SENATOR HUSTINGS PROPHECY
Senator Hustings Prophecy Pleading for Larger Taxes on War Profits, Late U. S. Senator from Wisconsin. Makes Powerful Argument for Equality of Sacrifice THE SENATE having under consideration the...
...Officer (Mr...
...It is true that we must have bonds for every dollar that we do not raise by taxes...
...Who, if he had his choice and was not mindful of his duty to his country or whose heart wag not fired with patriotism of the highest order, would voluntarily leave his home life, his comfort and ease, his business life, or would leave his associations and go and lay down his life on a battlefic.d across the sea...
...Well, then, I will not fight...
...When we bond ourselves we are putting it upon the back of the men who are working today...
...There is no argument as to the fairness of it, as to the justice of it, as to the wisdom of it...
...That is what I mean by not injuring business...
...Let me put it in another way...
...and then that there shall be millions and millions of people not doing service of any kind...
...he breaks up his family tics, and when he gets back, if he geta back alive, he finds his practice gone, his business gone...
...A conscription of all men would have been truly democratic, and I am unable to see how any good citizen could have objected to it...
...Not only does it mean that, but it mear.3 the interest on a billion dollars' worth of bonds...
...I will quit...
...I say again, it is not sacrifice in that sense of the word when we tax men in' such a way that they still enjoy more returns during the war than they did before the war...
...We take only such men as are physically fit to be in the Army to fight for their country...
...Perhaps in the next fight his speech will prove to have been prophetic...
...When we say, "You are the strong men...
...No one proposes to take all, even of the excess profits—that is to say, the profits he makes because of and which he would not make but for the war—because we want to leave him something to expand with if necessary...
...Compares Taxpayer to Drafted Man Now, let us apply that to the man who is drafted —who has got to go and fight in the trenches...
...they are called upon to sacrifice their happiness and the happiness of their families...
...The reason why I think we ought to raise the greatest amount of taxes that we can at this time is that we ought to raise taxes while we have conditions that make tax paying easy* We ought to reserve oar credit for such time as we may need to call upon it There have been various estimates here as to the amount of money that we must obtain for the fiscal year ending July I, 1918...
...More in Taxes Means Better Credit Mr...
...I listened with a great deal of interest and admiration, as I always do, to the distinguished Senator from Illinois (Mr...
...Other men will have to "do their bit" in a little different way...
...We ought to put our best foot forwar...
...and they are called upon to sacrifice their business...
...We refuse to support our boys across the sea with our money...
...that they will say, "We will not play at all...
...HustiNO...
...Johnson of South Dakota...
...You are burning the candle at both ends when you do that...
...Their lives, their comforts, their happiness, their business is not interfered with...
...We ought to go to the very limit, and we ought to reserve our credit until such a time as the conditions may make it necessary for us to call upon that credit...
...he has lost the income he was enjoying in times of peace, and he has got to start all over again...
...Hydes...
...Gerry...
...That is what we have said and done to tha drafted man...
...that is to say, one billion LA FOLLETTE'S Magazine presents in full the great speech of the late Senator Husting on War Taxation...
...It was not said that these men would not give up a life of ease, perhaps, even lives of luxury and incomes far in excess of $360 a year to go and fight in Europe, and yet we were dealing with human lives and happiness when we did that...
...yet we are told that that tax is excessive, that it is too high...
...I want to say that its seeming unpopularity with the Senate is not reflected in the people at large, because while they are willing to pay the blood price, they want those able to stand it to pay the money price...
...I can not understand the logic of those who say we must not tax the people because we have got to have bonds...
...He is drafted...
...We have entered this war upon the theory and on the practice, I hope, of universal service...
...to sacrifice everything that makes life worth living...
...Let no one here think that the people are going to be offended, that the bill is going to be unpopular, because it makes men pay what they justly ought to pay...
...It would have been their patriotic duty, and I am sure they would have complied willingly with such a request...
...It means that unless they get the price and unless they dictate the conditions under which they will do work, unless they can dictate the taxes of this country, they will not go along...
...Experience of British Cited It was said here that England started with taking 50 per cent of the war profits by way of tax...
