The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, March 21, 1921, Page 16

U ADVERTISEMENTS LVL citizensof Minneapolis now pay 3 cents a copy or 15 cents a week for the newest newspaper in the Twin Cities, preferring it to seven other newspapers selling for two-thirds the price or less. They say it’s “worth more than the difference.” The reason is that MINNESOTA DAILY STAR is a fair newspaper is a free newspaper The Star is the one newspaper in the Twin Cities which is fair to the cause of the organized farmer. "It is the one newspaper which is fair to the cause of the organized workers. The Star makes a conscientious effort to report the world’s news and the news of the nation and the West as it is. 2 The Star is free. It is free of all the strings of special privilege. It does not serve any group of banks. It does not serve any aggrega- tion of advertisers. It does not color its news to suit the ideas of the “business community” or the exploiters of labor and the farmers. When a college professor says the farmers of the Northwest are being robbed of many millions by grain gambling and rigging the markets, the Star does not ask the chamber of commerce or the president of a bank whether this is news “fit to print.” The Star prints it and lets the grain gamblérs rave. ‘When a former president of the chamber of commerce confesses that -grain market manipulation has stolen millions from farmers and business men alike and ruin- ed business the Star prints that, too. ° The columns of the Star are open to fair discussion. Qur motto is “Let the truth prevail and let the kept press be shamed by the knowledge that the farmers and the workers can afford to be fair.” . LR The Star stands for freedom and honest Americanism. The Star Is a Real NE WSpaper It has as good telegraphic and local news service as any paper in the West. It has illustrated features that are unexcelled. It has complete market reports. It has the best sporting page in the Twin Cities. It has leased wire service of the International News service, the correspondence and dispatches of the Fed- erated Press and receives dispatches from able correspondents all over the nation. It has an editorial page so strong that thoughtful men and women of all classes and leaders in public life buy it to get its viewpoint on public questions. 2 Cheap Men Buy Cheap Newspapers The Star is not published for those who can not understand how news pervertéd in the interest of advertisers and big business alliances is corrupting the public: mind. It is published for those who are willing ‘to open théir eyes and their minds and to think. Those who want something cheap will take what big busi- ness hands them. They will swallow the opiate and go back to sleep. They will say that $7.50 in Minnesota and the states bordering on Minnesota, and $9.00 outside those states is “too much to pay for a newspaper that hasn’t as many pages as the others.” Very well. We won’t quarrel with them. -The Star is not for them. It’s for Americans who believe in America and progress, who are for democracy and against autocracy, who are willing to buy_the truth, even if it costs more than a lie. Would you like to enroll among them? Use the Coupon Below - MINNESOTA DAILY STAR DAILY STAR BUILDING, 427 SIXTH AVENUE S., MINNEAPOLIS. 205 Enclosed find $ (seven-fifty if you live in Minnesota, North Dakota,. South Dakota, Towa or Wisconsin—nine dollars if you live outside those states) for the newspaper which costs more and is worth ‘more because the truth is worth more than a lie. Please enroll me for one year's subscription. - Farmers’ Ideas on the Nolan Bill Zone Plan or Graduated Tax Needed to Make It Equitable, g Readers Think DITOR Nonpartisan Lead- er: Relative to your question: Whsat do. the Leader readers think of the Nolan bill, will say — that I am strongly in sympathy with the principle, but as to whether or not it can be applied to all classes in all the different sections of the United States, based on: a .given . rate, is a question which is debatable. Conditions vary so much in the dif- ferent sections of the country that a Alxed rule, such as a $10,000 exemption on land values exclusive of all im- provements, might apply very well to one state while it might not fit condi- tions in another. We will take the - district in the state of Michigan which Mr. Bouck referred to on page 9 of your issue of February 21, 1921. The average acreage of the Michigan farm worker’s -homestead being approxi- mately 81 acres, valued at -$87 per acre, making the average Michigan farm (improvements included) worth about $8,000, with improvements at $3,000, or one-third of the total value, and with a fixed rate of $10,000 ex- emption the eastern farm owner would not feel the effects-of such a tax. Of course the eastern states are more densely populated than states farther west and their average farm acreage necessarily is much smaller by reason of this fact. The farm im- provements are also in a much higher state of perfection, consequently there is quite a difference in the value of the farm improvements as compared to the value of