The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-08-27
incompetent aud worthless ffce-holders

If DR.. Cyrus Thompson could show.
in his hyenalille assaults upon the hon
orcd dead, that his activity in collecting
taxes had relieved any single burdened
farmer from Murphy to Manteo, the tax
payer thus relieved might forgive his
SANDER of the dead. But he win find
it hard to make people think any bet
ter Of his crowd when they find that no
decrease in taxation on the taxpayers
has been brought about by his self-Iauda-
ton. All the money collected has done
nobody any good except the tax-enters.
We believe in making corporations pay
their equal share of the expense of gov
ernment and we also believe that when
taxation is increased on them the money
thus nut in the treasury ought to cause
reduction of the taxes Of others, and
not be used to let lot of political strikers
ret bigger salaries than they can earn.
TO show how The assessments on the
property of the people have been in-
creased. we quote the following from n
we'll prepared article in n recent issue
Of the Goldsboro Argus:
"Thc fusionists in North Carolina have
been driven by their own extravaganza
TO devise means for paying then rccE-
less cXpendture. \ direct increase in
taxation would call attention 10 their
profligacy, and was, therefore, as far as
possible to he avoided. Indirect methods
were preferable. So, by the provisions
of Chapter so. Laws of 1897 the Rail
road Commission was constituted n
Board of Equalization, With the power
to increase the total valuation Of any
class of property in any county, with
a like power to decrease. SO rs to equal
iZe valuations in any county, and also
with the power to add to or deduct from
the aggregate valuation such a percent
age of such aggregate valuation rs may
be necessary to establish uniformity ana
equality of valuations among the several
counties in the State
1--WE have before us. as we write, the
order of this Board of Equalization as
it affects Wayne county. That order di-
reefs IIle INcSlSltE vi i'tChS VI AhlN
county to add to the value of each COW
on the tax list in the county II per cent.
to each hog - per cent, to each sheep 10
per cent. 1t will he observed that this
arbitrary act and this wonderful order
add alike to the valuation of those hogs,
cattle and sheep. which the owners
had already valued at their true value,
as well as to the valuation of those which
10 wi EuI
in effect. every man who gives in for
taxation cattle. sheep and hogs, sub
guilty of perjury-every farm
er in this county is found by this august
Board to have undervalued. under oath,
all of his stock. and the Register of
Deeds is arbitrarily directed to increase
the valuation-and this was done, and
the farmer paid his tax without even
knowing that it had been increased. The
particular order now before us has .
printed blank for adding to the valua-
ton of bicycles. but the blank is not
filed. and bicyclists may be understood
to have been acquitted Of perjury by
the Board of Equalization. These or
ders changing valuations may be found
in the offices of the various Register Of
Deeds, and will be shown any one on
application. if the Register is Il Demo
crat. but if he is Republican he may in
form you that you are n ballot thief and
refuse you the information.
another scheme to increase the reve-
nues without letting too many people
know it. will be found in Chapter 16S,
section II. of the Laws of 1897. I'm
der the provision of this Act, every ad-
ministrator and every executor is re-
quired to pay into the office of clerk of
the Superior court. when the annual re-
ports are filed, twO-thirds of one per cent
upon all legacies or inheritances devised
or descended to persons in the direct lines
and one and one half per cent upon
all such legacies and Inheritance devised
or descending c0laterally Except such
as are for charitable uses).' Some Of
the States are resOrting to an inherl-
lance tax as a means of checking the ac-
cumulatiOn of large fortunes; but in q
poor State like North Carolina it has no
proper place except in cases where the
State. being heavily in debt. is com
PEELED to resort to new methods of tax
alton. Contrast this tax with the tax
on billiard tables, and one sees at a
glance the unfitness of Republicanism to
rule the State. Under the Democratic
Revenue Act of 1893 billiard tables run
in connection with bar-rOoms were
taxed $75, and the little estate which
the small farmer left to his children
decended to them free of tax; in 1895
the fusion Legislature reduced the tax
on billiards tables to $50, but still left
the little estate free; in 1897 the Legisla-
ture. which the Caucasian characterized
at the time as "a damnabie disgrace to
the State reduced the tax on billiard
tables to $50, and levied a tax on small
estates.
''The sheep. cattle and hogs of the
farmer must be arbitrarily increased
in valuation in the name of equality
while the taxation on the down-trodden
industry of running a billiard table in
connection with a bar-rOom is reduced
The fusion orator, when confronted with
his promise to reduce taxation, points
with pride to his only achievement in
that direction and proudly boasts that
he reduced taxation on billiard tables"
Think of it! There are Cubans in pris-
ON at Santiago incarcerated for their
M pf II, tho robolIion o0oiuct Cpoinf And