...that in this war all this Government cares about is to get the men in the field to fight...
...It would only be a sacrifice if they gave something which they enjoyed in times of peace...
...I do not believe that the men of wealth, the men who are able to pay taxes here in this country, are so lost to all sense of fairness that they are not willing to pay whatever in all reason and justice they are called upon to pay for the conduct of this war and to make sacrifices in a measure commensurate with those of the man who carries a gun and lays down his life in the trenches without a murmur...
...If we bond ourselves much higher than it is proposed we bond ourselves for the fiscal year ending July 1, we may have to go still higher, because the time may come when we can not float bonds . any more...
...we will lock up our factories and let you fight the war yourselves...
...The Senator's argument was something to this effect, that the large manufacturing institutions in Chicago and in other portions of the United States if taxed too high would quit manufacturing and go out of business...
...when we start this march, the length and the difficulties of which we do not know...
...McCumber Wadsworth Martin Warren Nelson Watson New Weeks Newlands Williams Overman Wolcott Page Absent or not voting—17 Bankhead McLean Culberson Owen Cummins Reed Gallinger Smith, Aris, GofI Thomas Gore Tillman Hardwick Townsend Hughes Walsh Kendrick...
...Let us assume that he has a profession...
...So, if you do levy substantial taxe3 and light bonds the burden will be distributed*' between those who can fight and those who can pay...
...and I want to say that I think that this idea of higher taxes, instead of being unpopular among the people, is only unpopular in restricted circles...
...This country has seen a division—a small one, I hope and believe—on the part of some people who have been against this war...
...That means to say that we must not take the money for taxes in order that we may borrow it and put ourselves into debt...
...Hollis) certainly ought to appeal, it seems to me, to every Senator, because it is just and fair...
...and a half a year, which is .more than one Congress usually votes for the whole gunning expenses of the Government...
...Harding Smith, Mich...
...They are called upon to make the supreme sacrifice...
...Nobody wants to ruin any business...
...we could not do a more foolish thing than that...
...Men are willing to do their part if others are willing to do theirs...
...I believe there is no man in this Chamber who is not willing to make any sacrifice if called upon...
...but I repeat that if necessary he ought to be willing to give all, just as all is given by the man in the trench or on the sea...
...I say you are not going too far when you let the spring more than run over, more than bubble over, when you are just dipping from below, where it does not affect the source and does not diminish the supply, and when you leave 50 per cent or 20 per cent of excess and war profits plus the profits.that these enterprises have always earned and against which our people complained before the war because excessive prices were being charged and excess profits made...
...we must assume that they are slackers...
...I refuse to believe such a thing as that...
...They have got that nest egg...
...And when arguments were made upon the floor that we had no right to take our men and compel them xo sacrifice their lives, what did we say about it...
...his business stops...
...They know about what is right and what is fair...
...leaving to him still over 54 per cent plus his normal profits...
...I think if the war continues for another year the amendments that have been offered will be exceeded In amount and that the Senate will go on record in favor of higher taxes than any which have been proposed...
...When you draft that man you pay him but $360 a year...
...but if I understand their sentiment, their idea in this war is that they ~re going to be good, game sportsmen, as it were...
...You are making the man's living higher and you are piling up the cost upon his back...
...Without it we cannot send our soldiers and sailors across the seas...
...without it we cannot provision them...
...Is there any good reason why they should not do so as a matter of fairness and justice...
...They can not do any less than that and remain good Americans...
...They are going to come across with what the country asks of them...
...The amendment offered by the Senator from New Hampshire (Mr...
...I do not believe that we have the right to assume that our taxpayers are that kind of Dr...
...President, if every roan in the United JStates had been conscripted and been made subject to the call of the government, we would not have heard any such talk as that to which the Senator from Wisconsin has referred...
...If a man should have been needed to serve his country in any capacity that the Government might require of him, and it became necessary to call on some of our large'corporations to turn out commodities necessary for the welfare of the country, such could have been easily brought about under this plan...
...I know there are some of them talking busily amongst the laboring men, amongst the wage-earners or the men who we might say are in the less affluent walks of life, who say that this is a millionaire's war, this is a munition makers' war...
