The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-09-07

First and foremost among these is the
question of taxation. When 1 assumed
the discharge of the duties of my Of
nee, found, as l had contended the facts
10 be, in the preceding campaign, that
me bulk of the taxes collected by the
STATE ana 0y the municipalities under it
were levied and collected from the in
dustries of the masses and upon the peo-
PIES homes, rather than upon income
bearing wealth and the special advanz
tages and franchises enjoyed by the few
IN my message to the legislature 1 said
upon this subject:
The truth of the matter is that our
stare is today eXactng taxes on the little
STOCK, tools, implements-the means of
subsistence of numbers of our citizens
VINO are struggling to support themselves
and their families. while thousands who
possess great wealth escape. Besides
the Inherent injustice of this, the state
can III afford to have those already bat
Ting for an independent existence loaded
with additional burdens, which wi !
sooner or later transfer many of them
into the dependent classes. That this
condition of affairs exists, the most cur
sorry investigation Of the subject wi |
! snow 1t Is no more just or candid to
charge this to the dePravity of the
Weather members of the community
subject is brought up. It Is in NV iudg-
| ment condition resulting from the new
forms that wealth has assumed under the
! remarkable progress and the economic
changes which have taken place in This
| century. 1t is not a subject for dec
! lamation or invective, but for patriotic
speedy solution, now and here, and as
! rapidly as the forms of our institutions
/ permit
TO remedy in part this condition of
afalrs L made three specific recommended
| tons to the legislature. One was the
| imposition of license fee upon fol eign
corporations doing business In this state
me same as is imposed upon the forma-
| ton of corpora tons under our statute
Second, that the legislature enact legis
Iauon providing for the annual taxation
I or foreign corporations doing business
| IN THIS state the same as the law author
| ICES the taxation of domestic corpora
| lions Third, that the gross earnings
! TAX upon the railroad property in this
eoate De increased to figure somewhat
| commensurate with the rate of taxatiors
/ imposed upon other property in the state
LEGISLATURE ACTED UPON ONE. +
! or these recommendations the legisla-
! lure saw Mt to act upon one only and
! mat the least important. By the pas
sage OF the law known as the Somerville
+ Dill incense fee was imposed upon for
| elgn corporations for the privilege of do
/ ing business in this state The law Is
pafner crude In its provisions, and its
enforcement having been committed to
! the ONCE of secretary of state, the re-
! ce1pts under it have not been as large as
! would have been the case had it been
more CAREFULLY drawn and more diligently
| enforced. Notwithstanding it has brought
upwards of $4,000 into the state treasury
by the omission to adopt my second
recommendation, namely. the passage Of
| a law to provide for the annual taxa
tion OF the business of foreign corpora
lions in this state, the legislature pre-
pented the people of the state from i'm
posing any taxes upon the immense
amount Of foreign capital EMPLOYED in
profitable trade and business in this
STATE, except such little office furniture
| ana MIXTURES, or property of that char
| acter, as may be found at their places
| OF business: AS citizen of the state,
~ ei INUNDATED to think that the leg
isiature, elected by the people, sworn to
| support the constitution of our state
! winch imposes equal burdens upon ALI
ana permits special privileges to none
| US to tax the Standard Oil trust Which,
| transacts millions of dollars worth Of
business BUSINESS IN the state annually or the
nearly all the valuable mining pronerfies
lp the northern part of the state. to saw
noth1ng about the lucrative business of
me various loaning companies. machine
companies, and other corpora lions that
enjoy the advantage of our trade. the
protecuon of our laws. and the fruits of
gu our - INDUSTRY aus But such is the fact, and
so II VIII continue until the people mass
judgment upon such action in a manneT
| that cannot be misunderstood
GROSS EARNINGS TAX.
The 1nadequacy of the present gross
! earnings tax L called to the attention of
the legislature. Our state auditor. Mr.
| Dunn, did the same in his annual rer,or+
but with a perversity that is tnexplicahle
on principles that ordinarily guide hu-
nan conouct, the senate absolutely re-
FUSED TO afford the taxpayers any relief
from this unjust discrimination in favor,
| of railroad property -
In u Town railroad property Is taxed
! 3l-lO per cent on gross earnings In New
york 40 per cent. In Illinois 5 40 ner
cent In Massachusetts 6 bio per cent
IN missouri $40 per cent. In Kansas
Il per cent: Were railroads in Minnesota
taxed as in Iowa and Wisconsin they
would pay one-fourth more taxes than
tney DO now Were they taxed as high
their present tax. Were thew taxed as
nigh i'll proportion to earnings as in New
aork, our receipts from that source
| would be increased over $50 Der cent
Were they taxed in Minnesota rs in
Massachusetts the revenue from the
railways in this state would increase 200
per cent. Inc gross earnings of the rail-
ways In the state of Massachusetts for
the year under discussion We're S41. 900 600
ana were taxed by the state 1887 $40 Tn
Minnesota they were $40 600 goo and were
taxed only 81 III, $50 In Minnesota and
missouri, both agricultural states The
earnings were about the same but tha
Missouri roads paid 1886, 600 more into the
state treasury of that state And vet
with all these facts before the Repubn-
can legislature of two years ago with
an overwhelming majority, with absolute
senate persiStently fought and deliher-
ately killed bill to raise the gross
earnings tax on the railroad property i'm
this state to 4 per cent By this action
the taxpayers of this state and the stat
have been deprived of nearly 80, O01.CGO,
even though the next legislature after
the election of a new senate should act
as promptly upon the question as the
forms of law permit. Ordinary argu-
ments OF this question I fear are Of no
avail with the senators now elected. The
only argument that can convince them
IS the citizens argument at the polls
But these racts do not measure the con-
victions of duty of the present Republic
can state senate to the people Of the
state and to the state. / had specially
called attention to the fact that one Of
the railroads in this state, operating
rnder an old territorial charter, was not
paying even the 3 per cent rate on gross
earnings. It
PAYS ONLY PER CENT
under provisions of its charter. The
senate, with a quickened sense of pubic
duty, which it had not experienced dur