OCR Text |
Show I VOTERS OF UTAH: I 1 , You will have the opportunity November 7th to vote on an amendment of Article 13 of the State Constitution, relating to Revenue and VA Taxation. H ,i Many of you have been told that this amendment will increase taxes on net proceeds of .mines and thereby reduce the taxes of those vM tfl who do not own mining property. MVJ ' Will that be the result? If so, then why are not your taxes lower NOW, as net proceeds of mines increased FIVE times between state- H wy hood and 1915 and THI.S year are almost THREE times what they were last years? " ' H , J, ' Have your taxes come DOWN as mine proceeds went UP? They have NOT. H I ' Dp you think your taxes will ever be reduced by giving the tax gatherers MORE TAXING POWER? K H I Wouldn't you rather keep your present Constitution, which LIMITS the taxing powers? HH HH Do you know this amendment allows property to be CLASSIFIED and taxed at DIFFERENT RATES, without saying whose taxes HH - will be raised and whose lowered? If, as you may have been told, this is intended to reduce taxes on homes, or household goods, or HwJ farms, WHY DOESN'T IT SAY SO? Was it because they intend to do something they haven't told you about. Read the amend- HH ment and try to find the place where it says ANYBODY'S taxes will be LOWER. JhH Look at Section 9 of the amendment. It says Legislative appropria tions must not exceed the rates allowed in Section ;SIX, and Section (II Six says NOTHING about rates, which means there is NO LIMIT. Your present Constitution fixes a limit. If this change were fl 1 made intentionally it is an outrage; if it is a mistake, how many other mistakes are there? 11 Do you know the amendment WIPES OUT ENTIRELY that provision of the Constitution which says taxes shall be UNIFORM and II , EQUAL on ALL property? Why? So they can tax some of you MORE than others and this doesn't mean MINES, as mines II are treated separately in another Section. M Hfl Do you know the amendment also permits DOUBLE TAXATION of companies or corporations not only MINING companies, but ALL H f companies, including YOUR company when they decide to put that burden on you? H II Do you know this amendment proposes to take power from men ELECTED by YOU and give it to men APPOINTED by SOME- II f BODY ELSE, thereby destroying your local self government as to taxation? II H , Do you know the State Board of Equalization says Revenue and Taxation should be ENTIRELY ELIMINATED FROM THE CON- H STITUTION, and that this same board is the father of this amendment and of the new tax law which has caused so much trouble hI i HI i all over the state this year? HI u ! You know, that taxes are too high. The need of the times is not INCREASED TAXES but REDUCED EXPENDITURES all M ' down the line, so that all of us may have better opportunities to prosper and investors be encouraged to put their money into Utah enter- II ii prises instead of being driven from the state by excessive tax rates and the threat of worse to come. fl Hi n This is not an argument in the cause of the mines. We ask you to forget that Utah mines exist, or assume that they ought to be HI I taxed to the limit and beyond, if you will. Then consider this amendment as it affects YOURSELF. Read it. Understand it, if you M ' can, and then vote for it if you arc SURE it was framed for your benefit, as you KNOW the Constitution was. II I; But if you do NOT understand it, if you are NOT sure it is intended to benefit and protect you, PROTECT YOURSELVES with I i your votes on November 7th. H I If adopted, this amendment will be the SUPREME LAW of Utah, and if you are in doubt, it is your PRIVILEGE, your RIGHT, I your DUTY to I i VOTE "NO" '1 i How Is It Going? ! (TOW is the election going?" is the question m j j A on every lip. That question will probably B 1 1 be decided by the great states north of the i Ohio river and between the Mississippi River and m the eastern sea. H Those states are filled with people and great H1. industrial establishments. Just now, too, they H ? are filled with money and the work going on there H ,i is something tremendous. The Democrats are M pointing to this work and saying: "See the H prosperity our party has brought in three and H, a half brief years." If the masses take that view H Mr. Wilson will be re-elected. But will they H.j v take that view? Can the Democracy point to one H! natural, legitimate great industry that has been H quickened since their party assumed control? Hf Are not the- great industries that are piling H t. up the mighty balance in favor of the United H' States, only such as the war abroad has created? I, Should the war stop tomorrow and the war Htj orders be canceled, how many of those indus- Ij tries would continue their present rush for a Hi singlo week, and were they to suddenly slow H down and stop, what would the situation be in 3 J a single week? How would the men who are m j now working over hours find employment for H 1 the coming winter? Could the establishment m where they found work prior to the passage of Hu the "Underwood law, give them work now? If It they are considering matters from these points, il an old time vote for the Republican candidate Hhj may be expected. That, too, is the region of '1 . small farms. 