Morris tribune., 1909-03-13
PEOPLE AND LEGISLATURE
LOSE INTEREST.
Attention is Turned Mainly to
Big Appropriations but Reve-
nue. Measures are Hard to Sc
cure-Gross Earnings Tax on
Credits Proposed.
(Heatwole's st. Paul Letter. }

St. Paul, Mlnn., Mar. IL, l9oS.-
While the legislature does not take
kindly to the proposition to exempt
credits from taxation, there is con-
siderable sentiment in favor of tax
ing them by the gross earnings meth
cd. The rate it is proposed to levy
on their gross earnings is per cent.
If credits were listed this would mean
a large increase in revenues from this
source. The trouble always has been
to get the owners of credits to report
them to the assessor, and no way has
vet been discovered to prevent their
being covered up. The tax dodger,
like the poor, we have always with us.
Ihave been interested in little bill
introduced in the house by Represent
ative Peterson of Nicollet county. 1t
provides for the naming of farms and
the registering of such names in the
official records of the county on the
payment of small fling fee. The
bill is permissive and not compulsory.
An amendment added that no two
farms should be given the same name.
The idea appears to me to be good
one. In Norway and Scotland, and
probably elsewhere the custom OF
naming farms is almost, if not quite,
universal. and in both countries the
owner of the farm is known by the
farm name, which, in Scotland at least,
is regarded as an honorable distinc-
tion.
Saturdays session was made nota-
BILE by sharp passage at arms be-
tween ExSpeaker Johnson and Doc.
Gates. Each in a sense is a leader in
the house. the ex-speaker having to
some extent organized the insurgents,
and DR.. Gates representing the
Rockne wing. Doubtless, too, there
is an element of personal antagonism.
At all events between the two there
has from the first of the session been
more or less friction, and Saturday
Mr.. Johnson's reporting out a hotel
inspection bill from his committee
on general legislation, which the doc
tor thought should have been referred
to his committee on pure food, led to
an open rupture and public wash
inr Of unclean linen. Gates referred
to ,hnson's committee as s'railroad"
committee, through which measures
were railroaded out without sufficient
consideration, and johnson referred
to Gates committee as a "slaughter
house, where meritorious measures
were strangled to death. There was
at least modicum of truth in both
assertions. Gates got rather the bet
ter of it in the melee, as the house
passed motion referring the hotel
inspection bill to his committee, as
he insisted be done.
The Armour packing plant at New
Brighton is still the all-absorbing
subject of conversation in st. Paul.
The bill designed to prevent the loca-
tion of the plant at New Brighton has
been reported to the house without
recommendation, and was ordered
printed and placed on general orders.
The Minneapolis people wanted to
make it special order for some day
this week, but the St. Paul delegation
opposed the proposition, doubtless in
the hope that more sentiment for the
bill would be developed later, so it
was decided to let the bill take its
regular course. Unless there is a very
decided change the fate of the bill
seems sealed. The members from tine
country very generally think the es-
tablishment of the plant at site cas-
lily accessible to most of the railways
would prove of advantage to stock
raisers, and that as between New
Brighton and South St. Paul the ad-
vantage with regard to shipping facil-
tiles is decidedly with the latter loca-
tion. They are not inclined to give
much consid Grafton to the contention
that the odors from the plant will rem
der outlying districts in st. Paul unin-
habitable Or that the sewage will Sc
riously pollute the waters of the Mis-
sissippi.
The tax commission in it's report
predicts on early exhaustion of the
deposits of iron in Northern Mime
sofa, and it is generally assumed that
in forty or fifty years they will all
have disappeared. This is. not Mr..
Congdon's view, and there are few
men who have greater opportunities
for knowing what the facts really are.
In addressing the tax committee on
the subject of the tonnage tax he