The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1888-10-03
Those state Taxes.

the year 1897 was 81 $50, 0S5 10; for the
present year, it is 81, 45S, 466.04, Il de-
crease of $l91 ,6i912, or nearly half
million of dollars. The apportionment
to Van Buren, county for 1888 shows Il
decrease of 81, 297.7S us compared with
the previous year-a very gratifying
and satisfactory exhibit, and one that
will have more weight with the voters
and taxpayers than all of Candidate
BURT's misleading and demagogical
harangues on the question.
A careful comparison of the appor-
tionment of state taxation for the past
two years will disclose the fact that the
regular appropriations for those years
vary but little from those of former
years; some are little larger, while
others are materially less; but during
those two years there has been money
appropriated for building, equipping
and furnishing state institutions, out
side of the regular appropriations
notably, the upper peninsula mining
school, the northern insane asylum, the
soldiers home, Gettysburg monuments,
etc.-which accounts for the increase
in state taxation for those years Some
people may, perhaps, think that the
state could do without these institu-
tons, without her prisons and reform
atories, her university, her various
public schools, such rs her normal
school, her agricultural college, her
mining school, her state public school,
her school for the blind, her institute
for the deaf and dumb, her reform
school, her industrial school for girls,
without her insane asylums, her soldiers
home, etc, but most of her citizens
believe that such institutions are neces-
acknowledge that they cannot be run
without liberal appropriations from the
public treasury, and there are few peo-
pie, let us hope, who are unwilling to
pay their proportion of the taxes levied
for their support; and yet our state
taxes, about which Candidate BURT
complains so bitterly, are largely made
up of appropriations for the support of
these institutions, and if there have
been any eXtravagant appropriations,
if any of these great public enterprises
have received more money than they
were entitled To, more than was needed
for their proper support-the NORTH
ERNER does not say such is the case, it
is not well enough informed to be Il
proper judge-the democratic party is
just as responsible therefor as Is the
republican party, for such appropria-
tons were made by democratic legis-
lators just as freely rs by republican
lawmakers.
And what would Candidate BURT do
about it if he should happen to be
elected governor? He could do nothing
but veto the appropriation bills Does
he wish the people to understand that
he would do that? that he would refuse
his assent to the use of public money to
run our prisons and reformatories? that
he would close the doors of our asylums
and educational Institutions? that he
would turn out the old and crippled
veterans from the home that their fell
low citizens have provided for them?
If that is his proposition, If he proposes
even to cripple any of these great re-
formatory, educational or charitable
institutions, ii is only necessary for the
people to understand his position and
he will meet with such rebuke at the
polls rs he will not be likely to soon
forget. And yet, that is just the mean
ing of his talk about what he would do
if he were governor, if it means any
thing. The people may well congratu-
late themselves that Mr.. BURT will be
very apt to join the ranks of the great
defeated democratic legion, and that
Farmer LUCE, Michigan's able and re-
spected granger governor, is equally
likely to be his own successor.