Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1902-06-07
Governors Peculiar Course.

In view of the governors attitude to-
wards the ice tax bill the question has
often been asked why he did not follow
the same course with the Frost Bill. Here
was a bill which he had recommended in
his inaugural message and which he had
approved previous to it's passage. Such
question as there was about its constitu-
tionality was slight. The supreme court
could have passed upon it as it did upon
the ice bill. If the matter was of such
vast Importance as he said it was in his
inaugural message the question is, why did
he not take the chance of having the law
declared constitutional? The governors
nicely on constitutional questions with the
Frost Bill is in strange contrast to his
laxity on the same questions with the ice
bill. In the language of a prominent mem
Der of the Assembly, "a layman might
suppose that a man who could sign the
Ice Tax Bill, enveloped as it was with I'M
savory odor as to its purport and object
of origin, should be estopped from naming
constitutional objections to any measure"
Why did the governor veto the Frost
Bill? The governor alone knows, but the
inference is obvious. By voting for the
Hagemeister Bill, Mr.. Frost put the gov
ernor in a dilemma, either horn of which
was ulSdSICSdDlS. Liz udu clIueI W SlSu
a measure which was obnoxious to him
or to veto the only Primary Election Bill
which the Legislature was willing to pass
Mr.. Frost had the deciding vote, and all
who know the governor will readily be-
lieve that his resentment against Mr..
Frost was great. He knew that Mr.. Frost
had set his heart upon the passage of the
bill and knew that he felt just pride in
the accomplishment of his purpose. He
knew, too, that he could not infict a
severer blow upon him than by vetoing
his bill.
He had recommended such bill and
he had approved this bill, but Mr.. Frost
had offended him, and the bill was vetoed.
The Ice Bill was desired by those who had
given him servile obedience, and constitu-
tional objections did not weigh the Mort
gage Bill was wanted by a man who had
dared to oppose him, and constitutional
objections became suddenly great. The Ice
Bill might have given the state a little
more money, which it did not particularly
need, and the Mortgage Bill might have
given relief to thousands upon thousands
of poor property owners who are unjustly
taxed. The possible revenue to the state
was sufficient excuse for the upholding of
his friends in the passage of a very ques-
tionable bill, but his duty to a very large
class of Gods patient poor did not de-
ter him from Furnishing faithful follower
who had dared to assert his conscience in
opposition to his 1.-THE governor's) will.
Injustice to Poor People.
The bill having been vetoed the old,
unjust system remained in force, and with
fatality for injuring the people whose
rights he had so long professed to cham
pion, the governor was instrumental in
making the situation worse than it had
previously been, for both the borrower
and the lender. The tax commission hav-
ing been the creation of Governor SEQ
field must be the subject of criticism at
The hands of Governor La Toilette. The
commission had been created to help bring
about the reform in taxation, which he
and demanded so long and loudly, but the
commission had been brought into exist
ence by somebody else, and so far as it
lay in his power he must needs therefore
destroy the credit which somebody else
had obtained through the creation of the
commission. In his inaugural message
he made covert attack upon the COM
mission and, not having the courage to
go to the point of recommending its abo-
llGlOII, IAc lIlSlStcN UIdI OIuGE uuGlSS Iudu
those for which it was created must be
added to its work. In compliance with his
recommendation, the Legislature passed
chapter 237 of the Laws of 1901, making
the tax commission state board of assess
ment; take the place of the old state
board of equalization. The law gave the
commission the power to assess the rela-
tive value of all property subject to tax
alton in each county and endowed it with
power to enforce all of its commands rel
ative to the manner of making the assess
ments.
One of the first commands that the COM
mission, acting as the state board of assess
ment, made was to require the taxation of
all mortgages that it was possible to dis
cover. To facilitate such taxation the
commission required assessors in one coun-
ty to report to the assessors of another
county the amount of mortgages held by
the people of the one county on property
in the other. For instance, in Shawano
county it was discovered that there was
about 100000 of mortgages held by lend