Connecticut western news., 1915-03-11
TO TAX HORSES
Morton" Writes TartIy of the Self
 EHarino AntnnnohiIIaf

Morton" Writes Tartly of the Self Effacing Automobihsts.
 Norton" Hartford correspondent of the Shore Line Times, writes of the automobile legislation pending in Hart ford, as follows: Take, for example. that modest and self effacing class, the automobilists. They were heard, copi- ously here last week and this is but faint attempt to tell how they rose to the occasion. Of course they were represented by counsel, they can afford it, and with the idea of beating the finance committee to it, they consid- cred what is known as the Sherwood bill which fixes the registration fee. At present, unless memory is at fault, the fee or state tax as it is, is 50 cents for each horse power on ordinary motor vehicles such as the best known and influential citizens rush about the state in. Now, they say, as per the Sher- wood bill, that they are willing that the tax shall be doubled and that they are willing to pay $1 per horsepower and that looks fine, on the face of it. If one could stay right there the auto. mobilist would present the spectacle of man who realizes that the state is up against it and who is willing to pay his share of the increased taxation, which is going to hit all of us by and by, but one can't stop here for the bill is to have a saving clause in it which will endear it to the automobilist and that is that, after having paid this tax, the buzz wagon cannot be taxed in the town where the owner lives. He has paid the tax to the state and the town can't touch his motor vehicle.
 It is an interesting proposition. As sume that five residents in at own in- fested with wealthy people-Norfolk, Pomfret, Rldgefeld for example-each own cars which cost them $5, 900 each; they succeed in removing $25, 900 from the grand list of the town and instead pay to the state matter of $250. If the property was taxed in Hartford;s grand list the owners would save about 50 per cent. of their tax by this change. 1t will be fine, but the automobile own CTS have thought of something else which is worth considering; it's this way. A member of the House in the course of the hearing, said that he had proposed a tax on horses and he added that heavy horses, shod with devices to prevent slipping, did more damage to the roads than automobiles do. And then a Hartford man, who deals in autos said he was glad to hear of this bill and was strongly in favor of it. 1t met it's most enthusiastic advocate in Charles Marcy Robinson, lawyer in chief for the automobilists, who seemed whole, to any lawmaking done by Moses.
 Won't that be great? The horse is going to get his. The road and the surface thereof is mine, saith the auto mobilist, and woe to the horse that damages it, let's tax the horse until he becomes as extinct as the wolf or the buffalo! And the really humorous part of it is that some of these speakers were in earnest in the matter of taxing the horse. They will attempt to do it and, if the small towns, which have a majority ill the House, stand for it they will deserve all the tax which the automobilist can impose. The proposal seems almost as unreal as a dream. The automobilist has rendered the high way unsafe for farm vehicles, he has become the dread of the rural traveller and now, when the proposition of in- creasing his tax is advanced, he says, "Don't tax me, tax these horses that tear up the beautiful roads which have been built for my pleasure. The automobiles may lack in some things but nerve is not one of those things.