Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1910-06-30

| sufficient to arouse certain well
merited criticism, although hardly, in
my opinion. sufficient, in view of the
good intent and the business honesty
and sagacity of our State officials, to
merit such condign punishment as6xhe
Democratic party proposes to 'sHAit
upon the taxpayers of this State by
installing themselves in the places of
the Republican party. But it Is not
true. The financial condition of
| Maine has not been impaired 1t is
today strong and sound and the State
is able to meet its every obligation
No person, company, corporation, de-
partment, or institution has any claim
| against the State that cannot be paid,
and we shall be able to show, under
! the operation of the new tax laws, a
| financial record in 1910 that will meet
the just expectations and command
the appreciation of every reasonable
taxpayer in the State.
| Now, before we proceed to discuss
this subject of State expenditures. as
raised by the Democrats of Maine, let
US predicate few things.
First, the direct or State tax of
Maine has not been increased. In a
| way it has been decreased, for. as l
shall show you later more and more
has been diverted by previous Iegis-,
latures to specific uss1E more to
schools. to good roads. to militia. un-
til today of the three. mills OF. State
tax the State has but a tithe of one
and one fifteenth mills deft for general
and diversified uses. the other one and
| hai
priated in advance by provisions of the
public laws of previous years to the
specific use of schools. roads and mill
| tia, and the revenue therefrom can be
used for no other purpose. Under
| Democratic, or a prohibition. or a So
cialist governor one and one half mills
must be assessed by the board of
State assessors for gcommon schools:
one third of a mill for the State roads:
and one-tenth of a mill for the mill
| tia: and all that remains to the State
of the State tax is the balance of one
mill and a fraction, which can be APP
piled to general and diversified uses.
There may have been another state
among the as in the Union which was
conducted on this rate last year, and
| ii so, it is, as | view it, to the mani
fest credit of it's public officers. 1t is
| far cry back to an other than Re-
publican administration in the State
of Maine, and if comparison may
/ thus be made it is necessary to refer
to the year 1856. when our critical
/ friends were last in complete control.
I and when the State tax rate was two
mills; or to 1879, when they had the
governor and in conjunction with the
| Greenback party controlled the house
of representatives, and when the rate
was three mills( four mills including
the mill tax for schools; or to 1881
| 49, when they had the governor and
| his power of veto, but did not control
| the legislature and when tax rate, in
Guiding the mill tax for schools, was
| four and one-h half mills. 1t may be
/ that the estimates of the revenue OF
the State for 1909, necessarily made
early i'm the year and based on other
sources than direct taxation, to wit:
from the very sources advocated by
both Democratic and Republican plat
forms of 1908. namely. public service
corporations, such as railroads, tele-
gra phi, telephone companies, insurance
companies, express companies, and
the wild lands of the State-it may be
| say that these estimates were too
| optimistic and that we should have
retained the rate of one and one half
to two mills for State purposes, but
the legislature and I, myself, gave
| the people the benefit of the doubt
that may have existed and elected, in
event that it should be required, to
draw upon the balance of their money
! then i'm the treasury rather than upon
their pockets, and the fact stands out
and cannot be disputed that never
| before in the history of the State.
with the solitary exception of one
year. whenever any tax at all has been
assessed. has the rate of direct taxa
ton for strictly State purposes, been
| so low as in 1909.
Second. The apparently expendi-
| lures of Maine have increased largely
not by act of the 74th legislature nor,
| by consent Of mine. but by reason OF
laws enacted during preceding years
along the lines approved by both Re
publican and Democratic parties and
distinctly stipulated in the Republican
platform of 1908 at Bangor. viz:
That the State may properly assume
| greater care of those expenditures
which benefit the State as whole.
Expenditures. l may add. which. in al
! most the same proportion, relieve
| towns and cities, and should enable
| them to reduce their own appropria-
| lions in like degree. For this reason
and it is so broad and comprehensive a
| policy that it meets the whole issue
| there is no basis whatever for any
legitimate argument built solely on
| comparative totals of expenditures in
| 1909 or any previous year. Why do
say this? Because. since 1904, to
which year my Democratic friends
have chiefly alluded, there have been
included among expenditures increas-
ingly large sums Of money. which
have been turned over to towns and
cities to be expended by them for GER
tain purposes. and which again figure
| in the expenses of said towns and
cities. In reality the State is but the
bank or the collecting agency for the
school money and for much of the
money for the care of the poor for
| towns and municipalities. Since 1904
the State has broadened out along AL
these lines and has in accordance