The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-10-31
HIGHT ON THE NINTH
Is
CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT TO
A he VOTED ON At TUESDAYS
ELECTION.
IT'S A CORPORATE MEASURE.
ACCORDING TO THE PRINCETON
UNIONS VIEW OF THE PRO
POSED LAW
1T is USELESS AND DANGEROUS
And Would Cause Corporations to
Pool Their Doodle and Besiege
the Legislature.

A st. Paul letter to the Princeton
Union thus takes UP the cudgels
against one of the constitutional
amendments which are submitted to
the voters of Minnesota for their con-
Sideration at the coming election. The
caption In the Union designates it as
a corporation measure. The letter is as
follows:
The people Of Minnesota will be called
upon on Nov. 8 to vote upon no less than
nine proposed amendments to the state con-
stltutton. The most important is, without
doubt, that which provides for the taxation
or railroad lands, and every voter who has
the welfare of the commonwealth at heart
should mark a cross opposite the word yes
on his ballot to this proposition.
But there is another proposed amendment
In Its way. equally important, and which, if
1t becomes part of the constitution will
open the way to more roguery and evasion
OF taxes than the people Of the state can
AFFORD to bear This is the last amendment
IN the list. 1t is printed at the very foot Of
the state ballot and Is described as a 'teon-
stitutional amendment providing for the tax
alton OF sleeping car and other companies,
etc. IL looks harmless enough, but 1t is in
reality one OF the most dangerous PROPOSE
tons ever laid before the voters of Mime
sofa, and 1t should be voted down SO en-
phatically that it will never come up again.
1t pretends to provide for the taxation of
the property OF sleeping car companies tele-
graph and telephone companies, insurance
companies, mines and mineral ores, boom
Cou1pdHleS, anu SnlpDullQerS ana owners, or
for tax upon the earnings thereof within
this state, as the legislature may determine .
This means that II this amendment is adopt-
ed bill could be lobbied through the legis-
iature providing for some extraordinary
method OF taxation which would suit these
big corporations, and that by these corpora
tons pooling their Doodle and uniting their
efforts the chance of such a bill as they
would favor being defeated, would be very
small, indeed.
This amendment is not necessary It is as
useless to the people as 1t is dangerous. The
constitution already provides the method Of
taxation for all these companies and their
property. Section of article says: "And
/ all property on which taxes are to be levied
shall have cash valuation and be- euualized
and uniform throughout the state" Section
OF article says taxes shall be imposed
upon "all real and personal property accord
ing to its true value in money! The state
doesn't need this amendment and it should
be voted down.
State Auditor Dunn has seen to 1t that all
mines, mineral ores and the property of mine
owners snail not escape taxation, and thou
sands OF dollars worth Of such property
which had hitherto escaped taxation has been
| this year assessed and placed upon the tax
| rolls OF st. Louis, Itasca, Lake and Cook
counties.
This amendment says that 'the land or
business blocks of such corporations shall be
taxed by the ordinary methods Of taxation"
and these ordinary methods, which apply
and the factory are surely good enough for
| the big corporations, who would like to see
| this amendment adopted. Vote 1t down. 1t
| is the last on the list