Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1896-12-25
N'aahlngtpn Standard
ClN Hs'It. WASH.
FRIDAY EVENING, DECEMBER p. 1896.
A Difficult Task in Safe Hands,

ing session ii tn" Legislature Will he
the enactment "i 4 fair, cIuallr and
satisfactory rr,'nur law.
Alrady organized effort has been
instituted III several parts "i the, State
to tighten the labors OF the law-makcr,
AMI IN one instance, n least. a statute
has been drawn, which will relieve
him OF further duty than to cast his
vote after the hill has passed its three
several readings.
1t is well. however, to closely scru-
tlnize these cut-and-dricd" PROPOSE
tions to aid the legislator in II duty
that has been specially submitted to
his keeping by constituency that is
Jealous OF It's rights and will be exact
ing in passing judgment upon the ser
vice rendered.
II ever Legislature was called into
being by the will Of the people and
charged with holy duty, it is the
present Assembly. If there ever was
body of lawmakers more capable of
crystallizing into legal form that
will, if left free and untrammelcd in
their work, it is the Legislature which
Will convene next month in response
to the popular uprising that has swept
into oblivion party of thorough or
ganization and panoplicd with the
prestige OF continued success. 1t en-
braces in its ranks some of the ablest
men in the State; men of tried integ-
rity, men of well-known strength of
character, men of honest conviction of
duty, with the ability and stamina to
carry the measures of reform so imper-
atlyely demanded into effect, so far, at
least, as providing the basis for their
successful installment.
Any action with regard to revenue
which fails to protect all alike will be
abortive. The matter resolves itself
into proposition to supply the civil
service at a certain cost. If the cost
is too large, as it has been since State
hood, it is about as feasible to raise
the required revenue without looping
off some extraneous branches as it
would be to extract blood from tur-
nip or sunbeams from cucumbers. If
business man finds that his income
is less than his expenditures, without
any prospect of increasing the former,
he at once sets about the only alter
native of which he is master-reducing
expenses. He does not expect relief
by placing additional burdens upon a
business that is struggling to carry
those already imposed, but rather to
tighten the load to the verge of i'm
pairing its efficiency until its strength
has resumed a normal power.
The same course of reasoning ap-
plies to public affairs. Public work is
but an aggregation of the acts of pri-
private life, with a wider scope and
substitution of the public welfare
for individual benefits. When the
community prospers, each member of
the commonwealth should enjoy his
share of the beneficence, and he will
if all the pinions, weights, checks and
springs of the machine called free gov
eminent, are kept in perfect adjust
ment and on true equilibrium.
One of the special efforts now being
made seems to be more closely al
lied to the moneyed power than the
interests of the people. 1t is to secure
legislation for increasing the penalty
and nearly doubling the interest on
delinquent taxes, making the period
for redemption shorter and the title
conveyed more certain. 1t is urged,
in connection with this, that an in
creased assessed value on taxable
property and high ratio will be all
that is needed TO pay the interest on
warrants and bonds, maintain the
multitude of extraneous officers, pay
all the high salaries, and inaugurate
season of old-time prosperity, and as
the goldbugs always affirm as clinch-
er, Maintain the public credit"
Strange as it may seem, the advo-
Gates of this course do not appear to
have the most remote idea that there
is another side to the question; that a
large proportion Of the realty in every
community has been assessed at twice
or thrice its value as measured in
gold, even when reduced from the alb
surd figures of boom times; that the
ratio has been so high the whole
revenue derived from use and rental of
realty has been in some instance mad
equate to pay simply the annual taxes,
to say nothing OF the ordinary costs of
maintenance, such as insurance, re-
pairs, etc. In many instances when
property has been offered as pledge
for money to pay the taxes upon it,
the money-lender has scaled down
the assessors figures from so to IS per
cent. to arrive at fair basis for mort
gage security.
When to borrow means foreclosure,
as it surely does when the income from
property will not pay the taxes upon
it, what alternative is presented ? The
money-power suggests an increase of
penalty to ten per cent. and the annu-
al interest to twenty per cent, with
but year for redemption! So it is a
clear case of, out the frying-pan into
the fire, or to express it still more for
chilly, you'll be damned if you do