The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1901-05-10
ONE MORE STRUGGLE.
When the Appointment Matter
Is Settled Then the Law.
makers Can Go Home.
SENATE NC VI OUT OF TAXATION
Assembly Did All the Killing-Pr1-
mary Elections Not This Year
Legislative Gleanings.

Madison, Wis. May Tt is expect
ed the legislature will adjourn at the
end of this week. All the great bat
ties have been fought, except that
of apportionment, and that may be set
tied easier than was expected with the
impulse of legislative WEAKNESS and
these beautiful May days to drive the
members home. Successive tax meas
ures have been defeated in the assem-
bly,, WHICH the governors opponents
style His branch, because it was
possible there to muster majority to
pass the Stevens primary election bill.
However, some of the most effective
administration men refused to enter
the lists as tax reformers, and some Of
them were leaders against the tax
commission bills, It is a mixed mess
at best
The vote against the second and last
railroad tax bill-the ad valOrem plan
was 45 to 51--in the assembly. Thus,
the senate has not incurred any direct
responsibility for confronting the tax
commission There were duplicate
measures i'm the senate committee on
taxation, but Chairman Whitehead
thought it useless to dust the issues
off in the upper branch III they could
not pass the assembly-presumably
| even more disposed to reform. Two
years hence it is likely the tax COM
mission will have its system pertain
ing to personal property marked out,
at which time the railroads and other
corporations must again face the mus
ic.
MustAli Personal Pay?
And it is by ne means certain the
commission will recommend the whole
sale taxation of personal property.
Beginners in the science of taxation
always are astoEished at the vast
amount" of personal property missed
by the assessor; but veterans conclude
that much of it is impossible to I'm
cover and much of it would be too
expensive to attempt to collect.
1t is probable that this matter of
taxation will cut a large figure in fut-
,ure Wisconsin politics, especially if
Republican faGtiOnalism is to breed
controversy. Governor LaFollette
awaited himself of veto of a bill to
tax dogs (money to go into state treas
try) to send "a long message to the
Legislature which was a ringing call
to let the farmers shepard dog alone
and carry out the instructions Of the
tax commission against corporations.
His critics objected that the scorching
rebuke comes late in the session, to
which answer is made that his inau-
gural message was of much the same
tenor. At all hazards. looking at it
politically, the governor faces the fut-
IRE with an idea somehow in the av-
erage citize1i?s mind that he is the tax
reformer and his enemies the fellows
who blocked his efforts-which indi-
Gates a great advantage.
Primary Elections-Nit.
The great primary elections fight re-
suited in bill going to the governor
which provides that where counties
desire to operate the direct vote, they
may do so in the nomination of the
county ticket-sheriff, etc. Mr. Stew
ems, in a speech, said the bill was not
anything he and his fellows wanted
and they voted against it with three or
four exceptions.
An important Milwaukee bill hangs
fire. 1t makes the terms of aldermen
four years lnOW tWO) and cuts the
membership from 46 to 30. The first
Feature is generally speaking sound,
but there is less danger of corruption
in large body than a small one An
excellent feature, however, is the
choice of twelve aldermen at large
not from wards, but from the city at
large. This is a reform that the Ma
tional Municipal league has long
urged. 1t breaks down the ward
pulp and some are so enthusiastic as
to believe municipal regeneration can
he effected by tkjS one innovation IF
has worked we'll in Boston. To secure
"a city nomination, as a rule, a man
must be a man of city distinction.
Mr.. Keene made an effort to over
ride a veto Of Governor LaFollette:
but sixty members voted to sustain