Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-03-21
TIE QUESTION OF RAILROAD TAXATION

road taxation in this State compactly
and clearly. Il was there made perfectly
apparent that the resistance offered by the
Central Pacific and Southern Pacific Rail
road Companies to the assessments made
by the State Board of Equalization has
been rendered unavoidable by the injustice
and inequality of the said assessments
The new Constitution was largely framed
by men who were not open to reason when
the relations between the State and the
railroads were concerned. They set in
with an avowed purpose to g cinch the
railroads, and in the matter of taxation
they undertook to do this by giving to the
State Board of Equalization the power of
making inapellsble assessments upon the
railroads, without affording the latter any
opportunity to be heard in defense of their
property, and without giving the assessed
corporations any notice. In this way the
Constitution has Disseminated against the
railroads in the most open and direct man.
ner, and as result of this inequitable
machinery we find that the corporations
have in fact been assessed in the most
reckless and extortionate way. Our San
Francisco contemporary gives one illustra-
ton of this, in the fact that actually desert
land in San Diego county has been assessed
at the rate of 800 an acre, though it could
not be sold for 81 an acre. In this county
the railroad has been assessed at S25 900 a
mile, notwithstanding the notorious fact
that large proportion of it could be
replaced for less than $4,000 mile.
These illustrations could be multiplied al.
most indefinitely, for the same fragrant in.
justice marks the action OF the State
Board of Equalization in every part OF the
State.
The railroad has been persistently
abused and misrepresented in this connec.
ton. 1t has at no time desired TO avoid
the payment Of its just share of taxation.
1t has always paid fair taxes promptly and
in full. But because it is corporation it
does not follow that it should submit
tamely to a process of confscation, and
we do not hesitate to assert our conviction
that no fair minded man, however strongly
he may have been prejudiced against the
company in the past, could listen to a
full recital of the wrongs attempted to be
enforced upon it in this connection without
reaching the conclusion that it ought TO
resist the oppression to the utmost, and
that it is completely justified in its present
position. The truth is that the State
Board of Equalization undertook to exer
else its arbitrary power in the most tyran-
meal and iniquitous way, and that if an
individual had been the subject of such a
raid the whole press and people would
have stood up and denounced the proceed
ing as an unmitigated outrage. Because
the railroad was concerned, however, it
seems to have been taken for granted that
it was entirely proper to fleece it, and its
natural and just exertions to protect itself
have been scandslously misrepresented as
attempts on the part of the corporation to
defy the laws of the State and to evade its
share of the general burdens.
The action of the MERGED County Super
visors has in the same way been most un-
Justly censured. The truth is that when
the facts were presented to that Board
they could not continue to doubt that the
company had been enormously over as
sessed, and as the amount offered in pay
ment of the taxes by the company was in
excess of a perfectly fair valuation, the
Supervisors did right to accept it. The
same remarks apply to other counties.
Wherever the Supervisors and the District
Attorneys have been brought face to face
with the actual condition of things they
have been compelled to acknowledge that
they had been mistaken previously, and
that the railroads case was impregnable
The history OF the proceedings, moreover,
shows conclusively that the company has
always been willing to pay fair valua-
ton, and that it has at no time and in no
place made an unwarrantable resistance to
its assessments. But even corporations
possess some rights, and it is question
which the appellate Courts will have to
determine whether State has the author
ity, under the Federal Constitution, to dis
criminate against them in the matter OF
taxation, as the present Constitution of
California does, and to deny them that
right of appeal from unjust assessments
which every citizen claims and exercises.
Nor can it be ignored that if the COM
pany had yielded to this wrong it would
have at once established most disastrous
precedent, and encouraged its enemies to
still more intolerable exactions. Its SUBJ
mission would have been construed as an
admission of the equity of the assessments,
andexcuses would doubtless have been found
for giving the screws another turn the next
time. In matters of this kind every man
YES it to himself and to the community to
resist oppression steadfastly and persist
emily, and if he is to do it at allhe must begin
by opposing the first attempt at usurpation.
Nor can individuals separate themselves
out from corporations, and hug themselves
in the delusion that an injustice may safely
be inflicted upon the latter so long as it
does not seem to touch themselves. Cor
poraticns are merely conventional aggrega-
lions of individuals, and in a country where
men are constantly changing their occu-
pations and extending their undertaking.,
10 one can say that he viii never be mem.
Der of such body. Moreover when
usurpations are permitted in the particular
case they are liable to extend to the gen.
eral case and if wrongs may be done legally
to corporations, they will presently be done
to firms, and then to individuals. Like
freedom and like protection for all, are the
only certain safeguards against injustice
which may at any time comprehend all.
The railroads in these tax cases are not
! fighting against the State. They are moi