Militant American journalism : the fight of the New York Herald against the $5,000,000,000 bonus raid

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Harry East Miller

MILITANT
AMERICAN
JOURNALISM

She fight of

THE NEW YORK HERALD

against the
$5,OOO,OX)O,OOO BONUS RAID

directed personally by

FRANK A. MUNSEY

EDITORIALS

Reprinted from
THE NEW YORK HERALD

FRANK A. MUNSEY

>~

, W e

FOREWORD

N THIS wide country with its population of 110,-
000,000, there must be many persons who do not
know that FRANK A. MUNSEY alone owns and
personally directs The New York Herald of today;
do not know what he has done and is doing with
The New York Herald', do not know how greatly and strikingly
the new flerald differs from the old Herald, and why.

While Mr. Munsey was conducting The Sun vigorously and
fearlessly, building it up rapidly but solidly, he bought The
New York Herald from the James Gordon Bennett estate two
and a half years ago and, with one of his amazing strokes of
achievement, merged these two morning newspapers, thereafter
called The New York Herald, while the Evening Sun became
The Sun.

This booklet is offered without his knowledge as partial tes-
timony of some of the things he is doing with The New York
Herald, and the way he is doing them. It is offered without his
permission or knowledge, and while he is across the seas, be-
cause the writer has no doubt that if Mr. Munsey did know of
this purpose he would not consent to its execution.

After a very near acquaintance with him of more than a third
of a century and an intimate association with him in newspaper
making of more than a decade, I hesitate to speak of his great
newspaper work in great public causes in a personal manner
he would not, if he knew of the fact, approve. I am unwilling to
refrain, however, from speaking some small part of the truth
that is the due of the public to know, whatever his own
reluctance to be thrust into the foreground of so important
a chapter in the history of militant American journalism,
militant for service to the public, militant for principle and
for the right.

Frank A. Munsey personally and immediately directed the
campaign which his newspapers successfully waged against the
international programme to put this country into the League
of Nations. At the time of and after the League of Nations
contest, he would not permit any of his publications to make

M82505

?nf iitiQti jof fli/'Je'ading part in that momentous campaign. In his
absence abcb«d*rhe writer of this article takes advantage of the
opportunity to state the plain facts of that battle, crucial in the
existence of the Republic. It is not essential to the purpose of
this article to go further now into that stirring episode in our
national life. It does, however, seenf to the writer fitting to
enter here these facts in the record.

This booklet contains in particular a few chapters of the great
American story of Mr. Munsey's splendid uphill fight, through
The New York Herald, against the Fordney-McCumber scheme
of a bonus raid on the National Treasury to the tune of five
billions of dollars.

It is the writer's belief that, with the single exception of the
President himself, Mr. Munsey has done more effective work
in the fight against the bonus raid than any other individual
in the country. It is the writer's conviction, based on a close
knowledge of all the circumstances, that if The New York
Herald, under the leadership and direction of its owner, had
not gone to the forefront of this fight against the bonus, there
would have been no real fight at all.

Truth to tell, there was no effective opposition anywhere to
the bonus raid on the Treasury until The Herald began to
fight. Until then nobody thought of opposing it seriously.
Nobody thought it could be opposed successfully. Every-
body took it for granted that the bonus bill was bound
to go through Congress and become law. It was generally ac-
cepted as a foregone conclusion. The writer of this article is
of the conviction, again based on close knowledge of all the
circumstances, that if The New York Herald, at the immediate
instance and under the personal direction of its owner, had
not sprung into the breach, the bonus raid would have gone
through by default.

This fight of The New York Herald was begun and carried
on by Mr. Munsey in the face of warnings that it meant loss of
circulation for his newspaper, warnings that it entailed charges
by those selfishly interested in the grab that he was unsym-
pathetic, heartless, and even mercenary — warnings of an even
uglier nature.

In spite of these warnings he took his stand against the bonus
raid, and never from that day to this did he falter. He took
that stand on conscience and conviction, regardless of possible
sacrifice of circulation of his newspaper, regardless of any con-
sideration except public duty, and he waged the battle unceas-
ingly and uncompromisingly until the public, at last aroused to
the iniquity of the Congress scheme, turned against it definitely
and completely.

No other newspaper on either side of the great bonus con-
troversy has waged anything like the campaign The New York
Herald has waged against it under Mr. Munsey's immediate
direction, with all his deep-seated conscience, his powerful
personality and his utter disregard of mere personal or
material consequences to himself, his properties, or his in-
terests, whether newspapers or periodicals, banking or real
estate, enterprise commercial or enterprise industrial, national
or international.

To the writer it is interesting to note as well, and it will be
of like interest to other newspaper workers who give attention
to the growth and development of journalism in America, that
in his bonus battle for unconditional surrender of the Treasury
raiders Mr. Munsey adopted, for the first time so far as the
writer knows, the telling, terrific method of iterated and reiter-
ated slogans against the raid conspicuously displayed in edi-
torial boxes on the first page, where they singularly com-
manded, seemed to compel, national attention.

The purpose of this booklet is to get across to you such facts
as the foregoing, which are of uncommon moment in the world
of newspaper making, of uncommon moment in this country of
world history making — to get across to you the fact that
The New York Herald, as conducted by Frank A. Munsey, has
principles imbedded in rock-ribbed conviction and is willing
to fight for these principles to the finish.

ERVIN WARDMAN,

V ice-President.

The Herald's First Broadside

TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

ONGRESS is bent on a five billion dollar bonus dis-
tribution to ex-soldiers. The Government has no
money with which to pay the bonus.
The Secretary of the Treasury has told Congress
the Government has no money for this purpose. The Secretary
of the Treasury has got to refinance six billion five hundred
millions of dollars falling due within the next fifteen months.
The Secretary of the Treasury will be compelled to borrow this
six billion five hundred millions of dollars, and the worst of
it is he doesn't know where he can get it.

