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Show BILL Mil 1 PHI WAY 10 GET CD This Is First Objection to Measure, President Explains PURPOSE GIVEN 0. K. Executive Says Act as Written Writ-ten Establishes Danger-ous Danger-ous Precedent WASHINGTON. Sept 19 The soldiers' sol-diers' bonus bill was vetoed today b President Harding In returning th measure to co. gress without his approval, the executive, ex-ecutive, In a message to the house, declared de-clared that he was in act ord with the avowed purposes of the bill, but that he could nut subscribe to Its provisions. pro-visions. Outlining the reasons for his vet), the president said congress had failed to first of all provido the revenue from which the bestowal was to be paid H added that the ultimate cost could not bo estimated definitely, hut that the treasury figured the lotal at S750.tino.ofiu for the first four year with u final charge in excess of t4.-000,000 t4.-000,000 VOTE l I ED. in the house where the leaders say more than the necessary two-thlrdii will vote to pass ibo bill over the president's pres-ident's veto a roll call was postponed until tomorrow noon on the motion of R. pres. ntative Momlell of Wvom..., the Republican leader. I l XT 01 MESSAGE. President Harding's veto message follows The house of representatives: "Herewith is returned w-iihout a;-pn. a;-pn. ai, a bill to prov lde adju-ti tl oin-pensatlon oin-pensatlon for the veterans ot the vvorltl war and for other purposes.' "With the avowed purpose' of tho bill to give expression ol a nation's gratitude to those wno served in its Ute tense in ihe world war. 1 am In accord, ac-cord, but to Its provisions 1 do not subscribe The L'mud Stales nevt -will cease to be grateful, it cannot and never will cease giving expression to that gratitude 'In legislation for what is called adjusted compensation, congress failed rlrst of ui io provide mo revi uuc from which the bestowal is to be paid. Moreover, it establishes, the very dangerous dan-gerous preceuont ol creating a treasury treas-ury covenant BO pay which puts a bur-tlen bur-tlen variously estimated between four and five billions upon me American pebple, not to discharge an obligation. Which the government ulways must pay, but to bestow a bonus which the soldiers themselves, whue serving in the world vvar. did not expect. BINDING otJi.K. v i iO.xs "It is not to be denied that tin nation na-tion has certain binding obligations to those oi its defender who made real sacrifices in the world war and wno leti tin armies, Injured, disabled or diseased so that the) could not resume their places in the normal activities of life. These obligations are being gladly glad-ly and generously met, Perhaps there are here and there inefficiencies and Injustices and some distressing instances instan-ces of neglect, but they are all unintentional unin-tentional and every energy Is being dl-rec.ted dl-rec.ted to their earliest posslbll correction. correc-tion. ( vs v NO OBJECTION in meeting this obligation there I no complaint about the heavy cost. a In the current fiscal year, we uro expending expend-ing 610.0Q0,U00 on hospitalization and are of sick and wounded, on compensation compen-sation and vocational training for the Jt-.iile.i and for Insurant , "he figures fig-ures do not include the more than $36,000,000 in process of OXpendituri on hospital i onstruction "The estimates for the year to follow fol-low are approximately J47U.OOO.OOO. and the figures may need to be ma Ic larger. Though the peak In hospitalization hospital-ization may have passed, there is a ' Krowth In dpmirilUation and the discharge dis-charge in full of our obligations in th. diseased, disabled or dependents who have a right to the government's care, with Insurance liabllltj endtd, will probably reach a total sum In ki h of 126.000,000,000. .More than 09,000 veterans are now erolled in some of the l 15 different courses in vocational 1 training. ITifty-four thousand of them ; nrc In schools or colleges, more than 88,000 are in industrial establishments and few more than 6000 an- being trained In schools operated by the veterans' vet-erans' bureau M COMPLETE CO! RSES "Approximate!) nineteen thousand j have completed their courses and h ive employment In all cases where they desire it. and that the sr i ii ,1, . , f erred for the present time their nc- ; ceptance of training The number ei-Iglble ei-Iglble under the law may reach close to 100,000 and facilities will continut to be afforded, unmindful of the ne- ( Continued on i'ngc Seven.) I PRESIDENT HARDINGVETOES BONUS BIU AND TELLS WHY In First Place Congress Designated No Method of i?f ney' Exective Says, and Adds That Dangerous Precedent Is Established (Continued from Page One ) jflfflSd.0 Un Obligation is ,JTVf hundrod and seventv-slx thousand patients havo been hospUa -zed. more than a quarter of a mil-1 Hon discharged and 2..fi7R pat lens are in our hospitals today paiienii,i Pour hundred nnd sixteen thousand thou-sand rewards of compensation ha?e hnmadoon areount of death or dla-?' dla-?' '!rd, ?4S.00-000 ha,e been paid to disabled men or their .i-p.1 n vn 1V7v n" hndrod nnd I seventy sev-enty five thousand disabled eX-ser-. J, ftr0 now pcelvlng compensation compen-sation along with medical cr hospital hospi-tal care where no-d-d and a quart -r I ? JiJSlL"?? thecks eo out monthly n distributing the eight million do!