Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1902-10-08
MINNESOTA'Sr :
IMPORTANT
PROBLEM
Constitutional Obstacles Must Be
Considered by the People at
the Coming Election. $

Considered by the People at
the Coming Election. $
In this country the two subjects
which man most jealousy guards
are his home and his pocketbook.
For this reason taxation is recognized
as most difficult subject of legisla-
ton. AS this question must be con-
sidered and voted upon in Minnesota
at the coming election, it is therefore
most cOmmendable that neither party
has attempted to make it party is
sue.
There is no doubt in any ones mind
that the present system of taxation in
Minnesota is antiquated. The state
has outgrown it. It is crude, works
injustice, is unequal and does not
But what the remedy should be, how
dustries and sources of wealth prop
erty should be reached and taxed is
question on which few would agree.
1t is therefore impossible to make
1T party question and it is wise that
neither party has attempted it. There
was day when there was little
wealth in Minnesota outside the farm.
The coal mines were unknown there
were no railroads; street railways
were not thought of yet; there were
no electric lighting companies, nor
public heating plants; no water service
companies; no telephone companies,
nor other franchised corporations.
This was the state when the consti-
tuition was framed. The mode of life
and property of the people were
equally simple and primitive and the
taxation question was easy of solu-
ton. But now, this is one of the rich
est states in the Union and it's inter-
ests are among the most complex.
No interest, unless it is still that Of
the farmer, is paramount and of this,
the assessed valuation of all acre
property with it's improvements, even
including the iron mines, but little
more than equals the value of city
and village property. In 1860, two
years after the present constitution
was framed, the total assessed valu-
alton of the state was $3.50, 753, 4O8 90
Last year it was $600,980, 614.OO, while
this year the mere increase in the as
sessment will be four times as much
as the total valuation when the pres
ent constitution was adopted. Such
a change in conditions is almost be-
yond conception and it is no wonder
that the constitutional restrictions of
a constitution drawn in those days of
primitive poverty should be wholly
inadequate to meet the conditions of
modern wealth. As was to be ex-
pected, the tax commission when it
began it's work, almost Immediately
found that it was simply impossible
under the present Anticipated consti-
tutional provisions, to make a salts
factory tax law. It says in conclud-
ing it's report preceding the bill that
it proposed as the best one it could
suggest under the present restric-
tons, I'm conclusion, the amendment
of the tax provisions of the constitu-
ton, for the reasons urged in this re-
port, should be early effected. In
their present form they are an insu-
Rera5'e obstacle to proper legisla-
AS constitutional basis for tax
code, to speak broadly, there are two
methods. The one is to place practi-
cally no restrictions upon the legisla-
ture, but to leave it free to frame
such system of taxation as public
opinion dictates. As, for instance,
the Wisconsin constitution merely
provides: 1.-THE rule of taxation shall
be uniform and taxes shall be levied
upon such property as the legislature
shall prescribe" New Jersey pro-
scribes: "Property shall be assessed
for taxes under general laws by uni
ue." But most of the states fix GER
tain limitations on the powers of the
legislature and provide for certain ex-
emptions and until the millennium
shall bring incorruptible legislatures
this, to an extent, may be the wiser
course, though the ideal method is to
leave the legislature free to change
the form of taxation with changed
conditions, so as to protect in full
measure any threatened invasion of
the peoples rights. 1t is true, as the
commission says, that mo system of
taxation now in force in any of the
states of this country is attended by
wholly satisfactory results" It is
equally true that what might be
wholly satisfactory in one state
might be wholly unsatisfactory if
adopted in another state with wholly
different interests as Pennsylvania
system, which especially favors man.
ufacturing, if adopted in Minnesota,
whose largest single interest is still
agriculture.
This subject of taxation is before
the people of Minnesota as a result
of the Tax Commission report. Nat
urally hampered as they were by lin
itations of the constitution, even as
sion could not frame bill that would
experts knew from the first this could
not be done, but hoped for good re-
suits from the agitation of the SUBJ
ject sure to follow the report. Ger
tainly those good results have fol-
lowed. The extra session with the
commissioners report as a text, was
a great school in taxation. Hearing
after hearing. was had in joint session
and in open sessions before the tax
committees, at which representatives
of the states varied interests were
heard, where farmer and banker, fran
chise magnate and tax student, the
practical man of business and the
theorist gave their views on taxa
ton. From all this mass of testi-
mony the members of the house and
senate and through the newspapers
reports, the state at large, secured a
great amount of information in re-
gard to the subject of taxation and
a surprising interest was aroused in
the subject. Anything as to taxa
ton was read carefully and eagerly
and still is.
The immediate result of all this
process of education was an amend
ment to the constitution which is to