Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1918-05-31
CONGRESS MUST
FINANCE WAR
President Wilson Calls on LegiS-
Iators to Proceed Immedi-
ateIy With the Work.
cOUNTRrs NEED IS GREAT
Additional Revenue Must Be Provided
For, and People Must Know What
Proportion of Taxes They
Must Pay on Their
Earnings.

Earnings.
Washington President Wilson per
sonaIly took charge of the war tax
legislation tangle and appearing unex-
pectedly before a joint session of con-
gress declared it was necessary TO pro-
coed Immediately with new war tax
laws. He spoke as follows:
Gentlemen of the congress: 1t is
with unaffected reluctance that come
to ask you to prolong your session long
enough to provide more adequate re-
sources for the treasury for the con-
duct OF the war. have reason to APP
preciate as fully as you do how ardu-
Gus the session has been. Your la
bors have been severe and protracted.
1.-THE summer is upon us in which la
Dor 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 peo-
pie who delegated us to act for them
in the weighty and anxious matters
in the weighty and anxious matters
that crowd upon us in these days of
critical choice and action. But we
dare not 60 to the elections until we
have done our duty to the fall.
These are days when duty stands
stark and naked and even with closed
eyes. We know 1t is there. Exposes
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 case lassitude and
fatigue seem negligible enough. The
facts are tonic and suffice to freshen
the labor.
Must Provide More Revenue.
"And the facts are these: Addition
al revenues must manifestly be proyid-
ed for. 1t would be most unsound
policy to raise too large a proportion
of them by law, and it is evident that
the $4,000,0O0,000 now provided for by
taxation will not of themselves sustain
the greatly enlarged budget to which
we must Immediately look forward.
''We cannot in fairness wait until
the end of the fiscal year is at hand to
apprise our people of the taxes they
must pay on their earnings of the pres
ent calendar year, whose accountings
and expenditures will then be closed.
We cannot get increased taxes unless
the country knows what they are to be
and practices the necessary economy
to make them available.
"Definiteness, early definiteness, as
to what its tasks are TO be is absolutely
necessary for the successful admins
tration of the treasury; it cannot
frame fair and workable regulations in
haste if 1t is not to know its exact
task until the very eve of its perform
ance.
"The present tax laws are married,
moreover. by inequities which ought to
be remedied. Indisputable fact ev-.
cry one; and ws caraot ate. or blink
them. To state them is argument
enough.
Sees Danger of Initiation.
"And yet perhaps you will permit me
to dwell for moment upon the stu
alton they disclose. Enormous loans
freely spent in the stimulation OF in
dustry of almost every sort produce in
fiations and extravagances which pres
emily make the whole economic struc-
ture questionable and insecure and the
very basis of credit is cut away Only
fair, equitably distributed taxation Of
the widest incidence and drawing
chiefly from the sources which would
be likely to demoralize credit by their
very abundance, can prevent imitation
and keep our Industrial system free of
speculation and waste. We shall nat
urally turn, therefore, / suppose, to
war profits and incomes and luxuries
for the additional taxes.
'But the war profits and incomes
upon which the increased taxes win
be levied win be the profits snd in
comes of the calendar year 1918.
at 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 that already has gone
over the wheel.
Taxes Not Paid Until June, 1919.
Moreover. taxes Of that sort win
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.
It must sell short-time certificates of
Indebtedness.
In the autumn much larger sale
Of longtime bonds must be effected