Daily Arizona silver belt., 1907-01-23

mines are porced to pay more than their share of mine taxes. There can be no doubt of that.
 All Prophecies Failed
 I am pleased to remind you that the prophecies of evil that was to flow from the efforts of the territorial board of equalization to assess the mines at fairer valuations have not been fulfilled not one of them. Capital has not been driven from the territory. On the con trary, never before in our history was capital so eagerly seeking mines. The industry has not been throttled; on the contrary, the present 'boom' in the mining business is without parallel in Arizona. Nor has the "smaIl mine owner" been ruined.
 The mining industry should be en- couraged in every legitimate way. It should have particular care. The great wealth produced by the mines should create neither envy nor enmity. Nor, on the other hand, should it be treated as sacred thing that should not be taxed. l ask that wealth and property in all forms, whether owned by the mining company or by the lowly shoe maker, shall be treated alike. The tax assessor and the tax collector must not discriminate. If our laws are to be respected; if government by the people is not to be made farce; if the anar ehist is not to be encouraged by exam pie of the rich corporation in evading the law, all men, high and low, must be treated with equal justice and all alike must be compelled to obey the impartial administration of the law. I shall never accept the doctrine that the payment of taxes should be treated gratefully by the territory as donation.
 Paying Taxes Duty
 The corporation or individual who thinks it or he is making a concession to the territory by paying its or his fair proportion of the cost of government has a wholly mistaken notion of it's or his relation to the government under which it or he transacts business. To pay proper taxes is duty. And if either so far forgets itself or himself as to evade the discharge of this duty, it or he violates the law either in letter or in spirit and should be treated as law breaker.
 It is seriously urged by some that a mine should not be taxed unless it is paying profit to the owner. Multi tudes of men in other lines of business may fail to make profit, others barely exist, and the profits of others are small; but they are taxed with regular ity, and nobody complains that the rule is unfair. It is novel doctrine, there fore, that an unproftable mine should escape taxation altogether. But it should be freely conceded that mines in an un- productive state should be assessed at valuations wholly nominal in compari- son with their prospective value, for the reason that the. value of mine must remain purely speculative and un. determined until it's ore contents can be measured with some certainty.
 Proposed Remedy
 As already suggested, some amend ments of the existing law would enable assessors to assess and the local boards of equalization and the territorial board of equalization to properly equal ize the assessments of the mines by methods which could not be fairly crit icized If required to make two classif cations of mines--classifying them as producing and "non-producing - county assessors, if at all intelligent, and attentive to their duty, would not value non-producing mine on an equal ity with producing mine, as has been practically the rule. And when review ing the county assessments the territorial board could order a decrease or in. crease of the valuation in either class without affecting the other If the Jaw should be amended in this particular, and the local boards are compelled to carry into effect for the benefit of their respective counties, the order of the ter. ritorial board, the present law should prove satisfactory in it's operation. AS it is now, any county may be deprived of the benefit of increased assessments ordered by the territorial board, through the failure of the supervisors to collect A