Otto H. Kahn

“ They have become drunk with the strong wine of freedom, these men who until they landed on America’s coasts had tasted nothing but the bitter water of tyranny. Drunk, they presume to impose their reeling gait upon Americans to whom freedom has been a pure and refreshing fountain for a century and a half.
Brooding in the gloom of age-long oppression, they have evolved a fantastic and distorted image of free government. In fatuous effrontery they seek to graft the growth of their stunted vision upon the splendid and ancient tree of American institutions. ”

“ All statesmanship worthy of the name is strategic—all other statesmanship is but a glittering bubble, floating in an empty void. If the moral and ideals of a people be not deep-rooted in vigour capable of defending those ideals, that people is doomed.
I am proud to know that Otto Kahn sees eye to eye with me. The utter degradation of the fine old Germany by Prussia was a bitter disillusion of my young manhood. What must it have been to Otto Kahn? He loved the old Germany to which he was "linked by ties of blood, by fond memories and cherished sentiments." ”

“ Economics are stubborn things and cannot be successfully dealt with emotionally. I yield to no one in my sympathy for those who have to struggle to make both ends meet and in my desire to see their difficulties lightened. I quite agree that the financial burden of the war should be made to weigh as little as possible upon the shoulders of the poor and those of small means. Will a two-cent tax on checks be a burden upon the poor and those of small means? Will a five-cent tax on single purchases (excepting foodstuffs) of $5? Will an excess-profit tax on the lines which I propose? ”

“ As that great American of German birth, Carl Schurz, and many other brave and high-minded Germans—my own father, I am proud to say, among them—in 1848 stood in arms against Prussian oppression, for liberal ideas and right and truth and freedom, so do we stand now. In fighting for the cause of America as loyal Americans, we are fighting at the same time for the deliverance of the country of our birth from those unrighteous powers which hold it enthralled and feed upon its soul. ”

“ It is, I am profoundly convinced, a far better system than government ownership of railroads, which, wherever tested, has proved its inferiority except, to an extent, in the Germany on which the Prussian Junker planted his heel and of which he made a scourge and a horrible example to the world; and the very reasons which have made state railways measurably successful in that Germany are the reasons which would make government ownership and operation in America a menace to our free institutions, a detriment to our racial characteristics and a grave economic disservice. ”

“ The possession of wealth does not make a man a financier—just as little as the possession of a chest of tools makes a man a carpenter.
Finance does not mean speculation—although speculation when it does not degenerate into mere gambling has a proper and legitimate place in the scheme of things economic. Finance most emphatically does not mean fleecing the public, nor fattening parasitically off the industry and commerce of the country. ”

“ It does this at a time when it is more than ever necessary that energy, enterprise, efficiency, the commercial and financial brain and work-power of the nation, be stimulated to their utmost in order to make good, as far as possible, the waste and destruction which go with war.
Any scheme of taxation which imposes an unnecessary burden upon commercial enterprise and thereby handicaps the nation in its business activities—especially in world competition with other nations—is unsound and bound to be gravely detrimental, both to the business men and still more to the wage-worker ”

“ I do not say all this to plead for a reduction of the taxation on wealth, or in order to urge that no additional taxes be imposed on wealth if need be. There is no limit to the burden which, in time of stress and strain, those must be willing [43] to bear who can afford it, except only that limit which is imposed by the consideration that taxation must not reach a point where the business activity of the country becomes crippled, and its economic equilibrium is thrown out of gear, because that would harm every element of the commonwealth and diminish the war-making capacity of the Nation. ”

“ It is only fair that with them should be abandoned the habit of politicians, sometimes politicians in very high places, to denounce as "lobbying" every organized effort of large business to oppose tendencies and propositions of legislation deemed by it inimical to the best interests of business and of the country.
It is only fair that there should be abandoned the habit of sneering at and suspecting organized efforts by business men to educate public opinion on questions affecting business and finance as improper attempts to "manufacture" or "accelerate" public opinion. ”

“ Let me say at the outset that my criticism does not refer to the principle of an eighty per cent. war profits tax. Indeed, I have from the very beginning advocated a high tax on war profits. To permit individuals and corporations to enrich themselves out of the dreadful calamity of war is repugnant to one's sense of justice and gravely detrimental to the war morale of the people. ”

“ If I have expressed myself freely, in some respects even bluntly, I hope you will make allowance for the honest and deep anger and grief that move me when I see how, through a needless war wantonly started, Germany and England-France, the three countries of Europe whom the world most needs, the three races from whom humanity has most to expect, are engaged in tearing one another to pieces in senseless fury. ”

“ But I am convinced that relief cannot be found in taxation of incomes at rates without a parallel anywhere, and in unduly burdensome imposts upon business activities. I am convinced that certain theories being urged upon Congress and the people and to which the House War Revenue measure is in part responsive, while doubtless meant to tend and seemingly tending to a desirable consummation, are in fact bound, in their longer effect, to bring about results harmful to the community at large, rich and poor alike. ”

“ Lincoln called upon Americans of the North to fight their very brothers of the South, so Americans of German descent are now summoned to join in our country's righteous struggle against a people of their own blood, which, under the evil spell of a dreadful obsession, and, Heaven knows! through no fault of ours, has made itself the enemy of this peace-loving Nation, as it is the enemy of peace and right and freedom throughout the world.
To gain America's independence, to defeat oppression and tyranny, was indeed to gain a great cause. ”

“ In many ways, in many instances, wrong impressions about finance have been given to the public, sometimes from ignorance, sometimes with malice aforethought, sometimes for political purposes.
The fact is that the men in charge of our financial affairs are, and to be successful, must be every whit as honorable, as patriotic, as right thinking, as anxious for the good opinions of their fellowmen as those in other walks of life. ”