Morris tribune., 1900-11-03
.LIND'S RECORD WITH
1HB RAILROADS
'ssF
Senator Young Hands the
Governor a Few Warm
Questions.
MORE EXPLAINING" is DUE
7r' !.
1t Is Up to Gov. Lind to Give
a7Little Information OF
His Actions.
MORE EXPLAINING" is DUE

The open letter addressed by Senator
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 it has
it's justification, to, great extent in
| the personal attacks made by the gov
ernor on Senator Young, his colleagues
in the seI1ase 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-
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. If 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
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 it's defeat. ~ s
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
well known Populist theory of taxa
ton, advocates direct taxation OF rail-
roads, and the latter supports the gross
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
dozen lines. Such a system, unless
1t 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
| LnS1r CdAGS.t 1uS SySLS11A VI SAOS0 Sc1A II
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 1,5OO, 900, which, with economic
administrations, such as have been
given by Republicans, should pay two
thirds of the total expense of the main~
tenance of the state government.
gross earnings tax is one whose re-
ceipts are constantly increasing a di-
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 1t is well 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 detrimenf to their business.
The worst that can be said of Senator
Young's personal remarks and caustfc
allusions to the governor is that they
are little more scholarly, a little more
refined, a little more justifable, but
not half so brutal not half SO inexcus-
able and not half so impertinent as
those which have been made by the
governor in his various efforts through I
out the state.