The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-03-31
TAX COMMISSION
 BEGINS ITS WORK Policy of Valuation Campaign
 is Indicated FIRST WORK IN BARBOUR pr. Shirley Bragg Is Not Specially Pleased With What He Has Seen
 In Inspecting the Jails
 of the State.
FIRST WORK IN BARBOUR

Montgomery, March 30.-(Speeial)-T most important e-ent of the week, save the railroad litigation, is the opening of the valuation campaign by the state tax commission and the indication of the policy that will be followed in the fixing up of rates that are to be placed upon the property of the state It is shown by the initial work that there is not going to be so much a movement to raise the values as a whole as to equal ize, and in this is carried out the sug- gestlon made when the bill to establish the commission was on it's passage that was the main idea in view.
 The first work was done in Barbour county and there the plans laid for the working out of the bill. The instruc- tion to tax officers was that they were to take the lists of real estate transfers in the county, secured from the books of the probate judge, and see what lands are sold for. This is to be a guide in raising or equalizing values as they are found all over the state or in any par to values of adjoining property A man may not have sold piece of land so that it's market value can be estimated, but his neighbor has, and from the re- ceipts of that neghbor the real value of the unsold part may be secured.
 1t is also shown by the actions so far that not only lands held by corpora tions but small farmers as well are go- ing to be made to pay full value.
 State Board Meeting.
 l. is expected that there will be much of raising when the state board of as- sessment begins to make up the values of the railroad property of the state. This board is composed of the governor, the auditor, the treasurer and the at- torney general, the last named being in an advisory capacity. The meeting is set down for April g. at which time there will be representatives of the leading traf- fife men of the state. Many of the roads were raised last year over the year be- fore and very likely there would have been a natural increase without the evil dent intention to go higher as a result of the feeling that the charges have been under what they should have been. The legislature passed law that the asses sors should be guided in making up the taxes by the well known market Values of the stocks and bonds. In this assessment is included the rails and the 1OIllnR StOck, the lines bI lulS ulSldnce telegraph and telephone companies and their poles None of the houses and depots, section houses or telegraph in- struments are taken in.
 Of the total value placed on property of the state last year. of $3i7, 22S, 469 the railroads composed $55 0G' ,23O other rail- road property SSI7,7 ,729. The only other items near it were real estate, sill, 754, ,95l, anG town real estate, S92. .401615.
 Mercantile Stocks.
 one of the complaints made by the tax collectors in Barbour county was that they could not get at the values of mercantile stocks The last auditors re- port shows that there is values of this Kind al SIS. 460,S Sl9 It is said that there is more value of this kind in the town of Eufaula than is assessed to the whole cosnty, and there are some who insist that the same thing is true in most of the state.
 However, there are things that the mer-