The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1905-08-03
As.es.mens q railroads.

. .
The Gazette prints this morning
the full statement Of the board Of
public works on the assessment Of
the railroads. It represents very
interesting study in the theory Of tax
alton as practiced by the preachers
now in power in the state.-Charles-
ton Gazette.
The ignorant Gazette. along with
many other Democratic papers, not
so ignorant, seems worried half to
death because the Republicans are
not going to tax the railroads out of
existence. These same Democratic
papers set up terrible howl when
the new laws failed to place a tax on
the production of coal, oil and gas,
When these interests were reached
in another way, through the leasehold
route, these same papers went into
connlption FITS, some saying the OWE
ers of leases would seek to evade the
law altogether, others that it would
drive all the leaseholders out of the
State, while still others said the whole
thing was buncombe and didn't
amount to nothln' nohow." So there
you are, you can't satisfy a sore.head.
ed Republican or red.eyed Democrat
no matter what you do. Now, as to
the railroad assessment made by the
Board of Public Works, here is the
way It stands: The assessment for
the year 1904 was $3O,O43, 1902; for
1905, $3G,O17,S4S.S5; making an in
crease of $5,974,GG799. There is an
increase of almost 20 per cent in the
valuation, whereas, by law there is
no more authority for increasing the
valuation on railroads this year than
on any other kinds Of property. Some.
body ought to catch these unfair ed
ltors by the nape of the neck and the
seat of the pants and shake them un.
til they promise to tell the truth to their
readers about the true and actual
value" clause not going into effect
this year. There could have been no
reasonable kick coming had the rail.
roads been assessed at practically the
same figures as last year because Of
this law, but we suppose the Board
found new property sufficient to make
the increase as given above, hence its
action. In fact we doubt If any in
crease would have been made II no
new property had been found.
Governor Dawson yesterday in dis,
cussing the question of railroad as.
sessment by the board, said:
"You will note by reference to sec.
ton 1O7a, of chapter IS of the acts
of 1905, that the new method of as,
sessing railroads, express companies,
telegraph and telephone companies,
and the assessment of car lines and
pipe lines by the Board of Public
Works does not go into effect this
year, but that these properties will all
be assessed next year by the Board of
Public Works according to the new
law and the new schedule. This was
done because it was too late to do
this work this year by the Board Of
Public Works, as the law was not in
existence until the 1st Of March, and
it did not give the Board of Public
Works time to take it up this year and
do anything like justice, so it was
thought best to let it all go under
the old law until next year.
You will also note that the real es-
tate that is being assessed this year
at it's actual value will not be taxed
on this value until next year, but the
real estate this year will be taxed on
the old value and according to the
old standard of the fair cash value"