Little Falls weekly transcript. (Little Falls, Morrison Co., Minn.) 1894-19??, 1900-10-30

It Is Up to Gov. Lind to Give
a Little Information OF.
His Actions. ,....,. =.

e. A. Young to Gov. Lind is perhaps
more caustic and personal In its char
acter than the proprieties of the occa-
sion might have demanded. but 1t has
It's justification to great extent in
the personal/attacks made by the gov
ernor on Senator Young, his colleagues
In the senate and many other public
officials. There was. is and will con-
tinue to be much variance of opinion
upon the wisdom and propriety of the
passage OF the so-called 4 per cent
gross earnings bill. But there is abso 4
lutely no question as to the attitude Of
the governor upon that question at the
time it was an issue in the senate. 1t
was not that the governor proposed or
advocated an increase In the gross
earnings tax, but that he advocated the
substitution of direct taxation for the
gross earnings system. II he had been
an advocate consistently of an increase
in the gross earnings tax he would
have given his approval to increase the
rate Of taxation from 2 per cent to 3
per cent upon the Chicago Great West
ern road. Instead of that he and his
friends in both houses earnestly and
openly opposed that bill and accom-
plished its defeat.
The relative positions Of Gov. Lind
and Senator Young therefore upon the
question of railroad taxation Is simply
that the former, in compliance with the
we'll known Populist theory of taxa
ton, advocates direct taxation of rail-
le, lat stcy$ Hao rv~o cc
earnings system. It may be we'll in
considering the merits of these two
systems to say that the Republican
party has always stood firmly in favor
Of the gross earnings system, and that
that system has doubled, trebled and
quadrupled the net results of railroad
taxation, while at the same time low
ering in the total by more than SO per
cent the rates for shippers Of various
kinds of freight. There is nothing to
be said in favor of direct taxation of
railroads that it cannot be answered In
q dozen lines. Such q system, unless
i. were in vogue in all the states, would
induce the companies to remove as
much as possible Of their property from
out the state to diminish the sum Of
their taxes, The system of gross earn
ings is one which brings the constantly
Increasing and accommodating revenue
to the state in proportion to the accu-
mulating and increasing earnings of
the roads. The taxes upon the earnings
for the current year Will amount to
almost $1,5O0o0O, which, with economic
administra tons. such as have been
given by Republicans, should pay two
thirds Of the total expense Of the main
tenance Of the state government. A
gross earnings tax is one whose re-
ceipts are constantly increasing; d.
rect tax Is one whose receipts are con-
stantly diminishing as far as 1t can be
made to diminish by the removal of
the taxable property into states where
the gross earnings system is in vogue,
and it is we'll worth while to say In
passing that the roads doing business
in Minnesota, almost without exception,
might remove two-thirds Of their taxa
BILE property into other states without
serious detriment to their business.
The worst that can be said of Senator
Youngs personal remarks and caust1c
illusions to the governor Is that they
are a little more scholarly, little more
refined, a little more justifiable,' but
not half so brutal, net half so ineXcus-
able and not half SO impairment as
those which have been made by the
governor in his various efforts through
out the state.