The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-10-01
German Makes Statement.

German Makes Statement. J. T. German, state examiner. was in the city today on official business, and
 being interviewed by the Age-Herald cor
 respondent relative to the work of the examiners, made the following state
 ment:
 IL Is a pleasure to state that there Is
 decided improvement in the public ser
 vice of the state With very few ex
 captions, the officials are honest and com
 petent. and, as a rule, are dischargint
 their duties in accordance with law l The books are generally correctly kept | and most of the errors made. are of ( | clerical and technical character. | Governor Jelks was decidedly of the | opinion that most of the officials were honest and competent men, and was satis ned that annual examinations of theii books and accounts would not only i'm
 prove the public service, but would have tendency to eliminate even clerical and technical errors. For these reasons, soon after he assumed charge of the gubernatorial office he instructed the ex- amlners that they must examine the books or every county officer, who had tranS- actions with the state, annually, including county superintendents of education, who previous to that time had not been exam ined, and who have the disbursement of hunderds of thousands of dollars of the states money annually.
 All of these examinations are now made annually, and the result fully justi- lies the governors opinion as to the im- proyement of the public service, and as to the honesty and capacity of the of heials. Very few errors are now discov- cred, even of a clerical character The governor is delighted to receive reports that the offpial lG tbafr xc correctly, and are discharging their duties in accordance with the law
 Under the governors instructions, the examiners are giving a great deal of at tention to the assessment of taxes One of the governors first official acts was to instruct the examiners to urge all tax officials to do all in their power to obtain fair and just valuations of property for taxation, to make comparative state ments of the assessments for the previous hVe years, to ascertain as near poSsi- ble the actual value of the property, as compared with its taxable value, and to criticize all assessors who were not com plying with the law in the assessment of taxes.
 An examination of the assessments during Governor Jelks' administration will show that his instructions have been largely instrumental in increasing the as- sessments. The assessments in 1900 were S266 S93, ,2SS, In 1905 they will be about $34O- 00O,000, an increase of about $73, ,000 0O0 in the past five years.
 While property is increasing in value. as rule it is given in for taxation at only about 50 per cent of it's actual or market value To represent something like the actual value, the assessments should be 5000O.O00. What a magnifi- cent advertisement this would be for our state, and what an inducement for good immigrants to settle in 1t. Taxes would not be increased, for an assessment of property at it's actual value would justi- fly reduction of the present rate of tax ation about one-half."
 MT. German states that from personal observations every section of the state Is improving and developing. The popu- lation is increasing and the property is appreciating in value.
 Many Interpretations.
 There is a continuance of the dsposi- tion over the state to incorporate and in- augurate business enterprises and the keeping of the record has become quite clerical effort on the part of the sec retary of state The following new en- terprises were reported today.
 Clio Hardware company, Clio; capital s4200. Incorporators A. B. Byrd and others.
 Oakman Loan and Trust company, Oak