The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1900-04-04

ana nail 10 answer their argument. IN
opening ms argument Mr.. Uolqultt said:
Ihe various corporations oil the Stale
that pay total tax of S4o3.e44 have been
heard against this bill. Ine other tax
payers VINO pay S2,7i,, 500 for the support
of the government have not been head. y
Two weeks of the session were now
taken up before the Dill Was reported from
the committee.
Another week was consumed in discuss
! ing the chapter on occupation taxes. Then
the friends of the bin realized what the
opposition were working for--to kill time,
1he opposition were well organized. 1t
became necessary for the friends o. the
bill to do something, If they expected 10
pass a reform tax measure. Hence. they
ned caucus and organized for the pur-
pose of preventing oilatory tactics. and
TO push the measure as rapidly as possi-
BILE Because they did this they wers
ridiculed through the daily papers, and
! by certain enemies of tax reform, ana
referred to as members of the owl
club, and as members OF the dark
lantern caucus"
1t is perfectly legitimate to organize
to prevent dilatory tactics. and push 10
hnai passage any measure, and especially
party measure, as this was. Not this
particular bill, but tax reform. BY this
method of organization rapid progress
was made, and in one week seven chap
tiers of the bill were adopted with some
amendments.
This method OF procedure struck terror
to the enemies of the bill, for they now
realized that the friends of tax reform
were in earnest, and that II the governor
should call another session of the legis-
lature the tax bill, or a better measure,
would become law.
They began to cry fraud" and gag
rule etc. They said that their consti-
tutional rights to discuss bill had been
denied them by the moving of the pre-
vious question. The friends of the bill
gave the opponents time to discuss the
bill and to offer amendments, but they al
ways shut off long windedp speeches
made for the purpose of talking the bill
to death by Statute of limilSWn." AS
the limit of the session drew near the
interest as to whether the governor would
call another session became intense. Many
members believed he would and, in fact,
nearly all the friends of the tax bill
thought he would call another session.
The progress made after the friends of
the bill organized was as rapid as any
body could expect, and. in fact was faster
than prudence would admit. 1t was evil
dent TO me that the bill or better one,
could have passed the house in ten days
more. The organization we had would
have insured its passage in that time.
There were about fifty members ready
to vote for it at any time, and there
were twenty-five others who would have
voted ~ ii as soon as they were permit
ted TO offer some amendments. whether
they were adopted or not, and there were
still twenty-five others who would have
voted for 1t with few amendments add
ed. The real opposition to tax reform
did not exceed twenty eight members.
| think the governor missed the oppor-
tunity of his life when he refused TO call
the legislature together again. Mem
bers who had bee. a little iukewarm to-
wards tax reform had begun to fall in
line for the passage of the bill when they
expected a second session would be called.
The time to strike is when the iron IS
! hot, and the tax iron" was hot, ana
| that was the accepted time to strike The
/ bill as a whole viii never be passed BY
any subsequent Legislature. II could ha ~
| been passed with slight amendments when
the iron was hot" and parts Of IL will
| be passed at the next regular session, but
| all OF it-never.
! Now that the tax bill is dead for awhile,
let us see why it was not passed. and
where the real opposition comes from.
In the first place It was utterly impos-
sible TO pass a bill of such magnitude in
thirty days. unless it were creased and
swallowed whole" by the legislature.
This was not to be expected. Ihere Is
no body OF self respecting men that would
pass bill of such magnitude without ma
ture elaboration. Think OF wipcg out all
the lax laws that have been adopted In the
past quarter OF century and adopting a
new system in thirty days.
This was a very unequal task to begin
with An the discussion has been on one
side. Several OF the daily papers we're
against the bill. All Interpretations were
naturally against n, and all the people
who could be Influenced by the corpora
tions were agains. IT, Also, a great many
people who had never read Il, we're against
] t. because some newspaper was opposed
TO it or because some other fellow Was
opposed 10 1t. For my part have no
kick coming. If the other taxpayers can
stand the present laws | can stand them
] favored The tax bill With some amend
ments and Il the legislature had been
given time some wholesome amendments
would have been adopted and good ias
law would have been passed. cnered
only two amendments 20 the tax BILL as
far as we went and they we're both ADOPT :
ed. Few members can say this much
The principal opposition to the bill came