The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-03-28
TAXING OF CORPORATIONS
lESS4G TO THE NEW
 FORK LEGISLATURE.
Sent Last Night by Governor Roosevelt Recommends Appointment of Joint Committee to Investigate Subject
 

l Corporations.
 Albany, N. r., March Ex-Governor
 Roosevelt tonight sent to the legisla- l ture a message recommending the ap-
 pointment of joint legislative commit tee to investigate the subject of taxing ! the public franchises held by corpora
 tions and to report to the next legisla- | ture. The text of his message is as fol- lows:
 To the Legislature: The tax laws
 of this state are in an exceedingly un- satisfactory condition and I do not see
 how they can be put upon just and
 wise basis save, after careful investiga-
 tion, by legislative action. At present
 the farmers, the market gardeners and
 the mechanics and tradesmen having
 small holdings are paying an improper
 and excessive portion of the general
 taxes, while at the same time many of
 the efforts to remedy this state of af-
 fairs, notably in the direction of taxing
 securities, are not only unwise, but in
 efficient, and often serve merely to put premium upon dishonesty. It would not be we'll 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 im-
 t,,,,y itxr f,o tax, l..r i. 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. I have not the slightest sympathy with the outcry against corpora tions or against prosper ous 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 aggre- gations 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 street rail- way no work which is beneficial to the people 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 they themselves receive ample reward for doing it. The effort to deprive them of an ample re- ward merely means that they will turn their energies in some other direction and the public will be by just so much the loser. Moreover, to tax corpora tions or men of means in such a way as to drive them out of the state works great damage to the state. To drive out of community the men of means and the men who take the lead in bus- | ness enterprises, would probably entail, as one of it's first results, the starva- tion of considerable portion of the re- mainder of the population. But while I freely admit all this, it yet remains true that corporation which derives its powers from the state, should pay to the state just percentage of its earn ings as a return for the privileges 1t | enjoys. This should be especially true | for the franchises bestowed upon gas | street railways and the like. | The question of municipal ownership of | these franchises cannot be raised with | until the governments of all | show greater wisdom and |
  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 de- termined by the state itself. I need not | point out to you that in foreign com very large percentage of the l taxes comes from corporations which use the public domain for pipes, tracks and the like. Whether these franchises should be taxes IS realty or whether it would be wiser to provide that, after the gross earnings equal, say, ten per cent. of the actual original cost, then i've per cent. on all gross earnings over md above this should be paid into the city treasury; or whether some yet diff 'erent plan should be tried, can only be settled after careful examination of the whole subject. One thing is certain, hat the franchises should in some form yield a money return to the govern nent To put tax here and there as new franchises are asked for may be advisable but of course is unequitable, o the extent that it handicaps the few hus taxed in their competition with the 1ntaxed corporations; and it may be
 ldL HOW anu lllGll SUlliG IldHCLlSeS lp perform an especially needful and risky ervice should not be thus handicapped tt all. It is far better to have a gen raj scheme of taxation, one that shall .pply, for instance, to railroads enter ng New York city, to railroads operat- ng within the city, to gas companies, lectric companies and the like.
 Many commissions have been created " legislative enactment in this and ther states in the past and it has been he almost universal experience that, lowever excellent the reports of such commissions might be, if they were nade up of men outside of the legisla- ,re the legislature paid little or no eed to them. I therefore recommend hat you create joint commission of he senate and assembly to investigate he subject in full, and to report to the ext legislature a proper scheme for aXation (Signed
 Theodore. Roosevelt.