The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram., 1911-01-25
FRAUD ASSERTED.
IN TAX METHODS
Corporations and Contract
ors, Slack Says, Oppose
Road Law Changes.
palladium Specially

tions and contractors who profit by
tie system of farming out road taxes
are behind the opposition to a change
in the road laws of the state was
charged by l.. Ert Slack of Franklin.
before joint meeting of the house
and senate committees On roads, Tues
far as to intimate that many of the
farmers who object SO strenuously to
fluenced by the fact that they are now
able to evade their just share of taxa
ton by working out the road taxes
There is no question but what the
present method OF paying road taxes
employed by the railroads and other
corporations is fraud" he told the
committee.
Further Evidence In.
Further evidence along the same
line was submitted by l.. D. Hall. who
was sent by the Elkhart Business
Mems club and the Elkhart county
farmers institute to plead for the
passage of the bills creating state
highway commission and providing for
the payment of road taxes in cash. Mr..
Hall told the committee that he had
it on no less authority than the tax
agent of the Big Four railroad that
the company never paid more than
twenty-scven cents an hour to the
contractors who work out it's road
tax, although credited at the rate OF
thirty-seven and half cents an hour
under the present law. If a railroad
contractor can make profit by doing
work for twenty-seyen cents an hour,
for which the county allows thirty
seven and half cents an hour. he
failed to see why a farmer couldn't
evade a portion of his taxes in the
same manner.
These were the only charges of ul-
terror motives in the assaults on the
bills prepared by the Indiana Good
Roads association. But two men ap-
peared to argue against the measures
in their entirety and both claimed to
be present in the interest of the
farmers. One of them was L. p. New
by of knightstown, who when asked
his business by a member of the COM
mittee replied Il am farmer, a bank
err and lawyer and once discredited
myself by serving in the state senate
for eight years.
Too Much Authority.
Not one farmer in one thousand
wants change in the road laws he
assured the committee. There is
not a potentate in Europe who would
have as much power as this bill would
lodge in the state highway engineer.
He would have the right to buy all
the rold machinery used in every
county and to decide on the plans and
specifications for all bridges. There
are more ''niggers i'm that woodpile"
than you ever heard of. There is no
more reason why one man should be
placed in charge of all the roads in
the state than that one man should be
made boss of all the streets in every
city and town in Indiana
J. l.. Barlow. of Plainfield, who said
that while he lived in town he was
farmer attacked especially the plan to
abolish the office of road supervisor
and for the payment of road taxes in
cash.
when you put road matters in the
hands of the township trustee, as this
bill seeks to do, you give them over to
political scheming and trickery. The
plan was tried in 1881 and proved such
a failure in two years that the next
legislature repealed the law. The
farmers want the. right to build their
own roads. We know how they ought
to be built and kept up and have more
interest in them than anybody else.
don't see any caliouses on the hands
of any of these men who are here
telling us how we ought to manage our
road business"
c. A. Kenyon of Indianapolis, presi-
dent of the Indiana Good Roads as
sociation presented detailed explana-
ton of both bills and an argument
for reforming the road system of the
state. He referred to conditions in
Europe where freight can be hauled
over the roads for four and half to
five cents per ton per mile while the
cost in Indiana is from twenty to thir-
ty cents per ton per mile. He denied
that the proposed laws are planned
for the benefit of the automobilists,
as has been charged in certain quar-
ters.
Provisions Of Bills.
w. F. Elliott, representing the
Good Roads association also set forth
the provisions of the bills. One does
away with the working out of road
taxes and the election of road super
visors. 1t makes the township trus-
tees responsible for building and keep
ing up township roads and gives him
the right to appoint not more than
two road superintendent or super
visors. Each road would be divided
into sections and all road work would
be done by contract. each contract
being for so small an amount of work
that the farmers would have chance.
The highway commission bill. as ex
planned by Mr.. Elliott provides for
the appointment by the governor of a
non-partisan board of three members