The Sauk Centre herald., 1909-02-11
GAG LAW IS APPLIED
Friends of the Proposition Are Un-
tremendously Denied the Right
of Discussion
A TONNAGE TAX BILL
Measure introduced by Mr.. Bjoroe
Looking to the Taxation of
Mineral Lands
Especial to The Herald)

Especial to The Herald)
ST. PAUL, Feb. 1O.-Having the
power, the majority in the house of
representatives rode rough-shod over
the minority, who favored county
option. The house could easily give
pointers on closure to Speaker Cannon
himself. / have heard that he has
been known to throttle legislation by
the simple expedient of declining to
recognize members interested in push
ing it, but / have never heard that
after assuring even the smallest fac
tion in the house that they would
have fair treatment, that afterwards
he permitted the house to resort to
any device to shut off debate. The
friends of county option were, how
ever, last week completely gagged by
the unbeatable motion of "the pre-
vious question: being made and car
ried before they were given the OPP
portunity to say word in favor of a
measure which their constituents
elected them to support. 1t is said
by experienced legislators that, such
an abuse of power was never before
seen in Minnesota legislative body.
Whatever ones views of county OPP
tion may be it is not an inspiring
spectacle tosee a majority with so lit
tie regard for the rights of minority
as to refuse to give them any kind of
hearing. Possibly that may be good
politics according to up-to-date re-
publican leadership, but if there is
any virtue in county option it will
hardly be killed that way.
The first of a series of hearings be-
fore the tax committee relating to the
taxation of mineral lands was held
last week, at which time Mr.. Bjorge
explained the provisions of the ton
mage tax bill last introduced by him.
This bill, although identical i'm princi-
pie with the one first introduced, diff
fers from it in detail. The bill does
not change the present method of tax
ing mineral lands for local purposes,
but proposes to collect a graduated
tonnage tax for state purposes from
all working mines instead of an adj
valorem tax as at present. For the
purposes of taxation ore is divided in
to four grades: ...
l. Ore yielding less than 40 per
cent iron. .....,-.,.
2. Ore yielding from 40 to 81 per
cent.
3. Ore yielding from "a to SO per
cent.
4. Ore yielding 50 per cent iron and
over.
On grade it is proposed to levy a
tax of cents ton, cents on grade
2, cents on grade 3, and scents on
grade 4.
In order to show how this tax works
out Mr.. Bjorge applied it to the out
put Of iron ore during the year 1907,
using data furnished the tax commits
sion by the United States Steel COR
poration and other shippers of iron
ore. In 1907 there were shipped out
of the state 29,17S,2l6 tons of iron
ore. OF this>l37, ,2O7 tons were of
grade /, 99l 1868 tons of grade 2,'5, 1O5,-
$50 tons of grade 8, 22,s43,2l6 tons of
grade 4. This gives the following re-
suit:
137, POI tons at &c q ton. IS 2,744
991 1863 tons at &c ton. ..... 29,75Sl
5,105,65O tons at &c q ton. 49,. 2O4,034
22,943,2l6 tons at sc ton. =. ,147, l59
Total tonnage tax. 80. 81 ,383, ,695
In addition the mining companies
paid'in 1907 on non-producing mines
an advalorem tax to the state on prop
erty value at $S4, ,0O0,O Under Mr..
Bjorge's bill no change would be made
in the method of taxing these proper
ties, so that had the proposed law
beeni in force in 1907 the total taxes
paid to the state by the iron compan-
les would have been:
Total tonnage tax. 81 ,3s3, ,695