...We have newspapers, we have societies and leagues and councils and things of that kind, that are looking for every opportunity to come in and stop or hamper or hamstring the activities of this Government in the prosecution of this war...
...No man who enters the Army gets from the United States Governmant what he earns in normal years...
...you are the men who have got to furnish the sinews of war, because you are so fortunately situated that you can give this service," do you think that we are going to find a lot of quitters and a lot of slackers...
...Perhaps they will not buy our bonds at all...
...we must assume that they are selfish...
...Unless you give me th* amount of pay that 1 want, the same amount of pay that I always got, plus 200 per cent, I will not .fight...
...Manufacturers in Serious Threat Now, no one claims that this is taxing anyone to the limit...
...or, let us assume, he has a store or a farm, or anything else from which he makes $2,000 a year...
...Some of them are trying to make the best bargain they can...
...We are strong for the war, but not with our money...
...The men who are drafted are the ones who are called upon to make the supreme sacrifice...
...This country ought to be welded now spontaneously into one compact force, the whole working in harmony and in the same direction, with every ounce of energy and power, so that we could use every energy and every resource and every power, material or otherwise, in the promotion of the prosecution of the war and in bringing about the defeat of our enemies...
...He has got to go to war...
...Hollis) leaves to the taxpayer the income which he enjoyed before the war and all the income that he is deriving by reason of the profits he is making which are due to the war...
...Sterling Kellogg Stone Knox Sutherland Lewis Swanson Lodge Underwood...
...Law Should Hit All Alike It may be that we have not gotten over the old superstition that life'is cheap and money is sacred: We who voted for the declaration of war and believed it was necessary, and who now know better than ever that it was necessary...
...they will continue to run their factories...
...If you cut one billion off the top of the bond issue and put it on below, between them it reduces the discrepancy by $2,000,000,000...
...I sincerely hope that this amendment, at least, will be adopted, and that we can go before the people and defend the bill...
...Let each man do his bit in his own way...
...Hale Smith, Md...
...So I agree with other Senators on the floor here who have said that, as a matter of principle if not of expediency, it would not be asking too much for every concern in the country to be willing to give the country every dollar of excess or war profits it earns...
...That is a pretty heavy indictment to make against the manufacturers of Chicago and the United States...
...and I say that I have sufficient confidence in the Americanism of those men, even though they own millions upon millions of dollars, to believe that they will never put themselves in any position where they will claim a right to keep and will feel right in keeping the money that was made by reason of the distress and the stress of their country in a time of war...
...and what then...
...President, I wish to state a few of the reasons for supporting the amendment offered by the Senator from New Hampshire (Mr...
...It is only fair and just'that they should contribute their share...
...It is not good logic...
...I do not think it is good financiering to levy small taxes and issue immense bonds until and unless we have to...
...The taxes that I think were just and fair have been voted down...
...Now, what does that mean...
...I do not say that it is wrong for men to make money during the war, but I do say it is wrong for them to want to keep it all if their country needs it for its defense...
...Jekyls and Mr...
...But when we say we must back up and support and arm these men whom we have drafted, by money taken from those who are making money out of the war, and those who have money to spare, then we adopt a different rule, and say that we must have consideration for such men...
...We could not impute such a thing to a man who was drafted...
...we can not munition them...
...Every one should read this speech which deals with the most vital issues of the time...
...Hitchcock Smith, S. C. James Smoot Jones, N. Mex...
...Now, is not his life just as precious to him as the money is to the manufacturer...
...Let those fight who can fight, and let those pay who wi pay...
...I can not be made to believe, or, what is more important, the American people can not be made to believe, that business is going to be crippled when it is' proposed only to take the surplus which it never enjoyed in the heyday of profit-making before the.war, when we give business good measure for what it has usually made, and then, heaped upon top of that, another 50 per cent...
...if I made an exception I would be impugning the honor and the patriotism of the men whom I would so except—I say there is not an exception, that no matter what taxes are imposed upon them they will pay it...
...Ashurst King Beckham Kirby Borah La Follette Brady McKellar Broussard McNary Gronna Myers Hollis Norris Hustinu Phelan Johnson, Cal...
