Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1918-06-04
ASKS FOR new
WAR TAX BILL
"Country's Crisis Is at Peak"
the Presidents Message to
Congress.
PLAIN DUTY TO COUNTRY
Business Must Be ForeWarned of Bur.
dens Which Inevitably Will Be
Laid Upon it-All Citizens
Called On to Practice
Economy.

Idiu OpOn it-Au NlIizcnS
Called On to Practice
Economy.
Washington.-Just as the German
cannon were laundering their herald
of the renewed offensive on the west
ern battle front President Wilson ap-
peared unexpectedly before congress
and demanded that, laying political
considerations and all others aside,
it remain in session until it has en-
acted new war tax laws to finance
the growing cost of the war and pre-
pare the country for the burden it
must bear. His speech follows:
Gentlemen of the congress: 1t is
with unaffected reluctance that l come
to ask you to prolong your session long
enough to provide more adequate re-
sources for the treasury for the con-
duct of the war. have reason to ap-
preciate as fully as you do how ardu-
GUS the session has been. Your la
bors have been severe and protracted.
"The summer is upon us in which la
Dor and counsel are twice arduous 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 peo-
in the weighty and anxious matters
that crowd upon us in these days of
critical choice and action. 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. We know it is there. Exposes
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 a case lassitude and
fatigue seem negligible enough. The
facts are tonic and suffice to freshen
the labor.
Must Provide More Revenue.
''And the facts are these: Addition
al revenues must manifestly be provid
ed for. 1t would be most unsound
policy to raise too large a proportion
of them by law, and it is evident that
the $4,000,000,000 now provided for by
taxation will not of themselves sustain
the greatly enlarged budget to which
we must Immediately look forward.
"We cannot in fairness wait until
the end of the fiscal year is at hand to
apprise our people of the taxes they
must pay on their earnings of the pres
ent calendar year, whose accountings
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 defniteness, as
to what it's tasks are to be is absolutely
necessary for the successful admins
tratiOn of the treasury; it cannot
frame fair and workable regulations in
haste if it is not to know it's exact
task until the very eve of it's perform
ance.
THE present tax laws are married,
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.
Sees Danger of Initiation.
"And yet perhaps you will permit me
to dwell for moment upon the stu
alton they disclose. Enormous loans
freely spent in the stimulation of in
dustry of almost every sort produce in
tlatiOnS and eXtravagances which pres
entity make the whole economic Struc-
ture questionable and insecure and the
very basis of credit is cut away. Only
fair, equltably distributed taxation of
the widest incidence and drawing
chiefly from the sources which would
be likely to demoralize credit by their
very abundance, can prevent imitation
and keep our Industrial system free of
speculation and waste. We shall nat
urally turn, therefore, I suppose, to
war profits and incomes and luxuries
for the additional taxes.
But the war profits and incomes
upon which the increased taxes will
be levied will be the profits and in
comes of the calendar year 1918.
1T would be manifestIy unfair to
wait until the early months of 1919 to
say what they are to be. 1t might be
difficult, | should imagine, to run the
mill with water that already has gone
over the wheel.
Taxes Not Paid Until June, 1919.
Moreover, taxes 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 a much larger sale
of longtime bonds must be effected
than has yet been attempted What
are the bankers TO think of the GER
tificateS 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 econ
omies and adjustments of their bust
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