Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1918-05-27

1
us in these days of critical choice
| and action.
| But we dare not go to the eIec-
tons 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 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 suf-
fcient to freshen the labor.
! Must Advise People
And the facts are these. Ad-
ditional revenues must manifestly be
provided for. 1t would be a most un-
sound policy to raise too large a
proportion of them by loan and it is
evident that the four four billions
now provided for by taxation will
not of themselves sustain the great
ly enlarged budget to which we must
Immediately look forward. We can
not in fairness wait until the end
! OF the fiscal year is at hand to ap-
prise our people of the taxes they
must pay on their earnings of the
present calendar year, whose ac-
countings 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 it's tasks are to be, is alb
solutely necessary for the successful
administration of the treasury. 1t
cannot frame fair and workable reg
ulations in haste; and it must frame
| its regulations in haste after it is
not TO know its exact task until the
! yer we've. of its performance. The
present tax laws are marred, more
over. by inequities which ought to
be remedied. Indisputable facts, ev-
cry one; and we cannot alter or blink
them. To state them is argument
enough.
Enormous Loans Freely Spent
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 inf1ations and eXtraVagances
which presently make the whole eco
nomic structure questionable and in
| secure, and the very basis of credit
! is cut away.
Only fair, equitably distributed
taxation on the widest incidence ana
! drawing chiefly from the sources
which would be likely to demoralize
credit by their very abundance can
prevent imitation and keep our in
dustrial system free of speculation
and waste. We shall naturally turn,
| therefore, ] suppose, to war profits
and incomes and luXurieS for the ad-
ditional taxes. But the war profits
and incomes upon which the increas-
ed taxes will be levied will be the
profits and income 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, l should imag-
Inc, to run the mill with water that
had already gone over the wheel.
Treasury Must Anticipate
Moreover, teaXes of that sort will
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.
1t must sell short time certificates of
Indebtedness. In the autumn much
larger sale of longtime bonds must
be effected than has yet been at
tempted. 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 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 economies and adjustments of
their business they must effect? l
cannot assure the country of a sue
cessful administration of the Treas
ury in 1918 If the question of further
taxation is to be left undecided until
1919.
Winning War Dominant
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;
hundreds of thousands of our men,
carrying our hearts with them and
our fortunes, are in the field and
ships arc crowding faster and faster
TO the ports of France and England
with regiment after regiment, thou
sand after thousand. to join them
until the enemy shall be beaten and
brought to reckoning with man.
kind. There can be no pause or in
term1SSion. The great enterprise
must, on the contrary, 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 resist
ing it. If that is to be accom- plished.
gentlemen, money must sustain it
to the utmost. Our financial pro-
gram must no more be left in doubt
or suffered to lag than our ordnance
program or our ship porgram or our
munitions program or our program
for making millions of men ready.
These others are not progrs, indeed,
but mere plans upon paper, unless
there is. to be an unquestiona BILE sup
ply of money.
But One Way to Meet Duty
That is the situation. and it is the
situation which creates the duty no
choice of preference of ours. There
is only one way to meet that duty
We must meet it without selfishnecs
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 with
out explanations or excuses. with q
plain record of duty faithfully and
disinterestedly performed. I, for one,
am always confident that the poo
pie of this country will give d 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
fro 0fn MI -