't I The farmers are being told that the pros- Mi ''- perity that has been brought them is so great U that the railroads are swamped with freights. mlh But those farmers all take the daily and week- Vf ly 'papers, and it is not far reasoning for them to P understand that the rush of their crops is all i to the eastern seaboard, all destined to the hun- M gry people abroad and that it is due to the M 1 war, and further that the railroad congestion is K I because, though the war has raged for two and H I a quarter years, there are no American ships 1 there to bear their crops across the sea. If they H are considering matters from that natural stand- S point, the farmers' vote will be liable to accen- Bf tuate the vote of the cities. i But the Democrats have in their favor the fact M that excited crowds are apt not to reason much. H They take a situation as it seems at the mo- fl i ment. And this year the party in power is flush H I with money and the appeals they make are to fl ' the credulity and cowardice of the people and B . in parading an unnatural and feverish prosper- B. ity as something which has naturally come Hjbj through their policies, and so no absolute forecast Bl can be made of what the result is to be. One Hl cannot judge by the reports; both sides seem Hf ' to be sanguine. It is the same way here in Utah, K but if the vote is generally called out, Utah will H; not fail to vindicate the policies that have pre- H vailed here from the first. fij Her greatest agricultural industry was made H possible through protection, its present existence 1' and continued growth rest on that protection B and her people know that, should the election go Mf as it did four years ago, they could not count Hw upon that protection for a single half-year. H; Judged By Words And Acts H A GatN last week, President Wilson in a pub- M lie speech, declared that the people need fear flfl no war, because those who desire war will fail in M electing the president they want. I Could a more cowardly appeal for votes be WMt made than that? Could a more cringing confes- H sion be made by a president who in simulated 1 rage sent our whole Atlantic fleet to Vera Cruz Hi , on the spoken assumption that the flag had been HSV- dishonored? Hl What is it except a confession that his whole Hi performance then was but a sorry, insincere bluff intended to influence the then pending congressional congres-sional election? Of the same nature and for the same purpose that he a few months ago broke out in a scream for preparedness, and later rushed a bill through congress to fix the day's labor of a certain class oE employees at eight hour's without investigating whether the demand was just or not, though $60,000,000 of the people's money ,per annum was involved in the transaction. transac-tion. And that, too, under a threat of those men that it must be done within five days, or they would smash things? Who believes that President Wilson Wil-son would have done what he then did, had the proposition come three years sooner or had been postponed four months later? No American wants war imtiL.the situation becomes be-comes such that not to fight would be a disgrace, and no real American, for the sake of peace wants a compromise made at the sacrifice of justice and honor, and which leaves Americans the prey of lust and the desire of bandits for blood and loot. A Gloomy History UiROiE time to time we read that the compel comp-el troller of the currency or the director of the mint or some other officer of the treasury department depart-ment has fixed the price of silver, and it will be noticed that every time the price is about two or three cents per ounce lower than silver is quoted on the same day in London. This is not for silver that the government buys for coinage, but for silver that is sent for refining, base bullion bul-lion that carries silver, copper and gold. What makes the difference? Is it a seignorage that the government charges? And when did the power of fixing the price of silver settle on the dictum of any United States treasury official? We had thought that the power of fixing the price was in the world's financial center, and had been since an American congress and president determined to transmute half the world's money into a mere commodity like lead or copper or Boston baked beans. There is a curious feature about it. The struggle always seems to be to discredit the metal that the miners of the west produce. It has always been successful too. It has cost our miners more than a billion of dollars to date. It has cost the country at large much more directly, while the indirect cost can never be estimated. Aside from what it has done at home, it has driven our trans-Pacific steamers from the Pacific Pa-cific and practically killed our export trade with three-fourths of the inhabitants of the earth. During the great war the people struggled along with a debased currency, but they prospered pros-pered because they had a circulating medium, if it was debased, with which to do business. But hardly had the war closed when the struggle strug-gle to rob the world of half its money began. Less than two hundred men in London and New York were in the conspiracy. The first thing was to make the outstanding debased currency of the country which had been bought first hand at about fifty per cent discount, payable in specie. The next step was to try to destroy half the specie. This, too, when the interest bearing debt of the government and of the corporations of the country amounted to more than 4,000 millions of dollars, and when half the area of our country was as yet a wilderness to be redeemed. This was accomplished through the treachery and square lying of a few men in high stations in Washington, who were under oath to serve their country faithfully. Then silver, measured by gold began to fall in value, silver that from the first had been the steadier metal of the two and that had never fallen one penny in value so long as it had the same recognMon as gold. But at the same time the property of all kinds of all men began to fall in the same ratio, but while this wan perfectly apparent and thousands of men were being ruined monthly, the people could not see