The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1907-12-04
ASKS FINANCIAL LEGISLATION
INCOME AND INHERITANCE TAX
AGAIN BROUGHT TO ATTEN-
TIoN OF LAWMAKERS.
FAvoRs POSTAL BANKS
Reports Favorable Progress on Pana.
ma canaI-Asks Increased Pay for
Men of the Army and Liberal
Naval Appropriations.


Naval Appropriations.
Washington. Dec. 4.-The following is
the full text of President Roosevelt's an
nual message to congress:
To the Senate and House of Represent
atlVes: No nation has greater resources
than ours, and l think it can be truth
Iully said that the citizens of no nation
possess greater energy and industrial
ability. In no nation are the Fundamental
business conditions sounder than in ours
at This very moment; and 1t is foolish,
when such is the case, for people to
hoard money instead of keeping it in
sound banks; for it is such boarding that
is the immediate occasion of money
strlngency. Moreover, as rule, the bust
ness OF our people is conducted with hon
etsy and probity, and this applies alike
TO farms and factories. to railroads and
banks, to all our legitimate commercial
enterprises
In any large body of men, however,
there are certain to be some who are dis
honest and If the conditions are such
mat these men prosper or commit their
mlsdeeds with impunity, their example is
q very evil thing for the community.
Where these men are business men of
great saSaclty and of temperament both
Inscriptions and reckless. and where the
conditions are such that they act with
out supervision or control and at first
without effective check from public opin-
ion, they 6elude many innocent people
into making investments or embarking in
Kinds CT business that are really unsound.
When the mlSdeedS of these successfully
dishonest men are discovered, suffering
comes not only upon them, but upon the
3 innocent men whom they have misled 1t
Z Is painful awakening, whenever it oc-
ours; and, naturally, when it does occur
those who suffer are apt to forget that
the longer it was deferred the more pain
ful 1T would be. In the effort to punish
. the guilty 1t is both wise and proper to
endeavor so far as possible to minimize
the distress of those who have been mis-
led by the guilty. Yet it is not possible
to refrain because of such distress from
striving to put end to the misdeeds
that are the ultimate causes of the suf-
fering, and, as means to this end,
where possible to punish those responsible
for them. There may be honest differ
ences of opinion as to many governmental
policies: but surely there can be no such
differences as to the need of unfiinchng
full dishonesty.
Panic Would Hurt the
Entire Business Community.
In my Message to the Congress on
December S. 1905. ! said:
eff the folly of man mars the general
weli-being, then those who are innocent
of the folly will have to pay part of the
penalty incurred by those who are guilty
of tho folly. A panic brought on by the
speculative folly of part of the business
community would hurt the whole bust
ness community; but such stoppage of
welfare, though it might be severe,
would not be lasting. In the long run,
the one vital factor in the permanent
nrtk vy of no ,tfr To- fI,, l,;.rI,
l;vidual character of the average Ameri-
Can worker the average American citi-
zen, no matter whether his work be men
tai or manual, whether he be farmer or
wage-earner, business man or profess
sional man.
'In our industrial and social system
the interests of all men are SO closely in
tertwined that in the immense majority
of cases n straight-dealng man. who by
his efficiency, by his ingenuity and indus
try, benefits himself. must also benefit
others. Normally the man of great pro-
ductive capacity who becomes rich by
guiding. the labor of many other men
does SO by enabling them to produce
more than they could produce without
his guidance; and both he and they
share in the benefit, which comes also
to the public at large. The superficial
fact that the sharing may be unequal
must never blind us to the underlying
IdCC CldI tHeTc Is lllS SnarInS, ana tlat
the benefit comes in some degree to each
man concerned. Normally, the wage
worker the man of small means, and the
average consumer as we'll as the aver
age producer, are all alike helped by
making conditions such that the man of
exceptional business ability receives an
exceptional reward for his ability. Some
thing can be done by legislation to help
the general prosperity; but no such help
of permanently beneficial character
can be given to the less able and less
fortunate save as the results of policy
which shall insure to the advantage of
all Industrious and efficient people who
act decently; and this is only another
way of saying that any benefit which
comes to the less able and less for
tunate must of necessity come even more
to the more able and more fortunate. If,
therefore, the less fortunate man is
moved by envy of his more fortunate
brother to strike at the conditions under
which they have both, though unequally,
prospered the result will assuredly be
that while damage may come to the one
struck at, 1t will visit with an even heav-
Ter load the one who strikes the blow.
Taken as whole, we must all go up or
go down together.
"Yet, while not merely admitting, but
insisting upon this. it is also true that
where there is no governmental restraint
or supervision some of the exceptional
men use their energies. not in ways that
are for the common good. but in ways
which tell against this common good
The fortunes amassed through corporate
organization are now so large. and vest
t. tt,n< I'LL xlxz