B 337867
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DUPL


REPORT
OF THE
SUB-COMMITTEE OF THE FINANCE
COMMITTEE
OF THE
Wisconsin.Legislature.
RELATING TO
BONUSES FOR SOLDIERS AND SAILORS
Dup, 1919.
D. of D.
Printed by authority of and in compliance with J to Res. No. 96, A.
U B cºcº,
3 74–
.W (,
A 5
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Madison, Wis., May 27, 1919.
UNIVERSITY OF CHIC
- LIBRARIES CAGO
266892
MARCH (930
REPORT OF SUB-COMMITTEE ONSOLDIERS BILLS.
Madison, Wisconsin, May 14, 1919.
To the Joint Committee on Finance: -
Your sub-committee, appointed to devise ways and means to
constitutionally raise funds to carry out the purposes of the
soldier bills before us, report as follows:
The barrier confronting us is the provision of our constitu-
tion which prohibits the state from borrowing money or issuing
bonds or scrip or other evidence of indebtedness. These are
wise provisions which have kept Wisconsin free from any state
indebtedness—practically alone ambng the states of the Union .
in that respect.
The opinions of the Attorney General confirm these three
legal propositions:
1st. The state may levy a tax only for a public purpose.
Whether, under our decisions, the payment of sums to Wis-
consin citizens, in recognition of their services to the Nation, is
a public purpose is very doubtful. The constitutionality of
such an act could only be definitely settled by final decision of
our Supreme Court. -
2nd. Any future tax levy would be revocable by a subse-
quent legislature. Any attempt to make it irrevocable, on be-
half of persons who would advance money on the strength of
It, would be pledging the credit of the state and violating the
constitution. e
3rd. The state has no power to issue any bonds, scrip or
evidence of indebtedness adequate for this purpose. .
These legal propositions are confirmed by the Executive
Counsel and by the unanimous opinion of other distinguished
lawyers over the state who have been consulted. There is no
question but what the Attorney General states the law as fav-
orably to the project as any lawyer can conscientiously do.
Any practical plan calls for the expenditure of not less than
ten millions of dollars and probably fifteen millions of dollārē.º
u)
} 1)
This could only be raised by a substantial tax levy of very doubt: " .
ful legality and spread over a considerable number of years. ."
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If we should attempt such plan it would not make the money
immediately available and the first installment could not be
had before next February. Should the law be held void, as is
probable, we would only hold out present encouragement re-
sulting in future disappointment.
Any plan we adopt should provide for payment to the Sol-
diers at this present time when it is most needed. Opinion is
unanimous on this point. . .*
It therefore follows that any attempt to enact into the law
either the Pullen or Cunningham bill would not produce any
present results and probably none in the future. The same ob-
jections apply to the Nye bill, at least in part.
The only practical method is to raise the required amount by
popular, voluntary subscription. The people of the state want
to make, now, substantial payment as a slight token of appre-
ciation for the services Wisconsin men and women of our Army
and Navy rendered the Nation in time of need. Such popular
Subscriptions should be received under definite legislative author-
ity, through state machinery.
We, Therefore, Suggest for Consideration the following:
Let a bill be prepared creating a board consisting of the Gov-
ernor, the Adjutant General and Chairman of the State Council
of Defense, to be known by an appropriate title, say “The
Service Recognition Board’’, to have charge and control of a
'state-wide plan for raising the required sum by popular con-
tribution and disbursing it.
The plan should include the following details:
1st. The board should adopt a procedure for receiving vol-
untary contributions apportioned to the several counties, as
nearly as possible, according to their several assessed valuations
and collected through the State Council of Defense or such
other proper body as said board may provide.
2nd. The contributions should be in sufficient amount, if
possible, to assure to each Wisconsin citizen in the army or
navy, including nurses, a sum amounting to ten dollars for
each month of service with a minimum of fifty dollars. This
would mean roughly at least three dollars on every thousand
dollars assessed valuation. A table showing the figures for
each county is annexed.
::::: 3rd. The board shall adopt rules for disbursement; the
: state treasurer shall be custodian of the fund and sums paid
out upon warrant signed by the Adjutant General.
4th. The expenses of administration shall be borne out of
— 5 —
appropriations for the State Boards used in the administra-
tion of the fund.
5th. The board shall further cause to be delivered to each
beneficiary, in addition to the payment of money, an engraved
certificate, stating in proper language the State’s appreciation
of his or her service, authenticated by the great seal of the
State of Wisconsin. - -
We also recommend that the present statute, providing for
relief to dependents of soldiers, be so amended as to provide
for an additional sum to be raised and disbursed for the com-
fort of wounded soldiers during their period of convalescence,
to be administered under the direction of the Adjutant General.
