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VETO OF ASSEMBLY BILL NO. 639, RELATIVE TO WEARING GOWNS BY ATTORNEYS

STATE OF NEW YORK

Executive Chamber

Albany, March 27, 1899

TO THE ASSEMBLY:

Assembly bill, number 639, entitled "An Act in relation to the wearing of gowns or other habits by the attorneys and counselors at law of the Supreme Court of the State ", is herewith returned without approval.

The

This bill is obviously and utterly unnecessary. whole subject should be left and can safely be left where it properly belongs to the good sense of the judiciary.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT

MESSAGE RELATING TO TAX LAWS

STATE OF NEW YORK

TO THE LEGISLATURE:

Executive Chamber

Albany, March 27, 1899

The tax laws of this State are in an exceedingly unsatisfactory condition, and I do not see how they can be put upon a just and wise basis.save, after careful investigation, by legislative action. At present the farmers, the market gardeners, and the mechanics and tradesmen having small holdings, 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 di

rection of taxing securities, are not only unwise, but inefficient, and often serve merely to put a premium upon dishonesty. It would not be well to make any class of our citizens feel immunity from paying taxes, for this would almost certainly result in extravagent expenditure both in the State and in the municipalities; against which the surest safeguard is the immediate pressure on the purses of the citizens. But though complete immunity from taxation by the people at large is not desirable, the fact remains that at present taxation is excessive and badly distributed.

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 receive 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 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 starvation 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 enjoys. This should be especially true for the franchises bestowed upon gas companies, street railroads and the like. The question of the municipal ownership of these franchises cannot be raised with propriety until the governments of all municipalities show greater wisdom and virtue than has been recently 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 communities a very large percentage of the taxes comes from corporations which use the public domain for pipes, tracks and the like. Whether these franchises should be taxed as realty; or whether it would be wiser to provide that, after the gross earnings equal, say, ten per cent. of the actual original cost, then five per cent. of all the gross earnings over and above this shall be paid into the City treasury; or whether some yet different plan should be tried, can only be settled after careful examination of the whole subject. One thing is certain, that the franchises should in some form yield a monied return to the government. To put on a tax here and there as new franchises are asked for may be advisable, but of course is inequitable, to the extent that it handicaps the few thus taxed in their competition with the untaxed corporations; and it may be that now and then some franchise to perform an especially needful and risky service should not be thus handicapped at all. It is far better to have a general scheme of taxation, one that shall apply, for

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instance, to railroads entering New York city, to railroads operating within the city, to gas companies, electric companies and the like.

Many commissions have been created by legislative enactment in this and other States in the past, and it has been the almost universal experience that however excellent the reports of such commissions might be, if they were made up of men outside the Legislature, the Legislature paid little or no heed to them. I therefore recommend that you create a Joint Committee of the Senate and Assembly, to investigate the subject in full, and to report to the next Legislature a proper scheme of taxation.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT

PUBLIC HEALTH-ORDER DIRECTING ABATEMENT OF NUISANCES IN SARATOGA LAKE

STATE OF NEW YORK

Executive Chamber

WHEREAS, A petition signed by many residents and property owners in the vicinity of Saratoga Lake was heretofore presented to me, alleging the existence of public nuisances in the vicinity of said lake, caused by the discharge of sewage, domestic waste and manufacturing refuse into said lake, whereby the health and comfort of the people of the community were jeopardized and endangered; and,

WHEREAS, On the 10th day of March 1899, I did, as Governor of the State of New York, pursuant to the provisions of chapter 661 of the Laws of 1893, require, order and direct the State Board of Health to examine into the

nuisances alleged to exist by the aforesaid petition and to examine into the questions affecting the security of life and health in the locality mentioned in the aforesaid petition and report to me the results of such examination; and

WHEREAS, The State Board of Health has made the required examination and reported the result thereof to me within the limit of time prescribed for such examination and report, from which it appears:—

I

That Saratoga Lake is about six miles in length, extending in a north-easterly and south-westerly direction, and is surrounded by the townships of Malta, Saratoga Springs, Saratoga and Stillwater. It is about four miles east of Ballston Spa and about the same distance east, and a little south, from the village of Saratoga Springs. Its principal inlet is the Kayaderosseras Creek and its outlet is Fish Creek which flows north-easterly into the Hudson River. Its inlet, Kayaderosseras Creek, is à tortuous. stream flowing in an easterly direction through the village of Ballston Spa and the intervening farming section, to the lake. Several smaller streams or brooklets converge and flow into it near the village of Ballston Spa, and the public and private sewers and drainage of said village also empty into it.

II

That along the banks of said creek and its tributaries are located several large manufacturing plants engaged in the manufacture of paper, sulphite pulp, and in tanning leather, and the effluent and manufacturing refuse from these manufacturing plants are discharged into the Kaya

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