The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1918-12-06


eminent they will be expected TO meet
in the years Immediately ahead or
them.
1t will be Of serious consequence 70
the country to delay removing all IN
certainties in this matter single day
longer than the right processes of de-
bate justify. 1t is idle to talk OF sue
cessful and confident business recon
struction before those uncertainties
are resolved.
Troops Must Stay in Europe.
IF the war had continued it would
have been necessary to raise at least
$S,00O.000,0GO 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,OOOOOO,O00. An i'm
mediate rapid decline in the expenses
of the government is not to be looked
for. Contracts made for war supplies
will, indeed, be rapidly cancelled and
iquidated, but their immediate ilqul-
dation will make heavy drains on the
treasury for the months just ahead
of u.s.
The maintenance of our forces on
the other side of the sea is still neces-
cary. A considerable proportion OF
these 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.
Asks Aid for Belgium.
May [ not say special word about
the needs of Belgium and northern
France? No sums of money paid by
the way of indemnity will serve or
themselves to save them from hopeless
disadvantage for years to come. Some
thing more mast be done than merely
lind the money. If they had money
and raw materials in abundance to-
morrow they could not resume r. =,
place in the industry of the world TO-
morrow-the very important place
they held before the flame of war
swept across them. Many of their
factories are RACED to the ground.
Worried About Railroads.
The question which causes me the
greatest concern is the question OF
the policy to be adopted toward the
railroads. / frankly turn to you for
eOunSel upon it. I have no conf
dent judgment Of my own. do not
see how any thoughtful man can have
who knows anything Of the com
plexity of the problem. 1t is prob
lem which must be studied, studied i'm
mediately and studied without bias
VI prejudice.
Tt was necessary that the admins
tratiOn of the railways should be
taken over by the government so long
as the war lasted. 1t would have
been impossible otherwise to estab-
fish and carry through under a single
direction the necessary priOrities of
shipments.
Exceptional circumstances and ex-
ceptiOnal methods of administration
we're not needed to convince us that
the railroads were not equal to the
posed upon them by the rapid and
continuous development of the indus
tries of the country. We knew that
already and we knew that they were
unequal to it partly because their full
cooperation was rendered impossible
by law and their competition made OBJ
ligatory, so that it has been impossi-
BILE to assign to them severally the
traffic which could best be carried by
their respective lines in the interest of
expedition and national economy.
The full equipment of the railways
which the federal administration had
planned could not be completed with
in any such period. The present law
does not permit the use of the reve-
nueS of the several roads for the exc
cution of such plans except by formal
contract with their directors, some of
whom will consent, while some will
not, and therefore does not afford suf-
ficient authority TO undertake improve
ments upon the scare upon which it
would be necessary to undertake them.
Several Plans Possible.
I believe that it will be serviceable
for me to set forth rs explicitly as pos
sibIe the alternative courses that lie
open to our choice. We can simply re-
lease the roads and go back to the old
conditions of private management, I'M
restrictive competition and multiform
regulation by both state and federal
authorities; or we can go to the oppo-
site extreme and establish complete
government control, accompanied, if
necessary, by actual government. own
ership; or we can adopt an interme-
date course of modified private con-
troll. under more unified and affirma-
tive public regulation and under such
alterations of the law as will permit
wasteful competition to be avoided
and q considerable degree of unifica-
zion of administration to be effected,
as. for example, by regional corpora