The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1891-02-14
About Taxing the Mines.

49, - ~S~ " SAN ROAAV VI
The first in the order in which
we shall notice them is the PROPOSE.
ton to levy direct tax upon mine
owners to pay mining inspector
This would be on par with taxing
the farmer to pay the governor, OF
the merchant to pay the attorney
general. We think the time will
come soon, if it has not already
come, when an inspector of mines
will be as essential as a governor OF
encouragement; but he should be
an officer of the state, and be clothed
with full authority to enforce such
rules and regulations, in and about
the mines, as in his judgment are
needed to insure the safety of the
men employed, and should be paid
by the state. There is a manifest
and growing disposition on the part
of large employers of help to mean
ly expose the lives of their men in
order to save the few dollars little
repairing or little better ventila-
ton would cost. This avaricious
spirit is not confined to Idaho. It
is even, we believe, less prominent
here than in most places; but it is
here, and when underground min
ing shall have become centered in
the hands of few great capitalists,
and thoroughly systematized upon
the single basis of proft-and it
will become so sooner than most
people think-we will need an in
spector of mines, for the miners
will then need the protection of the
state quite as badly as do the coal
miners of Europe and Pennsylvania
at the present time.
But it does not follow from this
that the miners should be specially
taxed to pay the inspector. The
just and sensible way to do would
be to levy a tax upon all of the
property of the state, sufficient, or
as nearly as may be sufficient, to
defray the ordinary and necessary
expenses of the state government,
whatever those ordinary and neces-
sary expenses may be. To this
method of taxation none could reas-
onably object; and we are confident
no miner would object to it.
Taxing the output or any part of
the output of mines is impractical,
foolish, and if it is not so, should
be made unconstitutional; because
the output of even the best paying
mine is clearly an indeterminate
quantity. There is no data and in
the nature of the business can be
none upon which to base an esti-
mate of what the output of any
given mine or group of mines will
be for year or any other length of
time; and to attempt any such
course would be to harass the miner
with unjust and arbitrary exactions
and to kill the business. 1t is right
and just, according to our way of
thinking, to tax improvements on
mines, they being property having
a fixed and determinate value; it
is also right to tax the patented
mine, at a valuation per acre, or
otherwise, based upon the condition
of the mine, it's yield, permanent
market value, and the like, as farms
are taxed. And we believe rule
Of this kind would not only be &C
ceptable to majority of mine own
ers, but would be beneficial to them.
1t would, as soon as it was under
stood, encourage locaters to patent
their mines and become taxpayers,
as the safest and cheapest plan.
Under the existing rule to hold a
location claim requires an outlay
of 800 a year in labor. The ex-
pense attending this labor, in the
way of tools, provisions, ETC., will
average $25 per claim. The tax on
the same claim could by no posi-
BILE means of fairness exceed $25
a year before it had been developed
into a paying property. So the
miner who patented his claim and
paid taxes on it to the state would
save at least a hundred dollars a
year, and would enjoy, besides, the
added advantage of being secure in
his title and possessions; whereas,
a failure to represent a location
claim inevitably results in the loss
of claim, if it is regarded as worth
the trouble of relocating.
The proposition to tax the gross
proceeds of mine is only another
name for the scheme of taxing the
output. The output is the gross
product Of the mine. But if the
legislature will examine the propo-
sition a moment it cannot fail to
perceive its unfair and discriminate
ing character. Tax the farmer on
the gross proceeds of his farm or
the merchant on the gross receipts
of his business, and you would
drive him out of the state. He
could not pay it. Only by taxing
the miners and all others upon what
they have in hand when the assess
ment is made, regardless of gross
products or incomes, can justice be
done and enterprise encouraged, and
this latter the Legislature should
! Thn az a 70