The Goldfield news. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1904-1911, 1909-09-18

In the lobby of the H~ollenbeck a
few evenings ago a number of mining
men were exchanging opinions on the
merits of the suit recently brought BY
the authorities of Nevada to collect the
state bullion tax from the Pittsburg
Silver Peak Mining company.
"The bullion tax question has been
a puzzler for the revenue collectors and
the legislative assemblies of Nevada
ever since the Comstock commenced to
produce its Millions remarked a veter-
an mining operator of the Sagebrush
state, taking advantage of a hull in the
conversation. "For the first twenty
years of statehood there was hardly a
political campaign in which some phase
of the bullion tax question was not in
jected as a leading issue, and it has
bobbed up as perennially at Carson
City legislatures as the tariff issue at
Washington. /.
This hydra headed issue first came
into prominence when the first consti-
tutional convention met in Carson City
in '63 to form a state go, srnment. To
raise sufficient revenue to support the
new state it was proposed to levy a tax
IN mining property, not on bullion, IN
derstand, but on the value of the mine
feckoned by the marketable price of its
shares or by an appraisement. The late
Senator Stewart was cleaning up a hun-
dred thousand dollars a year in fees
as the leading attorney on the Lode at
that time, and he led the opposition to
this method of taxing the property of
his clients. He made SO many impas-
stoned appeals in the interest OF the
poor MINER before the convention and
in stump speeches, that the term, poor
MINER was teh signal for a hOrse-laugh
whenever it was heard for months after
ward, and it led Mark Twain, who was
reporting the convention for the Vir-
ginia City Enterprise to burlesque
Stewart in a report of a mock conven-
ton which Twain called the Third
House. In recording the proceedings
of this imaginary convention, and by
the way, that was the first tim Sam
Clemens made use of the pen name
Mark Twain the humorist had Stew
art address the meeting about like this:
Mr.. President: When you tax the
poor MINER shafts, and drifts and bed
rock tunnels, you are NOT taxing his
substance, you are NOT taxing his
wealth-NO, but you are taxing the
shadow from which the substance may
eventually issue, or may not; you are
taxing the visions of Alnaschar, which
may turn to minted gold, or only prove
the forerunner of poverty and misfor.
tune; in a word, sir, you are taxing his
hopes, taxing the aspirations of his soul,
taxing the warnings of his heart of
hearts. Yes sir, l insist upon it, and
so on. Twain had him repeat this little
speech -four times running, and then the
proceedings recorded an interruption in
which the Chair, occupied by Marx
Twain scored the delegate about like
this: Take your seat, Bill Stewart
When | want that internal speech I'll
repeat it myself, / know il by heart
anyhow. You and your bedrock tunnels
and blighted hopes and blasted miners,
have got to be a sort of nightmare t.
me, and l won I put up with it any long
err. If you can add something fresh
to your speech, or say it backward, OF
sing it to a new tune, you have simply
got to simmer down for a while
ssStewart lost his cause in the con
vention, but he went before the people
with it and mustered enough votes u
defeat the constitution at the polls. A
few months later the second eonstitu
tion convention was called and Stewart
had delegates enough to adopt a section
which made only the net bullion pro
ceeds taxable. The people adopted this
convention by a big majority.
"The minority Of the tax payers un'
der the new bullion tax law were heav-
ily Disseminated against, consequently
they protested and tried to bring about
Legislation to ~equalize the tax. The lew
on real estate in Virginia City, for in