The Spectator., 1915-12-07

and naptha would yield at the present
 estimated production. $10.o00o0o; a tax of | 50 cents per horsepower on automobiles | and internal explosion engines, $l5, ,000, 900; | stamp tax on bank checks, probably | SIS, ,OOO, GOO; a tax of 25 cents per ton on l pig iron, $10,000 900; a tax of 50 cents per l ton on fabricated iron and steel. proba- 1 ply $l0.000000. In country of great in l dustries like this it ought to be easy to distribute the burdens of taxation with out making them anywhere bear too heavily too exclusively upon any one set of persons or undertakings. What Is | clear Is, that the industry of this gener-
 ation should pay the bills of this genera | tion.
 | The Danger Within.
 | I have spoken to you today, gentlemen, l upon a single theme, the thorough prep | aration of the nation to care for its | own security and to make sure of entire l freedom to play the impartial role in this hemisphere and in the world which we | all believe to have been providentially l 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 of | amicabe relations, grave as some differ | ences of attitude and policy have been | and may yet turn out to be. I 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, l blush to | admit, born under other flags but welcomed under our generous naturalization laws l to the full freedom and opportunity of
 America, who have poured the poison of l 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 effec- | tive for their vindictive purposes to strike l at them. and to debase our politics to the l uses of foreign intrigue. Their number | is not great compared with the whole 1 number of those sturdy hosts by which | our nation has been enriched in recent | generations out of vrie foreign stocks; | but 1t is great enough to have brought l deep disgrace upon us and to have made | it necessary that should promptly | make of processes of law by which | we may be purged of their corrupt dis | tempers. America never witnessed any thing like this before. It never dreamed | 1t 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
 
 | staked its very life to free itself from every entangement 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. A l little while ago such thing would have | seemed incredible. Because it was in- | credible made no preparation for 1t. | We would have been almost ashamed to prepare for it. as if we were suspicious | of ourselves, our own comrades and l neighborsi But the ugly and incredible l has actually come about and we are with
 out adequate federal laws to deal with | it. 1 urge you to enact such laws at | the earliest possible moment and feel that l in so doing l am urging you to do noth- | ing less than save the honor and self l respect of the nation.
 Must Be Crushed Out.
 | Such creatures of passion, disloyalty l and anarchy must be crushed out. They | are not many, but they are infinitely ma l lignant and the hand of our power should l close over them at once. They have 1 formed plots to destroy property they
 have entered into conspiracies against the | neutrality of the government. they have l sought to pry into every confidential 1 transaction of the government in order | to serve interests alien to our own. It is
 possible to deal with these things very l effectually. l need not suggest the terms
 in which they may be dealt with.
 | l wish that 1t could be said that only a l few men, misled by mistaken sentiments l 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 l inc during those of | war. when it would seem that every man | who was truly an American would in | stinctively make it his duty and his pride l to keep the scales of judgment even and | prove himself a partisan of no nation but | his own. But IL cannot There are some | men among us, and many resident abroad | who. though born and bred In the Unit l ed States and calling themselves Amer | jeans. have so forgotten themselves and | their honor citizens as to put their | passionate sympathy with one or the oth- | CT side in the great European conflict | above their regard for the peace and dig
 nty of the United States. They also | preach and practice disloyalty. No laws l l 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 -possseosd
 | and thoughtfully patriotic American must | feel when he thinks of them and of the | discredt they are daily bringing upon us. | Many conditions about which We have | repeatedly legisated 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 na- l 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 one can certainly fore | see confidently predict There are no | calculabe, 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 l 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. if IL
 should be necessary to act at all. We 1 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 imDortant