the land, and this djf- ference would continue to ®pread as you go farther west, both in the size of the average farm and their relative ‘value. erage sized farm of, say, 160 acres, to support an average family in the cen- tral western states and as the value per acre of the central western farm worker’s land is around $200 he would have a total investment, including all improvements, ‘of $32,000 and as his improvements are mot equal to the eastern farmer’s relative to land values, hence a greater spread, say, of one-fourth the total values, or about $7,000. Therefore his exemptions should be in a different class, some- thing like $25,000 exemptions. - WESTERN FARMERS NEED HIGHER EXEMPTION RATE For the extreme western or north- western farmers (speaking of the ter- ritory east of the main range of the Rockies) the spread in the average farm acreage would be still greater, also in the relative value of the im- provements ‘compared with the East cr Central West. As they are in most cases living a pioneer’s life, with meager improvements at best, and liv- ing where small grains and stock rais- ing is the principal industry, his farm acreage is necessarily much larger and being a long distance from mar- lzet is obliged to produce more to ob- tain a living,-for- he has much more freight on his goods both ways. So we will put his farm acreage at 320 acres, at $100 per acre, or a total value of $32,000, and with a still greater spread in the value of his im- provements relative to the land value, we will estimate them at one-eighth of total value, or about $3,000. So it seems as though we could find differ- ent ratios we should establish more classes, something like $30,000 exemp- tions for those in third class; to estab- lish zones would be still better. But .whatever terms are enacted no indi- vidual whose holdings are encumbered should bear the tax beyond the extent- PAGE SIXTEEN : For it would require an av- - of his equity. The mortgagee should bear tax for the amount of his mort- gage and the mortgagor to the amount of his equity only. This ‘rule should apply to farmers by pro- fession or to any line of business wherein the owner is using his hold- ings for sulf-support or carrying on a nonspeculative business, and there should be a fixed rate for the land-hog speculator or gambler. In fact, it might be well to make this a graduated tax, by making it one-half of 1 .per cent on ‘the first $5,000 (above exemption), 1 per cent on the next $5,000, and 2 per cent on the next $10,000, ete. However, the purpose of the Ral- ston-Nolan bill should be to eliminate a sales tax and at the same time elim- inate the ground landlord and liberate the consumer from the grip of greed. In other words, legislate the million- aire-out. of existence. Milnor, N. D. J. R. PRANTE. - ANOTHER SUGGESTION Editor Nonpartisan. Leader: Per- haps the greatest objection to the Nolan bill is that so few of the mem- bers of the Farm Bureau know its provisions. The other question open to argument is the exemption. L be- lieve that the exemption should be large enough to exempt any farm that is not big enough to provide work for at least two persons. The tax levied should be graduated, beginning - with one-tenth of 1 per cent on the first $1,000 taxed, with one-tenth of 1 per cent added for each additional thou- sand. It might be advisable to stop the increase in rate when 1 per cent is reached. Both real and personal, property should be taxed the same after. the. $50,000 mark is reached. The Farm Bureau has very little ef- fect on legislation. The Bureau is a noneducational - organization in this branch of its work. The state and federal representatives may support or oppose certain measures but they never lay their arguments before the members of the organization for these to accept or reject. What the members need to know are the facts from which the heads of the organization draw their conclusions. By neglecting this the ground is in fine condition for—the crooked politi- " cian. The , Farm Bureau will accomplish very little, if anything, as long as it has no publication of its own. The very best it can hope to do is to make the farmers more uneasy and turn to the Nonpartisan league, where they rhould have-gone in the first place. R. F. NELSON. St. James, Minn. AGAINST THE BILL Editor Nonpartisan Leader: The - Ralston-Nolan bill proposes to place - a tax of 1 per cent on all land values -~ excess of $10,000, ¢.clusive of im- provements. The provision to ex- empt improvements and to exempt the land” values up to $10,000 are com- ‘mendable, but let us not be deceived by this bait and swallow something unwholesome. y In the first place let us remember that of the valuable lands of this coun- try there are more agricultural lands than any other class. Any good 80- acre farm in the corn belt. or irrigated sections of the West would be subject to this tax. ‘A good 320-acre wheat farm twould also pay the tax. Are such farms so large that they need a special tax? =~ - : . The idea of inducing the owrers of vacant land to bring their ‘holdings under cultivation by means of a tax —r