-1 laf payment Indisputable obligations TO RRVUM) OONGIU5S8 ' I PoCitO the figures to remind the congress how gr n- ronslv and how properly It has opened the treasury doors to discharging the obligations or the nation to those to whom it Indisputably In-disputably ov.ea compensation an. I carried through undying gratltudi . the need of every one who Si r ed IS not to I t Tld that a material bestowal be-stowal Is an obligation to those who i emerged from t!i- preat ronfllct not I pnlj unharme,, bul physlcallj iron-tallj iron-tallj und spiritually richer for the great experience if an obligation were to be admitted, it would bi to charge the adjusted compensation bill with Inadequacy and stlngln-ss wholly whol-ly unbecoming our republic Such a bestowal, to be worth while, must be generous nnd without apology. Clearly the bill returned herewith takes oog-QlxancQ oog-QlxancQ of the Inability of the gov-ernmenl gov-ernmenl wisely to bestow and Bays, in subslanee, wo do not hrtve the cash, and we do not believe in a tax levy to meet the situation, but here a our note, you may have our credit for' half is worth1 Thin Is not com-1 pensatlon, bul rather a pledge by im- congress, while the executhe bran.'h of the government is left to proviie! for payments falling due In ever in-, cj-easlnr amounts ML' ST PllOVIDE METHOD. "W hen the bill was under consider- ; atlon In the house, I expressed the' conviction that any bonus ought to ! provide the means of paving It and) I was unabl- to suggest any plan oth-I er than that of u general rales tax Such a plan was unacceptable to the congress, and the hill has been en-1 acted without even a surrounding means of meeting the cost Indeed, I tho cost Is not definitely known, eith- r for the Immediate future or in the ultimate settlement The treasury estimates based on what seems most likely exorcise of the options figures, the direct cost at approximately $145,-000. $145,-000. 0U0 for 1923. $22i",O0O.000 fori 1024, $1 1 4,000,000 for 1925, $312,-! 000.000 for 1920. making a total of j 1796,000,000 for the first four years of Its operation, and a total co.ft in excess of $4,000,000,000 "No estimate of the large Indirect i cost ever had been made. The cer-1 tlflcate plan sets up no reserve agaltfk, 1 the ultimate liability. The plan avoids, any considerable direct outlay by the government during the rarli-r yeara i of the bill's proposed operations, but the loans on the certificates would he: floated on the credit of the' nation. This Is borrowing on the nation's credit Just as truly as though the ; loans were made by direct government govern-ment borrowing and Invokes n dangerous danger-ous abuse of public credit. More-oxer, More-oxer, the certificate plan of payment" la little less than certified Inability of the government to pay and Invites a pracllee on sacrificial barter which, I cannot sanction. HEAVY TAX BURDEN. "It Is worth remembering that tho public credit Is founded on the popular popu-lar belief In the defenslbllity of public pub-lic expenditure a3 well as the govern- ment's ability to pay. Loans como , from every rank In life, and our heavy tax burdens reach, directly or j indirectly, every element in our clti- 1 y.onshlp. To add one-sixth of the total to-tal sum of our public debt for a dls- trlbutlon among less than fle millions mil-lions out of one hundred and ten mil- I Hons whether inspired by grateful; sentiment or political expediency! would undermine the confidence on which our credit Is bullded, and establish es-tablish the precedent of distributing public funds whenever the proposal and the numbers affected make it I seem politically appealing to do so. : DANGER UNDERSTOOD. "Congress I early appraised the danger dan-ger of bbrrowdng directly to finance j a beStOWSvl which la without fd-llga- f tlon and manifestly recognized the t'l- Tiun. lal problems With Which the nation na-tion l confronted Our maturing i promises to pay within the current ' fise;. year amount to approxltnati $ 1 000.000,000. most of which will have to be refunded. Within the next Six years more than $ 1 0. 000, 000. 