The St. Louis Republic., 1901-01-06
Framing of Franchise Tax Meas
ure Is Occupying Attention
of Democratic Legislators.
SELECTING THE GOOD POINTS.
With the Same Main Object in
View the Matter May BE Ap-
preached From Different Di-
rections-Day at Capital.
REPTBLIC SPECIAL.

| REPTBI-IC SPECIAL.
| jefferson city No Jan. 5.-FTancnise tax
! alton above all things Is engrossing the at
| tention Of all the heavy thinkers Of the
! Forty-first General Assembly. Although the
\ Senate has made more apparent progress in
1 the matter. in that two measures for fran
chIse taxation are already on the docket
| there. the House appears to have made more
real progress in that the heavy men there,
| such men as Whltecotten. Dickinson. Blair.
Voolfolk and Hamilton. have studied and
are stil studying the question and in that
the Ways and Means Committee OF that
body has been made up by Speaker White
cotton with an especial eye to the consider
alton on franchise-tax legislation. Fran
chise-tax bills. when they begin to come
into the House, will go to that committee
"A franchise tax bill is really revenue
measure" says Speaker whitecotton. and
# belongs in the Ways and Means Com
mittee."
Because the members of the House have
been slow 10 introduce bills IL the surest in
dication that when the bills do come they
Will be worth the study of the men whose
instrumentalities will pay the franchise tax
Blair Of Dekalb and Hamilton of Dayiess
both have franchise bills which they will
present tn the House at an oppOrtune time
Honor for the Author of the Bill
There will be much honor for the man
who prepares the bill which will finally be
adopted by the House. says Representative
Blair.
The only franchise bills which have
loomed up on the horizon OF the House up
to the present have been those prepared by
Blair and Hamilton. which will be intro
duced later.
Blair is receiving copies of all franchise
tax bills as soon as they are introduced
and Is comparing them with franchise tax
legislation already enacted in other States.
Blair's bill proposes to tax franchise val
ues the same as real values are taxed; that
is. p cents on the 800 valuation for State
purposes. etc.
Hamiltons bill proposes a tax OF Is cents
on the 800 valuation.
Up to the present various methods of as
certaining the value of franchises have been
submitted. Senator Clay's bill proposes TO
subtract the real value OF the tangible prop
erty possessed by the Misunderstanding in
strumentaltty from the market value of the
total stock issued by the corporation. the
difference to be the franchise value.
Purpose of Senator WhaIey's Bill.
Senator Whaleys bill proposes to levy
the tax according to dividends. according TO
gross earnings. and according to capital
stock for various classes of franchises
Hamilton's bill proposes to ascertain the
value Of franchises by a calculation based
on the gross earnings Of the franchise-own-
ing instrumentality. The earnings are to
be a guide I'm determining the actual value
OF the instrumentality. including franchise
and tangible property. The real value OF the
tangible property is then to be substracted
from the total value and the difference will
be taken as the franchise value.
According TO my idea. the difficulty il
in framing a law to exempt corporations
which enjoy no franchise. but which are
Incorporated under the laws Of the State
to do business just private individual
would do it," says Hamilton.
such corporations exist in order to make
their business permanent: so That the death
or withdrawal of one man may not put an
end TO the business. 1t should be kept dis
tinctly In mind that franchises and not cor
porations are the subject for taxation. For
this reason. my bill, based in this regard
on the New York law. goes at length into
differentiating Notwithstanding corpora
tions from those which do not hold fran-
chises."
Favored by Governor Dockery.
1t was reported about the Capitol that the
bill in possession of Representative Hamil-
ton was the one favored by Governor-elect
Dockery. Ii probably arose from the fact
that Hamilton Is from Governor-elect Dock