The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1918-05-27
STRICTLY BUSINESS
MESSAGE BY WILSON
CONTINUED from page 1

is cut away. Only faIr, equltaoiy us
tributed taxation of the widest IN
cidence and drawing chiefly from the
sources which would likely demon
aliZe credit by their very abundance
can prevent initiation and Keep our,
industrial system free OF speculation
and waste. We shall naturally turn,
therefore, l suppose, to war pro1lts
and incomes and Injuries for the ad-
ditional taxes. But the war proilts
and incomes upon which the increas-
ed taxes will be levied will be the
profits and incomes of the calendar
year 1918. It wetlld be manifestly
unfair to wait until the early months
of 1919 to say what they are to be.
1t might be difficult. l should mag
inc. to run the mill with water that
had already gone over the wheel.
Moreover, taxes of that sort will not
be paid until the June of next year
and the treasury must anticipate
them. 1t must use the money they
are to produce before it is due. 1t must
sell short time certificates of indeDt-
edness. In the autumn much larger
sale of long time bonds must be ef-
fected 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 up? And
how are investors to approach the
purchase of these 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 econ
omies and adjustments of their bust
ness they must effect? cannot as
sure the country of successful ad-
ministration of the treasury in 1918
if the question of further taxation is
to be left undecided until 1919.
The consideration that dominates
every other now and makes every
other seem trivial and negligible, is
the winning of the war. We are not
only in the midst of the war, we are
at the very peak and crisis of it. Hun
dreds Of thousands of our men, car
rying our hearts with them and our
fortunes are in the fields and ships
are crowding faster and faster to the
ports of France and England with
regiment after regiment, thousand
after thousand, to join them until the
enemy shall be beaten and brought to
a reckoning with mankind. There can
be no pause or intermission. The
great enterprise must, on the con-
trary. 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 accomplished. 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 making millions OF
men ready. These others are not pro-
grams, indeed, but merely plans upon
paper, unless there is to be an TN
questionable supply of money. That
is the situation and it is the situation
which creates the duty. no choice or
preference of ours. There is only one
way TO meet that duty. We must
meet it without selfishness or fear of
consequences. Politics is adjourned.
The elections will go to those who
think least of it; to those who go to
the constituencies without explana-
tons or excuses. with plain record
OF duty faithfully and disinterestedly
performed.
I, for one, am always confident that
a just verdict upon the service of the
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. II lobbyists
hurry 10 Washington to attempt to
turn what you do in the matter of tax
alton to their protection or advantage
the light will beat also on them.
There is abundant fuel for the light
in the records in the treasury with re-
gard to profits of every sort. The
protteerfng that cannot be got at by
the restraints of conscience and love
of country can be got by taxation.
There is such profiteering now and
the information with regard to 1t is
available and indisputable.
! am advising you TO act upon this
matter of taxation now. gentlemen,
not because l do not know that you
can see and interpre. the facts and
the duty they impose just as well and
with as clear perception of the obi
cations involved as ] can, but because
there is certain solemn satisfaction
in sharing with you the responsible