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3) Its Antecedent. "Our Government overtaxed its people last year and we find a surplus on hand of $350,000,000. It is perfectly obvious that no Government has the right to overtax its people."
4) Its Propaganda. "We have never in this country had anything like the propaganda we now have in behalf of the so-called 'Mellon Plan.' ... It demands without the slightest knowledge of detail that the plan forthwith be adopted."
5) Its Proponents. "There are 13,600,000 people in this country who pay taxes on incomes less than $10,000; there are only 330,000 who pay taxes on incomes over $10,000. The men who pay on income of $250,000 will save under the so-called 'Mellon Plan' $49,000 a year. . . . The few who pay on an income of $5,000,000 will save $1,330,000 a year. ... Do you imagine that it is the man who, by a reduction of taxes, will save $10 or $30 or $50 or $100, who is indulging in this propaganda, or do you think it is the individual who will save $30,000, $50,000, $100,000, $200,000 or $300,000?"
A Soldier Bonus.
1) Its Sacredness as a Party Pledge. "From my standpoint this subject is no longer debatable. With very few exceptions the leaders of the Republican Party have pledged themselves and the Party to the passage of this act."
2) Its Compatibility with Tax-Reduction. "We can reduce all of the taxes now existing on incomes under $10,000 exactly as in the plan presented and we can reduce other taxes in some degree, and we also can keep our promise to pay the soldiers their due."
3) Its Precedents. "Let us not forget that the principle of adjusted compensation is a principle that our Government has already firmly established. . . . Congress passed a bill by which the Government which ceased with the termination of the War was adjusted. We adopted the principle of adjusted compensation for the railroads of the land. . . . The Government of the United States during the War and for some months thereafter actually paid a bonus to its civilian employees. We paid $20 a month during the War as a bonus, and we have paid to our employees in this bonus more than double the sum that is asked by the soldiers of the Republic."
4) Its Deservedness. "Contrast the $30 per month received by the soldiers during the War with what those at home made during that period. . . . The lad who was fighting in your behalf for $30 a month; out of the $30 a month from many of them $15 were taken as an allotment for relatives, and $6 a month to pay insurance, so that out of $30 a month the soldier had left in many, many instances, an average of $9 a month, or 30ยข a day."
The Farm Situation.
1) Its Seriousness. "The farmer today suffers not only from low prices from the high cost of production. What he sells is low and what he buys is high. His dollar is below par."
2) Its Needs. "The Government must aid him. It must obtain for him lower freight rates. It must in effective fashion scrutinize the spread between production and consumption. It must not only promote cooperation among the farmers themselves, but itself must sympathetically cooperate with them."
The Administration's Foreign Policy.