Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1907-11-07
County Auditors Fail to Follow
instructions of State Execu-
tive Council
MANY TAXPAYERS AFFECTED
Work of Council as Board of Review
Ignored and Assessors Returns Per-
mtted to Stand Showing Before
Commission on Iowa Rail InequaIi-
ties a Blow to the Companies.
Special to Times Republican.


brewing and the courts Of Iowa are
likely to grind because some Of the
county auditors of Iowa have been
the instructions of the
executive council in regards to assess
ments An irate tax payer In a west
ern county has written to the auditor
of state for a certified copy of the
order of the executive council in rela-
ton to the assessment of his county,
together with certified copy OF the
1t is learned that the
executive council ordered reduction
of ten per cent in the assessment as
returned by the assessor and the aud
itor failed to make the reduction.
Incidentally it Is learned that this
state OF affairs prevails in many other
counties of the state. The executive
council makes it's orders raising or
lowering the assessment as returned
by the assessor. For many years the
matter has escaped attention and no.
tice and 1t is not known what the
courts will do for no case has ever
been taken to the courts. The matter
has never been detected before be-
cause the state auditor charges up
each county on what it collects ana
not on what 1t should collect
Now it is learned that any number
of counties have been in the habit Of
the orders of the execu-
tive council as to the assessment. The
executive council acts as board of
review to equaliZe assessments as be-
tween counties. 1t sometimes orders
the2 assessments raised in one county
and reduced in another. If a tax pay
er's taxes amount to 5000 and the
executive council ordered a reduction
of the assessment of ten per cent, as
ty in question. the difference to the
taxpayer is 500 Probably where the
executive council ordered a raise in
the assessment and the county auditor
it, there will be no COM
plant from the taxpayers but where
the council ordered reduction there
will no doubt be some kicks.
The matter is very far reaching and
lawyers believe that taxpayers would
have good cause of action for re-
turn Of excess taxes paid wherever the
county auditor has failed to reduce the
as ordered by. the execu-
tive council.
mission on reclassification of freights
the railroads have been driven into a
corner and forced to admit that they
are doing Just what they have claimed
that they~could not do. The result will
possibly be some better rates inside
the state Of Iowa on certain COM
At the hearings on the brick
rate the application Of Commissioner
Wylie of .Des Moines asked that the
rate from Davenport to Council Bluffs
be made the same as that from Rock
Island to Omaha.
At once the railroad representatives
could not possibly do that for it would
mean like reduction all over the
state of Iowa because Of the distance
tariff law Of Iowa. With many pro-
fuse bows they explained that if Iowa
would only put itself on an elastic
rate basis such as the interstate COM
merce has DONE they would be glad to
take care of all factories in the state.
Yesterday when forced into corner
and confronted with the evidence they
admitted that they were already doing
it and would recommend to their roads
that they "flx up" the brick and furni-
ture rates.
The bone Of contention is this: I'm
der the distance tariff law Of Iowa
when rate is made by the commits
sion as a maximum rate it must rule
on all railroads for like distance in
side the state as the maximum rate and
the longer and shorter distances must
be proportionate. When Commissioner
Wylie showed that the rates from Dav-
export to Council Bluffs were greater
than those from Galesburg, ILL.,, to-
Omaha, the railroads claimed that this
was an elastic rate under the inter-
state commerce rules and that the
rate was not compensatory but was a
rate made to meet competition from
off down in Kansas somewhere to
Omaha In Interstate commerce mat
ters it is possible to make low rate
on a long haul to meet competition
without changing the rates in other
directions proportlonately. The rail-
roads claimed they could not do that
In Iowa under the distance tariff law.
Yesterday Commissioner Wylie came
in with a showing that the rate on
furniture as given by the railroads
from Clinton to Sioux City is 22.5
cents and the rate from Des Moines to
Sioux City a very much less distance
is 22.65 cents, both Of these rates be-
ing inside the state of Iowa with a
lower rate for the long haul than for
the short and utterly disregarding the
Iowa distance tariff regulations that
rates must be proportionate on all
roads and in all directions for like
distance.
Another stiff blow to the railroads