Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1901-08-22
FAIR TAXES.

Milwaukee Free Press: A street
railway property is worth what 1t
will sell for, and ought to be taxed
what it Is worth. The favorite claim
of street railway men everywhere is i
! that the taxable value Of road is
the amount that it would cost to
| build it. But this takes no account
Of the most valuable part Of the prop
erty. The franchise, which usually
costs the company little or nothing,
is what gil e. the property great val
ne. The right to use the streets and
the right to charge the public the
| highest rates, and this right guaran-
teed for long term of years, is what
makes the street railway class of
property very valuable.
And everybody ought to be glad
that it is valuable, and "verybody is
glad. Everybody is g!ao have good
street car service, sue as we un-
questionably have in Milwaukee.
| Everybody puts up his cents ride
and knows he has paid what the ride
| is worth and is content. His fare is
| high enough to make the business
very profitable. But what he cannot
understand is where the justice
comes in in making him pay Il high
or rate of tax on bis own property
! than he would have to pay if the
street railway property paid as high
IA rate as he has to. He knows that
| long-trrm charter concessions have
| Immensely increased the value Of
the railway property, aud that it is
| paying no increased part Of the ex-
pense OF running the city. He knows
it is making much profits and that it
conld pay without gripping it He
knows that tile fact that it does not
have to pay, and that its long lease
Of this favored sort of life, is the rea-
son for the high market value of the
company's stock He knows that n
grant Of thirty or forty years con-
AlINdiIi' va N''S7'N'i ~ ' VI ~ NV
conditions to IA street railway would
duub its value as an Investment
aud then may be double it again.
And he wonders why this class of
property, or any class of property,
should be so favored at cost to i'm.
There is nothing selfish in this
| f.al thnt - fh.4pa IL NOT IN ingr
meauiy selfish in it, And there is no
manifestation of antagonism To the
road in it, or to rich men and big cor
porations, This patron Of the road
simply objects To bearing the burden
that ought to be borne by the men
who own the road, or who own any
other class Of valuable property, the
greatest value in which has been
given them. He sees nothing fair in
that. and it is only fairness th9t he
wants.
fhe fact is, the most OF the opposi-
ton there is 70 wealthy corporations
has been allowed to grow up by the
corporations themselves, because Of
their unfair and selfish manner of
doing u iugs. They have been, and
are, greedy graspers OF advantages
that have been given them by the
public, and then they have not been
considerate OF the public interests,
but have rather unlooded their fair
share Of the burdens upon the public,
never forgetting TO charge what the
business will stand and sometimes
more. This disposition is what
has made people generally dis
satisfied, and it has antagonized
them to the corporations. There is
nothing in this world more certain
than that the larger the wealth of the
corporation or the individual, the
less, comparatively, is the portion of
the public burden that bears. It is
always true the small farmer, with
his forty acres worth $1,000, pays n
tax on $1,000, while the man worth
| 100000 pays on maybe 100000,
unless he happens to have more than
that invested in real estate. II his
millions are ia the form of personal
property the chances for his assess
ment to be less rather than more
than the figures suggested are a good
many.