It, but when the truth was told then they refused to listen, and with an assumed superior su-perior integrity declared that they did not do-sire do-sire to pay their debts in the half-weight dollars of the thieving silver miners. Such fools these mortals be! Finally, when the business of the country was in extremity, a great crop at home and famine the outside world around, brought to us in two years a surplus of 2,000 millions of dollars, and business busi-ness revived. Then came the great unexpected gold discoveries dis-coveries of Cripple Creek, the Rand and West Australia. Business would have righted up and moved on an even keel, but the little coterie of gold men 4 in New York always held their clamps upon it. They brought on the panic of 1907, and full soon1 it was made clear that their work had killed our exports to the Orient, demoralized our exchanges ex-changes witli all Spanish-America and southern Europe; but those gold men walked in their narrow nar-row round and refused to correct the wrong they had committed, lest a restoration of silver might interfere with their control of the nation's finances. Now a great Avar has churned Europe for more than two years; the governments have drawn to themselves all the gold money and the people have no circulating medium except some paper promises to pay. These are at a vast discount now and the chances are more than even, that when the Avar finally closes the people avIH de-maud de-maud a restoration of silver money in terms that those governments Avill be forced to heed. If one live man in congress were to introduce '' a resolution, commanding the purchase and coinage coin-age of 3,000,000 ounces of silver per month for a year and include in the resolution a clause that , if in the meantime 3ilver advanced to ?1 per ounce, it should be remonetized at that ratio, silver sil-ver Avould be worth $1 per ounce all round this old Avorld Avithin sixty days; the world's exchanges Avould be regulated and business, domestic and foreign, be running on an even keel for the first time in forty years. A Valiant Champion IN the Avomen's Telegram on Monday last in conspicuous type is the folloAving: "The demonetization of silver by the Republican Republi-can party in 1873 is one of the earliest concrete Instances of this vicous tendency to benefit the feAV to the injury of the many. "Here is a AA'onderfully conspicuous instance of direct legislation in the interest of the feAV as against the many, and for this iniquitous Avrong against the masses of the people of this country, the Rpublican party is entirely responsible." The lady avIio penned the above gave a striking strik-ing illustration of the valor of Avomen in the expression of their convictions. No male Democrat, Demo-crat, not even the Avorst thug in the Sixteenth Avard in NeAV York City, Avould have dared so much. The bill of 1873 was a sneak and fraud, entered en-tered under a disguised heading, pushed through by Avholesale lying. Not one man in ten in congress, con-gress, Republican or Democrat, had any idea Avhat Avas intended by it. Indeed, Senator SteAV-art SteAV-art openly charged in the senate that the fatal clause Avas added after the bill had passed both houses. But some years after the law Avas passed, after its effects Avere seen by everybody, congress passed a Liav Avhich stopped the decline in the price of silver and Avould have eventually restored re-stored it. , But after the measure had been debated tAven-ty tAven-ty years and was Avell understood, the country Avas seized by one of those fits of insanitv Avhich seems to come to it like the scourge o locusts, once in seventeen years, and elected a Democratic Demo-cratic president. He called congress in extra session and bulldozed bull-dozed through it a bill which utterly destroyed silver as primary money, changed it into a commodity; com-modity; then permitted the New York banks to so drain the treasury of gold that he had an excuse ex-cuse for issuing $250,000,000 in bonds; insisted i that they should be sold to the house that had , depleted the treasury of gold, at 92 cents. In . a few days they were $1.08 in the open market. The bonds were wanted for no purpose except as backing for a few national banks, which have been drawing in 90 per cent of their interest ever since and which have never been called in. i It may further be stated that during the whole term of that president the country was under a most fearful business depression, but though that president had been given a university training and a course in a law school, he could not make a living in one of the most live and prosperous American cities. But he retired from the presidency with more wealth than all preced- ing presidents of the United States combined, had ever possessed. The mere statement of the above facts makes clear the courage of the Democratic lady who published the first paragraph in the above. The same lady arraigns the high protective laws passed by Republicans and charges that they were in the interest of the few as against the many. s But she naturally forgot to mention that under those laws more laboring men received generous wages and the country made more advances in wealth and power and prestige in thirty years than were ever seen before in any other country of this old world since the beginning of time. The lady is in truth a most brave lady, but if, when Mr. Hughes is elected, and she has quiet for study, she will devote about four years to the study of the political history of our country for the last fifty years; her speeches four years hence may not be any more entertaining than her writings are this year, but they will be a vastly more reliable guide for the unsophisticated voter. Our Place HAS any