Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1911-02-16
Tax Payer Replies.

MN.
l wish to reply to slanderous assault
upon the people of our neigh borhood,
published in your paper, dated Feb
9th, 1911, and signed "Nimrod." Mr..
"Nimrod" states that our gun tax petit
ton bears lie upon the face of it, as
it referred to fishing license. This
statement l regard as premeditated
misrepresentation of the truth, as the
petition contains no reference what
ever to fish or fishermen. He also asks
why we did not publish the entire list.
In reply will say, we did not wish to
impose so long an article upon the
Editor, who has always freely given
the columns of his paper to every
honorable discussion pertaining to m at
ters polite. We regard the list as
complete, as it embraced men from all
the ordinary walks of life, except the
humon balloon, who feeds at the public
crib. Another clause in the original
part of his article calls us a lot of
''cheap skates" and intimates that we
signed this petition without any know
ledge of what it contained, or in 9th er
words, we are lot of illiterate non
entitle, not capable of thinking and
acting for ourselves. We are unable
to reply to this castigation for the rea-
son that no man is competent to sit in
judgment on his own sanity, therefore
we leave this question for the public to
decide We have only contempt for
the part of his letter which received its
birth and inspiration in the fertile
brain of some state employee, or their
hirelings, and sent out from Harris
burg in pamphlet form hoping thus to
deceive our Representatives in the
State Legislature as the trend of public
opinion and lure them into political OBJ
livion by supporting this unjust meas
ure, the burden of which would rest
upon many of those who were least
able to bear it. The writer of this
article believes in law and order, when
properly applied, but has no respect
for law the execution of which in
vites disaster and public condemnation.
Now, if we understand the basic prla-
cipals of all law, it is the crystalizing
of public sentiment into concrete form
and enacted into statute law, thereby
giving local status to public sentiment
and truly say that there is no public
demand for any such law as the ''gun
tax" but we know that such a law
would be obnoxious to at least 80 per
cent. of our native born population.
However, we regard this whole subject
as matter OF minor Importance as
compared with the conservation of our
forests. The forest fires destroys birds,
game and Thousands of acres of small
timber growth annually in which game
of all variety live. The homeste ader
suffers great loss from the burning of
his meadows, fences, buildings ETC.,
and the whole woodland country will
there is not something done, and done
soon, to prevent the origin and spread
ing of forest fires. We have only re-
spect and praise for the manner in
which the forestry department con-
ducts its official affairs and we fully ap-
preciate the magnitude aud import
ance of the undertaking to reforest our
state and we wish to recommend to
this our present Legislature, that they
appropriate sufficient funds to enable
the department of forestry to better
protect our forests from these destruc-
tive fires. In conclusion we wish to
add, that we have no personal interest
II this controversy but feel justified in
defending ourselves when misrepre-
sented, misquoted and uniustly assail-
ed. a special tax of this character was
primarily responsible for the Boston
Tea Party, the clash of arms on Bunker
Hill and the suffering at Valley Forge.
1t should have no place in republican
form of government. 1t is undemo-
cratic and the creature of monarchial
government, where men are governed
without their consent. Glass legisla-
ton of this character, always promotes
social discord and almost universal
contempt for the law and its adm inis-
traitors, creates revolutions, over
throws kingdoms and principalites,
and leaves the heritage ofan autocratic
government to our posterity, to curse
them and their generations forever.
CITIZEN AND TAX PAYER.
Sinnamahoning, Pa, Feb. 18th, 1911.
An interesting Bulletin,