Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-12-07

do more than discuss it In very gen.
eral terms We should be following
an almost universal example of mod
ern government if We were to draw
the greater part or even the whole of
the revenues we need from the in-
come taxes. BY somewhat lowering the
present limits of exemption and the
figure at which the surtax shall begin
to be imposed, and by increasing, step
by step throughout the present gradu-
alton, the surtax itself, the income
taxes as at present. apportioned
would yield sums sufficient to balance
the books of the treasury at the end
of the fiscal year 1917 without any
where making the burden unreason-
ably or oppressively heavy. The pre-
else reckonings are fully and accurate
ly set out in the report of the secre-
tary of the treasury which will be i'm
mediately laid before you.
And there are many additional
sources Of revenue which can justly be
resorted to without hampering the in
dustries of the country or putting any
too great charge upon individual ex-
penditure. A one per cent tax per
gallon on gasoline and naptha would
yield, at the present estimated pro.
duction, $10,000,000; a tax of so cents
per horse power on automobiles and
internal explosion engines, $15,000.-
900; a stamp tax on bank checks,
probably $1S,O00,O00; tax of 25 cents
per ton on pig iron, $40 200, 900; tax
of SO cents per ton on fabricated iron
and steel, probably $10,000,000. In a
country of great industries like this it
ought to be easy to distribute the bur-
dens of taxation without making them
anywhere bear too heavily or too ex-
clusively upon any one set of persons
or undertakings. What is clear is,
that the industry of this generation
should pay the bills of this generation.
have spoken to you today, gentle
men, upon a single theme, the thor
ough preparation of the nation to care
for its own security and to make sure
of entire freedom to play the impartial
role in this hemisphere and in the
world which we all believe to have
been providentially assigned to 1t. l
have had in my mind no thought of
any Immediate or particular danger
arising out of our relations with other
nations. We are at peace with all
the nations of the world, and there is
reason to hope that no question in
controversy between this and other
governments will lead to any serious
breach of amicable relations, grave as
some differences of attitude and policy
have been and may yet turn out to be.
l am sorry to say that the gravest
safety have been uttered within our
own borders. There are citizens of
the United States, blush to admit,
born under other flags but welcomed
under our generous naturalization
laws to the full freedom and oppor-
tunity of America, who have poured
the poison of iisloyalty into the very
arteries of our national ife; who have
sought to bring the authority and
good name of our government into
contempt, to destroy our industries
wherever they thought it effective for
their vindictive purposes to strike at
them, and to debase our politics to
the uses of foreign intrigue. Their
number is not great as compared with
the whole number of those sturdy
hosts by which our nation has been
enriched in recent generations out
of virile foreign stocks; but 1t is great
enough to have brought deep disgrace
upon us and to have made it neces-
sary that we should promptly make
use of processes of law by which we
may be purged of their corrupt dis
tempers. America never witnessed
anything like this before. 1t never
dreamed it possible that men sworn
into its own citizenship. men drawn
piled some Of the best and strongest
elements of that little, but how heroic,
nation that in high day OF old staked
its very life to free itself from every
ENHANCEMENT that had darkened the
fortunes of the older nations and set
up a uSW ulGu
of such origins and such free choices
of allegiance would ever turn in
malign reaction against the govern
ment and people who had welcomed
and nurtured them and seek to make
this proud country once more hot.
bed of European passion. A little
while ago such a thing would have
seemed incredible. Because it was
incredible we made no preparation
for it. We would have been almost
ashamed to prepare for it, as IL we
were suspicious of ourselves, our own
comrades and neighbors! But the
ugly and incredible thing has actual
ly come about and we are without
adequate federal laws to deal with it.
/ urge you to enact such laws at the
earliest possible moment and feel that
In doing so am urging you to do
nothing less than save the honor and
self-respect of the nation. Such crea-
lures of passion. disloyalty, and an
archy must be crushed out. They are
not many, but they are infinitely
malignant, and the hand Of our power
should close over them at once. They
have formed plots 10 destroy property,
they have entered into conspiracies
against the neutrality of the govern
thnx g..A-