Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, December 8, 1915, Page 5

== { THE BEE OMAHA, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1915. (Continued from Page Four.) are few measures you could adopt which would more serviceably clear the way for the great policles by which we wish to make good, now and always, our right to lead In enterprises of peace 4 good will and economic and political freedom. Where Will Money Come From to Carry Out the Defen'e Program? energy, thelr success in their undertak- “The plans for the armed forces of the nation which I have outlined, and for the general policy of adequate prepara- tion for mobilization and defense, involve of course very large additional expendi- tures of money—expenditures which will considerably exceed the estimated reve- nues of the government. It is made my duty by law, whenever the estimates of expenditure exceed the estimates of revenue, to call the attention of the con- gress to the fact and suggest any means of meeting the deficlency that it may be wise or possible for me to suggest. I am ready to believe that it would be my duty to do so in any case; and I feel particularly bound to speak of the mat- ter when it appears that the deficlency will arise directly out of the adoption by the congress of measures which I myself urge it to adopt. Allow me, therefore, to speak briefly of the present state of the treasury and of the fiscal problems Which the next year will probably dis- olose. Condition of the Treasury , “‘On the thirtieth day of June last there was an avallable balance in the general fund of the treasury of The total estimated receipts for the year 1916, on the assumption that the emerg- ency revenue measure passed by the last congress will not be extended beyond its present limit, the thirty-first of December, 1915, and that the present duty of one cent per pound on sugar will be discontinued after the first of May, 1916, will be $670,365,500. The balance of June last and these estimated revenues come, therefore, to a grand total of $774,6%,- 606.78. The total estimated disbursements for the present fiscal year, including twenty-five millions for the Panama canal, twelve milllons for probable de- ficlency appropriation, and $50,000 for miscellaneous debt redemptions, will be §753,89,000; and the balance in the general fund of the treasury will be reduced to $20,644,605.98. The emerg- ency revenue. act, if continued beyond its present time limitation, would pro- duce, during the half year then remain- ing, about forty-one millions. The duty of one cent per pound on sugar, if con- tinued, would produce during the two monthg of the fiscal year remaining after the first of May, about fifteen mil- Hons. These two sums, amounting to- gether—to fifty-six millions, if added to the revenues of the secand -half of the fiscal year, would yleld the'treasury at the end of the year an avallable bal- ance of $76,644,606.78. Estimates of Additions. The additional revenues required to tarry out the program of miljtary and naval preparation of which I have spoken, would, as at present estimated, be for the fiscal year 1917, $93,800,000, Those figures, taken withr the figures for the present fiscal year which I have already given, disclose our financial problem for the year 1917. Assuming /that the taxes imposed by the emergency revenue act and the present duty on sugar are to be discontinued, and that the balance at the close of the present fiscal year will be only $20,644,606.78, that the disbursements for the Panama canal will again be about twenty-five millions, and that the additional expenditures for the army and navy are authorized by the congress, the deficit in the general fund of the treasury on the thirtieth of Jume, 1917, will be nearly two hundred and thirty-five millions. To this sum at least fifty millioris should be added to repre- sent & safe working balance for the treasury, and twelve million to include the usual deficlency estimates in 1917; and these additions would make a total deficit of some two hundred and ninety- seven millions. If the present taxes should be continued throughout this year and the next, however, there would he a balance in the treasury of some seventy-six and a half millions at the end of the present fiscal year, and a $104,170,106.78, | only some fifty milllons, or, reckoning | 8nd of the lands outside our continental in yalx(y-l'o milliona for deficlency ap-| Porders which look to us for protection, propriations and a safe treasury balance | for encouragement, and for assistance at the end of the year, a total deficit|in their development; from the organi- of some one hundred and twelve miilions. | zation and freedom and vitality of our The obvious moral of the figures is that| economic life, it is a plain counsel of prudence to con: tinue all of the present taxes or thel equivalents, and confine ourselves to|this ita time of test than at any other the problem of providing one hundred|time. We cannot adequately make ready millions of new revenue, for any trial of our strength unless we rather than 4wo hundred and ninety-| wisely and promptly direct the force of and twelve seven millions. New Taxes Proposed. to sell to reimburse the sums paid ou pose. public debt. finance. to spend money for cannot be so