The Portland daily press., 1886-07-20
UNEQUAL TAXATION.
Defective System OF Valuation In
Vogue In Our Towns.
Brief Account of the Origin and Char
acteristics of the SeIectmen.
Daniel stIckney in Home Farm

Won weep it is ridiculous and l laugh" The
laughing one was the wiser of the two. We
here in New England think we are the wis
est people in the world, and we here in
Maine being the nearest to the rising sun,
think there are nowhere people ahead Of us,
not only in getting up in the morning but In
doing things after we get up. Among other
| smart things we do is to choose annually
| tbree men whom we call selectmen. The
| idea of this board of selectmen originated, /
suppose. in the committees of safety which
existed in all the towns in the days of the
| Indian wars and of the revolution. Their
business was to take care of the safety and
welfare of the town. To ward off Indian
raids, and Tory invasions. To provide
means to pay the expenses of protection Of
| all the people of the town. These commit
tees were expected to do often without the
sanction of the law what now selectmen are
required to do under the provisions Of law.
| Hence the men who were selected, and
| served on those committees were bold, brave
l men, who had duties to perform, and per-
| formed them without fear, favor. affection,
| or hope of reward. The law now provides
that our selectmen shall perform the same
duties so far as necessary, take care OF the
prudential affairs of the town, assess the tax
es where no other assessors are chosen, see
that they are collected and expended proper
ly and prudently, see that all municipal laws
are enforced and obeyed, see that the liquor
| laws are enforced, the laws against drunken
ness, vagabondism, are obeyed, the laws
against nuisanceS are enforced, all the ordl-
nances of the town are Obeyed, and the peace
and safety of society preserved. In case of
fire, and no fire wardens are chosen, they are
to take command and do their best to save
property from destruction and II no board OF
health is chosen, they are to look after the
Of bn enter eVprVDO0V'S
house and see that they keep themselves and
premises clean and healthy.
Now ask how near do the selectmen of
the most of towns come to performing the
duties required of them by law, or to resem-
bling the grand old committees Of safety
which existed in the perilous days of the rev.
olution? Instead of being the boldest, BRAY
est and most decided up and down men in
town, the most of them are the nearest moth
ing to any men that can be found. They are
not to blame for being men of this stamp,
but we, the people, who choose them are to
blame for not choosing better and different
ones. The board of three selectmen may
generally be designated as head, middle and
tail men. The head man is supposed to be a
very cunning man. He can talk to every
body in way which will make him think
thrifty man in town. Whether the ,pronoun
'he" in the last sentence refers to the head
man aforesaid, or to the talkee is OF no con-
sequence. 1t is true, understand It as you
ded to be an honest working farmer or me-
chanic more times trader, who knows but
little about the world or its affairs, but thinks
he knows much less than he does, and by a
little skill and management can be made to
believe almost anything The tail man Is
chosen because he is a fool, don't know any
thing but can hold the inkstand whilst the
head man writes and mloalenat1 "a SarSs' ne ane
100 selectmen, D and two clphers at It's right
hand makes 100.
The result of this machinery is that the re-
sponsibility for the proper management OF
the affairs of the town is divided up into at
least one hundred fractions and you cannot
find responsible factor for one OF them.
The same men are usually chosen assessors
who are selectmen, and they go to work and
assess the taxes by arbitrary rules OF their
own; not contemplated in law, and the re-
suit is the grossest irregularities In the taxes
which everybody knows, but no one can md
out remedy. The most OF selectmen ana
assessors seem to think that their principal
business is to guess how much money they
will want to carry the town through the
year, and apporti0n it around among the cit
izens by ordering to pay so mueh, SO
much, c a specified sum and so on the end OF
the alphabet find the amount of the several
sums, subtract it from the amount they want
and say to @, you must pay the rest. Hun
dreds Of these assessors have way OF DONG
things which no more produces equallty IN
taxation than would the above method.
