Weekly Arizona journal-miner., 1907-01-30

exist, and the profits of others are small; but they are taxed with regular. ity, and nobody complains that the rule is unfair. II is a novel doctrine. therefore, that an unprofitablc mine should escape taxation altogether. But | it should be freely conceded that mines m m unproductivc state should be assessed at valuations wholly nominal in comparison with their prospective value. for the reason that the value of mine mus, remain purely speculative and undetermined until its ore content. | can be measured with some certainty. As already suggested, some amend. ncnts of the existing law would enable | Assessors t0 assess and the local Boards of Equalization and the Territorial Board of Equalization to properly equal. izc the assessments of the mines by methods which could not be fairly criticised. If required to make two | clossificaiions of mncs--classifyinp them ns "producing" and "non.pro. ducing, '--county Assessors, if at all | intelligent, and attentive to their duty, would not value n non.producing mino on an equality with n producing mine, as has been practically the rule. And | when reviewing the county assess. mcnts the Territorial Board could or. der decrease ar increase of the vnlu. ations in either class without affecting the other. 1T the law shall he 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 Territorial Board, the present law should prove very satisfac. tory in its operation. As it is now, any county may bc deprived of the benefit of increased assessments ordered by the Territorial Board, through the failure of the Supervisors to collect county taxes on the basis of such increase. | Apart from the present law. prob ably an effective method of taxing n mine would be to fix it's value by the market value of the orc extracted there from. the value of the ore extracted each year to he taken as the valuation of the mine for that year. mine pro. ducing nothing would consequently bc assessed at substantially nothing be. yond the improvements upon it. While some difficulties would arise In work. ing out such system of taxation, it would bc practicable. nm confident, to frame a law that would meet the re. quircmcnts. To ascertain the market value of the ores extracted from n mine would entail n considerable degree of supervision by the Territory to guard against false statements of production, but not so much supervision would be necessary as in the case of tax on bullion. Hence my objections to the inquisitorial' features of such a law would apply with greater force to a law providing for the taxation of the bullion. That a revenue law should in any degree be "inquisitorial" seems to alarm the natural timidity of great cor porations oven though the inquisition is for public good.
 The cquablc assessment of all prop. eriy, as the law intends. by the county officers, and caution and wisdom on the part of the Legislature in making ap- propriations, with duo economy in the government of the Territory, should soon reduce the Territorial and county rates of taxation to very lew figures And nothing would do so much to make Arizona attractive to settlers and to capital as n justly enforced system of fair assessments with it's necessary cor ollary-low taxes.
 l Education.
 Aside from the money expended for private, scctarian and other schools, more than $l,OOO,O0O was expended by the Territory for education during the last two years. To be exact, the total money expended for our public schools was $l,052, ,6s0.37.
 According to the annual school cen sus of last May, there were 3O,2sO children of school age G to 2l years) in the Territory. In the previous year the census gave 29,29O. There Is steady and gratifying incrcnse of our school populntion-thc increase having been approximately 20 per cent in six ycars-and the relative number of pu. pills enrolled and attenaIng has in. creased in even greater ratio.
 It is still subject for grave con cern, however, that so many of our children remain out of school, and that concern should not bc lesscned in any degree by the fact that the states gen. orally make no better showing. Last year, for example, while we had more than 30,000 school children, hut 23,223 of them were enrolled in the public schools, and there was nn average at attendance of but A,a4s.
 | Worst of all, after making allow. anecs for the children that attended parochial and other private schools, it IS found that total of q, ,l66 children of school age attended no school at all. l Attendance at some school either public or private, should be made strictly compulsory until the age of 16 IS reached, and proper punishment should be provided for parents who neglect or refuse to send their children or certain ages to school Our present statute upon this subject Is wholly in efficient.
 The Industrial School.
 Under the provisions of an act of the Twenty-third Legislature, the man