Forest City press. (Forest City, Potter County, D.T. [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1917-05-25

languages and dialects and their
strong and valuable peculiar characteris-
tics not only for . few generations. like
your settlers, but for centuries. They
even revive them and promise to keep
them forever. The other day l was visit
ell Dy Q Scottish business man of cOnSid-
cradle Importance whose speech my secre-
taries had the greatest difficulty in max
ing our: Whole groups of Britons. speak
Ing different languages m different To-
cal dialects and showing extraordinary
differences In other respects, too. are now
meeting for the first time in their lives
on the fields Of F~rance-and coming to
know one another.
Neither Great Britain nor the United
states IS In itself one race. 1t is true that
England gave you your first great mass
or settlers. But the more important fact
Infinitely more important-is that Eng
land gave you, along with those first set
tiers, certain ideas of political liberty
winch you have developed-greatly de-
veloped-on behalf of all subsequent set
tiers. whether English or Croatian. The
me VINO fought your revolution of 1W6
against George Ill constantly depended
on certain principles of representative
government which they quoted from the
men who ought the English revolution
OF 1910 against Charles 1, and from the
men who fought the English revolution
OF l6sS against James III. We are fighting
now and are spending splendid lives and
EO.O0O.OOO a day for those same principles.
n trouble with you is that you seem
to drop British history at a point gener-
atoms back. You seem to think that
while you have been moving, we have
been standing still. The fact is that we
have e moving, too: and, in some
ways, we seem to have moved quite be-
yond you
Surely, for instance. our system of put
ting all important social groups actually
into the government Is more 'representa-
tive" as we'll as more democratic than
your lawyer-polftician system: and surely
1t Is far more likely to lead to mutual un-
Outstanding between those groups and to
mutual justice.
Let me briefly outline. for instance, q
few of the pieces of work lone by the
British government during the wal with
regard to capital and with regard to
iabor. n begin with taxation. You
nave put special war taxes'' on various
little articles bought by the general pub
nc In chemists shops and similar places.
This Is In addition to your tariff. We
nave imposed tariff duties on only IA very
Few arttcles-article almost altogether Of
luxury.and we have kept quite strictly
away from the principle of special inter-
nal war taxes on normal commodities
IN common use by the people at large.
we have even protected our poorer peO-
pie against having their rents raised by
their landlords. Landlords q been for
DsA0Sta w poi III llSOIl I " LIE luG
rent OF any dwelling the annual value Of
which is below a certain level. This
level has been placed high enough to
protect the mass of our working popula-
ton against any increase In its rent bill
during the period of the war. Our gem
eral principle is that the taxation for this
wa shall be concentrated vigorously on
the rich.
We start by taking 60 per cent OF all
excess profits" which may be made by
any business during the war. II the busi-
ness ts q controlled establishments" COM
ing within the jurisdiction of the minister
OF munitions. our method of calculating
It's war tax is somewhat different. 1t Is
allowed to keep ITS normal peace time
prohts-plus 20 per cent of those profits.
All the rest of whatever profits it may
make must be surrendered to the treas
ury. Il may say, incidentally, that the
wages In controlled establishments'
have usually risen a great deal more
than 20 per cent and rave often risen q
great deal more h 100 per cent?. The
on business is hat considerably more
than half of all excess profits made
during the war, whether they are actually
caused by the war or not, is at once taken
by the government.
But this is only the start. We now
come to the personal income tax. The
standard rate of this tax is today 5 shil-
linss In the ~pound-that il. Is per cent.
Persons of relatively small incomes pay
less than the standard rate. They may
pay as little as 9 shillings and 3 pence
in. the pound-which Is just q bit more
than 10 per cent. On the other hand. the
man with a large income will pay much
more than the tanda rate. For exam
pie. the man with an income of 10000
will q ES. 279-which Is almost 33 1-3 per
cent. And the man with an income of
GOO. 900 will pay Gs4. 0z9-which is some 42
per cent. He must then still. OF course,
pay his local property tax. II often hap
pens therefore today that q rich man
pays more than halt his income to tax
gatheFers Of one sort M another.
I venture to Say tina the special finan-
cial burdens which have been laid on the
government at Washington by the move
ment toward preparedness have not been
passed or to the rich any more directly
or Immediately than Q been the case
with the present special financial burdens
I ask for information: Can you say that
your national taxation for war purposes
really hits the rich aa straight between
the > - ours does?
We have not been content, however,
with simply taxing the rich. We have
increasingly stringent public control.
First the railways. then part OF the ship
ping, then some Of the coal mines. then
the rest Of the coal mines Ana the. rest
OF the 1hlpping have come under the
hands Of the government n rave been.
placed In q position which they must do
whatever the government tells them to do
n do 10 forthwith. This 10 not mere
Reputation" It u m operative control.
to ~ exercised to almost any degree to
which the government wishes to exer-
cioe e.
Nov our railways and our ships and our
coal mines m our three strategic In
dustries. We ave made them the serv-
ants Of b government. The precedent