Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1903-03-17
LOBBY SUCCEEDS
City Council Recedes From Stand
On Dog Tax Cues.
ton.
CITIZENS ARE HEARD IN PROTEST
Instead OF Raising the Rates as Pro-
posed a Reduction is
Afahn

Wordy discussions were eliminated
in the city council last evening and
business went through with unusual
celebrity. The republican aldermen,
especially from some of the upper
wards, were slow in assembling and
some of them felt constrained to
leave before the meeting was over.
There was an undercurrent of polit-
fcal excitement manifested through
out the meeting and even Mayor
Knox appeared distracted
Politics evidently had something to
do with the disposition made of the
dog tax question, for when it became
perfectly plain that the raise in ca
nine taxes proposed with the revision
of the ordinances was not a popular
move the members lost no time in
getting under cover, reducing the tax
not only to where it was before, but
cutting even that in two. 1t was no.
ticeable that those whose terms are
about to expire were the ones that
made and seconded the motions for
the changes.
Lobby is Successful
r. Il. Reynolds and J. 4. LOgsdon
led the lobby sent by the dog fanciers
to labor with the council. Mr.. Logs
don spoke and contended that Il tax
of So a year for a canine of the male
persuasion kept to act as policeman
and general utility animal. about the
place was eXorbitant, especially since
the state added its tax of 81 year
in addition. He held that it was an
arbitrary tax equivalent to that upon
lcnxof.oI hI,,1rnI Il Ill -,
sonal property; that it in effect de-
clared the dog a nuisance without an
examination of the individual merits
of the animals and it was therefore
unconstitutional. Mr.. Logsdon aver
red that he would make a test case
of it if necessary and would in all
probability knock not only the tax
that he felt to be eXorbitant. but all
kinds and degrees of dog tax except
according to the valuation of the ami
mails. However, he was willing to pay
a fair tax:
Mr.. Reynolds took the ground that
the high tax proposed will merely
saddle an additional burden upon the
honest owner who as a rule has dog
that is not a nuisance, while the par
ty owning the irresponsible cur will
continue to get out of paying all
forms of tax Just as he does at pres
emf. He was in favor of reduction
of the tax and then seeing to it that
all dogs that were not paid for ac-
cording to law should forfeit their
| lives. The gentlemen who spoke were
backed by number of dog owners
in the gallery and by a lengthy petit
| ton which AID. McCaskrin brought
before the council.
Take Prompt Action.
Aid. McCaskrin pleaded for 1.-The
plain people" and moved that the tax
be fixed at 81 year for male and So
Il year for female dogs, according to
the spirit of the petition he present
ed. Aid. Kennedy as a substitute
moved to fix the tax as it was before,
So for male and So for female CANNES.
The substitute lost on an aye and nay
vote and the original motion then
carried almost unanimously. The dog
question being brought up in the con
sideration of the revision of the ordi-
nances and the council having failed
to get through with the work so that
| they could be finally adopted, it is not
yet law, but there is no danger that
it viii be changed.
Aid. McCaskrin brought in a petit
ton for the paving of Seventeenth
street from the south lines of Ninth
avenue to Eighteenth avenue with
single course brick. The petition bore
the signatures of considerably over