The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1902-02-21
HOW IT LOOKS.

lulS ul5IoAOOa iux.AOOho NOAJ
much as though the legislature was
not going to do anything of practi-
cal nature with thes.proposed tax law
If it adjourns, after session of thirty
days and an expense of forty or fifty
thousand dollars, without passing
some of the best features Of the bill.
thereby showing determination to
remedy some of the existing evils of
the old and bewhiskered tax laws, as
they now stand, we fail to see where
the Republican majority is going to
escape severe criticism.
The fact should not be. lost sight of
by the Republican majority that there
has been crying..demand in this state
for years fora revision of our present
tax laws so that the burdens of taxa
ton might be more equitably distri-
buted. In all the discussions before
the tax committee, not a single man
among those who. have opposed the
new bill for one reason or another has
contended that the present law is what
it should be. Almost without excep-
tion the reverse has been admitted.
The arguments put forth that the
constitution will not permit of the
adoption of many. features that should
be incorporated in new bill to make
it perfect is true, but this fact has
been overworked .and.--allowed to be
enlarged upon to the point of extrava-
CANT claims. There are many splendid
reforms proposed in the bill before the
legislature that do not conflict with
the state constitution that ought to be
made into law. That there are some
sections of the measure that do not ap-
peal to the candid. Judgment of the
masses is true, and these can be easily
eliminated But it seems to be the de-
termination of the opponents of the
bill in and out of the legislature to 80
thoroughly damn the educational sec
tions as TO cause distrust of all the
salient provisions--sn thereby kill the
entire measure, or to so denude it as
to leave only a stalking skeleton of
shapeless bones to tell the tale.
Great corporate interests are des-
perate. 1t is but natural that they
should be. In the past they have been
able to evade paying anywhere near
their just proportion of the taxes
Under the proposed law they will be
so hedged about with machinery as to
prevent them from escaping to the
extent that they have heretofore, hence
=tha hill SsnG .I.SinS W UooI cSoIJ
influence possible to poison the minds
of the people against its passage. 1t
is much easier to work up opposition
to changing old laws, however obnox-
ious they may be, than it is to get
people to spend time and energy in
supporting new measure, however
meritorious it may be. And again,
the benefciaries of the new code be-
ing the poorer people who have no Or
ganization upon which to draw can
not and will not attempt to cope with
the organized forces of the wealthy
corporations that are arrayed in oppo-
sition.
The Free Press, while sorry to sd-
NIT it, is nevertheless forced to &C.
knowledge that the outlook for any
particular good to come from the pres
ent session in the way of tax reform
is anything but encouraging. That
there will be several amendments to
the constitution proposed and submit
ted to the voters is quite apparent, but
any of these that touch the mighty in
terests now fighting the bill will very
likely fail to get the required number
of votes to make them of force and
effect.
If the legislature has any serious
notion of reforming our tax laws it
had better make a beginning now.
Reconstruction is dangerous.