The French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1896-1912, 1907-01-17
MESSAGE. OF
GOV. GLENN
A Remarkably Able Communi-
cation TO the Legislature
NEEDED LAWS ARE SUGGESTED
Says Our State is Enjoying a Period
of U15oUnded Prosperity-Favors
E6uc&sion and Morality.

the m6SS1SC VI OObcLuOI Ii. De OlCHu
to the. General Assembly of North
Carolina:
To the Honorable, the General Assem-
bly, of North Carolina:
You meet to-day under most favor
able circumstances. Never before was
the State in such a prosperous con-
dition, and its increase agriculturally,
educationally and morally, has been
phenomenal.
Since the General Assembly last
met, crops have been generally good
and have brought prices above the
average, so that our farmers are In
good condition and out of debt, and
their lands much enhanced in value.
New enterprises have everywhere
sprung into existence, and the rattle
of the loom, the hum of machinery
and the scream of the steam whistle
make sweet music to the industrial
ear. To-day our State has taken the
second place in the United States IN
the manufacture of cotton goods and
furniture, and first III the production
of plug tobacco.
Labor has received good wages, but
there is a great scarcity in every line
of work, and a growing demand is
therefore being made to devise sons
remedy for an increase in laborers,
provided they be the right kind.
The cause of education has greatly
advanced. Good school houses and
equipment, a higher grade of teachers,
longer terms, and a more general in
terest in school work, are evidences of
an educational awakening that prom
Uses great things In the future. The
moral trend has gradually been on
" ward and upward, until to-day our
people were never more industrious OF
sober, or took a greater interest In
things religious.
The credit Of the State is first-class:
we practically nothing, as our
assets are in excess of our liabilities
and there now seems no further dang
er Of our being harassed by ~conspira-
tors seeking to vex us with suits on
old repudiated bonds, as the Cover
nors OF sister States refuse to lend
themselves to such fraudulent and
mercenary schemes.
Taxation.
No subject will come before YOU at
this session fraught with more vital
interest to the State than the devising
OF a proper scheme for ascertaining
the true value of all property in the
State, to the end that each individual
Or county, by proper taxation, shall
bear his or its part Of the States bur-
cen, and that there be no false valua-
tel or unjust discrimination.
The Constitution, Art. V, Sec. 3.
provides that claws shall be passed
taxing by a uniform rule all moneys,
credits, etc, and also all real and per-
sonal property according to its true
value in money!; and yet this simple
but vital provision is universally vio-
lated both In the assessments not be-
ing uniform, nor. according
to their true value. While
impossible to devise any scheme
OF taxation that shall fall
equally on all, still the nearer we can
approach to requiring all to value their
property correctly to its true worth,
Just SO much the nearer we come to
fulfilling the constitutional demand
for uniformity. This subject, there
fore, requires your deepest thought
and most careful examination; and If
the session should end with your hav-
ing accomplished nothing else but set.
Ting this troublesome question on a
fair basis, you still will have earned
the plaudit, "Well done, faithful
servants.'
The assessed value of all property In
the State is $461, 20,668.32; bat in
my Judgment, if personal property
was fairly given in, and realty justly
assessed, and railroads and other cor
roratlonsf fairly taxed, its actual value
%nuid be a billion dollars, enabling us
10 have a much lower rate than at
present, and still have a much larger
revenue to meet all the growing needs
of the State.
y 1alr valuation and a low rate are
necessary to get more people and out.
Sla capital, while a low rate and high
valuation fri2htens away both the
HoAleseeker and investor.
Railroads.
Mach has been said of late about
laifoads and railroad rates, both
PASSENGER and freight, and how best
- regulate aad control them. In deal,
Ing with this question, I would urge
en- The General Assembly to care
nu ay examine the whole matter of
tbo oaos' ard while doing everything
nio ID" allows, IA protecting the poo
b. against unjust discrimination.
So rates, and unnecessary hard
r i5s' at The same time to treat the
ON loads with perfect fairness and
Iare 'Aen every legal right which be-
'ohgs to them.