The Redwood gazette., 1902-02-26

passing through tow u On the fol
lowing morning he appeared IN the
house OF represe ntatiVes, and IN a
very few minutes he had accepted
an invitation to address the meet
ing of the. joint committees on taxes
and tax laws, as well as a large
number of the members of both
houses. The crowd present was
the largest that had ever listened to
any of the arguments on the ques-
tion OF enacting the proposed code.
Mr.. Purdy is certainly past mas
ter in the art of handling tax ques-
tions. He has made a study of tax
problems not only in everyaState in
this Union, but also the stax laws Of
England, France, Prussia and near
ly every other foreign country. In
appearing before committee or an
audience, lawmakers or otherwise,
and for or against proposition, Mr..
Purdy possesses peculiar qualif-
cation whereby from the start he not
only commands the attention of his
audience whether it be composed of
friends or ffoes, but he seems also
to secure their entire confidence,
and in some measure is likely to
hoodwink some of those who stand
in a position directly opposite to
that which he has taken. He has
magnificent voice, a remarkable
command of language and an uD-
usually clever way of securing the
confidence of his hearers. Mr..
Purdy. with remarkable cleverness,
complinented the members of the
commission on their report SO far as
the frankness of that report was
concerned, but he contended that
the code referred to in a somewhat
voluminous report was wrong in its
provisions and should not now be
enacted He advised instead the
enactment of certain constitutional
amendments or the calling of con-
stitutional convention, whereby the
legislature would not have it's hands
tied in the enactment of laws that |
would reach all classes, and pend
ing that time be advised the tabling
Of the report of the commission.
Mr.. Purdy certainly made one or
two good suggestions. One of these
was that the constitution be so
amended that a majority of the votes
cast for any constitutional amend
ment would be the means of its
adoption. AS the constitution is at
the present time, it requires d ma
jority Of all the votes cast at the
election Further, Mr.. Purdy rec
commended that after these conSttu-
tional amendments We're adopted, /
the members sacrifice themselves |
to their people by returning
to their bones and keep up
the agitation for the adoption of the
amendments proposed by the com
mission, and other amendments that
ought to be submitted, SO that every
voter of the State would be got out
at the election and cast their votes |
properly. Mr.. Purdy was asked
several questions by the members,
some of which were cleverlv an
swered. One of these questions !
was put to him by Senator Somer-
vile Of our district, who asked him |!
what he would substitute for the
code prepared by the commission.
1t was a noticeable fact that Mr..
Purdy, in a somewhat lengthy talk
following this question, evaded the
question entirely, and"by his eva
sion it became quite apparent to the
friends of the code that Dir. Purdy s
appearance before the two commit
tees was not in the'.interests of the
people. Certain itsis, that any de-
lay at the present time means a.
staving off OF from one to three. four
or five years the enactment of any
code that will force certain interests
to pay the tax which they long
since should have paid, and a code
that will certainly relieve the bur-
dens of taxation now.being placed
upon the majority and poorer class
es.
Il L