St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1912-09-04
To HarIand b. Howe

Although the state campaign is
closed and the discussion is over Har-
land B. Howe during the closing
speeches and especially at his final
rally in this town repeatedly stated
that his policy of taxing corporate
property had been misrepresented to
the voters. This paper among others
was included in the list of those who
had wilfully misrepresented him. We
feel that such a charge should not go
unanswered even if the campaign is
over. Mr.. Howe declares that he has
been misrepresented in the state
ment that he would change the tax
alton Of corporations from state to
town lists. He claims he never adj
vocated that. Now all we had to
guide us in this matter was the stem
ographic report of the speeches
made early in the campaign. Here is
what he said in Sutton on Aug. 5,
1912: But ladies and gentlemen,
the truth is they pay a much less rate
on the dollar, and so all this great
mass of property is taken away from
our grand lists. No town in the state
is allowed to collect any tax on this
great mass of property, and. ladies
and gentlemen, this great mass of
property has been taken away from
us year after year, as that property
has gone from other classes of prop
erty into that kind of a corporation,
the town grand lists have not grown,
and have not become larger as they
otherwise would have done. And
our town expenses, everything is
more, so that the rates throughout
the state for the last ten and fifteen
years have been gradually ascending
and ascending, until 1 find your tax
on an average Of about So, and this
year $2.45.
"And what have they left us?
What have they left us, the common
people? What have they left the
towns to tax, to maintain their
schools, to maintain their highways,
to maintain their poor, to pay all
their other town expenses? Why,
ladies and gentlemen, all these great
corporations, all these great
concerns, have withdrawn from
the common people, and they
have law unto them
selves, and they have left us our
farms, and our COWS, and our horses,
to maintain our highways, our
schools and all our town expenses.
And it is wrong, manifestly wrong"
Here is what he said on this sub
ject at Burlington, Aug. IA, 1912:
eff should come to you and say
that the merchant ought to be taxed
more than the lawyer, you would not
agree with me. If 1 should come to
you and say that the lawyer ought to
be taxed more than the merchant you
would not agree with me. But,
ladies and gentlemen, if 1 should
say that the lawyer and the merchant
and the insurance company and the
telephone company ought to be taxed
equally, you would all agree with me,
every one of you. Now l have here
copy of your Tax Commissioner re-
port, and I want to give you few
figures. And the figures that 1 shall
give l shall take from a republican
tax commissioner report, and of
course they will be right. You know
we are all taxed by appraisal Of our
property, but gentlemen, when they
come down here to tax the Rutland
railroad or the Central VT. railroad,
or any railroad within our common
wealth they can pay on appraisal, if
they want to, $3.50 on a thousand,
while you people here in Burlington
pay SIT on a thousand. Why is this
difference of So on a thousand? Is
there any reason why the people of
this city, living in the very school
district of these railroads, should be
soaked So a thousand more than the
Railroad Coz"
Now this farm (Mr. Howe's
farm in Maidstone) through which
this railroad runs, in 1909 was APP
praised for $500; the tax in the
town of Maidstone where this Central
runs, was $3.50 on a dollar-$1S on
a thousand, but if / had been a much
favored in the law under this -epub-
lican administration, under these po-
litical bosses that are always so hon