The New York herald., 1922-07-07

the files of the Congress or survey the
activities OF the State Legislatures you
will have no difficulty in discovering at
once the peril which confronts us as
people. II all the measures which pro-
pose appropriations were passed. or II
all the measures which would incur
Indebtedness were passed. it would place
a mortgage upon the brain and the
energy Of this people which thousand
years could not lift.
5000 New Invention.
Even now no one can advise us as
to the amount of indebtedness of the
world. No statistician with whom | am
familiar can give US the figures. They
can advise us with some degree of GER
tainty as to the Indebtedness of the
general Government, but when you come
to the subdivisions of government and
to the private indebtedness the human
mind staggers and computation breaks
down.
Even in our own country now, COM
paratively new. we have already reached
| the era OF subsidies and embargoes and
bonuses and gratuities and that other
peculiar and sinister invention OF Amer
lean politics, fifty -fifty--that is to say,
the State will exploit the people for so
per cent. the national Government for
| so per cent, thus dividing responsibility
and aggravating extravaganza, unmind-
ful of the fact that while the, taxing
powers are two the taxpayer is one and
the same.
'In a great economic crisis or In times
OF adversely such as now confront us
and the whole world. peoples and ma
.ions. like individuals. must recur TO
first principles and the simple. homely
virtues. the only Sure basis OF personal
prestige or national power. There were
only two courses open to the United
| States and TO the whole world at the
| close of the war. One was that OF ex-
travagance. waste. taxes. debts; the
other that OF economics. frugalities,
!, work and self denial. The latter was
the only salvation. The one led inevita-
bly, to greater misery. to utter. to ulti-
| mate ruin the other to the regaining OF
our prestige and our power.
$50 far. Mr.. President, not only thy
country but the other leading countries
| cf the world have taken the former
course. They have undertaken to heal
the wound. or have undertaken to rem
edy the situation, by appropriations, by
| increased taxes and by added obliga-
| tions and wherever we have found po-
| litical discomfort or dissatisfaction In
| this country we have graciously and
readily rendered an appropriation. and
when the taxpayers seemed about to
protest we have bravely passed the loan
on to posterity. So. like economic canni-
balls, we are preying upon one another
and going the cannibal one BETTER we
are now preying upon our children and
our children's children.
prosperity, we have assumed is to
| v,,f tfext, tv.1t ,otr mi
frugality, not through economy. but
through the open door of the public
| Treasury Of the United States. an i'm
| possible avenue over which prosperity
may travel. / grant you that IL this
| policy is to continue there is no argu-
ment by which you can exclude the SOL
dier from its temporary advantages
but it ought also to be said that there
Is no logic upon which you can except
them from its permanent disadvantages
There is no one more interested In
the future welfare of the country than
| those young men. There Is no one VINO
has more at stake in the future pros
perity of this country. The unwisdom
of the course which we are pursuing
will weigh more heavily upon those
young men and theirs than upon the
people who arc putting 1t upon them.
soldier VIII Regret Bonus.
SIT may be vain at this time. In this
mad hour OF political exigencies and
reckless appropriations. to urge these
views, out the inevitable hour will come
when the soldier himself will deeply re-
gret that he ever became party to any
such scheme.
"It may be idle, 1t may even seem
presumptuous to urge n different stand
| ing, but doubt not at all that in future
years the soldier himself when he
| comes to meet these burdens later In
| life, will regret that he exchanged his
noble heritage for less than mess OF
pottage. That which he gave and stood
ready to give was without money ano
without price. That which he earned.
| the achievement which was his. Tar
transcends the miserable values OF the
market. He does not rightfuliy belong
in this scheme to rebuild and regenerate
| a world through taxes and debts ana
mortgages and bonuses and gratuities.
"All will remember, Mr.. President.
the uneasiness and the anxiety with
which we followed the American soldier
| across the sea and to the battle lines
in Europe. He had been hurriedly called
| from the workshop and the farm. from
| the school and the college, practically
UNFRAMED unseasoned and undisciplined
and sent forward to meet the ordeal or
war. His countrymen waited the re-
suit with mingled feelings of fear and
confidence, and the whole world specu-
lated upon how he would meet the test.
1--WE were told that this was to be
the real test Of democracy. Could
Republic devoted to peace, with Its men,.
meet the onslaught Of highly trained
and highly militarized power? We now
know the result. The pride and the
exaltation over those first encounters of
our troops no tongue can tell.