And yet, in this situation, taxed well nigh to the breaking
point, as you are, with a war debt of twenty-three billions of
dollars, Congress now proposes to add five billions of dollars
more to this debt on which interest must be paid.

The Government is your business office. The management
consists of the men you have selected through your votes to run
your office, to manage your affairs. This business of yours is
vast, and it requires vast sums of money to keep it going. Your
Government is already spending four hundred millions of dol-
lars a year in caring for and rehabilitating wounded and dis-
abled soldiers. Your Government is already paying out one
billion of dollars a year interest on war debts. Altogether it is
costing you at the present time to run your Government four
billions of dollars a year — four thousand millions of dollars.
This all comes out of you in taxes either direct or indirect. The
only way the Government can get money is by chiseling it out
of you.

The duty on imported goods is added to the selling price of
the goods you buy and so becomes a tax on you. Internal
revenues are a tax on you. The fact is that there is no other
source from which your Government gets any money of any con-
sequence, or can get any money of any consequence, except

Qovernment Has No Money to Pay Bonus

The Herald' s First Broadside

from you. It cannot burglarize it out of other countries. No
more can it burglarize it out of the planet Mars or lure it from
the skies.

The money you get comes from the fields, the forest, the
mines and from your toil, and you give up to your Government
some part of every dollar you get in order that you may have
a Government to handle your interests.

Congress does not dig down into its own pocket for the money
the Government must have to pay its bills. If Congress did have
to dig down into its own pocket to find the money for the soldier
bonus the soldiers would never see a cent. Nothing short of a
jimmy could get a cent out of Congress. But checking out your
money is easy; checking out your money in billions of dollars,
for something on the side, is a thrilling business for Congress.

Checking out your money, however, for legitimate purposes;
checking out your money for the necessities of the Government ;
checking out your money for the maintenance of law and order
and for upholding America's position among the nations of the
world is strictly all right if done conscientiously and with intel-
ligence.

But checking out your money for something that should have
none of your money; checking out your money for personal
political advantage ; checking out your money with eyes fixed on
the ballot box, writes a Congress down as unfit for its job.

The disheartening thing in governments is the chameleon
nature of politician-statesmen. In the campaign for election,
with alluring promises they beg you to take them on in your
service; installed in your service they give you the lash of the
master. In the campaign for election they beseech you for a
job; installed in that job they tell you where you get off.

It is the ballot box that is goading Congress on to pass the
bonus bill. Congress knows that in the large majority you have
no patience with any measure committing the Government to
further war obligations. But, in spite of this fact, the leaders in
Congress have set their jaws to the task of jamming through

Congress Does Not Pay the Bonus

The Herald's First Broadside

the bonus bill, and in spite, too, of the fiirther fact that there
is not a cent of money in the strong box of the Government
with which to meet it.

When vote hunting in Congress takes on this desperate phase,
when vote hunting in Congress supersedes intelligence, faith-
ful service, and patriotic statesmanskip, it is high time for
America to recognize the forces that are shaping for new and
honest issues between political organizations.

With issues of impelling interest, issues that embody prin-
ciples, issues that challenge convictions in the place of the arti-
ficial issues of politician-statesmen such as now divide the two
great parties, Congress will have no need to play politics and
no need to conjure up fetiches on which to bid for your vote.

The soldier bonus, as a bid for votes in the coming election,
is the most flagrant and the most wicked assault on your pocket-
book ever yet made in Congress.

Do you know what this bonus commitment would let you in
for? Let us see: It took the Government, roughly, half a cen-
tury to pay its Civil War debt of two billion six hundred millions
of dollars. We have now a war debt of twenty-three billions of
dollars. Add this soldier bonus commitment to the present debt
and ask yourself when the Government will get the last cent
paid. If it takes one hundred years to clean the slate, and it
might take even longer, this soldier bonus alone, treated as a
part of the whole, would amount, roughly, principal and inter-
est, to twenty billions of dollars.

This, Mr. Citizen, is some problem. If you can't beat the
bonus in Congress, you can beat the Congress at the polls that
jams it through. This is your remedy.

You Can Beat the Congress That Jams Bonus Through

Protecting His Country is the Young Man's Birthright

HELP THE BROKEN

AND DISABLED

SOLDIERS

IOING for broken and disabled sol-
diers has the spontaneity of the
heart and shows right instinct, right
action on the part of the people;
paying horizontal bonuses to all soldiers, in-
jured and well alike, is entirely a different
matter. The one is human; the other has no
justification.

Protecting his country is the young man's
birthright. Protecting his country is the
young man's opportunity for paying the price
of citizenship. Protecting his country is the
young man's opportunity to win the love and
applause of his fellow men.

Doing his duty calls for no bonus. Accept-
ing a bonus, sound of limb and well of body,
robs him of the dignity of his position, robs
him of the standing of true citizenship. Ac-
cepting a bonus for exercising his right of
citizenship degrades him in his own heart, de-
grades him with all those who have an appre-
ciation of the fitness of things.

Doing One's Duty Calls for No Bonus

Cannot be Justified Because it is Not Sound

SOLDIERING IS THE
YOUNG MAN'S JOB

HE American Government cannot
well go too far in caring for our dis-
abled soldiers, the sick, the crippled
and the incapacitated. The heart
of America goes out to all these and demands
succor and the most humane solicitude and
care for them.

But a horizontal bonus to all soldiers, sick
or well, rich or poor, is wholly another matter.
It cannot be justified because it is not sound,
cannot be justified because it is not right.

