Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1901-08-07
The Distress Warrants.

The Distress Warrants. ~
The distress warrants which City
Treasurer N. H. Higgins had served in
comb and Roscoe Holmes, are return
able next Tuesday, Aug. IS. What
the outcome will be is still matter of
speculation. Treasurer Higgins says
the warrants will be enforced to the
letter unless satisfactory return is
made before Aug. 10 by the collectors.
The condition of the city finances as
regards back taxes, which led up to
the issuing of the distress warrants,
has been told too many times to need
repetition here. Suffice it to say that
after all other plans to secure the
payment of back taxes had failed, the
city treasurer, by the advice of the
aldermen, had the distress warrants
served.
1t is hardly necessary to say that
there was no desire on the part of the
city treasurer and the aldermen to
make trouble for the collectors. In
deed, it was rather with the idea of
giving valuable aid to the collectors
in the way of lever to be used on the
delinquent taxpayers, that the war
rants were issued.
But the collectors seem not to have
utilized to its fullest extent the power
thus placed in their hands, their
leniency being due, doubtless, to
natural Discrimination to resort, among
their fellow citizens, to such drastic
measures as the law would Justify
them in using.
The results from the warrants have
not been what was hoped. When the
warrants were issued in May, there
remained uncollected in the hands of
Collector Whitcomb, of 1899 tax,
about $4,000; and in the hands of
Collector Holmes, of 1900 tax, about
S14 1000. Since the warrants were is
sued, Treasurer Higgins has received
from Collector Whitcomb on 1899 tax
$S7S.58; and from Collector Holmes
on 1900 tax, 81, 233.5s. In short, in
spite of the distress warrants, the col
lections in back taxes have barely
kept up to the average.
A distress warrant is couched in
terms that cannot safely be disregard
ed. If taken advantage of by col
lector, it is a powerful instrument for
the collection of back taxes; disre
garded, it becomes an equally power
full instrument in the hands of the
city treasurer.
There are others than the collectors
who are closely concerned in seeing
that the distress warrant is complied
with. The officer who serves the war
rant on the collector must perform
his duty to the letter. He is instructed
in the warrant to attach the property
of the collector, and if that is not suf-
ficient, to take his body and hold him
in jail until the warrant is satisfied
He has no discretion in the matter;
he must do this for the protection of
himself and his own bondsmen. Thus
not only the collector, but also the
officer and his bondsmen become
vitality interested.
In this case matters become some
what complicated by the fact that
Collector Whitcomb is now the sheriff.
AS sheriff he served the distress war
rant on Collector Holmes, while it re-
quired coroner - in this instance
Coroner Curtis r. Foster-to serve
the warrant on Collector and Sheriff
Whitcomb.
The man who set in motion and who
controls this somewhat intricate legal
machinery is the city treasurer. His
hand is on the throttle, and unless he
reverses the lever, the machine must
run its course. He may, if he sees fit,
stop it by the simple declaration that
the treasury has been sufficiently re-
lieved, or by another process, he may
in effect extend the time for payment.
But unless extraordinary effort to
collect the back taxes is made within
the next few days, it does not seem
likely that the treasury will be re-
lieved to the satisfaction of the treas