The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1878-08-10

Mr.. Armstrong, treasurer of the State
Grange of Illinois, says: Railroads are rs
sessed at about onC-;hird their value, while
| farms are assessed at their full value
| NdtiOnal.
Mr.. Armstrong talks nonsense, if he says
| that. He lives on II five hundred acre farm
near Sheridan, which he himself publicly val.
ucd at nearly 800 per acre within year, and
vet the records Of the proceedings Of the super
visors show that the land in his town is assessed
only f232? per acre for this ycar.-Streat0r
| FIRE Press.
As both the Ottawa RepuJlico0 and Strcator
| Free Press make this comment, it is no more
than fair TO rive what Mr. Armstrong really
did say In Il circular issued by him last Janu.
uary TO the various local oranges of La Sallc
county, he proposed for consideration and dis
cussion, at their winter evening meetings, the
| following among other resolutions;
| RESOLVED, That we believe our system of
taxation should possess equality, and that no
species Of property has right to escape lis
share of taxation or bc allowed 10 shift its bur
den on another. Several hundred million dol
lars of personal property escape taxation in
our state The railroads OF our state are as
scsscd at about S1j,0OO000, but the cost Of the
roads and equipments is about S24o,OOOOOO,
according to the report of the Railroad and
| Warehouse Commissioners for the same year.
| Railroads are assessed at about one-lhlld their
value, while our farms are assessed at full value
| This is unjust and grievous This reckoning
! is upon the declared dividend Of railroads
compared with farm profit, reckoning for
failures in crops, &c. Also large amount OF
railroad and other corporation taxes have been
cniOincd from collection for the years 1874 and
] - 4.
Icnoincd for 1874 Sl32, 4i9 SO. and S4l2,352 80
for 1873, State taxes alone; and as the State tax
Is amount to about Onc-tiith OF all other local
taxes, the amount due and unpaid by railroad
| and other corporations would approximate to
81, lGj sos 30 which tax has been paid by the
wealth. producers as the school directors and
supervisors levy percentage on other prop
erty to make up the deficiency.
What the resolution evidently refers to is the
assessment as finally settled by the State Board
of Equalization. The Board, 1t will be remem-
bcred cut down the assessment of railroads as
returned by the various county boards some %
or 80 per cent. en- m0ySc, but left the assess
mcnt Of farm property untouched; that is, the
assessment of railroad property was largely re,
duccd but that Of farm property retained full
up, or at full value "as the resolution expires
scs It, 1t is also to be borne in mind that this
was only proposed by Mr. Armstrong as mat
ter Of enquiry and discussion and not as a set
| tied fact
! As candidate on a ticket opposed to the
| Democratic party Of course we have no intel,
est in Mr. Armstrong, beyond that in such
matters we think he ought to be fairly repre-.
scented
p, 5. Since the above WAS written we have
received a note from Mr. Armstrong in which
he says;
see the RepuJlicaH and other papers
make garblcd statement of something pur-
porting to have been sad by me. | suppose
they refer to my January Circular to the Coun-
| ty oranges, (encoscd). Please publish the res
OlutiOn IN full. If the statement of the rail
road and warehouse commissioners is correct,
the statement in the resolution Is correct; and
| if the dividends of the railroads are 10 per
cent. per annum and farm property yields hut
| 3 per cent, the statement is correct; and with
the consideration that farms have deprecated
in value AT lrnSt per cont. per aIInuIn for the
last to 10 years, with all their surroundings,
while the assessment continues high as ever,
the statement is correct. But by publishing
only a part Of the resolution and suppressing
the rest doubtless 1t appears like horse of an.
other color