Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-02-01
MAYNARD MAN AND TAX FERRE1s.

MAYNARD MAN AND TAX FERRETS.
1t was a very ancient biblical sage
who uttered the truth thousands of
years ago that imam is born into trou-
BILE as the sparks fly upward" The
moderns have not been able to refute
this or to alter the effect of 1t, altho
they have established Sunday schools,
and have great volumes of sacred as
we'll as statutory law. The code of
Iowa comprises over 1900 pages. and
there are two volumes of legislative
statutes enacted since It was revised.
and q new-general assembly grinding
out another big grist. And ignorance
of these laws excuses no one, while
man is prone to evil ami getting into 1t
deeper every day! He is confronted on
every side by thou shalt" and thou
shalt not" while the statutes blaze n
plain path in front of him and look up
his record in the rear. The tax ferrets
are after him in many places. With
trouble in front of him, around him and
behind him, he tries to plead the stat
ute of limitations. 1t Is not surprising
that Senator Healy, yielding to pres
sure of constituents, has introduced a
measure to place this statute of tax
ferret Limitation only as far back as a
year.
The tax ferrets of Iowa have brought
to light much hidden property and have
placed in many county treasures thou
sands of dollars that have been wrong
fully withheld from thu, tax Golfers. But
the coughing UP has been painful, ard
many would like to see Senator Heal
ey's bill passed. tho perhaps they will
not openly advocate III. 1t might he
well to continue 1t until further exper-
fence either demonstrates its useful
ness or proves the reverse.
Indiana also has tax ferret law and
the supreme court OF that state has de-
clared that county commissioners may
legally contract with expert account
ants, otherwise known as tax ferrets.
10 search for sequestered property, and
that such contracts may be enforced
at law. This ferret business has in
creased wonderfully In Indiana during
the past year, and there is hardly a
s,t,
tracts have not been made for lnvesti-
cations of the record. The business
Indiana "ferrets'' and has already
brought such results to the state and
excited such a wholesome fear among
those who have been sequestering their
property that the officials believe the
day of tax lodging is practically over.
Another good result is the correction of
many titles and the Strengthening out
Of official records in many counties,
thus reducing the possible litigation
which might be instituted in the future
by the heirs of the parties to the trans
action in which the errors occur.
But there are ferrets and ferrets.
Some of them in Indiana are prone to
do evil as those who hide property from
the assessor. thus creating ring with
in a ring" of evil doors. For consid-
Grafton few of these ferrets may be
induced to prod one tax dodger while
they ignore another A case In point
comes from the Hoosler state, and 1t is
not improbable that similar ones mi ght
lie uncovered in Iowa. Some time ago
the commissioners of Knox county, In
diana, hired a ferret to go over the
records, believing that property was
being sequestered, bur having one man,
a wealthy citizen, particularly in mind.
The ferret went thru the records but
did not find any mortgages given to the
wealthy citizen that were not account
ed for on his tax returns. Suspicion
was excited, and an investigation
showed that the expert and the veal
thy citizen had INDUCED in a game of
cards and that the expert had won ST.
900. This was believed to be only a
bribe, and another expert was employ
ed. His report showed that the CAPT.
talist had something over 100000 lent
on mortgages which We're not ac-
counted for and that majority of these
mortgages had been running for more
than ten years. The full amount of the
sequestered property was placed on the
tax duplicate, and, besides, the dodger
was fined $4,000 by jury when the
prosecutor sued to collect the states
penalty. The total taxes collected by
the county aggregated $4,000, and the
litigation growing out of the fraudu-