Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1883-08-03
A COMPARATIVE VIEW OF THERE
SILT OF REAssESSMENT.

raising the valuation of lands to point
that is unjust and oppressive to the
farming population.
For example, it has been boldly as
serted that in the county Of Wayne the
increased valuation of lands under the
reassessment of 1882 triH amount to 90
per cent ADORE rhdt il Wds under Re
| publican administration in 1869.
This is either arrant demagoguery or
an ~inexcusable ignorance Of facts.
We are willing that this whole argu-
ment of our Republican contemporaries
against the reassessment shall be tested
by the example they cite il Wayne
county, and that it shall stand or fall
by a comparison of the official figures
showing the valuation of lands in that
oountv under the RanuHii""- "@~~'-'"
tration of 1869 and the reassessment Of
1882.
Let u see:
The average valuation of lands in
Wayne county for the year 1859, as
shown by the official figures was S5.47
per acre.
The average valuation Of lands in
Wayne county under the assessment
of 1882 is $4.4 per acre. To this the
Board Of Equalization added 10 per
cent, making the average valuation
S4g9.
The comparison to which the Repub-
lican press has re ferred us is, therefore,
according to the official figures. as fol-
lows:
Average valuation in 1S6'.~".""""...$5.4I
Average valuation in 1885, ..."..".... 4.99
Average decrease between 1S69-lSS2.... As
But this is not all. 1t IS not only that
the reassessment of 1852 shows a de-
crease Of4S cents per acre on the valua.
ton made by the Republicans in 1860,
nut the decrease zones after thirteen
years steady growth and d~evelOpement
i'm WAYNE county, in which lands have
been cleared aud cultivated, houses
have teen built, towns have grown up,
7 lallIOduS nave UGH ANSNSNt w
improved and the population has
doubled itself.
During these thirteen years the Chesa-
peake and Ohio railroad was built across
and through the lower end of the coun-
tv. The ChattarOi railroad was built
along about one half of its entire west
ern border. Large appropriations have
been made by the federal government
which have been expended in improv-
ing the Big Sandy river and putting it
in condition to float the timber and pro-
| duce of the county to market. There
were in 1880 over seventy-five thousand
acres of improved land in the county
under cultivatiOn-a third or probably
| One-half more than i'm 1869. The Deo-
| nile of the county, are &RaSrxaa4RAe
| tne mnsE. IuEateds of new industries
have been springing up within her bor-
ders, and prosperity, progress and
wealth have marked the history every
year of the county in the last decade.
More than that the census shows that
during these thirteen years, between
1869 and 1882, the population of Wayne
county has increased quite 100 per cent.
In the year 1870 the population was
80. In the year 1850 it was II, 739-
an increase of 6,SS7 within the decade
showing hat at the same ratio the pop
ulatiOn is now more than double what
it was in 1861.
In 1869 the amount of d~istributable
school fund appropriated to Wayne
county was S3,430.9S. In 1888 the
amount of the same fund to that coun-
to is So, 426. Il, or nearly double in the
Is years.
These are some of the facts showing
the increase in the property valuation
between the years 1869 and 1888. And
yet, with this showing the decrease in
the land valuation under the reasSess-
ment is shown to he IS cents per acre,
and the personal property of the county
under that reaSsessment has only in
creased in the aggregate about twenty
i've thousand dollars.
These are the facts, we say, which
make the burden of Republican com.
plant against the reassessment.
This is the comparison to which the
Republican press has cited us to show
that the reaSsessment is unjust and op-
pressive.
We have confined the comparison to
Wayne county, because it is to that
county the Republican press has re-
ferred us. The comparison might be
extended to other counties showing
equal or more startling results.
If the results of the reassessment, of
which so much complaint has been and
is being made, show anything, it is that
the only cause of complaint is on the
part of the State that it has failed of It's
object. 1t shows that instead of COM
planning of the reassessment, the people
have cause to demand that there should
be q reassessment of the reassessment.
The whole object of the reassessment
of 1852 was to eQualize the values ove
the State. 1t was manifest then and is
even more manifest since it has been
made, that the State was not getting
the revenue needed and 10 which it is
entitled. The Legislature and the OFF,
GERS of the law have simply done their
duty in trying to correct this.
Why they have failed and where the
cause of the failure we do not assume to
explain; but it is now the duty Of the
Tax Commission, appointed for this
purpose, to search out and solve the
mystery and make such recommended
tons as will enable us to correct the
startling defects in u tax system.