The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1918-05-31
President Wilson
CONTINUED from Page One)


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
weighty and anxious matters that
crowd upon US in these days of criti-
cal choice and action.
DUTY STANDS
OUT PLAIN
"But W. dare not go to the cleo
tons until we have done our duty
TO the full. These are days when
duty stands stark ands naked ana
even with clos-d eyes we know it 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 itself. In
such case lassitude and fatigue
seem negligible enough. The facts
are tonic and suffice to fresh the
labor.
"And the facts are these: Addi-
y
| provid d for. 1t would be a most
unsound policy to raise too large a
r proportion of them by loan and it is
evident that the four billions now
provided for by taxation will not of
themselves sustain the glr atty en-
| arged budget to which we must i'm
nediately look forward. We can not
n fairness wait until tlae end of the
iseal year is at hand to apprise oul
! ,eople of the taxes they must pay
| on their earnings Of the pr sent cal
endar year, whose accountings and
expenditures will then be clos d. We
can not get increased taxes unless
the country knows what they are to
be and practices the necessary econ
omy to make them available. Defin-
ite ness, early definiteness, as to what
| its tasks are to be is absolutely nee
| essary for the, successful administers
ton of the treasury, it can not
frame any workable regulations in
haste. and it must frame it's regula
tons in haste if it is not to know
its exact task until the very eve OF
its r. rformance. The present tar
laws are marred, moreover, by in
CAPABILITIES which ought to be rene
died. Indisputable facts, every one
and we can not alter or blink them
To state them is argument enough
II MUST PROTECT
! OUR CREDIT
"And yet perhaps you will permit
me to dwell for moment upon tn,
: Bsituation they disclose. Enormous
loans freely spent in the stimulation
OF industry Of almost every sor
= produce initiation and extravaganza
= which presently make thu whole
economic structure questionable am
insecure and the very basis of credi
is cut away. Only fair, equitabl.
distributed taxation of the widest in
cidenca and drawing chiefly from
ega sources which would be likely t
demoralize credit by their yer,
abundance, can prevent initiation an
Seep our industrial system fire. o
speculation and waste. We shal
naturally turn, therefore, | suppos
10 war profits and incomes and lux
lra S for the additional taxes. Blu
the war profits and incomes upo
which the increased taxes will
levied will be the profits and moons
of the calendar year 1913. 1t woul
be manifestly unfair to wait unit
the early months of 1919 to say wha
thfy are to be. It might. be diff
cult, ! should imagine. to run tn
mill with water that had alread,
gone over the wheel.
MUST ANTICIPATE
THE TAXES
"Mor over, taxes of that sort wi
not be paid until June of next yea
and the treasury must anticipat
them. 1t must use the money the
GilG " pIOQuCG UelOIC III duC.
must sell short time certificates c
ind btedness. In the autumn a niue
sas larger scalf of long time bonds mus
~ be effected than has yet been at
tempted. What are the bankers t
S. think Of the certificates if they d
not certainly know wht re the none
II
them up? And how are investor
J to approach the purchase of bond
! with any sort of confidence or know
edg of their own affairs if they d
not know what taxes they are to pa
and what economics and adjustment
of their business they must effect
can not assuHa the country of
successful administration of tn
: 4 1919 junction :