Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1920-06-09
COST OF The
TONNAGE TAX
Will Not Profit Minnesota but
Will Kill the States Iron
Ore Industry.

people of Minnesota whose aim 10
to save the state from the evils
which will follow the enactment
Of a tonnage tax measure.
What the people Of Northern Min
nesota are trying to do is to talk with
their neighbors and fellow-citizens OF
Southern MinnesOta-tO talk to them
STRAIGHT, and without the use of
mediums that confuse and distort and
create mutual antipathies and misun-
derstandings.
The people of Northern Minnesota
are trying to talk straight to the peo-
pie of Southern Minnesota about the
tonnage tax on iron ore-trying to
talk WITH them-trying to talk it all
over fairly and squarely.
In the past high wall of misunder-
standing has been built up because
there was no effort to get the people of
the two parts of the state to talking
straight to each other.
So it was that a lot of people in
Northern Minnesota got to talking as
though the people in Southern Mime
sofa were a bunch of highbinders and
highwaymen bent on running the peo-
pie of the North.
So it was that a lot of people in
Southern Minnesota got to talking as
though the people in Northern Mime
sofa were bunch of corporation tools
who were trying to help the steel trust
dodge their taxes
1t isn't so. Neither end of it is So
North and South, they are just peo-
ple-the same kind of people, inter-
ested in the same sort of justice,
helped by the same things and hurt
by the same things. If tonnage tax is
good, it will help Northern Minnesota
at the same time that it helps South
ern Minnesota. If tonnage tax is bad,
it will hurt Southern Minnesota just
as surely as it hurts Northern Mime
sota-just as surely, If less vitality.
The Story Of Tonnage Tax.
This is the story of the tonnage tax
in Minnesota:
When the tonnage tax was first in
troduced in the 1907 legislature it's
primary purpose was to compel the
manufacture of iron and steel in this
state, and its secondary purpose was
to compel the iron mining interests to
pay their fair share of the expenses of
the state government.
The first tonnage tax bill was for a
tax of Is cents ton, 20 cents to be
related on all iron smelted within the
state; this shows the primary purpose
of this proposed legislation. This be-
ing obviously ar attempt to tax ex-
ports from the state, which the Fed
era! Constitution forbids, this first
measure was dropped, and the straight
tonnage tax bill, followed later by a
"supertax" bill, came in.
While the tonnage tax was pending
in the 1907 legislature efforts thereto.
fore made by Duluth citizens to in.
duce the United States Steel Corpora
ton to begin the manufacture Of steel
In this state were brought to a head
and when the bill was defeated, there
was promise from that company that
a steel plant. to cost $4,000, 900 to
100000 would be built in Duluth.
Today there is in Duluth great, up.
todate steel plant of the United States
Steel corporation, costing 100000, 600
instead of the promised s6,000,O00 OF
$7.0O0.000, and plans are drawn ready
for immediate extensions costing $1O,.
100000 more
Though happily the tonnage tax has
failed. this aim of the original tonnage
takers has been met-to the great ben.
eft of all Minnesota.
How about the taxes? In 1907 the
total assessed valuation of all the iron
mines of Minnesota was S64 1856, 400, on
which the state in that year got total
Of s179,272.
This year, 1920, the assessed valua.
ton of the iron mines of Minnesota is
| S288,937 ,230-more than four times that
| Of 1907-and the states direct tax
from this wealth will be $780, O3-
more than thirteen times that of 1907
So the secondary purpose OF the
original tonnage takers has also been
met.
The tonnage tax agitation, therefore
has given the state a monster steel in
dustry. and has compelled the iron in
tcrest to pay taxes on just valuation
multiplyi0 the states revenue from
this source by twenty-five.
| 1t has served both the purposes TO,
which it was started. Why should i
be continued, when the threat of i
5eopardizes the creation of a great in
dustry that cannot fail to benefit ever,
part Of the state?
| Politics w. Business.
The tonnage tax had served the pur
pose for which it was proposed.
had reached it's climax, had dwindled
and had all but died-as it should
since its purposes had been served
when Townleyism, carpet-baggin,
from North Dakota, exhumed it as
vote-getting issue. This is proved b,
the history OF the tonnage tax in tn
legislature
The first tonnage tax bill was intro
duced in the 1907 legislature by Rel
resentative R. H. Jefferson of Cottor
wood County. 1t provided, for ia
of Is cents per ton, 20 cents to be :,
q. .ss-.. as. i. IL 4. ~: q. =, -. -.