The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-05-05
THE FRANCHISE TAX.

The attempt of certain railroads In
Georgia to evade the franchise tax Will
not succeed, says the Atlanta Journal.
1t says that before the franchise tax was
levied the Southern Railway last year
gave in all its property at $1,000
600. This year it says the property is
given in at only $4,000. 600, with the fran
chise returned as worth 100000 in round
figures. Does anybody believe that any
railroad property of any of the great sys-
TENS has deprecated in value half a mil
lion dollars within the past year? Com
menting on the Southern's return Comp
troller Wright is quoted by the. Atlanta
Journal as follows:
81 believe that some of the big sys-
TENS are attempting to evade the appli-
cation of the law, but such attempts will
not meet with success so far as | am
concerned. l propose to carry out the law
to the letter, and l will not allow any Of
the physical property of the companies
to be reduced one cent lower than they
were last year. The idea of the compa-
nies seems to be to lower the value of
their physical property and put the d!f-
ference as the value of the franchise
The quasi-public corporations have
heretofore been smart enough to get the
industrial corporations to pull the chest
many of the officers of Industrial corpora
tions did not know that the right to use
the streets and highways was a separate
and entirely different sort of property
from rails and engines. New York taxes
the physical property and it taxes the
franchise. Georgia has a law looking to
the same end. North Carolina has still a
different and a mandatory law, directing
the corporation exactly how it shall arrive
at the true value of the franchise. The
quas-public corporations, which have
long escaped tax on what is often the
most valuable species OF their property,
fought the New York tax through all the
ously lost in Illinois. They are making
q great big bluff in Georgia and may
later on do the same thing in North Caro-
lima, but that this property must pay tax
is Inevitable, and they cannot postpone
what they call the evil day much longer
Recently the New York papers have
been discussing the tax, and we have al
ready quoted from some of these, holding
the same view this paper has been
preaching for more than a dozen years
The New York Evening Post, one of the
ablest and most conservative papers in
America. said a few days ago:
1.-The right to occupy street or high
way for special purpose, such as a rail
way, on or over or under the surface of
the ground, or for a pipeline to convey
gas steam, oil or electricity, is some
thing over and above the right to be a
corporal ton, and is over the main thing
the sine qua non that gives value to the
corporation The legislature. for the first
time sought to make this kind of value
contribute to the public expenses at the
same rate as other tangible and immov-
able property. 1t accordingly passed
law which made these special franchises
taxable in the same way as the adjoining
houses and lots, the value of each fran
chise to be assessed by public officers
The New York Times has reached sub
stantially the same conclusion and says:
''Disinterested men and fair minded
economists will no longer deny that what
we have come to call the special fran
chises of corporations are a fair subject
OF taxation