Show WASHING 0 D I 1 G E S T i Tf att ac y ey BY WILLIAM BRUCKART NATIONAL PRESS CLOG BLOG WASHINGTO NBC III washington in our discussion tast lust week of the problem facing the new session of bonus congress it apace p a c e will pass was devoted to the townsend a month old age pension plan next to the townsend plan probably the hottest potato confronting the administration and congress Is the soldiers bonus it la Is on the and one not to be dodged unless all signs fall congress will pass a bill providing for immediate cash payment of the bonus and president roosevelt will st sign n it IL at the pre present stent time tile the total number of bonus certificates in force Is approximately they have an aggregate value of about cut but from time to time congress has enacted legislation per the veterans of the world war to borrow money from the gov on these certificates and figures supplied by the veterans bureau here indicate that these loans total about thus thug it la Is made to appear that it if congress provides for immediate payment of the bonus and the president approves there will be a new drain on the treasury of approximately while there Is no connection directly between tile the townsend plan and the soldiers bonus the two programs are linked to in one wity way each proposes to take money out of of the federal treasury withdrawal of further money from tile the united states treasury for whatever purpose becomes an important question at this time because our nation now shoulders the greatest dent debt it tins hits ever known within tile the last week the treasury his has borrowed an additional und anil at the same time it refund ed shout about iW more refunding Is simply paying olt off one bond by issuing another so that the financial transaction in the middle of december involved almost and when that job was completed the debt of the united stores states reached a new peak of V 0 or for or every man woman and child of our population now may not seem like much of a debt for each person to assume but its payment tind and debts have to tie be paid devolves not upon ISO OW people but a co considerably sider ably less number the national debt therefore must be considered from the standpoint of tile the burden it places upon a comparably small number of people those who pay the taxes payment of the bonus or it the le townsend old age pensions net leies eq harily must add to to wilt will add that debt while to debt there are many authorities who insist that the national debt can KO go much higher without impairing the lie value or of the bonds the government issues the fact cannot be disputed that any additions to the present financial burden reduce the possibility of 0 early payment of that debt then the hie question of its maintenance becomes important tile debt bears interest which must most be paid every icer ear on the present basis the interest on tile national df abt bt alone approximates per pear rind and that interest results front from probably tire kowt lowest st rate we will see for many years indeed the chances are that any future borrowings or refund ings will haie hae to be accomplished at interest rates bigi higher er than the government Is paying g and that means of course an increase ase lo in the annual interest charge whatever the merits tire are of either the townsend old age pension plan or tile lie cash payment of tile bonus the fact remains that approval of either cither one or both necessarily M essa rily means the Il illila piling lill up of additional dit ional debt I 1 know that send plan supporters contend that the old age pension can be made self belf sustaining but it Is a physical impossibility for it to be self seir sus in the first few years of its life and that obligation necessarily must be assumed by the treasury there Is no provision whatsoever ocer for raising the money with which to pay the soldiers bonus the history ot of the soldier bonus tight la is oue one revealing consistent opposition by priest fought by dents to its pay 4 presidents ment lent F from rom the time it was first apropo proposed sed in congress in tile the administration of resident president g no resident president thus far lias has been willing g to support it it coolidge Coolid gre move r and roosevelt up to tills time have fought PaY payment merit ot of the bonus in a lump sum kach deneh had his own reasons but each cacti reached the same conclusion namely that it placed too much of a drain on the treasury and consequently too much of ft a burden on the luxl taxpayers yet s of the lie country loch linch pi president es ident it has as held it to be class legislation appropriation of funds of all for the benefit ot of H n few with tile advent of the roosevelt administration and its new deal policies many recommendations were made and acted upon appropriating pria ting money from the general treasury for the use of a single class the public works and relief funds appropriated to leep people from starving falls within that category no one disputes the necessity for feeding the destitute no one argues against providing food clothing and fuel for those unable to care for themselves and no one can talce take issue with the fact that when states and cities were unable to care for their destitute the federal government was compelled to step in Never nevertheless thele ss funds funda were used for a limited number of the population that fact Is probably ably the most influential at the present time when the soldiers bonus and the townsend old age pension problems are before congress with few exceptions I 1 have love found representatives and senators saying that it Is cult to reconcile support for tile the gigantic relief appropriations I 1 ions find and at the same time refusal of support for the lie other two the roosevelt administration likewise ise finds itself in difficulties lit in ex bressin g any opposition to the soldiers bonus because of the admitted waste that has gone on it has added more than to the nati national oKal debt since march 1933 rind the most friendly of administration critics admit the wastage has been substantial 0 0 0 speaking of tho the administrations political efforts to maintain or increase party campaign strength wash plans ington observers are arc now convinced that the president will depend upon tile south and the west for re elec tion it if these observers are correct in their of the IN le parly arly campaign methods sir air roosevelt Is trying to align agriculture onto and labor ns as the foundation stones for a vt vote it e victory it Is a most interesting circumstance cum ClIn stance Istance politically it Is the lie first time it lias has been attempted by the ins ond and it will it add something to the knowledge of politicians if it works satisfactorily heretofore attempts hive hare been made many times liy by the outs to align labor art anil agriculture to defeat tile the party in power it ij hasal haral ways failed so that if it con can be accomplished hy by the party in power there will have been demonstrated how the use of public money combined with alth favorable legislation of a class character can be employed to m maintain control of the government there Is every renson to believe that P bis lg jim parley farley postmaster ster general chairman of the democratic national committee and choir man of the new york st state a te democratic demoa committee Is not hopeful of winning inning the east with the possible exception of his home z state lt te of ne new IV york of course mr 1 larley or ey wl will not admit the lie truth of this statement nor will aill any of tits his subordinates muke make a confession that tho the east Is turning against the resident and tile the new deal such an admission would wreck state organizations izat ions of his party so lie he glibly insists hint sir air roosevelt will ill carry c a rr Y ns as many states as he lid did in 1932 but the unde undercurrent recurrent of events and ill plans ans of the hie democratic national committee indicate otherwise tile alie success of the administrations eions plan to wold mold apiculture liture and an d labor into a colle cohe sleepy sive political republicans framework la is going to turn largely on what the do thus far it can be sold sald that the now new deal plans for aligning labor and agriculture are movin moving g rort forward liard quite undisturbed the reason Is and the cowardice ot of republican leadership it has done nothing dithing on tills this score showing either cither initiative or courage or of course the republican strategy appears to be one of delay in order to avold avoid an early counter attack front from the hie new deal but political it observers here men who have studied politics for a quarter of 1 it l century and more rail fall to understand why tile republican national committee Is nut not tie ac tire ire in raising money for tile the fort forthcoming battle lint tie if the republicans expect to make an appreciable dent in the alie new deal dea armor they must go to tile the country it ir they expect to hold the pass east where business loaders leaders admittedly are anti new deal the arguments why they should adhere to republic cao can policies must be advanced continuously it if they expect to make mak any galls gains lit in the middle west or in the pacific coast area their side of 0 tile story must be told to the voters As I 1 said earlier little if anything Is being done in tills this direction so little in fact that an unbiased ob sener foils to see how mr air Far farleys carleys leys slat statement ement that mr roosevelt will carry as many states as he did in ia 1032 1932 can lie disproved it Is generally understood that a reorganization of 0 tile republican national committee will take place very soon a we W e newspaper unto coloa |