The Belding banner-news. (Belding, Mich.) 1918-1973, 1920-05-12

am plain man and not an interna-
tional lawyer, but ] think there is a
whole lot Of nonsense about the sup
posed difficulty Of ending war. l
remember Grant at Appomattox. He
told Lees soldiers to take their horses
and 20 home and put in their spring
crops. That was how . man from the
old Northwest Territory made peace.
] heard . little twelve-year old girl
the other day say. IF Congress could
begin war, why can't Congress stop
II when we have won it?'' And that
Is what the House Of Representatives
thought the other day hen it passed
the joint resolution and sent 1t to the
Senate.
Well, the war Is over so far as this
country Is concerned, everywhere ex-
cept at the White House. And now
publican Congress and Of the Republi.
can President who will be elected this
fall, to put things in order and to be-
pin to pay the bills. 1t is q tremen-
dous task, but it is the glory of the
Republican party that it never runs
away from responsibility. Never in
the history Of the world has any gov
eminent been guilty of such mis-
management and extravaganza as has
the administration Of Woodrow Will
son. Here is Just an example. To
maintain our force in the occupied
zone in Germany where we are hold
ing the Coblenz bridge-head it has
cost US. for II months, $750.000, 900
Germany is supposedly paying us for
this. but she is paying in marks
which are worth about ten cents on
the dollar. and we lost the other 90
per cent. In the peace negotiations
at Paris Mr.. Wilson asked for nc
indemnities and no material. The
other Allies did ask for them and
Germany is paying for their occupa-
ton. Under the treaty the Coblenz
bridge-head is to be held for ten
years. In order to obtain a highly
unavoidable League of Nations Mr..
Wilson bargained away countless mil
lions of the money of the taxpayers
OF America. As George Washington
said, we will keep our agreements
with other nations. o, that we had
had at Paris a practical protector OF
America, instead of a man no was
hypnotized by visions of the Presi-
dency of the world. h
Thirty years ago this fall, my dis
tinguished predecessor as chairman
Of the Ways & Means Committee of
the House of Representatives, Wilt
am Mckinley. made a speech in the
\ Academy of Music in this city. That
speech was reported in full in the
Kalamazoo Telegraph ond the De-
troit Tribune. / wan to quote one
paragraph from it. Mr.. Mckinley
said:
Taxation is always a necessary
accompaniment of government. No
government can exist without mon
ey. *% This same question of taxa
ton has vexed all people since the
very foundation of governments
among men. $50 That policy which
will collect the neqeslafy revenue
for government purposes with the
I. lightest. burden upon our own citi-
zens is the policy of wisdom, of
craftsmanship, of patriotism. *** 1t
requires in our country three hun
dred and sixty million dollars every
twelve months to pay the ordinary
expenses of our government. A mil
lion dollars every twenty-four hours
must be raised somehow to keep the
wheels of government revolving"
: That was thirty years ago, during
tie administration of BENJAMIN Har.
rison. No man will deny that his
administration was an efficient one.
let Benjamin Harrison ran this gov
eminent three years for about the
same amount of money that Wood
row Wilson and Newton ID. Baker
expended to place 213 aeroplanes in
France, and those not fighting planes
There Is no other event in history
that cost so much and at the same
time accomplished so little as the
aeroplane ,fiasco Of the Defocratic
administration in the late war. II
is story too long to tell in this
speech, but If you wish to read it,
get the report of the committee of
the House of Representatives blouse
Report 6S7, Seth Congress, Second
SESSION.: You will find in that
shameful expenditure the story OF
railroads built in the wrong direc.
ton at $11O, 900 a mile, on cost plus
contracts, where private contractors
built roads for less than $4,000 a
mile. You will find $4,000, 900 900
spent TO get ready to produce spruce
lumber, and not foot of lumber de-
livered. Every conceivable kind of
mismanagement and waste is record
ed in that report. II reminds me of
the story Lincoln used to tell of a
blacksmith who had piece of iron
out of which he started to make an
axe head. He spoiled it for that.
Then he tried to make a claw ham,,
mer out Of it. and spoiled that. Then
he stuck the iron into his forge and
heated it white-hot, and threw it
into the water-tub and said; ssThere,
darn you, l can make big fizzle out
OF you anyway
But the American people are for
giving. We won the war and that
water has gone over the dam. The
expenditures of the war have been
worth while, to show us what Amer
lea can do when she has to get busy.
That Is no excuse, however, for fur
Their waste and profigacy by the ex-
ecutive. What does this Democratic
administration want to expend for
the year ending June 80. 1921, near
" three years after the signing OF
the armistice?
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