Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1908-07-01

| THESE .1rault1OnS are the UulWdTk Dc
hind which the wild lands successfully
repel your attempts to equalize taxa
tior. gsiY 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 can
not cope with the cities and get bet
ter distribution of burdens between
| State and town, why not use the
weapon the court has given out in its
| far-reaching decision sent down TINS
| spring? 1t practically held your
| Il, 000, 900 acres of forest lands to be
quasi-public property, TO be used only
as the Legislature might direct. 1t
| takes your vast watersheds ana
saves the lakes for Maine. 1t opens
| the door for the development of our
tireess water-powers, more than SIX
million horse power-a power that
| ought to make and will make Maine
| a state of five million people-the best
| and busiest State in the American
| Union. Under this decision the king
comes back into his kingdom. Under
| it, rhetoric and buncombe, technicality
| and nair- splitting, glittering generali-
| Under it you can impose a privilege
or license tax upon all these forest
lands, today disable only as you per-
nit. and at last make them bear their
| Just share of the public burdens You
| car control them for Maine and for
| the public good, and in that control be
| fair to capital. Who better equipped
to lead you. along this new highway,
who better kncws Maine, her resources
and her needs, who better able to
srappie with this new problem than
| this man from Waterville, William T.
| HaincS?
| Unfriendly newspapers have criti-
cized him because the Somerset Rail-
| road in 1909 received q twenty year ex-
emption from taxes of some $1,100 per
year Gas the tax then STOOD. Built
in 1870, the road never earned a dollar
tor it's stockholders. Mr.. Haines pro-
posed to push it through the wider
| ness fifty miles. 1t was daring
move, characteristic of the man. The
financial risk was enormous. The
profit, if any, could only come after
long years of anxious struggle. A
unanimous Legislature said Build it,
gentlemen, it will help the State; we
will remit your taxes for twenty
years" Your legislature had said
the same thing unanimously to the
Bangor < Aroostook and without il
that road would never have been built
Go down into ArOostOoh, the Garden
OF Maine, and ask them if the building
of the RanSor & Aroostook was a mis-
take. Your legislature had unanimous
ly given the same exemption to the
Washington County road. Ask the
people down there if they made a mis-
take in being annexed to the State of
Maine. Study the railroad returns and
see where the freight and passengers
turned out by these great roads to the
trunk lines finally bring to the state
treasury taxes of two dollars for every
dollar lost by exemption. Was the
trade bad one? In 1908, the Demo-
ratio candidate for governor, as able q
man as they ever nominated, attacked
these rebaters as favoritism. The at
tack was lodged Has it come to this
that every time the Democratic party
assaults US, we turn the cheek for an
other blow. For one I am tired of the
RepublicaniSm that lives on Democra-
tic milk and dares not defend it's rec
IL.
is bigger. better and richer, your treas
ury the gamer. Your taxes lower be
cause Of all these rebates Why not
stand erect and give blow for blow
when the facts and truth are with us :
Because of this road Mr.. Haines has
been called a railroad king. He has
had no ownership of any kind in any
railroad since the spring of 1907. When
he travels he pays full fare. as do the
most of lis, and, better for the state, if
l could say as do all men by the law
of The land. This man with 4 railroad
collar? Has tho public forgotten his
memorable fight in the legislature for
the abolition Of passes? This man not
to be trusted in the impending contest
for more taxes upon railroads and bet
ter regulation of all public service cor
pOratiOnS" Who proposed in the Sem
ate the first railroad regulation law in
New England. today sound Republic
can doctrine in the nation? This nan
has deeds behind him, not Idle words or
promises. No Republican in Maine is
more keenly in touch with the add
vanced Republicanism Of the hour
than he. Try him by his life
tnfriendly newspapers have criti-
cised him because he has warmly de- |
Tended the financial record of the Re-
publican party in Maine Why not de-
fend it? Your tax on property has de- |
creased. Your revenue from corpora
tons has greatly increased. You have
more revenue To spend. Twenty years |
ago your debt was nearly four millions |
Year by year YOU have paid it off I'M
der the administration of the man YOU
are to name for governor every dollar
will be paid and the state will be free |
from deDt.
Your expenses have grown with your
revenue. The totals are large What
item is wrong? Which one will you cut
out; Shall it be less for schools, less
for good roads. less for hospitals, less
for charity, less for bridges, or less for
the soldiers of '6l Where, pray .el me, |
is u.e wrong? Shall it be less for sal
aries? They have been increased far
less than in private life. Not one CT
them has kept pace with the advance
in the cost of living or the rise in wa
ges that has followed the Republican
policy of protection. Deal not with to-
tails, gentlemen Point ont tho errors