The Washington times., 1904-05-07

repeat that statement, having before
US, side by side with the "Star" edi-
torial of May %, 1901, Senate Mis-,
Doc No. ~, 50th Congress, I'd SEES
sion. 1t contains a letter of the
Commissioners of the District OF
Columbia, transmitting, in answer to
a resolution of the Senate OF the 7tn
inst. February, 1880, statement
of the assessed and market valuation
of the capital stock of all corpora
tions within the District of Column
bia, and the amount of tax paid by
said corporations" etc. From aceom-
the Evening Star Newspaper Com
pany has a capital stock OF the par
value of 100000, divided into 100
shares of the par value Of $1,000
each. Under existing law the capital
stock of every taxable corporation in
the District is appraised in bulk by
the Assessor; from this appraised
value the value of the corporation
taxed real estate is deducted, and on
the difference the corporation pays
the tax prescribed, namely, IL per
cent. But we shall let the then AS
sistant Attorney for the District, the
Hon. Henry E. Davis, tell how the
Star helped to swell the noble
army Of tax dodgers against whom
it directed its wrath some years later.
Says Mr.. Davis:
For the fiscal year ending June So 1883, the
capital stock Of the star Company was APP
praised and taxed at $4,000. In appraising it
for the current fiscal year the Assessor placed
the taxable valuations at $4,000. When the
tax bill on this increased Valuation was pre-
5snted 10 the company objection was made by
it, and, as the Assessor reports one Of it, Off
GERS called upon him and stated that the stock
was worth but 90 cents On the dollar, and that
10000 represented the correct valuation for
taxation.
As the stock is not on the market, and 50 is
not quoted as other stocks, the ASSESSOR having
then no better information, aequiesced in the re
turn to the figures Of last year. But he has
since learned that certain OF the stock is in the
hands Of an executrix, whose accounts pass
through the Supreme Court Of the District, and
that from the last Of these accounts twenty-five
shares Of the stock appraised at So, 900 yielded
in 1857 net income Of S35,S6O. Taking these
figures as a basis, and allowing a net revenue of
per cent, the Assessor reports the total capital
stock TO be worth in reality something over
100000, and that. appraisinG the stock ac-
cording to his rule Cat twO-thirls Of its actual
value). the valuation Of the comDany's stock
for taxation for this year should have been
81, $50 S9I. instead Of $4,000, 4 difference Of
s.. 2s9. S0I
Dodging the payment of taxes on
over million and a quarter of dol
lars! And then declaiming against
tax lodging as one of the evils of
the day that should be abated to the
fullest extent possibleI" Oh, sapient
Mount Pleasant" and Holman, more
sapient still, is this high moral
ground" is this to be respectable"
is this to possess dignity" Rather,
woe unto you, seribes and phari-
sees, hypOcritesi for We are like unto
whited sepulchers." Let us have no
more of it. gentle Holman Permit
US to call things by their names.
And people will not think the worse
Of US. even though your "dignifed"
organ should once more charge us
with attempting blackmail, as it did
when we drove the postoffice thieves,
the particular friends of the Star"
from their lair
Nor does the Star" we might re-
mark in closing, seem to have
mended its ways. Directing in 1889
to a personal tax on 100000, and
declaring then that the stock of the
company was worth but fifty cents
on the dollar, it now, in the year
1904, declares that its stock is worth
even less than fifty cents on the dol
lar In other words, complaisant
District government, or a criminally
inefficient Board Of Assessors, accepts
as correct the statement that the
stock of the Evening Star Newspaper
Company is worth only $4S, 100! And
this is the reason, we repeat once
more, why. in the past we have re-
ferred TO the establishment of our
evening contemporary as a "whited
sepulcher;" why we call it such to-
day; and why we shall continue to
call it so in future, unless. indeed,
the Star" should, in the meantime,
have mended its ways.
We said this IS the reason. We
should have said it is one of the
reasons. There are others. But this
one will do for today.
The Fifty-eighth Congress is now i'm
rrassed With the fact that the country