The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1916-07-25
WASHINGTON LETTER,
THE LEADER Bureau.
Washington, July "a, 1916.
North Pays For Southern Extraya.
gance.

Taxpayers in the Northern states
would do well to ponder the statement
made to the members of congress the
other day by ex-Speaker Cannon, in
replying to a question of Congress-
man Jack Garner Of Texas. Mr.. Can
non declared that a member on the
Democratic side had said to him:
We'll, it does not make and differ
ence how we vote for expenditures;
you fellers North have got to pay
them" When Southern Democrats
speak of the North they include the
West as well.
The remark of that Democrat to
Mr.. Cannon exactly describes the at
titude of the majority in congress to-
day. 1t is the old story of the two
men who devided the cow, one getting
the half which carried the head, and
the other taking the half which held
the udder. The first man had to feed
the COW; the second man got all the
profits. When the COW hooked num-
Der two, number one had to pay the
damages. In this instance the Fed
eral treasury is the COW, and the South
controls the southern half of the an
imal.
The thirteen states, California, Illi-
nois, Indiana, Iowa, Massachusetts,
Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New
York, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylva-
mia, and Wisconsin, had a population
in 1916 of nearly 100000, and they
cast a vote of over 100000, in 1912
The capital stock employed by these
thirteen states in 1910, aggregated
over $14,00O,OOO 1000; salaries and wa
ges paid out amounted to over $780,
100000, and the value of manufactured
products to over $15,500,000, 900, an
nually. These states paid 100000
Of $80,000000 collected from the cor
poratiOn and income tax during the
fiscal year, 1915, and they pay over
Is per cent of the taxes laid by the
war revenue measure"
The thirteen states, Alabama Ari-
iona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Lou
isiana. Mississippi, North Carolina,
South Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee,
Texas, and Virginia, had population
| in 1910 of 24,250,O0O, and they cast
vote of 1,S18,0OO. The capital stock
employed by these thirteen
states in 1910 aggregated $1,869 ,OOO,-
900; salaries and wages paid out
| amounted to about $407 100000, and
| the value of manufactured products
to $1,90S,000,0 annually. These
| thirteen states paid less than $4,000
| 600 of the amount collected from cor
poration and income taxes for the fis-
cal year 1915, and their contribution
| to the war tax was unimportant
The south has had it's fling during
The past four years. They have con-
trolled practically all of the import
ant committees Craftsmanship in con-
gress; President Wilson is a section
| alist, and so is the Secretary of the
| Treasury, McAdoo. The Comptroller
of the Treasury, John Shelton Will
| liams is also sectionalistic in his views
| and it is due to McAdoo and Williams
| that so much favoritism has been
shown to the South by the Federal
| Reserve Board. There has never been
such a pork regime in the history of
congress, and the smear of the rind
| is found on all our important legisIa-
| ton since 1913
| In the thirteen Northern and West
ern states are to be found the bulk of
our great manufacturing industries,
which were so sorely wounded by the
Democratic tariff law. The thirteen
states are largely agricultural On
such things as rice and angora goat
| hair the Southern congressman who
| framed the tariff bill left a duty, but
| the farmers of the North and West
| got undiluted free trade on their pro-
ducts. The people of the North and
West stand for America First" The
administration and the Legislators sent
| to Washington from the South, stand
for "Dixieland First" To the extent
| that part controls the whole of this
country, our Americanism is tainted"
to use President Wilson's expression
| The Republican party stands for the
whose country, not for one section at
| the expense of all the others.