Mexico Missouri message., 1915-12-16

n
$lS000.OO0; a tax OF rs cents per ton on
pig ron 900; q tax of SO cents per
ton on fabricated iron and steel proba-
bly, S10,OO0.O00. In a country Of great In
dustries like this II 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
tion.
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 Il. / 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 OF
amicable relations, grave as some differ
ences of attitude and policy have been
and may yet turn out to be. / 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 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 1t efrec-
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
II 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
II possible that men sworn into Its 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 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-
| 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 1t was in
| credible we made no preparation for It.
| We would have been almost ashamed to
| prepare for 1t, as II 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 federaI laws to deal with
| it. / 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 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. It is
| possible to deal with these things very
] effectually. need not suggest the terms
| in which they may be dealt with.
| 1 wish that 1t 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 self-possession and misrep-
resenting the temper and principles of
| the country during these days of terrible
| war, when II would seem that every man
| who was truly an American would In
stinctively make 1t his duty and his pride
to keep the scales Of judgment even and
| prove himself a partisan of no nation but
|
| 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 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,
| | 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 legislated are being altered
| from decade to decade, 1t 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
peace has returned to the world and ma
| tions 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 one 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
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 il successfully as at present
| eduinnad and ro-ordfnafed Euoo.aof