The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1914-10-15
WASHINGTON LETTER.
Special Correspondence.

uCdu members OIL congress are Ilr1nS
their heaviest artillery at the war
tax. They have seized upon it as a
campaign issue" as drowning
man grasps at straw because they
had seen the campaign open without
an issue on which they could go be-
fore the voters and ask that the Will
son administration, which had won
the widespread approval of the peo-
pie in it's first eighteen months of
continuous work, should be turned
out of Office.
publican members that the Wilson
administration and the democratic
party should, by legislating to levy
a tax to sustain the credit of the
government during this period of in
ternational stress, give the opposition
this issue. 1t would have been wiser,
according to their school of politics,
for the democratic congress to have
delayed the question and deceived the
people until after the November cleo
tiOns, as Congressman BOrland, of
Missouri, expressed it during the de-
bate, instead of boldly and honestly
meeting the responsibilities of gov
eminent and trusting to the good
sense and clear vision of the Ameri-
can people. Or it would have been
more adroit and crafty to have bor-
rowed the money and issued govern
ment bonds to supply the needs of
the federal treasury, even though the
financial market is strained to the ut
termost. Such bonds would have to
be issued at high rate of interest,
and the money derived from their
sale would be withdrawn from the
channels of trade at time when the
farmer is trying to move his crops
and the merchant is laying in his fall
stock of goods and the business world
is in need of the financial resources
of the country to carry on business.
The democratic party, Mr.. Borland
said did not admit either the wisdom
or the sincerity of these criticisms.
eve cannot admit" he said, that
the American people would havejusti-
we'd the democratic party in any un-
derhand, secret or hidden course.
The administration has chosen to
meet the situation frankly and take
the American voter into its conf
dence. 1t prefers to do business IN
the open"
What the democratic leaders be-
lieye the people will not lose sight
of is that more than half the civil
lied world is at war, that the COM
merce and manufacturers of great
nations are paralyzed, and the finan-
cial system of the world is strained
to the breaking point, due ito an In
ternational catastrophe which ninety
DAYS ago could not have entered into
the widest dreams of the American
neople. Not only has the withdraw
ing of men from industry in the war
stricken countries exhausted public
and nrivate credit in those countries,
but in the countries not engaged IN
the war the indirect affect has been
almost as great.
The one country on the globe,
democratic leaders insist, which has
been able to stand the strain and
which has weathered and will wealth
or tho commercial and financial storm
IL the United States. 1t is the one
country today whose public credit is
at mar and the one country where
nrivate credit on any terms is pos
sible for the business man. Demo-
cratic leaders have declared 1t to De
their intlexible determination to pre-
serve the credit of the federal gov
eminent. If the present administra-
tion had failed to do SO through in
competence or political cowardice,
these leaders declare, no more re-
ientless critics would have appeared
than those same republican ofiice-
seekers who are now criticising the
emergency tax. y
The attacks of the republican
sneakers on the tariff have largely
ceased because it has come to be
realized that but for the income tax
feature of the Underwood tarih
war tax of double that contemplated
would be necessary Under former
tariffs most Of the expenses OF the
government were met by high protec-
tive duties on imports. Since the
var started imports have practically
ceased. The country has been near
81 absolute protection from foreign
,c,.nmnetition than ever before. y
You'd have made NO differences how
5Kirh 81 how Low 4 tartit q had been ~ !.