Der Deutsche correspondent. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1841-1918, 1917-05-18


Treasury had been in existence when
Jesus was born in Bethlehem, and
had begun to pay out a dollar
minute, and had paid out dollar a
minute, night and day, ever since, it
would have paid out in this year,
1917, Just a little over one-half of
the two billion dollar sum which Mr..
McAdoo is asking the nation to give
him for airy distribution among the
allies. If the United States Treasury
had begun, when Jesus was born, to
pay out money at the rate of a dollar
a minute, day and night, and kept at
il till now, it would have paid out
only something over one-half the
sum that the new revenue bill pro-
poses to take from the people of the
United States, IN TAXES, THIS
YEAR 1t is plain enough that the
bond issue is not being eagerly taken,
to say the least. The banks have
gone to their limit with commendable
ing the bonds. The Government will
doubtless eventually dispose of the
two-billion issue. But who can say
as much of the next issue? Suppose
the next issue is failure, and Mr..
ing over hundreds of millions to
banking concerns and foreign Gov
ernments, until we are in debt two,
three or five billions What then?
Why, then, the huge deficits and
running expenses will have to be met
by TAXATION. The revenue bill
that has been prepared for this year
will seem like sweet dream of
pleasure when the revenue bills for
next year are made up. If we stuck
strictly to our own business and paid
our own war costs and relied upon
ourselves, the cost of the war would
be huge enough to suit the most eX-
travagant-but the people could and
would pay it willingly. But paying
every other nations expenses is a
horse of a different color. With
taxation raised to a height upon
which the producers and laborers
cannot pay and subsist in comfort,
the masses will be no more content
than they are now in the belligerent
countries-and, if they told you the
truth, you would know that England,
France, Italy, Germany and Austria
are all sitting on that SAFE vol6Hno
of revolution which exploded in
Russia. Everybody is willing to pay
out all he has and all he can earn,
borrow or beg for AMERICA. But
huge and burdensome taxation in
Cured BY throwing around millions
and billions for other Governments
to scramble for will sooner or later
excite universal resentment. 1t is
bad policy-both for the present and
for the future, and if it be defended
on the plausible ground that it is a
war measure and that we can afford
to finance the allies to fight for us,
we reply that it will prove to be as
disastrous as a war measure as it is
unbecoming and mean as senti-
ment The nation that hires others
to fight for it, instead of making
ready to fight-and then fighting
its own war, fosters a contemplate
sentiment and resorts to fatal
strategy. From military stand
point, our only correct strategy is to
spend all our money and all our labor
in preparing our navy and our armies
HERE AT THEIR NATURAL BASE,
and so compelling Germany, if she
wants to fight, to come to us and see
how she likes the taste Of OUR
GRANITE. If our General Staff has
not yet reached the point of military
intelligence where it can grasp this
elemental and fundamental principle
of strategy, then West Point and
Annapolis must have worked upon
some mighty poor material. The
prime strategic advantage of this
country in warfare with a European
Power is NOT a distant offensive.
against the enemy's base, but it is an
offensive prepared and launched near
and upon our own shores, against an
enemy compelled to leave his base
and assault ours. That ought to be
plain to a freshman--or even to one
of the gentlemen who write military
criticisms for newspapers in this and
other seaports. To throw away our
strategic advantage by sending our
fleets and armies away from their
home bases, to be parts of a Euro
pean offensive which has practically
broken down, is a blundering pro-
rosal that would make a real STRAIT
egist gasp, and that will cost us dear
if we accede to it. And as it is with
military strategy, so it is with finan-
cial strategy. Nothing could be more
unsound or more dangerous than inn
posing huge taxation and huge
bonded Indebtedness upon our people
and then throwing the money around
among scrambling foreign competi-
tors, exactly like a drunken sailor
throwing coppers to lot of scramb-
ling urchins. Our money like our
armies and our fleets, should be con-
centrated at it's home bases and not
dispersed abroad AS sure as any
thing can be sure, the financial
strategy we have adopted and seem
determined to pursue will prove to
be unsound strategy, risky strategy
we fear disastrous strategy. The
Congress should never have resigned
its authority over the nations purse
Neither Mr.. McAdoo nor any other
man is competent to decide, at his
own sweet will and pleasure, how
seven thousand millions of the Amer
lean peoples money shall be spent
throwing a hundred millions to this
one and a hundred millions to that
one, and thousands of millions to the
lot. We have a striking example of
the folly of entrusting such autocratic
mower TO anV man in the first pro-