The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1906-10-13

justice of the peace. by the constable OF
the precinct, or the jud se or the sheriff
or the United States marshal That lie
the class of laws that would govern
these mployes-employed and dis
charged pursuant to law, each of them
seeking to 80 shape affairs as to retain
his place through the ever-changinE ad.
ministrations, constituting a great DO
litical factor. Mind, those men are all
voters. You take $4,000 men in the
railroad companys employ. OF necessary
for the operation Of the railroads, and
they do not include women and children,
they are voters. And see what a power
| they would constitute in the control of
the political campaigns, and in the se-
lection of the officers OF the govern
ment. Now, those Of you who are in
the service may say, We'll, that would
suit US all right; we would like to have
that job of controlling those questions"
But you may not be in the service,
| somebody else may be in the service.
| and instead OF being a controlling fac
tor you may be the factor that is con-
! trolled. Have you thought of that side
| of it?
These positions may or not be under
civil service rules; you may or may not
be able to enter this service. Have you
thought of that?
Cost OF Government.
Now, 1 will come another step closer
homo l.. ~.
Sul city. In this prosperous and grow
ing state. The lxed charges of govern
ment. from the precinct up to the chief
officers or to the whole government, are
arbitrary; they are fixed by law and by
the constitution, and they must be met.
The expenses of educating your chill
dren must be met out of the public
purse. under our system of government.
The expenses of maintaining the courts
to protect You in your rights, If they
are Invaded, to enable you to enforce
your rights If they are denied, they
must be maintained; the executive Of
fees of the state must be maintained
because of course, unless you are an
anarchist, you are still in favor of main
tanning organized government.
Burden of Taxes.
NOW, these expenses are heavy; they
are fixed by law they are collected in
the shape OF taxes and revenue Now
have you Investigated the question as
to who pays these taxes? You each nav
your little share or large check for your
taxes as the case may be. But suppose
that one-half of the property of the
state would be exempted from taxation;
you would just double your taxes
would you not?-because the amount of
money necessary Is not changed, and in
order to make it up each of you would
pay twice what you pay now, if one-half
OF the property of the state was with
drawn from taxation. You can't tax the
property of the government of the United
States, nor can you make law under
which you can tax il, because the gov
eminent of the United States Is all the
people of the United States, and one
part of the people of the United States
cannot be permitted to tax the other
part of the people of the United States
except that they participate in the levy
Taxes must be uniform. under the con-
stitution of the United States, and
equally distributed. Now, any person
who knows anything about it will tell
you that you can't tax the property of
the government of the United States
The constitution of your state forbids
it; the constitution of the United States
precludes it; and 1t is not competent for
either the legislature of the state or
the congress of the United States to at
Railroad Taxes.
Now, suppose that the government
after having paid out these thousands
of millions of dollars to acquire the
railroads, being the owner of them, is
exempted from taxation. How are you
going to make up the revenues necessary
to carry on your government. except
that you double the taxation of every
individual. or whether it be doubled
moro or less. that you in addition to
what you pay now a sum equivalent to
what the railroads pay? Have you in
vestigated the subject to see what pro-
portion of your taxes the railroad COM
panies do pay? Not long since had
occasion to Investigate that question
throughout the state of Idaho, and
throughout some other states. / went
to the records to ascertain the facts
In this state at that time-in this coun-
ty should say. at that time the rail-
roads paid more than sixty per cent OF
the taxes; in the county lying imme-
diately west of you the railroads paid
more than sixty-fve per cent of the
taxes; in the county lying west of that
again the railroads paid fifty-five per
cent of the taxes. 1 am giving you In
round figures the per cent, because 1
am speaking from my memory. and not
from memoranda l have known in these
neighboring counties instances of where
the railroad taxation built and paid the
entire expense of building your public