The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1929-04-05

posits of iron ore within their NUM-
cipal limits and they are thus able to
raise large sums Of money for NUM-
cipal purposes. Hibbing, for instance,
with population Of $4,000 once had
an assessed valuation of $50 600 900,
of which 81 per cent was iron ore
When the state began to soak the
iron mines right and left with occu-
patton and royalty taxes, the mine
owners naturally turned upon the
range towns and began to rend them
They came to the legislature and de-
manded laws to restrain the range
towns from levying as great a millage
upon them as other towns levy upon
other property Thus they got the
repressive per capita law of 1921 and
the township limitation law of 1927
Now In 1929 they again attack the
range towns and demand still more
drastic laws Of repression.
What the Range Towns Say.
The range towns resist these at
tempts to limit their taxing powers
Their arguments may be summarized
somewhat as follows:
The per capita comparisons of ex-
penditures of the range towns with
other places in the state are unfair
for the range town figures are totals
while figures for other places are ex-
elusive Of special assessments which
often multiply the per capita outgo.
There has been extravaganza in the
past but better era is well under way
and better results will be secured by
leaving the towns and the mining
companies to work out their own prob
lens;
Money power possesses danger
Gus advantage If it is the one over
whelming asset of communicated
the range towns the power to tax the
ore industry and they are at the
mercy of that industry;
Iron ore is not overtaxed by the
range towns-for instance, the tax
rate in Hibbing Is Sc mills but the
average thruout the state is 81 mills;
Limiting the power of the range
towns to tax the mines will give no
relief to the mining companies which
need relief-the relief will go, on the
contrary, to the u. S. Steel Corpora
ton and to other big mining compan-
les whose large holdings, operations
and furnace connections enable them
to mine ore at a good profit.
Limitation will take money from the
people of Minnesota who urgently
need it and add that money to the di-
vidends of eastern stockholders;
Changes in mining conditions have
decidedly reduced the populations of
range towns and this alone, after the
1880 census, will give the ore industry
relief to the extent of many hundred
thousand dollars;
The limitations proposed are so
drastic that their immediate IMPOSE
ton will result in want, misery and
ruin to thousands;
The situation of the range towns is
exceedingly different-Hibbing for in
stance, has had most of its public
improvements and its streets destroy
them all over again, some of them
many times;
Since open pit mining replaced the
underground mines, the range towns
have become summer towns and have
no payrolls in the winter-they must
have tax moneys to live upon in the
winter;
These limitations are denial of To-
cal self government;
If any community is endowed by ma
ture with peculiar advantages, it
should not, in right and justice, be
stripped Of these advantages by force
or by envy;
Such, sketchily, is the problem Of
the iron ore industry with which the
legislatures of Minnesota have
wrestled Intellectually for twenty-five
years and which is now more atten-
ton compelling than ever.