The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1932-09-26
Member OF Audit Bureau Of
Circulation
(Official City, State and County
Newspaper
Foreign Representatives
SMALL, SPENCER, BREWER
Uncorporated)
CHICAGO NEW YORK BOSTON

Foreign Representatives
SMALL. SPENCER, BREWER
Uncorporated)
CHICAGO NEW YORK BOSTON
Tax Reduction Pledges Did 1t
AS the Wisconsin political situation
is studied closely, the outstanding
battle cry of the winner, Walter j.
Kohler, was reduction of the cost Of
state government and revamping OF
the states laws to attract rather than
to drive capital from its borders. Not
so long ago, the General Motors cor
poration closed down its plant at
GAINESVILLE, Wis. Announcement was
made that after paying the corpora
ton income tax and other fixed
charges imposed by Wisconsin's laws,
cars were being produced there at a
loss. The manufacturing costs were
so much more favorable in Michigan
and other adjacent states that no
longer could business be conducted
profitably in the Badger state. Thou
sands lost their jobs as result of the
paralyzing effects of the Wisconsin
corporation laws.
SOther industries have been driven
from the state during the LaFollette
regime and the people became aroused
at what the Utopian ideas of LaFol-
lette and his followers were costing
the taxpayers. Evidently they have
had enough of what has been popu-
larly known as the wisconsin idea"
X 4. X
sBut the chief emphasis placed by
Kohler was upon tax reduction. The
name of Hoover was not brought into
the campaign. 1t was StudiouSly
avoided by all contenders so as not
to divert the people of Wisconsin
from the very serious conditions in
duced by uncurbed public expendi-
lures. Opponents of the LaFollette
regime proposed concrete tax reduce
ton program of $l6,0OO,OO0. That was
sweet music to the ears of the voters.
Citizens lulled to sleep by the old
ballyhoo of big business and progress
sivism sat up and took the Kohler
campaign nourishment with great
gusto. Koller had electrified state
staggering under tax loads which
penalized everyone, labor and CAPT.
tai alike.
Wisconsin, like North Dakota, has
been drifting for years. It's political
leaders have been chasing rainbows
and seeking to create a governmental
millennium. Theories have not worked
out as beautifully as they were blue
printed. Voters who were caught by
the sophistry of it all in Wisconsin,
as in this state, honestly believed that
the state could bring relief where old
and tried economic rules had appar-
emily failed.
They rose to the LaFollette bait as
so many hungry and floundering fish.
Meanwhile the cost of the political
experiment mounted to amazing fig
ures. Political idealists and theorists
can invent fine-spun governmental
theories but there is only very old
fashioned way to pay for these expert
ments and the pockets out Of which
the money must come have been one
way pockets of late. The LaFollette
racket in Wisconsin to date has paid
little returns to farmer, merchant or
banker. It has taken terrific toll in
increased taxes.
North Dakota faces a situation in
some ways as serious as Wisconsin.
Economic depression has thrown into
bold relief the great bonded debt Of
this state. This is no time to
cry over split milk. All Republican
factions have INDUCED in the same
kind Of political moon-shine and the
SOLDERING up process should be just
around the corner.
Any candidate for office who can
convince the electors that he viii
honestly strive to reduce the high cost
1f government through abolition Of
bureaus, commissions and unneces-
Sary Jobs will win, as Kohler did In
wisconsin. The voters knew a Kohler
promise was more substantial than q
LaFollette word picture Of Utopian
4ues.
y Reformers and so-called political
Experts have been setting up expen-
tive governmental vagaries in many
states on the theory that taxation
will induce prosperity. They hope BY
5InEcessiye taxation to force an equal
distribution Of property and aid the
under privileged class. That is all
fine theory but in practice it means
confiscation Of productive capital from
which must come Jobs and wages and
) market for the products Of the soil.
u wisconsin slogan was "Cut Costs