classi fied, except in the sense that everything | willing to vote the small sum of money that would be needed to defray the ex- penses that would probably be necessary to give it the clerical and administrative machinery with which to do serviceable ‘wisely done may be sald to be done in the Interest of posterity as well as in our own. It seems to me a clear dictate of prudent statesmanship and frank finance that in what we are now, I hope, about to undertake we should pay as we 80. The people of the country are entitled to know just what burdens of taxation they are to carry, and to know from the outset, now. The new bills should be paid by Internal taxation. “To what sources, then, shall we turn? This is so peculiarly a question which the gentlemen of the house of representatives are expected under the constitution to propose and answer to that you will hardly expect me to do more than discuss it in ver¥ general terms. We should be following an almost universal example of modern governments if we were to draw the greater part or even the whole of the revenucs we need from the income taxes. By somewhat lowering the present limits of exemption and the figure at which the sur-tax shall begin to be imposed, and by increasing, step by step throughout the present graduation, the surtax itself, the income taxes as at present apportioned ! ‘would yleld sums sufficient to balance the books of the treasury at the end of the fiscal year 1917 without anywhere mak- ing the burden unreasonably or oppres- of the secretary of the treasury which will be immediately laid before you. Other Sources to Be Tapped. “And there are many additional sources of revenue which ean justly be resorted to without hampering the industries of the country, or putting any too great charge upon individual expenditure. A tax of 1 cent per gallon on gasoline and naphtha would yleld, at the present esti- mated production, $0,000,000; a tax of 60 cents per horse power on automoblles and internal explosion engines, $15,000,000; a stamp tax on bank checks, probably $18,000,000; a tax of 2% cents per ton on pig iron, $10,000,000; a tax of 25 cents per ton on fabricated iron and steel, prob- ably $10,000,000, In a country of great in- dustries like this it ought to be easy to distribute the burdens of taxation with- out making them anywhere bear too heavily or too exclusively upon any one deficit at the end of the next year of tion. Disloyal Element of Citizenship Most Serious Menace Present|:s & e ro mors s e on “I have spoken to you today, gentle- men, upon a single theme, the thorough preparation of the nation to care for its own security and to make sure of entire freedom to play the impartial role in this hemisphere and in the world which we all belleve to have been providentially as- signed to it. I have had in my mind no thought of any immediate or particular danger arising out of our relations with other nations. We are at peace with all the nations of the world, and there is reason to hope that no guestion in con- troversy between this and other govern- ments will lead to any serious breach of amicable relations, grave as some differ- ences of attitude and policy have been and may yet turn out to be. I am sorry to say that the gravest threats against our national peace and safety have been uttered within our own borders. There are citizens of the United States, I blush to admit, born under other flags but wel- comed under our generous naturalization laws to the full freedom and opportunity of America, who have poured the poison of disloyalty into the very arteries of our national life; who have sought to bring the authority and good name of our gov- ernment into contempt, to destroy our industries wherever they thought it ef- fective for their vindictive purposes to strike at them, and to debase our politics to the uses of foreign intrique, Their number is not great as compared with the whole number ¢ those sturdy hosts by whigh our nation has been enriched in recent generations out of virile foreign stocks; but it i{s great enough to have brought deep disgrace upon us and to have made it necessary that we should promptly make use of processes of law by which we may be purged of their cor- Tupt distempers. America never Wit- » nessed anything llke this before. It never dreamed it possible that men sworn into its citizenship, men drawn out of great free stocks such as supplied some of the best and strongest elements of that” little, but how herolc, nation that in a high day of old staked its very life to free itself from ry entanglement that had darkened the fortunes of the older nations and set up a new standard here,—that men of such origins and such free cholces of alleglance would ever turn in malign reaction sgainst the govern- ment and people who had welcomed and j.murtured them and seek to make this | proud country ouce more & hotbed of European passion. A little while ago such a thing would have seemed incredi- “How shall we obtain the new revenue? | seems to me we should have very much We are frequently reminded that there |at heart is the creation of the right in- are many millions of bonds which the | strumentalities by which to mobdilize our treasury is authorized under existing law | economic resources in any time of na- of current revenues for