ought to fertilize at
the root of the tree and not the top.
If you put fertilizer on the top of a
tree, you kill the tree. If you fer
tilize the root of the tree, the whole
tree will grow and benefit. l make
that statement because l fear that in
so much of the relief legislation we
have passed we have been fertilizing
the top of the tree instead of the root.
II am going to vote for this bill,
| and l have no excuse for voting for it.
| l have some reasons. l am not going
to vote for this bill because these vet
Grams sit here in the galleries. No
more orderly group of petitioners
have appeared in Washington since
| l came here. 1t has been said in the
newspapers that Senators have said
they would refuse to vote for this bill
so long as the veterans were here.
| l can not believe that such state
ment has been made. For a Senator
to make such statement would be
as improper as it would be for a
judge to say he could not render a
proper decision because interested
parties sat at his court. If any Sen
ator has made such a statement, I
want to remind him that in years of
service in the Senate l have heard no
Senator say that he would refuse to
vote for a banking measure because
bankers sat in the galleries or for a
tariff measure because manufacturers
happened to sit in the galleries, or for
any other measure because some ben
eficiaries might occupy seats in the
galleries.
'The venerable Senator from Ne
braska whom we all love and respect,
said he wants to give the veterans
jobs and wants to give other people
jobs. would like to know where they
are going to get the jobs. The poll
cies that have been pursued by those
in the leadership of industry and Of
finance and of government have been
such that they have destroyed all pos
sibility of increasing employment.
Unemployment is increasing, the price
level is going down and every activity
of the government within the United
States is gradually declining.
There were those who had hoped
that when a bankers corporation Of
500, 100000 was organized it would
support or stimulate the price of
bonds. l ask them to observe that
for the amount of bonds purchased
the deposits in the banks of the Unit
ed States declined, showing that bonds
were being bought at the expense Of
the deposits in the banks. If anyone
can restore prosperity in that way,
wish him good luck. He will need it..
at has been mentioned here that
we voted out of the treasury great
sums of money for various enterprises.
l do not question the good faith of
those who voted for those measures.
voted against practically all of
them. l voted against the cancella-
tion of the debts to the foreign gov
ernments, which are costing this gov
eminent $50O,OOO,0O0 a year in sink
ing fund and interest, and l voted
against the moratorium and other
measures because I thought those
measures were unnecessary, econom-
ically unsound, and placed undue bur-
dens upon the taxpayers of the United
States. 1 could see no reason why
the taxpayers of the United States
should carry the burdens of the world.
We have enough burdens of our own
to carry.
81 do not claim nor do l believe that
the passage of this measure, if it
should be signed by the president,
will be a permanent cure for our eco
nomic troubles. If we pass this meas
ure and pursue the policies that have
brought about the depression, the
remedy will be only temporary. 1t