The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1915-12-07

situation is not to be endured It is
| Of capital Importance not only that the
| United States should be its own carrier
on the seas and enjoy the economic in
| dependence which only an adequate mer-
| chant marine would give 1t, but also that
the American hemisphere as whole
| should enjoy like independence and self
| suniciency, II IT Is not to be drawn into
| the tangle OF European affairs. Without
| such independence the whole question of
| our political unity and self-determination
| Is very seriously clouded and complicated
| indeed
Moreover, we can develop no true or eff
| fective American policy without ships of
| our own-not ships of war, but ships of
| peace, carrying goods and carrying much
more: creating friendships and render
| ing indispensable services to all interests
on this side of the water. They must
move constantly back and forth between
| the Americas They are the only shuttles
| that can weave the delicate fabric of
sympathy, comprehension, confidence and
| mutual dependence in which we clothe
| our policy of America for Americans
Ships Are Needed.
The task Of building up an adequate
| merchant marine for America private
| capital must ultimately undertake and
| achieve, as it has undertaken and
| achieved every other like task amongst
| US in the past, with admirable enterprise
4
| me manifest dictate OF wisdom that we
| should promptly remove every legal OBJ
| stacle that may stand in the way of this
| much to be desired revival of our old in
| dependence and should facilitate in every
| possible way the building, purchase and
| American registration of ships. But cap
| ital cannot accomplish this great task of
| sudden. 1t must embark upon 1t by de-
| grees, as the opportunities of trade de-
| velop. Something must be done at once;
| done to open routes and develop oppor-
| tunities where they are as yet undevel-
| oped; done to open the arteries of trade
| where the currents have not yet learned
| to run-especially between the two Arneri-
can continents, where they are singularly
/ enough, yet to be created and quickened
| and 1t is evident that only the govern
| ment can undertake such beginnings and
| assume the initial financial risks. When
| the risk has passed and private capital
| begins to find its way in sufficient abund-
| ance into these new channels, the gov
| eminent may withdraw. But 1t cannot
| omit to begin. 1t should take the first
| steps and should take them at once. Our
| goods must not lie piled up at our ports
| and stored upon sidetracks in freight
| cars which are daily needed on the roads;
| must not be left without means of
| transport to any foreign quarter. We
| must not await the permission of foreign
| ship owners and foreign governments to
| send them where we will
With a view to meeting these pressing
| necessities of our commerce and availing
| ourselves at the earliest possible moment
| of the present unparalleled opportunity of
| linking the two Americas together in
| bonds of mutual interest and service, an
| opportunity which may never return
| again if we miss it now, proposals will
| be made to the present congress for the
| purchase or construction of ships to be
owned and directed by the government
| similar to those made to the last con-
| gress, but modified in some essential par
| ticulars- I recommend these proposals
! to you for your prompt acceptance with
| the more confidence because every month
| that has elapsed since the former pro-
| posals were made has made the necessity
| for such action more and mani
| testify imperative.
Question Of Finance.
The plans for the armed forces of the
! nation which I have outlined, and for
the general policy of adequate prepara-
| ton for mobilization and defense, in
| volve of course very large additional
| penditures of money-expenditures which
| will considerably exceed the estimated
| revenues of the government 1t is made
| my duty by law, whenever the estimates
| of expenditure exceed the estimates of
| revenue to call the attention of the con-
| greSs to the fact and suggest any means
| of meeting the deficiency that it may be
| wise possible for me to suggest. am
| ready to believe that it would be my duty
| to do so in any case; and l feel particu-
| larly bound to speak of the matter when
it appears that the deficiency will arise
directly out of the adoption by the con-
| gress of measures which I myself urge
| it to adopt. Allow me, therefore, to
| speak briefly of the present state of the
treasury and of the fiscal problems
which the next year will probably dis
close.
On the thirtieth of June last there was
| an available balance in the general fund
of the treasury of s104, 10, 1057S. The to-
| tai estimated receipts for the year 1916,
on the assumption that the emergency
| revenue measure passed by the last con-
| gress will not be extended beyond it's
| present limit, the thirty-first of Deem
| Der, 1915, and that the present duty of
one cent per pound on sugar will be dis
, continued after the first of May, 1916,
| will be $670, 1865, 500 The balance of June
| last and these estimated revenues come,
| therefore, to grand total of STA, 535, sos. 7S
| The total estimated disbursements for the
| present fiscal year, including $25, O00, 900
| for the Panama canal, $4,000, 900 for prob
able deficiency appropriations and $780,
| coo for miscellaneous debt redemptions.
| will be $753, S91, 900; and the balance in the
| general fund of the treasury will be
duced to S20,644 ,605.7S. The emergency
| revenue act, if continued beyond its pres
| ent time limitation, would produce, dur
ing the half year then remaining about
forty-one millions. The duty of one cent
| per pound on sugar, if continued, would
| produce during the two months of the
| fiscal year remaining after the first of
| May, about fifteen millions. These two
| sums, amounting together to $56, 900 900,
| If added to the revenues of the second
half of the fiscal year, would yield the
treasury at the end of the year an avail
| able balance of $76,644 ,605.78.
The additional revenues required to
carry out the program of military and
| naval preparation of which I have spok-
en-, would, as at present estimated, be
for the fiscal year 1917, 500, 100000. Those
| figures, taken with the figures for the
| present fiscal year which L have already
| given, disclose our financial problem for
the year 1917.
| How shall we obtain the new revenue?
| It seems to a clear dictate of pru-
| dent craftsmanship and frank finance
that in what we are now, I hope, about
| to undertake we should pay as we go.
| The people of the country are entitled to
| know just what burdens of taxation they
are to carry, and to know from the outset
| now. The new bills should be paid by in
ternal taxation.
To what sources, then, shall we turn?
| We would be following an almost uni
versal example of modern governments
if we were to draw the greater part or
even the whole of the revenues we need
from the income taxes. BY somewhat
lowering the present limits of exemption
and the figure at which the surtax shall
begin to be imposed. and by increasing.