the construction | that I do not need your authority to call of the Panama canal; and it is true that | into systematic consultation with the di- bonds, to the amount of approximately | recting officers of the army and navy $222,000,000 are now available for that pur- Prior to 1913 $184,631,920 of thesc | from among our citisens who are thor- bonds had actiially been sold to recoup | oughly famillar, for example, with the the expenditures at the isthmus; and now | transportation facilities of the country constitute a considerable ftém of the|and therefore competent to advise how But I, for one, do not be- | they may be co-ordinated when the need lieve that the people of this country ap- | arises, those who can suggest the best prove of postponing the payment of their | way in which to bring about prompt co- bllls. Borrowing money is short-sighted ' operation among the manufacturers of It can be justified only when | the country, should it be necessary, and permanent things are to be accomplished | those who could assist to bring the techni- ‘which many me’r‘fionx will certainly | cal skill of the country to the aid of the benefit by and which it seems hardly | government in the solution of particular fair that a single generation should pay | problems of defense. Y only hope that if for. The objects we are now proposing | I should find it feasible to constitute such Howito Raise Revenue to Meet Expenses; Stern Rebuke for the Disloyal Citizens “While we apeak of the preparation of the nation to make sure of its security | | and its effective power we must not fail into the patent error of supposing that its real strength comes from armaments and mere safeguards of written law, It comes, of course, from its people, their ings, their free opportunity ,.to use the natural resources of our great home land The domestic questions - | which engaged the attention of the last r| congress are more vital to the nation in our laws into these all-important fields of domestic action. A matter which it t | tional necessity. I take it for granted men of recognized leadership and nblllly\l - | an advisory body the congress would be AY a fellow is honest, or brave, or earnest, an’ you've said some- thing. Say, “he’s a an’ you've said it all. When I say VELVET is tobacco as it should be, I've said it of Factories. “What {s more important is, that the industries and resources of the country should be available and ready for mobili- zation. It is the more imperatively neces- sary, therefore, that we should promptly devise means for doing what we have not yet done: that we should. give in- teligent federal aid and stimulation to in- dustrial and vocational education, as we have long done In the large fleld of our agricultural industry; that, at the same | time that we safeguard and conserve he | natural resources of the country we should put them at the disposal of those wha will use them promptly and intelli- gently, as was sought to be done in the admirable bills submitted to the lagt con- greas from its committees on the public lands, bills which I earnestly recommend in principle to your consideration; that we should put into early operation some provision for rural credits which will add to the extensive borrowing facilities already afforded the farmer by the re- serve bank act adequate instrumentalities sively heavy, The precise reckonings are | by which long credits may be obtained fully and accurately set out in the report | on land mortgages; and that we should study more carefully than they have hitherto been studied the right adaptation of our economic arrangements to chang- ing conditions, Let Us Keep Awake. “Many conditions about which we have repeatedly legislated are being altered from decade to decade, it Is evident, un- der our very eyes, and are likely to change even more rapldly radically in the days immediately ahead of us, when peace has returned to the world and the nations of Europe once more take up their tasks of commerce and industry with the energy of those themselves to build anew. Just what these changes will be no one can certainly foresee or confidently ‘There are no calculable, because no stable, elements in the problem. The most we can do is to make certain that we have the necessary Instrumentalities who must bestir set of persons or undertakings. What 18 | of information constantly at our service clear is, that the industry of this gener- 5o that we may be sure that we know ation should pay the bills of this genera- | exactly what we are dealing with when we come to act, if it should be necessary to act at all. We must first certainly know what it is that we are seeking to adapt ourselves fo. I may ask the privi- your session. Problem of Transportat “In the meantime may I make this ble. Because it was incredible we made |suggestion? The transportation problem no preparation for it. We would have|is an exceedingly serious and pressing been almost ashamed to prepare for it,|one in this country. There has from as If we were suspicious of ourselves, |time to time of late been reason to fear our own comrades and neighbors! Bu than save the honor and self-respect o very effectually. I need not suggest th terms in which they may be dealt with. These Are Disloyal. practice disloyalty. No laws, 1 suppose, can reach