POSTAL PAY

Last spring, Congress passed a bill to increase the pay of postal employes. It was to have cost in the neighborhood of $68,000,000 a year. Last June, just before Congress adjourned, President Coolidge vetoed the bill on the grounds that no provision was made therein for raising the revenue to pay the increased cost. All summer the veto lay on the desks of the President pro tem of the Senate and the Speaker of the House.

Last week the bill was taken up again by the Senate. In order to pass it over the veto, a two-thirds vote was necessary. The original vote last spring was 73 to 3 for the bill. But meanwhile Calvin Coolidge, the vetoer, had received an endorsement from 15,000,000 U. S. voters; meanwhile another bill designed to meet Mr. Coolidge's approval by providing increased revenue to offset increased pay had been proposed. The vote was a great deal different from last Spring's. The vote by parties, including those paired, was:

FOR VETO AGAINST VETO

Republicans 29 21

Democrats 3 38

Farmer Labor .... 2

32 61

So was the veto upheld, so was the bill defeated. Although some politicians said otherwise, it was generally the opinion of observers that the defeat of this bill marks the end of postal pay legislation for this session of Congress.