Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1919-05-20
Full Text of Presidents
Message Sent to Congress
Continued from Page one.)

ened policy of individuals, cor
porations and societies within
each nation that must bring
about the actual reforms. The
members of the committees on
labor in the two houses will
hardly need suggestions from
me as to what means they shall
seek to make the federal gov
eminent the agent~of the ma
ton in pointing out and, il need
be, guiding the process of re-
organization and reform.
Urges Work and Land for Troops.
| am sure that it is not nee
essary for me to remind you
that there is one immediate and
very practical question of labor
that we should meet in the most
liberal spirit We must see to
it that our returning soldiers
are assisted in every practicable
way TO find the places for which
they are fitted in the daily work
of the country. This can be done
~ developing and maintaining
upon adequate scale, the admir-
the department of labor for
placing men seeking work; ana
1t can also be done, in at least
one very great field, by Great
ing new opportunities for in
dividuai enterprise. The secre-
tary of the interior has pointed
out the way by which returning
soldiers may be helped to find
and take up land in the hitherto
undeveIoped regions of the
country which the federal gov
eminent has prepared or can
readily prepare for cultivation
and for many of the cut-over or
neglected areas which lie with
in the limits of the older states;
and l once more take the liberty
OF recommending very urgently
that his plans shall receive the
immediate and substantial sup 4
port of the congress.
FAST Trade Opportunities Opened.
Peculiar and very stimulating
N|eonditions await our commerce
and Industrial enterprise in the
immediate future. Unusual op-
portunities will now present
themselves to our merchants
and producers in foreign mar
kets and large fields for profit
able investment will be opened
to our free capital. But it is not
only of that that l am thinking.
Many of the great industries
Frustrated by the war wait to be
rehabilitated, in many parts of
the world where what will be
lacking is not brains or willing
hands or organizing capacity or
experienced skill, but machinery
and raw materials and capital.
| believe our business men, our
merchants, our manufacturers
and our capitalists will have the
vision to see that prosperity in
one part of the world ministers
to prosperity everywhere; that
there is in very true sense
solidarity of interest throughout
the world of enterprise, and
that our dealings with the coun-
tries that have need of our
products and our money will
LEACH IAGIn W uGtlu us IuOIG
than ever friends whose neces-
sites we seek in the right way
to serve.
Merchant Fleet Help to World.
Our new merchantships,
which have in some quarters
been feared as destructive ri
walls. may prove helpful rivals,
rather, and, common servants,
very much needed aId very.
welcome. Our great sh1pyards,
new and old. will be so opened
to the use of the world that
they will prove immensely ser
viceable to every maritime
people in restoring. much more
rapidly than would Otherwise
have been possible, the ton
mage wantonly destroyed in
the war. l have only to sug-
gest that there are many
points at which we can facil-
itate American enterprise in
foreign trade by opportune
legislation and make it easy
for American merchants to go
where they will be welcomed
as friends rather than as
dreaded antagonists. America
has great and honorable
service to perform in bringing
the commercial and industrial
Undertaking of the world
back to their old scope and
swing again and putting
solid structure of credit under
them. All our legislation
should be friendly to such
plans and purposes.
Tax Legislation Needed.
And credit and enterprise
alike will be quickened by
timely and healthful legisla-
ton with regard to taxation. II
hope that the congress will
find it possible to undertake
an early reconsideration of
federal taxes in order to make
our system of taxation more
simple and easy of admins
tration and the taxes them
selves as little burdensome as
they can be made and yet suf-
fee to support the government
and meet all its obligations.
The figures 10 which these OBJ
legations have arisen are very
great indeed. but they are not
so great as to make it difficult
for the nation to meet them,
and meet them. perhaps, in a
single generation, by taxes
which will neither crush nor
discourage. These are not so
great as they seem, not so
great as the immense sums we
have had to borrow, aided to
the immense sums we have had
to raise by taxation, would
seem to indicate: for a very
large proportion of those sums