Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1901-03-19
TIE HEARING ENDED
Final Arguments Of the Railroad
Representatives Heard by
Executive Council.
They Shed Little Light ON the
Situation and Generally
Disagreed.
Council Will Now Make Assess
ment According to Its Own
Judgment.
to 1'imes-R Republican.

Special to Times Republican.
Des Moines, March l9.-..Are there
any representatives of the people to be
heard q asked Governor Shaw, at the
conclusion of the hearing Of representa-
tives of the railroads before the execu-
tive council. There was no Srespon sc.
1t seems a little singular the gov
ernor continued, that in all the length
and breadth Of this state there is not
lone who is not a railroad man to make
la complaint about the assessment Of
railroad property.
Secretary Martin remarked that he.
thought II showed the confidence of the
people in theeexecutive council and. their.
Willingness TO trust them.
Thus the hearing ended. Nearly ALI
the railroads We're heard. Representa-
tives came armed With statistics, Of an
kinds. Some of them We're convincing
and Others We're not. The arguments
We're repeated many times. The mem
bers of the council found ii hard to get
members of the roads TO stick 10 the
main questions involved. Each person
wanted TO speak for his own road only
No one wanted to talk for all of them
alike. AS a result member OF the
council said after it was. .ail over thathe
did not know as much about the mater
LOT assessments as when the hearings
commenced. The speakers did little to
give the members better undeFst and
ing of the principles of taxation. The
net result vas confusing and disquiet-
ing.
The representative of the Milwaukee
system took shot at the bond and
stock theory He, Mr. Dudley. declared
that he theory of arriving at value is
utterly preposterous. Value may de-
pend on many things. i can not be ie-
termined by original coss. for sthat may
vary, nor by the COS, OF building a par
as!el lire Of equal physical chara acteris-
tics. Many elements enter inte valus
and. into the value of the stocks and
bonds, and some of these elements are
taxed elsewhere and others are not ak
able. Actual value of railroad property
must be determined like the value of
other property by taking into consid-
GRAFTON q great variety of things En-
vironment has something to do with il.
and circumstances and opportunities
aud business man asrarnent s., nj ~
tof these things are taxable In general
Mr.. Dudley showef, ,nat 4 y-aet 5 a,,.5,,,,.
Of property .n8lIowa now es,car,es ,axa-
tion. All that the railrea es van, is
fairness. He spoke Dc the ract that bis
company pays a smaller per cent If. its
gross earnings az taxes sin this state.
than in some other states. Thar was
easy to understand. In south Dakota
for instance. ii pays about ) per cont
but South Dakota Is a srnv-i,,sy
In Iowa the institutions have bessn Nall
developed. One freaso for he great ad-
varce in Iowa. he said. was tnat the,
people OF the. state had always hean.
fair. He l1oped for a scontinuancs. of ~ l.,
fair spirit.
Mr.. C'rane;on. Of the Mort h o,,,estarr
was invited to further discuss the ones.
ton of the relative amount nf ,axas5
paid by the railroad companies am, ii.
the owners of other properry which ;s
actually assessed, NOT taking into co.'s
sidsration The propert,- which asa, ,,.ss
taxation. What seemed 10 4ist,,rh ~.
members of the council mos, was No.
that some property eyaf,es ASSES, 4, s.,,,
entirely but that the railroads, a,3re, !.
to desire that of the uropertv wh;cb
does not evade assessment theirs SHAH
not bear its full share. Mr.. e,ra,,don
showed that of the $1,000 townships az
the state nor over eight or nine are
owned by the railroad companies. The
railroad companies own not more ,ban-
Il .0o0th par. of the real estate az rhe
state: but they pay 1-l3th of the raves
He contended that the railroads nav
great deal more than their share of thas
taxes.
..s
The presentation of the claims of thea
as made by Mr.. scribner for that eoro-
lpany made an impression on ,he conn
ell. and ii seems likely that tho 1-nions
Pacific will get some relief. Mr.. Dsniets.
presented figures showing that the ac-
tual value of the property assessed To-
.I .ne mon racine IN iowa rs about 1858,
Wv iHr suntpusa 'ioli 'ias pesh carefullS
'..s uues ~, .ase i''eo accouh
III. 70 oi,
i.ne s.sfi''',.a's. , " uls system. ears
aso s,so oa,s .a,s .nion ae,i.c vas assessed
sioo'V'"i iisiie OH 'iie me IN IOWA, Last