Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1899-06-29
ASSESSMENT STILL
PREVAILS.
LAW FLAGRANTLY VIOLATED
MUCH PROPERTY ASSESSED AT A
TITHE OF ITS VALUE.
Horses Assessed at $3.50 In Stevens
County, Sheep at 20 Cents in Els
worth, Pianos at S17.O4 in
StaRord-Some Other
Valuations.

TOPEKA, June 2s-(SpeciaL) That the |
majority of township assessors in Kansas |
still fagrantly violate their oaths of office |
is clearly evidenced by the assessment re- |
turns now coming to the state auditors
office from the various county clerks. The |
state law provides that all personal and
real property shall be assessed at it's cash
value, and the township assessors are pro-
hibited from getting together each year and
fixing a fictitious valuation on personal
property of from 25 to SO per cent of its
actual value. Yet the returns now coming
in show that the assessment laws have
been as openly violated during this year
as they ever were before.
As an illustration, the assessors in Dom
iphan county tried to do their duty as re-
quired by law and assessed horses an
average of $40 each. In Jefferson county,
just thirty miles away, the average assess
ment of horses was s6.97, or over $lS less
head than in Doniphan. Out in Grant
| county, horses are assessed at $o45 and in
Stevens. $3.50. The valuation of horses in
Marshall county was SOL, while in the ad
joining county, Washington, it was s12.S2.
| In Allen county, cattle are assessed at
| sl3.O9, while in Jefferson better cattle
| county by far and the home of the finest
of Kansas herds, they are assessed at $40.
Out in Stevens county, the assessors fixed
s4.T the valuation of cattle, and In Cove,
| S5.15. Lyon county, big cattle district,
| assessed cattle at Sl0.67-
| Regardless of what nice things Secretary
| Coburn said about sheep culture in his last
quarterly, the assessors of Ellsworth coun-
ty evidently don't like the pesky things, for
they assessed sheep at 20 cents head.
Mitchell county, Just north of Ellsworth
forty miles, fixed the valuation at s1.19;
Leavenworth, at 81 fiat. Allen county put
the largest valuation on sheep, fixing it at
$146
Just as wide discrepancies exist in the
| assessment of mules. In Doniphan county
they are valued at s1S.S7; in Cove county,
1913. Allen county assessed them at S1466,
while its neighobr, Linn, fixed $500 as the
valuation. Logan county must have a poor
quality of mules or poor quality of asses
sors; mules there are valued at S42i; and
in Comanche, s695.
The Ellsworth assessors evidently don't
like hogs either, for they assessed them at
90 cents each. Woodson was the only coun-
ty with lower valuation on hogs. 1t was
SO cents. Pawnee put the largest vaiua-
ton on them, s.. SO each, while Allen county
came next with 81 rate.
Stafford county is the home of cheap
wagons There they are only worth $i4o
each, according to the assessors Com
anche goes Stafford one better by valulng
assessed at $1O9O and in Lyon at SO.
Cheap family buggies and carriages are
certainly all the rage in Western Kansas
In Stevens they are assessed at S4s3 each'
in Stafford, 1885, in Sherman. SASS; in Ellis
s5.55. Barton county has the $40 grade,
while Leavenworth heads the list so far
in the way of prices by putting in its vehi-
cleS at S1S.I2.
Gold watches are not so expensive in the
West as they used to be. For instance,
those in Stafford county are valued at SS.3o
each: in Stevens at s.6S; IN Comancne' meme
ing a tolerably good grade OF jewelry, for
their watches are assessed at sZsW, or
seven times as much as they are in stevens
In Stafford county, the home or Blll
Campbell the great Populist mogul, silver
watches, like silver dollars, are as cheap
as wheat. There the assessors. under oath
to assess property at its true valuation, de-
clare that silver watches are worth only
Sl09 In Sherman county, silver watches
are valued at $2.0S; in Russell, at S2.Si; in
Ellis, at SIP. In Leavenworth they are
even IS. Silver watches, 1t can be seen,
are more valuable in some counties than
gold watches are in others.
The valuation of pianos huctuateS even
more than the wheat market. In Doniphan
county, they are assessed at s!4SS each;
in JEFFERSON county, sl666 each. Clark
county evidently has a very good grade of
pianos, for it values them at sI4 each, while
Stafford county certainly has as poor a
quality of pianos as it has of wagons, bug
gies, watches and hogs for it only values
its pianos at s1704. Ellsworth trails second
in poor qualities with 1885 pianos, and
Grant county third, with $50 instruments.
Jefferson has the S16.66 brand of pianos.
In Geary county, organs are assessed at
S14.21 or almost as much as pianos are
worth in Jefferson county; but out in Stat
, ford county organs are only worth Sass;
! in Stevens, $50. and in Sherman, $500.
There is absolutely no way for the state
board of equalization to correct this evil
The only thing it can do when 1t believes
the assessment of a county as a whole is
. too low is to raise the assessment on all
property, both real and personal 1t can.
: not equalize individual personal or rea
property under the present law. A bill will
no doubt be passed at the next session OF
the legislature giving it authority to revise
the equalization as fixed by the county
commissioners This would take the as
sessment out of the influence of local sur.
roundings and would enable the state tc
have just assessment.
n Many counties keep the assessment dowr
0 to the very lowest notch, in order to gel
: out of paying their proportion of the state
: tax.