Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1915-12-09

be for the fiscal year 1917. $93. 100000.
Those figures. taken with the figures
for the present fiscal year which /
have already given. disclose our hnan-
cial problem for the year 1917. As
Stunning that the taxes imposed by the
emergency revenue act and the pres
ent duty on sugar are to be discontin-
ued. and that the balance at the close
OF the present fiscal year will be only
$20.644,605.7 rs. that the disbursements
for the Panama canal will again be
about twenty-five millions, and that
the additional expenditures for the
army and navy are authorized by the
congress, the deficit in the general
fund of the treasury on the thirtieth
Of June, 1917. will be nearly two hun
dred and thirty-five millions. To this
sum at least fifty millions should be
added to represent a safe working bal
ance for the treasury, and twelve mil
lions to include the usual deficiency
estimates in 1917; and these additions
would make a total deficit of some two
hundred and ninety-seven millions. If
the present taxes should be continued
throughout this year and the next,
however, there would be a balance in
the treasury of some seventy-six and
a half millions at the end of the pres
ent fiscal year. and a deficit at the
end of the next year of only some fifty
millions, or. reckoning in sixty-two
millions for deficiency appropriations
and a safe treasury belance at the end
of the year, a total deficit of some
n hundred and twelve millions. The
obvious moral of the figures is that it
is a plain counsel of prudence to con-
tinue all of the present taxes or their
equivalents, and confine ourselves to
the problem of providing SIP, 900, 900
of e revenue rather than 1927 ,000,-
900.
New Sources of Revenue.
How shall we obtain the new reve-
nue.? 1t seems to me a clear dictate of
prudent craftsmanship and frank
finance that in what we are now, l
hope, to undertake, we should pay as
we go. The people of the country are
entitled to know just what burdens of
taxation they are to carry, and to know
from the outset, now. The new bills
should be paid by internal taxation.
To what sources, then, shall we
turn? This is so peculiarly a question
which the gentlemen Of the house Of
representatives are expected under
the Constitution to propose an answer
to that you will hardly expect me to
do more than discuss it in very gen.
eral terms. We should be following
an almost universal example of mod
ern government if we were to draw
the greater part or even the whole of
the revenues we need from the in
come taxes. By somewhat lowering the
present limits of exemption and the
figure at which the surtax shall begin
to be imposed, and by increasing, step
by step throughout the present gradu-
alton, the surtax itself, the 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 any.
where making the burden unreason'
ably or oppressively heavy. The pre-
else reckonings are fully and accurate
ly set out in the report of the secre
tary of the treasury which will be i'm
,ooJ;o+oI, 1oid haforn xyo1,
And there are many additions
sources of evenue which can Justly be
resorted to without hampering the in
dustries of the country or putting any
too great charge upon individual ex
penditure. A one per cent tax pei
gallon on gasoline and naptha would
yield, at the present estimated pro
duction, $40, 000,0 900; a tax of so cents
internal explosion engines, $4,000,
900; a stamp tax on bank checks
probably $4,000 900; a tax of rs cents
per ton on pig iron, $10,000,O 900; a tai
and steel, probably $%10,000,000. In
country of great industries like this i
ought to be easy to distribute the bur
dens of taxation without making then
anywhere bear too heavily or too ex
clusively upon any one set of persons
OF undertakings. What is clear is
that the industry of this generation
should pay the bills of this generation
l have spoken to you today, gentle
men, upon a single theme, the thor
ough preparation of the nation to car
for its own security and to make SURF
of entire freedom to play the impartia
role in this hemisphere and in tn,
world which we all believe to hav,
been p~rovidentially assigned to it.
have had in my mind no thought o
any immediate or particular DANCE
arising out of our relations with othe
nations. We are at peace with al
the nations of the world, and there i
reason to hope that no question il
controversy between this and othe
governments will lead to any seriou
breach of amicable relations, grave a
some differences of attitude and polio,
have been and may yet turn out to be
| am sorry to say that the graves
threats against our national peace AM
safety have been uttered within on
own borders. There are citizens Q
the United States, | blush to admit
born under other flags but welcome
under u generous n%aturalizatio,
laws to the full freedom and oppol
tunity Of America, who have poure
the poison of disloyalty into the yer
arteries of our national life; who hav
[ sought to bring the authority an
good name of our government int
[ contempt, to destroy our industrie
: wherever they thought 1t effective 70
their vindictive purposes to strike a
them. and to debase our Dolitics [