94 PROCEEDINGS OF THIRTY-THIRD FRUIT-GROWERS ' CONVENTION. 



not accomplish by fair means they have done through their several 

 legislatures, and by mutilation in amendments and legislative enact- 

 ments have destroyed Article XIII to such a degree that a united effort 

 is necessary on the part of the producer to bring about restoration 

 through the courts. Perhaps the most revolutionary and gross viola- 

 tion was the Act of 1883, eliminating cities and towns from road dis- 

 tricts, thereby exempting them from taxes for road purposes. This, I 

 hold, is a great injustice, as well as being clearly in violation of Article 

 XIII, Section 1, of the Constitution of California, where it says : "All 

 taxes are to be equal and uniform." Again, same article and section : 

 "To make a tax void the absence of all possible public interest must be 

 shown clear and palpable." While the law of 1883 put upon us unjust 

 burdens, it was left for the late lamented Legislature to wholly disre- 

 gard our constitutional rights and, against good public policy, add more 

 burdens, in which justice was dashed to the winds. I refer to the Act 

 authorizing and maintaining boulevards, and the Act adding twenty 

 cents more to the forty cents already paid on each $100 by the farmer 

 for road purposes. It appears that this twenty-cent law is not for 

 general road purposes, but to make new roads and, as far as my observa- 

 tion goes, is for private parties, which is clearly class legislation. In 

 further proof of the injustice of our road laws and incidentally of the 

 exorbitance of the road tax in California, I quote correspondence from 

 two counties, one each in Iowa and Illinois, which have practically no 

 road material within their respective counties, and besides have to 

 contend with winter frosts that each spring leave the roads in very 

 bad condition : 



Anamosa, Iowa, November 13, 1907. 



Mr. A. N. Judd, Watsonville, Cal. 



Dear Sir: Replying to your inquiry addressed to the County Assessor, say : That we 

 have a consolidated tax which includes State, County, State agricultural college, State 

 university, State normal, poor outside the poorhouse, soldiers' relief, and 1 mill for 

 school fund, bridges and roads. All property in the county pays the same levy to these 

 funds. 



Respectfully yours, 



W. K. PEARSON, Treasurer, Jones County. 

 Sycamore, DeKalb County, Illinois, November 14, 1907. 



A. N. Judd, Watsonville, Cal. 



Dear Sir: Cities and villages in Illinois pay the same rate of road and bridge tax as 

 farm property. 



Yours truly, 



L. C. SHAFTER, County Treasurer. 



I selected these two counties because they are well settled and each 

 has many streams that demand much bridging, besides having consider- 

 ably sized cities and towns Jones County has an area of 516 square 

 miles and a population of 23,000. DeKalb County has an area of 646 

 square miles, with a population of 35,000. 



Is it not a bit singular that the entire agitation and support of our 



