The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1899-03-28
TO TAX FRANCHISES.
New York's Governor Says the Tex
Laws Are Inequitable.
he URGES AN INVESTIGATION

BY Legislative Com mittee and a Re-
port on Some Plan which win Re-
lieve the Overburdened Small Tax
representation of Corporations.
Albany, March 2S.-Governor Roose-
welt last night sent to the legislature a
message recommending the appointment
of a joint legislative committee to inves-
tigate the subject of taxing public fran
chises held by corporations, and to re-
port to the next legislature. The gov
ernor says:
"The tax laws of this state are in an
exceedingly unsatisfactory condition, and
l do not see how they can be put upon
a just and wise basis save after careful
investigation by legislative action. At
present the farmers, the market garden
ers and the mechanics and tradesmen
having small holdings are paying an inn
proper and excessive proportion of the
general taxes, while at the same time
many OF the efforts to remedy this state
of affairs, notably in the direction of
taxing securities, are not only unwise,
but inefficient, and often serve merely to
put a premium upon dishonesty. r.
would not be well to make any class OF
our citizens feel immunity from paying
taxes, for this would almost certainly
result in extravagant expenditures both
in the state and in the municipalities,
against which the surest safeguard is
the immediate pressure on the purses Of
the citizens. But though complete i'm
munity from taxation by the people at
large is not desirable, the fact remains
that at present taxation is excessive and
badly distributed.
"There is evident injustice in the light
taxation of corporations. | have not the
slightest sympathy with the Outcrv
against corporations as such, or against
prosperous men OF business. Most of
the great material works by which the
entire country benefits have been due
TO the action of individual men or OF ag
gregates OF men who made money for
themselves by doing that which was IN
the interest of the people as a whole
From an armOr plant to a street railway
no work which Is really beneficial to the
public can be performed to the best ad
vantage of the public save by men OF
such business capacity that they will not
do the work unless 'hey themselves re-
ceive ample reward for doing It. The
effort to deprive them of an ample re.
ward merely means tnat they will turn
their energies in some other direction,
and the public will be by just so much
the loser. Moreover. to tax corporations
or men of means in such way as to
drive them out of the state works great
damage to the state. To drive out of
a community the men of means and the
men who take the lead in business enter
prises would probably entail as one of its
first results the starvation of a con
siderable portion of the remainder of the
population.
"But. while | fairly admit all this, il
yet remains true that a corpora tion
which derives its powers from the state
should pay to the state a just percent
age Of its earnings as a return for the
privileges it enjoys. This should be es-
pecially true for the franchises bestowed
upon gas companies, street railroads
and the like. The question of munici-
pal ownership of these franchises cannct
be raised with propriety until the gov
ernments of all municipalities show
greater wisdom and virtue than has been
recently shown, for instance. in New
York city: the question of laying and
ASSESSING the tax for franchises of every
kind throughout the state should in my
opinion be determined by the state it
self.
81 need not point out to you that In
foreign communities a very large per-
centage of the taxes comes from cor
porations which use the public domain
for pipes, tracks and the like Whether
these franchises should be taxed as
realty. or whether it would be wiser TO
provide that, after the gross earnings
equal, say, 10 per cent of the actual
original cost, then 5 per cent of all the
gross earnings over and above this shall
be paid into the treasury, or whether
some yet different plan should be tried,
can only be settled after careful ex
animation of the whole subject. One
thing is certain, that the franchises
should in some form yield a money re,
turn to the government"