one ever thought that never before the world depended so much upon the United States as it does right now! All the outside great nations are involved in almost a death lock; half a dozen of the smaller nations are standing on the verge of starvation; the strain is almost unbearable, and there is nowhere no-where that the world can turn its eyes for any comfort save toward the Great Republic in its majesty and mercy and power. It shines out on the map of' the world as the one land of liberty, the one land of hope for the poor; the one land whoso watchword is Liberty and Justice; the one land whose oppor" Hies are open to all alike, the one spot that o.iers an asylum asy-lum and hope to those who are broken in fortune, and whose hearts are bowed down in sorrow. While all the atmosphere of Europe is being churned by the reverberations of the appalling Bfl war; could our hearing be refined, we should hear H in the humble and stricken homes, the daily and nightly talk, and the burden of it all would be HI that when at last the war's thunders shall be K hushed, there must be some land found where, in 111 peace there will be a chance to pick up the rav- HI eled threads of a lost fortune, and where there HI may be a chance to reweave them into fabrics H to begin to hide the world's nakedness. HH And, looking around, there is but one spot Ml where the host can center and begin this work. HI That is in our country, and for us to offer this Bll asylum and to meet the requirements that will III follow, will tax our patriotism and patience; our III fortitude and tenacity of purpose; our sense of right and determination to be Just, as they were HI never taxed before. It will need all the wisdom Hjl that we can obtain to steady the nation then. Bl The first essential will be to find 7ork for the III host, for they will all have to live and there is 111 no way to feed them, save that they be given a MM chance to earn the food they eat. And for what H they produce a market must be found. This in- IM volves the necessity of possessing a great mer- chant marine; the h' aiding and navigating a WM great fleet of merchant ships. That involves first 11 great work In the coal and iron mines; then in Ifl smelters and rolling mills; then the assembling ll of the materials on the shipyards where ships grow HI into form; then the ships to fulfill their purpose B i ! must go out against storm and might to find the m foreign ports quite half a million stalwart men pjf are needed for this; then shrewd men should he I', sent out with the ships to buy the raw material that we need to transform with American brain, ' and to find new, rich lands for poor men to own M and work, and hence all the signs point to the fl, need of protection for American labor and the m need of a merchant marine to carry away our B i products, to bring back what we need, to be our J perpetual letter of introduction to all the outside H - nations of the earth until all the world bows to m the majesty of our flag and looks to the American ' people for all they need. H! Wells Fargo & Co. H ""I"1 HE publication "Wells Fargo Messenger," Mi comes to us occasionally. One came yester- H ; day. It Is enlivened by many sketches and illus- M i 1 trations, but the illustrations were made by mod- Mi ' crnmen. '-, The front page has a picture of a modern jj Wells Fargo team and wagon. The team wears H modern trappings. A messenger is carrying m 1 packages and a young lady in modern attire is HJ waiting impatiently for something she evidently expects. Now the ladies wore crinoline in the Hi earlier and purer days" of Wells Fargo. But Hb the picture is a reminder. 1 A somewhat flighty lady, Mrs. went HI for an outing to Lake Tahoe; her trunk was to i come next day. She was on the upper veranda of the hotel at Glenbrook when the stage drove up. She knew the driver everybody knew him and she called to him: "Mr. Monk, did you bring my trunk?" "No," drawled Monk, "will bring half of it tomorrow." "Half of it, why, what do you mean?" was the anxious response. "It was too big for one coach," said Monk. "They were sawing it in two just as I came away; will bring half tomorrow." "Sawing it in two, why all my best dresses are in that trunk," screamed the woman. "Yes, I know said Monk, "which end would you rather have first?" Then the lady rushed to her husband and told him. "It won't hurt,'' he said. "When in full dress you are not more than half dressed." There is a picture of Ben Halladay's old coach, but attached to it are four stately eastern coach horses in modern comparison, and the driver is a sedate gentleman in modern attire as might be Mr. Vanderbilt and his tally-ho on an English race track. Alas. "Where are the bucking mustangs mus-tangs that were wont to jump ravines and climb nut-pine trees when attached to ,hat coach? And the driver with bear-skin cap and cape and the grace that no mustang could disturb with the wildest gyrations? And away before that, before there were any coaches; nothing but the mules hurricane deck on which to carry messages, or further back still, when the snow shoes carried the messages and the gold dust and was the circuiting guarding ' angle of the snow-bound mining camp in the high Sierras. Those were some days. ' The Wells Fargo Co. was doing missionary work as well as looking strictly after business. It may be doing the same way now in Alaska, but it leans now to railroad trains and "all the other oth-er comforts of home." J It is better so, we suspect, the old race' is about extinct. One by one they passed into the silence and one who ventures into the high Sierras Sier-ras now will hear, if he listens the requiem which the winds play daily for them on the big pines which are their harps. |