Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1911-05-18
A5ENATOR WEBER TALKS TO
BANKERS OF NORTHERN IOWA
Ottumwan Speaks of Tax Laws In Address Before
# Group Three of Iowa State Bankers Asso-
II citation Held At Charles City,

toner that to create wealth something
must be done. You have listened to
the siren song Of the man with land to
sell and have not exercised your duty
to your depositor in advising him to
stay out; but you have plunged in the
lead and bought with no purpose in
view, to raise anything but the price,
when alas, you have found that the
crop known as price has ceased to
grow and you come back now many
times to reflect in the calm light of ex-
perience and with the feeling of a
thief who after robbing your bank and
being caught, your venture like his
was winner till you got caught with
the goods and your crop of price was
blasted and verify the suckers refused
to bite.
In this chain of thought have d.
crossed somewhat from what started
to say. However, had no intention
to lecture you on the virtues Of a CEN
trail bank or on the "Aldrich Currency
Scheme" My idea is that you should.
by word and example, discourage the
disposition of your customers to specu-
late, to discourage them from placing
the mortgage on farm or home to buy
an automobile, to discourage the young
man with small account from buying
diamond ring for the Sweetest girl
in the world on the installment plan,
for after all most OF our troubles,
real or fancied. are due to the "cost
of high living rather than the high
cost of living"
All of these will not prevent panics
as they will come, in my Judgment,
49, M ~ I'D NJ cfY -.
tons but in spite OF them, but your
ability to discourage speculation by
holding back on the too great expan-
sion Of credit will help. You owe it as
duty to your farmer customer to pre-
vail upon him to not believe that the
thing that is will always be. You
should use your influence in an effort
to keep him from going into debt when
hogs are $40 and corn so cents and
advise him of the evil day when de-
preston shall come.
l believe we have, today, in Iowa,
as good laws on the question Of taxa
ton as any state in the union and my
observation is that it is not more laws
we need but it is the utter failure to
administer those we now have. We
are firm believers In laws, In fact
we want more and more laws, espec-
tally as pertains to taxation, but we
are unalterably opposed to enforcing
those we now have.
Our statutes provide that all prop
erty shall be assessed at It's full value.
Presumably we do this but it Is well
known fact that we do not.
AS evaders of the burdens of taxa
ton we, as class in the state, are ex-
perts. We adopt every method known
to that fine art, and now after nearly
seventy years we find ourselves
foundering in an almost unknown sea
of confusion and believe 1t is due to
our absolute failure to administer the
laws as we now have them.
We all recognize the fact that we
must raise about so much money to
carry on the government, local, coun-
ty and state, but this does not get
away from the fact that jealousy ex-
lists between the different counties as
to the amount of state tax each must
pay and the attendant result is that
values are depressed in an effort to
keep on a level, or little below the
other fellow. This leads me to believe
we could profit by example Of our
neighbor on the north and raise our
state tax from railroads, insurance
companies and perhaps an occupation
tax; this would remove the jealousy
as between counties and leave them
where they could raise the reserve for
their own use and do 50 by high or
low assessment as best suited their
notions.
The tax dodger is not OF any class.
l know the farmer and the merchant
thinks no one is guilty Of tax evasion
but the holder of moneys and credits,
or what might be termed intangible
property, However, this is not true as
you will readily see when your 100000
stock of merchandise is assessed at
$4,000. Your 500 an acre farm at
$40 and other property in about the
sonae proportion, except moneys and
credits, which, when found, are always
assessed at full value. No thinking
man can rightfully blame the holder Of