The weekly true Democrat. (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1905-1912, 1906-04-06
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The last performance Of misrepre-
sentation comes from an editorial in the
Jasper News. 1t represents the sad
land in the drainage district at Miami.
IL claims that the incident actually oc-
CURED. The Metropolis, Of Jacksonville,
uses the editorial as the subject Of q
cartoon. Now comes the Miami Rec.
ord and declares, after an Investigations
that the story is false. The woman IN
question did not own foot of land in
the drainage district, and therefore
paid no taxes on such land. The jack
sonville dailies have not been fair
enough to correct the misrepresentation
of the Governors speech. Will they be
fair enough to correct this last false y
hood that one of them has aided in dis
seminating? Madison Recorder.
STATEMENT OF T. N. GAUTIER, TAX
COLLECTOR DADE COUNTY.
IL remember the day John M. Cald-
well, editor of the Jasper News, came
to my Office. He was with Senator
Frank Adams, both of whom own prop
erty in Dade county. Mr.. Caldwell
asked about his taxes, and particularly
denounced the drainage assessment. l
gave him statement of the amount he
was due the county and he said he would
send me a check for the amount. Mr..
Adams made no complaint about his
taxes and did not join the discussion
with Mr. Caldwell
"While these gentlemen were in my
Office an aged lady complained about
her taxes being increased nearly double
what they had been in the past, and did
not have sufficient money with her to
pay the amount due explained to her
that the increased assessments made
last year Of so to 100 per cent, with the
additional IL mills put on by the county
commissioners, was responsible for the
increase. Not a word was said about
the drainage tax, and any statement
otherwise is maliciously false.
after Mr.. Caldwell had returned to
his home / received a check from him
for the amount of his taxes in this cOun-
ty, less the assessment for the State
drainage fund, and which | had given
him. | promptly returned the check to
him and informed him that he knew
could not accept it as taxes without the
drainage amount included. He replied
by stating that he had sent the first
amount purposely to test me, and in
closed another check for certain prop
erty not liable to the drainage tax, but
did not pay the tax on that which is. -
Miami Metropolis.
AS we were one of the newspapers
that published Bro. John Caldwell's ed
itorial, until we hear him admit that he
published a false story in connection
with that drainage tax matter, we still
contend that the collection of that acre
age tax is burning shame" and an
outrage. If that woman" was not
there, and did not own any land in the
drainage district, there are yet lot of
other poor people who are paying and
have paid it, and the principle stanCs
just the same.
No one objects to the Railroad Com
missions secretary, Hon. Royal G.
Dunn, defending, or attempting to de-
fend, the drainage board and it's actions,
however; that's his business and his
privilege, and he is welcome to it and
all that can come to him out of it,
though we must admit we think he
might be in better business as secretary
of the Railroad Commission.
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The True Democrat, of Tallahassee,
is the best exponent of Florida mat
tiers of any paper in the State, and the
Independent is delighted to number it
among it's exchanges. The paper is of
more than local character, and has the
interests of the whole State at heart
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