The Anti-corporation Talk

THE ANTI-CORPORATION TALK

Of Pingree's Contrasted With Winan's Anti-Corporation Laws.

--The Difference

BETWEEN TALKING AND DOING

Forcibly Shown by the Hon. Mark W. Stevens in Reviewing the record of the Democratic Legislature of 1891.

Hon. Mark W. Stevens, of Flint is receiving many compliments upon the able manner in which he is demonstrating to all his audiences that the only hope of equal taxation and relief from corporation legislation is in Democratic rule. In his address at Muskegon, after showing that, in spite of all of Gov. Pingree's cheap talk against the railroads and corporations, the people have had absolutely no relief whatever during his entire administration, nor a single anti-corporation law during two sessions of the Pingree Legislature, Mr. Stevens gave a review of the reform legislation under Winans in 1891, from which we take the following:

TAX ON MINING PROPERTIES.

Up to 1891 the mining companies were exempted from paying taxes on 640 acres. This applied to all the rich copper and Iron mines of the Upper Peninsula. They were allowed to select for this exemption in 40 acre lots, and of course selected the most valuable of their possessions, land occupied by city buildings and improvements worth millions of dollars. Under this law the mining companies escaped from just taxation of real estate for over 30 years under Republican rule. The Democrats in 1891, during the Winans administration, repealed that exemption. and subjected all the real property of mining companies to assessment and taxation the same as farm and other property.

CORPORATION FRANCHISE TAX.

Previous to 1891 corporations filed their articles of incorporation with the Secretary of State, and had them recorded at an expense of one dollar. In 1891 the Democrats passed a law charging a franchise fee upon corporations, based upon their capital stock, from which the state realized $26,026.57 the first year of its operation, enough to meet nearly half the entire expense of the state department that year.

PENALTY FOR FALSE INVENTORY.

Prior to 1891 the law prescribed no penalty for refusal to make a sworn statement of property subject to assessment. The Democratic Legislature provided a penalty––a fine of $100 or jail thirty days.

TAX ON BANK STOCK.

Prior to 1891 bank shares were as-  at their face value  The Democrats in that year made them assemble at their market value, and thus reached the surplus of the banks. lifting a portion of the burden of taxation from the shoulders of labor and placing it upon capital

RAILROAD LEGISLATION.

1. A law was passed under Governor Winans to indemnify property owners for damages suffered from corporations or persons entering property to make a railroad survey or examination.

2. An amendment to the law permitting the consolidation of railroads. providing that in such consolidation rights and franchises possessed by either of the consolidating companies, not possessed originally by a company in the consolidation should be abrogated. (It was under this law the State won in the case of Smith vs. L. S. & M. S. Ry.)

3. Prior to 1891 a railroad company that had been aided with a bonus, in money. or right-of-way. could abandon its line upon obtaining a decree of a Circuit Court. The Democrats in 1891 provided further that if such railroad line was abandoned the decree should provide for a return of the money and land that had been given the company by the people along the line. (Governor Pingree is endeavoring to make capital out of the fact that such cases exist, citing the instance of the abandonment of St. Louis. Gratiot county, by the Ann Arbor Railway. which place had given the railroad $35.000 to aid in its construction. He says the Democrats have failed to notice this wrong. when. in fact. they provided a remedy nearly eight years ago. and he has been Governor two years before he has seen it. Evidently Pingree's "don't know'" would make a bigger book than his "know." )

4. In 1891 the Democratic Legislature amended the tax law as to railroads so as to increase the revenue from them to the State to the amount of about $175,000 annually. (This law was repealed by the Republican Legislature of 1893.)

Mr. Stevens, after reciting these pregnant facts in his speech at Muskegon. concluded this part of his address as follows:

"A candid consideration of the legislative enactments made by the Democratic administration in that single term shows that Democratic policies are directed in the interest of the people and with a view of protecting the individual from the unjust and unlawful aggressions of corporate power and centralized wealth. It ought to satisfy the most ardent friend of reform, and be a sufficient guarantee that if the Democratic candidates are elected that equality of taxation and equality of rights will be substantially obtained.''