THE PROGRESSIVES AND SOLDIER'S BACK PAY
The Progressives and Soldiers' Back Pay Last year members of the Wisconsin Legislature who had been most profuse in their professions of friendship for the soldiers, so long as it didn't cost...
...This is tho sentiment of men who are not afraid to tell where they stand on the questions of the day...
...It may not be amiss to add that Senator La Follette tried to secure for the boys who went overseas $75 a month, but the business-men sen-ators voted his amendment down with a whoop...
...Of course theso gentlemen find it embarrassing to tell the people of Wisconsin where they stand on the matter of soldier's back pay or any other matter...
...But in nearly all the states, the progressives are few end untrained in fighting the wealthy tax dodgers, and no aid to soldiers was granted...
...Immediately all the profiteering gang got busy to kill the bill...
...This they could not do, but on suggestion from the governor an amendment was attached referring the bill to the people in the hope that it might be defeated at the polls...
...At the same time a decision of the Supreme Court holding that the tax on stock dividends is unconstitutional and requiring the government to pay back to wealthy tax dodgers five hundred million dollars immediately boosts the stock market and "improves business prospects...
...So now Congress is asked to do a measure of justice to these boys who left their profitable employments, faced the dangers of war, worked like slaves in a chain gang long hours, often without decent shelter or sufficient clothing or food, and practically with no pay...
...It was at this point that the progressives got into the big fight led by Senators Huber and Severson...
...Nothing could have been more humiliating to an upstanding man than such a method of treating a debt as a charity, making the soldier a mendicant...
...He comes out of the East with the knowledge of the wise men...
...The governor appointed a leading corporation lawyer—the attorney for the largest profiteer in Madison, to prosecute the case after Attorney General John J. Blaine had refused to do so...
...They would pass the hat and take up a collection for the soldiers like they do for foreign missions...
...The governor complied...
...The uninstructed, or Standpat, candidates for delegates met recently in Milwaukee and decided that "it was considered in line with National Committeeman Will H. Hays not to issue a statement of principles...
...Going along with the endorsement of soldier's back pay bill, the progressives provide the means by which taxes are to be raised for the payment...
...But if they don't know where they stand now do you want to trust them to represent you...
...Congress is told that to pay its debts will ruin the nation's credit...
...I question the right of the legislature to make gifts from the public funds, or to tax the people for such purposes even if the law is adopted by the people by referendum vote...
...In Congress the same old gang of profiteers is fighting the soldiers...
...The Progressives and Soldiers' Back Pay Last year members of the Wisconsin Legislature who had been most profuse in their professions of friendship for the soldiers, so long as it didn't cost anything to be friendly, immediately shied off from the proposal to pay the soldiers a mere bagatelle of what was due them...
...Appearing before the committee were Wall Street brokers and Wall Street bank clerks opposed to the soldiers' back pay...
...But the profiteers had one more card to play...
...So are tho district delegates—every one of them...
...But finally they came forward with a plan that was entirely agreeable to the profiteers...
...So they demanded that the governor enjoin payment under the law...
...John J. Blaine, Henry Krumrey, James Thompson and Edwin J. Gross are for the soldiers' back pay...
...In the referendum election all the profiteers were lined up to beat the law, but the law was adopted by overwhelming vote notwithstanding that the governor in a keynote speech had said: "The payment, if made, is a gift...
...This attorney was paid out of the state treasury...
...The progressive Republicans of Wisconsin have never gone back on a platform pledge...
...The governor had given his opinion that the law was unconstitutional...
...Anything, according to the Wall Street gang, that helps the House of Morgan helps the nation, and anything that helps the soldiers endangers the nation...
...We favor other laws liberally recognizing the patriotic devotion of our soldiers in all our wars...
...So it is a matter of pride that the progressive republicans come forward in a platform declaration for soldiers back pay...
...The contest was largely over the income tax provision, but the court held with Attorney General Blaine and sustained the law...
...They say: "We demand that taxes be laid upon wealth in proportion to ability to pay, in such mannor as will prevent such tax burdens being shifted to the backs of the poor, in higher prices and increased cost of living...
...They proposed the payment of a fixed sum, which was to be raised by taxes largely on excessive incomes...
...His effort to influence the vote again failed...
...They say: 'We favor paying the soldiers of the late war a sufficient sum to make their wages equal to at least civilian pay, and this as a matter of right, and not as charity or bonus...
...He had his appointee on the printing board bring the action of injunction...
...Every soldier should demand of his candidates for delegates an explicit statement of their principles and he should be assured of their sincerity...
...Why not leave the matter to Will H. Hays who is to do their thinking for them...
Vol. 12 • March 1920 • No. 3
