The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1919-01-17

shipping from the mouth of the
mine to the place of sale.
The monies received under this
bill are to be divided so that the
country paying the tax would not
| get anything out of it. According
to the division, one-half is to go to
the Land Settlement Fund, one
fourth to be apportioned to the COM
mon school districts Of the state and
one fourth to the general revenue
fund.
As all the range towns are indie
pendent school districts, it can be
plainly seen what the worm in the
head of the trainers of this bill was
aiming at. "Get something for
nothing" is their motto. Should this
bill, by any chance, become law,
we in st. Louis county would be
clearly and truly out of luck. There
would not be ghost of chance for
a single red cent to get away from
the lower state counties and our
cities, schools, etc, might as well
kiss themselves goodbye. The Ben
dixen measure leaves the ad valorem
basis of taxation but gouges the
mining companies for an additional
sum.
1t is the candid opinion of many
members of the legislature that
neither set of trainers of the bills
have any idea that the same might
by chance become a law but that the
measures were introduced early so
as to hold them as a club over the
heads of the north country members
and force legislation favorable to the
down state granger members. The
motive for tonnage tax and other
bills of like nature was clearly
brought to our attention years ago
when one of the mail order members
informed us in language more forci-
BILE than correct that eff SAINT Louis,
Hannepin and Ramsey counties paid
what taxes they should, my county
wouldn't need pay a dam SAINT"
An analysis of the names of those
at the head of the movement to get
something for nothing is some ex-
cuse. While they were elected by
the votes of their Constituents" we
would advise the elections committee
to look into their papers. There
may be some in the bunch who still
are disciples of Kaiser Bill-their
actions indicate as much at any rate.
| A school of instruction in the articles
of the constitution relating to tax
matters might be profitable under
taking and little plain Americanism
instilled into the Bolshevik mem-
bers.
Remedy Suggested.
A large number Of the members
of the legislature are getting ex-
tremely tired of the biennial game
played by the tonnage takers and
propose to draft bill making two
states of Minnesota. They realize
that such legislation, in the final an
alysis, would have to be in the form
of an act of congress, but they be-
lieve that memorializing the national
legislature at Washington along such
lines would either split the state in
to two states or put stop to the
practice of certain sections of the
state of trying to "soak" the iron in
dustry.
Tentatively, the plan is to split the
state on straight line east and west,
leaving the Twin Cities, south of it
and st. Cloud to the north of it, put
ting practically all of Northern
Minnesota" so-called, into a new
state with Duluth as the metropolis,
and shutting out southern and south
central Minnesota from the benefits
of the millions of taxes derived from
the iron mines of st. Louis and
Itasca Crow Wing Lake counties
and any other county in the northern
half which has been enriched by the
bounty of nature, and has therefore
been marked as "soft picking by
legislators of counties remote from
the iron region. -
| Yes, why not do this?
About 80 per cent of the cash
needed by the state is derived from
a few northern counties of which
st. Louis furnishes the larger por-
tion, the lower end furnishing the
balance. Should the division be made
las outlined, it is very evident that
| $500 per acre farms in the southern
end would be assessed at a little more
than So per acre. Also that $4,000
blooded stock would be on the rolls
as blooded stock and not as CANNON
bulls, cows, pigs and horses.
| Also, why not make the tonnage
tax general and not single out iron
ore? Wheat, potatoes, butter, eggs
and other produce, hogs, cattle, etc.
could pay. bushel or pound tax.
The independent operator in iron
ore claims that his net profit last
year was not over seven cents ton
and many of them lost money in
mining. The government fixed the
price of wheat at 1926 and hogs
have been selling at from SIC to
$26 per hundred, cattle at from SIP
to $24, butter at from SO to 20 cents.
Two per cent on this class of goods
/ in o1 30 H. 4