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Show I Miner Claims Amendment ,! . .. . . , : ; , to Be Wrong Says Poor Men's Interests are Against Mines Amendment jj " ; .... 1 W From Labor News, Salt Lake City, U tah, jj Oct. 26, 1918: jj 1 , There has been a lot of stuff in the papers j lately from professors, lawyers and other high- J brows about this mining amendment, but I have ! not seen anything yet about where the working t man gets off. i I am not going to waste your space or my. time ( with the "theories" of this thing. 1 am going to ' point out how it will get to you or me, if we are II miners, or to our fellow workers in the mines or ! on the railroads. The few dollars I am assessed on my sticks of j J , furniture don't amount to much. You might say N j ! that my taxes were the least of my troubles. And, j l! that's the truth. It's the taxes I am paying for , j j other people that get my nanny goat. From Janu- j 'I ary 1 to December 31, this is what you get: j j "Yes, Bill, the grub's a little dearer, but our i jj taxes have been raised." ' i Si ' Jj "Sorry, Bill, but we'll have to charge you more j "ii for your overalls. Tax on cloth, you know." j JJ "Rent'll be higher next month, Bill. Taxes on i real estate gone up." . - ! ii i JJ But when there is a public meeting, watch the , J t jj white collar boys come to the front and yell, "Mr. S Chairman, I demand to be heard because I am a i JJ citizen and a taxpayer." i ii - ' !J :, Suppose this amendment passes and. the state i h board of equalization proceeds to soak it to the ! JJ . mines. I would not care about that if a lot of rich S JJ mine owners had to dig up for it. I would like E JJ- to see that. But we know what happens in se3 J! like that. We know who has to dig for ev?ry- jj thing that is soaked onto the capitalists. The S Jj ultimate consumer. The working man. He has to J ii pay one way or another, . . , .. J M fi h You take a metal mine and increase its taes. m What does it do? It can't raise the price o' its ii metal, because the smelter trust fixes that. So . ! what does it do? It takes it out of the miner by ii reducing his" wages. Every time. If he won't " stand for it, they shut down and he can h!t the J m trail for some other place, , , , , ,'' B The coal mine can play the thing twi ways. "8 They can reduce waes or they can boos; the price g B of coal. Nowadays all they have to do is' to show g g the government that their expenses have in- JJ m creased, and up goes the price of coal. That hit3 S S all of us. Before they got in the government's ' Jj , 5 hands they didn't have to show anybody. They M m just boosted the price and that's what they will . do again when the government lets go of them S g if it ever does. ' JJ n Mr Kirkham says in your paper that the coal g n companies are not kicking at the amendment. g B Why should they? All they have to do is say to g B the head bookkeeper, "This new tax will cost us g n 7 cents a ton. Seven is a hard number to add up, g ! so make it a round number. Charge Bill 50 cents m a ton more for his coal." h tm . ti m There's another thing about this. Lots of Jj K miners get a little grubstake once in a while and JJ B go but prospecting, trying to get hold of a good g m claim so they can make a few dollars, and get . g S away from working in a hole in the ground for a g B change. Suppose they locate a good claim and g B try to sell it to somebody, what happens ? "Not . g g for me," he tells them, "I don't intend to buy any g g claim and get taxed out of my pants." S S We have got fairly good wages in these Utah g JS mines now and I don't intend to give these mine g B owners any chance to put their men back on the JJ u old scales again. And I don't want to give any of g h these mines a chance to shut down, throwing a Jjj m lot of miners out of work and laying off a lot of JS B railroad men who handle ore and coal. S m S J If these professors and politicians will sho'V m g me something to vote for that will tax the idle g ' ' - B money and bond holders, I'm with them, but they B . don't get me to vote for fewer jobs and 'ower JJ B wages. I'm for more jobs and better wages, and ' JJ B I don't intend to give these mine owner any g h - excuse for cutting down; so I'm going to vote ' g S against the amendment. g 1 ' (Signed) HARRY ANDERSON, B g i Midvale w g - ' g . kSlXISfZII13IZi:SSXIESIIZSIIIKiIIZ3IIEliaiIZIEI |
