The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1897-01-07

GuICN 58, lIAO = AuaHs gssttSssl
Anew Remarks on the Methods
Of the Corporations and
Their Friends.
Special Corresp pond ence. ISL S 81
ST.$PAUL, Jan. a. The organization
ofthe house and senate having passed
of without blood shed, and apparently,l
without any money having been
the Minnesota leg slature is now
.sseady to begin doing business at the
old stand just as soon as the commit
Eaases are announced and the wheels Of
s'ogress duly oiled. All persons of
sound mind had conceded. the election
let Jones for the past three weeks, so
the result Of the speakership contest
was no surprise. I'D. j ones is not
lesalyy q opular and capable gentleman,
hut she represents the greatest con-
Iaressional district in America, and one
! which is peculiarly entitled to recogni-
lion at this time, having been the CEN
1 teal battle ground of the greatest vic
tory, ever scored by the Republican,
pIs,rty il this State. Whatever may or
aaay not be accomplished by this ses-
sion of the legislature one fact may as
Veil be stated in advance, and that is
Mat few mistakes will, come from the
sasnair. 5s5
Already enough radical measures
\ IRE under way to consume the time OF
agreaterpart of the session, and as
asual they will carry their own
sntido te with them in the very ex
j treme to which they go, Men who sci
cut to reform the world in one cam
paign, as Mr.. Bryan has found, gener
ally fail to reform it at all, and mel
Who imagine that all the evils of lif,
can be remedied by a few words in
PRODUCED with the formula ssbe it en-
aeted,' usually find that the evil
which they seek to cure grow with tn
growth Of legislation. It is just abou
les hard for an ordinary layman to bea
q corporation lawyer at the gam
"a q legislation as it is for the ordinar
1. auben to beat the professional gam
- att The. game 4of threa card monte
4 When the corporation finds that
measure hostile to it is likely to pas
in spite of all it's arguments it's usus
course is to have it's friends iniet
! themselves into the fight as the mo:
ardent and extreme friends of the bill
They are generally known, and tn
" championship from the friends Of tn
ia corporation naturally excites suspicio
lie and drives honest men from the SUI
port of the bill. But it does NOR
= These advocates are so strong in the
support of the bill that they insist {
making it even more radical and e:
. IRENE than it's author had intende
80 they amend it to death, and it is an e.
. ception when some of these amen
ments fail to put the measure in sue
i. shape that the supreme court gives
= its final quietus on the ground that
is unconstitutional.
~ i
=. The constitutional amendment
place Pullman sleeping cars "a,
others on the tax roll was one Of tt
measures passed by the last house u
der false pretenses. It should ha
been entitled ''an act to perpetual
: exempt Pullman cars and others fro
- taxation" for that was it's purpos
a 1t consumes about half column
ordinary type in the effort to confu
. the reader, devotes the usual verbiaI
- to say that certain properties und
| certain conditions may be assessed in
certain way, and then meanders alol
- for another half column up to a ''pr
vided" clause which knocks all tt
foregoing into a cooked hat. T.
s'provided" condition is that the ca
subject to taxation shall not belong
the company operating them, a.
there is where the loop hole is, for {
b the Pullman company, or any 9th
company has to do to avoid taxation
to make a nominal bill of sale, Of
4!S cars to the company operating the
A and it cannot be reached The co
mil pany< thus operating them will not ha
I'd to pay its gross earnings tax on the
cars and they simply go scot free
taxation forever. It is said the h
was drawn by the Chicago attorneys
the Pullman company and some of
Minnesota companies made bluff
80 fighting it just in order to provoke t
=. hostility of the better men Of the leg
lature.
"A thousand such attempts were ma
0no upon the bill for the direct taxation
unused railroad lands, and but for t
best legal talent Of the State, as W
ss as some of the ablest men who ever
este .ns in the Minnesota Legislature, it, al
would have been amended to dea
= ! ~ 49,