...It is a question of expediency as to how far you can go...
...He is reduced frqm the sum which he earns in normal years down to $360 a year, to $30 a month...
...I think if we bond ourselves down, or mortgage ourselves down, to thirty or forty billion dollars, we will have a hard time selling the bonds to those who have the money, because they will not think it is a very good kvestment...
...nobody wants to dry up the spring at its source...
...I do not claim to be an expert in financiering...
...we must assume that they are not good, 'rue Americans for they will close down their factories and shut them up if we try to make them pay a tax...
...I do not think that is good Americanism...
...We said it was necessary to do it, and being necessary, that ended the argument...
...Now, let us apply that sort of logic to the drafted man...
...that is what he is cheerfully suffering to be done with him without any threat on* his part that he is going to quit...
...but the contrary is true, that every dollar that we do raise by taxes means a reduction of one dollar in bonds, and every billion dollars we raise by taxes means a billion dollars less in bonds...
...If they are not willing to pay taxes now, and only pay them because they have to pay them, then, when the Government is in its last extremity, if it should come that far, as far as getting money is concerned, how will we get the money unless we yield to the dictates of their terms . s to interest rates and pay their price, as the Government has had to pay the price in former wars...
...So I say, to start off, it seems to me that we ought to have as large a tax imposed as possible under the circumstances...
...Brandegee Penrose Calder Pittman Chamberlain Poindexter Colt Pomerene Curtis Ransdell Dillingham Robinson Fall Saulsbury Fernald Shafroth Fletcher Sherman France Shields Frelin^huysen Simmons Gerry Smith, Ga...
...We refuse to fight with our money...
...that he is a lawyer, a dentist, or a doctor...
...that they would not go out for their country and fight in Europe even for $360 a year...
...whereas if we get it in taxes, or at least a substantial amount of it in taxes, we are paying it now, and we are paying it as we go, and the brawn of the Nation and the wealth of the Nation is doing each its part...
...But if he took the attitude that certain men take in regard to their money, or if we accept the arguments that are made upon tha floor of the Senate in regard to taxes and apply it to the draft, we could not get a man to fight in the Army...
...Yet, I say, the soldier mustido all those things...
...but we have not done that...
...We said that' if we did not have the power to draft men, the Nation then would not have the power to defend itself...
...we must assume that they are unpatriotic...
...The opportunity for sacrifices will be great between now and the time of the close of the war...
...They range all the way from $23,000,000,000 down to $17,000,000,000...
...I agree with him, at least to the extent that every man ought to feel himself conscripted if he is not, in fact, conscripted...
...We talk about discouraging these moneyed patriots, and insult them by saying that if we do less than is fair from our own standpoint, give them the benefit of every doubt, resolve every doubt against ourselves, they will quit and lie down, and say, "Manufacture' your own ammunition, make your own guns...
...we can not arm them...
...That is hot drying up the spring at its source...
...there is not any question that money is being made by the great corporations and by the people generally far in excess of what they would have made if we had had no war...
...Now it comes to raising money, which also is necessary for the purpose of fighting this war...
...This is one of the really great speeches of the last Congress...
...we must assume that men are more prodigal of their own flesh and blood than they are of the golden offspring of their business...
...I hope this amendment may be adopted, so that we can go before the people and point to this as a bill which conclusively establishes that Congress is setting out on the right track, that Congress is £oing to see that justice is done...
...Men have got to serve according to their ability to.serve...
...to go across the sea to fight the war...
...We all ought to be in a position where we ought at least to try to do some service...
...In this speech he was at his best...
...that we were justified in passing the draft law because we must have men to fight the battles for the union...
...and they are going to put the expense of this thing all in shape of bonds, so that those who toil will, by the sweat of their brow, mingled with the blood of their veins, have to stand the awful cost of this war...
...1 should dislike to have so poor an opinion of the men of wealth of this country that when they are called upon to make a sacrifice infinitely less than we exact from certain numbers of cur citizens they will not cheerfully respond to the call...
