Gilpin observer., 1910-02-10
THINGS POLITICAL

Secretary of State Jas. B. Pearce,
who halls from La Junta, the railroad
metropolis of the lower Arkansas val
ley, has struck a gait in the manage
ment of the office to which the peo-
pie elected him little over year
ago, which will cause his Republican
predecessor, Timothy O'Connor, to
sit up and take notice.
Not only has Secretary Pearce
made financial record during his
first year in the conduct of this Of
flee which permits him to show
clean pair of heels to any official
who has heretofore served the peo-
pie in this capacity, but he has in
stalled one of the most comprehen-
sive and complete systems of book
keeping ever adopted in the office Of
the secretary of state, and while he
has increased his clerical force tenn
porarily in his efforts to install bet
ter system of keeping the records
and in putting the corporation tax
accounts in first-class shape; yet the
small sum this extra work has cost
The state is many times overpaid in
the increased revenues of the office
to date, and in the large increase
which will now be collected in the
form of annual corporation taxes.
Judging from the collections in this
office, there was formerly little ef-
fort made to collect the tax of 2
cents per $1,000 of capitalization
which all corporations must pay
which are now doing business in
Colorado.
! Immediately upon assuming his du
ties, however, Secretary Pearce saw
that the office not only needed bet
ter system of recording the business
transactions, but that it needed fair
and impartial enforcement of the law
with reference to the collection of
taxes Of various kinds, particularly
the corporation tax, which had here
tofore been considered of little i'm
portance. judging from the amount of
money actually collected by former
officials.
The result is that the office is be-
ing equipped with modern method
of handling the business which must
be transacted through this depart
ment, and rigid rules in the enforce
ment of all laws relating to the col
lection of money due the state are
being adopted.
During the year 1908, the last year
in which Secretary O'Connor was in
office, he collected from all sources
the sum of s176,42O.7O.
During 1909. the first year Secre-
tary Pearce served, he collected a
total of $2S7, ,027.07, or an increase of
s110, ,6O6.37 for the year over Mr..
O'Connor's record.
The total number of live corpora
tions doing business in Colorado at
the present time is about 10000.
or this number 2,444 have been
submitting annual reports, and about
10000 out of the 10000 have paid the
annual corporation tax of 2 cents per
$1,000 of capitalization. The amount
cole tied shown by annual reports by
the former secretary of state during
his two years of service, was $3.50
while Secretary Pearce has collected
during the first yaer of his admins
tration S1O,3O1.
Mr.. O'Connor collected during two
years, in the form of the per cent
corporation tax, the sum of
Sill, ,279.36, or about s55,639 per- year,
while the first year Secretary Pearce
has held office he has collected $780,
503.S2, and the chances are that be-
fore he is through with the collection
of the corporation assessments he
will have obtained over a quarter of
a million dollars. The mails now re-
ceived at the office of the secretary
of state are the heaviest in the his
tory of that office and contain most
ly remittances from corporations.
Secretary Pearce has taken the
stand that unless corporations pay
the assessment for filing their an
nual statement and the 2 per cent
tax on their capitalization that they
forfeit their right to do business in
Colorado unless they can show suffi-
cient evidence to the contrary, and
as result many corporations which
have heretofore refused to pay their
assessments are now doing so.
The showing being made by Secre-
tary Pearce in the conduct of his
office will result in increasing the
total revenues from the state from
his department almost 100000 II the
anticipated collection from corpora