Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1895-01-04

may Oe enabled TO pay magnificent sal
aries to their principal officers, and
dividends on a large amount of stock
issued purely for speculative purposes,
without contributing one dollar for the
education Of our children or the main
tenance of our schools. Ask yourselves,
guardians of the peoples welfare, is this
right? Is it just? On December % the
Great Northern preferred stock was
quoted at 1925 in New York, being ~
cents above par. At what, farmers of
North Dakota, are your farms through
which it runs quoted? What could you
sell them for or the market? Last sum-
mer through an attempt to reduce en-
ploye's wages below what was ascer-
tanned afterward to be reasonable, a gem
eral strike was precipitated on the
Great Northern, and for fifteen days the
road was tied up. Under a gross earn
ings system they were exempt from the
payment Of taxes during that time, be-
cause they had no earnings on which to
pay a percentum. Along that road we're
hundreds of farms on which the crops
were last year a failure; yet no exemption
was had from taxation on that account.
Is that just? Is that equitable? Do
you now believe that the man who intro
duced this bill and labored night and day
to bring this about was actuated solely
by his love for the state and it's best
welfare?
now come to the GROWING 1NFAMY
OF THE LAW OF 1890, a result I plainly
saw from the start and sought to pre-
vent. Seotion l of that act, found on
page 4l7 of the laws Of 1890, provides:
"Every such railroad or person owning
or operating, or that may hereafter W
or operate any line of railroad IN this
state, which shall have accepted this act,
shall pay to the state treasurer each
year, FOB THE FIRST FIVE YEARS after
the approval of this act, an amount
equal to 3 PER CENTUM of such gross
earnings, AND FOR AND N EACH AND
EVERY YEAR AFTER THE OF
SUCH I YEARS AN AMOUNT EQUAL TO
z PER CENTUM OF SAID GROSS EARNINGS,
and the PAYMENT ANNUALLY OF SUCH
AMOUNT AS AFORESAID SHALL BE AND IS
IN FULL OF ANY AND ALL OTHER TAXA
T1oN AND ASSESSMENT WHATEVER UPON
THE PROPERTY AFORESAID.
Five years have elapsed, and the Chi
cago & Northwestern, which has hereto
fore paid 1854 for county purposes, will
hereafter pay only S3.71 a mile taxes, .or
S742 for all purposes = the 500, Chi
cago, Milwaukee & st. Paul, and the
Great Northern's taxes being reduced in
the same ratio, namely, one-third. Has
any farmer or merchant heard even ar
intimat;on that freight rates or passen-
ger tariffs would be reduced on this &C.
count? A single round-trip, regular
fare on the Great Northern pays within
Sl.92 OF the tax for one year on a mile of
railroad, including all it's a~ppurtenances.
On the 500, a single fare one way over
its line in the state pays 1926 more than
the tax for one year on a mile of road.
Five and one-half coaches loaded with
passengers, at regular rates, and run
once one way over the 500 road will
equal an amount greater than that road
pays taxes in the state of North Dakota.
In the year 1894, and hereafter under the
law | have been so severly condemned
for attempting to defeat, this is to be re-
duced one.third or the law must be re-
pealed. Taxpayers of North Dakota,
which do you want done? Members of
the legislature, which will be done?
l fully appreciate that by publishing
this article I have called down the male
diction upon my head of every corpora
ton paper in the state, and probably
some in Minnesota, and will set to wag-
ging the slanderous tongues of paid
agents, who visit the capital bi-ennially
for illegitimate purposes, who, as Dean
Swift says, "will roar and snort' about
what a terrible fellow I have been, and
thus attempt to disguise their true OBJ.
ject. IT | have said anything herein
which will awaken a public interest in
this monstrous fraud, then I will be we'll
repaid for bearing the obloquy the sub
ject has attached to my name. All I
ask is that every taxpayer keep con-
stantly in mind these things:
First-That under a gross earnings
system the railroads contribute no tax
to the district school.
Second.-That under the present law
the tax of four of the railroads of the
state will hereafter be reduced one-third
without any compensatory reduction by
them Of freight or passenger traffic.
Third.-That in equity all classes OF
property should contribute equally, pro.
portionate to it's real value, to the ex.
penses of the government maintained for
Its protection. r. N. STEVENS.
FREE SILVER.
IHE Minneapolis Journal quotes Mex.