False Charges
In a printed circular letter signed by B. Jackson, Chairman
of Mr. Britt’s campaign committee, an attempt is being made to create the
impression that Congressman Zebulon Weaver voted against a bill to increase our
soldiers’ pay. Such charges or intimations are false and should be condemned by
all honest men. Mr. Jackson is either grossly ignorant of Mr. Weaver’s record
on this subject, or he has intentionally misrepresented it.
The True Facts
War was declared against Germany by our Government April 6,
1917. Congress at once began to raise and equip our army. The Selective Service
Act for this purpose was introduced. Until this time our soldiers were
receiving only $15 per month. An amendment to this bill was offered, increasing
their pay to $30. Mr. Weaver voted for this increase, page 1549 of the
Permanent Congressional Record. The whole bill that is, the Selective Service
Act, containing the amendment to increase our soldiers’ pay to $30 was then
voted upon, and upon an Aye or Nay vote, Congressman Weaver again voted for the
$30 increase of soldiers’ pay. See Permanent Congressional Record May 16, 1917,
page 2396. Thus the record shows that Congressman Weaver voted twice, and at
every opportunity offered for increasing our soldiers’ pay to $30. The bill
being now completed in the House it went over to the Senate for passage there.
The Senate amended the whole bill in many particulars and
sent it back to the House for agreement upon these amendments. Congressman
Weaver voted to disagree to these amendments adopted in the Senate. The House,
having refused to accept the amendments added in the Senate, made it necessary
to refer the bill to a conference committee of both houses on which committee
were both Democrats and Republicans, Hon. Julius Kahn being the ranking
Republican on the part of the House of Representatives. It is the duty of a
conference committee to adjust and reconcile differences between the House and
Senate so that the bill may finally pass and become law. Unless these
differences are so settled the whole Bill fails to become a law. The conference
committee on this Selective Service Act finally after much deliberation, agreed
upon the bill and reported it to both houses. Under this report and existing
law, the private soldier called into foreign service would have received $25
per month plus 20 per cent additional, or $30 per month. A motion was made by
Mr. Goode of Iowa to re-commit the bill to the conference committee, and Mr.
Weaver is now being criticized for voting NOT to re-commit. This Mr. Goode is
one of the bitterest Republicans in Congress and has repeatedly criticized the
President.
It is a matter of supreme importance that the conference
report should be promptly adopted. We had been at war a month and a half and
this bill to raise and equip our army had not yet passed. Every hour of delay
was fraught with danger to our country. To recommit the bill merely meant to
send it back to conference for further consideration. In regard to this very
conference report for which Mr. Weaver voted, the President himself asked the
patriotic members to adopt it, having written the following letter to
Congressman Dent, Chairman of the House Committee on Military Affairs,
Congressional Record, p. 2215.
President Wilson’s Letter
The White House, Washington, May 11, 1917
Hon. S. Hubert Dent Jr., House of Representatives
My Dear Mr. Dent:
Now that the Army Bill has been successfully brought out of Conference,
I want to express to you my sincere appreciation of the service you and your
colleagues have rendered in helping to bring the bill to a final consideration
free from any feature that would embarrass the system of draft upon which it is
based. I trust that the Conference report may be very promptly adopted. Every
hour counts in these critical times, and delay might have very serious
consequences.Sincerely yours, Woodrow Wilson
Hon. Julius Kahn, the ranking Republican member of the House
Committee on Military affairs voted as Mr. Weaver voted. He made a speech
against Mr. Goode’s motion to re-commit. See Permanent Congressional Record,
May 16, 1917, pages 2395 and 2396. Mr. Kahn, in opposing said motion, said:
“What are the facts about this matter? The bill of the
soldier under this bill will be $25 a month on his first enlistment. If he has
subsequent enlistments, he gets additional pay. If he is a private of the first
class he gets $3 a month extra. For expert marksmanship he gets $5 additional.
So that the private of the First Class who has a number of enlistments under
this bill will get about $37 a month and over, and 20 per cent additional if
they get foreign service. The American who gets $25 a month under this bill
when he goes into the foreign service will get an increase of 20 per cent, or
$30 a month, and that is all the gentleman of Iowa (Mr. Goode) is contending
for. The moment our private soldier puts his foot on the deck of a ship to go
across the Atlantic, under the bill proposed by the conferees his pay will jump
to $30 a month.
“I submit to the House this proposition: when a bill goes to
Conference it is necessary for the Conferees to give and take. The House
Conferees could not get everything that we wanted in the bill. We have to yield
some things to the Senate. They wanted some things in the Legislation just as
earnestly as we did. This is a conference report, agreed to after mature
deliberation, after lengthy discussion on the part of the Conferees of the two
Houses, and I submit that under the circumstances the House should stand by the
Conferees. This bill has remained unacted upon for a long time. The country is
growing impatient. Let us enact this into a law. I feel confident that the pay
of the soldier, as proposed in this bill, will be satisfactory to the American
people and the American soldier.”
Do you believe President Wilson was opposed to an increase
of the pay of the American soldier? He asked to have this conference report
promptly adopted. Mr. Weaver voted for its adoption as requested by the
President—and is condemned for his vote by Mr. Britt.
Do you believe that Mr. Kahn, the Republican leader, wished
to discriminate against the soldier? He states the facts.
Whom will you believe, President Woodrow Wilson and Hon. Julius
Kahn, or will you believe Brownlow Jackson, Mr. Britt’s campaign manager, who
seeks to deceive the voters of this district into casting their ballots for Mr.
Britt? No honest man who knows Zebulon Weaver will for an instant be deceived
by any such false and unfair methods. Zeb Weaver has stood at all times for
every measure providing increased pay for our soldier boys, and for those
measures for the protection and support of their folks at home and
safe-guarding their health and protecting them while at the front.
He voted for the bill to provide Soldiers’ Insurance, under
which our Government is today carrying $31 billion of insurance on the lives of
our boys in the army.
One of his first votes cast in Congress was to raise the
soldiers’ pay from $15, where it had remained under all Republican
Administrations.
What Did Britt Do for the Soldier?
Mr. Britt was in Congress two years. During part of this
time our boys were fighting on the Mexican Border at $15 per month. He made no
effort to increase their pay. The Spanish American War was fought under all
Republican Administrations which did nothing to increase the soldiers’ pay.
Mr. Weaver has been consistently on all legislation the
soldiers’ friend. In the present election he offered to Mr. B. Jackson to
permit every soldier to vote unchallenged, regardless of the payment of poll
tax. To Mr. Weaver the uniform of an American soldier was as good as a $2.00
poll tax receipt. This proposition was refused by Mr. Brownlow Jackson, manager
for Mr. Britt, who has now become so anxious about the welfare of the soldier.
Let no soldier, or soldier’s father or friend be deceived by the cunning,
trickery and deception contained in Mr. B. Jackson’s letter.
--J.S. Coleman, Chairman for Zebulon Weaver
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