corruptions of t! credit they are daily bringing upon us. mind and | for self-governmen heart; but I should not speak of others |erty and peace. We should see to it without also speaking of these and ex- pressing the even deeper humiliation and |or vigor of law, to make it sufficient to scorn which every self-possessed and |play its part with energy, safety, *and l t | that our rallroads would not much longer the ugly and incredible thing has actually | be able to cope with it successtully, as come about and we are without adequate |at present equipped and co-ordinated. I federal laws to deal with with it. I urge |suggest that it would be wise to provide you to emact such laws at the earllest |for a commission of inquiry to ascertaia possible moment and feel that in doing | Y & thorough canvass of the whole ques- 80 I am urging you to do nothing less |tion whether our laws as at present ¢ |tramed and administered are as service- the nation. Such creatures of passion,|8ble as they might be in the solution of disloyalty, and anarchy must be crushed |the problem. out. They are not ny, but they are|that lles at the very foundation of our infinitely malignant, and the hand of our | °fficlency as a people. Buch an inquiry power should close over them at once, |USht to draw out every circumstance gl e ‘lots to destroy prop. |04 opinion worth considering and we pimc oo h:.v-md'nu red into conspiracies | P0¢d 10 know all sides of the matter if nst the neutrality of the government, | ¥® Mean to do anything In the field of they have sought to pry into every con- fidential transacti rdon s ranaaction of the government in |y, any backward step. The regulation It 10 poasihie to Geal with these \hln‘-. of the railways of the country by fed- It is obviously a problem federal legislation. “No one, I am sure, would wish to eral commission has had admireble re- sults and has fully justified the hopes nd expectations of those by whom the policy of regulation was originally pro- “I wish that it could be sald that only a | posed. The question is not what should few men, misled by mistaken sentiments |we undo? It is, whether there is any- of alleglance to the governments under |thing else we can do that would supply which they were born, had been guilty |us with effective means, in the very of disturbing the selt-possession and |process of regulation, for bettering the misrepresenting the temper and prin- |conditions under which the railroads are ciples of the country during these days |operated and for making them more use- of terrible war, when it would seem [ful servants of the country as & whole, that every man who was truly an Ameri- |It seems to me that it might be the (can would instinctively make it his duty |part of wisdom, therefore, before furthe, and his pride to keep the scales of judg- < |ment even and prove himself a partisan of no nation but his own. But it can- | tion and efficlency in the full light of o not. There are some men among us, and |fresh assessment of circumstances and many resident abroad who, though born and bred in the United States and call- several parts of it ing themselves Americans,have so for- gotten themselves and their honor as citizens as to put their passionate sym- Ppathy with one or the other side in the |in my mind is t great European conflict above their re- | message, is national gard for the peace and dignity of the |curity, We serve a great nation. Wul United BStates. They also preach and |should serve it In the spirit of its peculiar legislation in this field ls attempted, to look at the whole problem of co-ordina- opinion, as a gulde to dealing with the rvice is the Watchweord, “For what we are seeking now, what single thought of this | fficlency and se- | genlus. It s the nius of common men , Industry, justice, lib- | that it lacks no instrument, mno faellity thoughtfully patriotic American must feel | assured success. In this we are no par- when he thinks of them and of the dis- (tisans but beralds and prophets of g |* new age.” of VELVET Tobacco is an Open Secret There is no hocus-pocus—no mystery — about. VELVET Smoking Tobacco. Anyone with the experience, and facilities, who is willing to spend the money, can produce VELVET. Here is the recipe: 1—Take the choicest obtainable selections of the famous *white” Burley tobacco of Kentucky. 2—Have this “judged” by tobacco experts, who specialize on Burley tobacco. 3—Take their selections and pack them in great hogsheads. 4—Store these hogsheads with their valuable con~ tents for a period of not less than two years, permitting eight seasons of natural “maturing.” 5—Under guidance of skilled blenders take selec- tions from various plantations, and so blend these as to produce the smoothest tobacco. 6—Manufacture this, in accordance with the highest standard, into tobacco, with just the right degree of richness, and proper aroma and mildness. ‘While this is simple enough it involves a great deal of knowledge, money, patience arfd time. The rapidly increasing VELVET sales, how- ever, justify our natural method of ageing it. ‘We absolutely guar- antee that no tobacco used in VELVET is artificially aged. Panama-Pacific Exposition's highest award — The Grand Prize ~has been awardsd to VELVET ** for ite supevior quality.” Cx ’ 7 THE SMOOTHEST " TOBACCO