The Roswell daily record. [volume] (Roswell, N.M.) 1903-current, 1909-03-04
ADDRESS
OF PRESIDENT TAFT

upon the call of the is
wholly within its discretion.
In the making of a tariff bill, the
prime motive is taxation, and the Sc
curing thereby of a revenue. Due
largely to the business depression
which followed the financial panic OF
1907, the revenue from customs and
other sources mas decreased to such
an extent that the expenditures for
the current fiscal year will exceed the
receipts by 500, 000, 900. 1t is impera-
tive that such a deficit shall not con-
tinue, and the trainers of the tariff
bill must of course have in mind the
total revenues likely to be produced
by it, and so arrange the duties as to
ecure an adequate income Should
it be impossible to do so by import
duties, new kinds of taxation must De
adopted, and among these l recon
mend a graduated inheritance tax, as
correct in principle and as certain n
easy of collection.
The obligation ON the part OF those
responsible for the expenditure made
to carry on the government, to be as
economical as possible, and to make
the burden of taxation as light as pos
sible, is plain and should be affirmed
in eevTy declaration OF government
policy. This is especially true when
we are face to face with a heavy de-
felt. But when the desire to win the
popular approval leads to the cutting
off of expenditures really needed to
make the government effective, and to
enable it to accomplish it proper OBJ
jects, the result is as much to be con-
demned as the waste of government
funds in unnecessary expenditure.
The scope of a modern government in
what it can and ought to accomplish
for dts people has been widened far
beyond the principles laid down by
the old laissez faire school of political
writer's, and this widening has met
popular approval.
In the Department of Agriculture,
the use of scientific experiments on
a large scale, n spread of informa
ton derived from them for the i'm.
provement of general agriculture,
must 60 on.
siness of great railways and indus
trial combinations, and the neces-
sary investigation and prosecution OF
unlawful business methods. are ano-
Their necessary tax pom government
which did not exist half a century
ago..
The putting into force of laws which
shall Secure the conservation of ouT
resources, SO far as they may be with
in the Jurisdiction Of the Federal
Government, including the most i'm.
portant work of saving and restoring
our forests, and the great improve
ment of waterways, are all proper
government functions which must in
volve large expenditure if properly
performed. While some of them, like
the reclamation of arid lands, are
made to pay for themselves, others
are OF such an indirect benefit that
this cannot he expected OF them. A
permanent improvement, like the Pa
mama Canal, should be treated as a
distinct enterprise, and should be paid
for by the proceeds of bonds, the Is
sue of which will distribute its cost
between the present and future gen
erations in accordance with the bene-
fits derived. 1t may well be submit
ted to the serious consideration of
Congress whether the deepening and
control of the channel of a great riv-
er system, like that of the Ohio, or of
the Mississippi, when definite and
practical plans for the enterprise have
should not be provided for in the same
way.
Then too, there are expenditures OF
government absolutely necessary If
our country is to maintain it's prop
er place among the nations of the
world, and is to exercise its proper in
1uence in defense Of its own trade
interests, in the maintenance of ira
ditional American policy against the
colonization of European m~onarchies
in this hemisphere, M In the promo
ton of peace n International moral
ity. I refer to the cost of maintain
ing a proper Army, a roper Navy n
suitable Notifications upon the main
land of h United tSates and in its
dependencies.
We should have an Army so organ
lied, and SO Differed, as to be capable
in time OF emergency, in CO. operation
with the National Militia, and under
the provisions of a roper national
volunteer law, rapidly TO expand into
a force sufficient to resist all probable
invasion from abroad and to furnish
q respectable expeditionary force, if
Necessary in the maintenance of our
traditional American policy which
bears thu name Of President Monroe.
Our notifications are yet in a state
OF only pa rtial completeness, and the
number of men to nan them is insult
fcient. In a few years, however, he
usual annual appropriations for our
coast defenses both on the mainland
and in the dependencies, will make
them sufficient to resist all direct at
tack, and by that time we may hope
that the men to man them will be
provided as a necessary adjunct. The
distance Of our shores from Europe
and Asia OF course reduces the neces-
sify o maintaining under arms a
great army, out it does not take away
the requirement Of mere prudence,
that we should have an army suffic-
tently large and SO constituted as to
form q nucleus a OF which a suita-
bile force a quickly grow.
What a been said of the Army
may be affirmed In even q more em-
phatfc way of the Navy. A modern
cannot DE fmprovfsed- 1t must
built and IN existence when the EN-
Urgency arises which calls for its use,
n Operations. My distinguished pre-