Graham guardian., 1905-08-04
CHR Guardian
"pEOpLE AWAKENING.

way of assessments clearly shown
in the folloming editorials. The
Yuma Sun says;
"Arixona has onc-and so far as
our knowledge goes, only one
fair, equitable, independent, fear
less assessor. May his tribe in
crease.
"John j. Birdnc of Graham
county--and by the way he is
both, Democrat and q newspaper
manufactured TO the county
board of equalization an assess
ment roll which showed unmis-
takably that be regarded seriously
his oath TO deal fairly and impair
TALLY with all the county's tax.
payers, and that he did not regard
the rights Of the large property
holders and the great corporations
as being one with superior to the
rights of the small fry. What was
fair for one, this unusual assessor
seemed 70 think, was fair for all.
What was sauce for the goose, ac'
cording to Mr.. Birdno's altogether
un-AriEoua plan, could fairly be
considered sauce for for the gan
der.
"But of course the thing could
not be permitted to so on. 1t was
too entirely different from the
plan at present in vogue in Ari-
zona and too radical a departure
from the time e-fixed, if not time
honored, system of assessing the
small property holders all the traf-
fic will bear and permitting the
wealthy and powerful corporations
to assess themselves.
"But all went merry as mar
riage bell while the nice fat, juicy
assessments of the little fellows
were beng equalized The as
SCISSOR was being consistently sup
ported, and the people 'ad 'opes.
"But in due course of time the
mammoth copper companies of
Clifton and Morenci were reached,
and then, for the first time, the
outrageous injustice of Assessor
Birdno was revealed, He bad ac-
tually assessed these poor, feeble
mining corporations, worth per-
haps only about fifty or seventy
five million dollars, and whose
down-trodden foreign stockholders
realize, it is estimated, only seven
or eight millions year in profits
just the same as plutocrat pos
sessed of town lot and $500
mansion-and just as if the min
ing industry didn't have to be pro-
tected.
"And that was where Assessor
Birdno rot his bumps. Two of
the supervisors, or so-called
happehed to hail from
the copper country and to te of
the copper companies crowd; the
copper companies, as they usually
do, attended to that. Hence it
came that both the figures and the
protestations of the assessor were
disregarded, his offers to submit
proofs scorned, and his appeal
that representatives Of the com
panies be required to appear and
testify was repudiated without de-
deliberation. And thus it came
about that the assessment of the
copper companies were reduced to
the figures fixed on some previous
occasion by the companies them
selves. To be sure, the mining in
dustry had to be protected--tell
with everybody else. That was
what those two supervisors from
the copper part of the county were
there for.
"And besides, 1t was argued
that is, these two copper super
visors unanimously agreed with
each other that such was the case
that inasmuch as the great min
ing corporations Of other counties
were not being adequately assessed
neither should those of Graham.
Of course the argument was un-
answerable. Since Tom is steal
ing so should Jerry be allowed the
privilege of robbing at will.
"How long will such thing be
permitted
Assessor BirdDo still has a
couple of fights left in him. He