The Watertown weekly leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1912-1917, 1916-02-01

y
The episode is regarded here as
helpful 1t shows that the admins
tration can no longer fool many of
the people for much of the time May
be it is only a series of revelations.
Maybe there are other docments with
held by other cabinet officers which
will now be forced into publicity and
which will further show the ten
denotes and purposes of an admins
tration which has only a little more
than a year to live, which has already
done SO much harm, and which would
like to do even more
Washington d. c., Jan. 31.-(Special
Correspondent Another day of rec
oning.
The United States treasury faces a
deficit of over 100 million dollars. The
party responsible for that deficit must
either meet the situation or surrender
the reins of power.
In other words, the American peo-
pie demand that a political party
either make good or give up.
The handwriting on the wall was re-
yealed recently by Representative
Josheph W. Fordney of Michigan, in
discussion of the democratic tariff and
revenue policies before the house. He
showed that the democratic party has
| failed to make good.
THE treasury balance is nearly 100
million dollars less than it was when
the republicans were in power" said
Mr.. Fordney. 1.-THE war in Europe is
the excuse, but it is not the cause for
the deficit Without that war the dem
ocratic party would have been
compelled to admit ere this that their
| tariff law is complete failure
Comparing nine months from
corresponding nine months from
March to November, 1913, imports
showed gain of u million dollars.
Customs receipts showed a loss of 76
million dollars. The maximum loss of
customs receipts that can be attributed
| to the war in Europe is 51a million
! dollars per month, and the war tax,
socalled, is producing 6 million dol
| lars per month, or about 1 million dol
lars per month more than the loss in
customs receipts.
| Notwithstanding the fact that the
war tax is more than making up for
the loss in customs receipts, the bal
ance in the general fund declined
$75,6O3,336 from July 81, 1914, to July
81, 1915. On July 81, 1914, the balance
was $143,776,S 500 and one year later it
was down to SOS 173,OOO.
| 1.-THE Underwood law started out
with good balance in the treasury.
That is not an argument in favor of
the Underwood law Credit for that
balance belongs to the preceding re-
publican tariff law The real Dues
ton is, what balance will you have at
the end of the operation of the Under
wood law?
| up to the present time some IS
| million dollars has been raised by the
| so-called war taxes, and notwithstand-
ing this and the fact that importations
| at present are breaking past records
in volume, the balance in the general
| fund is now down to about SO million
dollars
| When the Underwood act is finally
repealed and the reckoning is made,
it will show some hundreds of millions
raised by objectional methods of taxa
| tion-and an empty treasury"
| We Can But Won't.
In his memorandum submitted to
President Wilson, Secretary of Com
merce Redfield spoke of the false doc
trine of American inability to COM
pete" There is no such doctrine. there
never has been, and Mr.. Redfield
knows it. He has put up straw ad-
| versary ir order to make a display of
knocking it down. American ingen-
uity, American enterprise and Ameri-
can labor have the ability to compete
with any nation on earth, on equal
| terms. They can compete on equal
terms but won't
Now Mr.. Redfield, and President
Wilson, please take note of the differ
ence. We have the ability but we
| borer can live on the same wages and
under the same conditions as the Eu-
ropean and the Asiatic, but he won't.
And we are proud of him. American
industries can thrive under the same
conditions as industries in countries
| in low-paid labor, but they won't We
are also proud of the captains of
American industry.
There are some American statesmen
who would like to force American la
Dor to accept European and Asiatic
standards. They tried to put that
over, and as a result we had long
bread lines and vast armies of unem-
ployed in 1874 You think you dem
ocrats can do that again, Mr.. Red
field, but you can't When it comes to
question of inability" you are up
against it. You simply can't put it
over again
War Order Prosperity In Vermont.
A report on industrial conditions
in Vermont credits war orders with
present prosperity in that state. The
Windsor Machine company paid div
idends aggregating 125 per cent in
July and October The Robin Hood
Powder company secured large orders,
and the machine companies in Spring
field and Rutland are working ON