The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-02-11

Gowan had thus failed to collect the fun
amount due him from the county for the
work, and Judge Ferrin and Clerk Carr
had fallen entirely short OF obtaining their
dues from the county, as they were en-
titled to the same sums which Can't Nc
Gowan had collected each year, as wei as
additional amounts for the lists furnished
by them, on which Capt MCGOWAN was
also entitled TO payment They did not
consider the idea of pressing their claims
for back dues at that time, but it is moi
unlikely that they may do so now
Since the commissioners have seen fit to
reject their bills for last years work on
technicality, they may see fit to request
the payments of the fun amounts due
them for the previous three years. which
would sn all probability, exceed the bills
rejected by the commissioners. They also
have the privilege of revising the list of
1898, SO as TO come within the ruling of the
commissioners and collect the fees due
them upon this also. This will probably
be done unless the commissioners see fit
10 accept the list as it is at present, for
doing which there are good reasons.
In their. further reading of the law 10 as
certain their duties the three officers in
terpreted it that they were required to in
clude on their list the names of all tax
defrauders as we'll as other disqualified
persons since the adoption of the consti-
tuition of 1877 unless they had reason to
believe that these persons were dead or
had removed from the county. They had
the opinion Of the county attorney to this
effect, so they thought. That they acted
in good faith in SO doing is evidenced from
the amount of work which was done, and
The manner when if was done.
The work was done during the hot
months of last summer and largely at
night. Every one of the voluminous tax
digeSts from 1878 TO 1897 as well as the
lunacy records of the ordinary's office and
the criminal records of the Office of the
clerk of the Superior Court were gone
through. As evidence that there was no
effort to pad" the list the old digests,
which were shown yesterday show where
hundreds of names of defaulters have been
checked off as dead or removed from the
county where the officials had any reason
to believe that such was the case. The last
three directories of the city of Savannah
were carefully studied to see whether par
ties whose names appeared upon the de-
faulters' lists were stin residents of the
city. and this was a great help in making
up the list of white defaulters With the
negroes it was less so as there were fewer
of their names to be found in the drecto-
Iies.
If a defaulter's name was found in any
of the directories for 1885,, 1896 or 1897 it
was taken for granted that he was still
living. unless known to be otherwise. Nat
urally, in looking over tax digests and rec
ords for twenty years past there were
many names which could not be account
ed for and as those making the search
were unable to say whether these parties
had died or removed from the county
their names were placed upon the default
ers list. In this way the list of IA, 1856
disqualified voters for 1888 which the
County Commissioners regarded as obnor-
mally large, was made up. AS a matter
of fact, Chatham county probably has the
largest number of tax defaulters of any
county in the. state, owing to the small
percentage of the large negro population
which pay taxes and register.
The three county officers who have been
given such unpleasant prominence in this
affair do not propose to let matters rest
where they are. They intend to invesd-
gate the case thoroughly and to be pre-
pared to make a showing before the next
meeting of the County Commissioners
which may give those gentlemen some
new light on the subject The point will
probably be made in their favor that the
list which has just been rejected by the
County Commissioners, is a much more
valuable one than the one which they
have been instructed to prepare by the
commissioners, which would only give the
number of disqualified voters known or
believed to be living in the county on
Jan. l, 1898. The rejected list gives the
name of every tax defauter and other
disqualified voter since 1877. On this list
there are not hundreds but thousands of
names of persons who formerly lived in
the county and are now living elsewhere,
but who are likely to return to Chatham
county again, in which case the complete
defauHers' list would be evidence of their
non-payment of taxes during certain years
of their residence here The colored ele-
ment likely to be affected by this list is
very large.
1t is not impossible that an amicable
settlement may be affected by the COM
missioners Withdrawing their resolution
adopted a Thursdays meeting and paying
the bills as presented The overcharge on
account of the excessively large list of 1898
being allowed in lieu of the payment of
similar services rendered during the three
previous years for which no payments
were made and for which the officials
may now make claim.
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