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Show 1 SO THE PEOPLE MAY KNOW . What the soldiers of America may expect from a Republican Republi-can administration can be judged from the manner in which the optional bonus bill was killed by Republican reactionary Senators Penrose and Smoot. f . This bill which had the endorsement of the American Legion was introduced in the lower house of congress and referred to the ways and means committee in which the Republicans had a majority of three. , V f . The Democratic members of the committee urged that the money necessary to pay the bonus be raised by taxing stock dividends divi-dends which had escaped taxation under a supreme court decision. deci-sion. This would have hit Wall street so Represenative Mondell, Republican, leader of the house, attacked he bill. . . The Democrats in the house caucused and passed a resolution resolu-tion favoring the passage of the bill. Then the bill was reported out of committee and was passed almost unanimously. It went to the senate where it was sent to the finance committee of which Penrose, reactionary Republican senator,, was chairman and Smoot, also a reactionary, was acting chairman. The committee of the American Legion urged the committee to report the bill to the senate without recommendation if they were unwilling to recommend it. There is no question but the bill would have passed in the senate if it had ever been presented before that body but Penrose and Smoot blocked this move effectively. All but four Democratic senators would have voted for the measure as a matter of justice jus-tice to the men who had fought in the war. But Penrose and Smoot, members of the Republican oligarchy, oli-garchy, acting in the interest of Wall street and Big Business, saw to it that no relief for the soldier boy was possible, for the bill died in their arms. - These are the men who picked Senator Harding as Republican Repub-lican candidate for president. He is one of the same ' crowa, swayed by the same emotions, playing the Wall street game with them. t - The American soldier was denied his bonus. It would have been paid by taxation levied on stock dividends and these stock dividends have escaped taxation entirely because Republican reactionary senators refused to allow the bill to go before the senate. In the face of this Republicans seek to secure the votes of the members of the American Legion. They have gone on record to kill the League of Nations covenant and they are on record as having killed the bonus for veterans of the great war. (Political Advertisement.) |
