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Show Mining laxation ,-.......,, , . A committee consisting of R. C. Gemmell, M. P. Braffott, John M. Hayes, Walter Finch and fl 0. H. "Doollttlo representing the mining Interests H of the state have been working diligently for a H fortnight to prevent the amending of Section 4 of H Article 13 of the State Constitution. H Somo of tho arguments against the resolutions M Introduced by Mr. Rideout and Mr. Pago which H wero sdnt out to hundreds of prominent citizens H preceding tho meeting held at tho 'Senate Chamber H Friday ovoning are contained in tho following H address and compilation of tho assessed valuation H of all tho proportyi In tho state for the year 1914, H the total tax assessed and tho proportionate dis- H tribution of these taxes against the largo corpora-H corpora-H H To the Honorable, the Members of the State H Legislature: . M Without questioning in the least tho motives H of legislators or doubting in tho least their de- H siro to servo tho state, with justice to the state M and to tho best interests of the people, still wo H aro not unaware of tho fact that the best men H aro liable to orr, and, moreover, we are aware H that only a few of tho men of tho world fully com- H proband tho especial province of money as com- H parod with other forms of property or the slgnlfl- H canco of tho difference between values and the H measure of values. H Tho framers of the Constitution of Utah H thrashed this matter all over and Anally adopted tho section four of article thirteen which Messrs. H Rideout and Page desire to have amended. H It was adopted for two 'reasons. One because H it provided for a fair taxation; the other was to H take it out of the power of assessors or boards H to punish men when they have tho courage and H skill to uncover ore bodies. H There was a third reason with some who vot- H ed for tho section which came of the knowledge H that tho paramount interest of Utah is mining Hj and that any blow to mining would in its rebound H bo a blow to every other industry in tho state. M Tho fathers worked hard from 1G20 to 1849. H The work they performed was most splendid, but H nt tho end of those two hundred and twenty-nine H years tho country was so poor that the nation's H standing flnacially was no stronger than that of H Spain or Turkey. The transformation since has H been due to mining. H In a small way that history has been paralleled H in Utah. H The soil in the east was as rich and raised as fl good crops in 1800 as In 1900. In 1800 the farm- H ors burned their corn for fuel, in 1900 they sold H It for a generous price to feed a hungry world. H Tho resaon they could do that was that the mines H had supplied the money or credit to build the H roads to transfer the crop to the seashore and H beyond, and because tho volume of money ob- H tainod from tho mines gave a new measure to the H value of tho crop. H It Is easy and perhaps natural for some men H to say "If tho mines of a rich company are sell- H ing on tho market at $30,000,000.00 they should be H assessed that amount." H But the same men would never say that in- H asmuch as a farmer's crop, because of a great M Avar, has doubled in value this year his assessmo . H should be doubled. M If Mr. Rideout or Mr. Page owned a farm that H had in former years yielded twenty bushels of H wheat to tho acrr, and this year had found a bed M of nitrates and fertilized his-land and It had yield- H od sixty bushels to the' acre he would not believe HI it fair to treble his assessment. H 'If either one sold his-wheat last year at sixty M cents per bushel find again this year at $1.20 per bushel he would protest against a proposed doubling doub-ling of the assessment on his farm, insisting that tho bettor price was due to an accident this year and that if lie had made more money the income in-come tax was lying in wait to seize his percentage percent-age of profits. But his increased profits would help no one savo himself, except that he might be a little more generous in his spendings. Now take, for instance, the case of the Utah Copper company. Tho mines are on ground that had been held as worthless from the beginning. At last one man, through his genius and after years of toil and study, believed he could reduce the mountain and from it save a fraction of profit. To try to realize his belief, he knew in advance that an almost al-most appalling expenditure of money would be required in establishing a plant; that to carry it on would make it necessary to install the most gigantic machinery obtainable, and employ an army of working men. Ho had tho genius to enlist the needed capital, capi-tal, tho monthly payroll of the enterprise has ever since been a providence to the employees and indirectly to this city and state. Moreover, he has from the beginning paid a higher tax on all tho material Improvements he had made than any farmer