Middletown transcript. [volume] (Middletown, Del.) 1868-current, 1918-12-07

special word about the needs of Bel
GUM and Northern France? No
sums Of money paid by way-of In
demnity will serve of themselves to
save them from hopeless disadvant-
age for years to come. Something
more must be done than merely find
the monev.
If the had money and raw ma
terials in abundance tomorrow they
could not resume their place in the
industry of the world tomorrow-the
very important place they held before
the fame Of war swept across them.
Many of their factories are RACED to
the ground. Much of their machin-
cry is destroyed or has been taken
away. Their people are scattered and
many Of their best workmen are dead.
Their markets will be taken by
others If they are not in some special
way assisted to rebuild their factories
and replace their lost instruments of
manufacture. They should not be
left to the vicissitudes of the sharp
! competition for materials and for in
dustrial facilities which is now to set
in. 1 hope, therefore, that the Con-
gress will not be unwilling, if it
should become necessary, to grant
to some such agency as the War
Trade Board the right to establish
priorities of export and supply for the
benefit of these people whom we have
been so happy to assist in saving from
must not now thought!essly leave to
shift for themselves in a pitiless COM
petitive market.
Must Know Tax Basis.
For the steadying and facihtation
Of our own domestic business read
justments nothing is more important
than the immediate determination of
the taxes that are to be levied for
1918, 1919 and 1920. AS much of
the burden of taxation must be lifted
from business as sound methods of
financing the Government will per-
nit, and those who conduct the great
essential industries of the country
must be told as exactly as possible
what obligations to the Government
they will be expected to meet in the
years Immediately ahead of them. 1t
will be of serious consequence to the
country to delay removing all uncer-
tainties in this matter a single day
longer than the right processes of
debate justify. 1t is idle to talk of
successful and confident business re-
construction before those uncer-
tainties are resolved.
If the war had continued it would
have been necessary to raise at least
sS,000,OO0,00O by taxation, payable
in the year 1919; but the war has
ended and agree with the Secretary
of the Treasury that it will be safe to
reduce the amount to $6,0O0,000 900.
An immediate rapid decline in the ex-
penses of the Government is not to
be looked for. Contracts made for
war supplies will. indeed, be rapidly
Cancelled and tiquidated, but their i'm
mediate liquidation will make heavy
drains on the Treasury for the
months just ahead of us.
Must Keep Overseas Force.
The maintenance of our forces on
the other side of the sea is still neces-
sary. A considerable proportion OF
those forces must remain in Europe
during the period of occupation, and
those which are brought home will be
and demobilized at heavy
expense for months to come. The
interest on cur war debt must, Of
course, be paid and provision made
for the retirement of the obligations
of the Government which represent it.
But these demands will, of course,
fall much below what a continuation
of military operations would have
entailed, and $6,000,0o0,000 should
suffice to supply a sound foundation
for the financial operations Of the
year.
entirely concur with the Secre-
tary of the Treasury in recommend
ing that the $4,000. 900 needed in
addition to the $4.00O.O0O,000 pro-
vided by existing law be obtained
from the profits which have accrued
and shall accrue from war contracts
and distinctively war business but
that these taxes be confined to the
war profits accruing in 1918 or in
1919 from business originating in
war contracts. 1 urge your accept
ance of his recommendation that pro-
vision be made now, not subsequently,,
hat the taxes to be paid in 1920
should be reduced from $6,00O,000,-
300 to $4,O05,000.Q00.
Any arrangements less definite
han these would add elements of
louIbt and confusion to the critical
period of industrial readjustment
through whiol. the country must now
pass, and which no true
riend of the nations essential inter-
,sts can afford to be responsible for
treating or prolonging. Clearly de-
ermined conditions, clearly and sim
,ly charted, are Indispensable to the
economic revival and rapid industrial
development which may confidently
,e expected if we act now and sweep
III interrogation points away. /,
Urges Naval Program.
l take it for granted that the Con-
,ress will carry out the naval pro- ,
ram which was undertaken before
We entered the war. The Secretary
+ the Navy has submitted to your