The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1936-02-14
Money
Dominates

i
One can go where he chooses about
the government departments, to the
White House or to Capitol Hill and
the subject under discussion is or soon
will be money.
A year or so ago, we heard great
deal about money. We heard of it in
connection with an appropriation of
$4,SS0,000,000 = the greatest single
peace-time voting of money in our his
tory. And, likewise, we heard money
discussed when the President used his
power to devaluate the dollar in its
relation to gold.
Now, however, the subject of money
Is discussed in a slightly different vein
The question that is paramount is how
can the government get the money 1t
needs. In other words, we are now
getting around to the question of tax
alton, and it is question that neither
the President nor his lieutenants in
congress like to face. 1t is an election
year and tax increase in election year
is not what the politicians would call
smoothing the highway of a campaign.
Passage of the legislation providing
immediate payment of the veterans
bonus brought conditions to a head
The President vetoed the bonus bill
and congress promptly overrode that
veto. SO the President promptly told
congress that something had to be done
about it; that the only funds the treas
ury could muster would be by borrow
ing and that since congress had yield
ed to the vocal minority represented by
the greatest lobby ever to populate the
Capitol, it thereby captured for itself
problem of raising the money.
Of course, the President must as
sumo some responsibility even though
he vetoed the bonus for the reason that
some of the funds which must be
raised will go to pay the crop control
benefits or bonus resulting from in
valuation of the processing taxes and
the Agricultural Adjustment act. The
President, as well as the political lead
ers in congress, want to continue that
payment and they also want to pay
farmers on commitments previously
made because they regard them as
moral obligation under the AAA con-
tracts, Yet the country is likely to
think in terms of the bonus for the
war veterans and pay little attention
to the smaller amount scheduled to go
to the farmers and, indeed, the vet
erans' bonus is almost six times that
4 ,;e.tY ;ay 70
to the farmers.
There was in this situation a devel-
opment to which l believe attention
should be ca | e d.
III Up Through many years
to Henry" congress has been
an easy spen d er.
Through the same years it has avoided
at every turn laying taxes to offset the
money it voted out of the treasury.
Under the Roosevelt administration the
peak of easy spending has been reached
and congress has gone along with a
vociferous AYE" on every spending
proposal sent to the Capitol from the
White House. The congressional atti-
tude to which have referred came up
in bulk at the time of the bonus
vote. Every time bonus opponent in
get the money to pay the two and one
half billion to the veterans, the answer
from the bonus supporters was, in eff
feet, "it's up to Henry"
1 can recall a familiar slogan, cur
rent when 1 was boy, that was used
always when some one desired to shift
responsbility-to pass the buck 1t
was "let George do it." In the bonus
controversy, Senator Bankhead, Demo-
crat of Alabama, was the first member
of congress whom heard say "it's up
to Henry He meant that the job of
raising the money belonged to Henry
Morgenthau, secretary of the treasury,
but Senator Bankhead spoke more than
his own feelings when he made the
statement. He put into words a
thought which permeated the minds of
a vast majority of unthinking repre-
sentatives and senators.
Perhaps should not say unthinking
because those men were, In truth,
thinking very deeply. Their thoughts,
instead of turning to song in the
spring, were turning to votes in No
vember. That was the reason for pas
sage of the bonus. Senators and rep
resentatives seeking reelection were
afraid to go into the battle for NOM
ination and reelection this summer
and have war veterans drag out the
skeleton of a vote in opposition to i'm
mediate payment of the bonus.
1t will be long time before those
who voted for the bonus can live it
down. A keen political maneuver has
something in it that calls for admira-
ton but an obvious political maneuver
such as was the passage of the bonus
did not give any reason for COM
mendation except, perhaps, the justifi-
cation that If the Roosevelt admins
tration was committed to passing out
hundreds of millions of dollars ON boom
doggling and other more or less useless
projects, then the war veterans were