The evening Argus. [volume] (Rock Island, Ill.) 1861-1871, 1867-03-08

Inc equanZaaon law passed Dy tne lHlnols
legislature contains some very imperfect and
what will probably prove to be unsatisfactory
provisions. The fourth section, prescribing
the mode of assessing property for taxation,
requires, that all property, real as well as
personal, shall be listed to the actual owner
on the FIRST day of April, IN each year, and
provides that "the assessment of real proper
ty shall be considered as illegal by reason of
the same not being listed or assessed in the
name of the owner or owners thereof" This
is the language of the actas pubiished in the
public Journals; an official copy has not yet
been promulgated. The inference is that
the act provides that the assessment of real
property shall not be considered as Illegal by
reason of not being listed in the name ofsthe
owner. To require assessors in the city of
Chicago, for example, to list every lot and
fractional lot in the name of the actual own
er is to require, simply, an impossibility 1t
is to require that assessors shall be provided
with full abstracts of the voluminous records
of Cook county, or, at the least, that they
shall ransaek those records and discover the
rctual owner of every lot for which an owner
cannot otherwise be discovered. The num-
Der of such lots in Chicago, as every assessor
well knows, and as the delinquent tax list
every year exhibits, is very great The labor
of finding who the actual owner is, as every
abstract maker will certify, is no light or tri]
fling one. Even the records do not in every
case show the name of that owner, at a par
ticular date; for in hundreds of fnstances~the
fee of property changes weeks or months be-
fore the fact appears on record. How will
it be possible for an assessor, or any other
man, to trace the title of such lots, in every
instance, to the bona fde owner on the LIST of
April? 1t will not be possible, in many in
stances. Considering the degree of intelli-
gence-or, rather, the lack of intelligence
| which distinguishes the men who are usually
appointed to the Office of assessor in this
| city, the quantity,.i real estate upon which
| the assessment, under this law, will be Icon
| sidered as Illegal viii be so great as TO es-
sentially diminish the amount of revenue
| from this source. If the act in this partieu-
lar is correctly reported, the evil which viii
| arise under it is one which will call loudly
| for speedy amendment. sas
The act further provides that
| each assessor sh..n view and note each trac
or lot listed, and place in separate columns tbs
| value without the improvements, the value OF tbs
| Improvements, and the aggregate improve
ments."
| Here is work for assessors which will rem
der that Office no sinecure. The paw of as
SCISSORS is fixed at 50 a day for the time EN-
| ployed but if assessments are not complet
ed and returned by the LIST day of August
| ten dollars day is to be deducted from thei
| compensation after that date The law thu.
gives them four months, or LOG secular DAYS
in which to perform their labors. Theil
compensation for this period viii amount to
1918. If, however, they should find it i'm
possible to perform the labor, as the law re
quires it 10 be performed, within that period
| and should find it necessary 10 consume thir
| ty DAYS additional time, their compensation
| for the whole period will be precisely $1s.-
Regarding its operation in Chicago, the new
law may therefore be not improperly looked
upon as lawsto require that assessors shall
assess the public taxes for nothing, and
| board themselves. Whether, under such a
| law, a better class of men viii be found to
| accept the office of assessors than those gen
orally incompetent persons who have hither
| to filed this office-whether men will be
found to accept the Office who are capable o.
performing the duties as this law provides
| they shall be performed-is, at the lest, rath
er problematical.-Ch chicago Times.