Omaha daily bee., 1906-07-22
DOUGLAS HEARING MONDAY
Lincoln Parties Protesting on Assessment
Of Omaha Stocks Of Merchandise.
BOARD NOT LIKELY TO MAKE CHANGES
Members of the Opinion Assessors rs
= Rule Have Done Their work
Remarkably well This
Year.
frrnm a stan Correspondent.)

CFrom a stan Correspondent.)
LINCOLN, July 21.-(Specisl)- )-The
State Board OF Equalization held short
session this morning and adjourned until
Monday morning, at which time the Doug
las county assessment will be taken up.
Lincoln merchants. laboring under the In
huence of newspapers which pretend to
think Omaha and Lincoln are business
rivals, have dug up information regarding
the Omaha assessment Of merchandise
and IL is now said they will make a show
ing before the board TO get Douglas county
increased. At the same. time 1t is not
unlikely County Assessor miller of Lam
caster county may go before the board to
get some Lancaster property increased,
as the county board chopped down good
many of his values over his vigorous
protests.
However, it is almost a waste of time
and money for any one to appear before
the state board asking for a decrease or
increase in any assessment as the board
is Of the opinion the county assessors
have done a splendid Job and there will
be few changes made and no material
changes unless a farther analysis of the
abstracts of assessment shows greater
discrepancies in the work of the assessors
than is now apparent.
Though the railroads ask either a re-
duction in their own assessment or an
increase in the assessment of lands,
board members feel certain the roads filed
their protests merely to be consistent
with their former action in this state.
1t is not improbable some items in a few
of the counties will be increased. as there
| is some discrepancy, but the increase will
be slight. In some counties cattle are
much higher than in others. but this is
explained by reason of the fact assessors
were instructed to list cattle of all ages
so this could materially reduce the aver
age value where lot of young cattle
have been assessed.
Too Much Money for Results.
County Treasurer Examiners Tulleys and
| Robinson are of the opinion the people of
| the various counties of the state are pay
ing too much money for the repair of
| roads ana getting too little In return. At
this time they are working on a table
of statistics TO bear out this belief. In
| one county under the present system, Mr.
Tulleys said, 100000 had been spent in four
years and yet the roads were no better
than in any other county. The people
| of that county would never have voted
| thdh nLiuuhN Ol NlOnGy lne repair OF
roads, bui 1t had been spent just the same,
exclusive of what had been spent for
bridges.
These two officials are Of the opinion It
would be better for the counties and
cheaper for the taxpayers were a road
overseer elected for each county commits
sioner district to be paid a good salary, in
return for which he should be held re-
sponsible for the roads
| Enough money has been spent on the
roads OF Nebraska" said Mr.. Tulleys, ''to
make them the best roads in the country.
| but for some reason such is not the ca Sc
| by any means. We are looking up STA
tistics on the road question and while
we have not gone very far into the propo-
sition we have secured enough lnformati ton
to surprise the taxpayers and to show
that the present system of looking after
the roads is not what it should be-"
Burglar Proof Vault wanted.
Insurance Deputy Pierce wants burg
| lar-flre proof vault In the auditors office
so he can store away the securities de-
posted by insurance companies. Under
the present way of doing business Mr
Pierce keeps these securities now amount
| ing to more than S1,0OO,OO0 in a safety de-
posit bank and when any one desires TO
| look up security Mr.. Pierce has to make
| a trip down town to show the goods. He
makes this trip on an average of three
| times a day. Under the present arrange
ments the state has TO pay about SIS a
year for rent for the box in the bank
1t may be this can be avoided after the
next legislature by the passage of a law
compelling insurance companies to nay
S cents when they make deposit of
securities.
Attractions for Corn Contest.
Regarding the corn contest General Man
aser Bishop today issued the following
statement:
Preparations are we'll under way for MAX
ing the second Nebraska corn contest the
| largest and best of It's kind ever held The
meeting will continue for fiye days Decem-
Der II. u, 1S, IA and 15 1906 Some ~ the
best talent in the country has already been
secured for the meeting Frank r. Rober-
Dno son oL Waioen, y, @ N, IL has been engaged to
The Land of the Midnight SUM-" William
Hawley Smith of Peoria, ILL.,. has been en-
sessions. Negotiations are pending with
Adam Bede, the farmer congressman and
editor humorist OF Minnesota and with our
own distinguished citizen, William Jen-
nings Bryan. The committee is after best
music the state can provide. The Ladies'
for an evening and day session and the
Peru State Normal Male quartet has been
engaged to be present during the entire
convention. The location of the meeting
has not yet been decided. The executive
committee, composed OF the state officers
OF both associations, together with the man
ager, will decide upon the question u ic.
cation and other important matters relative
10 the convention at a busineaN meeting
which has been called 10 meet at York. Fri
day July q.
In response to communications sent to the
advisory council OF the associations by the
manager. which consists OF the county or
ganizations of the various counties OF the
state, the choice of the members at the
advisory council for location OF THE state
meeting, as indicated by the votes recslYed
to date, are as follows for the eight cit3el
ranking highest: One hundred and thirty.
seven votes have been east Of which Lin
coin receives 32; York. %; Hastings l6.