The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-04-16
RIVER AT s A. NJ.


TAX MINERAL LANDS AND OUTPUT.
The senate will have a heavy bur-
den of responsibility to bear if it &C
quiesces in the decision apparently
reached by it's committee on taxes to
smother the Reeves mining tax bill
The bill ought to be taken out Of COM
mittee by the senate and passed just as
quickly as it can be done. There will
be no valid excuse and no apology that
can break the force Of popular wrath
If this legislature shall show, as the
sum total of it's work relating 10 the
taxation Of mineral lands and mining
companies, the repeal Of the former
law and no substitute presented for it.
The Reeves bill, as it went through the
house, is an eminently reasonable one,
and ought to be satisfactory even to
the mining people themselves. The tax
imposed of five cents a ton is very
much less than a great many people
thought should have been levied and,
as far as we can judge by comparing
the prices Of ore at the mines and in the
great centers of the iron industry, con-
stitutes a contribution to the state very
considerably less than what is paid by
other interests.
The objection which appeared in the
senate committee seems to US to be ut
terly without force and bears the air Of
nsincerity Of purpose. The members of
the committee who oppose this bill
pretend to do so because they think its
terms inadequate. They say that it
might do very well for a year or two.
but that at the end of that time such
development Of the mining industry
will have occurred as will warrant
heavier rate. If there is any logic in
this at all, it seems to be that, be-
cause a proposed tax is not high
enough, therefore you ought to impose
no tax at all. That is about all that
can be said in Justification 1t is as
sumed, of course. that, If the bill fails
the mining properties will be placed
upon the regular assessment rolls at a
proper valuation.
We have already considered this
point sufficiently in discussing the gen
eral scheme of the mining tax, and no
man in the Legislature is so little in
formed as rot to know what it means.
1t means that, inasmuch as these min
eral properties are concentrated in a
few counties of the state, desperate and
probably successful effort will be made
by the powerful syndicates that now
control them to see that they are COM
fortably taken care of. Such revenue
as comes from a state tax the state
will get, and that is all; depending en-
tirely upon the frame Of mind of the
assessor. The tax on output is even,
fair and certain. 1t is not unreasonable
In amount, and our experience in deal
ing with railways and other corpora
lions, as we'll as the experience of other
states, has shown that this is by far
the best method Of collecting revenue
from them. We tax railroads on their
gross earnings, and are now proceed
Ting to tax express, telephone, fast
freight and sleeping car companies in
the same way. Why should we make
an exception Of an interest of great
and growing magnitude, and refer the
mine owners to the local assessor, so
that they may escape the stronger and
stricter grasp of the states hand?
The people are interested in the pas
sage Of &, tax on mining properties and
suspicious of the influences at work to
defeat it. With so short a space left
before adjournment, a concerted and
imperative demand should be made by
the people everywhere that the senate
take this bill out Of committee and pass
It in the interest of the public revenue
and the prevention of future scandal
If the tax will not be sufficient as is
claimed, after a few years, the next
legislature can remedy that when the
tue years have elapsed. This bill must
not fail, unless those responsible for 1t