The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1908-05-01
$3,92o,O0O.00
TAX STEAL
CraWford's Violating Of His Pledge
was an Endorsement Of the
$780, 100000 Tax Steal

At last n of the recognized organs
of insurgency has deigned to notice a
point brought out in the Indictment"
recently issued against Mr.. Crawford
by the ~Roosevelt-Taft State League.
Although the document was sent
broadcast ver the state about a month
ago., this is the first time that the
subsidized organ has mentioned it.
1t is really astonishing what a little
incident will constitute the voice of
the people when a politician who has
betrayed his constituents and has sold
his birthrlght for a mess Of pottage,
is listening for some sort of an ex-
cuse with which to ease his con-
science.
Replying to the charge that Mr..
Crawford changed front with regard
to the gross-earnings law, the Sioux
Falls Press affects to think that it
is creditable to him that he did so,
and 1t endorses his explanation"
which was as follows:
81 vote for this bill on the ground
that ince voting before | have re-
celved a communication from people
or my district requesting that l vote
for this bill. That feature of the
bill relating to the exempting of all
the lands of any railroad company
paying under the gross-earnings sys-
TEN, from taxation, is against my
judgment, but | do not desire to set
up my judgment against the only ex-
preston | have from my district on
this subject"
Mr.. Crawford's change of front is
commended on the ground thot he
was needing the voice Of the peO-
pie but what are the facts?
The g~rOss-earnings law was enact
ed in 1888. The railroad interests ex-
pended fully 800, 600 in "persuading"
the legislature that such a law was a
done the business.
This law was OdiOus to the people.
The Northern Pacific railroad was a
gigantic corporation. 1t owned every
alternate section of land within a
strip forty miles wide across the err
ritory of Dakota. 1t objected to
paying taxes on this land. and so it
patched up the ~gross-earnings pro-
position WHICH EXEMPTED ITS
ENTIRE HOLDINGS OF REALTY
From TAXATION.
Honest Abe Van Osdel. sharing
the feeling against the imposition, in
troduced a bill in 1885 to repeal the
sS-ediulu law, Dut IL ldlleu OI
pas sage. Another bill was introduc-
ed two years later. and it passed the
lower branch of he legislature. but
was stolen before it reached the up
per branch
This >brazen curse of the represen-
tatives OF the railroad companies
aroused public Indignation and every
where in the territory the failure of
the legislature to repeal the gross
a2rn1noS law was denounced The
following year OSSS) Mr.. Crawford
was nominated for the council. The
people of his district had taken quite
an interest in the railroad laws, and,
with their minds directly or the
~gross-earnings law. the members Of
the convention which nominated Mr..
Crawford adopted the following reso
luton:
Resolved, That all classes of prop
erty IN the territory should yea
equal share OF taxation"
There was not the least doubt
about what that resolution meant. It
was a direct blow at the gross-earn- |
ms | Ecr law; T and was SO accepted: THE
THE FOLLOWING JANUARY RE
PEALED THAT LAW BY UNANI- |
NOUS VOTE.
But the railroads at once got busy.
Their high-priced lobbyists vera
FASTENED to Bismarck. Excitement
ran high. A junketing trip was pro
bribery and ~treachery and selling
out n violating pledges were rife,
days the tension was at a high
pitch. h columns of the daily press
teeming with reports of plots
and counter-plots.
The fight against the re-enactment
Of the law vas fierce. Crawford
wobbled first one way and then the
other-but the railroads finally got"
him. Mr.. Crawford himself and those
who got him know how it was done.
AS a means OF easing his consci-
ance, it is said that Colonel Billiard.
who then represented the railroad
interests in Mr.. Crawford's district,
thick OF the fight to change front.
hence the explanation" which Mr..
offered and which is ap
provingly quoted by his Sioux Falls
newspaper organ.
WHAT DID THE RE ENACTMENT
Or THE GROSSEARNINGS Law
MEAN? Well tell you in a few words.
AND EQUIVALENT TO A con-
PACT AREA TWENTY MILES WIDE
AND PRACTICALLY THREE HUN
DRIED AND FIFTY MILES LONG.
BELONGING TO THE RAILROAD
WAS EXEMPTED FROM
TAXATION-AN AREA AS LARGE
rs NEW JERSEY AND LARGER
THAN DELAWARE AND RHODE
SLAND COMBINED. This tract
contained about 4,4s0,OOO acres.
n SEVEN THOUSAND SQUARE
If assessed at only five dol
ar acre. its valuation would be
4O0, 900, or A MILLION MORE
HAN THE TOTAL RAILROAD AS
sESSMENT TO-DAY IN SOUTH DA-
<OTA. The law stood from 1883 to
a period of seven years.
f the average assessment was only
twenty-five mills on this valuation,
he total amount of taxes for the sew
N years would have been $3,92O.OOO.
That seems to be about the sor
# a tax steal that Mr.. Crawford en-
lorsed when he listened to the voice
II the people" from his district as
lgainst his pledge to the convention
which nominated him to stand for
equal taxation and against the mach
nations Of railroad corporations.
The excuse which the i%nsurgent or
,an in Sioux Falls offers for this
,are%faced theft in the matter of