The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1915-10-25

ffeult part of the program OF pre-
paredness will be that of the manner
of raising the revenue to take care
of expenses. said Senator Borah. we
certainly ought not to be called upon
To issue bonds. 1t would be unwise
and unjust to do so. It would seem
that at a time OF peace and when we
are enjoying tremendous profits from
feeding and arming and financing
great armies In Europe We ought to
be able to take care Of the expenses of
a reasonable program OF preparedness
without resorting to the selling OF
bonds 1T Is wise rule In these mat
tiers and certainly In times OF peace
to pay as we go and not put upon pos
terity our expenditures. cannot
speak for any one except myself and
don't assume to, but l am very much
opposed to the issueing of bonds and
shah To the extent of my limited in
fiuence oppose II,
''In fact. 1t must be apparent to any
one that our revenue laws are not
working satisfactorily We gave up
some of our best sources of revenue
In the Underwood bill and have under
AIKEN to make up for II by imposing
an annoying and burdensome special
tax. No one has benefited In the
least by cutting off s2s.00o,o0o, which
we were collecting on wool. The con-
sumers have not been benefited. No
benefit has been derived from giving
over the twenty million dollars on
sugar and tn proposal embodied in the
law, astounding AS 1t seems, is to give
over forty million more. These two
items alone about make up the amount
which Ia levied in the way of special
war tax" aionr the only thing the
war had to do with the tax was to
ehristsn it.
/ Overhaul Underwood BILL
We now have tariff tax, an in
come tax, the internal revenue tax. a
special war tax and 1t is proposed to
Issue bonds. We shall have to turn
back and overhaul the Underwood-bfil
and reconstruct 1t so "a to make 1t
at least a revenue producing bin If
nothing more. It was pointed out very
clearly during It's enactment that 1t
would not produce sufficient revenue
and II was disclosed even before the
war broke out that 1t was inefi1cient
as revenue-producing bill.
| 1T is but fair also that fair pro-
portion OF these tremendous pronts
derived from war orders should go to
the meeting OF expenses OF the pro-
1 gram of preparedness. The big in
comes and profits of these days are
/ those derived from war orders and
| war conditions and whatever plan oil
revenue is provided for should lncor-
purate some scheme for utilizing
some OF these profits to take care OF
/ these proposed expenses. In otner
words. whatever we do and however
/ we do II we should incur no expense
| that we cannot take care OF as we go
along.
! Prepare for Peace.
y, III am much more interested in the
/ preparedness for peace. than for war
| although both are important.
Germany will emerge from tho war
with the best organized industrial unit
| In the world. The energy. the capital.
the talents OF her people. thoroughly
diversified. will yet be mohiiized az
no nation has ever had the energies
of her people modified before. The
merchants OF England understand this
4 perfectly.
1.-The manufacturer and the farmer
win feel the strain also and this fierce
competition in the same way.
There Is another matter which !
am not going TO discuss, but which is
| tremendously interesting, and that Is
/ this: That war will have advanced
State Socialism In Ave years more than
it has advanced before the war during
the last hundred years The next great
political issue In this country Is going
to be that involving ownership OF
public utilities
II expect to see the Republicans
| writA the most advanced and liberal
platform In 1875 which that party has
written since 1850. The platform adopt
ed in Massachusetts Is plain. expressive
and liberal. With such platform the
Republican party will be thoroughly
| reunited and IT cannot be united In any
other way.
United rs we will be we have the
vote with which to win the election
in 1915. find throughout the West
and Middle West that those who voted
The third party ticket In 1912 are re-
turning or ready ana anxious to re-
turn to tho Republican party.