...The time may come when business will not be so good as it is now, when not so much money will be made, when profits will be less and incomes lower, and if then we find ourselves in a position where the bondbuying capacity of our people has reached a limit, how are we then going to raise the necessary money?Mr...
...Gerry...
...Consequently, in a sense, if they are permitted to enjoy this favor, they will merely be reaping the fruits and the grain that are going to grow on the graves of our own soldiers that we are sending across the sea—the fruit and grain grown in the national cemeteries in which our men are going to be buried...
...Now, that is not true...
...I am receiving letters every day from men from my State, men of wealth and standing as well as from men of humble means, all ready to work for the Government without pay...
...I want to reassert my confidence in these men that they will not do anything of the kind...
...We are talking here of war profits...
...Kenyon Vardaman Against the amendment—55...
...We ought to conserve our credit now as much as possible for future use...
...I do not see how there can be any question about the provision that the less bonds we sell now and the more money we raise by taxes the better our credit will be and the easier it .will be to sell bonds when we have got to call upon our credit for the money necessary to conduct the war...
...some along the lines of their profession...
...Not all men can serve in the same way...
...but it seems to me as plain as day that we ought to raise as much by taxes as we can consistent with the prosperity of business and the prosperity of the people...
...The man who is drafted, is not asked how much he will take to fight for his country...
...We are just setting out now, just taking the first steps in this war...
...I think the response made by the Senator from California (Mr...
...Means Conscription of Money Too Mr, Husting...
...It would be the height of folly to do any such thing as that...
...If we bond ourselves with $30,000,000,000 and have to raise the interest to 5 per cent, it means not only that we have got a bonded indebtedness of J30,000,000,000 but an annual interest bill of one billion and a half dollars...
...Of, course we want to go on and have our corporations prosper and expand their business and increase their industry, but if we raise the money we need on bonds and little taxes, I do not think we can raise more taxes later nor sell as many bonds...
...we must assume men are willing to have their eons go and be killed in the Army cheerfully, if they are called, but object to making a sacrifice which touches their pocketbooks...
...I yield to the Senator from Rhode Island...
...I am a mere layman on that proposition...
...We must call upon those for financial assistance who are best able to give it...
...Apply Universal Service to the Rich I can not believe that Americans will not cheerfully pay all of their excess profits, and, if necessary, even some of their non-excess profits, even a part of the profits that they earned in peace times, to help win this war...
...each schedule of the finance committee bill, being op for consideration, the late Senator Paul O. Hus-ting delivered the following speech: Ma Husting...
...and I want to go further »nd say that there is not a true American citizen, whether he is engaged in manufacturing, in trade, in agriculture, or in any other enterprise, who right down deep in his heart is not willing to make the supreme sacrifice if he is called upon to make it...
...may be that it would have been impracticable to have conscripted every man and every industry, because we have not the oragnization ready to use such a force wisely, but in so far as we could use such a force wisely every man should be conscripted in the Nation's service.' We have men herein Washington now who have...
...President, I agree very fully with what the Senator from Wisconsin says...
...There is no equity in the idea that some men are made to fight and die, that other men are made to pay and die, while still others are made to pay only...
...they will continue to help win this war...
...When somebody says that this means only putting this burden on the backs of posterity, I say that that Is a fallacy...
...we can not take care of them...
...How many billions of bonds can our people digest...
...I think .this is a truism...
...Paying Taxes Not Supreme Sacrifice W'e talk of the sacrifices...
...that they will quit...
...I do not believe that there is a single concern in this country—and I make no exceptions...
...Johnson of South Dakota...
...and they are working upon people, trying to prejudice them into a belief that this is a war, like most former wars have been, where the wage-earner and the man in the humble walks of life has got to shed his blood and give his sweat in the prosecution of the war...
...We will take the case of a man in business having an income, we will say, of $2,000 a year...
...I yield...
...That is good statesmanship, as I take it...
...We all know that this war has given a great impetus to business...
...but if, before the year is over, you are going to put on a bond issue of sixteen or seventeen billion dollars against a three-billion-dollar tax bill, to the extent that you have failed to take the taxes that you should have taken and to the extent that you have heaped it on top of the pile of bonds, just so far you have cut down your own credit...
