The Savannah morning news., 1901-10-10
cTDTE AND PLANT SYSTEM.
~ THE QUESTION of vALUA-
DEL TON FOR TAXES.

uo,rd Of Arbitration wrenns
.,,,b DifficuIt Problems Touchins
voIue of the Plant system
who Met to Go Into the
.;o,, of the Difference Be-
,ne state and the Company.
- mr. Three Days More Needed
reach a ConcuIsion-Witnesses
examined Yesterday.
u,,. question of the value of Plant
~ nroperty was up yesterday be-
~. tho board of arbitration named 10
10, .or,,,ine the amount upon which 1T
shouId pay taxes. The aroitrators ana
..nors interested spent practically the
u. 10 dav upon the case, without even
ei's' ,,sting the testimony bearing upon
rLo hearing was held at the Office of
-. pone Barrow, arbitrator named by
.so plant System. Besides Mr.. Barrow
- we're present Hon. T. G. Cren-
.ron, chairman of the Railroad Com
mission. arbitrator for the, state; Judge
p u galloway of Augusta, called In
-, the arbitrators as umpire petWeen
.bem Attorney General j. L. Ierrell
I'D controller General w. A. wright
ail,n an the state, and Hon. F. G.
diRignon and w. L. Clay, Esq., repre-
eentine the Plant System.
GaYsTal witnessed were examined,
w. Mr. Barrow said after the hear
W. w. that no conclusion had been
nnocbed In fact, argument had not
Ian made. for there are more Wit
nesses TO be examined. Col. Wright
md Col Terrell left last night to re-
t,rn TO Atlanta, as the case seems like
" 70 take two or three days for a
settlement.
n. H. Osborne, chairman of the
BOARD of Tax Assessors of Savannah,
was the first witness. He was called
because of his contention that the
plant system returned its Savannah
veal estate at far too low a figure. The
company said the property was worth
ohout $3.50. 900. Mr.. Osborne told the
Controller General that it was fully
sg7o 25O-S24O,OO0 for the depot property
and wards and 1872, 250 for the wharves.
The Controller General accepted this
estimate and it is one of the principal
ouestions in dispute. The evidence of
Mr. Osborne tended to show that far
too low a valuation was placed upon
the Savannah land owned by the Plant
System.
General Superintendent w. B. Den
ham of the Plant System was wit
ness. as was A. ]. Joseph one of the
companys clerks. Their evidence was
nm personally They testified that the
locomotives should not be valued as
high as 81 100 each, which was the ng-
ure to which they had been raised by
fa01
The Controller General added about
100000 to the returns of the company
nv raising the value of the locomotives.
The Plant System and the Controller
General are about 100000 apart in their
valuation of the company's property.
The Plant System claims that some of
its main track and some of its side
track is assessed too heavily by the
Controller. so it maintains that, if the
value of real estate in Savannah is in
creased that of the tracks should be
reduced 1t also contends that some or
the branch lines are assessed much too
high, so that if something is added to
the value of some of the sidetrack,
there should be a corresponding reduc-
ton for the branches.
Assistant city Engineers John w.
Howard and j. DeBruyn Hops were ex-
amined upon the matter OF the rant
System real estate. There is the
strongest point of difference, and the
board will probably find the rub right
there when it comes to a consideration
Of the merits of the case.
It is scarcely probable that the board
will have to take a trip over the line
to examine the property that is hav-
ing its value questioned. Last year
such trip was made, but it seems
hardly necessary now.