Republican farmer., 1920-08-13

nave IIldO6 OIn6r pIOpoSdlS. ouI platform clearly lays no bar against
 any additions that will be helpful, but
 it speaks in a firm resolution to stand
 against anything that disturbs the vii
 tai principle. We hear it said that
 interpretations are unnecessary. That
 may be true, but they will at least be reassuring to many of our citizens, who | feel that in signing the treaty, there ! should be no mental reservations that | are not expr ressed in plain words, as a | matter of good faith to our associates. l Such interpretations possess the fur l ther virtue of supplying base upon | which agreement can be reached, and ! agreement without injury to the cov- ! enant, is now of pressing importance. | It was the desire to get things started, | that prompted some members of the senate to vote for the Lodge reser- ! vations. Those who conscientiously voted for them in the final roll calls realized however that they acted un- der duress, in that politically bigot- ed minority was exercising the arbf- trary power of it's position to enforce drastic conditions, Happily the voters of the republic, under our system of government, can remedy that situa- ton, and I have the faith that they
 will, at the election this fall Then
 organised governm ent will be enabled
 to combine impulse and facility in the
 making of better world conditions.
 The agencies of exchange will auto
 matically adjust themselves to the op-
 portunities of comm ercial freedom.
 New life and renewed hope will take
 hold of every nation. Mankind will press a. resolute shoulder to the task
 of readjustment, and new era will have dawned upon the earth.
 We have domestic problems to be settled. They are most pressing.
 Many conditions growing out of the
 war will not and should not continue. The work of readjustment will call for our best energy, ingenuity, unself- | ishness and devotion to the idea that l it is the general welfare we must promote. One of the first things to 1 be done is the repeal of war taxes. i The entry of America into the world war projected our people into. an un- I paralleled financial emergency, which | was faced with a determination to
 make every sacrifice necessary to victory. Billions in liberty loans sub [ scribed by patriots regardless of their | financial condition were instantly
 placed at the disposal of the govern
 ment and other billions were gladly 1 paid into the treasury through many i forms of taxation. To have paid by current taxes more than one-third of | the expense of the greatest war in the history of mankind, is a reflection on the high sense of national duty l with which we of America view the | obligations of this generation. I'm
 meuiately following the armistice,
 measures to modify onerous and an-
 moving taxation should have been
 taken and the Republican congress in 1 which all tax laws must originate,
 and which for almost two years has
 exclusively held the power to amel- | iorate this condition, has not made
 a single effort or passed a single law
 to lift from the American people a
 load of war taxation that cannot be
 toierated In a time Of peace Federal
 taxation must be heavily reduced
 and it will be done at once, if a. Dem
 ocratic administration is chosen in
 November. Without hampering es- sential national administrative de-
 partments, by the elimination of al
 others and strict economy evervwhere
 national taxes can be reuuced in ex.
 cess of two billion dollars yearly. An
 moving g@consumption taxes, once will.
 lngly borne, now unjustlfied, should
 be repealed. The incomes rom war. | made fortunes those of non-produc.
 CTS and those derived from industrie: that exist by unfair privilege may be
 able to carry their present load, bu
 taxes on the earnings of the wage , earner, of the salaried and profes s1onal man, of the agricultural produc , CT and of the small tradesman should be sharply modified. believe tha
 a better form of taxation than the SO
 called excess profits tax may be founy and I suggest a small tax, probabl, , one to one and one-talf per cent or I the total business of every going con
 cern- It is to be understood that tn |, term "business'' as used does not in , clude income received by wage-earn e CTS, salaried men, agriculturists an, the small business man who should b. e exempt from this tax. The profitee , and some of the highly capitalize, n units have used the excess profits ta: f l as a favorite excuse for loading ol n the consumer by means of highly in a Hated selling prices many times tn k amount actually paid the government f necessary condition to the nationa l. contentment and sound business is
 just proportion between fair profit t to business and fair prices to the cor l. sumer. It is unquestioned that tn - enormous expansion of public an s private credit made necessary as
 : part of war financing. the diversio # of the products of many industrie e rom tne1r usual channels as we'll a e the disturbance to general bushes " caused by the withdrawal of million e of men from producing fields, all con i- trfbuted to the rise in prices. Rever e sion of these various agencies to l. more stable condition will tend tc r. ward recession in the enormousl .e inflated present prices of many con Le modit1es and property values an n there are now evidences that a san
 adjustment is not far distant Dee y patriotic sentiment enthra11ed ou 1t | people during the war and slight a l. tentlon was given to the enormor r. economic changes that were then " progress and when observed thes Id changes were generally accepted g. one of the trials necessary to be CT ,h dured and they were submerged le the thought and purpose for victor h While millions of free men, regardle a of wealth or condition, were givir