The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1932-04-07
The Bonus BiIl-A Warning to You

The painful process Of budget-balancing moves
forward. 1t leads the list Of solemn problems that
Deset us in this worst of all depressons.
Cut expenses, raise taxes, sacrifice all are pre-
requisites TO economic recovery. without balanced
budget we are lost.
Appeals to patriotism are sounded, for this peace
time need is as great as are the needs Of war Our
nation is in the red. That is the picture in Washing
ton today.
Into the picture steps the two billion dollar bonus
That such proposition should be brought forth at
such a time seems unbelievable, but it is fact.
And by all the precedents of politics the bonus
stands $3.50 chance Of passing unless voters back
home are heard from
Those same legislators that now wrestling with
the deficit are more than likely to turn and, in their
next BREATH undo all they have accomplished by the
recent sweat of their brows by their matchbox taxa
ton, their 3-cent stamps their chiseling here and
their chiseling there For those lawmakers are scared
They scared by ghost that has stalked
through all the pages of our hisory-a ghost that has
never been laid-but one that be laid when and
II the great rank and file of American voters speak.
1t is regarded as political gospel that the veteran
gets what he wants when he wants it. So it was
after the revolution the of 1872 the Mexican war;
the Of the rebellion, the Spanish American war
1t is that deuson among politicians with its &C
companying fear, which makes possible the proposal
of this fantastic two billion dollar expense at time
when this nation unless its budget balanced goes
broke.
Two billion dollars! The word billion falls trip
pingy from the tongue
1t sounds much like million II ones enunciaton
Is not clear the listener may confuse the amounts
But billion is thousand millons
If a million were inch billion is seven stories
tall
II a thousand dollars q day had been paid out
starting 500 years before ChrSt-a thousand every
day since them Sill 100000 of the billion would be
left on the day you read this and that represents
just one-hah of what is involved in this bonus APP
preparation bill which up for hearing in Wash
ington Monday next.
To distribute the money regardless of whether it
goes TO those who need those who do not need
that is the idea of this bonus bill.
And whether such bill becomes law or is
beaten depends whether this nation of goes bank
xupt
Make no mistake about that, and as you feel let
your congressman and your senators know For this
Is warning to you. You pay the BILL This Is your
government. This Is your democracy.
For details that will make you pause and think,
read the articles by Talcott Powell beginning in this
issue.
Nothing you have ever read has been more impor-
tant to you and to yours The position Of this news
paper toward federal relief has been made clear many
times.
We are for more generous appropriations than are
now being made to those who, by Of war serv-
ice, in need to those who because of that serv-
ice are mentally or physically ncapacitated; to those
dependents who survive the who were killed in
service; to all who in any way the direct victims
Of the war ITSELF
the interest Of the sovency OF nation that we to-
day cry Halt" to this blanket bonus