Your Committee regret the legal obstacles in the way of pas-
sage of the pending bills but suggest for consideration the fore-
going plan outlined.
We are also confident that those who fought to defend law,
order and justice do not want us to attempt any plan which,
to become effective, would call for doubtful construction, on
their behalf, of existing constitutional law.
(Signed)
A. H. WILKINSON,
CARL KURTENACKER,
THEO. BENFEY, *
T. S. NOLAN,
CLAIRE B. BIRD.
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POPULAR SUBSCRIPTIONS TO
— 6 —
BE RAISED BY COUNTIES FOR soldier
BONUSEs.
Basis—$3.00 per thousand of a SSESSed valuation.
Amount
Assessed to be raised
County valuation by popular
Subscription
Adams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $11,226,627 $33,679.88
Ashland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * * * * * * * * * * * * 22,963,499 68,890.50
Barron . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40,227,696 120,683.09
Bayfield . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22,825, 182 68,475.55
Brown . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73,307,233 219,921.70
Buffalo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26,090,984 78,272.95
Burnett . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11,346,006 34,038.02
Calumet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36,137,029 108,411.09
Chippewa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44,651,895 133,955.69
Clark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45,857,757 137,573 .27
Columbia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58,754,801 176,264.40
Crawford . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24,052,204 72,156.61
Dane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191,477,051 574,431.15
Dodge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105,021,925 315,065.78
Door . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22,549,650 67,648.95
Q
Douglas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67,960,897 203,882.69
Dunn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38,104,842 114,314.53
Eau Claire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38,879,887 116,639.66
Florence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4,882,875 14,648.63
Fond du Lac. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86,322,911 258,968.73
Forest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14,987,375 44,962. 13
Grant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80,849,022 242,547.07
Green . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58,204,343 174,613.03
Green Lake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28,698,426 86,095.28
IoWa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56,206,425 168,619.28
Iron . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14, 143,074 42,429.22
Jackson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23,695,957 71,087.87
Jefferson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69,468,439 208,405.32
Juneau . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22,654,402 67,968.21
Kenosha . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65,845,327 196,035.98
Kewaunee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27,192,466 81,577.40
La Crosse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50,885,189 152,655.57
Lafayette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57,145,863 171,437.59
Langlade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23,912,028 71,736.08
Lincoln . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . sº 23,112,588 69,337.76
Manitowoc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75,671,974 227,015.92
Marathon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74,238,060 222,714.18
Marinette .............................................. tº 31,653,903 94,961.71
Marquette . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14,699,378 44,098.13
Milwaukee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 737,080,558 2,211,091.67
POPULAR SUBSCRIPTIONS
–7–
TO BE RAISED BY COUNTIES FOR SOLDIER,
BONUSES-Continued.
Amount
Assessed to be raised
County valuation by popular
subscription
Monroe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39,883,031 119,649.09
Oconto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27,405,097 82,215.29
Oneida . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16,008,553 48,025.66
Outagamie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .............. 74,411,642 223,234.93
Ozaukee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29,084,111 87,252.36
Pepin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10,541,512 31,624.54
Pierce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... . . . . . . . . 32,189,879 96,569.64
Polk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35,015,562 105,046.69
Portage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33,056,481 99,169.44
Price . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18,555,335 55,666.01
Racine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106,011,087 318,033.26
Richland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38,804,189 116,412.57
Rock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105,840,289 317,520.87
Rusk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17,221,007 51,663.02
St. Croix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42,633,602 127,900.81
Sauk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62,663,336 187,990.01
Sawyer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12,141,191 36,423.57
Shawano . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38,090,450 114,271.35
Sheboygan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88,079,661 264,238.98
Taylor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18,774,725 56,324.18
Trempealeau . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35,304,172 105,912.52
Vernon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43,964,507 131,893.52
Vilas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8,482,645 25,447.94
Walworth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68,689,012 206,067.04
Washburn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12,614,974 37,844.92
Washington . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46,757,701 140,273.10
Waukesha . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69,724,536 209,173.61
Waupaca ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . tº gº e g º e s - e º e e s tº s e º e a e e a º m 45,841,037 137,523.11
Waushara . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . tº tº º 22,825,157 66,975.47
Winnebago ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . * - © tº e s tº g º ºs e g º º ſº e 9 s s º ºs tº e s ſº ſº; ſº 83,174,369 249,523.11
Wood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40,539,138 121,617.41
Total. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $3,846,263,744 $11,538,791.29
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