762 Gubernatorial Messages 



out of a community the men of means and the men 

 who take the lead in business enterprises would 

 probably entail, as one of its first results, the star- 

 vation of a considerable portion of the remainder 

 of the population. 



"But while I freely admit all this, it yet remains 

 true that a corporation which derives its powers from 

 the State should pay to the State a just percentage 

 of its earnings as a return for the privileges it en- 

 joys. This should be especially true for the fran- 

 chises bestowed upon gas companies, street railroads 

 and the like. The question o<f the municipal owner- 

 ship of these franchises can not be raised with pro- 

 priety until the governments of all municipalities 

 show greater wisdom and virtue than has been re- 

 cently shown, for instance, in New York City; and 

 the question of laying and assessing the tax for 

 franchises of every kind throughout the State should 

 in my opinion be determined by the State itself. I 

 need not point out to you that in foreign communi- 

 ties a very large percentage of the taxes comes from 

 corporations which use the public domain for pipes, 

 tracks and the like." 



I stated that the power of assessing the tax on 

 franchises should be left with the State authorities 

 not the local authorities because in my view this 

 was desirable both for the sake of providing against 

 improper favoritism! of or discrimination against 

 corporations by the local authorities, for the sake 

 of working equity as between the franchises in dif- 

 ferent localities, and finally for the sake of providing 



