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

and internal explosion engines, Sic, DOC, 600;
stamp tax on bank checks. probably
S1s,000,0 600: a tax of rs cents per ton on
pig iron. $4,000 600; a tax of so cents per
ton on fabricated iron and steel, Proba-
bly, 100000. In a country OF great in
dustries like this 1t ought to be easy to
distribute the burdens Of taxation with
out making them anywhere bear TOO
heavily or too exclusively upon any one
set of persons or undertakings. What Is
clear Is, that the industry OF this gener-
alton should pay the bills Of this genera
tion.
The Danger Within.
I have spoken to you today. gentlemen,
upon single theme, the thorough prep
aration 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 Wnlch we
all believe to have been providentially
assigned to it. l have had in 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 con-
troversy between this and other govern
ments Will lead to any serious breach or
amlcable relations, grave as some diner
ences of attitude and policy have been
and may yet turn out to be. l am sorry
to say that the gravest threats against
our national peace and safety have been
uttered within our own borders. There are
citizens of the United States, l blush to
admit, born under other f1egs but welcomed
under our generous naturalization laws
to the full freedom and opportunity of
America, who have poured the poison of
disloyalty into the very arteries of our
national life; who have sought to bring
the authority and good name of our gov
eminent into NOnramnt to DESTROY our IN
dustries wherever they thought 1t effec-
tive 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 it is great enough to have brought
deep disgrace upon us and to have made
it necessary that we should promptly
make use of processes of law by which
we may be purged of their corrupt dis
tempers. America never witnessed any
thing like this before. 1t never dreamed
it possible that men sworn into its own
citizenship, men drawn out of great free
stocks such as supplied some of the best
and strongest elements of that little, but
how heroic, nation that in high day of old
staked it's very life to free itself from
every ENHANCEMENT that had darkened
the fortunes of the older nations and set
up a new standard here-that men of such
origins and such free choices of allegf-
ance would ever turn in malign reaction
against the government and people who
had welcomed and nurtured them and
seek to make this proud country once
more a hotbed of European passion. A
little while ago such a thing would have
seemed incredible. Because it was in
credible we made no preparation for it.
No n1111 haxy oil DC k1ny D0d IN
prepare for it, as if we were suspicious
of ourselves, our own comrades and
neighborsi But the ugly and incredible
has actually come about and we are with
out adequate federal laws to deal with
it, I urge you to enact such laws at
the earliest possible moment and feel that
in so doing 1 am urging you to do moth
ing less than save the honor and self
respect Of the nation.
Must Be Crushed Out.
Such creatures of passion, disloyalty
and anarchy must be crushed out. They
are not many, but they are infinitely ma
ngnant, and the hand Of our power should
close over them at once. They have
formed plots to destroy property, they
have entered into conspiracies against the
neutrality of the government, they have
sought to pry into every confidential
transaction of the government in order
to serve interests alien to our own. 1t is
possible to deal with these things very
effectually. I need not suggest the terms
in which they may be dealt with.
I wish that it could be said that only a
few men, misled by mistaken sentiments
of allegiance to the governments under
which they were born, had been guilty of
disturbing the self-possession and nisrep-
resenting the temper and principles of
the country during these days of terrible
war. when it would seem that every man
who was truly an American would in
stinctively make it his duty and his pride
to keep the scales of judgment even and
prove himself partisan of no nation but
his own. But it cannot. There are some
men among US, and many resident abroad
who, though born and bred in the Unit
ed States and calling themselves Amer
leans, have so forgotten themselves and
their honor as citizens as to put their
passionate sympathy with one or the 9TH
er side in the great European conflict
above their regard for the peace and dig
nifty of the United States. They also
preach and practice disloyalty No laws
| suppose, can reach corruptions of the
mind and heart: but I should not speak
Of others without also speaking of these
and expressing the even deeper humilia-
ton and scorn which every self posse qasd
and thoughtfully patriotic American must
feel when he thinks of them and of the
discredit they are daily bringing upon US.
Many conditions about which we have
repeatedly legislated are being altered
from decade to decade, it is evident I'M
der our very eyes, and are likely 10 change
even more rapidly and more radically in
the days Immediately ahead of us, when
peace has returned to the world and ma
tons of Europe once more take up their
tasks of commerce and industry with the
energy of those who must. bestir them
selves to build anew. Just what these
changes will be no one can certainly fore
see or confidently predict. There are no
calculable, because no stable, elements in
the problem. The most we can do is to
make certain that we have the necessary
instrumentalities of information constant
ly at our service so that we may be sure
that we know exactly what we are deal
ing with when we come to act, If it
should be necessary to act at all. We
must first certainly know what it is that
we are seeking to adapt ourselves to. I
may ask the privilege of addressing you
more at length on this important matter
little later in your session.
Transportation Problem.
The transportation problem is an ex-
ceedingly serious and pressing one in this
country. There has from time to time
of late been reason to fear that our rail-
roads would not much longer be able to
cope with it successfully as at present
equipped and co-ordinated. I suggest
that it would be wise to provide for a
commission of inquiry to ascertain by a
thorough canvass of the whole question
whether our laws as at present framed
and administered are as serviceable as
they might be in the solution of the prob
lem. It is obviously a problem that lies
at the very foundation of our efficiency
as a people. Such an inquiry ought to
draw out every circumstance and opinion