The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1921-04-15

sc by making into tine law OF tine e
=. realm the most unjust and in.
!. equitable tonnage tax bill ever +
!. proposed in Minnesota. i
.t.++%ff = +tft.
Speculation in the legislature was
not so much as to what the Governor
would do as to the amount of revenue
that the bill will yield to the state.
Many contend that it will never yield
anything because it viii be upset in
the courts; there also seems to be a
feeling that, even if it is declared
constitutional, it may never put any
considerable sum into the Golfers of
the state. It's advocates contended,
when the bill was first drawn, that it
would net the state about $4,000,00
per year. Now, to judge from their
comments, they are not at all certain
that it will pay anything.
The Governors signature brought
to an end fight against the tonnage
tax waged unremittingly against most
desperate odds. To beat the bill in
December looked to be an utter i'm
possibility; yet, when the roll was
called in the senate, the devoted little
band of battlers from the North need
ed but one vote to kill the bill.
When the session opened January 4,
the tonnage takers were noisily con-
fident. They were going to enact a
tonnage tax law the very first week
of the session. There was scarce a
handful of votes against them.
Might, politics, prejudice, in over
whelning array, marched on the side
of the tonnage takers But they
didn't pass their tonnage tax the
first week. Nor the first month.
Despite their overwhelming advant-
age they were forced to see week
after week, month after month, go by
with their hopes unfulflled. Not
until within nine days of the end of
the four months session were they
able to put their bill in the Gov
ernor's hands. Never in any legis.
lative session in Minnesota, was the
overwhelming majority so long
baked of working its will.
What was it that finally put the
tonnage tax across at the present
legislative session? Was it the over
whelming house vote at the special
session of 1919? Was it the tonnage
tax plank of the state republican con-
yention in May last? Was it the
unscruplous campaign so long waged
by the Nonpartisan League? 1t was
none of these things. These things
simply made the tonnage tax to
threaten. What has made the ton.
mage tax a law is the fact that the
people of the North gave up. Dull
nth and the iron ranges quit. Had
the people of the North responded to
the cry to unite to fight the tonnage
tax as they responded in former years
or as they responded to a score of
appeals during the war, the tonnage
tax would today be a dead bill, not
living law
There is much ground yet to be
travelled before Minnesota secures
any tonnage tax money. But if that
goal, fought for over many years,
is finally arrived at, It is not the
mining companies who will pay. The
people of the North will be the first
to pay and heavy will be the tribute
exacted from them. Reduction OF
the adyalorem assessment for local
purposes and per capita limitation
on local expenditures already stare
us in the face. The final absorption
by the state of all iron ore taxation
is another eventuality against which
the North must now begin to dc
battle. Let no man In Northern
Minnesota think that the tonnage tar
fght is ended So far as the people
of the North are concerned, it has
only begun. They must then cast
off indifferences; they must put or
that valiant fighting spirit that ha:
heretofore so distinguished them IN
every issue. The tonnage tax strike:
a desperate blow at the very root Of
the prosperity of the North. II we
do not combine the axe win again b.
laid to that root and the whole tres
in the end, will fall.
End of Session Jam.
Most of the big issues of the forty
second legislature are disposed of, We
the closing days of the session sees
IN some respects, a worse congestion
than usual. Usually the end of tn,
session is wild scramble to secur'
the passage of local bills, but thi
year it is measures of state wide i'm
portance that are blocking the way
Matters that by contrast only are O.