The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1905-07-04
Mr.. Conner Beqs the Question.

Careful examination of the dissent
ing opinion read yesterday at Mont
gomery by the president of the state
railroad commission regarding the
freight rate question will satisfy every
fair-minded person that Mr.. Corners
statement lacks emphatically the con-
vincing quality. Mr.. Conner "begs the
whole question:" and makes, in con-
clusion, an "argumentum ad hominem"
that reflects little if any credit upon
his acute intellect and his exalted char
acter
compressed into single sentence,
Mr.. Corners extended protest amounts
simply to this: that either the assess
ments made by state. authorities on
railway property for purposes of taxa
ton are too low, or that the value
fixed by railway authorities upon their
property for earning purposes Is
too high. We submit in all
candor that, even granting all Mr..
Corners statistical statements to be
true, his argument fails miserably, no
matter what horn of this dilemma is
taken.
Let us admit, for example, that the
assessments levied on railway proper
ties in this state for taxation purposes
are too low. Does that admission OF
itself prove that the value of railway
property in the state, as determined
| by the railway authorities, is too high?
| To ask this question Is, of course, to
answer it, and to answer it emphati-
| cally in the negative.
Mr.. Conner knows, and every other
man throughout this state with head
on his shoulders knows, that assess
ments on property, real and personal,
in Alabama, as well as in every other
state in the union, are really lower
than they should, be. In word, prop
erty, whether real or personal, through.
out this country, does not now, and
has not since the government was
| founded, borne just share of the bur-
del.s of taxation.
Inasmuch as this is true, 1t is little
less than absurd, indeed it is almost
preposterous, that man occupying so
exalted a position as that of president
of the state railroad commission
should present for public consideration
an argument which, like this one OF
Mr.. Corners, is absolutely without
weight.
Mr. Corners dissenting opinion does
not even touch the one definite point
at issue. That point does not involve,
even in the slightest degree, the sub
iect of assessments levied by the state
on railway or other property. 1t III
wolves only the subject Of railway
freight rates. The question is not: Are
the assessments on railway property
| just or adequate? The question is spe-
officially this: Are the railway freight
| rates in Alabama equitable? 1t is
idle in Mr.. Conner to suppose he can
prove inequality in railway freight
rates by demonstrating that property
assessments are inadequate. 1t is
erroneous in him to imagine he can
prove that he, in his department, is
doing his duty by pointing out that
other men, in another and different
department of the state government
have failed to do their duty. Mr.. co.
mer should understand, and under
stand at once, that his assertion that
taxation assessments are too low does
not necessarily prove that railway
freight rates are too high. He might
as reasonably attempt to prove that
the theory of the nebular hypothesis
depends upon the law of gravitation.
Mr.. Corners statement, prolonged as
it is throughout six columns of news.
paper print. makes no real contribu-
ton to a subject that is today para.
mount in state and national politics. 1t
| is, at best, a studied attempt in eva
sion--an attempt that possesses not
| even the virtue of cleverness or of
ingenuity. In reading his conclusion
of the whole matter. the people of Ala
pama. who think with their brains and