The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-04-18
HEARING OF
 COAST LINE First Enjoining Road
 Before Board. SEARCHING INQUIRY ON VALUE Cost of Reproduction is S3l, ,OOO and Tax Valuation $I0,00O. s Representatives of Road Endeavor without Success to Learn What VIII He Basis Used by State
 In Fixing Taxes.

The Atlantic Coast Line, the flrst of the railroads which enloined In the Federal Court the operation or M tne railroad legislation recently enac.ea' went before the State Board of EouaI- nation yesterday to have its taxes as sesssd.
 m an exhaustive investigation of the financial affairs of this road. the story of its purchase of the majority of the stock of the Louisville and NashVllle Railroad was told and the Board was Furthermore informed that the road Tn its court proceedings declared that IL would cost $31, ,000 a mile to reproduce the road.
 There was meat and matter of im- portance in this statement. coming as It did from one of the roads Wnicn ,nel For in those proceedings each road makes declaration of the value Of us property in Alabama, and declares un- der rates fixed by the anti-railroad leg islation 1t would be impossible to make any return on the property invested
 It developed, too, that the road was now paying taxes on Its property at the rate of 315,000 a mile and that it present year at $10,o00 a mile, but the officers explained that this was what was called "a tax valuation, that is portion paid by railroad and other property in the state"
 The railroad officials wer anxious to get from the Board some statement as to the criterion it would use In the fixing of the assessment, but the Board declined to show It's hand. The Coast Line exhibited all its family financial secrets to the Board and for two hours railroad officials and State officials dis cussed these figures as they were frankly presented by Colonel Alexan- der Hamilton. first vice-presdent and general counsel of the road, Colonel A A. Wiley, division counsel. and c. T. Joseph, tax agent of the road, were also present at the hearing
 The Board preferred to wait for some erty of the Atlantic Coast Line and action on its case was postponed until April 22.
 Smaller Roads are Raised.
 Several of the smaller roads went be- fore the Board yesterday and fared badly. In every instance their taxes were raised and some of the raises were considered pretty high by the of ficials, who could only smile dryly when the work of the Board had been done.
 The Alabama Central. the branch road in Autauga County, had been pay ing taxes on Its property at $1,500 a mile. The Board raised the assessment to s4.o00 mile. This road has SIS miles of main line and .1s miles of side track. The side track was as sessed at $2,000 per mile. and the roll Ing stocklat ss,1o5; The road was rep
 The Tuskegee Railroad Company had It's assessment on the main line raised from $500 to $e,o00 a mile. It has 6.12 miles of main line and .63 mile of side track. The side track was as- sessed at $3,000 and the company's rolling stock was assessed at $15,000. The road was represented by J. c. Wright and E. R. Alexander.
 The Union Springs and Northern. having 75 miles of main line. had been paying taxes on 1t at S4.500 a mile The Board yesterday raised that val uation to s750O and assessed the road s2,000 for a half mile of side track. The rolling stock of the company was assessed at $6.000. The road was rep resented by President w. M Blount and Attorney Earnest Blue.