The price of citizenship to the young man
is the protection of his country. Soldiering is
his job. It is not the job of his mother, his
father or his sister. Soldiering is the job of
the young man, and in this capacity he has
play for the patriotism that is his birthright
and that justifies his citizenship. Doing his
duty calls for no bonus.

Cannot be Justified Because it is Not Right

10

The Most Wicked Assault on Your Pocket Book

TO THE

AMERICAN

PEOPLE

HE soldier bonus, as a bid for votes
in the coming election, is the most
flagrant and the most wicked assault
on your pocketbook ever yet made
in Congress.

Do you know what this bonus commitment
would let you in for? Let us see: It took the
Government, roughly, half a century to pay
its Civil War debt of two billions, six hundred
millions of dollars.

We have now a war debt of twenty-three
billions of dollars. Add this soldier bonus
commitment to the present debt and ask your-
self when the Government will get the last cent
paid.

If it takes one hundred years to clean the
slate, and it might take even longer, this sol-
dier bonus alone, treated as a part of the
whole, would amount, roughly, principal and
interest, to twenty billions of dollars.

Principal and Interest — 20 Billion Dollars

Checking Out Your Money for Political Qain

THE SICKENING FACT

ABOUT THIS BONUS

LEGISLATION

HERE are some men in Congress who
are conscientious in their stand for the
soldier bonus. They are relatively

few. THE NEW YORK HERALD respects

them as it always respects men who stand for and
fight for the thing they believe in.

The sickening fact about this bonus legisla-
tion is that an overwhelming percentage of the
men in Congress openly for the bonus are secret-
ly opposed to the bonus. In private conversa-
tion they declare themselves against it ; in public
utterance they declare themselves for it.

One Congressman recently went so far as to
say that if a poll of Congress were taken behind
closed doors it would show that more than 80
per cent, of Congress was against the bonus.
Pressed as to his own stand he said he was em-
phatically against the bonus, but if the measure
were put to a vote he would vote for it.

And this is your Congress, Mr. Citizen — your
representatives who are checking out your
money for their own political gain.

Privately 80 per cent, of Congress Against Bonus

12

The Most Active Promoter of the Bonus

Representative Joseph W. Fordney

Eighth District of Michigan
Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee

WHY FORDNEY?

|HE MOST active promoter in Congress of the bonus
raid is JOSEPH W. FORDNEY, Representative of the
Eighth district of Michigan for the last twenty-two
years. Through the operation of the antiquated
seniority rule in Congress Representative FORDNEY is the chair-
man of the Ways and Means Committee of the House of
Representatives.

American citizens feel justified in expecting the head of the
most important committee on economic matters in Congress
to apply his ability and influence to developing adequate sources
of revenues for the maintenance of the Government and pro-

His Job Should be Saving Money — Not Wasting It

Recognised Leader of a Noisy Minority

tecting the interests of all the citizens "that live under it. His
job is, or should be, that of raising money as well as saving it,
and not wasting it.

In the present financial and economic condition of the country
a conscientious and capable chairman of the Ways and Means
Committee could render services »f tremendous value to the
people of the country in respect of this problem. Mr. FORDNEY
is not doing so. He is the recognized leader of a small but effi-
ciently organized and very noisy minority of citizens who are
supporting the bonus raid on the Treasury of the Government
and the business of the country. He appears to be less con-
cerned with his legitimate functions of raising and saving
money for the Government than with scattering it among the
prospective recipients of the bonus raid.

In doing this the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee
is running true to legislative form. His record in the House
of Representatives has blazed a consistent trail of failure. Al-
though he is serving his twelfth continuous term there is not
one really important piece of constructive legislation to his
credit. He has probably caused more embarrassment to the
Harding Administration and provoked more dissatisfaction
among the Republican leaders of the country than any other
ten men in the House and Senate.

FORDNEY was once described by a keen political observer as
"a babbler who does not know what it is all about," meaning
the science and common sense of both Congress undertakings
and party policies. He is given to extravagant statements, al-
ways "playing to the galleries," scoffing at and ignoring opinions
opposed to his own.

His lack of tact and his unintelligent grasp of legislative pro-
jects are deplored by his own associates on the Ways and Means
Committee. His emergency tariff measure, designed to alleviate
depressing agricultural conditions, has been a miserable fail-
ure. After six months of operation the farmer is just as dis-
contented as he was before the passage of Mr. FORDNEY'S bill.

"A Babbler Who Does Not Know What it is All About

14

A Narrow; Qauged Partisan of Small Caliber

The American valuation plan sponsored by Mr. FORDNEY has
been completely rewritten by the Senate Finance Committee.
It is doubtful if any of his ideas on the subject will be accepted.

The one business the chairman of the Ways and Means Com-
mittee should know most about is lumber. He has been en-
gaged in it all his life and has made money out of it. Yet the
lumber schedule, personally framed by Mr. FORDNEY, was re-
jected out of hand by his associates on the committee, in which
action they were supported by the House itself.

Intelligent leaders of the Republican party who correctly
appraise the disastrous effects of the blunders committed by
Mr. FORDNEY regard him as "a narrow gauged partisan of small
caliber," obtuse and thickheaded. Adherence to the seniority
rule alone prevented them from selecting for Ways and Means
chairman a man better fitted by business experience, tempera-
ment, study and sense of party obligations for that important
job.

Mr. FORDNEY has been the most persistent advocate of the
bonus raid from the inception of the professional propaganda
which has for its object the trading of votes of Congressmen for
votes for Congressmen.

