New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1906-05-16
m0RrGAGE TAx PROSPECTS.

/ If anybody is disappointed to learn that Gov
! ernor Higgins will give no hearing on the Mort
! gage Recording Tax bill, it can only be because
! of the i'll considered announcement Of inju-
diciOus advocates of the measure in the last few
! days that they would take a delegation to AL
! bany to make a demonstration. There could
have been no authority for any such proceed
ing The Governor let it be known Immediately
upon the adjournment of the Legislature that
! he would not give any hearings on thirty day
bills. 1t was obviously impossible for him to
/ do So With some five hundred bills to dispose
! of at the rate of about twenty a working day,
in addition TO performing the many other duties
of the Executive Office. he has time to listen
to extended arguments If he received one
delegation he could not well refuse to receive
Others so that his only course was to refuse all
hearings and require the submission Of briefs
from all persons advocating or opposing bills.
The friends OF the recording tax have full OPP
portunity to present all their arguments in writ
ing and they will, without doubt, receive careful
attention.
Fully as little cause for Encouragement we
think is to he found in the current talk Of
political arguments being brought to bear on
the Governor by the leaders of the Obstructing
opposition in the Senate. In the first place. Gov
ernOr Higgins is not accustomed to make his
course on important questions Of public policy
an exercise in political tactics. He has steadily
signed bills which seemed TO him right even
when great bodies of his friends opposed them
and thought them politically inexpedient. So he
has vetoed bills which did not seem to him
right, such the Racetrack bill, though they
would have pleased communities from which
he draws his strongest support. In the second
place, If the argument of political expediency
were TO have any weight. it would operate in
the other direction. Without doubt, the great
majority of persons in both parties who have
given any thought at all to the subject are
against the annual mortgage tax That is
pecially true in the cities above all in this city
and it is in the cities that the Republicans
most need 10 make friends Far more is to be
lost from offending the thousands of borrowers
here who have been aroused TO organized action
by the raising of their interest rates through
measure supposed TO tax only the lender than
from mourning the criticism of some rural Re
publicans who may dsapprOve the recording
tax, but who will not find IL a tangible personal
burden. Failure OF the pending measure means
giving an individual financial grievance to many
while nobody will have reason for personal
| thankfulness in the maintenance of the present
law. Merely as a matter of politics an indif-
ferent friend is not wisely gained at the cost Of
making a bitter enemy. Moreover the nODular
support OF the mortgage tax is, we believe
considerably Overestlmated. The eleven Sen
atOrs who were finally mustered for it's defence
were not in this matter fairly representative of
their constituents. Senators Armstrong and
Lewis for instance, bravely and s,raigbtfor
wardly stood by their convictions. though the
sentiment OF the Chamber OF Commerce and the
business men Of Rochester was strongly in favor
| OF repeal and they were called on by resolution