The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1901-10-03
STATE ISSUES.

.
F. Stuart, assistant to the Demo
cratic State Central Committee, makes
the following statements in regard to
state issues this year:
1.-THE executive council of the state is
composed Of the governor, the secretary
of state, the treasurer of state and the
auditor of state. Among other things
it is the duty of the executive council,
on the first Monday in March of each
year, to assess all the property of each
railway corporation in the state. The
statute says.
"The said property shall be valued at
its actual value, and the assessments
shall be made upon the taxable value of
the entire railway within the state, ex-
cept as otherwise provided, and shall
include the right of way, roadbed, cul.
yerts, bridges, rolling stock, depots,
station grounds, shops, buildings, gravel
beds, and all other property. real and
personal, exclusively used in the opera.
ton of such railway. In assessing said
railway and its equipments, said council
shall take into consideration the gross
earnings per mile for the year ending
January LIST, preceding, and any and all
matters necessary to enable said coun-
Gil to make just and equitable assess
ment of said railway property. If a
part Of any railway is without this
state. then, in estimating the value of
its rolling stock and movable property,
they shall take into consideration the
proportion which the business of that
part Of the railway lying within the
state bears to the business of the railway
without the state" IT,
The law governing railroad and all
other assessments is found in title
seven, chapter one, of the code of 1897.
Section 1905 says: "All property sub
ject to taxation shall be valued at its
actual value q and shall be as.
sessed at 25 per cent of such actual
value" The term "actual value" is de.
fined in the same section rs follows:
"Actual value of property as used in
this chapter shall mean its value in the
market in the ordinary course of trade "
After quoting at length the law on
the subject of the assessment of railway
property in Iowa a leading farm journ.
al some time ago pertinently observed:
cit is difficult to conceive how Ian.
guage could be framed that would give
the executive council wider scope as to
the methods Of determining the value
Of railroad property than is contained
In the above. The council shall take
into consideration not only gross earn.
ings per mile, but amy and all other
matters necessary There is nothing
they may not take in. They are re.
Quired to take all measures to deter.
mine actual value, which is strictly de.
fined to be the value Of property in the
ordinary course of trade. Why is it,
then, that the council have every year
since the code was enacted absolutely
refused to look upon the market reports
of railroad stocks and bonds and have
insisted on making their valuation by
methods for which not one of them is
In the least competent"
The plain and simple answer to this
question is, that the executive council,
the state government of Iowa, has for
the past eight or nine years been
wholly and completely dominated end
controlled by railroad influence. In
ample support of this answer, and as
furnishing indisputable proof of the
fact, it is only necessary to quote at
random from The famous protest is.
sued in March, 1000, by John Herriott,
Treasurer of State. MIR. Herriott said:
81 am ashamed Of what has taken
place. For The party which boasts of
her stalwart governors, her Grimeses,
her kirkwoods, her Gear and her Lar
abee, and of which am proud, l am
ashamed that the chief representative
of my party in the state to-day should
descend to such contemtble conduct.
For my state am ashamed that the
servants of the people should forget
them and their interests, their homes
and their fresides, and for III. sake of
paltry political ambition worship at the
feet of MammoR and unriehteousness. !"
At the time MIR. Herriott. issued his
public protest he had been member
o. the state executive council for six
long years, and he knew what he was
talking about. lie said further:
"Railroad assessments have hereto.
fore been travesty upon law and
justice, but the last one was a travestv
upon decency."
In this memorable document MIR.
Herriott. Treasurer Of the State of Iowa,
positively asserted, by implication, that
the executive council of the state. com.