The log cabin Democrat., 1911-08-15
GOVERNOR DEFENDS
 NEW REVENUE BILL
LITTLE ROCK OPPOSITION
IS RESPONSIBLE FOR REFER ENDUM MOVEMENT, DON AGHEY SAYS.

Little ROCK, August 15.-InVesti- gating for over a week the source of the opposition to the Turner-Jacobson | revenue bill, Governor c. w. Dona- ghey Monday afternoon issued the fol- lowing statement regarding that measure, petitions to refer which are now in circulation:
 Tt is here in Little Rock that all fault IS found with the bill. It is here in Little Rock that all objections are raised and all petitions for it's refer ence to the people are written, printed and sent out to the country for circu- lation and signatures. It is also here in Little Rock that the money has been raised and placed in the hands of certain business agents to defray the expense of getting the required num- Der of signatures to cause an election to be held on the question as to wheth- CT the bill shall become law.
 But it should not follow that be- cause Little Rock men and citizens ob- Ject to a proposed law, that they are wrong and the law good But they should come out in the open and give their names and their reasons why they disapprove of it. I have heard of some men being connected with the attempt to defeat this bill who stand nigh in business and social circles, but who will not disclose their identities in connection with ths measure.
 Why is this? Why are they ashamed to let the world know that they think it is a bad law? Why do they delegate this work to others rath- CT than do it themselves? Is that the way for dignifed gentlemen to attack a proposed law in which all the state IS interested? Let it be remembered now that it is certain citizens of Lit tie Rock making use of the initiative and referendum first, and if it should happen that Little Rock shall lose something in the future by the use of the initiative and referendum, let Lit tie Rock not then complain, for she was the first to make use of the law.
 This bill should by all means have had the emergency clause attached to 1t. If the state ever needed an emer- gency clause it is now-now when it stands to lose so much by delay in this bill taking effect. The legisla- ture put the emergency clause to prac- tically all other measures it passed, out when the state was to be enc fited it left it out, and it is this situa- tion that these citizens of Little Rock are now taking advantage of. All right, let them go ahead.
 ''So far not a single reason worthy of consideration has been given for the defeat of the Turner-Jacobson bill Every objection is either based on a false assumption or stated with the
 intent of arousing prejudice in the minds of those not informed on the subject. Half of the objections heard to the bill are taken from sections ir it which are already laws and are merely copied from existing statutes
 "The popular statement of the enc mics of the bill is that it will double taxes. He gets this authority iron the provision in the bill which re- quires a full rendition of property values. He forgets to state to the un- informed that as the property assess ments of the state increase the rate of taxation must decrease accordingly under the terms of the bill. He also forgets to state that the law now and always has required a full rendi- ton, but the taX-dodger has outsworn the taxpayer so far that the burdens of taxation have fallen almost wholly upon the shoulders of the man who , has some resp t for his word and oath.
 ''In other we ds, according to our present custom, the man owning s$1, 5 900 worth of property may assess it at $500 and take an oath that he is as- sessing it on a fair basis. But the man who owns %50,000 worth of prop erty may assess his whole possessions at $500 and, according to his con science, take an oath that he, too, has assessed fairly. This is done so much that it has become the rule and not the exception. But suppose the $50,- 900 property owner did assess on the same basis as the 5000 prop erty owner, that is, give ir his property at $25,000, instead of $5,- 000 Then he would have $25,00C worth of capital left free from taxes while the poor citizen would have but $500 left free from taxation. Sucf exemptions are manifestly unfair fol the state to give one citizen over an. other. By such practice we have en. abled rich men to own large tracts ol land free from taxation while nOOI