Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1915-12-10

and naptna WOulo ylSlds ~ VH0 H<oSohs
estimated production, 100000 600; tax OF
so cents per horsepower on automobiles
and internal explosion engines. SIS, 000, 200;
a stamp tax on bank checks. probably
$4,000. 600: a tax of Is cents per ton on
pig iron, $10,000,0C0 q tax OF 90 cents per
ton on fabricated iron and steel, proba-
bly, $1O,000000. In a country OF great IN
dustries like this it 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
ton.
The Danger Within.
have spoken to yen 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
ali believe to have been providentiallH
assigned to it. / 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 OF
amlcaDl0 roldUOnS, grave Dis SUM- NlAAOA
ences of attitude and policy have been
and may vet turn out to be. / am sorry
to saw that the graveSt threats against
our national peace and safety have been
uttered within our own borders. Ihere are
citizens of the United States, 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
{,1+0 tlo RI
national life; who have sought to bring
the authority and good name of our gov
eminent 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
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 when
we may be purged of their corrupt dis
tempers. America never witnessed any
thing like this before It never dreamed
it possible that men sworn into it's 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 new standard here-that men of such
origins and such free choices of alleg1-
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.
little while ago such thing would have
seemed incredible. Because 1t was In
credible we made no preparation for It,
We would have been almost ashamed to
prepare for it, as If we were suspicious
of ourselves, our own comrades and
neighbors! 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 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
lignant, 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. l need not suggest the terms
in which they may be dealt with.
I 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
disturbing the self possession and misrep-
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 1t his duty and his pride
to keep the scales of judgment even and
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
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,
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-
ton and ScOrn which every Self-poSSesi7Sd
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 to change
even more rapidly and more radically In
the days Immediately ahead of us, when
peace has returned to the world and ma
tions 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 1t
should be necessary to act at ALL We
must first certainly know what 1t is that
we are seeking to adapt ourselves to.
may ask the privilege of addressing you