The Somerset reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1868-1909, 1908-07-02

NO element or prOnlDltlOn ID more
perplexing than the sale of liquor for
medicinal and mechanical purposes
Some prohibition states have left such
sales to druggists. Maine has tried
the system OF agencies. Its wisdom
is doubted. Some system is neces
sity. Not Mr.. Haines alone, but
many thoughtful friends of prohibit
ton, have advised committing such
necessary sales to druggists under
strict regulations. Mr.. Haines be-
lieved that he could draft law under
which less liquors would be sold for
necessary purposes by druggists than
through the agencies of the towns.
He believed the change would help
prohibition and, what is far more i'm
portant, make easier the enforcement
OF the law. Gentlemen, law unen-
forced is a stumbling block to truth.
He may have been mistaken. It's a
perplexing question. Experiment
alone would answer it. Give him
credit for deep sincerity of purpose.
No man has been more misunder
stood or more misre presented than he
on the issue of tax reform. Because
he has praised many of the good fea-
lures of the present system, he has
been painted as opposing all change.
Not SO. He does not believe that all
that is old is bad, nor all that is new
is good. He sees no reason for
apologizing for the record of the Re-
publican party. When he entered
public life the State tax was four
mills. This year the State tax is
one third of mill for your new poll
of mood ~AoIs ,,,i1 half
for schools and but one mill and a
sixth for State purposes. Is the Re
publican party ashamed of such a
record? When he began his public
work the corporations paid substan-
TALLY nothing. Year by year he has
fought with you to equalize the bur
den until today they pay upwards of
a million and half. He has said he
was proud of such party record.
So are you. He stands and has stood
he has fought and will fight with you
for every advantage in legislation
that looks to equality of taxation.
All, but he is wildland owner.
Yes. When did it become a crime to
own lands and raise trees and vir-
tue to own lands that raise hay and
grain. But they ought to be more
equally taxed. Undoubtedly, but
how? How reach them by law that
the court will sustain as valid? In
1905 you proposed statute assessing
a State tax of two mills and three
quarters on lands in the towns and
fifteen mills on lands in the wilder
ness.
The Court annulled it. They said
it was not equality. If you are to
reach the wild lands by a property
tax, then as you increase the State
tax on them just so much must you
increase the State tax in the towns,
but as you increase the burdens of the
State, and lessen the burdens of the
towns, just so far will you equalize
taxation upon your forest wealth.
Today the towns bear too much, the
State too little. Put your schools,
your roads, your bridges, your poor,
your insane, your courts, your criml-
mails, on the State and your small
towns will flourish and the wild lands
bear their just and equal share.
Prosperity in the towns upon the hills
means prosperity in the cities by the
sea and on the river banks. Wild
land owner, as he is, timber baron as
overxealous men have styled him in
the heat of contest, Mr.. Haines has
fought for years for just this change.
At the last Legislature he led the
for the increased State tax
for schools and good roads. Most of
his cumberland, located in towns and
plantations, already pay full taxes,
some two per cent, some two and
three quarters per cent. Upon his
wild lands his speech increased his
taxes 25 per cent. He fought, in fact,
for more than that. He believes in
our antiquated policy of
division of burdens between State and
town, borrowed from England two
hundred years ago, and abandoned
by England more than a century ago.
England never began her mighty
the burdens of the weak. Maine will
never be what she ought to be until
you follow in her footsteps. Equality
of burdens will bring equality of tax
alton The wild lands will then con-
tribute equally with the farms, and
no man will fight harder for that
beneficient change than this bluff old
timber baron, ready to pay in taxes
on all his property whatever public
sentiment demands as just.
Since 1905 the movement for wild
land tax has demanded an amendment
of the State constitution that in
equality of rate may be approved by
the court. Its advocate forgot that
the federal constitution would nullify
such an amendment. Thus far, even
the Democratic candidate for Cover
nor and the Maine State Grange, led
by strong and thoughtful men, have
opposed it.. They know full we'll that
as a property tax no law is practical
BILE or disable save the method of in :
creasing the burdens of the towns.
The reform goes slowly. The last
Legislature, under the leadership
Mr.. Haines, did something The next
ought to do more.
Until this spring there seemed to be
no way out except this slow overturn-
ing of the ancient traditions of our
people, under which Aroostook pays
too much and Kennebec far too little.
These traditions are the bulwark be-
hind which the wild lands successfully
repel your attempts to equalize taxa
ton. You men of the towns do not
use your power. Justice demands that
you get out of the twilight of two
centuries ago and live in the sunlight
of today. If you feel that you cannot
cope with the cities and get better
of burdens between
State and town, why not use the
weapon the court has given out in its
far reaching decision sent down this
spring? 1t practically held your
Il, 000, 900 acres OF forest lands to be
si-nublic nrODprtV To be used only