90 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



mail system, by means of which some citizens have delivered at their 

 doors and others at the postoffice, the periodicals of the day which keep 

 us in such close touch with the outside world, 



TAXES. 



A higher civilization, like all other good things, has a price; and it may 

 be a pertinent question^ ''who pays the freight?" Theoretically every 

 citizen should pay a share of the public expenses in exact proportion to 

 the value of his possessions. In practice I am forced to believe that all 

 do not pay their just share. Taxes are as sure as death and should be 

 distributed with equal impartiality. Are they? It becomes my duty 

 each year to ]:^y taxes upon city and country property. Upon the city 

 property I pay upon a one-fourth valuation. That is lots which cost two 

 hundred, whose regular market price is two hundred, and which are 

 continually changing hands at that price, are assessed at fifty dollars, 

 while some country property, located in the same county, with no im- 

 provements whatever, is assessed at thirty dollars per acre, a very fair 

 selling price for the same. 



In some of our cities it is quite the fashion to offer a suspension of 

 taxes for a term of years as an inducement for manufacturers to come to 

 that town. This is, it seems to me, rank injustice. 



It is an undisputed fact that a number of our strongest corporations 

 practically escape taxation altogether. It is said that should they come 

 up to the rack and pay as others are required to, that they would be forced 

 . to suspend. We have only their word for this, and I very much question 

 their veracity. If^ however, they cannot; let them do as any farmer 

 would be forced to under similar circumstances and let some better man- 

 ager or cheaper method supersede them. 



I am absolutely sure that the farmers of Michigan want only justice. 

 We are entirely willing to contribute our just proportion of the expenses 

 of State, county and municipality, but we do insist that all classes of 

 <?itizens contribute equally. At the outset I mentioned 



EDUCATION. 



In this matter it seems to me that we farmers of Michigan have good 

 grounds for self congratulation. Our primary schools are in our own 

 hands. Our Agricultural College is acknowledged to be one of the very 

 best of its kind and is doing a mighty work for the class it represents. It 

 is our College and we should give it our support. Let us hope the pres- 

 ent legislature will be liberal in its dealings with the Michigan Agricul- 

 tural College. 



In matters aside from education I feel that many of us do not enjoy 

 the privileges to which we are entitled. I believe that as a class we do 

 not exert the influence that we should and that other classes of citizens 

 of less numbers and infinitely less importance commercially are more 

 powerful in influence than we. The reason is obvious. While other 

 lines of business have been cementing their interests by means of unions, 

 trusts, and corporations, and adopting as their watchword co-operation, 

 we have in a large measure stood apart, each conducting an individual 

 defensive movement. In this we are many, many years behind the times. 



I will not take vour time in discussing the wonders achieved by unions, 



