The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-11-14
PHASES OF TAXATION
SEVERAL ADDRESSES AT
CAPITOL
SINGLE TAX PALACES
United States Marshal Grimshayy,
Judge Jaggard and others Com
tribute Interesting Discusses
Large Audience Present.

Taxation, in many Of it's important
phases, was ably and Interestingly dis
cuSSed at the meeting held in the senate
chamber last evening under the auspices
of the Lincoln club. The attendance was
quite large and in the audience were no
t1ced several members of the legislature
from outside the city, beside some of the
state officials and members of the city
council and members oil the board of
county commissioners. There were pres
ent Messrs. Childs, Ives and Hahn, the
members of the tax revision commission;
Gov. Van SAINT, D. F. Reese, Judge o. B.
Gould, Gen. j. W. Bishop, Ferdinand Will
Illus, Assemblyman Warner County Com
missioner Webster, Senator Barker, of
Isanti; Representative James A. Peter
con, Hennepin, and Representatives w.
w. Rich, Rukard Hurd, Andrew Holm
and William Butler, of Ramsey. Presi-
dent John F. George, of the Lincoln club,
occupied the chair. The set programme
of addresses continued until past IL
o'clock
United States Marshal Grimshaw oc-
cupied the greater portion of the evening
with a paper on the "Fallacies of the Sin
gle Tax" This system of taxation he
characterized as visionary, and entirely
impractical 1t would result in taking
the tax off the rich man and putting it
on the poor one. The tariff upon the lux
uries imported for the enjoyment of the
wealthy would be removed and the land
upon which the workingman wished to
build home would be so high as to
make its cost prohibitive.
One of the favorite arguments of the
single taxer, he had found, was that ev-
cry poor man could own his home be-
cause the land would be so expensive
that the rich men could not afford to
take it from him, but as far as he could
see the poor man could not us to much
advantage what the rich one had been
obliged to relinquish because of its ex-
pensiveness.
Judge e. A. Jaggard, of the district
court, prefaced his remarks which were
extemporaneous with the statement that
as he saw it the duty of the tax COM
mission was a. very difficult one, for if
they should enact something not as
broad as the state constitution it would
be of no avail, and if something broader
than the constitution it would be mop
eratiVe.
The fundamental principle of all taxa
ton he said should be to tax every per-
son according to his ability to pay, and
as an admirable example of that prin
ciple he cited the English system, which
he said was as for"ible and sensible
socialistic principle as could be found.
There had been he said more litigation
in Minnesota in one year over tax titles
than in England, Ireland and Scotland
in ten years.
The gross earnings tax he pronounced
to be dismal failure. He contended
that the jurisdiction which protects
property should collect the tax for that
protection.
Walter L. Chaplin discussed Taxation
of Mortga ges in a six-minute paper, in
which he deprecated the system which
levies an assessment upon mortgages
held by residents, of this state Will ;"
cannot similarly assess mortgages ~
by non residents.