Walker Lake bulletin. (Hawthorne, Nev.) 1883-1926, 1918-06-01
Declares it is Necessary to
Proceed Immediately With
New War Tax Laws.
Joint Session Hears Plea of Chief Elk
ecutive to Enact Legislation to
Stabilize Money Market
for the Coming Year.


legislation and, appearing before a
joint session of congress on May 81,
declared 1t was necessary to proceed
Immediately with new war tax laws.
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 treas
ury for the conduct of the war.
have reason to appreciate as fully as
you do how arduous the session has
been. Your labors have been severe
and protracted. You have passed Il
long series of measures which required
the debate of many doubtful questions
Of Judgment and many exceedingly
difficult questions of principle as well
us of practice.
THE summer is upon us, in which
labor and counsel are twice as ardu-
GUS and are constantly apt to be i'm
paired by lassitude and fatigue. The
elections are at hand and we ought
| as soon as possible to go and render
10 the people who delegated us to act
for them in the weighty and anxious
matters that crowd upon us in these
lays of critical choice and action. But
we dare not go to the elections until
we have done our duty to the full
"These are days when duty stands
stark and naked, and even with closed
eyes we know it is there. Excuses are
unavailing We have either done our
| luty or we have not.
"The fact will be as gross and plain
| rs the duty. In such case lassitude
md fatigue seem negligible enough
The facts are tonics and suffice to
| freshen the labor.
| "And the facts are these:
| additional revenues must manifest
| y be provided For. 1t would be most
unsound policy to raise too large a
proportion of them by loan and 1t is
evident that the four billions now pro-
vided for by taxation will not of
themselves sustain the greatly enlarged
budget to which we must Immediately
look forward.
I'VE cannot in fairness wait until
the end of the fiscal year is at hand
W app St iiic Ptoplc VI lHC ldNto
they must pay on their earnings of the
present calendar year, whose account
ings and expenditures will then be
closed
1--WE cannot get increased taxes un-
ess the country knows what they are
to be and practices the necessary
economy to make them available.
"Definiteness, early definiteness, as
to what its tasks are to be is absolute
~ necessary for the successful admin
stration of the treasury; it cannot
frame fair and workable regulations in
haste, and it must frame its regula
tons in haste If it is not to do its
exact task until the very eve of its
performance. The present tax laws are
married, moreover, by inequities which
ought to be remedied Indisputable
facts, every one; and we cannot alter
or blink at them. To state them Is
argument enough.
To Stabilize Market.
"And yet, perhaps you will permit
me to dwell for a moment upon the
situation they disclose. Enormous
loans freely spent in the stimulation
Of industry of almost every sort pro-
luce 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 album
Dance can prevent initiation and keep
our industrial system free of specula-
ton and waste.
1--WE shall naturally turn, there
fore, | suppose, to war profits and In
comes and luNuries for the additional
taxes But the war profits and in
comes upon which the increased taxes
will be levied will be the profits and
incomes of the calendar year 1918. 1t
would be manifestly unfair to wait
until the early months of 1919 to say
what they are to be.
III might be difficult, | should
imagine, to run the mill with water
fhat had already gone over the wheel
Need Money Now.
| Moreover, taxes of that sort will
not be paid until June of next year and
| the treasury must anticipate them. 1t
must use the money they are TO pro-
iuce before 1t is due. 1t must sell
short time certificates of Indebtedness.
"In the autumn much larger sale
IF long time bonds must be effected
| .han has yet been attempted. What
are the bankers to think of the GER
| .ificates if they do not certainly know
where the money is to come from
which is to take them up? And how
are investors to approach the purchase
Of these bonds with any sort of con-
hdence or knowledge of their own 'af-
fairs If they do not know what taxes
they are to pay and what economies
and adjustments of their business they
must effect?
Il cannot assure the country of n
successful administration of the treas
Ary in 1918 If the question of further
taxation is to be left undecided until
| 1919.
1.-THE consideration that dominates
Los lirx