Thus, whilst the constitution of the State re-
quireS "all taxes upon real and personal es-
tate shall be apportloned and assessed equal
ly, according to the just value thereof; in
stead of complying with this plain provision
of the constitution, the assessors OF 242
towns in Maine value property for taxation
at percentage of its true value, varying
from 80 to 90 per cent. on its worth. 1t is
said that the same result is attained II prop
erty in any town is valued at an equal rate OF
per cent. on its value. That may be true If
it is thus equalized but 1t is evident IL Is not,
= In fha ratI1r nv
assessors of 454 towns in Maine to the Secre-
tary of State in 1884, and published in Statls-
tics of the State of Maine, Presque Isle is
put down as being valued at eighty cents on
dollar of the true value of the property, or
in other words so per cent. of its
value. This is called its taxable valua-
ton. In Presque Isle are 426 farms,
valued by the assessors with the buildings
value of the farms to be $500. There is not
a farm in town which can be bought for that
money. A large number of farms within the
last four years have changed owners at from
fered from 81, 200 to $1,000 and refused TO
sell. can name 100 farms in this town not
one of which can be bought for less than S4,-
900. There were in Presque Isle In 1884, 512
horses. 165 colts, S4 oxen, 651 COWS, 1904
young cattle, 1870 sheep and 29l swine.
These all were valued at S67 600, which av-
erages $10.77 per animal. Taking out the
number of sheep and hogs, calling them 81
apiece, and deducting their value from the
whole would leave 2556 horses, colts, oxen,
COWS and young cattle, and would make their
average value $25.56 for each. OF the 572
horses in this town 200 of them cannot be
| bought for 500 apiece, which is almost one
| third of what all the stock in town is said to
| be worth. But this isinot ALL The value OF
| the property in Presque Isle, used for man
Tfacturng purposes Is said 70 ortS pe sa Il asSt
| $4,000, grist mill $4,000, starch mills,
| $4,000 each, $4,000, shingle machines pro-
| PEELED by steam, carding machine, WOOD
| machine shop, carriage shops, cheese fac
toTv. the whole worth not less than $4,000,
| and yet it is all valued for taxation purposes
| at $50, 100. 1t may be said that IN town
| where all kinds of property Is valued Tor
| taxation so far below its real value, no one
| can can be taxed very heavily, no one can
| have very llrge tax to pay. But the truth
is the same relative value is not placed on
| the whole nor cansit be. A poor man JuSt
| beginning in life buys a small lot in the VII
| lage and puts up small, cheap house, the
| whole costing perhaps $1,000. 1t is valued at
/ ST. 600 and q tax assessed accordingly, whilst
| mans farm that he VIII not sell LOT So,vv
| is set down on the inventory OF the town at
| $4,000. The men who own high priced farms,
| large stores, andshave large stocks OF goods
| in the village, have large amount Oh IN
| voicable property, debts due, money at IN
| terest, and lands around in every direction
| which are rapidly increasing in value which
| are not taxed at all. The owners of
the manufacturing property in this town
| have a large amount OIL properly lying
| around loose, which is never thought
of in making taxes. The owners Of starch
mills have constantly on hand thousands OF
| dollars worth of starch sometimes laying
| over whole year waiting for rise in the
| market which is never taxed. The owners
| of the lumber mills in this town have now on
| hand at least million and half of long
lumber in the mill pond to be sawed dnring
the YEAR but it is not taxed. The owners Of
starch mills in this town and Bridgewater
are put down in the statistics OF Maine as
having over 100000 invested in the starch
business, and yet we never heard OF a tax
upon any of it, whilst the poor working men
pay taxes upon every dollar he. possesses,
and often owes some rich man for what he
is taxed.
We are told that if our assessors value
property up to what it is worth when the
Legislature assesses the State and county
taxes, on the several towns we should have
load of taxation to carry which would be un-
endurable Or mother words the committee
of the Legislature who make the state yaiu-
ations are fools. When they see properly IN
Androscoggin valued by their assessors at
its lust value, and the same description OF
| property i'm ArOostook valued at one-haf
and less than one-half it is there, that they
do not know what it means.
In making these criticisms upon the man
ner that taxes are made, | have referred to
I As-A.. IL kAAa