The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-12-07
Wilson Pleads for National Safety and Pan -America

| for probable deficiency appropriations,
and fifty thousand dollars for miscel-
laneous debt redemptions, will be
| 1888, S91 900; and the balance in the
! general fund of the Treasury will be
reduced to $2O,644.605.7S The emer-
gency revenue act, if continued be-
| yond its present time limitation, would
/ produce, during the half year then re-
manning, about forty-one millions.
/ The duty of one cent per pound on SUI
] gar, if continued. would produce dur
! ing the two months of the fiscal year
remaining after the first of May, about
! fifteen millions These two sums.
amounting together to fifty-six mill
lions, if added to the revenues of the
second half OF the fiscal year, would
yield the Treasury at the end of the
| year an available balance of SIS, 644,-
! COSTS.
The additional revenues required to
carry out the programme of military
and naval preparation of which 1
have spoken; would. as at present es-
umated, be for the fiscal year 1911,
s93. 100000. Those figures, taken
with the figures for the present fiscal
year which 1 have already given, dis
close our financial problem for the
year 1917. Assuming that the taxes
imposed by the emergency revenue act
and the present duty on sugar are to
be discontinued. and that the balance
at the close of the present fiscal year
Will be only $40. ,605.7S, that the
disbursements for the Panama canal
will again be about twenty-five mil
lions, and that the additional expendi-
lures for the army and navy ere au-
thorized by the congress- the deficit in
the general fund of the treasury ON
the thirtieth of June, 1917, will be
nearly two hundred and thirty-five
millions. To this sum at least fifty
millions should be added to repre-
sent a safe working balance for the
treasury, and twelve millions to in
clude the usual deficiency estimates in
/ %, La
total deficit of some two hundred
and ninety-seven millions. If the
present taxes should he continued
throughout this year and the next
however, there would be a balance in
the treasury of some seventy-six and
half millions at the end Of the pres
ent fiscal year, and a deficit at the
end of the next year of only some fifty
millions, or, reckoning in siXty-two
millions for deficiency appropriations
and a safe treasury balance at the
end Of the year, a total deficit of
some one hundred and twelve mil
lions. The obvious moral of the fig
ures is chat it is a plair. counsel IF
prudence to continue all of the pres
ent taxes or their equivalents, and
confine ourselves to the problem If
providing enc hundred and twelve
millions of new revenue rather than
two hundred and ninety-seven mil
lions.
How shall we obtain the new rev
enue? We are frequently reminded
that there are many millions Of bonds
which the treasury is authorized under
existing law to sell to REIN burse the
sums paid out of current revenues for
the construction of the Panama "a
nal; and it is true that bonds to the
amount of approximately $222, 100000
are now available for that purpose.
Prior to 1913 46319SO OF these
bonds had actually been sold to re-
coup the expenditures "a the isthmus:
and now constitute a considerable item
of the public debt. But I, for one,
do not believe that the people of this
payment of their bills. Borrowing
money is short-sighted finance. 1t
can be justified only when permanent
things are to be accomplished which
many generations will certainly bene-
fit by and which it seems hardly fair
that a single generation should pay
for. The objects we are now pro-
posing to spend money for cannot be
SO classified, except in the sense that
everything wisely done may be said
to be done in the interest of pos
to me a clear dictate of prudent
craftsmanship and frank finance that
in what we are now, l hope, about
to undertake we should pay as W.
go. The people of the country are en-
titled to know just what burdens Of
taxation they are to carry, and to
know from the outset. now. The new
bills should be paid by internal taxa
ton.
To what sources, then, shall we
turn? This is so peculiarly a qlIes
ton which the gentlemen of the house 1
of representatives are expected under |
the constitution to propose an answer |
to that YOU will hardly expect me 20 |
do more than discuss il in very gem !
eral terms. We should be following |
an almost universal example Of mod |
ern governments if we were to -1raw T.!
the greater part or even the whole Of |
the revenues we need from the income |
taxes. By somewhat lowering the |
present limits of exemption and the !
figure at which the surtaX shall be- |
gin to be imposed, and by increasing, |
step by step throughout the present /
graduation, the surtaX itself, the in
come taxes as at present apportioncd |
would yield sums sufficient to balance
the books of the treasury at the end |
of the fiscal year 1917 without any
where making the burden unreason-
ably or OppreSSive1y heavy. The pre-
else reckonings are fully and accur-
ately set out in the report of the sec
rotary of the treasury which will be
Immediately laid before you.
And there are many additional
sources of revenue which can Justly
be resorted to without hampering the
industries of the country. A tax of
one cent per gallon on gasoline and
would yield, at the present
estimated production. S10,OO0,000; a
tax of fifty cents per horse power on
automobiles and internal explosion
engines. $15.000,000; a stamp tax on
bank cheques. probably $4,000. 900;
a tax of twenty-five cents per ton on
pig iron 100000; a tax of twenty
five cents per ton on fabricated iron
and steel, probably $10.00O,000. In
a country of great industries like this
1T ought to be easy to distribute the
burdens of taxation without 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
should pay the bills of
this generation.
have spoken to you today. gentle
men, upon a single theme. the thor
oush preparation of the nation to care
Tor its own security and to make sure