Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1906-07-21

Shippers Unknown-Exemptio Fol-
Small Wage Farmers From Income
Tax-State Has Drastic Factory Law
and Regulates Hours of Labor.
Sir Joseph G. Ward, premier of New
Zealand, who was recently interview
ed by the New York American, points
out as follows the advantages of gov
eminent ownership of all public utili-
Ties In his country:
You ask me what the experience OF
New Zealand has been relative TO
state control of the public utility de
partments In our country. My an
swer is that for upward of thirty
years the government has controlled
the railways. with a few exceptions at
one time-that Is, four or five railway
companies were run by public corpora
tons, but, with one exception, they
have all been purchased by the gov
eminent and have formed part of the
state railway system for a number of
years.
There now is only one line of rail-
way, with a mileage of between seven
ty and eighty miles, that Is owned by
q public corporation. 1t runs almost
parallel with the government section
of railways, some eighty miles apart.
The colony has the right to purchase
this line by arbitration.
The right has not been availed Of for
the good reason that a privately owned
railway Is bound by agreement with
the colony to reduce it's rates to the
same as that of the government rail
ways whenever reductions take place.
In other words. they cannot charge a
higher rate than that upon the govern
ment line, so that practically it is
equivalent to being a state owned rail-
way. The railways have worked ex-
cellently under state control There
are 1000 to 5000 miles in operation.
employing between 1900 and 10000
men and boys, and no women except
ing those in charge of the rooms for
women.
The system has kept rates down to
the lowest point, to insure the greatest
advantage and the all important one
of assisting in the development Of the
country wherever railways traverse.
We have eighteen lines in course of
construction. The people would not
give authority for the sale of the rail-
ways even if three times the value of
construction or any sum were offered.
The railways have stood the test Of
some thirty years and are kept in mag
nificent order, as Is the rolling stock.
No private carriages are allowed upon
the state railways. On these assets
some f23,0OO,OO0 of money has been
expended The lines meet every condi-
ton. There Is uniformity of charge
for every section. There Is no conces-
sions for the largest users as against
the smallest. We have a publicly ga
zetted tariff, and no rebates are adj
mitted.
To show what this means, suppos-
ing q case of rebate being a justifable
one, it would require to be put upon
the public estimates of the expendi-
lures of the colony and voted upon by
parliament OF the country. The ad-
vantages give the small man an oppor-
tunity Of improving his position, and
the large man knows that none of his
competitors can by any process OBJ
tain an advantage over him. Then,
again, we do not require to make ex-
cessive profits. We can take without
any difficulty or 10 per cent out of
orr railways, If we choose to keep up
our freight rates and our passenger
rates, but we believe that it Is in the
truest interests of our country to keep
the rates down, and we make conces-
sion to all classes OF users of the rail-
ways from time to time of all revenue
-
per cent.
1t Is sound policy to utilize our rail-
ways to help every class to build up
Industries, TO assist agriculturists to
ship to and from the seaboard at low
rates and to insure travel at low fares.
Our revenue last year was between
f2.2oO.oO0 and f2,3Oo,OOO.
We have spread the functions of the
state materially. In 1891 we changed
the fiscal system. We abolished the
system of taxation that relieved those
who held considerable interest IN the
colony from contributing their full
share of taxation and established a
graduated land and income tax But
man who had an income up to f300
paid no income tax. A man who had
an income of FL 900 paid a tax of six
pence on the pound and 1 shilling per
pound on any excess of $1,000. This
was intended to relieve the worker
from contributing taxation under this
head 1t is in our country one of those
anomalies of the human system that
the larger families generally are to be
found among those receiving the small
est income, and to meet this we put
it into shape that relief should be Civ
en- to the smaller wage Garner.
We exempt air improvements from
taxation This is an incentive to the
holders of land to make improvements
and gives a widespread employment
1t has worked well, and in building
there has been almost a revolution. Old
places have been pulled down and new
ones have gone up. The rate of or
binary land taxation was penny a