New-York tribune., 1918-05-28
The President Says 1t

No one could have spoken more fellcl-
yously upon the foremost domestic ques-
tion that confronts the American people
than the President spoke yesterday before
CONGRESS-. And never was more timely
and effective word. Said the President
in brief: We must have additional rev.
enues. We must not raise too large a
share of this by the unsound policy OF
too heavy loans. And we must increase
taxes not alone to secure this needed rev.
enue but to check imitation and extrav-
agance.
More than this, the country must know
precisely the amount of taxation which 1T
will be required to meet. With that un-
rivalled effectiveness of phrase which
lends such distinction to his utteranccc,
the President observes:
eve cannot in fairness wait until the
end of the fiscal year is at hand to apprlse
our people of the taxes they must pay on
their earnings of the present calendar
year. whose accountings and expenditures
will then be closed We cannot get in
creased taxes unless the country knows
what they are to be and practlses the
necessary economy 70 ihahe l"oii "'"'A
able"
In stating the necessity for prompt and
we'll considered action the President dis
closes the consideration which is clear to
every thoughtful statesman. He goes OIL
TO say:
Enormous loans freely spent in the
stimulation of industry OF almost every
sort produce inflations and extravaganccs
which presently make the whole economic
structure questionable and insecure and
the very basis of credit is cut away.
"Only fair, equitably distributed taxa
ton, of the widest incidence and drawing
chiefly from the sources which would be
likely to demoraize credit by their very
abundance, can prevent imitation and
keep our industrial system free CT specu-
lation and waste
These are the thoughts which for
months The Tribune has endeavored to
set forth. 1t is a clearly licensed pleas
ure to find the President giving the great
weight of his Office and the clearness of
his mind to unqualified concurrence in
position which The Tribune, almost alone
among it's contemporaries, has consist
tutiy dllu lioloVCAtiy oIo otCu' A>o" Uio"
he has with precision and incisiveness
defined the problem of imitation and
it's dangers, it is to be hoped that the
press of the whole country will awake
to the Importance of resolute action to
stem the present tide which, as Mr.. Rut-
ter so we'll said in his article on the
financial page on Sunday, "is surging
over the country"
When it is clear to all the people that
every dollar of credit imitation now means
dollar that is to stand bidding against
the government, and against every en-
ployer, every buyer, every housewife, ar
tificially to initiate prices, boost the cost
of living and the cost of the war higher
and ever higher, then will Congress and
the Federal Reserve Board and our bank
ers have the courage to take the meas
ures which alone can stem this tide.
This country cannot afford to fight this
war with paper money or credit based
upon government certificates of indebted
ness. We shall not sky our credit sys-
tenn. At the end of that air route, as
every banker and economist knows, and
as the President foreshadows, there is a
dear reckoning to pay.
The Presidents address was as oppor
tune as it was courageous and clear.