of the state pays on his farm. Really all tho taxes the farmers pay are on their improvements. If any one doubts this, let him note what taxes are levied on a totally unimproved un-improved tract of land adjoining an improveed tract. Again, if a farm is Intelligently cultivated it will yield more a hundred years hehco than It will today, but it is taxed only for this year. The more rapidly a mine Is worked, the sooner It will revert back to a desert. Then mining is a constant risk. Mines are filled with faults In the formation, intrusions of barren matter, sudden sud-den decreases of pay ore below tho limit of profitable pro-fitable working; rebellious ores; the sudden dropping drop-ping in the value of the product below the cost of production, or tho misguided legislation which paralyzes both genius and industry and causes what was a blessing to thousands to revert to a waste. So well is this known that in some counties premiums are given to men who find and open mines. But to return to the original theme, what has been done and is being done with the Utah Copper Cop-per has advanced tho value of every piece of property in Salt Lake City and every farm in the state of Utah, and has become a factor In the calculations of the financiers in the financial centers cen-ters of the world. The work has been the means of di awing millions of capital to Utah; of opening open-ing new sources of wealth In many other countries. coun-tries. The measure of tho world's weplth is the volume vol-ume of money. What tho farmer produces is eaten up or perishes, what the miner produces remains; it is labor Immortalized and in Its now form continues to work and to control tho world's prices. Except for tho mines, Utah would still be a region of small farms and stock ranges and her largest cities would have been but hamlets. The first thrill came with the opening rf the Emma mine; then followed the mines of Cottonwood, Cotton-wood, Bingham, Parley's Park, Beaver, Tintlc and the others; their direct results are seen in splendid splen-did structures and great enterprises on every 'land, their Indirect effects are seen- In our superb. equipped state. And ever since statehood came, they have paid just as groat a ratio of taxation as any other form of property. Why then the special desire to L lay now burdens upon them? "But," people say, "some of the miners aro amassing gigantic fortunes." iSomo aro growing grow-ing rich, hut vastly more have failed. And what one who has gained a fortune or is gaining a fortune, who has not paid more to working men, to transportation and machinery companies, than all the farms in this valley have during all time? What ono has not paid an equal quota of taxation with tho farmers, and who has not by the product hd has taken from the ground made the property of every man In tho state more valuable. And if ho realizes any profit is not the in- M, come tax gatherer waiting to assess it, and if he ' dies possessed of somo wealth, as the stone carver is chiseling the "Hie Jacet" on the stone that Is to mark his grave, if he looks up from his work, will he not see tho Inheritance tax collector waiting wait-ing to levy his assessment when the last rites shall be over? The miners ask simply for justice. They pay as great a ratio of taxes now as any other class of people. They pay infinitely more to obtain what they get than any other class of people. Their product has not only a temporary value, but at once becomes a permanent part of the world's wealth, and, so far as it goes, makes more valuable the property of every other man. Before the section in the Constitution, which it is now the effort to repeal, was placed there, it received the careful consideration of men who were 'perhaps as capable of judging the matter In all its bearings, as any other body of like numbers num-bers in Utah. Under It the very foremost agent in making the people of Utah prosperous has 'been, mining. What occasion is there to change It? What justice would there he In changing it? Accompanying this letter you will find a comparative com-parative statement showing the assessed valuation valua-tion of the state, together with the proportion of taxes paid by each county in tho state. We therefore petition your honorable body to let our State Constitution stand as it is, and there-hy there-hy encourage the development of our mineral lands, especially our hydro-carbon and Iron mines that have as yet hardly been touched. Respectfully submitted, W. S. McCoraick, M. H. Walker, John A. Pingree, Charles W. Penrose, T, R. Cutler, W. W. Armstrong, Arm-strong, R. T. Badger, John C. Cutler, Win. M. Bradley, C. C. Goodwin, Charles S. Burton, Thomas G. Webber, George T. Odell, J. c. Lynch, E. E. Calvin, A. B. Apperson, Heber J. W Grant, W. H. Dickson. Assessed Valuation and Taxes Levied for Year 1914. The total assessed valuation of all the property prop-erty in the State of Utah for the