St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1895-04-07
ROUTINE OF A DAY.
House Advances a Long List
Of Bills to Place on the
Calendar.
THE TAX ON IRON ORE.
Shall 1t Be One Cent a Ton or
by Direct Local Assess
ment?
IVES IMPEACHMENT CASE.
General Belief That the House
viii Not Report Arti-
cles.
IVES IMPEACHMENT CASE.

Yesterdays session in the house
was probably the least interesting
of the week, owing to the fact that
the bills under consideration were,
as a rule, conservative, and largely
of a remedial or curative character.
The house was in committee of the
whole nearly the entire day, and the
result will be long calendar for
Monday.
The principal discussion of the
morning session was over the Reeves
bill to abolish the present system of
taxing mines one cent ton on their
output of ore, and place them on
the tax levy, as other property.
1t was stated that the effect of the
bill would be to very largely de-
crease the amount Of taxes collected
by the state, and correspondingly
increase the amount of local taxes
The state now receives one-half the
tax collected, and it's receipts from
this SourSe last year amounted to
a trif1e over $4,000. If the Reeves
bill had been in effect then the state
would only have received about
$1,45O, the rest going to the county,
assuming that the assessment is the
same.
1t is claimed by the opponents of
the bill that if the plan of assess
ment were adopted instead of the
one cent a ton tax the owners of the
large interests would control the
the amount of taxes, which would
all go to the county except the states
regular apportionment, or about z
per cent.
The friends of the bill, on the other
hand, contend that one cent a ton
is not enough to tax the output of
the mines, and claim that a direct
assessment would be productive of a
much larger revenue. After a
warm discussion, which was very
generally participated in, the COM
mittee agreed to make the bill a
special order for next Tuesday at 10
o'clock.
There was also a pretty warm dis
cussion over Mr.. Johns bill to re-
nit the royalty on all iron ore
smelted in this state, and the best
that the author could secure out of
the discussion was a report of prog
ress, which leaves it just where it
was.
PURELY ROUTINE.
AT the afternoon session the in
terest was at a low ebb, and there
was hardly any time at which
quorum was voting, the Hobbies and
cloak rooms sheltering a large num-
Der of smokers, who emerged only as
they desired to vote on some special
measures.
Senator Keller's baking powder
bill and its companion, the spice bill,
were recommended for indefinite
postponement by a practically unan-
imous vote, Representative P. H.
Kelly stating that there was no oc-
casion to argue them, as they were
1.-THE same old woodchucks." In
courtesy of Mr.. Boobar, who after
ward made the request, the bills
were given a place at the foot of
general orders, just to let them down
easy.
Senator Greer's bill relating to di-
vorce, and making desertion for one
year sufficient ground for a decree,
was also killed with remarkable en-
thusiasm and unanimity. DR.. Tiers
patent medicine bill was reached,
it's author being absent, and a mo-
ton to indefinitely postpone it was
literally seconded. Several of DR..
Tiers Hennepin county colleagues
pleaded with the house not to kill the