The Present Drift

Sometimes the way in which a thing is done is more significant than the thing itself. In passing the Bonus Bill the Senate heard a debate in which Senator Borah delivered a speech. To many the speech of the Senator from Idaho was more important than the passage of the bill.

It was a speech made in opposition to the bill. But it was more than a speech of opposition. The bonus was its theme, but it was planned on a larger scale. It was directed squarely at the entire governmental and political situation in the U.S. today. It was delivered by a man noted for his sincerity, a man strongly attached to issues, not caring too much for parties and still less for individual men.

Mr. Borah is something of a zealot for any cause which he supports. He is in many ways mentally aloof from the political stage and his fellow actors. He raises his own pennant and rides hard beneath. Knowledge of that fact by the public makes him the most popular speaker in the Senate--judged by gallery attendance. He is intense and earnest. Many people find him the most forceful speaker in Congress. Said he of the bonus bill:

"I have certain opinions in connection with this matter which it seems to me ought to go along with my vote. . .

"Our indebtedness in this country at the present time, State and National, is about $32,000,000,000, and by the time this Congress shall have adjourned, it will be from 35 to 36 billion dollars, a sum of money which is inconceivable when it is undertaken to be measured, especially in foot pounds of human toil. . .

"We shall pass a tax bill, so it is said, reducing taxes some $250,000,000 or $300,000,000, increase our obligations some $4,000,000,000 and go home to report to our constituencies that we have lightened their burdens. . .

"In 1903 our taxes per capita were $17.03. In 1922 they were $64.63.

"In 1913 we were taking 6.4% of our national income in the way of taxes. In 1922 we were taking 12.1% of the national income for taxes.

"Mr. President, our tax bill for either 1922 or 1923 was larger than the entire running expenses of the Government for the 20 years from 1873 to 1893. . .

"Figures, ordinarily, Mr. President, are dull and tedious things: they tell #[DEL: :DEL]

"These figures tell a different story, they present a wholly different problem; they tell the story of industry robbed of its reward, of frugality stripped of its compensation, of men and women patient, persistent and capable, deprived of their savings and separated from their property through a wasteful and cruel exaction in the name of government, an exaction, sir, which results not only in ruin to the individuals but, if long continued, ruin to the community and to the State. . .

"If this is not a national problem, there can be no national problem. .

"Of course, I realize that it is perhaps too much to expect that either one of the great political parties, under the exigencies which exist at this time, would be willing to place itself in a position before the country of refusing the demands of those who served their country. . .

"It ought to be otherwise, but it is not otherwise. But I am not sure that even as a matter of expediency, as a matter of mere politics, we are upon very safe ground.

"The underlying fundamental vice of American politics at this time consists in playing the game on too low a standard--far below the level of both the intelligence and patriotism of the voter. . .

"The weakness of our present position, I repeat, is that we underestimate the sincerity, the capacity, and the willingness of the voters to do great things and make great sacrifices for their country. A Democrat in the days of Jackson was a crusader. It can be so again. A Republican in the days of Lincoln was an apostle. It can be so again. .

"Public expenditures, and thereby the inevitable increase of taxes, is no longer merely an economic question, no longer nothing more than extracting from the pockets of the people an increased sum of money. It has already reached the point where it may, and must be, regarded as a great moral question. It involves not only the material welfare but the moral stamina of our citizens. . .

"And whose record is this which we read in the budgets of cities, states and the Nation ? Whose record is this which tells of increased tax burdens all the way from 300% to 500% in the last 15 years? It is the record of the two parties which have divided power for 50 years in this country. . .

"So far as I am concerned,, I am in that frame of mind, sir, that I welcome relief from whatever source. If it is not to come through the party of which I am a member, still I shall rejoice at its coming. I want the relief. I know it has to come. . .

"We are now passing through a season of humiliation. It ought also to be a season of contrition and repentance. For days and weeks and months there has been going out from this Capital the revolting, nauseating story of carelessness, of incompetency, of venality, of the low, sordid practices and conceptions of public duty. . .

"This situation calls for something more than the canceling of a few illegal contracts; or the punishment of a few individual betrayers of public interest. The evil has its; roots deeper down in the social and political strata. It calls for more than a change of administration. It is only a more virulent outbreak of a disease that affects the whole body politic. Extravagance is only one step on the hither side of corruption. They are both plants from the same putrid soil and flourish in the same infected atmosphere. . .

"It makes little difference in the last analysis to the taxpayer whether his property and his interests are dissipated and destroyed through individual corruptionists or through an unconscionable disregard of sound laws which protect his rights and guarantee his success as a citizen.

"And who is more interested in renovating and remedying this situation, in arresting the trend of affairs than the same young men whose interests we are now considering?. . .

"I would like, in all candor, to ask these young men to look back over the last 30 years--brief, fleeting years--a fugitive shadow upon the dial when considered as a mere matter of time, but a century when measured by their effect upon our Government. The bonds piled up, the bureaus built up, the offices created, the constant mounting of the tax burden, the spread and waste of prodigality; let them review this record with care and reflection. Then, assuming that this fateful tendency is to continue-- and there is every evidence that it is to continue--protrude themselves into the future for 30 years.

"There will be an officer for every 10 persons in the Republic. Every conceivable activity of mind and body will be under the direction and surveillance of a bureau. Spies and inspectors, guides and counsellors will leer upon the citizen from every street and cor,aer and accompany biaa hourly in his daily avocation. Taxes will be a hundred dollars per capita. Forty per cent of the national income will be demanded for public expenses. We will still have a Republic in name but a bureaucracy in fact --the most wasteful, the most extravagant, the most demoralizing and deadly form of government which God in His inscrutable wisdom has ever permitted to torture the human family. This is not the picture of a disturbed imagination; it is the remorseless logic of the present drift of things. . .

"I venture to say in all sincerity that these very young men whose interests we are now considering are far more interested in changing this ruinous course than either myself or any member who sits in this Chamber. The future is theirs, and it is the future that we are presuming to mortgage. It is that future with which we are trifling. . ."