Omaha daily bee., 1903-01-21

county.
Secretary, J. P. Falter. Cass coInty.
Treasurer. A. c. Harte, Douglas county.
Election Of the above officers and the
adoption Of a resolution imposing upon all
members of more than a years standing. a
yearly assessment Of 25 cents each was
practically the only business transacted
yesterday afternoon at the opening session
Of the three days convention Of the State
Association OF Commissioner and Super
visors in the Douglas county court house.
At night the delegates were entertained by
the local board at the orpheum theater and
today they will open their question box and
settle down to a discussion Of measures
proposed by the legislative committee,
which is headed by C. W. welton Of Ian
caster county.
In %electing officers the only contest was
for the presidency. Mr.. Winters has been
vice president during the last year and has
had executive duty since the death Of Pres
ident Francis Phillips Of Hastings, two
months after the meeting a year ago. Altar
Mr.. Winters was nominated for president a
second nominee appeared in the person OF
Mr.. Thorpe Of Custer. The ballot resulted
AZ for the Madison man and SO for Thorpe,
and Winters was declared elected. Imme-
diately Thorpe was made vice president by
reclamation and the election Of Falter and
Harte, the latter a reelection, was &C
complished in the same manner. Each
made a brief speech thanking the s~ssocia-
ton for the honor conferred.
Expense Money IL Needed
The new assessment feature was proposed
by Mr.. Welton OF Lancaster, who called
attention to the growing tendency of the
expense account and stated that the in
itiation fee of 80 cents exacted of new
members would not prove adequate, adding
that he had paid out of his own pocket bills
for the legislative committee that would
alone swamp the associations meager
treasury had he drawn on It. The new ar
rangement leaves the cost to a new men,
Der 80 cents for his first year and 25 cents
for each subsequent year.
The report Of Treasurer Harte showed
$45 disbursements, with 5000 balance on
hand and some few bills for Dtenographio
work yet outstanding.
For today there is no set program and
matters will be taken up at random, the
sessions being devoted largely to discus
sions OF the measures to be urged upon the
legislature, which measures were fully set
forth in Mondays Bee. Most important,
perhaps, will be the matter Of securing
legislation that will force, by mandamus
and fine, assessors everywhere. and even
the State Board Of Equalization, to fix the
assessment of property at its fair cash
value instead Of an optional fraction
thereof.
One of the interesting delegates is Com
missioner Hensley of Thurston county, a
full-blooded Indian, who is interested par
~ticularly in laws governing ownership CT
land and it's Improvement.
The delegation from Holt county, how
ever, centers its interest in he promotion
of legislation which shall make certain
the power Of a county board to foreclose
on land for taxes and sell 1t to the highest
bidder. One of the delegates stated that
uncertainty as to this right-is giving Holt
county some pneasiness. He said:
I'VE have a county forty-nine miles
square and containing a portion of the
sand hill region, wherein land is worth
sometimes as little as IS per acre, pend
ing irrigation. The taxes run $40 per
quarter and had been allowed to run un-
paid as long as twelve years in some In
stances. We made tax collection a cam
paign issue and during the last year have
collected S162. 900.
Uncertain of supreme Court.
Some of these we got by the foreclosure
and sale method. Several people started
cases to test the propriety of such proceed
ings long ago and the supreme court held
them valid. Recently, in later cases, the
supreme court has seemed to reverse itself.
and now we are to get another hearing and
have the proposition argued from our stand
point more thoroughly than it was before. |
The county attorney thinks We will win this
time, but the uncertainty has made us anx-
ious that the legislature shall enact a law
that will remove all doubt and make the
validity Of our action certain
Some OF the delegates at this convention
are labelled commissioner and others SUI
pervisors. A county which has district or
ganization has commissioners. All these
have three except Douglas, which has Ave.
In counties where there is township organ
ization the term supervisor is used, and
they are seven in number.
Among the Delegates.
There was a good attendance yesterday.
but roll call was deferred until today. as
many are yet to come. An incomplete list
OF those in attendance, taken from the
treasurer's record Of those who have paid
up, contains the following:
Dodge County-Supervisors s. w. BOYD.
C. w. Hepburn. Peter Parkett, Nels MortI-
sen and w. f.. Dasler.
Holt County-Superyisors F. W.. Prelps,
John Moler.
Richardson County-supervisors spickler
and Gossin.
sarpy County-Commissioner Anthony
Binohi.
Hall County-Supervisors ]. J. Lorentzen.
John Gallagher. R. P. McCutchan, Oscar
Roeser, Louis Schmidt, John Ewing.
Custer County-supervisors Frank Daily,
George G~reenwaldt. John Conley, Thomas
Arthur, George Thorpe.
Thurston County-Oommissioners A. II.
Hensley and Fred Wenke.
Stanton County@Commissfoners Thomas
Kingston, John Tinney and N. Kerns.
Platte COunty-supervisors NJ. Diedrich.
L. Held, Charles Carrig. John Goetz, j.
Ernst, Frank Herman, Peter Bender.
johnson County-Oommissioner f. Slut
heit.
Adams County-John S. Adams, NJ. II.
Drowlinger, A. P. Slack. C. z. Phillips.
Washington County-John Blaco, NJ. John
son, Henry Wreak.
Black County-Frank Herman.
York County-P. ]. Ruch.
Lancaster County-G. W. Welton. A. d.
Borgelt, Lee Newton.
Fillmore County,. NJ. Ward.
From Counties Not Given-J. c. Burns
L. M. Davis. G.. NJ. Kreis, ]. W.. Crozier