The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-04-01
Contest in Sight Over
 Railroad Taxes.
BOTH SIDES GET INFORMATION
uaking Comparison of Railroad and
 Priyzte Assessments.
nealsy yalues Deing Locked Up in AAvanee of Coming Meeting q state Board of
 ENualisatlon.

< A '. 5
 4 ..sscond battle" between the rail- roads and the State admtnistration
 sxd Ss gres,pss.sd CT ns ssts ns soard EQualixation, In fact. second nght siI Ths fines ape are forming. If indications count for anything. apparently both aides are preparing Tor a court night to follow the meeting of the Board of EquaIizers. It + possible that the probable. If the assessments to be to s5y the railroads there will be no that the administration win be so mild aD to make assessments to which the railroads will not object.
 sides have equipped themselves with information as to recent transfers of real estate in various counties of Ala. bama. The transfers are to be used as . reference. guide. a. standard for comparison between railroad as- sessfnents and the assessments made on real propsrty owned by citizens Of of to put forward the claim that rail- road property today is assessed higher in Alabama than any other sort of said the same thing. Then railroads are prepared to prove this. 1t is said.
 If their assessments are raised un- duly they ns will so into the courts and sessments be had that they may prove that they are paying taxes on an amount more nearly the actual value porations and citizens of the State. They will carry any unjust assess ments to the court and ask that the high assessment for one class of prop erty and low assessment for all other Position of the Roads.
 Their rnSffinn will he fhaf thay arc taking an appeal from discrimination on the part of State officials. It is understood that the attitude of the railroads may be thus expressed:
 We are paying on 50 per cent. and more of the actual money value of our property. The average assessment of per cen cent. of it's. actual m value. The average assessment on town and farm ing property is anywhere from 25 to state proposes to make fish of one end fowl of another. We are guaran- teed the, right of equal treatment un-
 awe may be subject to regulation, but we are not subject to persecution. We. cannot be punished for no other 1su than that we ape nn property in one class and charge its highest taxation on that property and put all other property in another class class. We will ask the courts to pro- tect us from that discrimination and nsi Sf course, s1aS s. the prospective nght de- pends. on what the Board of Equaliza-
 Copies of Realty Assessments.
 In the meanwhile 1t is understood that both the State administration and the railroads have secured copies of real estate transfers recorded In object of these transfers Is to show what the average of assessment is throughout the State It cannot be said definitely how far the work of but it Is known definitely that the pro bate records in number of counties have been searched by. both the rep resentativest of the railroads and the representatives of the State officials. How far the search has been carried nobody can say.
 have but one purpose. On the part of the railroads 1t is simply an effort to get corroborative evidence of the claim they make that in assessing Alabama property the railroads are discrimi- mated against. The records are to be used by the railroads to corroborate if they will, the claim that while pri- vate property is assessed in the neigh borhood of thirty per cent of Its. value, F cent in of ths actual value, and that any. further raise would be a manifest injustice.
 On the part of the State the infor- ma0n nsed in 'hsf refutaton R tic pc of this The bate records in some counties have been gone over in the. interest of the administration, so 1t is said for the recent transfers show that private property is assessed at no lower rate than railroad property.
 Effect On Assessments.
 The pending controversy will have, if it has not already had. an important general effect on tax assessments throughout the. State. In it's recent commission carefully inspected all re- cent transfers of property and In most instances made copies of these transfers.
 The notes taken by the Commission were produced before the county tax officers and the Commission drew their attention to the fact that in nearly every instance the property was giv- than the sum paid for it. In a great majority of the instances, as far as the Commission was able to determine, the property was assessed at less than forty-five per cent of its purchase price. There were some other instan- ces, however, in which the property was assessed for taxes at more than fifty per cent of its actual values
 In their conferences with the county tax officials the members of the State Commission drew attention to the dis crepancies and inequalities snoWn Dy the county records. This was coupled with plea to the county officials that they should level and equalize tax as- sessments
 So far as the proceedings of the Tax Commission went. there was nothing in them to indicate that the records were searched and copies of transfers made to prepare for any fight which the railroads might make on assess ments ordered by the State Board or Equalization, a different body.
 But the well informed say that the raising of railroad assessments by the State officials will have a most impor- tant effect on the future taxation pol icy. They. would say that the State officials wish to be equipped with an answer to the plea of the railroads that they are the subjects of discrtmi- nation, while the owners of every otn- CT class of property is extended more liberal and more general treatment. The railroads claim that if they can establish their contentious in the courts that the additional assessments. if made by the State Board of Equall- zation, will not stand.
 An answer to this, and as a develop ment to the new policy of the adminis-