The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1895-01-11
VOL 30
THE GOVERNORS MESSAGE.

review of his administration OF pub
lie affairs, going thoroughly into de.
tails and covering over nine columns
of reading matter. Perhaps his most
salient point is contained in his wor
thy recommendation to the Legsla-
ture in regard 10 more equitable taxa
ton, and the urgent necessity Tor radi-
cal amendment of prevailing tax laws
aud regulations. We extract the fol
lowing as very pertinent to this
point:
"Under existing tax laws all manu-
featuring corporations in this com
monwealth, however profitable their
operations, are exempt from corpora
ton tax. AT least one hundred mill
ion dollars worth of property thus
escapes taxation. The practical
operation of this principal has been
extended to gas companies, and 1t is
new being contended in the courts
that even electric light companies are
subject to the exemption. In some
instances the conditions still exist
which rendered it advisable for our
state to thus invite the investment
of capital on its soil, but | respectfully
submit that when manufacturing
industry is enabled 10 earn fair pro.
fiji on its investment it should be
liable to the same taxation which
mining, agricultural and comm ercial
ventures are obliged to pay. Corpor
ate enterprises, like gas and electric
light, heat and power companies,
ought certainly to bear their fair
shares of the burthen of state taxa
ton. No considerations upon which
transportation and like companies are
subject to taxation operate to fairly
exempt the electric light and gas com
panies. They are ordinarily not only
entered into for profit, but they are,
in practical operation, profitable to
their investors. | recommend, there
fore, that gas and electric companies
be specifically restored to the class
of corporations liable to state tax"
OF official fees the Governor re-
marks:
"It was the purpose of the consti-
tuition, and Of legislation passed to en-
force the same, to rid the state OF the
fee system and of the almost equally
obnoxious system of mixed compensa-
ton by salary and fees. The payment
to the secretary OF the commonwealth,
the attorney general and insurance
commissioner of part of their com
pensation in fees is pernicious sys-
tenn and ought to be abandoned at
once by statutes prescribing adequate,
but fixed, salaries for these officials,
neither stimulating nor retarding their
energies in the discharge of their
Official duties by hope of fec or pro-
mise OF reward. All fees or com
missions paid to county heasurers for
the collection of state taxes and the
enormous perquisites still attaching to
the Office OF register of wills in certain
counties of the state for the collection
of collateral inheritances, should be
the subject of prompt legislative regu-
lation and restriction"
In generalizipg upon financial and
commercial affairs the governor re-
marked to the Legislature.
"During the two years which have
intervened since your last assembling,
our fellow citizens have not been with
out prosperity and manifold blessings.
Despite some depression in business
and in operation of our commercial
and manufacturing industries, there
have been steady advancement and
abundant occasion for thanksgiving to
benehcent Providence. Our popu-
lation has increased in numbers the
great estates of religion and educa
ton have grown and strengthened (;
the people Of the commonwealth have
been visited by no special scourge nor
overwhelming calamity; charity and
benevolence have been unabated our
fields have yielded bountiful harvests,
and there has been measurable, if not
entire, recovery in our great industrial
establishments of their wonted activity
and of profitable return to invest
ment.
"I am glad to again assure the peo-
pie of the state that the financial
credit of their government is of the
very highest order; its revenues are
ample and, compared with the neces-
sary expenses of economical govern
ment, they are redundant ; the cur
rent balance in the general fund is
very large, and the small amount of
state debt yet remaining is amply pro-
vided for by the sinking fund laws. 1t
will be only few years until the last
dollar of that debt is extinguished,
and, at the prevailing rate of state
taxation, the revenues will easily ad
NIT of continuance of the generous
appropriations for state education
which have been recently made. But