East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1906-01-11
NEW YORK LETTER

New York, Jan. 1.-THE authori-
ties have arrived at the conclusion
that taxing personal properly doesn't
pay; that in the main the city loses
money by putting personal property
on the tax roll. Every little while a
new set of reformers springs up With
extravagant ideas of their duty to
make everybody pay taxes; so they
go through the city, building after
building, and taking names from the
door signs, put fanciful figures oppo-
site them on the assessment rolls, and
go to their dreams expecting to
wake up in time to take in unheard
of and innumerable shekels from
these new made taxpayers whom no
other assessors were able to find from
their fellow citizens. but no stream
of cash ever flows into the city treas
ury from these newly discovered
placers, for almost to a man the new
ly assessed swear off their names.
The assessors have kept sharp eyes
on the lists of incorporated companies
of other states, who have filed papers
in this state, and assess them by the
million of dollars, only to find in per-
haps two-thirds OF the cases the in
corporations have not perfected their
organization and that in some cases
not a cent has been paid in on the
stock
All this has caused great loss to the
city not alone from the loss of eX-
pected collections, but because for
each one of these worthless assessed
ones there has been a reduction of the
relative assessments of the good ones,
and so the city has failed TO collect
couple of thousand dollars by assess
ing it upon a worthless, who hasn't
paid, of course, and the general as
sessment has been lessened by just so
much less. This would have been
collected in the general taxes had it
not been thrown away by putting it
against presumed taxpayers who had
no money or property.
There is no use in putting non-tax-
payers on the tax rolls. The assessors
have learned that for the tax to be
available it must be laid on tangible
property.
"Atax'' Whitman Badly Hurt.
one of the heroes of the police
force-"Ajax" Whitman, fell a vic
tim to his bravery on Fifth avenue in
his effort to stop a runaway team,
which was cutting a swath among a
crowd of children. His undoing was
peculiarly painful. Pursuing the team
on his bicycle and finally catching
up with the madly galloping horses,
one of them, as Whitman caught his
bride, flung up his head pulling
Whitman off his wheel, and in some
way the policeman's legs got entan
gled in the wagon wheel, and he was
whirled around and around many
times, and finally fell out on the
pavement insensible, with both legs
broken in many places.
There is sorrow in the police force,
for Whitman was its pride, distin-
gushed by many acts like that which
laid him low. He got the name of
Ajax" because of the feats of
strength, some of them most remark
able. that he performed.
The first arrest he made he carried
| a 2OO-pound man to the station house.
He threw a team of runaways with
one hand. He carried two drunken
men five blocks to lookup. He lifted
a car full of passengers from fall
len horse. He has lifted, time and
again. loaded trucks from car tracks.
He lifted 200 pounds with his teeth.
He arrested n broken-down automo-
bile of 60 horse power, and pushed it
to the station house, half mile. He
carried pianos up and downstairs. He
has saved hundreds of children with
their nurses from runaways like the
one in which he met with disaster.
How he will come out of this wreck
is not known, but If the prayers of
New Workers will avail at the great
White Throne he will regain every
| limb as sound as a dollar, and will
lose not an atom of his strength. a