Tombstone epitaph., 1918-06-09
NEW.WARTAXLAWS
ASKED BY PRESIDENT WILSON IN AooRess BEFORE JOINT
 SESSION OF CONGRESS.
10 LEVY TAXES AT ONCE
Would Place Burden Of Struggle on Large ineomes, War Profits and luxuries. and Declares Amer. iea's Great Opportunity
 ls st Hand.
wsstern Newspaper Union N.ws Service.

Western Newspaper Union Nsws Service.
 Washington. May 2s.- President Wilson personally took charge of the war tax legislation Monday. and ap- bearing unexpectedly before . joint session of Congress. declared it was necessary to proceed immediately with new war tax laws.
 The Presidents address in full fol. lows:
 Gentlemen of the Congress:
 Tt is with unaffected reluctance that come to csk you to pr0long your session long enough to provide more adequate resources for the treas ury for the 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 protracted.
 You have passed long series of measures which required the debate of many doubtful questions of judg- ment and many exceedingly difficul, questions of principle as well as of practice The summer is upon us in which labor and counsel are twice ar duous 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 10 act for them in the weigity and anxious matters that crowd upon LIS In these days of criti- cal choice and action.
 Must Do Our Duty.
 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 VIC know it is there. Excuses are unavaiiing. 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 and fatigue seem negligible enough. The facts are tonic and suffice to freshen the labor.
 And the facts are these: Addi. tional revenues ,ust manifestly be provided for. IL would be a most un- sound policy to raise too large Q pro portion of them by loan. and 1t is evi. dent that the four billions now pro. vided for by taxation will not of them. selves sustain the greatly enlarged budget to which we must immediate ly look forward.
 We cannot in fairness wait until the end of the fiscal year Is at hand to appr!se OUT people of the taxes they must pay on their earnings of the present. calendar year. whose account ings 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.
 "Defipiteness, early definiteness aa to what its tasks are to be is abso lutely necessary for the successful ad ministration of the treasury: 1t can Tot frame fair and workable regula tions in haste; and it must frame its regulations in haste if it Is not tc know its exact task until the very eve of its performance. The present taH laws are marred. moreover, by in equities which ought to be remedied Indisputable facts, every one and VIC cannot alter or blink them. To state them is argument enough.
 Warns Against Speculation and Waste
 And yet perhaps you will permit me to dwell for . moment upon tho situation they disclose. Enormoui loans freely spent in the stimulatior of industry of almost every sort pro duce inflations and extrayagancea which presently make the whole eco homie structure questionable and in secure and the very basis of credi' is cut sway. Only fair, eQuitabiy dis tributed taxation of the widest incl dence and drawing chiefly from thu sources which would be likely to de moralize credit by their very abund ance, can prevent imitation and keei our industrial system free of specula ton and waste.
 We shall naturally turn. therefore l suppose, to war profits and incomes and luxuries for the additional taxes But the war profits and incomes upor which the increased taxes will bs levied will be the profits and incomes of the calendar year 1918. It would be manifestly unfair to wait until thu early months of 1919 to say whal they are to be. It might be difficult l should imagine to run the mill witf water that had already gone over ths wheel.
 Moreover taxes of that sort vii | uot be paid until the June of nex1 year and the treasury must anticipate them. It must use the money they arc to produce before 1t is due. | must sell short time certificates o indebtedness.
 ~In the autumn, . much larger sal< of long time bonds must be effected than has yet been attempted. Whai ere the bankerB to think of the cer tificates if they do not certainly know where the money is to come from which is to take them up? And hoN arc fnvestors to approach the pur chase Of bonds with any sort Of con fldence or knowledge of their own af fairs if they do not know what taxei they are to pay and what economics and adjustments of their bushes, they must effect? cannot assure th< country of . successful administration Of the treasury in 1918 if the question
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