| Before
the President called the extra session
of Congress last May, Republican leaders
assured the country that if the President
would call them together in Washington,
they would settle the railroad problem,
the merchant marine question, revise
the tax laws, reduce the cost of living,
and enact the great constructive legislation
which the problems resulting from
the war made imperative. The President
obligingly called the extra session
and urged a revision of the war taxes.
The Democrats had to put on these
taxes to lick the Kaiser. Our gallant
dough boys having finished that job,
war taxes should now be reduced.
Has the Republican
majority done anything to reduce
taxes, or to solve any of the great
war problems? No, they have simply
lain down on the job. If the Republican
majority is unable to deal with
the tax and war problems, why is
it not honest enough to tell the
people so? Under the Constitution,
every bill to reduce, or revise,
or impose taxation must originate
in the House of Representatives,
which is absolutely in the hands
of the Republican majority. The
responsibility for neglecting to
relieve the people of some of these
great war burdens rests upon the
Republican majority. The President
can only recommend. The Republican
Congress must legislate to give
relief.
The question
of taxation touches every home in
America. There is no man, woman,
or child who can escape the relentless
tax law. It reaches into every pocket,
and extracts its share whether the
pocket belongs to the rich or to
the poor. While the poor do not
pay these taxes directly, they do
pay them indirectly, because the
taxes increase the price of every
ounce of food, every pound of coal,
every piece of clothing and every
article consumed or used by the
people. Between the high cost of
living and the high load of taxation,
the masses are carrying a heavy
burden these days, and they have
a right to demand that the Republican
majority in Congress carry out its
promises to give relief.
Instead of
trying to reduce the burden of taxation,
the Republican Senate has spent
its full time trying to defeat the
plan for a League of Nations, which
if organized will cut down and limit
military armament among all the
great powers, and will make war
[almost] if not impossible. If the
Senate destroys the League of Nations,
then the United States must begin
at once to arm on a greater scale
than any other nation in the world,
because we must be strong enough
to beat all comers from the Atlantic,
the Pacific, or any other quarter.
This means a navy in the Atlantic
big enough to overcome the combined
navies of at least three European
powers. It means a navy in the Pacific
bigger than Japan. It means the
greatest standing army we have ever
had. And it means possibly forcing
universal military training on a
million young men every year. This
will add at least two billion dollars
per annum to our present tax burden.
Do we want
to promote or prevent human slaughter
in the future? Do we want to increase
or reduce taxation? If we want to
promote human slaughter and increase
taxation, we should defeat the League
of Nations. Our war preparation
will then necessitate increasing
present income taxes at least fifty
percent per annum to say nothing
of a general increase in every form
of federal taxation. Let us understand
the consequences of our entrance
on such a career of militarism.
If we must abandon the glorious
ideas of peace for which this nation
has always stood, we must do so
with full knowledge of the fact
that the alternative is wholesale
preparation for war and the enthronement
of armed force as the arbiter of
America's destiny, and of the world's
future faith.
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