He is credited with having personally prepared the so-called
"five way plan" which, if adopted, will cost the citizens of the
country five thousand millions of dollars in the form of gratui-
ties demanded by a small number of well organized ex-service
men, but opposed by the overwhelming majority of the
American people, including the real victims of the world war—
the wounded, sick and helpless ex-soldiers.

Why FORDNEY?

Fordney Goes

REPRESENTATIVE FORDNEY, chairman of the House
Ways and Means Committee and father of the strange
progeny, the Fordney tariff, the Fordney valuation plan
and the Fordney bonus bill, has announced that he will
quit Congress after this term to give his whole attention
to his lumber business.

The Joseph W. Fordney lumber business's gain will
not be the country's loss.

Seniority Rule Alone Made Him "Ways and Means " Chairman

15

Self-Appointed Dictator of United States Senate

Senator Porter J. McCumber
of North Dakota

McCUMBER SEES A LIGHT

ORTER J. McCuMBER, United States Senator from
North Dakota, went some distance in self-appointed
dictatorship when he resolved to pass his bonus
bill in the face of the disapproval and contempt of
the American people.

Senator McCuMBER went a great deal further when he set out
to jam his bonus bill through against the will of the best
statesmanship and soundest character represented in the United
States Senate.

Would Jam Bonus Bill Through Against Will of Citizens

16

Whole United States Qovernment and American Nation

And Senator McCuMBER went 'way beyond the limit when in
his frenzy he threatened to bludgeon his bonus bill through
against the opposition of the American people, the responsible
Republican membership of the Senate and the President of
the United States.

In that state of mind Senator McCuMBER seemed to think he
had become the whole United States Government and American
nation, and he then decided to sidetrack the tariff for the bonus.
But if he hasn't come to his senses, at least he has been brought
up with a round turn.

Anyhow, after shifting his gaze from his own imagined
grandeur to the attitude of the majority control standing with
the President of the United States in this matter, he has decided
he will not give his bonus bill the right of way over all other
legislation on the calender. The Senate, in sympathy and co-
operation with the President, will be permitted to dispose of
its business in its own way.

So the Senate will go on with consideration of the tariff bill,
which McCuMBER had decreed must be brushed aside for the
bonus bill. And perhaps, after the tariff bill has been disposed
of, Senator McCuMBER will make still another appraisal of his
self-constituted autocracy and discover that, even when his
bonus bill does come up for action, legislative and executive,
neither he nor it is bigger than both branches of Congress, the
President of the United States and the country.

McCumber Defeated

Since this editorial was first published Senator McCuM-
BER has experienced the humiliation of defeat by LYNN J.
FRAZIER, former non-partisan, in the North Dakota Re-
publican Primaries. McCuMBER will not return to the
Senate. Senator MCCUMBER, in explaining his defeat,
puts it on the ground, in the last analysis, that he did not
get the votes. That's it. He did not get the Bonus votes
he bargained for. His is the sad story, the miserable
story, of bartering one's political birthright for a mess
of pottage, and not even getting the pottage.

But McCumber Was Not Re-Nominated

17

Miss Robertson Exhibits Stanch Moral Courage

Representative Alice Robertson

of Oklahoma
The Only Woman Member of Congress

MISS ROBERTSON'S COURAGE

HE ONLY woman member of Congress, Miss ALICE
M. ROBERTSON, of Oklahoma, has exhibited stanch
moral courage in her attitude toward the bonus
raid. Long before the nationwide revolt against
the bonus had attained its present momentum Miss ROBERTSON,
in a public statement, put herself on record as flatly opposed
to it and announced her intention of voting against it.

Representative ROBERTSON did not wait to find out whether
her course would be popular in her district. She analyzed the

Her Conscience Rejected the Bonus Proposal

18

A Warm Friend of the Man in Uniform

bonus proposal, her intelligence and her conscience rejected
it, and she told her constituents exactly what she thought of it.

From the moment of our entrance into the war Miss ROBERT-
SON'S stanch American patriotism and her womanly sympathies
for the men who were to expose their lives for their country
were aroused. In all Oklahoma the man in the uniform of the
United States had no warmer friend than the present Repre-
sentative from the Second district of that State. She had no
thought of being a member of Congress then. She was running
a large restaurant which took all her time, and one of the first
war orders she issued in her establishment was that every
service man was to have his meals served there free of cost.

Since the war and since her election to Congress her interest
in the service men has not for an instant abated. One of her
first acts on reaching Washington was to appoint a service man
as her secretary. Miss ROBERTSON'S acquaintance with service
men has been such as to give her a good knowledge of their
dispositions, and she is not deceived by the noise a few are
making in the effort to convince Congress all of them want
the bonus.

Like the majority of other Americans, Miss ROBERTSON'S
respect for the American soldier was shocked at the implication
that he wanted a cash tip for answering his country's call to
defend it from a foreign enemy. No vote of hers, she resolved,
should ever expose him to so humiliating a suggestion. She
has been careful at all times not to confuse the statement of
her position on the bonus question with any qualification. She
was opposed to the bonus, she would not vote for it, and she
said so. When others might seek smoke screens she stood
right out in the open and spoke her mind.

Humiliated by the Suggestion of a Cash Tip

10

Courageous Senator Affronts Bonus Raiders

Senator George Wharton Pepper
of Pennsylvania

PEPPER AND THE
BONUS LOOTERS

|HE BONUS bludgeon is being aimed directly at the
head of GEORGE WHARTON PEPPER, candidate for
the Republican nomination for United States Sen-
ator in Pennsylvania. This able and courageous
citizen of the Keystone State has affronted the bonus claimants
by opposing their audacious raid on the United States Treasury.
Wherefore the bonus raiders have arrogantly demanded his
defeat by the men and women who will vote in the Pennsyl-
vania primaries.

