People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1898-08-04

the eye of the assessor. And on
these there was no reduction be.
yond an adjustment of discrimi'
nations, which in the aggregate in
the state amounted to an increase O
a half million dollars.
Suppose the board of railroad
assessors had increased the amount
of rolling stock on the Santa Fee!
returns to correspond to former re-
turns, would this act Of the board have
been final as Richards claims? Ger,
tainly not, and no one knows i
better than Richards himself. HaC
the board arbitrarily placed thi!
property on the schedule the com
pany could have gone to Judge
Foster land it was freely talked tina
they would for an injunction agains
the collection of the taxes. Thi.
would have delayed the collection
of the taxes and caused consider
able interference with schools anc
municipalities throughout the state
That being the case, what was the
wise thing for the board to dol
There are few, if any, of our reader:
who will not say that the board did
exactly the right thing when it de-
cided to accept all that the com
pany was willing to pay and &c
after the balance. The state lose:
none of its rights by accepting pay
ment on the company's basis; the
same questions that would have
come up in an action to compe
them to revise and complete theil
statement will come up in tn,
attorney generals action to require
an additional statement, hence tn,
people Of the state will get TIT
benefit of the company's taxes
without losing single point in tn,
litigation to follow. At the close O
the litigation the company's assess
ment will have been increased to TIT
same amount that could have beef
forced had the other method beef
pursued.
The Mail makes light Of the ide;
that the railroads would have re
sisted payment, yet it would hay
been the first paper to have raise'
the alarm about the Inconvenience
and calamities the people ofthe stat
would suffer through the effort of tn
Pops. to wreak vengeance on tn
railroads" Readers of the VoIc
will remember this cry in 1898, whe
the first Populist board Of assessor
raised the railroad valuations. Rich
ards was not con earth" at that tim
politically but other Republica
papers sounded the tocsin and VIII
doubts that Richards would hav
been the bell-weather in airing hi
legal "learning" had he been y,
"born." The files of the Monitor
Press show that on Dec. IA it raise
the warning that the failure of ii
railroads to pay taxes would like
cause the interest on our bonds
default, and may cause city schoo
to close, remarking at the close tn;
1--WE pointed out several months sin,
the danger Of just such contil
gency as this coming to pass"
its issue Of December 81, the Mon
tor-Press said:
However the controversy may
settled our POpulist railway assesso
, in trying to sock it to the Santa Z
for the company's supposed polite
activity, have got things into fiji
J tangle that will cost the taxpayers
pretty penny TO get Strengthened out
The termination of the matter W
: that the collection of the taxes we
delayed until March II, 1894, VIII,
: the county commissioners finally a
cepted atender of the taxes with on
half the accrued penalty. In t
| mean time the company had pass
! into the hands Of a receiver, els