Amador ledger., 1905-08-18
UTTERLY FALSE.

As much as the fact may wish to
be concealed, the small taxpayers do
pay the bulk of the taxes of the state,
notwithstanding the distorted state
ment of some newspapers. A man
with home and few improvements
say worth 50, 000-pays taxes on 81,
500. The man with property valued
at S45, 900 pays in large number of
cases on but $40, 1000 valuation. A
man who can figure percentage at all
can soon ascertain who pays the big
gest per cent on what he owns. We
have in mind one individual in this
county who pays taxes on values
to the amount of SIS, 900, when it is
positively known that such individual
is possessed of at least S45, 900 of tax.
able property. A large number of
citizons seem to agree that an assess
ment covering two-thirds of the val
uation of property is fair, even if the
law does say that property must be
assessed at its full value Tax dodg-
ing has always been practiced, and
may be till the end of time for ought
we know, but when one of these tax
dodgers wants to be known as
criterion for all men to sing low to
and bow down before, every time he
opens his mouth to let out little
unwisdom, we say it is we'll to choke
him with few facts. This indlvid-
ual, whom the Record is charitable
enoug to withhold his name from
print. is great strickler as to what
other men should do in the county,
therefore parade before the public
of some of his shortcomings will, if
he is not naturally an ass, do him
good. The man who has property to
the value of 50, 600 and is assessed for
81, 800 pays 75 per cent on his pro-
perty. The other fellow with S45, 600
of property assessed at SIS, ZOO pays
S3 l-3 per cent on his property. The
small property holder therefore pays
Al % per cent more than the large
property holder. All the words in
the English language will not change
this fact.-Amsdor Record.
We take the above from the Amador
Record, and reprint it in full, not
because of any intrinsic merit attach
ing to the article; but simply because
our readers may judge for themselves
as to its character, and the spirit that
prompts such ilI-tempered and ill
digested stuff. 1t is needless to state
that the Ledger is the county paper
referred to, and the editor of the
Ledger the Individual taxpayer re-
ferred to by our contemporary. As
far as the weight of it's opinion on
any public question is concerned the
sheet quoted from is not worthy of
notice. 1t Is not wise to waste
ammunition on tomtits. 1t is equally
unwise to attempt to discuss pro-
position with one who is devoid OF
the faculty of logical reasoning.
When you run across a man who
attempts to deny a simple mathe-
matical proposition such for instance
that 2 and 2 makes 4, no matter
whether the denial is prompted by
moral or mental deformity, it is
the proper course to leave him un-
disturbed in the qualification of his
crudities. The Ledger two weeks
ago published list of the heaviest
taxpayers in Amador county, those
assessed for $4,000 and over. The
list footed up more than three million
dollars-considerably over one halt
the total assessment roll of Amador
county. Commenting upon this fact,
we editorially stated that, contrary
to the general opinion, the large tax
payers not the small property holders,
contributed the bulk of the revenue
for the support of the state and
county government in Amador county.
70 this self-evident truth our cotem-
porary takes exception, and contends
that property owners assessed for far
below one half the assessabIe property
in the county contribute the bulk of
the money to sustain the government.
The question of whether the small
taxpayer is assessed at higher per-
centage of the actual value of his
property than the large property
holder was not under discussion at
all and has nothing whatever to do
with it. 1t was seemingly dragged in
to afford fimsy pretext for disput-
ing an indisputable fact. We are
perfectly content to let our readers
figure out the comedy for themselves.
But there is a serious side to the
above quoted article, when the
writer pretends to come down to facts.
The editor of the Ledger was in the
published list of heavy taxpayers on
an assessed valuation of S1504O. There
is no other individual taxpayer in the
entire list that comes any where near