Williston graphic., 1919-05-01
kOS|TzkY MANTEO
TO TAX EVERYTHING
TRAVELLING MEN,, SODA, CANDY
MOVIES, BASEBALL BATS
INCLUDED IN LIST

Bismark, April 22.-State Auditor
Kositzky's arguments against the le-
gislation passed by the last assembly
~ presented by the anti-league pap
ers in their reports Of the meetings he
is holding in various parts of the state
are becoming matter Of ridicule in
official circles here.
One state official who is a member
Of the board of equalization in speak
ing of Kositzky's platform perform
ences under the management of the
Independent Voters association today
said:
"Nobody who knows Carl or who has
served on boards with him takes him
seriously. His ideas Of taxation are so
fundamentally wrong that they are
funny. Carl's idea of taxation is to
tax every travelling man who sells
goods in North Dakota, to collect tolls
from automobiles of another state
driving through this state, and to as
sess every freight car belonging to an
other road, which any of the railroads
in this state may happen to haul in.
"Why, during the last session he
had bill introduced in the legislature
which became the laughing stock of
the state. According to the pro-
ions of this bill, North Dakota would
be paying another regular war tax.
If the bill had gone through every
admission to movie show, theater,
baseballgame or sports or entertain
ment of any kind would have been tax
ed cent or two, and state revenue
stamp costing anywhere from a half
cent up to a dime would have appear
ed on every bottle or box of candy,
baseball glove, bat, football and many
other articles used for pleasure or
sport. The legislature just laughed ut
the bill and quietly gave it the axe,
whereupon Carl became very angry,
and began to sulk about the undue
domination and the cruel dictatorship
of the League leaders.
IL don't think Carl he's much right
to talk about his love for, the people,
for, If my memory serves me right,
l recall that when he met with the
board of equalization in 1917, he tried
to get US to lower the amount of asess
ment on the railroads. He did this
in face of the fact that in the previous
year the Hanna administration had re-
duecd them an even 10 per cent in or
der to embarass the Nonpartisan les
que officials in paying the expenses
of government. His plea was that the
railroads were taxed too high" con-
cluded the official.
Baker Taxes Exception
Lyman Baker, secretary of the tax
commission, also takes exception to
the auditors frequent statement about
the increase in taxes.
"To judge from Mr.. Kositzky's
statement, one would think that no
body had to pay taxes in North Da-
kota except the farmer. His cry
seems to be that the taxes on land
have been greatly increased. While
it is true that the method of assessing
land has ben changed and that it bears
a greater share of taxation, it is equal
" true that exemptions are made Tor
other classes of property which more
than equalize the burden. l have not
heard of Mr.. Kositzky's mentioning
the provisions of the exemption act.
"He has told his audiences that tax
es have gone up on one kind Of pro-
perty, but he has not mentioned that
they have been entirely removed from
other property. His argument that
the farmer is getting the worst of it
does not hold water. Last year the
value of all farm buildings in North
Dakota was approximately 100000
600 which were taxed at the same rate
as the land. Now under the exempt