The Calumet news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 1907-1938, 1909-12-11

want 10 pay the same tax per dol
lar of value which you pay. No more.
No less.
want no privileged class of Michi-
gan citizens. My wealthy neighbor
may not have any more square feet OF
land than | have, but If he is on a
boulevard and | am on "A side street !
want him to pay taxes on the value OF
his land. not on its measurement.
We all want to he fair To each other,
There Is no peninsula, upper or low
er, when the whole state is threatened.
We are one
And the state is threatened when II
is proposed To tax one man so much
per dollar on the value of his property
and some other man so much per
pound or ton regardless OF value.
respectfully offer to fairminded
men a few special reasons why the
tonnage tax idea is unfair and conse-
quently. un- Michigan.
First; II would resurrect the anti
auated plan of specific taxation which
Michigan has finally thrown off.
At great expense Of time and money
Michigan has remade her taxation
laws on an ad valorem according To
valued basis. We have placed rail-
roads manufacturing institutions.
mines. farms, express and sleeping
car companies all on the same basis.
The farmer and the sleeping
ear company pay the same amount of
tax per dollar of valuation.
The miner and manufacturer also
stand equal with each other and with
all others before our laws of taxation.
To go back to specific taxes in any
way would be a costly and a grievous
error. In the case OF the miners Of
iron and copper such a specific tax
would in time kill off every small mine
owner because he would have To pay
twenty cents per ton on his iron ore
or one cent per pound on his copper
metal as he found IT, regardless Of
value. while his rich competitor was
paying only the same tax on ore worth
five or ten times as much.
who will say it is fair to charge
twenty cents ton tax on ore worth
o. cents a ton and the same twenty
cents per ton tax on ore worth So per
ton?
Seconds: Il would leave the state in
the lureh.
Taxes are levied neither for fun or
punishment. They are levied TO raise
the necessary money for the carrying
on Of the state government The ex-
penses of state go on almost the same
regardless of panic or prosperity. Yet
if we depended on a tonnage tax for
a million dollars of yearly revenues, IN
a year when the mines were not work
ing fun time. because of business con-
ditions, we should face a deficit which
you and would have to pay in in
creased taxes.
But when we assess on a mines
value we get our taxes i'm good years
and bad years, regardless of whether
the mine is working or not and indie
pendent entirely Of strikes and other
Industrial disturbances.
Third Michigan would bring up the
rear Of the Industrial procession, be-
sides having to care for thousands OF
dependent families whose wage earn
ers were out Of work.
Why?
Because no other state has a tom
mage tax If our iron companies, oper-
ating as they do in both Minnesota and
wisconsin. were to meet a time Of
business depression with low prices
for iron, will anyone claim that they
would continue to work mines in a
state where the taxes were based on
tonnage instead Of on the value of
the ore?
Certainly not. They would shut
down Michigan mines and work in
Minnesota and Wisconsin.
They could not be blamed for doing
what common business wisdom de
manded
Fourth: A tonnage tax would de-
stroy a valuable market for farm pro-
ducts.
The mining towns Of Michigan de-
pend for their supplies upon the farms
and the farmer.
II work were scarce, pay rolls re-
duced and activities transferred to
Minnesota. the farms of Michigan
would lose one OF the best markets
they have.
Such a law. with it's trail Of unfair
ness and uncertainty would retard the
growth and settlement of the Upper
Peninsula and drive away the new
farmers who might otherwise develop
and transform the erstwhile forest in
TO a garden.
We hear much of the heritage OF the
state Of Michigan in this mineral
wealth, but by far a greater heritage
Is Michgan's constitutional guarantee
Of Justice and equal fair play to every
citizen in every county and on every
proposition of state government and
state taxation.
Under the proposed tonnage tax th'
rich ore bodies would only pay al
much taxes per ton as the poores
mining claim.
II would be wrong, unfair and un
Michigan.
Regardless OF geography, or politics
and of lines OF business, let US stan'
by the principle OF just and equal tax
-, 81 an the fairly determ ne.