The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1918-06-13
CONGRESS URGED
TO KEEP At WORK
The President Addresses Mem.
bers on Necessity for More
War Revenue.
SET ASIDE PLANS FOR RECESS
Vital Need of Furnishing Funds for
Army and Navy Expenses I'm
pressed on Audience.

Washington, May 2s.-Just as the
German cannon were laundering
their herald of the renewed offensive
on the western battle 'front.' President
Wilson appeared unexpectedly before
Congress today and demanded that,
laying political considerations and all
others aside, it remain in session until
it has enacted new war tax laws to
finance the growing cost of the war
and prepare the country for the bur
den it must bear.
The Presidents address in full fol-
lows:
Gentlemen of the Congress: 1t is
with unaffected reluctance that come
to ask you to prolong your session
long enough to provide more adequate
resources for the treasury for the con-
duct of the war. 1 have reason to ap-
preciate as fully as you do how ardu-
GUS the session has been. Your labors
have been severe and protracted. You
have passed long series of measures
which required the debate of doubt
full questions of judgment and many
exceedingly difficult questions of
summer is upon us, in which labor
and counsel are twice as arduous, and
are constantly apt to be impaired by
lassitude and fatigue.
1.-THE elections are at hand and we
ought as soon as possible to go and
render an intimate account of our
trusteeship to the people who dele
gated US to act for them in the
weighty and anxious matters that
crowd upon us in these days of criti-
cal choice and action. But we dare
rot go to the elections until we have
done our duty to the full. These are
the days when duty stands stark and
naked and even with closed eyes we
know it is there Excuses are unaYail-
ing. 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 Iassitude and fatigue
seem negligible enough. The facts are
tonic and suffice to freShen the labor.
And the facts are these: Addition
al revenues must manifestly be pro-
vided for; it would be a most IN
sound policy to raise too large a pro-
portion of them by loan and it is evil
dent that the 4 billions now provided
for by taxation will not of themselves
sustain the greatly enlarged budget
to which we must Immediately look
forward.
1--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
present calendar year, whose account
ings and expenditures will then be
closed. We cannot get increased taxes
unless the country knows what they
h4
economy to make them available.
Definiteness, early definiteness, as to
what its tasks are to be is absolutely
necessary for the successful admins
tration of the treasury; it cannot
frame fair and workable regulations
in haste; and it must frame it's regu-
1ations in haste If it is not to know
its exact task until the very eve Of it's
performance.
"The present tax laws are filled
moreover by inequities which ought
to be remedied. Indisputable facts,
every one, and we cannot alter or
blink at them. To state them is argu-
ment enough.
"And yet, perhaps, you will permit
me to dwell for a moment upon the
situation they disclose. Enormous
loans freely spent in the stimulation
duce mutations and extravagances
which presently make the whole eco
nomic structure questionable and in
secure and the very basis of credit is
cut away. Only fair, equitably dis
tributed taxation of the widest Incl
dence and drawing chiefly from the
sources which would be likely to de.
moralize credit by their very abund
ance can prevent initiation and keep
our Industrial system free OF specula.
ton and waste. We shall naturally
turn, therefore, 1 suppose, to wal
profits and incomes and luxuries fol
the additional taxes. But the wal
profits and incomes upon which the
increased taxes will be levied will be
the profits and incomes of the calen
dar year 1913. It would be manifestly
unfair to wait until the early months
of 1919 to say what they are to be
It might be difficult, Should imagine
to run the mill with water that had
already gone over the wheel.
Moreover, taxes of that sort viii
not be paid until the June of next
year and the treasury must anticipate
them. It must use the money they
are to produce before it is due. Il
must sell short time certificates Of
Indebtedness. In the autumn much
larger sale Of long time bonds mus
be effected than has yet been attempt
ed. What are the bankers to thinl
OF the certificates if they do not Ger
tainly know where the money is tt
A Heavy Snow in Canada.