The Robesonian., 1918-06-03

Will UIIdIcCCOU reluctance CndC come
to ask you 20 prolong your session
long enough to provide more. adequate
resources for the Treasury for Che
conduct of the war. l have reason
to appreciate as fully as you do how
arduous the session has been. Your
labors have been severe and protract-
ed. You have passed long series Of |
measures which required the debate
of many doubtful questions Of judg-
ment and many exceedingly difficult |
questions of principle as well as of |
practice. The summer is upon us, in
which labor and counsel are twice |
arduous and are constantly apt to be |
| impaired by lassitude and fatigue. |
! The elections are at hand, and we |
ought as soon as possible to go and |
! render an intimate account of our |
trusteeship to the people who dele
gated us to act for them in the weigh
ty and anxious matters that crowd
upon us in these days of critical
choice and action.
But we dare not go to the cleo
tions until we have done our duty to
the full. These are days when duty
stands stark and naked, and even
Excuses are unavailing. We have
either done our duty or we have not
The fact will be as gross and plain
as the duty itself. In such a case
lassitude aud fatigue seem negligible
enough. The facts are tonic and suf-
flee to freshen the labor
Must Provide Revenues.
And the facts are these:
Il Additional revenues must mani
festly be provided for. 1t would be
most unsound policy to raise too
large proportion of them by loan,
and it is evident that the $4,000 ,000.-
900 now provided for by taxation will
not of themselves sustain the greatly
enlarged budget to which we must
Immediately look forward. We can
: not in fairness wait until the fiscal
year is at hand to apprise our people
of the taxes they must pay upon their
: earnings of the present calendar year
whose accountings and expenditures
will then be closed.
We cannot get increased taxes un
less the country knows what they ar,
to be and practices the necessary econ
omy to make the Unavailable. Def
riteness, early definiteness as to wha
it stasks are to be, is absolutely nee
essary for the successful administra
tion of the Treasury. It cannot franz
fair and workable regulations il
haste if it is not to know it's exac
task until the very eve of it's perform
ance.
Wants Inequities Remedied.
"The present tax laws are mas
red, moreover, by inequities whic
ought to be remedied. Indisputabl
facts, every one; and we cannot a'+e
or blink them. To state them is argu
ment enough.
"And yet, perhaps, you will perm
me to dwell for moment upon tn
situation they disclose. Enormou
loans freely spent in the stimulate
duce inflations and extravaganza
= which presently make the whole ec'
- nomic structure questionable and il
- secure and the very basis of credit
I cut away. Only by fair, equitabl
distributed taxation, of the widest il
| cider ce and drawing chiefly from tt
sources which would be likely to d
moralize credit by their very abun'
ance, can we prevent initiation al
keep our industrial system free
speculation and waste. We shall ma
urally turn, therefore, I suppose,
war profits and incomes and luxuri
for the additional taxes But II
war profits and incor1es upon whi'
the increased taxes will be levied W
be profits and incomes Of the Gale
tlar year 1918 It would be mar
festly unfair to wait until the ear
months Of 1919 to say what they a
to be. It might be difficult, shou
imagine to run the mill with wat
that had already gone over the whe
Big Bond Sale in Autumn.
Moreover, taxes of that sort W
L, ~oo;J ,,r4;1 bo Tuvo IF no
year, and the Treasury must anti
pate them It must use the mon
they are to produce before it is d,
II It must sell short-time certificates
Indebtedness. In the autumn mu
. larger sale of longtime bonds mi
- be effected than has yet been atteml
ed. What are the bankers to thi
of the certificates if they do not G.
tainly know where the money is
ccme from which is to take them u
And how are investors to approa
the purchase of bonds with any 81
of confidence or knowledge of tn
own affairs if they do rot know wi
taxes they are to pay ard what ec'
omies and adjustments of their bu
ness they must effect? l cannot
sure the country of a successful :
ministration of the Treasury in Is
if the question Of further taxation
to be left undecided until 1919.
''Peak and Crisis" of War.
''The consideration that domina
every other now and makes ev
other seem trivial and negligible
the winning of the war. We are
only in the midst of the war; we
at the very peak and crisis of
- Hundreds of thousands of our n
carrying our hearts with them ;
. our fortunes, are in the field.
ships are crowding faster and fas
to the ports of France and Engl
\ with regiment after regiment, tn
sand after thousand, to join them
til the enemy shall be beaten
brought to reckoning with manki1
There can be no pause or interr
sion. The great enterprise must,