Gubernatorial Messages 761 



My message to the Legislature of March 27, 1899, 

 ran in part as follows : 



"At present the farmers, the market gardeners, 

 and the mechanics and tradesmen having small hold- 

 ings are paying an improper and excessive portion 

 of the general taxes, while at the same time many of 

 the efforts to remedy this state of affairs, notably in 

 the direction of taxing securities, are not only un- 

 wise, but inefficient, and often serve merely to put 

 a premium upon dishonesty." 



"There is evident injustice in the light taxation 

 of corporations. I have not the slightest sympathy 

 with the outcry against corporations as such, or 

 against prosperous men of business. Most of the 

 great material works by which the entire country 

 benefits have been due to the action of individual 

 men, or of aggregates of men, who made money for 

 themselves by doing that which was in the interest 

 of the people as a whole. From an armor plant to 

 a street railway no work which is really beneficial to 

 the public can be performed to the best advantage of 

 the public save by men of such business capacity that 

 they will not do the work unless they themselves re- 

 ceive ample reward for doing it. The effort to 

 deprive them of an ample reward, merely means 

 that they will turn their energies in some other 

 direction; and the public will be by just so much 

 the loser. Moreover, to tax corporations or men 

 of means in such a way as to drive them out of the 

 State works great damage to the State. To drive 

 16 VOL. XIV 



