The Benson signal., 1915-12-11

| estimated production, $4,000, 600; a tax OF
| SO cents per horsepower on automobiles
| and internal explosion engines, $15,000,O00;
| a stamp tax on bank checks. probably
| SIS, 10000; a tax of % cents per ton on
| pig iron, $10,0O0,000; a tax of SO cents per
| ton on fabricated iron and steel, proba-
| bly, $1O O00 In a country of great in
| dustries like this it 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
| 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 providentially
assigned to it. l 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 or
| amicabe relations, grave as some differ
| ences Of attitude and policy have been
! and may yet turn out to be. L 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 or
| America, who have poured the poison of
disloyalty into the very arteries OF our
| national life; who have sought to bring
IAI.1 (Af n11N or
| ernment into contempt, to destroy our in
| dustries wherever they thought 1t effec-
| tive for their vindictve purposes to strike
| at them, and ito 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 elements of that little, but
| how heroic, nation that in high dayOf old
| staked it's 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 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.
| little while ago such a thing would have
| seemed incredible Because it was in
| dc M Nrn0 rQf
| 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, 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 conspracies 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
effectually. l need not suggest the terms
| in which they may be dealt with.
| I wish that it could be said that only
| few men, misled by mistaken sentiments
| Of allegiance to the governments under
| which they were born, had been guilty of
| disturbing the self-possession and misrep-
| resenting the temper and principles of
| the country during these days of terrible
/ w wh ms n
| 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 partisan of no nation but
| his own. But it 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 citizens as to put their
| passionate sympathy with one 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
/ suppose. can reach corruptions of the
| mind and heart; but l should not speak
| of others without also speaking of these
| and expressing the even deeper humilia-
| ton and scOrn which every self-posss eosd
| and thoughtfully patriotic American must
| feel when he thinks of them and Of the
|
! Many conditions about which we have
| repeatedly legislated being altered
| from decade to decade. it is evident,
| der our very eyes, and are likely to change
| even more rapidly and more radically in
| the days Immediately ahead of us, when
| peace has returned to the world and ma
| tons of Europe once more take up their
| tasks of commerce and industry with the
| energy of those who must bestir them
| selves to build anew. Just what these
| changes will be no can certainly fore
see or confidently predict. There are no
| calculable, because no stable, elements in
| the problem. The most we can do is to
| make certain that we have the necessary
| instrumentalities of information constant
| y at our service so that we may be sure
| that we know exactly what we are deal
| ing with when we come to act If it
| should be necessary to act at all. We
| must first certainly know what it is that
| we are seeking to adapt ourselves to- ]
| 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 ex-
| ceedingly serious and pressing one in this