The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1906-11-06

r.
Here is another gem from the octo
uer, 1904, columns Of the tax-dodgins
organ:
Tax revision that exempts trusts for
taxation and levies additional burdens
on the farmers and small home own,
er, besides doubling tax assessments
is not the kind Of tax reform the PEG.
pie will submit to.
Undoubtedly correct. Neither dill
tley submit to it. They submitted to
a system quite the contrary. The
Standard is good specimen of trusts
is it exempt? 1t paid $1,000 in taxes
under the old laws in the o.e count
Of Wetzel. This year It pays $4,000
In that comfy. Under inc old laws
The farmers Of Wetzel paid $4,000 in
taxes, the trust should have paid. The
News said the laws would reach such
trusts.
WHICH WAS RIGHT, THE NEWS
OR THE REGIsTER7
in October, 1901, the tax4'odgins
organ quoted from the News with com.
ments as follows:
Here is the latest specimen of its
1.-The News) faIsehoods on the sub.
ilect:
Every lease held by the Standard
OIL Company will be taxed at its true
and actual value. Here is the most
severe tax of all and most Just. Tho
value of the lease represents clearly
the value Of the property. 1t will be
assessed at its true and actual value
and the Standard OIL Company must
| pay
This statement is as untrue as It
10 absurd. Then every man to whom
small farm or house is rented from
year to year will also have to be taxed
on the value Of his lease, and this pro-
POSITION is so absurd it does not have
TO be seriously considered.
We are happy we found that in the
files. 1t gives in parallel two contra
dctory statements by the News and
10y the Register in this controversy
and now we can have the facts. The
geader does not have to take others
word for it. The facts are: stand
ard Oil leases are assessed; the lease
len the farm is not assessed; the lease
on the house is not assessed. Not to
fbe seriously considered. Well, the
corporations and Supreme court
thought differently.
WHICH WAS RIGHT, THE NEWS
OR THE REGISTER
On November I, 1904, the organ Of
The tax dodgers spread these flaming
headlines all across It's front page:
Dawson makes deal with Standard
Gil. Slippery William Dawson pro-
claiming throughout the State that
his tax reform scheme aims to secure
more taxes out of Standard oil, and
promising that If It does not he will
have enacted more drastic laws, has
| entered into an agreement with the
=.
Standard people to favor certain
things in their interests, in consdera'
ton for their promises to support him
for governor next Tuesday.
We have told you before how that
deal worked. 1t wasa deal by which
evidently the Standard pays twenty
times as much taxes in Wetzel county
as 1t did the year the deal" was
made, several times more in Monon
saIIa. proportionatoly more in every
county in which 1t has property locat
ed on which it lodged its taxes be
fore.
That story so promiscuously spread
two years ago was another vicious
libel. The subsequent have proved 1t
The News said it was a lie at the
time
WHICH WAS RIGHT, THE NEWS
OR THE REGisTER'
The News could i'll several pages
With quotations from the arguments
Of The morning organ against the ta'
laws, and would be happy to do Sc
II ii had the space. Those given
IMweyer. are sufficient to give an ide'
Itf the astonishing breadth Of decep
ton and depth of ignorance which ha
characterized the writings Of tn