Mexico weekly ledger., 1899-05-25
THE REVENUE BILL, INTR0DUC-
Ed BY MIR. CLARKs COM
MITTEE, PASSED.
In CONTAINED SOME new MATTER.
Has Been Given the First Reading in
the senate-A Bribe of 500
offered Mr.. Jenkins, of Jas
per County Great Work
of the Lobby"


enue and taxation revised bill, known
as House Revised bill No. 5,introduced
by the House Ways and Means Conn
mittee ,Mr. Clark, OF Audrain, Chair
man, passed the House Wednesday,
was sent to the Senate Immediately
and read the first time in that body.
The bill is long one, covering
over 1872 pages. l have not read 1t
all, but can state that It has good
deal of new matter in 1t looking in the
direction OF equality and uniformity
of taxation. Here is bit new
matter: "Taxes shall be levied on
all property, real and personal, in
cluding all public or quasi-public
franchise owned or held in anyway
by any person, persons, firm, COM
pany, association, copartnership or
corporation"
Here Is some more new matter:
GAN personal property Of whatsoever
nature and character, wherever sit
uated, shall be assessed in the county
where the owner resides; and the
owner, in listing said property, shall
specifically state In what county, state
or territory 1t Is situated or held"
II these two sections are rigidiy and
honestly enforced, at % cents on the
s100 valuation, the State Treasury Of
Missouri viii be full and overhowing.
No doubt of it. The trouble Is, as
is always the case, to execute a good
law that brings tax-dodgers up to
the assessors and collectors counter.
How easy 1t is (and often done) for
q citizen of any county to refuse to
lend his money to his county-men,
but to lend 1t to borrowers in 81. Louis
or in some neighboring county and
no one In his own county know Ill
Tax -dodgersl Bless your soul, they
know thing or twol But they can
be and will be "carroliedn after
awhile. At least, II is certain that
brother Renshaw thinks so.
win the Senate pass this bill7 1t is
said here that the Lobby" has issued
an ukase that IL may pass; and it Is
reported that the "Captain,n Of the
"Lobby,D whoever he may be, has
actually directed his lieutenants to
"vote and workn for it. Very well;
wen all soc in day or two. If these
reports be true, then It may be "guess-
ed" that something else now in the
Senate will "turn its toes up to the
daisies.n
The Senate Revised bill No. 16,
covering the chapter on revenue and
taxation, was in fact a better bill, in
my opinion, than this House bill; but
It is absolutely certain, so said, that
1t could not pass the Senate, and un-
less this House bill should be gotten
up and hurried on to its passage, the
revenue and taxation chapter would
not be revised at all. Hence, the
friends of ifranchise-t taxation in the
House got together and framed this
House compromise bill.
What is known as Senate Revised
bill No. 8, commonly called the st.
Louis Street Railway Consolidation
bill, came up in the House Thursday
evening. Let all say what they please
about it, but / don't think there can
be any doubt about the fact that the
bill carried along with 1t the biggest
lobby Jefferson City ever knew. Il
was common talk here that this "bill
furnished the best pickings Of the
session.
Messrs. Wright,of Randolph, White
cotton, OF Monroe, Democrats, and
Messrs. James, Of st. Louis county,
Hawthorne, Of Kansas City, O'Fallon,
of Holt county, Jones,of Howell eoun-
ty, Republicans, spoke in favor of it
and Mr.. Voolfolk, Democrat, spoke
against IL.
During Mr.. Woolfolk's speech, which
was a strong and impressive one, he
referred to the fact that a member Of
the House, Mr.. Jenkins, OF Jasper,
had been offered a bribe OF s1o0 TO
vote for the bill. Mr.. jenkins was
called up and he stated that it was
true-that not 80 minutes ago be had
been offered e1O0 to vote for the bill
that the offer was made by Frank
Lamb, Of Jasper county. l asked a
gentleman close BY me. Who is Frank
Lamb? The answer came that he was
once In the service OF Col. w. H.
Phelps, but had been "fired' by him.
Mr.. Hawthorne in his speech stated
that Mr.. Jenkins should have been
silent on this occasion, for he (Jen-
kins) had put this man id the clerical
force Of the House, and the special
committee on clerical force found
this man to be a gambler and Of un-
savory character and demanded that
he, the said Frank Lamb, be disoharg-
ed and he was discharged.
This bill may be good one, but to
my mind, Il bears the ear marks Of
the most gigantic and demnable COM
bInation that was ever endorsed BY :
Legislature. That the Lobby did great
work here ON this bill, there ia no