The copper era., 1905-12-14

UNDER the caption of 'Ihe GoY- ernor and Taxation' the Mohave County Miner of recent date con- tained the following editorial:
 tPractically the whole newspaper fraternity of southern Arizona is a unit in denouncing Governor Kibbey | for his action in attempting to tax the mines of the territory, while in | the north the sentiment IS divided. | Now we believe this denouncing of l the governor to be all rot and cant. | We realize that the governor will be unable to carry out his methods ot reaching the big copper mines and that he may have over-reached his authority, but there is no denying the fact that the big copper com
 panies of this territory evade the1r proportion of the burden of ta4d- ation. We will take just three or tne
 biz companies of Bisbee for an nus nus tration1Calumet & Arizona Cdlu- met & Pittsburg and P1ttspuIg N Do- luth. Their combined capltdiIIzdC CIOIi is given at S8, 100000; NOW the sell inS nrice of the stock of these com
 ,l.S,ipes or, the stock exchange of New
 Vork is more than S85, 100000, S16,-
 mo 0OO above the entire assessed
 value of the property of the terri tory and only a few million less than
 the commercial value of the railroad property of Arizona. The selling price of Calumet SJ Arizona stock is S120 per share, while its par value is
 only S10, and it's selling price is term
 ed it's commercial value. The Cop
 per Queen, which is owned by a close
 corporation, is a richer and more profitable mine than the Greene, | the selling value of the latter's stock
 being more than S240, ,000, which,
 placing them on an equal basis ot
 value, would give to the Bisbee mines
 more than eight times the value of
 all the listed property in the terri
 tory. Does any sane man believe
 that these mines should be assessed
 at the paltry sum of less than S3,000,- 900? These mines are only a few of
 ritory. The United Verdesis worth
 at least S5O,OO0,0O0; the Clifton-Mo- renci mines are worth at the lowest
 estimate S100,OOO, ,O0O; the Imperial 5000, ,0OO and still there are dozens
 of others. The value of the dividend mines of the territory are worth far
 lSefe 1leifre than S5660,OU0, 900. The governor
 made an attempt to assess them for
 S1I ,OOO, ,000 and the howl that went up
 has been heard as far east as Wash
 ington. As we said in the beginning
 of this article: We do not think.the
 governor got off on the right track in
 the attempt to reach the big fellows and his effort toward mine taxation , will fail. Of course his good faith is questioned because of the failure to reach out and make other forms of property come in and pay on fair
 valuation. Car lines, railroads, big , canals and blooded stock in the Salt
 river valley and other classes of prop
 erty was overlooked. But now that : the ball has been started rolling, why . not keep it going and honestly get at the bottom of tax matters and !, formulate a law that will put the
 territory among the big property
 owning commonwealths, where it be- longs?"
 The Miner is one of the fairest and most ably edited newspapers in the territory, but insofar as the news papers of southern Arizona are con
 cerned it does not seem to be wei
 informed. We do not think that any . of the newspapers have complained v at the governor for his efforts to see g that the big producing companies are y taxed at fair valuation. What the ERA has continually complained o-  was the attempt to tax non-produc n ing mines in this county at S5O00 each j.. which is more than double, and il l. some instances ten times, as much al y in other counties in the territory a This is. certainly unjust and if carried d out would prove a great hardship tC : the miners of this section. The fac g that few of the big companies arC s escaping just taxation is not a suff t cient reason for taxing new com o panies out of existence. Neithe, e can any logical reason be given why y a non-producing mine in Graham n county should be assessed ten time o as much as the same class of prop S erty in MariCopa county. Had the r governor made an effort to tax rail : roads at a fair valuation people il 0 the mining section who are held III |. and shook down by them, would have n more sympathy with the governor S The ERA agrees with the Miner tha-
 the assessed valuation of the terri
 tory should be doubled many times | but it will always maintain tha' l. property in Graham county should : not be taxed higher than the samt r. class of property in any other count1 in the territory.