Jamestown weekly alert. [volume] (Jamestown, Stutsman County, D.T. [N.D.]) 1882-1925, 1919-12-25
REFERENDUM WOULD
HAVE NO BEARING
ON new TAX LAWS
League Press Tells Farmers If
House Bill so Is Referred 1t
Will Increase Taxes Twen-
ty-five Per Cent.


ton to the signing Of petitions for
the referendum of House Bill 60,
which seeks to give all acts of the
recent special session immediate ef-
feet, league newspapers are assuring
farmers that if this bill Is referred
"you will not be allowed your 25 per
cent discount in taxes, or the privi-
lege of paying them semi-annually-
the provisions made. to help the
drouth-stricken farmers will be null
and void"
The facts are that House Bill 4,
which provides for an extension Of
the time in which farmers in drouth-
stricken districts may pay seed and
feed liens, was passed by almost a
unanimous vote Of both houses,
which made operative the emergency
clause on this bill, which therefore
took effect from the date of it's pas
sage. While House Bill 60 would
have made this measure effective De-
cember %, the almost unanimous ac-
ton of the legislature made the act
effective a week ago last Friday,
when it was signed by the governor,
and no matter what may be done
with House Bill 60, the seed and feed
bonding act is now in effect and will:
remain in effect. .=
The same is true ofaSenate Bill 9,
providing for the semi-annual pay
ment of taxes, with the exception
that the legislature, realizing that an
attempt to divide tax payments this
year, when tax statements already
have. gone out, would result in al
most hopeless confusi61l, and there
fore by an almost unanimous vote
of both houses it was provided that
| this act should not become operative
until December 1, 1920. There is,
however, an emergency clause at
tached to this act, and the practical
ly unanimous vote Of both houses
makes Immediately effective such
provisions Of the act as the legisla-
ture did not believe should be sus-
pended until the beginning of a new
tax year. House Bill 60, whether IL
stands or falls, will not afford the
semi-annual payment Of taxes.
The league warning published in
the Burnstad Comet, official Nom
partisan newspaper of Logan county,
is headed with "Look Out" in type
three inches high, and, in heavy,
black characters: Misrepresentation
is Abroad in the Land-Would In
crease Your Taxes 25 Per Cent"
Then follows the statement that:
Petitions are being circulated thru
out this section of the state, and peo-
pie are being requested to sign them
under every pretext under the sun.
Some say it is to referend the blue
laws, others say it is to repeal the
Free Love Law,"-something that
never has been in existence in this
state and never will be.
"Howeer, the fact Of the matter is
that the petition prays for the refer
ending Of House Bill No. go, which
makes all laws passed at the special
session an emergency measure, to go
into effect ten days after the legisla-
ture adjourned. We will admit this
is not strictly according to rules, but
rules must be over-rode when It
comes to assisting the drouth!strick-
en- districts in the western part of the
state. -
The statement is held to Sbe di-
rectly misleading in its effort TO con-
vince farmers that House Bill 90 was
passed to afford them immediate re-
lief, as the only three measures de-
signed in any waylto succor. farmers
in drouth-stricken districts were the
seed and feed lien extension and the
semi-annual payment Of tax bills al
ready referred to, and Senate Bill 80,
which provides for cooperative p,lr-
chasing Of dairy cattle, and ds;each of
these measures carried an emergency
clause as required by the constit tu ton
and received more than the tWa9-.
thirds vote in each ohuse which the
constitution declares necessary \ to
carry an emergency clause and give
an act immediate effect, and each of
these three acts became operative
Friday. December 12, when signed By
Governor Frazier, and had been n
operation since that time. ss
The reference to the " Free Love-
bill introduced purely ;as e Joke by e g