Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1918-06-04

w A u S A U
ness they must effect? 1 cannot as
sure the country of successful adj
ministration of the treasury in 1918
| if the question of further taxation is
to be left undecided until 1919.
Only Thought Now Is Win the War.
1.-THE consideration chat dominates
every other now, and makes esery 9TH
er 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.
World Facing Many New Problems
81 am advising you to act upon this
matter of taxation now, gentlemen,
| not because l do not know that you
can see and interpret the facts and the
duty they impose just as well and with
as clear a perception of the obligations
involved as I can. but because there is
a certain solemn satisfaction in shar-
ing with you the responsibilities of
such a time
"The world never stood in such case
before. Men never before had so clear
or so moving a vision of duty. l know
that you will begrudge the work to be
done here by us no more than the men
begrudge us theirs who lie In the
trenches and sally forth to their death.
There is stimulating comradeship
knitting us all together. And this task
to which | invite your immediate con-
sideration will be performed under ia
vorable influences If we will look to
what the country is thinking and ex-
pecting, and care nothing at all for
what is being said and believed in the
Hobbies of Washington hotels, where
the atmosphere seems to make it posi-
bic to believe what is believed nowhere
else.
United in War Purpose.
"Have you not felt the spirit of the
nation rise and its thought become a
single and common thought since these
eventful days came in which we have
been sending our boys to the other
side? l think you must read that
thought, as / do, to mean this, that the
people of this country are not only
united in the resolute purpose to win /,
the war, but are ready and willing to
bear any burden and undergo any sac
rifice that it may be necessary for
them to bear in order to win it.
Hundreds of thousands of our men,
carrying our hearts with them and our
fortunes, are in the field, and ships are
crowding faster and faster to the ports
of France and England with regiment
after regiment, thousand after thou.
sand, to join them until the enemy
shall be beaten and brought to a reck-
oning with mankind.
No Pause or Intermission.
'There can be no pause or intermis-
sion. The great enterprise must, on
the contrary, be pushed with greater
energy. The volume of our might must
\ steadily and rapidly be augmented I'M
til there can be no question of resist
ing 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 suf-
fered to lag than our ordnance pro-
gram or our ship program or our NUM-
tiuns program or our program for max
ing millions of men ready. These 9th
ers are not programs, Indeed, but mere
plans upon paper, unless there is to be
an unquestiOnable 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 selfshness
or fear of consequences.
Politics Adjourned in War Crisis.
Politics is adjourned. The cleo
tons will go to those who think
least of it. To those who go to the con-
stituencies without explanation or ex-
cuse, with plain record of duty faith
fully and disinterestedly performed,
/, for one, am always confident that the
people of this country will give a just
verdict upon the service of the men
who act for them when the facts are
such that no man can disguise or con-
ceal 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. If lobbyists hurry to
Washington to attempt to turn what
you do in the matter of taxation to
their protection or advantage, the light
will beat also upon them. There is
abundant fuel for the light in the
records of the treasury with regard to
profits of every sort. The profiteering
that cannot be got at by the restraints
of conscience and love of country can
be got at by taxation. There is such
pr0fteering now and the information
with regard to it is available and in
disputable.
1--WE need not be afraid to tax them,
if we lay taxes justly. They know that
the war must be paid for, and that it
is they who must pay for it, and if the
burden is justly distributed and the
sacrifice made a common sacrifice from
which none escapes who can bear it
at all, they will carry it cheerfully and
with sort of solemn pride.
Facing Supreme Duty.
81 have always been proud to be an
American, and was never more proud
than row, when all that we have fore
seen about our people is coming true.
The great days have come when the
only thing that they ask for or admire
is duty, greatly and adequately done
when the only wish for America is that
she may share freedom she enjoys;
when a great, compelling sympathy
wells up in their hearts for men every
where who suffer and are oppressed
and when they see at last the high