The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1902-01-03
SCHOOLS AND TAXES.
Miss Haley Tells of the Chicago
Fight.
Minneapolis Journal:

Minneapolis Journal:
Interest at the Minnesota teachers
convention in st. Paul conferred Fri
day afternoon in the talk of Miss
Margaret Haley of Chicago, on the
fight of Chicago teachers to make
the big corporations of the city pay
taxes on their franchises Miss Haley
is one of the distinguished guests of
the convention this year.
Accompanied by her sister, Mrs.
George Harrison, who is president of
the Teachers club of Minneapolis and
by Mrs. E. M. La Penotiere, president
of the State Federation of Women's
clubs, Miss Haley took luncheon at the
st. Paul Commercial club Friday as
the guest of that organization. At the
conclusion of the luncheon, Miss Haley
was Introduced to the members of the
club by the president, Mr.. BoardmaD,
and made brief talk on the work of
herself and associates in fighting for
the just taxation of Chicago corpora
tions. --..xs
From the Commercial club miss
Haley went directly to the Central
Presbyterian church, where she was to
address the Minnesota Educational as
sociation.on.." Equitable Taxation.and
School Revenues. "ss--She confined. her-
self, largely, however, to- sketching
the Chicago--fght which hass.now be-
come famous. In substance this.out-
line was as follows !. -rss.,-n-. -,sa -..-
In 1899. 1.-The. teachers of. Chicagoshad
their salaries--cut % PERCENT, and the
closing of the schools for two months
of the regular school year was con-
tempIated. Aroused by this condition
of affairs thesteacherss held a1~meeting
and appointed Miss, Haley and another
to investigate the cause. Through "a
newspaper item stating that the reason
there was not enough money to run
the schools was that five corporations
in the city were paying nothing on
their franchises, the teachers repre-
sentativess gotta clue and at once set to
work to find remedy. They decided
that the only way was to make cor
porations and persons not paying a
Just proportion of the taxation come
to the front. They found that the
board of equalization was not getting
one cent from five of the largest cor
porations which were feasting at the
public crib on free valuable franchises.
The revenue law, which provided
for the taxation of capital stock, was
being entirely ignored, the assessors
not even calling on the companies for
statements of what their capital stock
amounted to. The lower courts de-
cided that there was due the city {
per cent tax on the franchises of these
five companies, or ten millions of dol
lars each year in the aggregate. On
Nov. % the supreme court of Illinois
sustained the lower court, and the
corporations now threaten to go to the
federal courts for relief.
Miss Haley maintains that this &C.
ton on the part of the companies il
just what the teachers desire for, al
the people are often the real fna
court, the moral publicity given the
case the more advantage to be had by
the cause of right.
Ex-Governor John Lind, who wal
to have led the discussion on Mis-
Haley's address, was not present, AND
Miss Haley occupied the time in ans
wering questions that W ere sent al
from the audience.