Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1917-09-02
RADICALS" MEET
DECISIVE DEFEAT

Continued From First Page)
woman and child and all their works
must be taken for the defense of the
state"
LODGE WOULD AVOID
IMPERILIN GCREDIT
Senator Lodge. in reply to Senator
Johnson. said:
Il think 1t is wise to tax small bust
ness to moderate extent, and that
1t Is wise to take 60 per cent of the
profits of the business interests 1
want to keep business active and pro-
ductiYe. II we don't. we will imperil
our credit and ruin our sources of
revenue. I don't want to do that, and
find ourselves embarrassed and forced
to levy higher consumption taxes.
think we have gone far enough. If
we don't keep the credit of the United
States safe. we will endanger our
chances in the war. In levying in
come and profits taxes they have gone
to the limit # safety, not to business
but to the government OF this United
States tina: is raising the taxes. That
is the only safety that interests me-
think these extra rates ought to be
avoided"
After defeat OF the johnson amend
ment, which mustered less than the
twenty-five votes expected by leaders
or the radical tax group, Senator La
Follette began his speech on his
| amendments for a maximum Of 70 per
cent graded down to 4S per cent
Declaring that industry has made
'inordinatc and unheard-of profits out
OF the war;" Senator La Toilette said:
1t would be reproach to our pres
n 81
vent 30 far as we have the power.
one class OF our citizens. comparatively
small, from becoming enormously rich
out OF this war, while the other and
much larger. class was Impoverished
by the war. although we cannot pre-
vent the injustice and the inequality
OF the burdens which every war
causes to the people of a country en-
! gagged in it,
CANNOT EaUALIZE
FINANCIAL BURDENS
| We cannot even approx imately
equaltze the FINANCIAL burdens of this
war; but we can at least refuse to set
our approval upon a scheme which
would deliberately recognize and
legalize the grosscst possible Injustice
In the distribution OF those burdens.
1t is proposition which seems to me
must be shocking to the moral sense
OF every man that some of our people
shall be in receipt OF incomes of thou
sands, hundreds OF thousands, or mill
lions Of dollars purely as a result Of
this war. while millions Of our people
as result OF it are suffering priya.
ton and want
We claim to have profited by the
military experience Of other nations in
THIS war. We conscripted men. over
turned our traditions and. 1 believe.
violated our Constitution. We invested
| the executive with the most searching
and arbitrary power ever exercised by
potentatc or ruler since civilized gov
eminent was established among men.
we have done all this, whether wisely
or unwisely, because of the plea that
| the necessities OF war demanded II.
1T is only when we come to the
proposition that some of the surplus
wealth OF the country shall be wrested
from those who control it, though they
do not need 1t. nor sometimes wisely
use IT. that halt is called. Here II
is that experience is to be disregarded
that the just demands OF the peopls
10 be relieved a little from the bur.
dens OF this war are to be ignored, and
financial policy adopted which can
only bring disaster to our forces in
the field and discomfort to our people
at home"