Here is the declaration of principles of the American Legion
touching on political activities:

Opposes Raid on United States Treasury

20

A Prophecy and its Fulfillment

"The organization shall be non-political and, as an organiza-
tion, shall not promote the candidacy of any person seeking
public office."

In view of the insistent and impudent demands on Congress
for the bonus loot; in view of the nation-wide pressure on men
in political and public life to support the demands for the
bonus; in view of the specific and concentrated attack on
Senator PEPPER, of Pennsylvania, because of his conscientious
and honorable opposition to the bonus, the bonus propagandists
of the American Legion have prostituted the high purposes of
that organization to the plane of sheer greed and selfishness,
and in the delirium of this greed and selfishness they stop at
nothing in their raid on the Treasury.

But in spite of the bludgeoning tactics of these insistent pro-
pagandists THE NEW YORK HERALD confidently believes that
the serious, sound thinking people of WILLIAM PENN'S great
State will stand in solid phalanx on primary day for that fine,
clean, able son of old Pennsylvania, a gentleman, a scholar, a
clear thinker, a man of courage, distinguished lineage and
patriotic purpose, GEORGE WHARTON PEPPER, than whom no
State in the Union has sent a better man to the United States
Senate in many years.

Some Light on Bonus Bogey

Since this editorial was first published Senator Pepper
has been renominated by the Republican party to succeed
himself as Senator from Pennsylvania.

Representative William J. Burke, the rival of Mr.
Pepper, voted for the bonus and was supported by offi-
cials of the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign
Wars and such members of those organizations as are
demanding the bonus.

Senator Pepper was nominated in spite of the opposi-
tion of the bonus claimants by a majority of more than
200,000 votes.

Mr. Burke, who voted for the bonus and was sup-
ported by the bonus claimants, was defeated by more
than 200,000 votes.

Pepper Defeats His Bonus Rival

21

Never a Slave to Political Expediency

Senator William E. Borah
of Idaho

SENATOR BORAH
ON THE BONUS

ENATOR BORAH'S speech 011 the soldier bonus was
typical of the Idaho statesman. He is never an
opportunist, never a slave to party expediency,
never a demagogue. He long has had the reputa-
tion of being the finest orator in Congress. But what is far
more important is that he is the boldest and bravest man in
Congress.

Mr. BORAH took hold of the bonus question — the great legis-
lative mistake which Congress has seemed on the brink of
making — with bare, rough hands. He tore a hole in its false

Handles Bonus with Bare, Rough Hands

22

Wrenches Mask of Words from the Sham

front and showed its real face. When Senator JONES, of New
Mexico, tried to get BORAH to accept the phrase "adjusted com-
pensation" instead of "bonus" or "gratuity," BORAH wrenched
the mask of words from the sham. Adjusted to what? To the
standard of a stable boy's or charwoman's wages? No, it would
be an insult if offered as compensation; it must, if anything,
be a gift.

And if a gift, how can the country afford to give it? How
can a Government already burdened with a debt of twenty-four
billions afford to go deeper in the hole?

Senator BORAH struck his most telling blow when he brought
up the matter of the disabled soldiers and sailors. It is now
costing the United States half a billion dollars a year to care
for these men. As Mr. BORAH said, nobody will complain of
this expenditure so long as the appropriations are based on the
necessities and requirements of the disabled veterans. There
will be no complaint if it becomes necessary, as Mr. BORAH
predicts, to spend a billion and a half a year on these men ten
years from now.

But the care of the disabled soldiers and sailors is now costing
the United States as much as the total expenses of the Govern-
ment twenty years ago. This care of men who were incapa-
citated in their country's service cannot be lessened. Even if
the total cost is seventy-five billions in the next forty or fifty
years it must be paid. There is a great moral obligation of a
nation to men who can no longer help themselves. There can
be no shirking and no skimping. BORAH showed his feeling
in regard to the helpless veterans when he declared that the
Government is not doing enough by them, even when it is
spending half a billion a year for their relief.

If we are not doing enough now for the disabled men, how
are we going to do any more when a bonus law begins to pour
between three and six billion dollars into the pockets of men
who emerged from the war unscathed and, most of them, in

Deep Feeling for Wounded Veterans

23

Bonus Likely to Cheapen Care of Injured

better physical trim than when they were* enlisted? When
Congress, which is now made frantic by the bonus hunters,
turns even more frantically a year hence to reduce expenses,
which soldier will be the subject of economy?

Will it be the recipient of a bonus, the man with a vote?

•
Or will it be the disabled soldier, perhaps the insane soldier?

If Congress acts in that day as it is acting now it will be the
disabled soldier whose care will be cheapened in order that
the bonus man may not be angered.

The duty of the unscathed soldier is as plain as that of any
other able bodied citizen. He should help his country, not
hinder it. "If we engage in this proposition of distributing
public money," said Senator BORAH — and the warning ought
to be heeded by every service man — "it will grow worse for
him as well as for his fellow citizens. It will become a com-
petition, as in Europe, of one class invading the Treasury one
day and another class invading the Treasury the next day. The
hour of sacrifice is now."

Yes, the hour is now! And let those members of Congress
who see in the bonus a way of buying votes with the public's
money take heed of the hour! They cannot plead that they
did not understand what they were doing. WILLIAM E. BORAH,
in his great speech in the United States Senate on Monday,
pointed the way of truth and duty.

The Remedy

// the protest of the American people cannot beat the bonus
in Congress the votes of the American people can beat the
Congress that jams it through. — Front page editorial.

