THE NATIONAL TRIBUNE
WASHINGTON, D. C.
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1932
“NO MERCY”
In the Nov. 26 issue of The Magazine of Wall Street there was published an article by John D.C. Weldon on "How a Billion Can Be Cut from the Budget." We quote from that article:
Painful as it will be to cut the veterans a full 500 millions, we still have to curtail expenditures by half a billion more, if we are to avoid higher taxes and additional perilous borrowing for running expenses.
Can it be done?
“Necessity knows no law—and no mercy.”
That
is the cold-blooded statement of a man who is writing for the men who
control the wealth of the United States and who are fighting the veterans
because they want their Federal taxes reduced.
The misery which would result from a 500-million
reduction in relief for veterans and their dependents means nothing to
the international bankers of our land. To them such a cut is a necessity,
and “necessity knows no mercy.”
They know little and care less about how
other people in the United States live. They are unable to comprehend
how an aged widow can eke out an existence on $30 or $40 a month, yet
in their greediness and lust for added wealth, they would take this widow's
mite from her. Instead of making the few
remaining years of these aged women more comfortable by adding to the
pittance which they now receive, the international bankers, luxuriating
in their wealth, would snatch the very bread of life from them.
In order that they may pay less in income
taxes this is necessary and “necessity knows no mercy.”
A reduction of 500 millions in expenditures
for veterans and their dependents would throw thousands and thousands
of men and women upon their local communities, thereby adding to the burden
of the small taxpayers.
This
suits Big Business to a T, for every dime added to the tax bills of the
man who is
They want their Federal taxes reduced and they will go the limit to accomplish their end. If they can make veterans and their dependents objects of charity they will be perfectly satisfied, no matter how much suffering results for anyone but themselves.
In demanding such a drastic cut of 500 millions for the relief of disabled ex-service men and widows, Wall Street does not consider the merits of the laws which have been enacted in past years after careful consideration. This enormous reduction is necessary for them to receive a cut in Federal taxes, and “necessity knows no mercy.”
The men who control the wealth of our country are like necessity—they know no mercy.
Their hearts are hardened by greed, the prevailing sin in the world today. To promote their own interest and add to their enormous wealth they are willing to see others, no matter how worthy, endure the cruelest of hardships. They have no consideration for the unfortunate veteran who must depend upon his pension to support himself and his family; they are not interested in the sad plight of the aged widows to whom the Nation owes a debt which can never be paid. Their god is wealth, and they worship at its shrine from morn to night. One million calls for another, and on and on; Big Business is never satisfied.
It is sad indeed to contemplate the picture of the very rich on the one hand fighting tooth and toenail against the country's defenders and their dependents on the other. That is what we are faced with today.
Those with huge incomes seek to add to their unearned increments by taking from the disabled veterans and widows their means of existence. The extremely wealthy men—and women, too—want a reduction in their Federal taxes, and to accomplish such a reduction, they say it is necessary to pauperize the ex-service men and their dependents.
“Necessity knows no law—and no mercy.”