Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-02-18
THE STAR ASSESSMENT.
Answer to Mr.. Fish's Statement.


WASHINGTON, d. c., Feb. 16, 1889.
On my return to Washington to-day, after an
absence OF several days from the city, my at
tention was called to letter of Assessor Fish,
printed on the 18th instant, accusing me of
affirming that the stock Of THE SrAR twas only
worth fifty cents on the dollar, and that the
correct amount to be taxed should be $50 OoO,"
stating that on this affirmation he corrected
The STAR assessment, and informing the Com
missioners that if this assessment was below its
actual value. it is because he was .inten ton
ally misled' by the secretary and agent of the
company.
THESE STATEMENTS ARE FALSE
never made to Mr.. Fish the ridiculous state
mems that STAR stock was worth only SO cents on
the dollar. and never misled him. Intentionally
or otherwise, by falsehoods concerning the
value of the stock. The assessment was made
by Mr.. Fish, unaided by any affirmation con-
corning the value of the stock by me, and 1
spoke nothing but the truth in all that said to
him. The facts of the transaction are briefly
these: In August or September blank return
OF personal taxes was received at The STAR
Office. This was the first blank of the kind
that had come to my hands since I became one
of The STARS officers. Taxation in previous
years had been upon an assessment of $50. 600,
T, NI.
Adams, president of the company. and since his
death no new return has been made. did not
have the knowledge of the methods of per-
sonal taxation employed in the District which
would enable me to make out a proper return,
and l called upon Mr.. Fish as the most suitable
person from whom to learn these things. He
asked me the amount of the company's capital
stock, and l told him. He asked me what its
market value was. and
1 TOLD HIM. THAT DID NOT KNOW,
that there was none upon the market, that no
stock had gone outside the original owners
and incorporators and their families since the
corporation was formed, and that to guess at
its market value from the dividends of the
paper would be especially improper in the case
of property so fuctuating in value as a news
paper, and would in any event be tax upon
the income or goodwill of the paper and not
upon its actual property. was not aware that
there was any law which arbitrarily required
the assessment to be based upon an appraise
ment of the capital stock of corporations, and
especially of THE STAR company, which
changed from partnership to a corporation
merely for convenience, acquiring no exclusive
privileges and retaining its share certificates in
the hands of its former owners. l therefore
explained to Mr.. Fish how small the selling
value is of the actual personal property which
newspaper owns, the presses, type, furni-
ture, DC. Finally Mr.. Fish said that he would
assess The STAR, as it hadsbeen heretofore as
sessed, at 100000 l asked him if any return
of any kind was desired from The STAR Office,
and he replied in the negative. saying that he
would make the assessment himself directly. l
would never have signed a return estimating
the market value of The STAR at 80 per cent of
Its face value or any other valuation,
AND MADE NovERBAL STATEMENT TO THIS EFFECT.
Indeed, in our conversation it was assumed
that The STAR stock, so treasured by its own
ers, would disclose considerable market value,
if that had been ascertained by sales, not linn
tied even by its face value, and to the best of
my recollection Mr.. Fish made some jocose al
fusion to the public knowledge on that point.
Ny conversation was against guessing at the
market value by consideration OF earnings,
and in favor of a consideration of the actual
personal property of the paper in making the
assessment, and neither estimated the earn
lngs nor deprecated the value of the stock.
In November tax bill was received by THE
STAR in which its assessment was stated at
100000. Remembering Mr.. Fishs announce
ment that he would assess THE STAR at 900,
called upon him to ascertain why different
assessment appeared on the tax bill. At first
he thought that the tax bill stated the amount
which he had told me, but when recalled the
amount of the assessment for tile previous year,
the details OF the previous conversation, and
the fact that be had himself recorded some
where the figures of his voluntary assessment,
he remembered what he had actually said. and
after looking at the record or memorandum
where he had stated the assessment, he told
me, in effect, that in carrying out the assess
ment
A MISTAKE HAD BEEN MADE BY CLERK,
and that the additional figuring was not his
own. He apologized for the error and cor
rected the bill. My conversation, as 1 recol-
lect it, had reference solely to his prior
declaration of the amount at which he would
assess. l know that he never stated to me in
this interview that he had changed his
opinion in regard to the amount of the as
sessment or that he regarded the $780, 900 as
sessment, as too low. Our whole converse
ton was directed to the entertainment of the
amount Of the assessment which he had pre-
viously made, and when he had convinced
himself in regard to that, he made the correc-
ton at once.
The making of the assessment from begin
ming to end
WAS THE ASSESSORS OWN VOLUNTARY ACT,
and supposed that he arrived at his conclu-
sions by the same process of figuring as in
other cases. The assessments of the other
corporations in the published list show clearly
that the market value of stocks which are
quotabe is not the sole consideration with the
assessor. There is nothing peculiar and dis
tinctiye in principle in The STARS assessment
to distinguish it from the assessments of its
contemporary newspapers and the other corpo-
fdtlOnS enumerated III the llSI. In guessing at
the market value of The STAR from alleged
dividends said to have been received from
alleged shares, Mr.. Fish
is AS INACCURATE AS IN HIS RECOLLECTION OF
OUR CONVERSATIONS.
The dividends of The STAR for 1887 were not
such as to admit the possibility of the number
of shares mentioned receiving the amount of
dividends stated. Mr.. Fish's two million valu-
alton of The STAR, however fattering to the
paper, is based upon an erroneous assump-
ton. His entire correspondence with the
Commissioners is thus a tissue of misrepresen-
tations, and in its charge of false representa-
ton against me it is an outrageous libel upon
me personally, and through me, as an alleged
agent, upon The STAR itself.
+. B. MOVES