The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-10-19
Taxes And Things
BY WILLIAM ALLEN WHITE.

L
Kansas is inclined TO be self satis-
fled; but self satisfaction should be
severely jolted by. the fact that Kan
sas is one of the few northern, states
that did not gain so much population
in the last ten years as she has babies.
We have lot of backward legislation
and some backward constitutional
handicaps which we must get rid of
if Kansas is to go forward with the
other wide-awake states of the ma
ton. This state of course must pri-
marily be an agricultural state. The
Transmississippi railroad rate reaches
its peak in Kansas, and we cannot
ship in raw materials of lumber or
iron, nor can We ship out any
manufacturing goods to an advantage
farmer.
Pending before the people is con-
stitutional amendment = Amendment
No. (which is intended to do just
that thing; to help the Kansas farmer
by reducing his taxes. As it stands
now between 60 and 20 per cent of the
taxes paid in Kansas are farmers
taxes, and more than IS per cent of
the taxpayers are farmers. The men
who escape taxation are town men be-
cause their property is invisible and
Intangible. Kansas does not tax in
tangible property. Amendment No. 2
provides for a Redistribution for Kan
sas property so that much invisible
and intangible property in the state
shall be taxed. Most of the northern
states have adopted an amendment
similar to this now pending in Kansas.
This amendment was recommended
practically unanimously by the Kansas
Legislature. 1t was drafted by the
National Tax association and scores
of states in the Union have exactly the
same amendment in their constitution:
In every case it has worked and re-
duced the. farmers taxes by doubling
in some states and multiplying by ten
the number of taxpayers. The amend
ment is not intended to increase the
states taxes, but to spread the burden
of the states taxes over more people;
over a larger number of people than
pays 1t now. In Minnesota they had
the system now worked in Kansas,
until 1910 Under the old system
they had sixty-two hundred persons
on the tax roll, the next year the num-
Der of persons on the tax roll was
|forty-o one thousand, and in five years
the number of persons on the tax roll
was ninety-eight thousand.
Now common sense tells one Ethat
when a burden once borne. by Sixty
two hundred is shared by ninety eight
thousand-the same burden-the
taxes of the original siXty-two hundred
are going to be smaller. That is what
happen yin Kansas By increasing the
number of taxpayers, by taxing the in
visible and intangible property OF the
state we multiply the number OF tax
payers by ten. possible by twenty, and
this divides the burden.
This amendment will help the Kan
sas farmer to reduce his taxes by maxi
ing the town man pay his share, tho
not a big share, by making the rich
man who hides his property under the
present system come out under the
new system and pay his share; while
the man of small means who has all
of his property visible today in land
or town lots or houses or cattle or
machinery will find his taxes reduced
and his burden shared by the man who
has mortgages and stocks and bonds
and oil and gas and franchises.
The railroads and public utilities are
fighting this amendment viciously.
They are trying to make it appear that
the farmer will be hurt by it, The
truth is that if the farmer would be
hurt, the railroads and public utilities
would be for it. They are not paying
what they pay in other states. And
the state tax commission is authority
for the statement that if this amend
ment passes the farmer will be the
chief beneficiary of it.
We must not forget that Kansas is
an agricultural state and that the
quickest. and best way to make our
towns prosperous is to make our farm
ers rich. Amendment number two is
vital and necessary change in our
present constitution.