The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-11-07
AND WHO is Benefited
BY THE JUDICIAL HOLD UP OF
100000 FOR 1899.
SCHOOLS OF THE STATE LOSE s25, 900
The State Loses About One Fifth of the Total
Amount and the Count S, Cities and
Towns Will be Shy the Rest
of TOTAL Amount.

lima Judge Simonton wears a very costly
article of ermine-in fact he costs the
State more for the year of $40 than its
Supreme court, all the judges of the
Superior courts, all the solicitors, and
all the criminal courts and justices of
the peace thrown in. Indeed the only
luxury anything like so expensive in
which the State has INDUCED of late
years was the Fusion administration Of
the penitentiary which came for period
of two years to about the same Inquire at
tanned by Simonton; maybe though the
present administration will do as well.
Simonton's policy of mastery mac
fiyity" comes high.
Lets see how it is.
The Corporation Commission raised
the assessment of all railroads, telegraph,
telephone and steamboat property in
the State S12,00O,000 this year, or from
S30,000,000 to $4,000 00-this was the
figure that was said to be excessive
and disproportionately high" The in
creased taxes for Static. county and
municipal purposes that would have been
levied and collected ON this $12,000,000
would have been in the aggregate S120,-
600 for the year 1899 and of course for
each year thereafter so long as the
same basis of taxation should be main
tanned. As matter of fact, however,
the loss will be for 1899 somewhat less
than S120,000, or in round numbers only
S1O4. 000-for, mark you, all the conn
panies of the sort mentioned are not the
benefciaries of Simonton's scotchlng.
Some of the railroad and other COM
panies did not complain that the in
crease was disproporfionate or a hard
ship. but agreed TO pay their taxes like
the rest of the States property owners.
Some of the railroads did this-the roads
that are getting rich, you know. hauling
saw logs and yearling calves, with six
trains each way per week on their lines.
The companies that c0aid not stand the
raise and that are saved the S1Ul,0O0 by
Simontons alleged opinion and the
amounts that they are saved are as fol
lows:
Southern. 49,. 49,. S4o,O0O
Atlantic Coast Lime. ........... $1,000
Seaboard Air Line. 24,000
Western Union Telegraph. ..... 5000
These are the temporary gamers by
the opinion. And the losers? Well, the
public schools of the State lose, | am
told, about one-ffth of the whole amount
or the rise of $4,000. And yet there
are those who will maintain that the
$4,000 is needed by the public schools
and even that the companies involved
would have gotten that much and more
back, in the long run, from the $4,000,
considered as an investment. Then the
State will lose about $4,000 of the
amount, which would have been its
share of the whole. This will not be
the occasion of a deficit in the annual
budget, though the State will, of course,
regret that these companies for which
it has done good deal in the past should
have seen fit to say in the courts that It
is trying to rob them of that amount.
What will hurt the States feelings is
not the accusation that it has turned
highwayman, but the insinuation that
it did so for the matter of $4,000. The
rest of the 100000 will be lost by the
cities and counties.
That we may the better understand
the catastrophe from which Simonton
has saved the States main lines of rail
way let us divide the increased tax
which they could not pay by their ME
age in the State. According to the re-
port of the Railroad Commission for
1898 the mileage of these roads in North
Carolina was as follows:
Miles.
Southern. 800. Il 1885
Coast Line. ...... ............ 909
Seaboard. ...... ...-.... ofo
Since this report was made, however,
the Southern and Coast Line have divid-
ed up between them the 331 miles of the
old Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley Rail
way. BY a simple process Of division 4
will appear that the increased tax OF
these roads averaged about $50 per mile
annualIy-or somewhat less than the
average jury estimate of the value OF
a steer that has disputed the locomotives
ri~ht IF way