The Somerset reporter., 1908-12-24
Report of Grange Legislative Com
mittee.
Chairman Obadiah Gardner, Reports,
Work Done and Recommendation for
Future Legislation

Work Done and Recommendations for
Future Legislation.
One of the most important reports
submitted at the meeting of the Maine
State Grange at WaCervIlle last week
was that of the Grange Legislative
Committee, presented by Hon. Oba-
diah Gardner, for many years Stat,
Master and for the past year, chair
man of the Legislative Committee
The following is the full tex Of the
report:
brothers and Sisters:
This report does not contain as
many specific recommendations or
suggestions as your committee would
ordinarily make or desire TO make,
from the fact that, as a result of the
long discussion and agitation in the
grange of matters pertaining to taxa
ton, a special tax commission is in
existence whose duty it was made by
the last legislature to inquire into the
present method of raising revenue for
state, county and municipal purposes
and, If possible, to provide for a more
taxation, and for. a better and more
just and complete system for the as
sessment and collection of taxes in
this state.
"rhe report of this commission is to
be made public in a short time, and
we deem it wise and for the best in
terests OF this order and of those
whom this order represents, not to
60 IN, oft
lively or negatively, any of its CON
illusions or recommendations, but to
hold ourselves in an impartial attitude
so that we may the better investigate
and Judge of such recommendations
and conclusions and support or oppose
them accordingly.
"Certainly, the creation of this COM
mission iustifies and emphasizes the
long contention of the grange that the
asse ssment of taxes in Maine is I'M
equal and unjust.
''In taking this waiting attitude,
however, We have not the slightest
intention of yielding a jot or "a 1.-THE
of the principles hitherto insisted
upon by this order: We believe that
the single tax theory, the idea OF
laying the whole burden OF taxation
ON the land, is fallacious and danger
Gus, and that if realized under the
present political and economic con-
ditions mott only of the state and ma
ton, but of the world, would mean
confiscatlon, and we deprecate and
condemn every move and tendency
in this direction.
1--WE elieve that the exemption of
public franchises from taxation finds
It's logical result in close government
control or government ownership, If
not socialism, pure and simple. All
property, real or personal, tangible or
intangible, should bear its part of the
public burden, according to the just
value thereof
We believe that the wild lands, now
almost wholly exempt from municipal
tax ation, should be made to take on
greater share of the public burden
through the assumption by the state
of greater share of the burdens now
resting on the municipalities, such as
the support of tue public schools, the
maintenance OF Bridges and highways
and the like.
ga tax on railroads according to the
value of their lands, road beds, rolling
stock and buildings, would, from the
very nature of the case, be so difficult
to fix and 50 uneven in its application
in the different towns and cites, that
it would be entirely unsatisfactory and
Inadequate The value of a railroad,
as of nearly every other public ser
vice corporation, lies, in the main, IN
the value OF its franchise, and the
value of such franchise is dependent
upon the earnings of the corporation.
"A tax levied on the net earn
ings Of railroad would at first
thought, seem fair and just, but Ill
leVylng such tax there would arise
SO many opportunities for evasion and
fraud, such as the application of the
earnings to improvements and their
final capitalizati III, as we'll as for
Juggling with the income and expense
accounts, as would, III all probability,
render such a scheme a farce. On the
other hand, a tax on the gross earn
ings of railroad gives no such oppOr
tunities for dishonesty. A tax on The
gross earnings of a railroad may not
be as equal and just as tax on its net
earnings might be, but it is, beyond
question, more just than tax on the
net earnings of the road would be.
Railroads, while ordinarily of a
public benefit, are built for money
making purposes. Their projectors
are looking for return i'll dollars and
cents and not in thanks or gratitude
of any generation, present or future.
No enterprise, railroad or other,
whose promoters believe it unable to
bear its due part of the public burdens
will be undertaken and, in fact,
should not be undertaken, for the
capital so invested would be sunk and
the community or state impoverished
accordingly.
"Promotors or projectors of rail-
roads or of any other enterprises or
schemes should not be given or
promised exemption of taxes to in
duce them to forward their schemes.
If these roads are to be useful to the
community or state, they will pay,
and if, in the judgment of their pro
jectors, they will pay, they will be
built. If these projectors make any
mistake in their calculations, there is
no reason why their loss should in
any part be made good from the
public purse, any more than should n
corresponding loss suffered by the
builder of a mill, or by the person who
clears a rocky and unproductive piece
of land.
"What has been said in regard to
the justice OF tax on the gross earn
ings of railroads applies equally well
to a tax on the gross earnings of tele-
phone lines and other public corpora
tions. Here we may also add that, as
the telephone has become almost u
universal necessity the government
of our state should see to 1t that the
rotas laviad hV tho porppratf,Ta do