Montpelier examiner. [volume] (Montpelier, Idaho) 1895-1937, 1918-05-31
Declares il i Necessary to
Proceed Immediately With
New War Tax Laws.
Joint Session Hears Plea OF Chief *
ecutive TO Enact Legislation to
Stabilize Money Market
for the Coming Year.

legislation, and, appearing before a
joint session of congress on May q,
. declared 1t was necessary to proceed
immediately with new war tax laws.
The presidents address, In full, fol-
lows:
Gentlemen of the Congress:
1T Is with unaffected reluctance
that | come to ask you to proIong
your session long enough to provide
more adequate resources for the treas
ury for the conduct of the war;
have reason to appreciate as fully as
you do how arduous the session has
been. Your labors have been severe
and pr0tracted. You have passed a
long series of measures which required
the debate of many doubtful questions
Of judgment and many exceedingly
difficult questions of principle as we'll
US of practice.
'@The summer is upon us, in which
labor and counsel are twice as ardu-
GUS and are constantly apt to be inn
paired by lassitude and fatigue. The
elections are ut hand and we ought
as soon as possible to go and render
an intimate account of our trusteeship
to the, people who delegated us to act
~-tUf them In the weighty and anxious
matters that crowd upon us In these
days of critical choice and action. But
we dare not go to the elections until
we have done our duty to the full
These are days when duty stands
stark and naked, and even with closed
eyes we know 1t is there. Excuses are
unavailing. We have either done our
duty or we have not.
The fact will be as gross and plain
as the duty. In such a case lassitude
snd fatigue Seem negligible enough.
The facts are tonics and suffice to
freshen the labor.
And the facts. are these:
Additional revenues must manifest
~ be provided for. 1t would be most
ansound policy to raise too large
proportion of them by loan and 1t is
evident that the four billions now pro-
Fided for by taxation will not of
themselves sustain the greatly enlarged
budget to which we must Immediately
~irU0K forward.
I'VE cannot In fairness wait until
the end of the fiscal year is ut hand
10 apprise the people of the taxes
they must pay on their earnings of the
present calendar year, whose account
lngs aud expenditures will then be
closed.
I'VE cannot get increased taxes UNI
iess the country knows what they are
10 be and practices the necessary
economy to make them available.
"Definitenesa. early definiteness, as
10 what It's tasks are to be is absolute
~ necessary for the successful admin
IstratiOn of the treasury; 1t cannot
frame fair and workable regulations In
haste, and Ii must frame It's regula-
tons In haste Ii 1t Is not to do Its
exact task until the very eve of It's
performance. The present tax laws are
marred, moreover, by inequities which
ought to be remedied. Indisputable
facts, every one; and we cannot alter
Or blink at them. TO state them is
argument enough.
TO Stabilize Market.
) And yet, perhaps you will permit
me TO dwell for a moment upon the
situation they disclose. Enormous
loans freely spent In the stimulation
of industry of almost every sort pro-
duce mutations and extravaganees
which presently make the whole eco
secure and the very basis of credit Is
cut away. Only fair. equitably dis
tributed taxation of the widest incl
dence and drawing chiefly from the
sources which would be likely to de-
mora1ize credit by their very album
dance, can prevent Initiation and keep
our Industrial system free of specuia-
ton and waste.
1--WE shall naturally turn, there
fore, suppose, to war profits and In
comes and luxuries for the additional
taxes. But the war profits and in
comes upon which the increased taxes
will be levied will be the profits and
Incomes of the calendar year 1918. 1t
would be manifestly unfair to wait
until the early months of 1919 to say
What they are to be.
1T might be difficult, should
Imagine, to run the mill with water
hat had already gone over the wheel.
Need Money Now.
Moreover, taxes of that sort will |
not be paid until June of next year and
he treasury must anticipate them. 1t
must use the money they are to pro-
auce before 1t is due. 1t must sell |
short time certificates of Indebtedness. |
In the autumn much larger sale
of long time bonds must be effected |
than has yet been attempted. What |
are the bankers to think of the GER
9tiflc8tes II they do not certainly know
where the money is to come from
which Is to take them up? And how
are investors to approach the purchase t
Of these bonds with any sort of con-
6denee or knowledge of their own af-
fairs If they do not know what taxes |
they are to pay and what economies
and adjustments of their business they |
must effect?
II cannot assure the country of a
successful administration of the treas |
ury in 1918 If the question of further |
taxation lis to be left undecided until |
1910.
1.-THE consideration that dominates |
every other now ana makes every |
other seem trivial and negligible is the |
winning of the war. We are not only |
10 the midst Of the war-we are at the