Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1914-10-02

Akron, o., Sept. 26.-At the formal
opening of the Republican state cam
paign at this city today, Hon. Frank
B. Willis, candidate for governor,
spoke in part as follows:
One of the planks of the platform
on which the present chief executive
was elected provided tor home rule
in ta~xation.".In the most fragrant dis
regard of this platform pledge the
Warpes law was passed providing for
q system of appointive assessors
throughout the state. So far as known
no other state in the Union gives to
its governor the right directly or indl-
rectly to appoint local assessors. The
governor does not nave that power
even in Wisconsin, Whence the idea
OF appOintiVe assessors is reported to
have been borrowed.
The people who elect presidents,
United States senators, members OF
congress and state officials, can be
trusted to choose their own local Off
Gals without suggestions or dictation
from Columbus.
To gain responsibility for a law
conceived in the spirit OF machine
building and destined to become a
stencil in the nostrils of all tle people,
an early attempt was made to asso-
sciate the notorious Warnes law with
the great name of Mckinley. 1t is to
be observed that this attempt has
been abandoned.
Neither Governor Mckinley nor any
other Republican governor eve advo-
Gated the Acknowledgement of the peo-
pie or the destruction of a right as old
as Magma ChaIta and as sacred as the
Bill of Rights. 1t has remained for
the present chief executive of the
state elected as a Democrat to fout
abandon the fundamental Democratic
principles of local self government
and the right CT the people to rule,
and to arrogate unto himself for po-
litical eLds the appointment of taxa.
ton officials.
Most of the much-heralded in.
creases in the tax duplicate, widely
advertised for political effect by state
paid publicity bureaus, have come
about through the operation of the
Smith, harmon J per cent tax law and
without the slightest reference to the
Warnes law.
AS an illustration of this fact con
suit the following figures showing the
state duplicate for the years 1900
1910, 1911, 1912 and 1913:
1900, realty ............$1,274,2O 3, 721
l9UO, personal property. o05,ot5,oV
Total $1.s34,O 53 ,22s
1910, realty 81, $3.50, 944 ,631
1910, personal property. S27,370,94s
Total $2,4S4, 315,5 s.
1911, realty .$4,273, 439 IL
1911, personal property. 1,927,S63,87t
Total Sc, POI, 900, 5Ss
1912, realty .$4,335, $685.
1912, personal property. 2,145, 1893 ,63I
TOtal ............. 9o,4o1 ,UoS,1oe
1913, realty .......... .$4,418,95 20!
1913, personal property. 2,3O0,115,67(
Total ............. Sc, 719, 068, SO!
These figures show that the returns
both of realty and personal, were in
creasing by leaps and bounds during
the years 1911, 1912 and 1913. Surely
this was not because of the Warne'
law, because that law had not ye
been passed. So far as Legislation
had anything to do with it, credi
should be given to the Smith-Harmoi
law, which the governor sarcasticall.
calls "the sacred white cow" ant
which he proceeded to disembowel b.
taking out the interior limitations
through the enactment of the Xii
patrick law.
Returns obtairable thus far from
number Of counties indicate that an,
speculative increase in the duplicat
due to increased valuations of pei
sonal property under the Warnes Lax
is more than Offset by the increase
expense for salaries OF distric
County assessors, clerks, experts
etc, paid the year round, though thei
work lasts only a few months and 70
additional Office rents. Indeed, it
coming to pass that the State Hous
at Columbus and the various count
court houses are literally %overflowin
with the army of additional officer
and commissions, all appointed b
f nTad s0 Wifb {be a amI in of tb saia go;
ernor." To furnish quarters for thi
rapidly increasing army of state a.
pointees, to say nothing of their sal
ries, costs the taxpayers of the sever;
counties uncounted thousands of dc
lars every year.
The same idea of concentration
power in the hands of the executiy
runs through most of the legislatio
of the present administration. In ia,
at the organization Of the general a
Rembly it was a matter of common r
port that the governor dictated WI
the officers of the legislative bodi'
should be and who should serve {
important committees; and that
the legislation which followed his i
fuence was always the controllir
force which so shaped law-making
to increase the appointing power
the governor. This tendency is inc
Gated mutely by the index to Vol. L
of the Laws of Ohio, where, at PAL
1885, out of % references under Il
word governor sixteen of tho
citations begin with the word "a
pointment."
Many thousands of patriotic, u
bossed anti machine Democrats ha'
viewed first with amazement, tn,
with alarm, and finally with disgu
this nndemocrat;c nredilectiOn for a