Jasper County Democrat, Volume 23, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 August 1920 — TAX CUBE BILL IS BULLED FRAUD [ARTICLE]

TAX CUBE BILL IS BULLED FRAUD

Evan B. Stotsenburg, Formerly State Attorney-General, Sees Goodrich Joker In Hastily Drafted Measure. MANY FLAWS ARE CITED Indianapolis, Ind. —Evan B. Stotsenburg of New Albany, formerly state attorney-general, took issue, In a statement given out today with three important acta passed by the recent session of the legislature. Mr. Stotsenburg, whose administration of the attorney-general’s office raised him to a high rank among Indiana attorneys, has given particular study to the Tuthlll-Kiperi curative measure; the Johnson so-called homerule bill and the coal control bill. “I think the Tuthlll-Klper measure is a fraud on the face of It.” he said. “The evident purpose of it is to force what wll be a legalization of the action of the state board of tax commissioners In applying horizontal increases and which were declared illegal by the supreme court. Witi Reaffirm Assessments. “The plan that- evidently will be carried out will be this: The tax board/ will affirm Its action in making the Ificreases. The assessments will be then just where the board illegally placed them last August. Thus affirmed they will go to the local boards of review and they will be either forced to accept them, or make up a new levy if they reject them. . “This last necessity Is the club held over the local boards. It would have been much more honest to have equalized than legalized the action of the board. Time will show that no relief Is given against the Illegal and unauthorized action of the state board. “The home-rule bill is a little better, but is still open to objection. If home rule is right on and after January 1, 1921, why not now? Then there is this inconsistency about it: The county council now makes all county tax levies and passes upon and authorizes, either directly or Indirectly, all county boffiis issues. So far as these things are concerned the law permits an appeal from the body taking the original action to the same body. AU these matters are purely local and the officers having charge of them are responsible to the people for their acts. Let the appeal be to the electorate at the polls.

Coal Control BUI Weak. "The coal control bll is no better. Mr. Goodrich, or at least his family, is largely interested in this Industry. How deeply interested has never been told. If the coal measure is constitutional then tj>et administration is placed in the hands of Mr. Goodrich and his appointee, Jesse Eschbach. Just how firm a control the governor has over Mr. Eschbach is shown by their actions in the two special sessions. Whenever Goodrich needs a speaker. Eschbach resign* from the State Board of Accounts and when the special session is concluded he is immediately reappointed. “I believe the following provisions of the measure will be held invalid: The power to fix prices; the power to confiscate either mines or coal; the inquisition powers therein contained, such as compelllirg the production of books and papers, and the license fees to be charged operators and dealers. "I further predict that If the act 1* held valid that Its effect will be to drive coal out of the state and to prevent coal from coming in.” Experts who have studied the tax** tlon measures coincide with Mr. Stotsenburg’s views. The fact that the Tuthill-Kiper measure is causing untold confusion throughout the state causes no surprise here among those familiar with Its enactment. The true story of the taxation measure has Just been told. Confereeg Kept Prisoner*. After the senate and house had deadlocked for days on a solution of the problem a little breakfast was held In Indianapolis on Friday morning, July 30, attended by Senator New, Governor Goodrich, State Chairs man E. M. Wasmuth and Warren T. McCray. It was decided the session must be ended that day. Accordingly the tax conferees to gether with Ed. Jackson, candidate for re-election as secretary of state; U. S. Lesh, candidate for attorneygenefal, and Fred Sims of the tax board are said to have been ordered locked up and not let out until they reached an agreement. It Is recalled now that meals were carried to the conferees they did not appear until a deAlon was reached. There, looked in a room, prisoners of the Goodrich administration, those men were forced to an agreement that their colleagues had been unable to reach in thred weeks of bickering. \ “No wonder the measures are full of the customary Goodrich fliaws,” said one man who tad watched; the proceedings.