Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1899-05-17
LAME DEPBNSBS
PUT UP By LEGISLATORS WHO DE-
FEA1ED TAXATION REFORM.

PUT UP BY LEGISLATORS WHO DE-
FEA1ED TAXATION REFORM.
Echoes of Republican Legislative Wrong
Doing-set Apologies For Defeat of the
Gross Earnings Bill-That of Would
Be-Coneressman Mccarthy Analysed.
Young squelched by Auditor Dunn.
State Political Pot-Pouri-Will judge
Canty Lay Out Your Uncle Loren in
the Fifth District? 49, Echo Says He
: Could-The 'Tory" Hangers of 1893
"Copperheads" Republican Press Btu
reau and "Feenance"-Plain Points on
Silver Coina:e.
Reform Press Bureau.
ST. PAUL, May Is, $780,
It is remarkable how few of the Re-
publican senators who defeated the re-
form of railroad taxation advocated so
earnestly by Governor Lind and the re-
form forces of the legislature, have
essayed to make any defense for their
act. or effort to stem the tide of indig-
nation which has spread over the state.
The lawyers have here and there
trotted out the unconstitutional"
scapegoat, but except Young of Swift,
who was first skinned by the Appleton
Press, and next blistered by State Au.
ditor Dunn, for defense made in the
Minneapolis Journal, about the only other
senator to "peep" has been Sem
ator Mccarthy of Itasca. His
defense, going outside of the claw
yer's p'ints," is attributed to an am
bition to be the candidate for
Congress in the Sixth district, hence
the necessity of squaring himself at
least with a show Of defense, and his
may be briefly referred to.
The senator's firstly" is that because
the railroad tax now paid has risen from
$500, 900 in 1880 to over $1,200,000 in
1898, and may rise at the present rate
until in time it pays all of the states
expense, we should have full discus
sion of the matter before we surrender
our present position. That is exactly
what was proposed by the bill which
merely submitted the question to the
people, to be voted on at the next cleo
ton.
Second. If the roads accepted the al
tentative method, the outlying counties
like those represented by the senator
would receive but small portion Of
the taxes, inasmuch as so small amount
of property lies in such counties. The
question is begged since every intelli-
gent person should know that there is
no possibility Of the railroads taking
the alternative proposition if they know
that there will be an absolutely fair
valuation, which there will be if the
boards of equalization are removed
from the power of the corporations to
corrupt and control them, as the people
may be sure they will be under such ad-
ministrations as this Of John Lind.
Next, the view is narrow and selfish
one, and, finally, the benefit would d.
rectly inure to the people of every
locality by the lowering of the tax rate
of the state.
Third, to increase the tax would raise
freight rates. This is long and we'll
worked bugaboo, worthy of no more
consideration than the . overworked
scheme of having railroad employees
protest against railroad legislation on
the ground that it will decrease railroad
wages. But there is certain protection
in the law recently signed by Governor
Lind prohibiting the raising Of rates
without consent of the Railroad Com
mission. The point, of the same ma
ture, that raising rates would retard
railroad development in the northern
counties falls equally with the other.
Railroads are built where and when it
is in the interest of those who control
them to do so, and that they are influ-
enced by legal ''hampering" is too silly
for attention.
Finally, the senator regarded it GER
tain that the state would be brought to
standstill by the roads refusing to
pay, and "hampering" it with long liti-
CATION. This was exactly the claim
made for the Anderson law, and still
the wheels have been turning right
along, both railroad and state. And,
by the way, the greatest, almost the ex-
elusive benefits of that same successful
law which was Unconstitutional the
same as the gross earnings increase, 20
to the same locality of the state for
which Senator Mccarthy makes his
specious and groundless plea.
Said United States Senator G. K.
Davis more than a quarter Of century
ago:
"Justinian abolished the corpora
tions, and 1000 years afterwards they
threaten society as they did the stability
of Rome"
Is ''Cush" lifting up his voice in these
degenerate days of trusts and combinesi
Not few.
The strained effort of some of the
Republican press to make capital of
Governor Lind's veto of the bill to make
records of the Railroad Commission
final as to findings of fact, falls fat in
the explanation which the Governor
filed when deciding not to sign the bill.
It was this. He recommended such
legislation in his message, which the
Republicans themselves have defeated
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