The commonwealth. (Greenwood, Miss.) 1896-1923, 1915-12-10

so cents per horsepower on automobiles
and internal explosion engines. 81. 900. 600.
| a stamp tax on bank checks. probably
| SIS, COG, 600: a tax of % cents per ton on
| pig iron, SIC. COO; a tax OF 30 cents per
| ton on fabricated iron and steel, proba-
| bly, SIC, 0Oe. eco. In a country of great in
dustries like this it ought to be easy tc
| distribute the burdens of taxation with
out making them anywhere bear toD
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 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 proviGentially
assigned to it. I have had In mind no
thought Of any immediate or particular
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
anicable relations, grave as some differ
ences of attitude and policy have been
and may yet turn out to be. I 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
under our generous naturalization laws
to the full freedom and o~pportunity|o 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
ernment into contempt, to destroy our in
dustries wherever they thought it 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 it's own
citizenship, men drawn out of great free
stocks such as supplied some of the best
and strongest leinents 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 a new standard ~here-that men of such
origins and such free choices Of allegi-
ance would ever turn in maiign 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.
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 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. d%isloyalty
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
ef~fectually. 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 seif-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 it 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 rs nd TnHrv raSi6art ohvno1
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-possessed
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 !esislated are being altered
from decade to decade. it is evident, un-
der our very eyes, and are likely to change
even more rapidly and more radically in
the days Immediately ahead of US, when
kO~>> 1890 NAS VA ollo liza
tons CT Europe once morevtake up, their
tasks of m 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 ne
calculable. because no stable, elements in
the problem. The most we can do is to
make certain that we have the necessary
instrunlcnsalities 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. II 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
a 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 eo-or6inated. suggest
that it would be wise to provide for .
commission OF inquiry to ascertain by q
thorough canvass of the whole question
whether OFF laws as at present framed
and administered are as serviceable as
they might be in the solution of the prob
lem. 1t is obviously q problem that lies
at the very ounda ton OF our efficiency
as a People. Such an inquiry ought to