The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1909-03-12

an extent that the expenditures Iof
the current fiscal year will exceed the
receipts by $1OO,OOoO0O. 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
II and so arrange the duties as to Sc
cure an adequate income. Should 1t be
impossible to do so by import duties
new kinds CT taxation must be adopt
ed, and among these l recommend a
graduated inheritance tax as correc'
In principle and as certain and easy of
collection
Government Economy Urged.
The obligation on the part of those
responsible for the expenditures made
10 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
every declaration of government pol
icy. This is especially true when we
are face to face with heavy deficit.
But when the desire to win the popu-
lar approval leads to the cutting off of
expenditures really needed to make
the government effective and to en-
able 1t to accomplish it's proper objects
the result is as much to be condemned
as the waste of government funds in
unnecessary expenditure.
! In the department of agriculture the
use of scientific experiments on large
scale and the spread of information
derived from them for the improve
ment of general agriculture must go
on.
The Importance of supervising bust
ness of great railways and industrial
combinations and the necessary inves-
tigation and prosecution of unlawful
business methods are another neces-
sary tax upon government which did
not exist half century ago.
Proper Forms of Expenditure.
The putting into force of laws which
shall secure the conservation of our
resources so far as they may be with
in the jurisdiction of the federal gov
eminent, including the most important
work of saving and restoring our for
eSts, and the great improvement of wa
terways are all proper government
functions which must involve large
expenditure if properly performed.
While some of them, like the reclama-
ton of arid lands, are made to pay
for themselves, others are of such an
indirect benefit that this cannot be eX-
pected of them. A permanent i'm
provement, like the Panama canal,
should be treated as a distinct enter
prise and should be paid for by the
proceeds of bonds, the issue of which
will distribute it's cost between the
present and future generations in ac-
cordance with the benefits derived. 1t
may well be submitted to the serious
consideration of congress whether the
deepening and control Of the channel
Of q great river system like that of the
Ohio or Of the Mississippi when def
mite and practical plans for the enter
prise have been approved and deter
mined upon should not be provided for
in the same way.
Then, too, there are expenditures of
government absolutely necessary if our
country is to maintain its proper place
among the nations of the world and is
to exercise it's proper influence in de-
tense of its own trade interests in the
maintenance of traditional American
policy against the colonization of Eu-
ropean monarchies in this hemisphere
and in the promotion of peace and in
ternational morality. | refer to tho
cost of maintaining a proper army.
proper navy and suitable Notifications
upon the mainland of the United
States and iii its dependencies.
The Army and Navy.
We should have an army so organ
in time Of emergency in cooperation
with the national militia and under
Pie provisions of proper national
volunteer law rapidly to expand into
a force sufficient to resist all probable
invasion from abroad and to furnish a
respectable expeditionary force, if nee
essary, in the maintenance of our ira
ditional American policy which bears
the maine of President Monroe.
Our Notifications are yet i'm a state
Of only partial completeness. and the
humber Of men to man them is INSULT
cient. In a few years, however, the
usual annual appropriations for our
coast defenses, both on the mainland
and in the dependencies, will make
| them sufficient to resist all direct at
hack, and by that time we may hope
that the men to man them will be pro-
vided as necessary adjunct. The
distance Of our shores from Europe
and Asia. of course, reduces the ne
tessity for maintaining under arms
great army, but it does not take away
ihe requirement of mere prudence.
that we should have an army suffi
fiently large and so constituted as to
form q nucleus out of which a suitable
force can quickly grow.
What has been said of the army
may be affirmed in even a more en-
phatic way Of the navy A modern
navy cannot be improvised. 1t must
be built and in existence when the
emergency arises which calls for its
use and operation. My distinguished
predecessor has in many speeches and
messages set out with great force and
striking language the neceSSity for