The Washington herald., 1915-10-15
Revenue and Reform.

| ANSVS0OS 040 BASAVI Ms
The administration program contemplates ap
preparations amounting to $4oo,ooo,ooo for ths
army and navy for the next fiscal year. This viii
be an increase of about $4,000 900 over the ap
! is moderate increase and fully justified by the
conditions this country faces, with large part o
the civilized world engaged in war and the wal
area constantly increasing. There is little doubt
that Congress will make these increased appropria
tions, even though it should also have to author
ize bond issue to meet the expenditures. The
revenues are at low cbb and the deficit greater
than it has been for many years. There will
have to be some rather radical changes made in
the revenue laws before the government can pre-
pare for national defense without borrowing
money to foot the bills. The report that the
emergency revenue act will be continued indeh-
nitely and the sugar tax restored is encouraging
as indicating that the Democratic party again
realizes that it is dealing with condition and not
with theory, but there will be necessary other
changes in the laws to produce sufficient reve-
nues to meet the ordinary expenditures of the
government.
The issue of bonds to meet such ordinary ex-
pcnditurcs in time of peace, ought to have sober
ing to the propagandists who exploit new theories
and demand that they be embodied in the laws
as experiments to be tried out at public expense.
These experiments have cost the government much
both in the way Of increased expenditures and the
loss OF necessary revenue, but the reform propo-
gandas go merrily along and apparently find
plenty of dupes to finance them in their assaults
on the United States Treasury There is little
doubt that the next Congress will have the same
demands made upon it for fad legislation that
the last Congress had to meet, but the present
embarrassments of the government may give the
members courage to stand out against all mere
experimental law-naking.
Propagandas are, after ALL much like ordinary
advertising, though not honest for they do
not give circulation, schedules for their adver
tising. The propagandists are supported by
money and they do not give the sources of their
revenues the promises rpade to secure it.
Much of the money spent in this way is secured
by false pretenses of conducting moral and
educational campaign and then turning it to
political use, for the reformer is rarely satisfied
until he has broken into politics and set in mo-
ton machine to grind out new laws He
is not satisfied to teach; he wants to secure a
law to compel all the people to accept his teach
ing. Congress has listened to these reformers
who advertised that they represented all the good
people, when the members of Congress might as
we'll have read the advertising pages of the news
papers and magazines those the billboards
10 gauge public sentiment The propagandist who
IS working on a salary and is supported by small
and unknown group of contributors, is simply a
sandwich carrying his advertising into the
Capitol where there rigid rules to prohibit the
display of advertising matter in any form. That
these reform sandwich men pretend to represent
any public sentiment except what they create by
heir advertising is the most arrant humbug but
many members of Congress have been imposed
upon by them, as have other people who read the
signs they carried and accepted them represent
ng something other than the oldest form of ad- |
yertising in the world.
1t will not be all misfortune if the present en-
,arrassment of the government will enable Con- |
yress to the humbug of the reform sandwich |
men, and get up enough courage to treat them
ust it does other and legitimate advertis-
ng portrayed by the poor sandwich men who |
advertise places to eat places to hear the |
rue gospel OF Ctopian government. |