The Monticellonian., 1915-12-09

| bly slO 000. In country Of great ln- | dustries like this 1t ought to be easy to l distribute the burdens of taxation With
 out making them anywhere bear too | heavily or loo exclusively upon any one
 set of persons or undertakings. What is l clear is that the industry of this gener-
 alton should pay the bills of this genera
 ton.
 The Danger Within.
 have spoken to you today gentlemen,
 upon a single theme the thorough prep | aration of the nation to care for it's
 own security and to make sure of entire
 freedom to play the impartial role in this
 hemisphere and in the world which we 1 all believe to have been providentially
 assigned to It I have had in mind no | thought of any immediate or particular | danger arising out of our relations with l other nations. We are at peace with all 1 the nations of the world. and there is reason to hope that no question in con- 1 troversy between this and other govern
 ments will lead to any serious breach of amicabe relations, grave some differ enees 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, I blush to | admit, born under other flags but welcomed l under our generous naturalization laws | to the full freedom and opportunity of l 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 l ernment into contempt, 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 1 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; l but it is great enough to have brought i deep disgrace upon us and to have made l it necessary that should promptly 1 make of processes of law by which | we may be purged of their corrupt dis 1 tempers. America never witnessed any l thing like this before. It never dreamed l it possible that men sworn into it's own l citizenship, men drawn out of great free stocks such as supplied some of the best | and strongest elements of that little, but 1 how heroic, nation that in high day of old | staked its very life to free itself from l every entanglement that had darkened l the fortunes of the older nations and set
 up a new standard here-that men of such l origins and such free choices of al1egi-
 ance would ever turn in malign reaction 1 against the government and people who | had welcomed and nurtured them and | seek to make this proud country once l more a hotbed of European passion. A | seemed incredible. Because it was fn- credible we made no preparation for it. We would have been almost ashamed to 1 prepare for it. if were suspicious l of ourselves. our own comrades and l neighbors! But the ugly and incredible | has actually come about and we are with l out adequate federal laws to deal with 1 if. urge you to enact such laws at | the earliest possible moment and feel that | in so doing I am urging you to do noth- l ing less than save the honor and self | respect of the nation.
 Must Be Crushed Out.
 Such creatures of passion. dis1eyalty
 and anarchy must be crushed out. They are not many. but they are infinitely ma 1 lignant, and the hand of our power should ] close over them at once. They have formed plots to destroy property. they 1 have entered into conspiracies against the 1 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. It is
 possible to deal with these things very effeetualiy. l need not suggest the terms
 in which they may be dealt with.
 wish that it could be said that only
 few men. misled by mistaken sentiments
 of allegiance to the governments under which they were born, had been guilty of l disturbing the self-possession and misrep 1 resenting the temper and principles of | l war. when it would seem that every man 1 who was truly an American would in- l stinctively make 1t his duty and his pride l to keep the scales of Judgment even and i prove himself a 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 | jeans, have so forgotten themselves and | their honor as citizens as to put their l passionate sympathy with one or the oth | CT side in the great European conflict
 above their regard for the peace and dig | nifty of the United States. They also l preach and practice disloyalty. No laws | I 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- 1 ton and scorn which every self-posse sasd and thoughtfully patriotic American must | feel when he thinks of them and of the | dseredt they are daily bringing upon us
 Many conditions about which we have 1 repeatedly legislated being altered 1 from decade to decade, it is evident, un-
 der our very eyes, and are likely to change l even more rapidly and more radically in | the days immediately ahead of us. when l peace has returned to the world and na- | tions of Europe once more take up their 1 tasks of commerce and industry with the 1 energy of those who must bestir them | selves to build anew. Just what these l changes will be one can certainly fore | see confidently predict. There are no i ealeulable because no stable, elements in | the problem. The most can do Is to | make certain that we have the necessary l nstrumentalties of information constant 1 ly at our service that may be sure | that we know exactly what we deal l ing with when we come to act If 1t | should be necessary to act at all. We | must first certainly know what 1t Is that
 We seeking to adapt ourselves to- I | may ask the privilege of addressing you
 more at length on this important matter
 a little later in your session.
 Transportation Problem.
 The transportation problem is an ex- | ceedingy 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 1t successfully as at present
 equipped and co-ordnated. I suggest
 that 1t would be wise to provide for a | commission of inquiry to ascertain by a l thorough canvass of the whole question
 whether our laws at present framed l they might be in the solution of the prob-
 lem. It is obviously problem that lies
 at the very foundation of our efficiency
 as a people. Such an inquiry ought to | draw out every circumstance and opinion | worth considering and we need to know | all sides of the matter if mean to | do anything in the field of federal legisA- | tion.
 l For what we are seeking now what.in | my mind is the single thought of this | message, Is national efficiency and se- | eurty. We serve a great nation. We
 should serve It in the spirit of its peculiar | oya,,{,t r. fS tha aF