Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1907-02-15

| keep up this unjust system of taxation.
| When you say that the county of OK
| ford would pay $4,000 and that the
| county of Cumberland would pay six
| or seven hundred thousand dollars, that
| $6S,000 in oxford is pressing with ire
| mendOus weight upon the shoulders of
| the men that pay it.
Think upon these things, Mr.. Chair
| man, before you increase the burdens
of men whose burdens today are heavy
| and wearisome, intolerable and unjust.
| | have not the time to elaborate one
consideration and for my friend, Gen.
| MattnckS, to answer, that this con-
structi0n account is not all.
When you shoulder yourself with a
capital costing two and a half million,
| but costing 3 believe the judgment
| Of business wouil say three and half
| or four million. you have assumed an
| expensive luxury.
l submit. ana Gen. Mnttocks. Will
| critiCiSe me if | am WronS-I submit
| the increased operating expenses of
| that building would reach down into
| the public treasury every year to the
| extent Of at least $4,000. We would
| find ourselves where good Old Bowdoin
| College finds itself today; rich in
| buildings but crippled in her work. be-
| cause of her wealth of buildings. 1t
costs money to operate and keep up
| these magnificent structures
Nor. Mr.. Chairman, can they deludc
| themselves. | submit as a lawyer, with
| tn" idea that you can distribute this
| nf
You can make no contract Mr.. Chair
man for the building of a four million
| dollar, or a two and half million dol
arS State House, unesS you have be-
| hind that contract the money i'll the
| State treasury to meet that contract;
| and, if [ am wrong in my law. my
| friend Gen. NattockS, an able lawyer
| will correct me.
| our forcfathers guarded against the
possibilities of such reckless disregard
If the rights of the smaller and poorer
| towns.
Let me read from the Constitution of
| this State which extends to the grand
and beautiful city of Portland and
| takes it in within its provision:
| THE Legislature shall not create any
| 1ebt or debts, liability or liabilities on
| behalf of the State which shall in the
| singly OF i'll the aggregate. with previ-
GUS debts and liabilities hereafter in
CURED, at amy one time exceed $780,
| 900 except to SUPPRESS Instruction, to
repel invasion. or for purposes of war"
| | submit, as a matter Of law, that if
you appropriate beyond Your revenue,
| that the excess is a nullity, a liability
| forbidden by the constitution.
There is a greater power than Lcgis-
| laturcs under the constitution that
stands over US, the strong arm of the
supreme court Of this State ready to
! be invoked at the instance of any
Wronged taxpayers TO prevent such an
| illegal and unconstitutional liability.
| So Mr.. Chairman, if YOU sign n con-
| tract for the erection Of this new build
| ing, with no tax levy to meet the full
amount of that contract, I submit that
| the court would enjoin its performance.
Certainly my friend will not answer
| to that. that the State of Maine will
| distribute this burden over a series of
years and build this new Stat" House,
not by contract but by the day.
Honest as we are in the State of
I
| have. Mr.. Chairman, even if your party
| were i'll powcr-no matter who is in
power in the State of Maine, our people
are honest-but, honest as we are, the
State of Maine would not dare to open
| the door to possible graft that would
| come from the expenditure of four mill
lions upon a building built by the day
| as you would have to do or raise it in
| a single year.
| have heard it argued about here
| that we have surplus revenues. and [
| think my friend Mr.. Reed referred to
| thcm-that we have Il surplus revenue
| Of three hundred thousand dollars a
year and that, using them for 10 or II
| years, or more we could build a State
| House. without a direct property tax.
The proposition assumes. Mr.. Chair
man. that for the next 10 years you will
hold the State of Maine whore it is
now-that there shall be nothing new
that the limit Of the expenditures
| that have been male for the last six
years shall be an iron band upon all
| the hopes and aspirations Of this State.
Mr.. Chairman, you have no surplus
until you have outlined the policy of
your State. Let US see what there IS
| demanded of this very Legislature.
You have already voted that the state
| of Maine has too long turned deaf
| ear to the miSfortuncS of the two
| thousand feeble minded children scat
| tered III poverty throughout this State.
You have already voted that you will
begin to right that wrong with the i'm
| mediate expenditure of 100000: and
| whoever studies it knows that the
building of the cottages and the cree
| ton of the schools to pull these poor
| unfortunatcS out of the mire of
| dependency in which misfortune has
put them will involve, before you get
| through, three quarters of a million of
| money, even at the modest rate Of $780,
| 900 year.
Need | say what is in the minds OF
| every member of this committee, that
| the hour has come in the history of this
| State, whether you pass the pending
Bill that Commissioner Sargent has
| drawn or not. that each year public
sentiment demands, and that demand
| cannot be turned down-that pub