Weekly journal-miner., 1915-12-15

OH a final footing of strength and efficiency and to press that plan to completion within the next five years"
 The president said that in order to secure national self-efficiency and self security the country must have merchant marine.
 For it is a question of indepen- dcnce," he asserted. If other na- tions go to war or seek to hamper each others commerce, our mer- chants, it seems are at their mercy, to do with as they please. We must use their ships, and use them as they determine Our independence is pro- vincial, and it is only on land and within our own borders. We arc not likely to be permitted to use even the ships of other nations in rivalry of their own trade, and are without means to extend our commerce even where the doors are wide open and our goods desired. Such a situation is not to be endured. It is of capital importance not only that the United States should be its own carrier OH the seas and enjoy the economic inde- pendence which only an adequate merchant marine would give it, but also that the American hemisphere as whole should enjoy like indt' pendence and self-sufficiency, if it is not to be drawn into the tangle oi European affairs"
 The task of building up an ada- quatc merchant marine, MT. Wilson said, must be undertaken ultimately by American private capital, but in the meantime, ne declared, every legal obstacle standing in the way of build ing, purchase and American regis tration of ships should be removed and the government should under take to open routes, especially be tween the two American continents. When the risk has passed and pri, vate capital begins to find its way into these new channels, he added, the government may withdraw.
 The president told congress that proposals would be made during th ; coming session for the purchase or construction of ships to be owned anG directed by the government. The measure, he said, would be similar to that submitted to the last congress, but modified in some essential partic- ulars.
 In outlining the financial condition of the government, the president fol- lowed closely the statement recently given out by Secretary McAdoo. He said that the additional revenue re quired to carry out the program of military and naval preparation would be $93,S00,000 for the fiscal year 1917. that if the present taxes were contin- ued throughout this year and the next there would be balance in the treas ury of about $76, ,5OO,OOO at the end Of the present fiscal year and a deficit al the end Of the next year Of some $112,000O00, reckoning in $62,000,OO0 for deficiency appropriations.
 Proposing that the new bills should be paid by internal taxation, the pres ident suggested that by lowering the present limits of income exemption and the figure at which the surtax is imposed, and by increasing step by step throughout the present gradua ton, the surtax itself, income taxes as at present apportioned would yield sums sufficient to balance the books of the treasury at the end of the fiscal year 1917 without anywhere making the burden unreasonably heavy. He added that there were many addition al sources Of revenue which justly could be rcsortcd to without hamper ing the industries of the country or putting any too great charge upon individual expenditure. He estimated that a per cent tax per gallon on gasoline and naptha would yield $l0,- GGO,000; a tax of 50 cents per horse, power on automobiles and internal explosion engines, $15O00,O0O; a stamp tax on bank checks, probably $18,0000,000: and a tax of 50 per cent per ton on fabricated iron and steel, probably $10,OOO,OOO.
 The president said there was req son to hope that no question in con trovcrsy between this and other gov crnments would lead to any serious breach of amicable relations, and that he was sorry to say that the graves, threats against national peace and safety had been uttered within the country's own borders.
 There are citizens of the United States, I blush to admit" he declared born under other flags but welcomed under our generous naturalization laws to the full freedom and oppor- +,,,;+,r Of A,,,ar;co ,,,lo I,o,-a ,ourad