year 1914 was $221,G11,412.00, and the total tax assessed on this valuation was $8,162,977.57. In order to show how this assessed valuation 'has heen distributed amongst the largo corporations of the state, including in-cluding mines and smelters, together with the amount assessed against the leading cities of the state, with the percentage applying to each, we M submit the following table: Assessed Per Valuation. Cent. Mines and Smelters $ 24,985.700.00 11.27 Railroads 32,28'5,237.00 14.57 Telegraph and Telephones Companies 1,948,101.00 .88 Express Companies 94,650.00 .04 Car Companies ,491,478.00 .22 Power Companies 5,741,296.00 2.59 Live Stock 11,008,953.00 5.27 Merchandise and Trade Uilx- tures 12,042,419.00 5.43 ' Machinery, Tools and Implements Imple-ments 6,872,794.00 3.10 I Money, Solvent Credits 9,996,046.00 4.51 Salt Lake City 08,143,339.00 30.74 Ogden City 14,854,540.00 6.71 Provo City 3,253,308.00 1.47 Logan City 2,506,862.00 1.13 Brlgham City 1,095,889.00 .49 All Lands, Farms, City Lots (except above) with all Improvements 25,630,840.00 11.58 I $221,611,412.00 o, The total tax collected in the entire state was $8,162,977.57. Then follows a table of what was paid .by the various counties with over 41 per cent paid by Salt Lake county alone. During the year 1914, the Utah Copper Company Com-pany paid out In taxes for all purposes $281,470.36. This included the taxes on their railroad between Bingham and Garfleld. By referring to the above table showing the amount of taxes collected in each county, it will be seen that the Utah Copper Company paid a greater amount than the total tax collected in any one of twenty-two out of the twenty-seven counties in the state. The mines and smelters of the state were assessed as-sessed 11.27 per cent of the total assessed valuation, valua-tion, whereas all of the farms, comprlslr nearly six 'million acres, together -with the towns and cities (outside of the five shown in the statement above),, -with all of their improvements were only assessed 11.58 per cent of the total assessed valua-tiontion valua-tiontion of the state in the year 1914. The aver- Iage assessed valuation per acre was $5.25. Mining lode claims are assessed $5.00 per acre. In addition to this, the tax indirectly resulting through the mining business represents a very large proportion of the total assessed valuation. Such cities as Bingham, Park City, Eureka, Mammoth, Mam-moth, Silver Oity, Kenilworth, Sunnyslde, Hiawatha, Hia-watha, Clear Creek, Scofield,. Garfield Helper Mid-vale Mid-vale Murray, Moreland, Black Hawk, and many others exist largely on account of mining and smelting. " The railroads derive a large proportion of their business through the mining industry of the state, and tills is also true of the power companies. The City of Salt Lake Is assessed 30.74 per cent of the total valuation, which is a greater proportion pro-portion than that assessed against all other cities cit-ies and farms and live stock in the state, together I with all machinery, tools, Implements and build ings. jfjt The mines and smelters, together with the publio service corporations, are assessed 29.57 per cent of the total valuation; money and solvent credits 4.5 per cent; merchandise and trade fixture fix-ture 5.4 per cent. Adding Salt Lake City's proportion pro-portion of 30.74 per cent makes a total of these companies including Salt Lake City, of 70.25 per cent. All other business, including all the lands and farms and all of the cities outside of Salt Lake City are only assessed 29.75 per cent of the total assessed valuation of the state. There are 52,597.700 acres of land in the state of Utah. Of this there are only 6,135,642 acres assessed, leaving 46,462,118 acres not assessed, ' and, therefore, not paying one cent of taxes to the 9 state. Undoubtedly a great deal of this land Is undeveloped mineral land and every effort should be made by our legislature to encourage the development de-velopment of our mineral lands; wise laws should be enacted to encourage capital to come Into this state. If wo increase the burden of the miner, It will retard the opening up of new propertied and frighten capital away. The largest low grade mine in the, Btato of Utah, and which is situated in Salt Lako county, paid out during the year 1914, $12,196,817.00, as follows: Labor $ 3,411,988.00 Supplies and Fuel 1,892,006.00 Smelting and Refining Charges 4,103,506.00 Freights 1,9G1,966.00 Power and Light 336,650.00 General Expense 166,944.00 Taxes (including B. and G. Railway) 281,470.00 Insurance 42,287.00 $12,196,817.00 It will bo seen by the foregoing that the sum paid working men by one mine during the past year (although that mine 'was working at only one-half capacity nearly five months of the year), amounts to $3,411,988.00 which, in the face of radical rad-ical legislation or a fall of a trifle in the price of copper, will necessarily cease. John M. Hayes. |