The Washington herald., 1915-12-08
TIE Pres;deut', Addre...

|. The Presidents Address. 8
Altogether the most forccful utterancc that has
come from Woodrow Wilson since he has been
in the White House was the warning against con-
spiraey and treason in his first address to the
Sixty-fourth Congress. So earnest was his urging
that laws be enacted to punish such creatures OF
passion. dsloyalty and anarchy" that the infer
cnce must be general that events threatening our
government and industries more serious than
those Of which the public has knowledge have been
and still transpiring within the borders Of the
United States. 1t becomes the immediate duty OF
Congress to provide the executive with the most
drastic means for the suppression OF those who
have poured the poison of disloyalty into the
very arteries of national life; who have sought
to bring the authority and good name of our gov
ernment into contempt. 70 destroy our Industries
wherever they thought it effective for their vim
dictive purposes to strike at them, and to debase
our politics to the uses of foreign intrigue
For the great majority of Americans this por-
tion of the Presidents address will overshadow
all the rest of it in importance, and many will
be amazed to learn that throughout the months
in which intrigue, arson and murder, have
flourished the government has been without
a legal weapon with which to strike down the
traitors and assassins The setting forth in black
and white of the administrations program for the
national defense is reassurng, while presenting no
plans that it had not already made known. Ncces-
Sariy the President was compelled to confess
complete reversal OF the complacent views with
which he regarded his eountry's relation to the
European year ago, but in recommending
that the nation arm itself he indulges in no cx-
travagances and only the ultra-pacihsts OF the
stripe of his principal political foe. in his own
party. will pronounce his military program any
thing more than is necessary and prudent.
The portion of the address that must be least
satisfactory the country is that devoted to tho
revenues. and that subject President Wilson
spoke at disadvantage, striving by adroit pre-
sentation of the actual figures to drape the
Treasury skeleton that it might be viewed With
out inviting commissions. The plain fact is that
the administration has to raise nearly 5000 100000
in that its calculations failed to provide
for. All those revenues which it so confidently
cast away must be restored and additional $II2,
100000 must be collected by an increase in direct
taxation. which, according to the Presidents
recommendation. is to be levied principally upon
the wealth of the East and the incomes of the
dwellers in the cities. The administration cannot
avoid adding to accusing record in the matter
OF taxation that will confront it at the polls next
year.
There is not word in the address that is cal
culated to cause business the least uncasness. In
the recommendation for the appointment of a
commission to inquire into the whole railroad
Situation it is easy to detect the suggestion of a
belief that the railroads may have been subjected
to more harassment than has been good for the
country. The railroads will not be blamed if they
fail to regard the prospect of another commission
with enthusiasm, though it is not unreasonable to
recognize it the Presidents idea of solution of
problem that has been rendered difficult by an
Interstate Commerce Commission that has mani
tested no sympathy with his views.
On the subject of Mexico the President was
noncommitta, and there was rather hopeless
tone to his remarks that will cause neither sur
prise disappointment. There many mat
tiers of domestic Importance, concerning which the
people would like to hear more from the Pres-
dent, but so far as it goes and bearing in mind that
the only issues that really momentous by COM
parson those growing out of the European
war, the address as whole must be regarded as
sufficient, satisfying and admirable.