The Hour of Sacrifice is Now/"

24

Fears to be Wrong More than he Fears Criticism

Senator George H. Moses
of New Hampshire

OUT IN THE OPEN
FOR THE RIGHT

HE KIND of man who shines in public life as in
private life is not the man who shakes in his boots
at threats; not the man who cannot change from an
unsound course to a sound course in the face of
abusive criticism. He is the man who fears to be wrong more
than he fears criticism and who dares to correct his mistaken
attitude so as to be right.

Such a man is Senator MOSES, of New Hampshire, who stood
up in the United States Senate and announced that although

Changes from an Unsound to Sound Course

25

Example for Senator Colder of New York to Follow

he had committed himself to support the bonus measure he
must give notice to those to whom his promise had been made
that he could not now go forward with it. This is splendid, it
is the real stuff, and is an example for men like Senator CALDER,
of New York, and Senator FRELINGHUYSEN, of New Jersey, to
follow.

It is a great thing to be first in doing the thing one should
do, however awkward it is. It may be easier for the other
fellow to follow, but he will have no distinction. Bearing on
the thing Senator MOSES has done, THE NEW YORK HERALD
has said:

"The man who has it in him to acknowledge ke has made a
mistake has courage; the man who comes to know he has made
a mistake and hasn't it in him to put himself right is a poor
thing."

Senator CARTER GLASS, of Virginia, is the kind of man who
merits and receives the admiration of political supporter and
political opponent alike. Senator GLASS, never for the bonus
measure and with nothing to daunt him in the performance
of his duty to vote against it, answers a brow-beating constituent
in his State that he was not sent to the Senate to be a sounding
board for any particular group.

Senator MOSES, of New Hampshire, is a Republican. Senator
GLASS, of Virginia, is a Democrat. And in these two examples
of rugged courage and fine loyalty to principle who dare all to
be right and fear nothing but to go wrong, the country beholds
the lasting truth that in the minds of big timbered public
officials patriotic duty cannot be tied to a partisan hitching
post.

Senator Qlass Answers Brow-beating Constituent

26

Editorials Reprinted from the Front Page

^— ^— •j^-^— »— i^ ^— ^

Passing the Buck to Your Children

and Your Children's

Children

AFFLED at every turn in their frenzy to put
over the bonus, McCumber and his followers
are now by way of getting back of the miserable
makeshift bonus scheme, paid up insurance.
This means passing the buck to your children and to
your children's children — means the burden of paying the
bonus will fall on them long after the men of this genera-
tion have passed on. Is this the kind of legacy the Ameri-
can fathers and mothers wish passed on to their children?

The Lash of The Master

It is the ballot box that is goading Congress on to pass
the bonus bill. The leaders in Congress have set their jaws
to the task of jamming through the bonus bill, and in spite,
too, of the fact that there is not a cent of money in the
strong box of the Government with which to meet it.

The disheartening thing in governments is the chame-
leon nature of politician-statesmen. In the campaign for
election, with alluring promises they beg you to take them
on in your service; installed in your service they give you
the lash of the master. In the campaign for election they
beseech you for a job; installed in that job they tell you
where you get off.

Ballot Box Qoads Congress to Pass Bonus

27

Editorials Reprinted from the Front Page

Bulling the Bonus
Through

R. MELLON, Secretary of the Treasury, sent
to Chairman Fordney of the Ways and Means
Committee on Saturday a long and earefully
worked out statement showing the financial
burdens of the country and pointing out what it will mean
to the country in additional burdens if the Fordney bonus
bill is passed.

It was a masterful document, clear and convincing, in
which Secretary Mellon left no room for doubt that the
passage of this bonus bill would be a national calamity.

Chairman Fordney notwithstanding treats this state-
ment of the Secretary of the Treasury with cold contempt,
and with sheer bravado says he will jam his bonus bill
through in spite of what Mellon says, commenting that
the Treasury Department doesn't know what it is talking
about.

The arrogance of these Republican bonus Congressmen
in view of the fact that the Republican party is not com-
mitted to the bonus is beyond all exhibits of the kind in
the history of national legislation and national politics.

Mr* Citizen!

The soldier bonus, as a bid for votes in the coming
election, is the most flagrant and the most wicked assault
on your pocketbook ever yet made in Congress.

If Congress had to dig down into its own pocket to find
the money for the soldier bonus the soldiers would never
see a cent. Nothing short of a jimmy could get a cent out
of Congress.

Passage of Bonus Bill National Calamity

28

Editorials Reprinted from the Front Page

The Boomerang Bonus

who have lined up for the bonus
to save their own political scalps, looting the
Treasury to save their own political scalps, now
find the bonus a boomerang.
This is what has happened in the Illinois, Indiana and
Pennsylvania primaries. Six bonus Congressmen were
turned down hard in Pennsylvania Tuesday. One of these,
William J. Burke, a candidate for the United States Senate,
was buried by a majority of more than 200,000 in favor
of Senator Pepper, a red hot fighting opponent of the
bonus.

The fact is the American people have no use for the
Congressman who sells them out to satisfy his own politi-
cal greed.

Going On with the Loot Because

They Promised

the Loot

Bitterly scored by press and public for their bonus
Treasury raiding, the bonus Congressmen urge in defense
of themselves the fact that they made pre-election promises
to their soldier constituents to put through a bonus bill.

What right have these politician-statesmen to promise
to check out your money, Mr. Citizen, for their own politi-
cal advantage, their own political greed? Recourse to pre-
election promises in this bonus looting is a cowardly
business.

The man who has it in him to acknowledge he has made
a mistake has courage; the man who comes to know he has
made a mistake and hasn't it in him to acknowledge he has
made a mistake and to put himself right is a poor thing.