...Does not the man who has got to fight in the Army think as much of his life as these manufacturers do of their dollars...
...some in the halls of Congress...
...Johnson) was unanswerable, that they have had three years of war profits, not a cent of which has been taken...
...some in this and some in that line of business...
...President, I thank the Senator for his interpolation...
...President— Mb...
...When the so-called draft law providing for conscription of men was before the Senate I argued then—and I repeat now—that all should have been conscripted...
...I think just: the contrary...
...Remember, however, that we can net force them to buy bonds...
...There ought to be no sacrifice demanded of a man that he would not be willing himself to make...
...some by military service, some by civic service...
...Trammel...
...We are going to pay j ou $360 a' year...
...The great burden must necessarily fall hardest upon the men who have to go to war...
...but here is the forum where these things will have to be determined, and why should we assume that men who have the means and ability to help finance the war are less patriotic and less willing than are those who are called upon and are ready to sacrifice their blood or their life in the country's defense...
...Preserve Credit for Rainy Day I say again that we ought to impose and levy all the taxes that we can, as long as it does not injure business, so long as it does not destroy our efficiency or our prosperity...
...There may be some unreasonable men that think it is unfair, but there is a sense of fairness in the American people which has evidenced itself in many ways and at many times...
...Some people say that they must have money to buy bonds thut we are going to issue at some time, and that we should not take their money away so that we may sell them tne bonds later...
...You can not sell any more bonds than our own people can take...
...Then all could have been used in any capacity which this Qovernment requires, and it would have entirely done away with the right of any set of men tq say, as has been suggested by the Senator from Wisconsin, "If you do not allow us to fix the taxes, if you take too much from us, we will quit...
...We are only cutting down half of an exorbitant •profit that business never would have made if we had not declared war and if we had not drafted men...
...Those who make that argument seem to think that going into debt is a privilege and a blessing which we should seek and welcome...
...Not only that, but he has got to turn his key in his door...
...They can do more by volunteering and making it less difficult to get a good bill through...
...If a farmer, instead of making a collection or getting .money some other way, mortgages his farm, when the crisis comes he has not got any credit left to take care of his financial situation...
...I repeat that in a sense we are all conscripted in this war...
...If we must assume that to be true, we must assume further that when it comes to money, when it comes to business, men are so selfish, are so unpatriotic, that they will let the country go to destruction before they will let the Government take only a portion of their money to defray the expenses of the war...
...Here is a, man drafted...
...Those are the men who will have to carry the financial burdens of the war...
...to sacrifice their revenue...
...we are through with you...
...They may sacrifice their lives...
...We recognize that in the draft...
...No claim is made that the bill will do anything except that some say that it will discourage a man from continuing to manufacture...
...Does not the Senator think that we will have a greater market for our bonds if we allow the corporations to go on and prosper and expand to that they will increase in their industry, and we can raise greater taxes later and also have a greater market for our bonds...
...Must Recognize Equality of Duty There is another thing about this: There is a sense of equity and justice in all men...
...Lewis), but he said something this morning that I should dislike to believe...
...Those who are only called upon for money contributions are only asked to give up a part of their unusual and excess profits...
...Suppose he said, "Well, how much are you going to pay me for going to war...
...but why assume that we are going to dry up the spring when we only want to dig up and drink the overflow from the spring...
...I do not believe it...
...He leaves the comforts of home...
...I think this defeat is only temporary...
...The people can not be .made to belieMe, and the manufacturer himself can not be made to believe, that it will put him out of business...
...Remember that you are still giving them those high profits before the war plus 50 per cent or 54 per cent under the amendment of the Senator from New Hampshire...
...McKellar in the chair...
...they will continue to help the country...
...and he goes to war...
...Besides the assurance of the excess profits, three years of war profits have not been touched, and yet we talk about crippling them...
...We should be sure that we take the right step, and keep in step, until we reach the victory at the other end of the road...
...President— The Presiding...
...but the amendment of the Senator from New Hampshire (Mr...
...he does not get what he earns in normal peace times...
...his practice ceases...
