Coulee City dispatch. [volume] (Coulee City, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1936-01-02
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BY WILL BRUCKART
BY WILLIAM BRUCKART
NATIONAL PRESS BLDG.

session of congress,
o0Hus space was devoted
viii Pass to the Townsend
$2O0-a-month old age
pension plan. Next to the Townsend
plan, probably the hottest potato con-
fronting the administration and con-
gress is the soldiers bonus. 1t is on
the doorstep and one not to be lodged.
Unless all signs fail, congress will pass
a bill providing for immediate cash
payment of the bonus-and President
Roosevelt will sign it.
At the present time the total num-
Der of bonus certificates in force is
approximately 100000. They have an
aggregate value Of about $3,500,O00, 900.
But from time to time congress has
enacted legislation permitting the vet
Grams of the World war to borrow
money from the government on these
certificates and figures supplied by
the Veterans bureau here indicate that
these loans total about $1,700,OO0,000.
Thus 1t is made to appear that If con-
gress provides for immediate payment
of the bonus and the President ap-
proves, there will be new drain on
the treasury Of approximately $780,
100000. While there is no connection
directly between the Townsend plan
and the soldiers bonus, the two pro-
grams are linked In one way: each
proposes to take money out Of the
federal treasury.
Withdrawal Of further money from
the United States treasury for what
ever purpose becomes an important
question at this time because our ma
tion now shoulders the greatest debt
1t has ever known. Within the last
week, the treasury has borrowed an
additional $900,00O,OOO and at the same
time it refunded about $4S0,0O0,000
more. Refunding is simply paying off
one bond by issuing another so that
the financial transaction in the middle
of December involved almost $1,40O,-
100000 and when that job was COM
pleted the debt of the United States
reached new peak of $30,500,000,0 900,
or $24O for every man, woman and
child of our 13o,OOo,Ooo population.
Now, $240 may not seem like much
Of debt for each person to assume
but its payment-and debts have to be
paid-devolves not upon 130,0000OO
people but upon considerably less
number. The national debt, therefore,
must be considered from the stand
point of the burden it places upon a
comparably small number of people
those who pay the taxes.
Payment Of the bonus or the Town
send old age pensions necessarily must
Will Add While there are are
to Debt many authorities
who insist that the
national debt can go much higher with
out impairing the value of the bonds
the government issues, the fact can
not be disputed that any additions to
the present financial burden reduce
the possibility of early payment of
that debt.
Then, the question of it's mainte-
nance becomes important. The debt
bears interest which must be paid
every year. On the present basis the
interest on the national debt alone ap-
proximates $750,O0O,OOO per year and
that interest results from probably the
lowest rate we will see for many
years. Indeed, the chances are that
any future borrowings or refundings
will have to be accomplished at inter-
est rates higher than the government
now is paying and that means, of
course, an increase in the annual in
terest charge.
Whatever the merits are of either
the Townsend old age pension plan
or the cash payment of the bonus,
the fact remains that congressional
approval of either one or both neces-
sarily means the piling up Of addi-
tional debt. I know that the Town
send plan supporters contend that the
old age pension can be made self-sus-
tanning but 1t is physical impossi-
bility for it to be self-sustaining in the
first few years of it's life and that obli-
cation necessarily must be assumed by
the treasury. There is no provision
whatsoever for raising the money with
which to pay the soldiers bonus. 1t
will be simply cash outlay by the
treasury ff-congress orders it done and
the treasury either must have new
taxes or must borrow the money. There
is no possibility gov that either con-
gress or the PRECEDENT will propose
seriously the laying Of new taxes to
meet the bonus payment because
after all, 1886 is an ~alection year and
President Roosevelt is seeking re-elec-
ton.
The history of the soldier bonus
fight is one revealing consistent oppo-
sition by Presidents
Fought by to its payment.
4 Presidents From the time it
was first proposed in
congress in the administration of Pres
ident Harding, no President thus far
has been willing to support 1t. Hard
ing, Coolidge, Hoover and Roosevelt,
up to this time, have fought payment
of the bonus in lump sum. Each had
I..4 I, nxal.- 4 IL