Meade County news. [volume] (Meade, Kan.) 1900-1918, 1915-12-09

| charge upon individual expenditure.
one per cent tax per gallon on gasoline
and naptha would yield. at the present
estimated production $4,000, 600; tax of
60 cents per horsepower on automobiles
and internal explosion engines, SIS 900, 900;
a stamp tax on bank checks, probably
| $18,00O000; a tax of rs cents per ton on
pig iron, $l0,OO0,000; a tax of 80 cents per
ton on fabricated iron and steel, proba-
| bly, 100000. In country OF great in
dustries like this II 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
| lion.
The Danger Within.
| / have spoken to you today, gentlemen,
upon a 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 which we
all believe to have been providentially
assigned to 1t. 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
| amicable- relations. grave as some differ
ences Of attitude and policy have been
and may yet turn out to be. / 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, blush to
admit, born under other flags 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 contempt, to destroy our in
dustries wherever they thought II 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 1t 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
1t 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 a 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 new standard here-that men of such
origins and such free choices Of allegi-
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 II was in
credible we made no preparation for 1t.
We would have been almost ashamed to
prepare for 1t, as II 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 l 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 il
possible to deal with these things very
effectually. need not suggest the terms
in which they may be dealt with.
wish that 1t could be said that only q
few men, misled by mistaken sentiments
of allegiance to the governments under
which they were born, had been guilty of
disturbing the self-possesson and misrep-
! resenting the temper and principles OF
the country during these days of terrible
war; when 1t 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 1t 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 OF the 9TH
er side in the great European conflict
above their regard for the peace and dig
Hlty Oh the ONlIeQ States. 1ney 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-possessed
and thoughtfuly patriotic American must
feel when he thinks OF them and of the
discredit they are daily bringing upon US.
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. / suggest
that 1t would be wise to provide for a
commission of inquiry to ascertain by
thorough canvass Of the whole question
whether our laws as at present framed
and administered are as servceable as
| they might be In the solution of the prob
lem. 1t is obviously a problem that lies
| at the very foundation OF our efficiency
| as people. Such an inquiry ought to
| draw out every circumstance and opinion
worth considering and we need to know
| all sides of the matter II we mean to
do anything in the field OF federal leglsla-
| ton.
For what we are seeking now. what in
my mind Is the single thought of this
message, Is national efficiency and Sc