...With the world in the condition that it is in, with the limited market for the sale of our bonds, which means virtually that all our bonds must be sold here at home, it does seem to me that we are doing a very imprudent thing if we adopt a policy of selling bonds to the amount that is proposed and straining our credit to the utmost...
...Thompson Jones, Wash...
...I say it is not fair, it is not just, it is not right, it is not wis9> and it is not prudent to do otherwise...
...no man knows just what sacrifice he will be called upon to make...
...but the best way to prove that it is not true is not to expect the men who are going to war to have the money furnished to them by the people in the way of consumption taxes and other taxes levied upon the necessaries of life...
...There was not any suggestion made then that these men would not respond...
...come here, leaving their homes and business, and are giving their services gratis to the Government...
...The war has just begun...
...Makes Powerful Argument for Equality of Sacrifice THE SENATE having under consideration the revenue bill and the Hollis amendment increasing the tax on excess profits by ten per cent or...
...Hollis...
...Does the Senator from Wisconsin yield to the Senator from South Dakota...
...He is told that he will get $360 a year...
...That will mean that the ratio of taxes to the amount to be raised by bonds will be about one to five...
...I also agree in the thought that no man ought to want to emerge from this war—a war in which the vital interests of this country are at stake, a war in which we felt it necessary to make the sacrifices that we are going to make—financially benefitted from it, if his country needs that which he profits...
...Every dictate of wisdom, prudence, justice, fairness, and righteousness demands that we get an adequate tax...
...It has been said here that we must have bonds...
...Many of these men are going to sacrifice their lives and their business, not only in part, but in whole...
...So the manufacturer or business man must be told the conditions upon which we expect him to fight in the industrial or manufacturing world to back the country in this war...
...That is good sense, fairness, and justice...
...Not only that...
...We are told here, however, that when it comes to a question of taxation, when it comes to a question of permitting these taxpayers to remain at home enjoying their profit, not breaking up their family ties, not breaking up their business, not only continuing to earn all they ever would have earned if there had been no war, but then giving them GO per cent of the excess, we are told that these men will refuse...
...we who voted for the draft law knew what it meant...
...In theory, I think every man should have been conscripted...
...I do not believe there is a man in this Chamber who is not willing to make any sacrifice he may be called upon to make in this war...
...We call that man a slacker...
...Is he not entitled to as much consideration as the manufacturer or the taxpayer...
...you are not crippling anybody, and you are laying away for a rainy day the credit that you may need very badly before this war is over...
...Of course, it is human nature to hope that he will not be called upon to make too great a sacrifice...
...Mr...
...Like Mark Antony he compelled attention and moved his audience by soft phrases, gentle innuendo, and smiling sarcasm...
...The Senator was a master of the art of public speaking...
...It is going to encourage the people, it is going to encourage our armies and our navies, to know that their fellow citizens are willing to carry their part of the burden during their absence...
...That is what they say...
...They are taking every opportunity they can to block this war...
...If not, they would have been compelled to comply and would have been placed in the same class in that respect as" drafted men, sent to the front...
...How the Senate Voted The vote on the Hollis amendment stood as follows: For the amendment—24...
...If we raise under the existing law and the bill as now proposed by the Senate committee, that is to say, $3,300,000,000, and we are obliged to obtain a total of $23,000,000,000, it is quite evident that the remaining $18,000,000,000 will have to come from bonds or notes...
...We disgrace him...
...Sheppard Johnson, S. Dak...
...One man fundamentally owes as high a duty to the Government as every other man to do his part, in his way, to assist in bringing the war to a successful conclusjon...
...If this war lasts a couple of years, the Lord knows that we shall need it...
...They have got to pay the interest, and in less than one generation at 5 per cent you have paid the whole debt...
...we put him in jail...
...that the men who can afford to pay shall pay an adequate amount of tax and contribute an adequate amount to the prosecution of this war...
...No Such Profits in Peace Times I have not as yet heard any man say that he did not want to pay.' All 1 have heard men say is that they did not want to be taxed in a way to ruin them...
...he has got to lock up his business...
...it is not good financiering...
Vol. 9 • December 1917 • No. 12
