The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-02-18

1
road property. Any unprecedented per-
son, capable of judging. comparing
house bill No. 55 with senate bill No.
| 80 would say that house bill IS was
drawn and prepared in the interest of
the railroad companies, for its opera
ton and effect so far as railroad as
sessment is concerned, remains UNI
changed from what the law now is,
| except that the board is called a tax
commission instead of a board of rail-
road assessors.
with this plain statement of facts,
think the Kansas City Star, If it
frankly admit that senate bill No. 80
cannot possibly be construed as being
in the interest of the railroad COM
panies. and is therefore not backed by
them.
IF there is any clause of senate bill
No. 80 that gives to railroad COM
panes any advantage the Star should
point it out, SO that the people may
know. II, as the Star says, the rail-
road companies are behind senate bill
No. 80, it must be because it is a bet
ter bill for them than house bill No.
So VIII the Star point out in what
particular? If house bill No. So is a
better one for the people than the
present law. or senate bill No. 80, the
Star should point out the advantage.
From any point of view house bill
No. SIS will not accomplish anything
except to create three new officers. to
not result in reducing or equalizing
the burdens of taxation
Senator Smiths Statement.
/ Senator F. Dumont Smith issued the
following statement about this con-
troversy:
1.-THE only defense that the senate
needs as against the attacks of the
cital of its record. Two years ago the
senate originated and passed the
maximum rate and antidiscrimination
bills, which have saved the people of
Kansas from five to seven hundred
thousand dollars year, and which are
being copied in the nearby states. The
senate wrote and passed the present
railroad law against a storm of pro-
test and criticism. In less than six
months the very opponents of the bill
were forced to admit that it Is the
best railroad law in the United States.
$50 far in this session the senate
has passed law remedying defects of
phraseology of the general railroad
law, the bill authorizing and directing
the board of railroad commissioner to
intervene before the interstate COM
merce commission, the bill prohibit
ing the confiscation of coal, the car
shortage bill, the bill establishing
freight terminals within the state, the
most important railroad bill of all be-
cause without it the railroads evade
state regulations by billing freight to
destination within the state.
1.-The senate has also passed the
amendment to the constitution which
will give the legislature power to tax
express and telegraph companies upon
their gross income, the exclusive con-
tract BILL aimed at the harvester trust
the prima facie evidence bill, and the
Tucker evidence bill, both aimed at
the trusts, and its committees have
recommended for passage the anti
pass, the two cent fare law, and a
maximum rate law, the idea of which
originated in the senate in the first in
stance. The pending senate maximum
rate measure qon wheat and corn will
save the farmers of the state of Kan
sas at least two million dollars a year
and there is not the slightest doubt
that it will pass on Wednesday. 1t
will transfer from the railroads to the
people. more than twenty two-cent-
fare laws.
at is very popular to lambast SEN
ates, from the United States down.
Whenever newspaper man has moth
ing else to do he SHES a brick at a
senate but in all the mass of criticism
and misrepresentation that the Star
and other newspapers have issued, it is
curious to note that there is not a
single fact upon which to base it, In
other words. the critics of the senate
cannot point to bad bill that this
senate has passed in two sessions or
good bill that 1t has defeated. 1t
seems to me that this fact is con-
elusive of the whole controversy as to
the merits or dement's of the senate.
1.-THE action of the senate the other
day was taken as the only availa BILE
protest that it could make as a body
against the persistent misrepresenta-
lions of the Star. The idea that we
sought to stif1e free speech is too alb
surd to be noticed and the Stars as
sumption that unless it prints the news
the people will remain in Ignorance. is
a part of its usual arrogance which
should be resented by Kansas news
papers"