Sistersville daily oil review. [volume] (Sistersville, W. Va.) 1902-1905, 1903-09-02

es even If we do not wipe them out
altogether. The duty of the Legis'
lature was to consider these matters
! and afford the people some relief.
The refusal of one branch OF the
! L legislature to consider these mat
tiers at all, and the failure OF the
Legislature to pass any revenue
measure, or give any relief from
the present system OF taxation, are
absolutely upiustitiable.
The members of the Legislature
are the servants of the people, and
lobby representing special inter
ests, should have no voice In pre-
venting a full, fair and just hearing
of measures proposing relief when
formally presented to them by au-
thority of the preceding Legisla
ture and upon the recommendation
of the chief executive of the State.
To shjrk or evade their duty In
In this respect I do not believe
meets with the approval OF thought
full men and certainly Is not In the
interests of the people; and the
term people" includes corpora
lions, whose every interest should
have just treatment, the same, as
the interests of the individual tax
payer.
You will remember that this re-
port was made before the adoption
of the constitutional amendment
last fall, by the provision of which
taxes derived from gross incomes
and revenues of corporations now
90 into the general school fund. If
recommended the submission of a
constitutional amendment striking
out that provision In our State con-
stitution found In Section 4 .of Arti.
Gle 2, which reads as follows: "The
proceeds of any taxes that may be
levied on the revenues of any cor
porations" which by that Article of
the Constitution 60 to the "perma-
nent and investigated school fund"
And recommended the imposi.
ton of tax upon the gross In
comes of public services corpora
lions, similar to the one In Ohio, or
Pennsylvania, or Maryland, or New
York. This tax In Ohio produced
81 600, 900 last year. I mention
this matter because 1t Is outside of
the Tax Commissions report and
they could not recommend such a
tax under the constitutional pro-
visions existing at the time they
made their report. This Is only one
of the variety Of taxes which other
States have adopted, which are fair
and just to the corporations, as we'll
as relieving the people of unneces.
sary burdens of taxation.
In Ohio In the last two years they
have reduced their direct taxes
from twenty eight cents Oh the
$500 to thirteen and one half cents
on the 500, and constitutional
amendment Is pending this fall to
amend their constitution (Which IS
very similar to ours In this respecD
so as 70 permit the Legislature to
classify property for purposes OF
taxation. This, If adopted and I
think 1t will belmeans the elimina.
ton of direct State taxes In Ohio.
Pennsylvania, as you know, for a
generation has not levied any d.
rect taxes upon the real estate of
Pennsylvania. The street car and
railroad corporations of Pennsyl-
vania are required to pay eigh.
tenths Of one per cent of their
gross receipts to the State annually
on their capital stock and four
tenths of one per cent annually on
their bonded debt or loans. The
railroads and street car lines In
Pennsylvania pay nearly S. 900
annually to the support of the
State government.
In Ohio the tax Is one per cent
upon the gross incomes of the rail-
roads, amounting to about 81, Ioo,.
600 annually, and on the street car
lines to nearly 100000 annually.
This Is In addition to the present
direct tax of 23H cents on the $500
valuation.
In Maryland the tax Is graduated
on railroads, and runs from eight
tenths OF one per cent upon the
first 81 900 per mile of the gross
earnings, to two per cent on the
earnings In excess OF $4,000 per
mile. Maryland has but half of
the railroad mileage that West Vir.
ginia has. The Baltimore & Ohio
has special charter In Maryland
uherebv II onlv Davs a tax of on =