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FIRST SESSION

TUESDAY AFTERNOON, AUGUST 30, 1910

ORGANIZATION OF CONFERENCE

1. TEMPORARY CHAIRMAN.

Hon. Emil Seidel, Mayor of Milwaukee.

2. ADDRESS OF WELCOME.

Hon. J. O. Davidson, Governor of Wisconsin.

3. RESPONSES.

Hon. J. Barry Mahool, Mayor of Baltimore.

Hon. William Hodges Mann, Governor of Virginia.
Hon. Lawson Purdy, President Department Taxes and
Assessments, City of New York.

4. PERMANENT CHAIRMAN.

Hon. J. O. Davidson, Governor of Wisconsin.

5. VICE CHAIRMEN.

Hon. E. F. Noel, Governor of Mississippi.

Hon. Wm. Hodges Mann, Governor of Virginia.

Hon. Z. W. Bliss, Lieutenant-Governor of Rhode Island.
Hon. A. J. Matheson, Provincial Treasurer of Ontario.

6. ADOPTION OF RULES.

7. APPOINTMENT OF COMMITTEES.

a. Credentials.

b. Rules and Program.

c. Resolutions (selected by delegates).

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON STATE

AND LOCAL TAXATION

MILWAUKEE, WIS., AUGUST 30-SEPTEMBER 2, 1910

ORGANIZATION OF CONFERENCE

THE Fourth International Conference on State and Local Taxation opened in the Red Room of the Hotel Pfister, Milwaukee, Wis., on Tuesday, August 30, 1910, at 2 P.M.

PRESIDENT ALLEN RIPLEY FOOTE: I have the honor of calling the Fourth International Conference on State and Local Taxation to order, and I will introduce Mayor Seidel of Milwaukee as the temporary chairman of the Conference.

MAYOR EMIL SEIDEL:

Mr. President, Governors, Ladies and Gentlemen, and Fellowcitizens:

As Mayor of this community I bid you welcome, and hope that while you stay within our borders you shall find that Milwaukee is a very hospitable city, after all, in spite of the changes that have aroused the attention of a good many citizens who did not know what this world was coming to. I hope you will understand that changes are necessary and that occasionally it is necessary to shake up a community just as it is necessary to shake a boy once in a while; and that is what we have succeeded in doing with Milwaukee.

You are to-day gathered to discuss questions of taxation. Ever since the birth of the State, questions of taxation have been pressing at all times. Ever since the State required funds to be raised for its maintenance, there have been quarrels about who should pay this money, and where it was to come from, and we find that with the ascendency of the State the greed of the indi

vidual played a big part in either paying or shirking payment of taxation.

Taxation has frequently played a big part in the development of nations. For instance, one of the most potent factors in the French Revolution was unequal taxation and the shirking of taxes by the nobility. Unless the question of taxation is equitably and justly settled, there cannot be peace in any nation, community, or State. Justice begins there, and cannot begin anywhere else. If you omit to place the burden so that it can be properly borne, you do not do justice, and you cannot do justice. It has ever been that the class that was in power succeeded in shifting the burden of taxation upon the producing classes; and you can judge a government and a State by studying the question of who pays the taxes. You can discover where power lies. If to-day you observe the phenomena that the corporations are not taxed, that means that the corporations wield a power in our governmental bodies. If to-day the charge is raised that the corporations are not properly and reasonably assessed, the charge must stand that these corporations have too much to say when it comes to legislative and judicial proceedings.

I see present to-day students of political economy. Questions of this kind can only be solved by men of that character. The work of wrestling with data and statistics under the glow of a little incandescent bulb is not spectacular, but it is a work that is necessary in order to solve just such problems. The world will learn to appreciate the importance of the expert and the man of knowledge and science in public life much more than it has in the past. Absent to-day are those men who play the first fiddle on the public stage, to whom this work of discussing complicated problems has no attraction because it is not spectacular enough, because it does not give them the opportunity to shine. Work of this kind puts the man to the front who knows his business. There is no man to-day in any one particular line who is big enough to say, "I know it all in this line." Science is gradually becoming more democratic, and it is the same with the question of taxation.

In public life I want to be the servant, and as a servant to be the man that does the work. If I cannot do the work, I am of

no use as a public servant. I am only an ornament. I would rather forego the pleasure of being an ornament, if I am supposed to be a flunky. I want to be the man that does real live things, and that is what a man should do as a public servant

The assessor who succeeds in valuing or appraising the property of a corporation at its real value does more toward hitting that corporation than all the sticks that you can possibly pick out throughout the country, if you did nothing but talk about it. That assessor is the man that does the work; and if you, in this assemblage, can devise means to make the work of the assessor easier and more successful, you will have done much.

In the past too little attention has been paid to the men who do the real work. You will find that your deliberations will not arouse as much attention in the public press as perhaps a prize fight receives. But I must not discourage you. Society will learn to understand that it owes more to the worker than it has accredited to him in the past, and when I say "worker" I do not mean only the manual worker, but also the mental worker, the men who toil and figure out problems and solve formulas. These two must get together. The modern city, the modern State and government, must be governed by the expert, by the man who knows how to do things, by the man who knows how to do more than to speak or write or talk or make public utterances and public displays.

I hope that your deliberations will be characterized by a progressive spirit; and that you will succeed in devising ways and means whereby the burden of the man that toils the man that has only a little home-will be lighter. If you do that, you have done much towards a better city, a better State, and a better nation, and better citizenship. And if you can devise means whereby the shirker will be compelled to pay his share, you will have done much towards solving these questions.

I now have the pleasure of introducing the Hon. J. O. Davidson, Governor of the State of Wisconsin.

GOVERNOR DAVIDSON: It is indeed an honor and privilege to extend to the executives and delegates from the different States a most hearty welcome to the State of Wisconsin and our me

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