The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1904-09-30
NEw@LAWs MERE PASSED PR
MARILY TO RELIEVE THE
HEAVY TAX BURDEN.
a REVIEW OF THE AUTHORIZES
PAMPHLET DISTRIBUTED
DEMOCRATS TO DEcEIVE
S5sa5 LEARNERS.


FARMERS.
TheIDemocrauc state committee
h hooded the State withsa 22-page
pamphlet alnderh title of "Tax
and nobody IS Irresponsible for It. Il
is amass Of nisrepresentaticnss It
pretends torevieW the acts of the spe-
cial session. ~vehemently %sttacks
of them, and treats the ma
5orftg with ftance which can
only construed 10 mean APPROX
a. & as said that a great many
Democrats did not@ant this document
put out at ali, because they knew II
would rfddled to death blythe first
Republican into whose hands IT fell,
and wouIdfijecone a boomerang.
After brief preliminary history Of
how the Tax Commission was created,
whichsis known TO everybody within.
the1confnes of this State who can
read, the Democratic 3~"arguier" in.
forms the waiting world that Cover
nor Fleming recommended tax reduc-s
ton as far back as 1893, but fails to
tell the people that@the5EDemocratfc
ks1AESiSldlul HNPSlG -
5and,=as usual, did nothing. He falls.
tostel1sthe people#th Governor Jack
n another Democrat, appointed a
tax commission fns1sS3, but it amount.
ed to#nothing. fails TO tell that
Observation-Disclosures, another Demo
erat, called attention as far back as
1879,ato bad tax laws. but the Demo.
cratic Legislature. as usual, paid no
attention to IT.
Surely if tax revision was consider
ed necessary in those days, it ought
be goodsthing now, and the Dem.
ocratic position against tax revision
IS made untenable at the very
outset.
The pamphlet asserts that no re.
vision of taxation was considered
bysRepublicans&whe they came into
power$aon accountsSof the ezra OF
p,rrofigacys,'s charged against the Re.
publicans.sSsT h Democratic party had
conducted the affairs of this State SO.
ably.aso&wisely, so economically and
in businesslike fashion for
twentySfour yes that the State was
bankruptwhen the Republicans came
into4power. On March 4th; 1897, a bal
ance was shown of S24O,0O0, but there
a deficit of like mount which
left the treasury practically empty,
and since the Republicans came into
power they nave had to appropriate
money8again and again to pay Demo
cratic deficiencies. And this is true
notwithstanding that Governor Mac
SCorkIe, the last Democratic governor,
got $3.50 0 from the National Gov.
ernment. The $4,000 was money
that the Republicans spent for the Ma,
tfonal Government in the war. Thus
it was that the first Republican gov
ernor, Foreman, handed over to Mac.
CorkIe, the last Democratic governor,
this large sun of money. Deficit and
Democracy are twin DIS. The Repub
licans paid up the Democratic Deficits
b did this in the next two years
and they have managed the affairs of
h State sothat there is a balance of
$500, 900 in the State treasury.
Does this look like pr~ofigacy? Does
this look like the money OF the State
had been squandered after the man,
ner of the Democrats?
Some Figures.
In license taxes the average per
year for the last seven years of Demo
cratic administration was S141,000 and
for the seven Republican years OF
$4,000. Was there any profigacy in
this?
The Republicans collected an actual
average every year of S125, 900 more
than the emocra in license taxes,
This saved direct taxes on property,
1t was largely due to the Dawson
corporation law, sc bitterly fought by
the Democrats. h total increased
evenu from these sources for the
last seven years amounts to over one
million and a quarter of dollars. Does
this look like this department had
been unwise1y administered?
During the last seven Republican
years the average annual cost of print
ing, binding, and stationery was re
duced $4,000, making an aggregate
save during the Republican
years of S222,O00. At the same time
the Republicans collected e $23 900
more from the sale books than the
Democrats, although the Democrats
cpaot 500 600 more money than tho