Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1909-02-26
MAINE LEGISLATURE.
Continued from Page Eighty

absurd proposition. 1t is a matter for
the State. Augusta stands simply as
,he Mace which the State has selected
Il, do its State business in. 1t is not a
7ocal matter, it is a State matter, and
as q State matter We must take it
un,,cr consideration, remembering the
hedges which we have made in the
mast and remembering our duty in the
present
do not believe that our State ought
10 90 into any such expenditure now
argued that question little yester-
day, and a gentleman who has been
somewhat prominent in legislative
matters this year although not q men,
her of this body, said that my argu-
ment was based on folly because Maine
was rich. heard that same gentleman
within u week, before the committee on
taxation, say that the timber land
owners of Maine We're not making any
money and could not afford to pay any
more taxes. If Maine is rich and the
timber land owner are poor and can
not pay any more taxes, where is the
wealth Of the State: If your railroad
interests are sincere in what they say
fiat they are being taxed now not or
:, rrofit but on a loss of their business
last year, where is the wealth of the
state? Maine is rich in possibilities, in
natural resources, but today from one
end of the State to the other the aver
age men Of Maine are struggling to
support their families and get their
living as best they can. You are not
making any great amount of money,
are you? / don't mean here Qaugh-
teri. of course we are not making
much here, but | mean in your bust
ness at home I ask you if for the sake
of Icing called q good fellow and be-
ing calolad and nattered by the peo-
plc who want this apprOpria-
ton YOU want to go home
and say, eve have to raise the
state tax u mill on a dollar in my town
because V'o needed more room at the
stat capitol" Don't you think they
will ask YOU if YOU could not find some
other way To get the room or else stay
crowded :. little while? II is true that
for three months in two years we
crowd the State House. crowd it not only
with Office holders and with member,
of The Legislature but with a good
lraly men whom we are glad to meet
bit who perhaps 1t would he Just as
welt for the state if they should stay
at Rome 1t is crowded With all kinds
of men.
Ii Won start on this expenditure there
is one point ON which you should not
L. deceived You won't stop with an
exp, noiturc %. $3.50, 900. I wish gent,c-
a Il hot
closing part Of H. that the commission
created by it shall not exceed that
expenditure; and undoubtedly gentle
men who hay" not had experience in
those matters or looked into them with
car" will voi" on the proposition that
by no means can that expenditure lc
csc, cd' d If .ou look over the re
solves that hay" passed the LcSiSl&-
tlrr III the last II years you will find
:; hundred of such provisions that the
amount specified in the resolve shall,
not b" exceeded, and you will find an
additional amount appropriated be
cause ;hc amount was cXcee ded. No
man ever built Il building of any kind
for what he started out to build il for
start with that S35o,o0o and you arr.
gong to spend half II million, and [
JUNK It is conservative to say that
You are going t. Spand Il million be
fore you get through and you can
liz up your resolves with all the pro-
visions you want to. When YOU get
started on your building you have got
t" finish IT. | recall the case of a
anrmltnry in Gorham where the initial
appropriation was $4,000 or so 900 1t
L''iIt the baSt ment. and we aDpropri-
a''fi SloohG more to build the (ormi-
Tory AMI then the next Legislature hal
10 give them Il little more: and al!
thrcc nf these resolves were tied un
WITH the solemn provision that on no
account should the expenditure be OK
ceedcd. That feature of the resolve is
buncombc 1t is as much buncombc as
was the statement two years ago that
few hundred dollars spent in rent
annually would take care of our over
crowded condition. if today we go back
ON tina. statement and say that we
d.! not mean it,
Thcrc is one line in that resolve
which II you do pass it for Heaven
SAX" let il be stricken out. The lire
SAYS. THAT the Governor of the State
and four others to be appointed by
INN. two of whom shall be members
"l each of the two leading political
PARTIES are hereby constituted COM