people. To sell bonds would be to make a most untimely and unjustifiable
demand on the money market; untimely, because this is manifestly not the
time to withdraw working capital from other uses to pay the Government's
bills; unjustifiable, because unnecessary. The country is able to pay
any just and reasonable taxes without distress. And to every other form
of borrowing, whether for long periods or, for short, there is the same
objection. These are not the circumstances, this is at this particular
moment and in this particular exigency not the market, to borrow large
sums of money. What we are seeking is to ease and assist every financial
transaction, not to add a single additional embarrassment to the
situation. The people of this country are both intelligent and
profoundly patriotic. They are ready to meet the present conditions in
the right way and to support the Government with generous self-denial.
They know and understand, and will be intolerant only of those who dodge
responsibility or are not frank with them.

The occasion is not of our own making. We had no part in making it. But
it is here. It affects us as directly and palpably almost as if we were
participants in the circumstances which gave rise to it. We must accept
the inevitable with calm judgment and unruffled spirits, like men
accustomed to deal with the unexpected, habituated to take care of
themselves, masters of their own affairs and their own fortunes. We
shall pay the bill, though we did not deliberately incur it.

In order to meet every demand upon the Treasury without delay or
peradventure and in order to keep the Treasury strong, unquestionably
strong, and strong throughout the present anxieties, I respectfully
urge that an additional revenue of $100,000,000 be raised through
internal taxes devised in your wisdom to meet the emergency. The only
suggestion I take the liberty of making is that such sources of revenue
be chosen as will begin to yield at once and yield with a certain and
constant flow.

I cannot close without expressing the confidence with which I approach a
Congress, with regard to this or any other matter, which has shown so
untiring a devotion to public duty, which has responded to the needs of
the Nation throughout a long season despite inevitable fatigue and
personal sacrifice, and so large a proportion of whose Members have
devoted their whole time and energy to the business of the country.

THE OPINION OF THE WORLD