The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1920-06-09

people Of Minnesota whose aim is
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 PEG
| 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 bunch of highbinders and
highwaymen bent on running the peo-
| pie of the North
So it was that 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 PEG.
| 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 its
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 tC
pay their fair share of the expenses oil
the state government.
! The first tonnage tax bill was for q
tax of 25 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 an attempt to tax ex
ports from the state, which the Fed
eral Constitution forbids, this frs
4 measure was dropped, and the straigh
tonnage tax bill, followed later by /;
"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
tion to begin the manufacture of stee
in this state were brought to head
and when the bill was defeated, Their
was promise from that company tina
i steel plant, to cost $6,000,000 t
+ 100000 would be built in Duluth.
Today there is in Duluth a great, VI
to-date steel plant of the United State
Steel corporation, costing 100000
instead of the promised 100000 O
s7,000,000, and plans are drawn read
for immediate extensions costing $40
100000 more.
Though happily the tonnage tax ha
q failed, this aim of the original tonnag
v takers has been met-to the great Der
eft of all Minnesota
S How about the taxes? In 1907 til
y total assessed valuation of all the iro
mines of Minnesota was $64, ,409. O
u which the state in that year got tot
= / of $179,272.
! This year, 1920, the assessed valui
ton of the iron mines of Minnesota
: $288, 1897 ,230-more than four times ths
of 1907-and the states direct Ia
v from this wealth will be s2,340, 403-
n more than thirteen times that of 1870
So the secondary purpose of til
IS original tonnage takers has also bee
met
Il The tonnage tax agitation, therefor
u has given the state monster steel il
:, dustry, and has compelled the iron il
. terest to pay taxes on just valuatio
multiplying the states revenue frol
r this source by twenty-five.
) 1t has served both the purposes Il
v which it was started. Why should
ii be continued, when the threat of
ii jeopardizes the creation of great
d dustry that cannot fail to benefit ever
: part of the state?
It Politics VS.. Business.
= The tonnage tax had served the pu
"a pose for which 1t was proposed.
10 had reached its climax, had ,dwindle
and had all but died-as 1t shout
l. since its purposes had been served
in when Townleyism, carpet-baggiI