Arizona republican., 1907-03-02

bill are not safe counsellors for there
 may be other inadvertences. If they
 were omitted purposely then there is
 a deliberate attempt to betray and out
 rage the public. I shall further discuss
 it here. I may add that the omissions
 from Council Bill No. 45 which l have
 noted are not omitted from the Mon
 tana law, but are there.
 It is my firm conviction that the pro
 posed law would be ineffective for the
 taxation of the property of any mining
 company that might undertake system-
 atically to evade the payment of it's
 taxes.
 Assuming that all mining companies
 would try honestly to comply with the
 provisions of Council Bill No. 45-an
 assumption which is not warranted by
 our experience-it is still true. as I
 have said. that the question whether
 this or that amount of revenue would
 be raised by the bill is one of second
 ary importance. so long as that revenue
 comes from an unfairly low valuation
 But We cannot safely take it for grant
 ed that all mining companies would
 honestly try to comply with the pro-
 visions of the bill. and We cannot safe
 ly take it for granted that any given
 amount of revenue would be raised.
 The calculations and computations
 made for you by interested attorneys
 are based upon the present high price
 of copper. Who can guarantee that
 the price of copper will not fall in the
 future to materially lower figures?
 More important still. who can guaran-
 tee that all of the great copper mines
 in this territory will be continuously
 operated? Who can guarantee that
 the application of trust methods may
 not result in shutting down some of the greatest producers in order to maintain
 prices at satisfactory figures? Please remember that you are not asked to
 legislate for this alone. but for the un- numbered years Of the future. Who can guarantee that other causes which readily suggest themselves may not lead to the shutting down of some of our greatest mines for indefinite ? periods? And if one of these enOr- mously valuable mines is shut down.
 what will be the product tax for that period?
 In the discussion which toOi- place before you a few days ago. you were
 assured by the attorneys for great
 mining companies that council bill 45 in effect represented the consensus of opinion of the mining states The in ference was that if you should enact this biil into law you would be fol- ] lowing in the footsteps of the great ' mining states which have had years
 of experience with the taxation of ! mines. ! have shown to you that this r bill is a radical departure from the Q law of Colorado. which you were as sured il followed and falls far short | of the provisions of the Montana law. s The framers of this bill-and it seems f fair to the honorable member who in
 trOduced it to say that he was not the 2 author Of the measUre-were careful l to leave out of it the provisions which
 tend to make the Colorado law effec- tive of the principle of taxation
 of taking a portion of proceeds ! as the valuation of mines This f bill is like the law of no state and
 cannot therfore be in accord with the , eOncensus of opinion of any group. of
 states.
 r l have to say further that Califor-
 mia. one of the greatest mining states s in the union. and one of the earliest
 noted for that industry. assesses and taxes mines as other property is as- = sessed and taxed, in that respect be-
 ing like Arizona. I may call to your
 attention that in 1881 Arizona had [ bullion tax, out of which so little was 8 realized that in that year our own ter l ritory abandoned the system.
 ? But most important of all. since ? your attention has been invited to the 9 customs of other states. I have to say
 that Michigan is the oldest state of all in point of experience in dealing with the question of mine taxation. . And Michigan. after trying sundry ex- 9 periments. among them passing value . upon proceeds. has returned to the ad-
 valorem system-the principle upon - which Arizona statutes have been bas- { ed for more than a quarter of a cen n tUry. And the mining prOpefty in v Michigan for the last tax year was as Q sessed at one hundred and eighteen s millions of dollars. For yoGr further - information I submit the following Q telegram which received on Febru- - ary 27th from the county clerk 6f . Houghton county. Michigan-the Offi- Q cial who keeps the records of assess n ments for his county;
 r "Houghton. Mich. Feb. 27. 1907. r Joseph H. Kibbey. Governor.
 Phoenix. Arizona.
 - Assessed valuation for taxation for s last tax year; Calumet & Hecla mine. O thirty-seven million dollars: reduction
 works. four million dollars Tamarack s Mining company. mine and mills three y and One-half million dollars OsceO- t la Consolidated Mining company. mine s and mills. six million dollars. Bal
 tic Mining company tmine onlyl, six r million dollars. Tri-Mountain Mining s company (mine only). six million dol s lars. Champion Copper company. nine il million dollars. mine and mill. ,- "I.. H. RICHARDSON. Il County Clerk Q These official figures instantly sug- - gest some interesting comparisons be- O tween the great copper mines of Mich