000 of ; debt tI1I mature and will have to be financed. These outstanding and maturing ma-turing obligations are difficult enough to meet without the complication of added borrowings, every ono of which threatens higher Interest and delays the adjustment to stable government financing and the dlmunltlon of federal fed-eral taxes to defensible cdst of government gov-ernment ... It Is sometimes thoughtless. y urged that it is a simple thing for the rich republic to add four billions 'o Its Indebtedness. This Impression comes from the readings of tho public pub-lic response to the government's appeal ap-peal for funds amid the stress of war It Is to be romembered that In th-war th-war everybodv was ready to give his nil Let us not recall the comparatively compara-tively few exceptions. Situations of every degree of competency loaned and nacrlflccd in the same spirit that our armed forces went out for servi. e The war spirit Impelled. To a wai necessity there was but one UMTWer, but a peace bestowal on the ex-service men, as through the nprawof-ferlng nprawof-ferlng could bo paid for with cash. Is a perversion of public funds, a reversal re-versal of the pollry which malted nubile service in the past and su-gests su-gests that future defense Is to be ln-BDired ln-BDired bv compensation rather than consciousness of duty to flag and CUnVn S-T REDUCE BURDEN. The pressing problem of the government gov-ernment Is that of diminishing our burdens, ratner than adding thereto it's the problem of the world, war nations with war SSSTul unbalanced budgets and ddetO T no lentWla of governmental activities. It i cry way possible, it would wipe out I everything thus far accomplished to add now this proposed burden, and if i would rend the commitment of econ- omy and sa lng so essential to our fu-turo fu-turo welfare. di vn ii of millions. 'The financial problems of the government gov-ernment are too little heeded until wo I are face to face with a great emer-1 geney The diminishing Income of the! .government duo to the receding tides of business and attending Incomes has! been overlooked momentarily, bul ' cannot be long Ignored. The latest budget figures for the current fiscal year show an estimated deficit of more Ithun $ir,'),000,000 and a further deficit for the year succeeding, oven after 'counting upon all Interest collections 'on foreign Indebtedness which the government gov-ernment is likely to receive. To add to our pledges to pay except as necessity neces-sity compels must seem no less than governmental folly. Inevitably It . means Increased taxatlcn which con-Igrcss con-Igrcss was .unwilling to lew for the purpose of this bill, and will turn us from the course toward economy so essential to promote tho activities which contribute to common welfare. V. S. Mi si. I E --i 15 KJ IK J it is to be remembered that the United States played no self-seeking part In the world war and pursued un I unselfish polic y after the cause was won. We demanded no reparations for the cost involved, no payments out oi which obligations to our .soldiers could be met. l have not magnliied the willing outlay in behalf of those to whom we have a .-acred obligation. V is essential to remember that a more than four billion dollar pledge to tie-able tie-able bodied ex-service men now will not diminish the later obligations which will have to be met when trio younger veterans of today shall con-; tribute to the rolls of the aged, Indigent Indig-ent and dependent. It la as Inevitable as that the years will puss, that pen-islon pen-islon provisions for those who served in previous wars. It will cost more than billions then I venture to suggest There will be Justification uh n lie Ineed Is apparent and a rational financial finan-cial policy today is necessary lo make the nation ready for the ezpendltui jv.hlch is certain to be required In the Icomlng years. The contemplation of such a policy is in accord with the i established practice of the nation, and puLs the service men of the world war on the same piano aa the minds of I men who fought the previous batiks of the republic "I confess a regret that I must ound a note of disappointment to the many ex-service men who have the Im-presslon Im-presslon that it i3 as simple a matter; ror ihe government to bestow billions in peace as it was to expend billions in war. I regret to stand between' them and the pitiable small compensation compen-sation proposed. I dislike to be out ji , accord with tho majority of congress which has voted the. bestowal. The simple truth Is that this bill proposes a government obligation of more than four billions without a provision of 1 funds for the expenditure which tho I executive brunch of the gocrnmen: 'must finance in the face of difficult! financial problems and the complete defeat of our committment to effect i economies. I would rather appeal, I therefore, to the candid reflections of' congress tind the country and to the, ex-service men In particular as to the , course better suited to further welfare i of our country. 'These ox-soldlora who 1 served so gallantly In war and who are .to be so conspicuous In the progress; of the republic In the hall onturjf before us, must know that aitiom, , n only serve where taxation Is restrain. 1 from the limits of oppression, where the public treasury u locked against class legislation, but ever open to pab- i He necessity and prepured to mo, t a.11 essentia obligations. Such a policy, makes a better country for which to fight, or to have fought, and affords la surer abiding place in which to live and attain. "WARREN G HARDING." |