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Show 'congress hears message from chief executive Rscommendations of Much Importance Im-portance Made in Document Read to Legislators. NEED FOR MEASURES TO CHECK ANARCHISM Prevalent Unrest of Labor Pointed Out as Constituting Grave Danger Recommends Rec-ommends Adoption of Woman Suffrage Suf-frage Would Have Ban on Liquor Business Delayed Until Nation-Wide Prohibition Comes Into Force. Washington, May 20 Patrick J. Ilaltigan, regular reading clerk of the house, rend the president's message to congress 1oday, practically as follows: "Gentlemen of the Congress: I deeply deep-ly regret my Inability to be present at the opening of the extraordinary session ses-sion of the congress. It still seems to be my duty to take part in the counsels coun-sels of the peace conference and contribute con-tribute what I can to the solution of the Innumerable questions to whose settlement it has had to address itself ; for they are questions which affect the peace of the whole world and from " them, therefore, the United States cannot can-not stand apart. I deemed It, my duty to call the congress together at this time because It was not wise to postpone post-pone longer the provisions which must be made for the support of the government. govern-ment. Many of the appropriations which are absolutely necessary for the maintenance of the government and the fulfillment of its varied obligations for the fiscal year 1919-1920 have not. yet been made ; the end of the present fiscal year is at hand; and action upon these appropriations can no longer be prudently delayed. It is necessary, therefore, that I should immediately call your attention to this critical need. It is hardly necessary for me to urge that It may receive your prompt attention. "I shall take the liberty of addressing address-ing you on my return on the subjects which have most engrossed our attention atten-tion and the attention of the world during these last anxious months. Domestic Legislation. "I hesitate to venture any opinion or press any recommendation with regard re-gard to domestic legislation while absent ab-sent from the United1 States and out of daily touch with intimate sources of information and counsel. I am conscious con-scious that I need, after so long an absence ab-sence from Washington, to seek the advice of those who have remained in constant contact with domestic problems prob-lems and who have known them close at hand from day to day; and I trust that it will very soon be possible for me to do so. But there are several questions pressing for consideration to which I feel that I may, and indeed must, even now direct your attention, if only in general terms. In speaking of them T shall. I dare say. be doing little more than speak your own thoughts. I hope that I shall speak your own judgment also. "The question which stands at the front of all others in every country amidst the present great awakening is the question of labor; and perhaps I can speak of it with as great advantage advan-tage while engrossed in the consideration considera-tion of interests which affect all countries coun-tries alike as I could at home and amidst the interests which naturally most affect my thought, because they are the interests of our people. Rights of the Worker. "By the question of labor I do not mean the question of etlicicnt industrial indus-trial production, the question of how labor is to he obtained and made effective effec-tive in the great process of sustaining populations and winning success amidst commercial and industrial ri-vali ri-vali i' s. I mean that much greater and more vital question, how are the men and v omen who do the daily labor of the world to obtain progressive Improvement Im-provement in the conditions of their labor, to be made happier, and to be served better by the communities and the industries which their labor sustains sus-tains and advances? How are they to be given their right advantage as citizens and human beings? Justice to Capital and Labor. "We cannot go any further in our present direction. We have already gone too far. We cannot live our right life as a nation or achieve our proper success as an Industrial community com-munity if capital and labor are to be antagonistic instead of being partners. If they are to continue to distrust one another and contrive how they can get the better of one another, or what perhaps per-haps amounts to the same thing, calculate cal-culate by what form and degree of coercion they can manage to extort on the one hand work enough to make enterprise profitable, on the other justice jus-tice and fair treatment enough to make life tolerable. That bad road has turned out a blind alley. It Is no thoroughfare to real prosperity. We must find another, leading in another an-other direction and to a very different differ-ent destination. ' It must lead not merely to accommodation but also to a genuine co-operation and partnership based upon a real community of interest inter-est and participation in control. "Labor legislation lies, of course, chiefly with the states; but the new spirit and method of organization which must be effected are not to be brought by legislation so much as by, the common counsel and voluntary co-operation of capitalist, manager, and workman. Legislation can go only a very little way in recommending what shall bo done. The organization of industry in-dustry is a matter of corporate and individual initiative' and of practical business arrangement. Those who really desire a new relationship between be-tween capital and labor can readily find a way to bring It about ; and perhaps per-haps federal legislation can help more than state legislation could. Industrial Democratization. "The object of all reform In this essential matter must be the genuine democratization of industry, based upon a full recognition of the right of those who work, in whatever rank, to participate in some organic way In every decision which directly affects their welfare on the part they are to play in Industry. Some positive legislation leg-islation is practicable. The congress has already shown the way to one reform re-form which should be world-wide, by establishing the eight-hour day as the standard day in every field of labor over which it can exercise "control. It has sought to find the way to prevent child labor, and will, I hope and believe, be-lieve, presently find it. It has served the whole country by leading the way in developing the means of preserving preserv-ing and safeguarding life and health in dangerous industries. The members mem-bers of the committee on labor in the two houses hardly need suggestions from me as to what means they shall seek to make the federal government the agent of the whole nation in pointing point-ing out, and if need be, guiding the process of reorganization and reform. Duty to Returning Soldiers. "I am sure that It is not necessary for me to remind that there is one immediate and very practical question of labor that we should meet in the most liberal spirit. We must see to It that our returning soldiers are assisted assist-ed in every practicable way to find the places for which they are fitted in the daily work of this country. This can be done by developing and maintaining main-taining upon an adequate scale the ad-morable ad-morable organization created by the department of labor for placing men seeking work; and it can also be done. In at least one very great field, by creating cre-ating new opportunities for individual enterprise. The secretary of the interior in-terior