Pingree's Tax Views

PINEGREE'S TAX VIEWS

Supply the One Struggle of Interest in the Michigan Republican Convention. 

ATKINSON BILL IS THE ISSUE.

Committee on Resolutions Adopts a Compromise Declaring for Equal Taxation---Platform Adopted as Reported, Including a Plank Against Free Silver---Judge Grant Renominated---Initiative and Referendum Party Organized.

Jackson, Mich., March 2--John J. Carton, of Fiint, was the temporary chairman of the state Republican convention which met here yesterday. He is a Pingree leader. After preliminary organization a recess was taken, and during this recess the committee on resolutions had a long and heated contest over a proposition to reaffirm a clause in the state platform of 1898, which declared in favor of the passage of the Pingree-Atkinson bill for taxation of railroad, express and telegraph property. Anticipation that a reaffirmation of this plank by the convention would assist largely toward the passage of the Atkinson bill by the senate, in which body the bill is now pending, made the question a hotly debatable one. A motion to reaffirm the entire 1898 platform was defeated by a vote of 6 to 5.

Plank on Railway Taxation.

A sub-committee consisting of two anti-Pingree men and one Pingree man recommended a platform which made no reference to the Atkinson bill, but indorsed the "administration of Gov. Pingree, and hereby affirm our declarations in favor of such laws as will compel every dollar's worth of taxable property within our state to bear its just, fair and equal share of the public burdens." The committee by a vote of 5 to 7 refused to substitute the 1898 taxation declaration for the one quoted. Finally by a vote of 7 to 5 the following was substituted by the committee for the plank in question: "And we recommend that the present legislature pass some act that shall embody the principle of equal taxation to which our party is already committed."

Balance of the Platform.

The remainder of the platform expresses confidence in President McKinley and congratulates the country upon establishment of honorable peace; the revival of industry and prosperity is accredited to the wisdom of Republican principles and their administration; gratitude is expressed for the sacrifices of soldiers and sailors in the late war. The money plank is as follows: "We reaffirm the principles of the St. Louis platform, and pledge them our support as a sure guarantee of national prosperity and honor; we stand upon the existing gold Standard, and condemn the proposition to admit silver to free and unlimited coinage at the ratio of 16 to 1." A minority report was submitted reaffirming last year's taxation plank. The convention had a warm fight over the two reports, but adopted the majority report.

Judge Grant Renominated.

Judge Claudius B. Grant was nominated to succeed himself as justice of the supreme court on the fourth ballot. There were six other candidates, the leaders in point of strength being ex-Attorney General Maynard, of Grand Rapids, and Judge P. T. Van Zile, of Detroit. Justice Grant led with a big vote throughout. The two candidates for regents of the university, Colonel H. S. Dean, of Ann Arbor, and Colonel Eli R. Sutton, of Detroit, were nominated by acclamation.