Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-02-15

The communication from the Commissioners
TO the Senate in regard TO corporation assess
ments Is the latest move in their campaign of
desperate malice against The STAR which found
its beginning in the ignominious failure of
their crusade upon the paper before the Taul-
bee investigating committee. The impotence
Of their efforts to damage The STAR has appar-
emily crazed them, or they would never
have singled out this paper from the
corporations in their schedule FOR dis
paragins comment in reference to its
assessment and base their imputations upon
the cringing favor-seeking falsehoods Of a
drunken, laundering assessor, who writes
himself down a fool, by his own COM
communication to them. The statement that
an officer of this company claimed to the as
SCISSOR that its stock was worth only so cents on
the dollar is an infamous falsehood. No
written return was made in behalf of the COM
pany and no verbal statement by any of its OFF,
GERS, thus depreciating its value. Any such
allegation would be recognized as sbsurdly
false on its face, and no competent official resi-
dent in this community, charged with the duty
Of assessment, and endowed with ordinary
common sense, observation and memory,
would pretend to believe il. The assessor
SrAR Just as in the case of the
other corporations mentioned in the published
list. No lie in behalf Of The STAR affected this
assessment. The case is merely this The Com
missioners have required the assessor to aid
them to crafty their malice, and he has yielded
and written himself down a liar and fool in or
der to please them. Not only does the assessor
falsify in his allegations of Representations made
by TEE STAR, but he makes misstatements the
basis of his figuring concerning The Stars ac-
tual valuation. The assistant district attorney
and the Commissioners hastily adopt mass Of
inaccuracies as the firm foundation of an i'm
putstion against The STAR of an evasion of
law. Herefter, and in the proper place,
the above statements in behalf of
TAE STAR will be amplifed and
made good As the assessor alone made the
appraisement criticised he alone is responsible
for it. A comparison Of this assessment, how
ever, with the others in the published list indi-
Gates that the same basis of assessment or a
more favorable one was adopted by
him in appraising certain other corpora
tons. The truth of the matter is
as stated by the assessors of the District in
their successive annual reports, that the per-
sonal tax in the District is a miserable failure,
almost universally resisted as unjust and in
quisitorial, and returning under the appraise-
ments OF the assessor most absurdly
indequate statement of personal property.
Indeed according to the assessors showing
the value of such property here,
a mere fraction of its actual value under the
very highest appraisement made, has been
steadily growing less duri9g the last few years.
No one in the District. either individual or cor
poration, pays a full personal tax, and the
law should be either universally and
thoroughly enforced or abolished The latter
course Is the preference of all citizens.
The revenue can be better raised in
some juster and more equal way. THE
STAR does not attempt to defend all the various
appraisements made by the assessor, or
the general refusal by the community
to make returns of personal property. 1t
afirms. however, that nobody in its behalf
has made any affirmation to the assessor tend
ing to depreciate the value Of its stock, Or has
falsifed concerning its possessions. The as
SCISSOR has appraised as in other cases. the
paper pays a fair taxation on its actual per-
sonal property as distinguished from its good
will, and the act of the COMMISSIONERS in singing
out The STAR from among corporations and
individuals as a notable case of undertaxatiop.
10 an exhibition of pure malice, which will be
recognized as such by every taxpayer on per-
sonal property in the District.