Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1937-04-22
State Capitol News
BY A. I. HARRIS

New evidence showing that Steel
Trust officials in sworn testimony in
1925 vigorously attacked the So
called Lake Erie price as being en-
tirely mythical, fictitious, unreal, and
nOneXistent" is the basis for Gov
ernor Benson's recent request to the
State Tax commission that the case
be re-opened in which the Supreme
Court granted large tax reductions
to the Steel Trust. The Supreme
Court previously. upheld the Lake
Erie price as the basis for tax assess
mentS.
ut seems fairly well established
that the Lake Erie price is not the
true market price of ORE" he stated
land that through this method of
valuation, the owners of ore de-
posts are placed in a specially ia
vored class as compared to other
taxpayers of this state" The Cover
nor charged that the Steel Trust, for
all practical purposes, has been on
tax strike for the past five years.
1t may be gross misdemeanor in
the future for employers to refuse
to bargain collectively with their en-
ployes, if bill introduced into the
Legislature by Senator George Lom-
men, Eveleth, and Representative
Roy Wier, Minneapolis, becomes law.
The bill is patterned after the Wag-
ner Labor Relations Act and prOhib-
its labor espionage and discriminate
ton against employees for union ac-
tivity Wisconsin has similar law,
passed at the present session.
The Senate will be to blame if
this session of the Legislature adj
journs without enacting a tax pro-
gram, Speaker Harold H. Barker of
the House of Representatives de-
clared in speech to the House this
week. Unless the Senate abandOnS
its insistence on the omnibus form
of bill, it will force a special ses-
sion to be called, he warned.
The speech is the second he has
made to the Representatives during
the Legislature. He pointed out that
1.-The 1885 session failed utterly, to
meet the tax relief and tax-raising
demands of the people and this was
due primarily to the fact that the
then conservative House met the tax
issue with an omnibus bill just as
the Senate now wishes to do"
He goes on to say, ''Some of the
proposals in the Senate tax commit
tees program have not even been
considered in the House. This, 1
think, is highly unfair in that the
Senate gives us no alternative but
to accept or reject such tax pro-
posal in its entirety. We have af-
forded the Senate every opportun-
ity to accept, reject, modify or in
definitely delay individual tax bills
which we have passed.
''The House has faced its respon-
sibility honestly and courageously.
1t is not disposed to dictate to the
Senate as to what action it shall take
upon any one or more of these tax
measures. We, in the House, feel
that the Senate should accord us
like consideration.
Wonder what Senator A. J. Rock
ne will say about Farmer-Labor
spending when he learns that the
current session of the Legislature
will cost $48,068 less than the last,
according to State Auditor Stafford
King.
Appointment of four regents of
the University of Minnesota still
hangs in the balance, as the Senate
has thus far ignored the request of
the House for a joint session to
choose the regents. 1t may be left
up to Governor Benson to make the
appointments after the close of the
session, if the Legislature fails to
act.
A definite move is on foot on the
part of the reactionaries in the state
Senate to boost the 1887 real estate
taxes payable in 1888 as much as
possible in order to blame the Farm
er-Labor administration for a high
real estate tax rate
This scheme was obvious in in
sistence on the part of the Senate
majority that ST. 100000 of the emer-
gency relief appropriation be paid
out of the 1887 taxes and 100000
oft of tho 1929 tayec