Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1892-05-31

Boynton, Commander +. W. Dickens. U. 8. N;
Prof. o. T. Mason. Committee on invitations
and reception--Commander f. W. Dickins,
u s. N, chairman; Admiral J: E. Jouett,
U. s. NJ; Commander Colby Mitchell Chester,
U. 8. NJ; Col. G. r. Greenleaf, U. =. A.; Com
mander A. s. Barker, U. s. NJ; Mr.. William d.
Baldwin, Mr.. Herbert G. Ogden, Mr.. Myron NJ.
Parker, Mr.. A. Howard Clark, Mr.. Alexander
Porter Morse.
Thinks Mr.. Johnson's Plan Amateurish.
To the Editor of The Evening Star
Believing that public discussion Just at this
time Of Mr.. Johnson's assessment measure Is
of great importance, desire to say among the
meritorious features 1 note are: /, frequent
assessments; 2, the attempt to supply more
definite basis of assessment; g. the effort to fix
responsibility for assessments; 4. single
officer to have final decision of questions; 5,
candor with the public; g, the effort to make
the assessment lists. &c. ineligible to the
public; Z, the extension of right of appeal to
any citizen, and 3. the attempt to isolate the
officers from the influence of special interests.
To offset these omissions and defects in
Vulnerable. Probably the worst feature of the
plan is that all witnesses are required to repair
to O certain point in order to testify. In deter
mining real estate values there three facts
that should be noted wherever they exist,
namely, % the last price a. which sold and year
of sale; CD the cost and present value Of i'm
u.
Then BY comparison of these facts and by capt.
talizing rents current market values can be
easily ascertained. All this does not require
extraordinary ability. The so-called experts
are merely those who carry many of said facts
about with them in their minds. But the
expert" does not live whose knowledge would
equal that of who had access to said facts as
to every piece of property. 1t is estimated that
there are 5000 improved lots and hun
dreds of thousands of unimproved lots in the
District. Said three facts to each of said lots
should be known to the assessors. Think of the
enormous cost and trouble to both the govern
ment and to citizens if TO get this information
all tenants and owners are required to appear
at assessment court. 1t could be secured
much more easily by a systematic CANVASS By sub
assessors armed with proper powers. / think
five of them could do it in year. Unless these
facts are secured in each case justice cannot be
done and the present system of guessing will be
continued.
Mr.. JOhnsons plan as embodied in his meas
ure Is decidedly amateurish. 1t is based an
imperfect conception. Assuming that the knowl-
edge possessed by real estate expert is of pc
culiar character and that il can only be held by
one endowed with certain peculiar Characters
tics, he has started from u false premise. and,
proceeding this line. has devised q scheme
for securing pacific results through generaliza-
TONS l hardly think it would work satisfac-
torily.
Suppose his prosecutor and president were
not imbued with desire to correctly construe
and enfore the iaw-and that they should de-
liberately violate it-what then? The present
penalty clause is dead letter and would be just
as imperative under his plan. He has made no
provision to compel the carrying out Of his
plan.
The bill relieves the assessor of about nine
tenths Of his present duties and leaves his salary
intaet-s3, GOO q year. Il il not little absurd
10 practically abolish an office and still pay the
salary TO a mere fgurehead2
II also provides a high salary-S4 .0OO--to n
so-ealled president for the performance of func-
tions that are most ordinary in their nature and
which are usually discharged in the various de-
partments by clerks, TO whom salaries of 81 200
to 81 500 are considered ample. The came can
also be said as to the prosecutor.
The defects OF the present law have been real
lied to be as follows: !, triennial assessments:
2, temporary assessors: 3. indefinite and indie
terminate basis of assessment, f. and consequent
latitude of opinion; 5. divided responsibility; g.
Inadequate penalty clause; T. secrecy and lack
of candor with the public; s, an irresponsible
board of equalization; 0, the practice OF "view-
ing property in order to guess at its value; 10,
assessment lists unintelligible to the public; Ii.
denial Of right of protest to citizens H. assess
ors LEFT subject to insidious influences Of pow
erful interested parties; 49, fixed salaries; IA.
assessors not liable to punishment for failure to
enforce the law.
The correction Of these defects would be very
na,i,s snsc;fn has;s y, asa ammuu, ass S;sh
shon,d ds,'asg ~, IN $500 y, es mnien
sI uepeiia NJ. lacls lnse''u OF opinions; o.
naeu ponsaoi's ior eain ast: a. an aaeqaaae
e.;use o. sas uohe open 70 pup
NJ oeuoh, ., so' vi oheers 10 gather iacts
anu PIePaie pienaI! "ssesenen. return
onsea on 'hose iaenS: ihs'eaa OK renee.ihg mere
aueseu oP,i n ., 7Hl8.e oneer 10 Wnom
appeais eoa.u QUIZ; ee maas' lns.eaa OF aso-eaiied
poa.u oi III I, q assessieh. ns's 10 DC
AePs SO as 70 oe uaeeuigio'e; y rlent OF appeal
20 ne WIN any ci.Aehi ~, oineersto be Isolated
rom eA.raneous innnences, L. assessors 10 re,
ce,ye coh IN on returns, instead OF nxed
s ~ assessors 20 pe nao,e 70 punishment
Ior Iaiiu.e 70 ENFORCE .he Jaw 10, ciuzehs 10 DC
IN other WORDS, the assessment machinery
snouid CONSIST OF an assessor az SS,ooo, an as
sistlnt assessor AT >z,oU0, and hye suba5sessOrs