The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-09-13
LYING WON'T EXCUSE.

The organ of the prostitutes and the city
council continues its search for excuses
for the raid which the Liberal city govern
ment is making on the pockets of the tax
payers, AMI failing to find valid ones re-
sorts 20 its usual practice, that of lying.
Its defense of the men it denounced as
"boodlerso only a few weeks ago, runs
thus: Last year great deal of property
was not assessed at all, or, If assessed, the
taxes were remitted.'' Now where is that
property which was not assessed last year.
In whose name does it stand! How did the
owners manage to escape the assessors
These are pertinent queries and should be
answered definitely that last years asses
sor may have an opportunity to explain
why he did not perform his duty.
An answer which is no more definite than
reference to the mythical Bishop
WEST" or to that eminently respectable
person who has never been seen but is
trottsd out whenever the organ doesn't
care TO lie on its own responsibility, "a
trustworthy old LADY, will not suffice.
And then how about the remission of
taxes last year! Was there ever such a
going onl Meritorious petitions for re-
mission are denied without explanation,
and for no reason that anybody can ascer-
tain; and similarly remissions are made
without apparent excuse. A day or two
ago the tax was RENTED on a piece of
property valued at over $4,000
and worth double that sum, and
we defy any member. of the
council or its defender to tell why The
owner is worth $4,000 or 900. We hope
that Liberal politics had nothing to do with
the case. But when did a previous city
council "wipe out' a six thousand dollar
tax valuation with or without explanation
SIN the meantime, continues the de-
fender of the disreputable, property has
more than doubled in valuation, and all
property has been assessed 1ike-Mormon
and Gentle alike-something that never
happened before"
In the meantime there are two squar-toed
lies in the above, and the man who wrote
the paragraph knew that he was lying while
the ink flowed.
This year, under new law passed by a
Mormon legislature, under penalties the
assessor was compelled to assess at full
yalue.n
If that is so how is i that five-acre lots
on the south have been assessed at Sc. 900
when they will fetch $4,000 cash any day.
If the assessor increased the valuation 500
per cent, in some instances through fear of
the law, have not the people legal claim
upon him and his bondsmen for the taxes
on s., 900 on every fve-acre lot viii Oh he
has assessed at $1,000 knowing the land
would fetch $4,000 any day! The law must
have had wonderfully Compelling in
fiuence over the official.
Again says the organ: Last year the
levy was ten mills This is no worse lie
than other of its statements. The rate last
year was five mills, or just half what the
falsifer asserts it to have BEEN
But what is the use of following paper
which never tells the truth but by mistakes
There can be no defense of the action of
the assessor and the city council. If the
official and the council have not conspired
20 strike Salt Lake a ruinous blow, their
proceedings will have more or less that
effect. A city cannot prosper when taxes
are so high that industrious, hard working
men are forced to sell their homes to raise
money for the collector. People will not
rush madly into city 10 invest in houses
and lots when the old settlers are leaving
TO escape outrageous taxation. No amount
of lying can soften the blow to Salt Lakes
property that is being struck by the as
SCISSOR and city council, and no amount of
Justification can convince the people that
they are not being unnecessarily oppressed
by the government.