The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1918-06-07

over the wheel.
Moreover. taxes of that sort will
not be paid until the June Of next
year, and the Treasury must antici-
pate them. 1t must use the money
they are to produce before it is
due. 1t must sell short-time GER
tificates of Indebtedness. In the
autumn a much larger sale of
longtime bopds must be effected
than has yet been attempted. What
are the bankers to think Of the
certificates if they do not certainly
know where the money is to come
from which is to take them UNI?
And how are investors to approach
the purchase of bonds with any
sort Of confidence or knowledge of
their own affairs if they do not
know what taxes they are to pay
and what economies and adjust
ments of their business they must
effect? / cannot assure the coun-
try CT a successful administration
Of the Treasury in 1918 if the ques-
ton of further taxation is to be
left undecided until 1919.
/ am advising you to act upon
this matter of taxation now, gen.
tlemen, not because l do not know
that you can see and interpret the
facts and the duty they impose just
as well and with as clear percep-
ton Of the obligations involved as
/ can, but because there is GER
tain solemn satisfaction in sharing
with you the responsibilities of
such time.
The world never stood in such
case before; men never had so
clear nor so moving a vision OF
duty. l know that you will be-
grudge the work to be done here
no more than the men begrudge
theirs who lie in the trenches and
sally forth to their death. There
is stimulating comrades1ip knit
ting us all together.
And this task to which l invite
your immediate consideration will
be performed under favorable in
ffuences if we will look to what
the country is thinking and expect
ing and care nothing at all for
what is being said and believed in
the Hobbies of Washington hotels,
where the atmosphere seems to
make it possible to believe what is
believed nowhere else.
The consideration that domi-
mates every other now and makes
every other seem trial and neg
ligible is the winning of the war.
We are not only in the midst CT
the war; we are at the very peak
and crisis of it. Hundreds of
thousands of our men, carrying our
hearts with them and cur fortunes,
are in the field, and ships are
crowding faster and faster to the
ports Of France and England
with regiment after regiment,
thousands after thousand, to join
them until the enemy shall be beat
en- and brought to reckoning with
mankind.
There can be no pause or inter-
mission. The great enterprise
must, on the contrary, be pushed
with greater and greater energy
The volume Of our might must
steadily and rapidly be augmented
until there can be no question of
resisting it. If that is TO be ae-
complished, gentlemen. money
must sustain it to the utmost. Our
financial program must no more
be left in doubt or suffered to lag
than our ordnance program or our
ship program, or our munitions
program, or our program for max
ing millions of men ready. These
are not problems, indeed, but mere
plans upon paper unless there is
to be an unquestionable supply of
money.
That is the situation and it is
the situation which creates the
duty; no choice or preference is
ours There is only one way to
meet that duty We must meet it
without selfishness or fear Of con-
sequences. Politics is adjourned.
The elections will go to those
who think least of it; to those who
60 to the constituencies without
explanation or excuses; with
plain record of duty faithfully and
disinterestedly performed, ], for
one, am always confident that the
people of this country will give a
just verdict upon the service of
men who act for them when the
facts are such that no man can
disguise or conceal them.
There is no danger Of deceit
now; an intense and pitiless light
beats upon every man and every
action in this tragic plot of war
that is now upon the stage. If lob
byists hurry to Washington to at
tempt to turn what you do in the
matter of taxation to their per-
sonal advantage, the light also will
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