Jasper County Democrat, Volume 22, Number 93, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 February 1920 — GENTLE ART OF PROMISING [ARTICLE]

GENTLE ART OF PROMISING

Numerous publications expressing the views and representing the interests of former soldiers and sailors are showing impatience at the failure of the Republican congress to begin consideration of the several proposals for establishing these men in homes or for providing them with a cash bonus proportioned to the term of their service iq the army and navy. The complaint of the soldiers and sailors is certainly justifiable, but it promises to be fruitless. There is not the least likelihood that the Republican leaders of congress wp! fulfill their pledges to the men who won the war. Evon if these leaders were willing, they are unable to enact any legislation in behalf of the former fighters. In the first place tiie promise was given for the purpose of getting the soldiers’ votes and not with the object of compensating their sacrifices and sufferings. In the second place, however good the intentions of a few Republican congressmen may be, the opposition of the leaders to any measures that

will reveal the dissensions and hopeless disagreements in the ranks of the G. O. P. foredooms all soldier legislation to the pigeonholes of the committees. The soldiers and sailors are but one element of the American public to which the Republican managers have made empty promises. There was an announcement that the profits taxes would be modified and the luxury taxes repealed. There has been no serious attempt on the part of the present congress to do either of these things. There was a statement that the railroads would be legislated into something like a definite and permanent status so that their owners and their users might know what to expect. The senate passed 'the Cummins bill, but its progress through the house of representatives is halted by 'bickering and conflict among the members of the Republican majority. Even in redeeming their promise to revise the tariff —a project on which they formerly were nearly always unanimous—the Republicans cannot agree. There is only one viewpoint in which, seemingly, the Republican leaders of congress can concur. That is that the people are easily deluded and hardly know the difference between a promise and a performance.