Weekly Arizona journal-miner., 1905-02-01
UNITED VERDE TAX CASE.

V erOe appeared IN morning puDll-
cation yesterday under the caption
fUnited Verde Tax Case. While
the writer evidently strove desperate
ly to conceal his identity In the
lions skin, the voice, as in the old
fable, disclosed the retainer OF the
United Verde. The diction of the
legal gentleman, NO less than his in
dulgences of simulated emotion, IN
erringly bespeak nativity somewhere
in the vicinity of Yellville, Arkansas.
So much for the eternal fitness of
things.
The gentleman complains that the
Journal Miner has had nothing to say
about assessments other than the
United Verde which have been cut
down. Simply because the lawsuit now
being tried, and which is the main
source of all this controversy, does not
involve mere reduction of assessment
In the usual method by the board of
equalization. 1t is a suit to deter
mine the legality of compromise,
made year after the board had any
right to act in the matter. The action
of the board, respecting the taxes for
1902 was not equalization, it was
graft. We say. nevertheless, that the
reduction by the board of equalization
for 1903, when it reduced the taxes OF
that year by about s92, 600, was wrong,
and that no poor man Scould ever hope
for a similar favor proportionately
from the same board, but the issue in
this case is whether the compromise
of 1902 was lawful.
Moreover, the Journal Miner does
not say anything about other reduc-
tions, for the good reason that there
have never been any that could be
compared with the United Verde lop
off, either in proportion or degree.
So the fact stands out that the United
Verde, because of its great wealth,
and because of the influence of that
wealth upon a plant board, secured
favors that a poor man would have
been reviled for daring to ask.
Neither does the Journal Miner lack
confidence in the attorney general, his
assistant, or the supreme court as the
gentleman so inflated with United
Verde smoke would have the public
believe. On the contrary, this paper
has the fullest confidence in them all,
and most cordially commends all that
the attorneys representing the terri
tory are doing in the case. And it is
| because of its confidence in and APP
proval of these gentlemen that the
Journal Miner criticized the question
BILE methods of the United Verde satel-
lites in their efforts to defeat the ends
of justice in this case. As the gentle
man truly says, we will not be com
forted. That is we want no comfort
of the United Verde brand. We gladly
leave all that TO compromising boards
of supervisors, their counselors and
abettors.
And so the gentleman really be-
lieves, as he says, that the United
Verde paid as much in proportion as
any other rich concern in the county.
AS much as any other RICH concern,
in proportion. The philosophy of the
gentleman becomes luminous. RICH
concerns are not supposed to pay much
and the gentleman defends that
principle That's the keystone of his
( life long democracy. That's his in
depreciation of Equal rights to all !;
special privileges to none. No ques-
ton about his democracy. He's the
real thing. How about POOR men,
as most of the taxpayers are? Is it
/ ever question whether they pay as
much in proportion as some one else?
Never. They pay on everything they
have on earth or the sheriff sells them
out. simply because in their bitter
struggle with poverty they can't pay
their own taxes and a big share of
what the favored United Verde ought
to be paying Ought to be, but isn't
because of the lifelong democratic
phil osophy of the gentleman, as ap-
| piled to democratic boards of super
visors by a United Verde wet-nurse
during a thunderstorm and at mid
night.
eff Senator Clark has done wrong, :"
says the gentleman. take him into
court " What for? Has the senator
really done something which one of
his own chosen people thinks he ought
to be called to account for, or does
/ the gentleman want to make sure there
is lawsuit pending that he won t
have to butt into or be resoluted out
of?
"Our people, says the gentleman,
''are sick of this continued yawp 8"
! OUR people are. No doubt OUR peo-
pie, to wit, the United Verde people,
ARE sick of it. But they haven t
heard the story in its ful!ness yet.
They will, presently. Then some one
/