Congressmen Find Bonus a Boomerang

29

Editorials Reprinted from the Front Page

Watering the American Dollar

AFFLED on every hand in its struggles to find
the money for the bonus, the shifty Ways and
Means Committee now proposes in its despera-
tion to water the Amerfcan dollar.
Its latest plan to chisel five billions of dollars out of the
people for the bonus is to have the Government issue its
promissory notes to the soldiers, with a provision com-
pelling the national banks of the country to make loans
to soldiers for a period of three years on these notes of
eighty-five cents on the dollar.

This is nothing short of economic idiocy. The banks
have no available funds for such loans. The printing
press alone can furnish the banks with the money, and
printing press money is watered money, and every thou-
sand millions of printing press money thrown in with the
good money waters all the money — waters your money,
Mr. Citizen, and cuts down its buying power, the buying
power of your dollar.

This is politics, Mr. Citizen, raw politics — a desperate
raid on your pocket for personal political gain.

The Shriek of the Purist

For two or three years the purists in Congress have
viewed with horror the alleged expenditures made by
Senator Newberry from his own purse — from his own
purse, mind you — to secure his nomination for the United
States Senate. To-day many of these same men — these
same purists, mind you — who denounced Newberry in bit-
terest and most scathing terms, are themselves out for the
purchase of votes, but this time not with their own money
but with your money, Mr. Citizen. This is what jamming
through the bonus bill means, stated in cold facts.

Out to Purchase Votes with Your Money

30

Bonus Equals AH the Savings of 9,445,000

THE BONUS EXPRESSED IN
SAVINGS BANK DEPOSITS

STARTLING idea of what it is that Congress wants
to do to the money of the American people with its
proposed bonus of five billions of dollars can be
gathered from a comparison of that colossal sum
with the savings bank deposits of the people of the country.

In the mutual savings banks of the country (the ordinary
type of savings bank, such as the Bowery, the Emigrant and
the other savings institutions with which New York is familiar)
there are 9,455,327 depositors with savings to their credit of
$5,186,845,000.

The money which Congress wants to draw out of the people
through the national Treasury for bonus purposes, in other
words, is just about equal to all that is represented in the life
savings of 9,445,000 depositors in these savings banks.

These savings bank deposits of $5,186,845,000, which are the
results of the self-denial and frugal care through the years,
decades and generations of the nine and a half million deposi-
tors, are the provision made by them, in fact, for their families,
numbering by the United States census statistics some 40,000,000
souls, men, women and children. And what this represents to
those 40,000,000 souls is what Congress proposes to vote out of
the people as a soldier bonus.

What do the American people think of a Congress proposi-
tion which amounts in its money totals to stripping these
9,445,000 depositors in the savings banks and their 40,000,000
dependents bare of all their life savings of $5,186,845,000?

Stripping Depositors of Life Savings

An Exaggerated Idea of Ability to Pay

THE GOVERNMENT' IS RICH;
LET THE GOVERNMENT PAY

HE LETTERS contending for the bonus that we
have received from ex-service men since THE NEW
YORK HERALD began its protest against Congress
passing a bonus bill, reveal a point of view which
in a measure accounts for their insistence on receiving a bonus
from the Government.

The Government is rich, the Government has most of the gold
in the world; let the Government pay. This is the central idea
running through the bulk of these letters. It is this idea of the
Government's wealth, this idea of the Government's ability to
pay the bonus without the slightest difficulty that, apparently,
has much to do with the attitude of the soldiers who are still
contending for a bonus.

In this exaggerated idea of the Government's immeasurable
wealth and ability to pay, the soldiers who demand the bonus
do not differ widely from the generally lax attitude of the
American people to-day. The fact is every one seems to have
lost all sense of proportion. Money no longer means anything.
It is checked out and chipped out and shoveled out as if it had
no more value than the sands of the sea.

Prices of everything are grotesque. The cost of having any-
thing repaired is prohibitive. Restaurant charges, hotel
charges, amusement charges, no longer have any adequate
relation to the cost of money measured in honest toil and the
sweat of the brow.

This is all highly artificial, wholly unsound and it cannot go
on for long without wrecking the country. There is a point
beyond which no business can go in the matter of its indebted-
ness without collapse; there is a point beyond which no Govern-
ment can go in the matter of its indebtedness without collapse
unless it squeeze the life blood out of its people in tax tribute
to keep it going. Business having no such resource goes down.

We Have Lost All Sense of Proportion

32

Abnormal Viewpoint About Profligate Spending

If a business is paying out a million dollars a year in interest
on its debts and is earning only a million dollars it is just break-
ing even, no more. If a business has allowed its indebtedness
so to increase that the interest charges on this indebtedness are
a million and a quarter of dollars, or a million and a half of
dollars, and its income is only a million dollars the business
is doomed.

With the income of a business just a little larger than its
interest payments, it is by way of digging itself out from under
its burdens; with its income less than its interest charges the
end is in sight. This holds equally true with Governments as
with individuals and corporations.

If the Government gets out of the people four billions of
dollars in taxes, and pays out for expenses of running the
Government and for interest on its indebtedness four billions
of dollars it is barely holding its own. This is the condition of
the United States Government to-day. If the Government adds
five billions of dollars more to the twenty-three billions of
dollars it already owes and doesn't chisel any money out of the
people to swell its income, it will be on the skids headed for
financial collapse.

In the opinion of THE NEW YORK HERALD it is this abnormal
viewpoint of the country with regard to money values, with
regard to profligate spending, with regard to an worthwhile
appreciation of sound economies, sound thrift, that accounts
for the attitude of ex-service men still contending for the bonus
who feel that the Government, owning, as they see it, well nigh
all the gold in the world, can just as well as not give them a
gratuity of extra pay for their war services.

