The Fairmont West Virginian. (Fairmont, W. Va.) 1904-1914, 1906-10-23

IttafNlt ~ hNluN tut- Nttt(ttl ~ VIA
il ought ID be aud lie Is now engaged
III iistgat on u ascertain tie tent u
ITS powers. Is very probable that
the law ii tbs respecs ought To- be
amended and strehe thened: but while
the amount shut ss5. 100000, that in
itself Is 4 large sum, and not 4 dollar
Of it was ever assessed before. This
property existed while our Democratic
friends were In power in the State. but
they did not find it. The Pullman
sleeping cars existed while they were
in power in this State, but they never
found any law whereby to tax them.
That was left for the Republicans to
do. The car lines, and the telegraph
and telephone lines, and other public
service corporation property existed
during the time that our Democratic
friends were running the State, but
they did not find it to tax it. only
merely nomlnatly. It was left for the
new tax laws, those ubiquitous meas
pres" to bring the property under the
same conditions as the property of the
farmers, mechanics and the ordinary
business man.
Reassessment Of RsaI Estate.
The re.assessment of the real estate
of the State was attacked most vfru-
lently by the Democratic leaders in
1904. They pictured to the farmer that
the value of all Of his land would be
many times Increased, and Of course
his taxes would be increased in pro-
portion. The re:assessment Of the real
estate was made, 1t is by far the best
assessment ever made in this State. !
make that statement bodily, and have
no doubt Of It's soundness, Not only
that, but the personal property assess
ment made this year is the best ever
made in the State. The value Of the
real estate Of the State was increased
2.S2 ttmes-a little less than three
times. Now,of course. this includes town
property as we'll as mineral and tim
Der lands. It is little difficult to
ascertain exactly what the increase
was in farm lands and in mineral
lands. The Increase in town lots and
Improvements thereon was nearly
three times. Mineral and timber lands,
it is estimated, increased two and
times, and that farm lands
GO per cent. only. The rea-
son of this was because the farm lands
had heretofore been assessed higher
than the other real estate, and in the
process OF equalization the other
had to go up much more COM
pared with lis former valuation than
the farm lands did. There was no dis
position to assess the farm lands at
less than their value, no disposition to
assess the olher property at more than
It's value; the aim was to get at equal
Ity. 1t has been said that this assess
nent of real estate was the best ever
made in the State. This is largely |
iue to the State tax commissioner He I
was very careful and very fortunate
in the selection of the commissioners
who made the assessments. They !
we're favored by the advice and in
structlons Of an able and conscien-
tious officer Then the board of pub
lie works gave to the work Of equaliza'
ton OF the assessments, / believe
more time and attention than was ev-
er given before. Although the law
lid not require the board Of public
works to leave the State capital, yet
at great inconvenience to themselves
hey spent weeks going about over
he State taking testimony and hear.
ne every one who was aggrieved, The
work Of eQNiliZing was so well done
hat 1t evoked scarcely any criticism
whatever.
Appropriations Compared.
have referred to Mr.. McGraw's adj
lress. wish also to refer to some
published in some Demo
cratic newspapers charging up extrav.
lgance TO Republican administrations.
According to the article in the Demo-
cratic newspapers under Governor
MacCorkles administration the apro-
ariations for the four years totaled up
4. 69l $50: Governor Atlinson's foot
ID up S3,CS7.SlO; Governor Whites
"a, 2aS,2 while we have had but two
yeas of Governor Dawson's admins
ration and the amount is $4,000, 256."
BY some sort of figuring, which IS
perhaps best known to these Demo
cratic newspapers, 1t is said that the
Increase will be from $2,OOd,00 under
Governor MNcC0rkle to $T.00O0O0 I'M