The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1918-12-06

now thoughtlessly leave to shift fol
themselves in pitiless competitive
market.
For the steadying and facilitation of
our own domestic business readjust.
ments 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 bur-
den of taxation must be lifted from
business as sound methods of financ-
ing the Government will permit, 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 ex-
pected to meet in the years immedi-
ately ahead of them. 1t will be of Sc
rious consequence to the country to
delay removing all uncertainties in
this matter a single day longer than
the right processes of debate justify,
1t is idle to talk Of successful and
confident business reconstruction be-
fore these uncertainties are resolved.
If the war had continued it would
have been necessary to raise at least
So, 000,0 100000 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 $4,000, 100000. An i'm
mediate rapid decline in the expenses
of the Government is not to be looked
for. Contracts for war supplies will,
indeed, be rapidly Cancelled and Ii
quidated, but their immediate liquid
alton will make heavy drains on the
Treasury for the months just ahead
of US.
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
transported and demobilized at heavy
expense for months to come. The in
terest on our war debt must, of course,
be paid and provision made for the re-
tirement of the obligations of the Gov
eminent which represent it. But
these demands will, of course, fall
much below what a continuation of
military operations would have en-
tailed and $4,000, 100000 would suffice
to supply a sound foundation for the
financial operations of the year.
| entirely concur with the Secretary
of the Treasury in recommending that
the $2,O00,000,000 needed in addition
to the $4,000,000,000 provided by ex-
listing 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 accrulng
in 1918, or in 1919, from business orig
mating in war contracts. urge your
acceptance of his recommendation that
provision be made now, not subse-
quently that the taxes to be paid in
1920 should be reduced from $6,000,-
100000 to $4,000, 100000. Any ar
rangements less definite than these
would add elements of doubt and con-
fusion to the critical period of indus
trial readjustment through which the
country must now Immediately pass,
and which no true friend of the ma
TONS essential business interests can
afford to be responsible for creating
or prolonging. Clearly determined
conditions, clearly and simply charted,
are indispensable to the economic
rival and rapid industrial develop
ment which may confidently be ex-
pected if we act now and sweep all
Interrogation points away.
| take it for granted that the Con-
gress will carry out the naval pro-
gram which was undertaken before
we entered the war. The Secretary of
the Navy has submitted to your com
mittees for authorization that part of
the program which covers the building
plans for the next three years. These
plans have been prepared along the
lines and in accordance with the pol
icy which the Congress established,
not under the exceptional conditions
of the war, but with the intention of
adhering to a definite method of de-
velopment for the navy. l earnestly
recommend the uninterrupted pursuit
of that policy. 1t would be clearly I'M
wise for US to attempt to adjust our
program to a future world policy as
yet undetermined.
The question which causes the
greatest concern is the question of
the policy adopted toward the rail-
roads. frankly turn to you for coun-
sci upon it. have no confident judg
ment of my own. do not see how
any thoughtful man can have who
knows anything of the complexity of
the problem. 1t is a problem which
must be studied, studied Immediately
and studied without bias or prejudice.
Nothing can be gained by becoming
partisans of any particular plan of
settlement.
1t was necessary that the admins
tration of the, railways should be taxi
en- over by the Government so long as
the war lasted. 1t would have been
otherwise to establish and
carry through under a single direc-
ton the necessary priorities of ship
ments. It would have been impossible
otherwise to combine maximum pro-
duction of the factories and mines and
farms with the maximum possible car
supply to take the products of the
ports and markets; impossible to route
troop shipments and freight shipments
without regard to the advantage or
disadvantage of the roads employed;
impossible to subordinate, when nee
essary, all questions of conveniences