Life — March 2, 1922 — page 12: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

* LIFE - Senator Sounder on the Bonus We Politicians and Great Orators Must Stand Together ASHINGTON, Feb. 28: Politically speaking, the Adjusted Compensation Measure, vulgarly known as the Bonus bill, is the most important mat- ter before Congress. Anyone who remem- bers my stirring war speeches, or who realizes that I shall be seeking re- election in Novem- ber, knows how I stand on this bill. I am for the soldiers —to their last vote. In fact, I have quite taken over the leadership in the fight, substituting a bonus bill of my own which I consider somewhat better than the administra- tion measure. It will take a leader of my talents, for considerable opposition is showing itself. In the first place, Mr. Mellon. Per- sonally I think I made a mistake in get- ting him into the discussion at all; I should have known that he would drag figures into it and pull the whole thing down to a sordid debate on how to raise the necessary $1,600,000,000 or so, without leaving the country and the taxpayer flat on their respective backs. I can't help feeling that this is a little indelicate of him. My own thought was to register my atti- tude toward the soldier by merely passing the bill, leaving the details of raising the money to some future time—say, until after my election. However, my bill, which I shall describe below, accomplishes virtually the same results. x ok * HE opposition of soldiers them- selves is too absurd to bear any weight in the discussion at all. Imagine, for instance, saying that you'd be bet- ter off if the country got back to sound business conditions than if you had a bonus of two or three hundred dollars in your pocket. Or that you'd have to pay most of it in higher taxes and in higher cost of living. Or that it would be better to devote a smaller amount to relieving the comparatively small number of veterans who are actually in need. Or that, after all, offering your life for your country puts the nation in your debt to a measure that dollars and cents will never repay. Silly notions, I call them. Not only silly but narrow. These men think only of what the bonus will do for the soldiers, and entirely ignore what it will do for the politicians. After all we have done for the soldiers, they ought to consider us a little. x ok + AKE my record alone. The Con- gressional Record will show that during the eighteen months that we were in the war I made no less than 1562 speeches about the American soldier. Whether the subject was the Federal Reserve system or the Maternity bill or my own ability, I never failed to in- clude a stirring eulogy of our gallant doughboys. It is surprising how in- variably this method puts your oppo- nent in debate on the defensive. I have “This always got a big hand.” always felt that my glowing tribute to the heroes of Chateau Thierry was the thing that passed my bill for erecting a new post-office at Broomsburg, Ohio * * * OREOV , I have prepared a statistical chart showing that in the usé of phrases like “our gallant boys in khaki,” “the defenders. of our hearths,” and so on, I outstripped my nearest competitor by 6411. My total score, I may add, runs well into nine figures. Still further, I never made a public speech without stating that instead of being on the platform, I’d rather be with the boys in the trenches. This always got a big hand—I don’t know why. In the light of this record—and my fellow-senators did nearly as \ell—] am confident that those soldiers w against the measure will wit their opposition; they must c our right to share in the bill. 1: fact, on account of its co-operative nature, | have decided to call the measure the Soldiers’ and Politicians’ sted and Deferred Bonus bill. The problem, as I have said, raise $1,600,000,000 without bur the taxpayers (who, of course votes just like the soldiers—in f: all some of them have got). pose to do it in the followin; (1) We figure up the interest Allied debt, and (2) issue bonds against it, secured by the German indeunity still unpaid, which (3) we sell to the government in China that happ be in power, and (4) demand payment from the government that has ceeded the one to which we s bonds, finally (5) calling a Far ern conference to discuss the sit That seems far enough to carry the present time. There's the thing in a nutshell soldier gets his the taxpayer easy, and the politician gets—well, just remem- ber at the election in No- vember where S: stood on the bonu tion. 0 are draw acede Rea is to ning have t, its pro- way on the Is to suc- 1 the East- ition. it at The onus. gets off «qules- Senator Sounder. P. S. After reading over the terms of my bill, T think it would be simpler just to call it the Politicians’ Bonus bill. And what fills me with honest about this whole matter is the know the country will feel abou attitude. Every speech IT make fills me with an added respect ‘for our great people. The noble manner in which they are always willing to hand over their af- fairs to us politicians and go about their business, leaving it to us to settle these intricate matters of state—that’s what gives me such faith in the future of our glorious land. And so I say Jionus, Bona, Bonissimus. pride ay | {my comicbooks.com