The daily banner., 1919-05-21

dit1ons await our commerce ana IN.
GuStrlai enterprise in the immediate
future. Unusual opportunities will
presently present themselves TO our
merchants and producers in foreign
markets, and large fields for profit
able investment will be opened to our
Tree capital. But il is not only of
mat that ] am thinking: it is not
chiefly If that thar am thinking.
Many great industries proStrated
by the war wait To be rehablitated
IN many parts of the world where
what will be lacking is not brains or
wiling hands or organizing ca"'!"ity,
or experienced skill, but mach merry
and raw materials and capital. I
merchants. our manufacturers and
our capitalists, will have the vision
20 see that prosperity in one part of
the world ministers to prosperity
everywhere; that there is in a very
true sense solidarity of interest
throughout the world of enterprise
and that our dealings with the coun-
tries that have need of our produc1s
ana our money will teach them to
deem Us more than ever friends whose
necessities we seek in the right wav
III serve.
Tax Revision.
And credit and enterprise alike will
be quickened by timely and helpful
legislation with regard to taxation
| hope that the congress will find ii
possible to undertake an early recon
SideratiOn of federal taxes, in order
10 make our system of taxation more
simple and easy of administration and
the taxes themselves as little burden
some as they can be made and vet
sufficient to support the government
and meet all its obligations.
The figures to which those obliga-
lions have arisen are very great in
Iced, but they are not so great as to
make 1t difficult for the nation to meet
hem, and meet them, perhaps, in Il
single generation by taxes which will
neither crush nor discourage. TheS.
are not SO great as they seem, not so
great as the immense sums We have
had To borrow, added to the immense
sums we have had to raise by fax
ltion, would seem to Indicate, for Il
"ery large proportion of those sums
we're raised in order that they might
he loaned to the governments with
which we were associated in the war,
md those loans will, of course, cOnsti-
ute assets, not liabilities, and will
not have to be taken care of by our
taxpayers.
The main thing we shall have to
care for lis that our taxation shall
rest as lightly as possible on the pro-
ductive resources of the country, that
It's rates shall be stable, and that Ii
shall be constant in its revenue yield
'ng power. We have found the main
sources from which it must be drawn.
On the other hand, should assume
hat it is eApedient. to maintain Il
considerable range of indirect taxes
and the fact that alcoholic liquors
will presently no longer afford il
source of revenue by taxation makes
il the more necessary that the field
should he carefully restudied in or
der that equivalent sources of revp-
nue. may be found which it will b.
legitimate and not burdenSume. t.
raw upon. But you have at hand in
The treasury department. many eX-
perts who can advise you on the mai
ter much hetter than l can. / can
only suggest the lines of permanent
system. the placing Of the taxes where
1hey will least hamper the life of the
people.
Tariff Revision ON DYES.
There is, fortunately. no occasion
:"r undertaking in the immediate fl,-
ture any general revision of our sys-
TEN of import duties. No serious dln-
ger of foreign competition now threat
ems Amrican industries. Our G. .'Intr.
has emerged from the war tss a.
tnrhed and less weakened than n, Of
he European countries which arv. D.lr
competitors in Manufacture. The T.
Industrial establishments have ben
subjected TO greater y III II ii!an rs.
Their labor force to more serious
disorganiZation. and this is clearly
not the time to seek an organized al
vantage.
The work of mere reconstruct: on
will, | am afraid tax the cap c'ty
and the resources of their peep ~
wears to come. So far from herr
being any danger or need of q acan-
tuated foreign competition. il is lik ~