It is the belief of THE NEW YORK HERALD that if this un-
natural, unsound, reckless viewpoint did not obtain generally
throughout the country, our soldiers would hold a more whole-
some view concerning the bonus — the soldiers, we mean, who
are still contending for the bonus.

••^•^•••••••^ I .•• I •••^•^••••^•^••••••••••••^••^^MM^^^^MI^^^^, | ... •!!!•• I I. I I •••^•^•^•1

Qovernment Finance will be on the Skids

Many Bonus Supporters Have Large Fortunes

POOR SENATORS AGAINST
THE BONUS

ENATOR LADD, of North Dakota, who wants to give to
the bonus grabbers all £hey demand, wants to give
it to them right away and wants to give it to them
in printing-press money, says:
4It is my belief that most of this opposition to the soldiers
compensation has been fathered by the big banks."

It will be news to the conscientious patriotic and fearless
Senator BORAH, of Idaho, that he is influenced or could be in-
fluenced by the "big banks" of Wall Street or any other part
of the country. It will be news to him that financial interests
of any kind or of any locality have the slightest relations or
the faintest sympathy with his always boldly independent
course. And Senator BORAH, a poor man, serving his country
in Congress at heavy personal sacrifice, is a powerful and irre-
concilable opponent of the whole vicious bonus scheme.

Another man, Senator WILLIAMS, of Mississippi, with no
financial contacts, delivered in the Senate only three days ago
a burning indictment of the bonus hunters and of the political
bidders for the votes of the bonus hunters. Senator WILLIAMS
also is a poor man, compelled after years of work in public
office to withdraw from the Senate because of the financial
burdens his distinguished career has put upon him. And he is
going to fight the bonus grab every inch of the way to the last
day he remains in the Senate.

Again, a poor man from Minnesota, Senator NELSON, who
himself was a soldier in the civil war, has been, is, and, so long
as he stays in the Senate, will be a conspicuous leader on the
firing line against the bonus raid on the national Treasury.

Senator Borah Cannot be Influenced by Wall Street

34

Senator Qlass is not a Rich Man

The same thing is true of Senator GLASS, not a rich man; of
Senator SWANSON, not a rich man; of Senator KING, not a rich
man; of Senator SHIELDS, not a rich man; of many others,
Republicans and Democrats, not rich men.

TLere are Senators with large fortunes for the bonus, like
CAPPER, as there are Senators with fortunes against the bonus,
like COLT, but the rich man count is no more noteworthy than
the poor man count, the one way or the other.

Senator LADD, who knows this, cannot honestly believe that a
full purse or a slim purse in the pocket of a member of Congress
has anything to do with his alignment for or against the bonus
iniquity. And Senator LADD, who knows how the members of
the Senate stand on the bonus, for and against, cannot honestly
believe that influence from the financial centers exerts any more
or any less force in stimulating bonus opposition by poor Sena-
tors than it exerts in controlling bonus support by millionaire
Senators.

What does inspire and invigorate the splendid opposition
shown in the Senate to the bonus raid is the high sense of public
duty and the American scorn for threatening bludgeons. What,
on the other hand, is responsible for the main Congress support
of the bonus raid by rich members or by poor members is greed
for votes that can be won with drafts on the public Treasury
and, as the rugged Senator WILLIAMS said in his lofty speech
against the bonus hunters and against the bonus legislators,
political cowardice.

The Betrayal

The most disturbing thing in connection with the proposed
bonus loot of the Treasury is the duplicity of Congress. Stagger-
ing as it would be to the country to shoulder an additional war
debt of five billions of dollars for bonus payments, the debt in
itself would mean far less to the country than the fact that it
had been sold out and by its own men for their political gain.

— Front page editorial.

Senator King is not a Rich Man

35

Wedged Between Devil and Deep Blue Sea

A BONUS TIEUP

ONUS politicians in Congress, both the McCumber
brand in the Senate and the Fordney-Mondell
brand in the House, are in a panic over the definite
official and final notice* they now expect from
President HARDING that a sales tax to get out of the public the
five billions of dollars needed to pay the bonus is the one plan
the Chief Executive of the United States would accept.

At the same time the Treasury raiders in Congress, trying
to put over the stupendous grab for their own political ad-
vantage in the coming elections, frankly acknowledge that the
sales tax is the one plan the agricultural representatives in the
Senate and in the House will not accept.

If the McCumbers, Fordneys and Mondells were to prepare
a bonus measure with the sales tax to finance it they know they
would have to fight the very element in Congress on which they
have been relying to jam the bonus bill through. And they do
not fool themselves that they could successfully fight it.

If, on the other hand, the McCumbers, Fordneys and
Mondells were to try to jam through a bonus measure without
the sales tax to finance it, they realize they would have to fight
the President's friends and supporters in Congress. And they
know these Harding followers could be as strong for the Pres-
ident as the agricultural members are strong against the sales
tax.

This stubborn alignment of forces, irreconcilable on the one
side as against the bonus without the sales tax and irreconcilable
on the other side as against the sales tax with the bonus, pres-
ages that the bonus grab may soon be discovered wedged be-
tween the devil and the deep blue sea. The American people
who do not like the public burden that would be piled on them
by the bonus, do not countenance the high handedness of and
cannot tolerate the morals of the bonus, will agree that there
is the place for it to stick.

— and There is the Place for it to Stick

36

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY
BERKELEY

Return to desk from which borrowed. *
This book is DUE on the last date stamped below.

DEC 23 1947

21955UJ

MOV2119551U

LD 21-100m-9,'47(A5702sl6)476

APR 2 3 1959

Stockton, Calif.
T. M. Reg. U.S. Pat. Off.

M82505

373

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