Year: 1874




write from Nile Postoffice, Brown coun-
ty, Minn., to the Farmers Union,
says:


sAllow me to ask where as the great and
good Donnelly when the new tax law bill
made its first appearance before the law
making power OF our State? Perhaps he
was out on a mission of political mercy to
some benighted Grange instructing them in
his pet system of development, or in quest
of hay seed Surely he was not present at
the deliberations of that august body on the
aforesaid bill--if he had been would we not
have heard his voice, like peals of thunder,
against such an ungodly law The new tax
once took place in the British House of Com
mons, regarding bill to levy heavy tax
on the poor of Ireland IT met with some
opposition until distinguished statesman
arose in his place and gave utterance to the
following Load them down like donkeys;
they will draw like mules Tax payers OF
Minnesota; how poor are we this day from
a realization Of the sentiment thus expressed
10y lawless tyrant of Great Britain Load
down the tax payers of Minnesota like don
keys, they win draw like mules"


We would say to dunderhead that we
opposed that tax law; that we foretold
the very evil it is caused; that we de-
feated it for time-we mean the de-
linquent tax law-and that we then
moved to reconsider the vote by
which the general tax law passed
and bring it back from the House for
necessary changes. The St. Paul Press
report Of debates, as well as the jour.
nal Of the Senate, will show these state.
mcnts to be true. The motion to recon.
slider was, we are sorry to say, lost by a
tie vote.


We still believe in the prompt pay.
ment of taxes; but we do not think the
great end of government is to extort
money out of the people. Every dollar
of unnecessary taxation is crime.


We sympathized in the efforts of our
honored friend, Senator Mealey, ol
Wright county, to make the owners OF
great tracts of pine lands pay their
share of the taxes but the Republican
knaves seized upon the protest and
passed law which will not touch the
pine land rings, while it has forced many
a poor man to mortgage his homestead,
and has filled the county treasures
with vast sums of money, which will be
-speculated in by the banks or stolen by
the knaves.


The whole mistake comes from the
Republican party having no sympathy
with the working people. A law that
would compel prompt obedience is re-
garded by them as good law, even
though it crushes out thousands. Their
answer is,-a man has no right to be
poor. If he is rich, he has a right to
do anything. Hence, when we told
them, last winter, that great numbers
OF our best people were in arrears for
their taxes, simply because they had
not the money to pay them with, they
Scoffed at US. The truth is, that in the
great struggle through which thousands
Of our farmers have passed, during the
Hast ten years, they were compelled, by
the dread of the Sheriff, to pay their
store bills, machine notes, and mortga-
ges, first; and when they go through
with these they had very little money
left to pay taxes with.


And on the heels Of great crisis
which devastated the whole financial
world; with hundreds of thousands of
people out of work in all the eastern
cities; with our own mechanics, trades
men and merchants, all feeling the
pinch of the hard times; with a large
portion of our own State swept bare by
the grasshoppers: our glorious Rcpub-
lican legislature, while it increased its
appropriations Sl57, 900, employed cum
ming lawyers to devise an iron-clad
thumb-screw law, that would extort the
last dollar of unpaid taxes out of the
people even though it took the heart S
blood with it.


These Republican fellows have no
gospel but ROB and sQuANDER. The
money must be spent and the people
must pay it. Why should the slaves
complain! What rights have theyl
What though pinching want stares
them in the facet What though wife
and children suffer! What though the
old homestead has to be mortgacedl
The Republicans will point with exul-
tation to the fact that there are 100000
u the hands of the banks of the coun.
try, bearing 4 per cent. interest per an
mum, while the people borrow back
their own money from the banks at Il
per cent, or from sharpers at a per
cent. And this is good government
This is government Of the people, by
the people and for the people.


Now in saying all this we do not
mean that people should not pay their
taxes; but they should not pay one dol.
lar more than is necessary. And it is
n great deal more important that the
money of the people should not be