Morris tribune., 1909-03-13

to come. West of St. Louis and Itas-
ca counties, where the bulk of the
mining is now done, there are untold
millions of tons of iron ore that will
presently come into the market, and
from the Mesaba range west to Otter
Tail there will be iron mining in Min
nesota hundred years from now"
Speaking of the tonnage tax, the
report of the committee on it will be
further delayed until a subcommittee
appointed at a recent meeting makes
it's report. The purpose of this sub
committee is to investigate the
status of the steel plant the United
States Steel corporation promised to
build at Duluth, to inquire whether if
the advalorem system remains in
force there should be a further in
crease in the assessed valuation of
iron mines, and to learn whether the
iron interests are making an equitable
contribution to the public revenues.
The following members compose the
as appointed by the
chairman. Mr.. Dalzell, whose attitude
may be assumed from the fact that
of it's seven members only one is
known to favor tonnage tax: L. FL.
johnson of Minneapolis, H. o. Bjorge
of Lake Park, Chester A. Congdon of
Duluth, D. A. Stuart of Window, Geo.
A. Mackenzie of Gaylord, John F.
Selb of st. Paul, and Henry Rines of
Mora.
Mr.. Bjorge declined to serve on the
subcommittee, and Mr.. Bendixen of
Redwood county was selected in his
stead.
The tax committee is quite evenly
divided between those who favor and
those who oppose the tonnage tax,
Mr.. Johnson holding the key to the
situation. He has so far not commit
ted himself either way. 1t is believed
that if an arrangement can be made
whereby there will be material in
crease in the valuation of mining
property Mr.. Johnson would prefer
to settle the question that way for
this session at least.
A strong lobby has besieged the
senate for some weeks past in oppo-
sition to the so-called "full crew" bill,
which was in charge of Senator
Clague. A full crew for a railroad
train, as proposed in the bill, consists
of the engineer, fireman, conductor
and two brakemeu, except in cases
where the train is made up of more
than so cars, when a third brakeman
must be employed. According to the
terms of the bill all trains must be
equipped with full crew. In addition
to the work of the lobby great deal
of pressure has been brought to bear
on the senate from outside to defeat
the bill, and in this connection Mr..
Clague charged the other day that
some of the names on telegram sent
to Senator Stephens by train men op-
posing the bill had been signed to it
without their knowing what the tele-
gram contained, and that it's contents
were misrepresented to them. In his
address in the house Thursday Mr..
Hill took the matter up, basing op-
position to the bill on the require
ment that third brakemen should be
employed, who, he said, as the brak-
ing is all done from the engine, would
be unnecessary.
While Mr.. Hill, in his argument as
sumed that all short trains now carry
full crew of five men, I am assured
that this is not the case, and that
even on some fast Chicago trains
running out of the twin cities there is
but a single brakeman. However,
Notwithstanding the opposition, the
bill passed the senate and will prob
ably be recommended for passage by
the railroad committee of the house.
+ I
Another bill they are having trou.
BILE with in the house railroad commit
tee is one requiring railroads to pay
damages to adjacent owners when
they move their tracks. The bill is
made by its terms to apply to cases
in which litigation is pending, which
would probably, even if passed, rem
der the law imperative. The situa-
ton it is intended to remedy is that
of the people of Winnipeg junction, a
village of $50 inhabitants on the
Northern Pacific railway. It appears
that in order to improve it's system
the railroad company made a change
in the location of its track at this
ro;,k x,b;oL loft W;rn;porr ;,,ro4;o,,