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Show j JE7ZZ THAT PROPOSED AMENDMENT I VOTERS, wc are sure, we'll not on election forget that the proposed pro-posed amendment to the constitution is not only to be killed, but snowed under by indignant ballots. . There has been no parallel to it since the bull got into the China shop and smashed things. And apparently the bull had just as clear an idea of what he was doing as did the framer of this amendment. f . It was too late in life when the framer of the measure decided that he would at once proceed to become a statesman. Primarily the bill seems to have been intended to punish any man or company that had the patience, the pluck, the tenacity of purpose and the money to develop a prospect into a mine and advance the mine to a paying basis ; but while pursuing his plan another thought must have taken possession of him, which, set to words, read something like this : "The idiots who framed the original constitution decreed that the taxing power was right in the hands of all the people and must ever remain there. Now think of that ! What do the great unwashed know about taxation? I will change all that, simplify it, and reduce it to business; hence I will fix it so that the board of equalization shall select and appoint an assessor to levy the taxes. He will know just how much money will be needed, keeping in mind, of course, that the first thing to do it to put all his detective-faculties at work, find out the last penny of profit there is in working a mine and reducing the ores B from it, and then multiply that amount by three for taxation purposes. "Again, those idiots thought there should be exact levies on taxes on all kinds of property. Well, what do you think of that? As though a man who digs a thousand dollars out of the hills in a day should not pay more taxes on that property, than should the farmer who works a year for a like amount! H "Again, that fool constitution seemed to be careful to prevent the same property from being taxed more than once in the same year. How utterly ridiculous ! H "Suppose the net proceeds of a mine arc taxed and then pays dividends among stockholders, should not those shareholders be taxed on all their property? Why this everlasting struggle to shield the M rich from taxation?" H The foregoing makes clear some of the execntricities of this pro- fl posed amendment. H If, when it passed the legislature, the author of it went to his fl home, and suggested to his wife that henceforth she must be a little more careful in her dress and a little more dignified in her manners, because before very long, the people would discover how genuine a slatcman he is ; he was justified, for that would have been just as sen- siblc as is this proposed amendment. H |