The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1900-08-19

time"
UPHOLDS CORPORATION RULE.
We charged that he was an UPHOLD
Err OF CORPORATION RULE. In vain
do we search in his columns for
Line of commendation of any
man who is striving to make the
ness or any approval of any act compelling
corporations ITO meet their share of the
public burdens. To be sure, here and
| there, you find an occasional fling that is
general, but it is apparently inserted in
order to lead the reader up to endorsing
ingenious editorials in favor of Corpora
ton Rule.
Referring to the bill to impose tax
on the gross incomes of railroads, which
passed the House in 1899 and failed in
the Senate because the Senators in that
body said they preferred to instruct the
Railroad Commission to increase the as
sessment by taxing the franchise, he said
pass. 1t is seriously to be doubted if
it is right or expedient." When the bill
failed in the Senate he approved what he
called 1.-The failure to infiict upon the
railroads a gross income tax" and refer
red to the advocacy of that measure as
"clamcr." We deny that there was any
intention to ''infict" railroads by the au-
thor of that measure, Mr.. M. S. Willard,
of the city of Wilmington, or its support
B. Holman and Frank Thompson. They
saw that the three chief railroad systems
of the State were paying taxes cn an as
sessment CT only $32,00O,000 whereas their
property was paying a net dividend of s
per cent. on $48,000,0 000 and they favored
a method of taxation that is substantially
in force in New York and a dozen other
States in the Union. Instead OF consid-
ering their we'll conceived plan which
PASSED the House, Bailey said they were
moved by 'clamcr'' and guided by an
unworthy spirit to 'infict" the corpora
ticns, an indictment both against their
honesty and their character. AS matter
CT fact, recent events have shown the
wisdom of legislative act imposing
tax on the gross receipts or the franchise
of railroads. The Senate forced the
House to agree to the assessment by the
Corporation Commission, but the Sena-
tors and members who pursued this course
have regretted it since Simonton issued
his two injunctions which give the State
only tax en- the old notoriously too low
assessment.
And again, on July s. 1899, we find
Bailey resorting to such special pleading
in behalf of railroads as this:
1--WE are now making an effort to raise
taxes for the free schools out of rail
roads. Suppose we tax the gross
incomes of the railroads? Will they not
get the money to pay this tax out of the
people who pay freight and passenger
fares? And that being so, is it not better
to levy the tax directly? Of shall we
choke them to death by taxation at one
end and reduced rates and fares at the
other; who will lose most then?"
In the railroad taxation case, also, Mr..
Bailey, as usual, is found on the side of
the railroad and telegraph companies.
On July 10, 1899, two months before Judge
Simonton heard, or any man knew, the
evidence in the case, we find Mr.. Bailey
declaring that the railroads and tele-
graph companies of North Carolina were
already taxed upon comparatively
larger assessment than any other prop
erty, and that their assessments had
been steadily increased for years"
This he followed up with the argument
upon which the railroad attorneys and
officials were at that time relying to
make their increase in taxation unpopu-
lar, to-wit:
'Now let us all get together, newspa
pers, politicians, and true reformers in
general and agitate for the increase of
assessments upon individual property
commensurate with that of railroads"
Even Col. Andrews could not have ask
ed more or said it better. But month
later august 16th), we find Mr. Bailey
dipping into the subject again-ths time
to decide the case two weeks before Judge
Simontcn heard the evidence at Ashe-
vile. In making up his opinion in
favor of the railroads, Mr.. Bailey found
not the least trouble, though the courts
have not decided the case yet. He wrote:
Zone who has given the matter serious
and fair consideration will hardly under
take to maintain that land and houses in
North Carolina have been assessed at
so nearly their true money value as rail-
road property"
1t is strange that after this deliverance
| the attorneys for the Corporation Com
mission had the temerty to go on in
| their effort to make the railroads pay
taxes on their assessed valuation, but
they did. GelM
Nor this is not all. After deciding the
taxation case Mr.. Bailey proceeded to
read the people of the State a lesson IN