Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1909-03-24

Cobb would have appeared upon the re-
solve You have got to take the expenses
of that fight, because if you are going 10
give it on a moral ground 1t is not parely
his principal that is due him but it Is ev-
ery dollar that the State of Maine has
cost him that is due him.
Let me go a little further If this
money is morally due to DeForrest keyes
YOU ought to appoint committee OF inns
Legislature to go to your State treasnr-
er's office and go back to the year 1871
and find out how much more OF a moral
debt the State of Maine owes to men
who sought to get land through tax IL
ties and who failed to get the land. If we
owe him morally, we owe every other an
a moral debt who bought tax title from
the State of Maine and who did not get
his land. If we are going to become such
extreme moralsts that we are going to
pay out money from the States treasury
without any legal right and simply be-
cause somebody put it in there. then we
had better 60 little further; we had
better go back to our homes and go
through our town and city records and
our county records and see how many
men through Maine bought tax titles
from the various cities and towns and
counties and got nothing for their money
and pay them back. We would be sad
died with this case for a precedent we
would be saddling debt on the State OF
Maine, on the people of the State OF
Maine and on the various municipalities.
But is there morally anything due to De-
Forrest Reyes. Is there morally anything
due any body who buys tax title and
fails to get the land covered by the tax?
Why is it? What did DeFOrrest Reyes
think he was buying? He thought he was
buying somebody's land didn't he? He
thought that somebody by negligent OF
accidental omission or some other cause
had failed to pay the State tax of three
mills on the dollar and he came down
here from Buffalo. New York. for the
purpose Of buying somebody's land
through the State treasurer at three mills
on the dollars worth. He put up $4,000
to buy a million dollars worth of prop
erty. That is just what he did. Suppose
his titles had been good; suppose that
young man had succeeded in getting that
million dollars worth of property where
would the moral claim of the poor fellow
who lost his property by forfeiture come?
I say. where would tnat some in? Do
you think that attorneys for DeForrest
Reyes would have advised him in this
way: That they would have said to him.
Young man, you have got a million dol
lars out of somebody. Now, morally, you
owe it to them and we will get together
and hunt up the fellows who lost their
full value, Il hundred cents on the dollar"
] don't believe they would advocate it,
and no man would advocate such
He came down here to buy tax titles
and he got what he bought: he got Moth
ing else he had the right to nothing else
1t is said in the brief which has been
passed about the House, and a copy OF
W hich ] have here. that the treasurer did
wrong in making out too many deeds.
that he made out GIG deeds when he ought
to have made out only one | say, If the
then treasurer of State owes Def'orrest
I<eyes anything. then Oramandel Smith,
who was treasurer of State, can settle
with him. l am not going to vote $4,000
cut of the treasury of the State of Maine
because the treasurer made too many
deeds. 1t is said that the State had no
title to this land. OF course it did not
have. 1t had what it decided to him,
whatever claim it did have in the land
1t claimed to have no title. There can
be no Misrepresentation in a tax deed If
an Intelligent man reads it. Over and
over again have clients of mine and eli
entS of every lawyer in this House
brought to us tax deeds given by munich
palities where they have bought in land
for the taxes. and asked us what they
were worth. and every lawyer in this
House knows what we have told them.
that they were practically worth moth
ing excepting that the man holding the
tax deed had q color of title and had
created cloud upon the title of some
body else which called upon them to re-
deem it from him.
Now this young man put up $4,000
to win million. and he failed to win;
and now his attorneys say and a por-
ton of the judiciary. give him back his
money. My friends, if you should es-
titles that are offered for sale in the
" otdlc VI MdlIiC IiShl sSui' IL
they prove good. I get the land and
double my money twenty times; if they
prove bad ! get my money back. Isn't
that n good nice sound business PROPOSE
ton? De Forrest Reyes was playing
what? If his money belongs back to
him he wasn't playing $4,000 against a
million. That is a pretty good PROPOSE
ton, isn't is? If he won he got a mil
lOn if he lost he got his money back.
Is there any moral ground on which n
man who seeks to absorb anothers prop
erty for forfeiture of taxes and fails
should be given back his money? Then
what do you come to? If this claim
stands on neither legal or moral grounds
II must stand on same other. that is, if
is stands at all. IT is simply this, that
this young man came down here with
$4,000 in his pocket to speculate in
State Of Maine lands and failed in the
speculation. Now, that might have
touched him. I am not as sympathetic
and soft hearted as some men. but 7
might be touched with sympathy, if
felt that there was the slightest possi-
bility that even q small amount of that
money would ever reach that poor de-
luded young mans pocket. Lnughter).