has pointed out the way by which returning soldiers may be helped to find and take up land in the hitherto hither-to undeveloped regions of the country which the federal government has already al-ready prepared or can readily prepare frrr cultivation, and also on many of the cutover or neglected areas which lie within the limits of the older states; and T once more take the liberty lib-erty of recommending very urgently that his plan shall receive the immediate immedi-ate and substantial support of the congress. con-gress. Future Commerce. "Our new merchant ships, which have in some quarters been feared as destructive de-structive rivals, may prove helpful rivals, riv-als, rather, and common servants very much needed and welcome. Our great shipyards, new and old, will be so opened to the use of the world that they will prove immensely serviceable to every maritime people in restoring, much more rapidly than would otherwise other-wise have been possible, the tonnage wantonly destroyed In the war. I have only to suggest that there are many points at which we can facilitate facili-tate American enterprise In foreign trade by opportune legislation, and make it easy for Americen merchant ships where they will be welcomed as friends rather than as dreaded antagonists. antag-onists. "And credit and enterprise alike will be quickened by timely and helpful legislation with regard to taxation. I hope that the congress will find It possible pos-sible to undertake an early reconsideration reconsid-eration of federal taxes, in order to make our system of taxation more simple sim-ple and easy of administration and the taxes themselves as little burdensome as they can be made and yet suffice to support the government and meet all its obligations. The figures to which those obligations have arisen are very great indeed, but they are not so great tis to make it difficult for the nation to meet them, and meet them, perhaps, In a single generation, by taxes which will neither crush nor discourage. They are not so great as they seem, not so great as the immense sums we have had to borrow, added to the Immense Im-mense sums we have had to raise by taxation, would seem to indicate; for a very large proportion of these sums were raised in order that they might be loaned to the governments with which we were associated In the war, and those loans will, of course, constitute consti-tute assets not liabilities, and will not have to be taken care of by our taxpayers. tax-payers. "The main thing we shall have to care for is that our taxation shall rest as lightly as possible on the productive pro-ductive resources of the country, that Its rates shall be stable, and that it shall be constant In its revenue-yielding power. "Many of the minor taxes provided for in the federal legislation of 1917 and 191S, though no doubt made necessary neces-sary by the pressing necessities of the war time, can hardly find sufficient Justification under the easier circumstances circum-stances of peace, and can now happily be got rid of. Among these, I hope you will agree, are the excises upon various vari-ous manufactures and the taxes upon retail sales. They are unequal In the incidence on different Industries and on different individuals. Their collection collec-tion is difficult and expensive. Those which are levied upon articles sold at retail are largely evaded by the readjustment read-justment of retail prices. On the other hand, I should assume that It is expedient ex-pedient to maintain a considerable range of indirect taxes; and the fact that alcoholic liquors will presently no longer afford a source of revenue by taxation makes it the more necessary neces-sary that the field should be care'fully restudied in order that equivalent sources of revenue may be found which ot will be legitimate and not burdensome to draw upon. Import Duties Correct. "There is, fortunately, no occasion for undertaking in the immediate future, fu-ture, any general revision of our system sys-tem of import duties. No serious danger dan-ger of foreign competition now threatens threat-ens American industries. Our country has emerged from the war less disturbed dis-turbed and less weakened than any of the European countries which are our competitors in manufacture. So far from there being any danger or need of accentuated foreign competition, it is likely that the conditions of the next few years will greatly facilitate the marketing of American manufactures manufac-tures abroad. Least of all should we depart from the policy adopted in the tariff act of 1913, of permitting the free entry into the United States of the raw materials needed to supplement supple-ment and enrich our own abundant supplies. Asks Woman Suffrage. "Will you not permit me, turning from these matters, to speak once more, and very earnestly, of the proposed pro-posed amendment to the Constitution which would extend the suffrage to women and which passed the house of representatives at the last session of the congress? It seems to me that every consideration of justice and of public advantage calls for the immediate imme-diate adoption of that amendment and its submission forthwith to the legislatures legis-latures of the several states. Throughout Through-out all the world this long-delayed extension ex-tension of the suffrage is looked for. "The telegraph and telephone lines will, of course, be returned to their owners so soon as the retransfer can be effected without administrative confusion ; so soon that Is, as the change can be made with least possible pos-sible inconvenience to the public and to the owners themselves. The railroads rail-roads will be handed over to their owners at the end of the calendar year; if I were in Immediate contact with the administrative questions which must govern the retransfer of the telegraph and telephone lines, I could name the exact date for their return re-turn also. Until I am in direct contact con-tact with the practical questions Involved In-volved I can only suggest In the case of the telegraphs and telephones, as In the case of their railways, it Is clearly desirable in the public interest inter-est that some legislation should be considered which may tend to make of these Indispensable instrumentalities instrumental-ities of our modern life a uniform and co-ordinated system which will afford those who use them a complete and certain means of communication. "The demobilization of the military forces of the country has progressed to such a point that It seems to me entirely en-tirely safe now to remove the ban upon up-on the manufacture and sale of wine and beers, but I am advised that without with-out further legislation I have not the legal authority to remove the present restrictions. I therefore recommend that the act approved November 21, 1918, entitled, 'An act to entitle the secretary of agriculture to carry out during the fiscal year ending June 30. 1919, the purposes of the act entitled "an act to provide further for the national na-tional security and defense by stimulating stimu-lating and facilitating the distribution of agricultural products," and for other purposes,' be amended or repealed re-pealed In so far as It applies to wines and beers. "I sincerely trust that I shall very soon be at my post In Washington again to report upon the matters which made my presence at the peace fable apparently Imperative, and to put myself at the service of the congress con-gress in every matter of administration administra-tion or counsel that may seem to demand de-mand executive action or advice. "WOODKOW WILSON." |