Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1909-03-27

in. Take a half mill and add it to
your present mill and half. Take
two mills and divide that by school
population, and then take another mill,
and divide that by valuation and then
every town would receive back what
it paid in, and if that was all of course
the issue would have been effectual.
But we went a little further and we
said that mil, will reach $4,000 on
the wild lands and that money will be
divided, go to the poor towns of the
State So that in truth and fact the
town of Bremen under the committee
bill would receive S14.12 more than it
would under the amended bill. I don't
think the gentleman from Bremen
knew that, otherwise he would not
complain that we were hurting his poor
town
Now, let me give you simple way
to figure this, so that there won't be
an excuse about expert figures or any
thing of that sort. Take your town
with the valuation of s40S,0O0, take
Southport for example, and figure it,
$40S.63S Southport would pay in q
mill to the State treasurer on the valu-
d.lOil VI DiopcItS, Sfoo.oo. SoulHpoIl
would receive back IL mills on it's
valuation Why? Because the valua-
ton of wild lands is almost precisely
Il of the valuation of the whole State,
and YOU gain your Il mill. So that
Southport instead of receiving back
$40S.63 would receive back SAG and
some cents, making a gain of $40.S6
on the valuation. Now, l won't go
through every town because that would
be too long and would be tiresome
My friend from Portland (Mr. Bige-
low said yesterday nobody has fig
ured this for every town. Nobody
needs to. When you lay down a math-
ematical proposition and figure it for
a certain number of localities, anybody
can carry the computation along if
they desire. But here is your method.
Your half mill will be divided accord
ing to the school population. That is
to say, add 1.e 20 your present State
tax on any town and you get what you
pay in under the half mill. Multiply
the number of scholars by 81 and it
gives you what you take out under the
half mill, and then add to the valua-
ton of the town L of one mill and you
get the additional money they get I'M
der the committee bill.
Now we will take the counties. An
droscoggin county, under the Grange
bill, and that is the amendment Of
fered by the gentleman from Bremen,
would make a gain of $4,000. An
droscoggin county under the commit
tee bill would make a gain of $4,000.
A n ocrin ic off
our bill, $4,000 better off, and every
town in Androscoggin county is better
off, every single one. Aroostook under
the Grange bill would gain $1,000; I'M
der the committee bill it would gain
$4,000, and yet the gentlemen from
Ar0OStoOk have said here on the floor
of the House IN conversation that the
bill would do harm to the agricultural
communities. We give $1,000 more to
"A rOostooll than the Grange bill does,
ard we give more to every single sOli-
tary town in AroostoOk. Take Cum
berland: Under the Grange bill Cum
berland loses $4,000, take that $4,000
to be distributed among the rest of the
State. and gentlemen say that that is
right. that Portland is rich and can
afford to support our schools. I am
not going to argue that. BY our bill
we get more money for the little towns
but we only take $4,000 for the county
of Cumberland instead of $4,000 Take
Franklin county, and l am going to
waste ii moment or two on Franklin
county for this reason: The whole
argument for the Grange bill mas been
that in some way somebody was try
ing to save the cities and the expense
of the little towns. | said that we must
help the little towns. l suppose you
are all familiar with the fact that there
are no cities in Franklin county. If
any of You have ever ridden through
Franklin county you We're not i'm
pressed with the great prosperity of
that region. The people are industri-
Gus and Woodworking and they do the
best they can to get living, but it
is one of the POOR rural counties of the
State. According to the terms of the
Grange amendment you take $500 from
Franklin leaving them $500 worse off
than they are now. and you send to-
the county of Aroostook $11 900. That
is your amendment that is helping your
poor people, taking $500 out of the
the committee bll-we framed this
with great care. the committee bill
would give the county of Franklin $500
AMI in that way Franklin county would
be $1,000. better off than under the
Grange bill. Take the county of Han
cock: That is not a wealthy county.
Thu town of Eden is rich town, made
rich by the summer visitors but it is
the only rich town in the county. l
know every town and city in the coun-
ty and I have been in every one of
them. They are not wealthy people.
They work hard for living down-there
outside of Bar Harbor and the Grange
bill would give to them 500 as the dis
tribution. more than they get now, that
is all. The committee bill gives Han
cock county s2100 more than they get
now. Now, take the next county kenne-
bee. Well. I suppose kennebec county
is rich. There are four cities in kenne
bee including Hallowell all four of
which had better remained towns; they
could have gotten along just as WELL
but | will admit that Kcnnebec is rich
The Grange bill gives us nothing: we
don't get a penny. Under our bill we
get $4,000. Take the county of Knox:
The Grange bill gives the county of