THE CORDOVA DAILY TIMES
Entered at the PostofTice a£ Cordova,
Alaska, as second class matter.
H. G. STEEL
EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR
MEMBER OF ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Associated Press is exclusively
•ntitled to the use for republication of
all news credited to it or not otherwise
news published herein.
All rights of republication of special
dispatches herein are also reserved.
SATURDAY, MAY 22, 1920
—a—bb—sms
NO TIME TO ABANDON OUR PHIL
IPPINE POSSESSIONS
The agitation now being carried on
in this country and in the Philippine
Islands in favor of the separation of
the islands from the United States is
both unwise and unpatriotic.
It is unwise from every viewpoint
because no sincere well-wisher of the
Phillippines could desire that at this
troubled time in world history, the
ten million people of these islands
should be cast adrift to become Mexi
eanized from within and finally Jap
anized from without.
■ r.
The Philippine Islands are as much
a part of the United States as the
Northwest Territory or the ^ouisana
Purchase. They have had a larger
measure of self-government and far
more governmental aid than either of
these great stretches of acquired
territory received from the Arne "man
government in the days of President
Jefferson and his immediate succes
sors. Despite all the talk of agitat
ing politics in the Philippines and
here in the United States, the ledger
account of relationships between
America and the Philippines stands
all to the good of the archipelago.
There has never been in history such
example of enlightened altruism in
the treatment by a nation of the peo
ple of acquired possessions.
The vast majority of the people of
toe Philippine Islands are voiceless in
toe native government that lias been
set up under the protection of the
United States. The talk of racial and
mational aspirations is rendered ridi
culous by the fact that the population
*f the islands is a mogaic of variant
tribes, religions and even races. The
government of the islands is today,
and would remain under an indepen
dent government, in the hands of one
raeial strain on one island of the
archipelago. There is no principle
involved in this controversy; it arises
out of the desire of ambitious politi
cos to put the Phillippines in the sta
tus of Mexico or Korea, with personal
advantage in the transposition to
those who are the noisest in the de
mand that the United States, after
all the expenditure in the islands,
should divest itself of sovereignty in
the Philippines.
There is of course, just as good an
argument for the “independence” of
Hawaii, Porto Rico, and then of the
states carved out of the Louisana,
Florida and Gadsden purchases, as for
the abandonment of the Philippine
Island by the United States. But
there is no argument for the policy
that can be sincerely advanced by
those who keep wisely in mind the
present status of world affairs, and
the relationship of the interests of
Americans and Filipinos to them.
It is true that Japan looks with
covetous eyes on the Philippine
Islands, and that in so doing Japan
is not alone among world powers. The
Philippine Islands are the one free
source of tropical raw materials re
maining open or available to the
United States. Such raw materials
have become essential to the develop
ment of any great industrial nation.
The Philippines are capable of pro
ducing sufficient of such materials to
supply the needs of this nation, and
it is the only source to which this
country can look without fear of de
structive discrimination. The reten
tion of the Philippines is essential to
the maintenance of American indus*
trial Independence. That would not
be a sufficient argument if it were
not true that the relationship between
the United States and the Philippines
is one which confers blessings and
not injuries upon the people of the
islands. Commercially as well as po
litically the relationship existing be
tween the Philippines and the United
Statees is immensely beneficial to the
islands. The choice is between the
existing status and that which pre
vails in Mexico or Korea.
The present national administration
has done all within its power to wreck
the great work that had been accom
plished in the Philippine islands by
the American government. Under the
governor generalship of a Tammany
congressman the greatest piece of
service ever rendered by a great na
tion to a backward people has been
well night undone. The spirit of re
bellion against American authority has
been deliberately encouraged. Amer
icans who were giving unselfish ser
vice to the educational and govern
mental affairs of the islands have been
eliminated from the situation and the
whole machinery of the islands turned
over to politicos whose first purpose
is to undo all that has been accom
plished by American influence in the
islands prior to the Tammany occu
pation.
Under a Democratic national admin
istration the American flag was pulled
down in the Hawaiian islands a third
of a century ago.v But it went up
again when the Republican party re
turned tp power. The present Demo
cratic national administration has
gone as far as it could in the direction
of hauling down the American flag in
the Philippines. Patriotic Democrats
in congress prevented the consumma
tion of the scheme to destroy Amer
ican sovereignty in the Philippine
islands in the early days of the world
war. Fortunately the executive alone
cannot abandon the Philippines to in
ternal chaos and foreign aggression
before the fourth of next March. The
executive department can stir, and it
is stirring, however, the spirit of re
volt against American authority in the
islands, and a Republican administra
tion will doubtless have to deal with
the consequences.
WHY NOT A GRADUATED TAX ON
PROFITS
The problem of raising the revenue
ot meet the bill for the proposed ex
penditure of two or three billion dol
lars for soldiers’ bonuses now con
fronts congress. Sundry demagogues
are endeavoring to make the people
believe that some system of taxation
can be devised whereby the people
will not foot the greater part of the
bill.
A proposed tax on sales of mer
chandise is opposed on the ground
that it will only add to the burden
of high prices already so heavy.
Why not, instead of a sales tax,
a graduated sales profits tax?
The much, bedammed middle man,
the merchant, the distributor, per
form a definite service to the public.
The theory that they are mere toll
takers, parasites, unnecessary evils,
is without foundation in common
sense. The very existence of our
present system of merchandising is
evidence that there is a demand for it
and the wholesaler, broker and retail
merchant are all necessary links in
the chain of efficient distribution.
But profiteering may properly be
penalized by the government. There
is a reasonable percentage of profit
for the wholesaler, the jobber, and
the retail merchant. That reason
able percentage of profit belongs prop
erly to the man who performs the
service involved in buying and stor
ing and distributing merchandise in a
competitive market.
Upon that proper percentage of
profit no special tax should be levied.
Legitimate business is already suffer
ing from discriminatory taxation
which proceeds on the assumption
that the man who conducts a produc
tive .enterprise is a public enemy
whom the government ought to trim
at every opportunity.
Beyond the point of reasonable and
legitimate and proper profit gradu
ated taxation should begin. Assume
that the reasonbale profit to a re
tailer on a certain class of commodi
ties is twenty per cent. That per
PATifo an to n ooenrloinn'hln fionro
The man who charges twenty-five
should pay a stiff tax upon his en
tire profit; the man who charges
thirty per cent should be assessed
still more heavily, and so on until
the tax becomes practically confisca
tory for the conscienceless profiteer.
Such a tax would bring to light
facts relative to the profits of every
distributive business which it would
be well for the public to know, and
which would put the fear of God or
Uncle Sam in the heart of the real
profiteer. It would eliminate distri
butive agencies so inefficiently or ex
travagantly or unnecessarily run that
they can be conducted only upon a
system of plucking the consumer. It
would undoubtedly have a tendency
to depress prices of commodities. It
would put a premium on the enter
prise and efficiency of the man who
is able to serve the public as a dis
tributor in an economical way. It
would discourage multiplication of
distributive agencies which no longer
invole increased competition because
of the tendency to standardize prices.
It would discourage and penalize
market gambling in foodstuffs, be
cause every speculation could be
made subject to the profit tax upon
the actual amount invested in the
transaction. Such a tax would meet
the objections of those who say that
a sales impost would merely result in
passing on added costs to the con
sumer.
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S. S. Alaska,
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