East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1922-10-09

l came into this State 40 years
ago, a wandering boy, working as a
farm hand. For 30 years | have
been in public office. | have never
deliberately misled or deceived any
body. In public life | have tried to
play absolutely square.
When | was nominated last May,
| said to my friends: | will carry
the message of lower taxes to the
people of this state. have no mon
ey, but expect to make hundred
speeches. Five times | have touch
ed the ocean, and gone from Cali
fornia to the river in Idaho three
times | have gone wherever the in
vitation was extended; wherever |
could meet a little group and talk to
them about what | think IS start
ling state Of affairs. | am trying to
do it fairly, honestly and IN the
open.
Friends, if we save Oregon from
the auction block, if we save our
property from confiscation by taxa
ton, we have got to do some very
hard thinking. To my mind, the
tax question is the foremost prob
lem in Oregon today. 1t rises above
all else. The question is: Are you
going to own your own homes and
your own farms in future years, or
are they going to be taken from you
by the rising tide of taxes?
The rental value of all property in
Oregon is too high according to the
value of the property, caused by the
high taxes. 1t doesn't cut much ice
in the money markets when the
property passes away from the man
who thought he owned it. He is lett
with the husk the kernel is gone.
When | went to the Senate the
first time it took about 1870 of the
rental value of property to pay tax
es. That year Umatilla county rails
ed 100000 bushels Of wheat. Our
State taxes were 100000 in that
county; 80 per cent of the wheat
crop paid its taxes. This year that
county produced 100000 bushels
of wheat, while her taxes are ST.
$4,000, of which the $433,084 is
State Tax where the whole is 40%
of the value of the wheat crop taken
for taxes. The population of the
State then was about $4,000. Now
it is not quite 100000.
When | entered the State Senate
20 years ago, 81, 100000 was the to-
tai State expense. When | returned
to the Senate six years ago it was
$2,500,000 per year. Today $15,-
100000 or more is collected from us
in taxation. Can this tide continue
to rise if we keep our property?
How high is it going to go?
There is collected S6,000,000 in
fees now, six times as much as we
spent 20 years ago; more than twice
what we spent six years ago.
In knots and in groups | have been
carrying this message to the peo-
pie: "THIS MUST STOPw I
shall continue to carry it until cleo
ton day.
| asked MIR. Day, as Secretary of
the Tax Investigation Committee,
to collect some figures for me. Ac-
cording to these figures, there are
only five or six States in the Union
that have more bonded indebted
ness than we have. In wealth and
population we rank down about
thirty-siXth. The figures show we
are spending more money for State
than the State of Kan
sas. Kansas spends SS,500.O00; we
spend 100000, while Minnesota
spends only S1,600.000. You ask,
why is Minnesota away down
there?" 1t is because Minnesota
has raised from indirect sources the
larger part of her revenue for State
while we have raised it
from the farmer, the cattle man and
the sheep man. They thought these
men could not kick, but they ARE