Daily Kennebec journal., 1894-03-31
IT INVITES PERJURY.
The Iniqyitous System Of Taxaiicn
invarioas States.
Single TAX Adhelenls -Qussiiohsjsi Jsslice--
Southern congressmsn Pleased.

from IBGiafia tuF0ivIbg radfcal questions
Vt the right Of taxation which bids fair t.
bc Lending case, as it also involves inn
portant principles Of tire interstate com,
mcrcc Law. Incidentally also it empha-
sizes the dfity 81 n stote TO correct the
growing. evil Of undervalration in proper
~ for assessment. BY examination Of the
UEited States census any one can sec tina:
returning property for taxation purposes
has fer nnBy years past amounted to moth
ing more nor less than an Increasing rival
ry in perjury, the taxpayer gradually gain
ing on the law, as III usually the case.
f.ess tiian 40 years ago the assessed val
nation Of property In the United States
WIS only % per cent less than its estimat-
I'd true valuation by the experts OF the
ccnslis bureau, but the divergence has in
creased so rapidly that today the assess-
mcnt is only about 25 per cent Of the esti-
mated true vaIuation. OF course it is easy
10 say that the estimated value IL grossly
exaggerated, and there is no doubt that IL
the selling price Of lands outside of cities
we,V taken ns It is today the result would
be a sum very much less than that official
~ reported. Nevertheless the divergence
is SO great ns to show that the public con-
science is completely debauched on the
subject of swearing in property.
An Important Case.
Well. the Indiana kgislature OF 1891
passed n regular ironclad lazy providing
for the assessment of property at its true
selling value and appointed a state board
to assess railroads, telegraphs and tele-
phones and the like property, this board
consisting of the governor, auditor OF state,
secretary Of state and two tax commission
ers, with the deputy auditor of state for
their secretary. These commissioners pro-
ceeded to assess the railroads Mt pretty
nearly the face value of their stock or at
whatever sum they were supposed to be
paying dividends on. The railroads took
different methods, some paying under pro-
test and some coDtesting in the state courts
and paying after those decided against
them, but the Big Four combination, " so
called, appealed from the supreme court of
the state and set up that the board had
taken into consideration local railroad val
ues which were dependent on the value
created by the passage OF their lines
through other states. The increased valu-
alton being about 800, ,0O0,00 and the
state tax 35 cents on the hundred, the
amount involved is about $315, 200 for the
state and about three times as much for
the counties and municipalities.
Governor Matthews, Auditor of State
Henderson, Secretary of State Myers Com
missioncrs Allen and Walker, and their
clerk, Mr.. Tanning, all came in body to
assist in the presentation of the case, and
the decision, as aforesaid will be an impor-
tant cne to MI the states which are seek
ing to reform their taxing system. Incl
dentally members of the committees on
railroads are appealed to to take some ac-
tion, and their general opinion seems to be,
that the whole subject of taxation is in
such chaos as between the states that ere
long it will be necessary to devise some
general and comprehensive system.
Az an instance. the great state of 1ili-
nois showed an actual decrease of proper
ty values in % years by state assessment,
and u ma jority of the counties in most OF
the middle western states, except those
counties in which growing cities are To-
Gated, have shown no increase for many
years, and many of them decided de-
crease. In short, Ms aforesaid, our whole
system of assessing property simply
amounts to n desperate race in the rivalry
of perjury, each man trying to see how
much he can "swear OFF, and yet escape
the penitmtiary. 1t goes without saying
TINT congressman of the Tom johnson and
Jerry Simpson class are utilizing such
facts in support of their single tax views.
a Change In the Situation.
! All the southern congressman who have
lately returned from their homes express
themselves as greatly gratiiied by the
change in tho situation. especially in Ala
hanna Arkansas and Texas. "Of course
a la
says Mr.. Bankhead of Alabama, land
probably In no long time. But it is evident
that in our state the time has not yet come.
The Skolbites didn't begin right. and they
have lately got an awfully black eye. Mr..
kolh's position made him officially the
head OF the farming interests in the state,
aud in the first tilt he had with Mr.. Jones
he lacked but few votes of having a ma
jority Of the delegates to the convention.
while Mr.. Jones had the smallest number
only 20. Nevertheless they got up such
u heat in the convention that the strength
of all the other candidates went to Mr..
Jones and enabled him to defeat Mr.. Kolb.
1.-The latter was so disgruntled that the
next time he organized his own conven-
tion. and SO the split. began. At first the
Kolbites claimed to be II little better Dem
ogTtltS t1uH Nue TtSb VI us, uUt aS AWAY =
happens in such cases they threw ont
tlragnet for all kinds of votes, and II
they had got all the Populists and all
the Republicans and all the negroes they
might have downcd us. The time Is past,
however. when any party can vote the
negroes solid. A very large percentage OF
them are straightout Democrats and an
other large percentage will not vote at all.
1.-The kolbites make no complaint as to
She system of voting, but claim that there
is room for great fraud in the registration.
They also claim that the agricultural in
terests have been neglected, and in other
respects they adopt most of the alleged
grievances OF the Populists. There are
very many able men among them. too.
some OF our best citizens. but the proof
lately published that their electors in saa
agreed to vote for Mr.. Harrison il they
were elected and II their votes were neces-
sary to elect him has completely destroy
ed their moral strength. We shall carry
the state by large majority and re-elect
every one OF our congressman.
The returning members from Arkansas
and Texas give substantially the same ac-
count, hut it is admitted that if any south
ern state ia likely to go anti-Dcmocratic
that state IA North Carolina, where the OPP
position, Republican and Populist, seems
49,.