The daily morning journal and courier., 1907-09-18
4 TOWN CUMPL4INT.

ance in a movement to improve upon | the methods of taxation now in use in l small towns where there are one or more manufacturing industries. We do not see what we can do to bring about an improvement but considera- ton of the charges made is never theless interesting enough to warrant | some attention.
 The letter which we have received | and to which We refer is not written !! in form which permits of it's publi- | cation, so we must assume the re- l sponsibility of giving the writer's pur- pose an accurate expression. His com l plaint is against towns in which are 1 located one or more manufacturing investments. We are not taken into his confidence with reference to the particular town he complains of, but he says the boards of assessors and Irelief are controlled by the manufac- turers in a manner to inure to their advantage, but not necessarily to the advantage of the political minority. He says that the caucuses of the majority part are held in the offices of one of the plants, that the nominees for both boards who constitute the control of them after election are selected with regard to retaining control of the poli- tical machinery of the town so far as rates of taxation are concerned. He says that in this particular town rep resentatives of the manufactories hold four of the six offices. This, he de- clares enables them to fix the valua- tion of their plants for the purpose of taxation, the valuation of private propertyowners who have no connec- tion with the industries, possibly farmers, and in annoying instances the valuation belonging to non-resi- dent taxpayers There is a lack of de- tail in this letter, but the intimation is nevertheless made with consider able directness that in the town to which he alludes and of which he is obviously either a resident taxpayer
 who considers himself injured by the tax process depended upon, or non resident taxpayer who thinks himself aggrieved by unjust rates of taxation as compared with those imposed upon the manufacturing plants, rates of taxation are agreed to which keep alone in mind the well-being of the manufacturing interests referred to.
 We should be rather surprised to learn that there is no relief for a tax payer, whether resident or non-resi- dent of a single Connecticut town, who is thus subjected to unequal taxation to benefit institutions of an industrial character in which he has no interest. It is not question of propertyowner
 considering himself injured by the rate charged upon the assessment made, it is a question whether he is
 actually and justly aggrieved. It has Inever been possible to convince cer-
 tain propertyowners in the town of New Haven that their assessments
 were fair, and it is only few years ago that the Chamber of Commerce unsuccessfully undertook, under the guidance of one of it's more restless
 members, to have adopted a system of assessments which would make each large propertyowner the sole judge of his own possessions. So that in considering a question such as our estimable correspondent puts to us we are not very materially helped by what may be a congenltal grievance It is conceivable, for example, that there would be no property worth assessing in the town referred to if 1t were not for the two manufacturing concerns located there; it is further conceiva-
 ble that being the town in fact, though not in name, the two concerns with the men who are dependent upon it's pros- lperity for their livelihood and the live
 lihood of their families come together
 for political control in order that po-
 litical experimentalists or political spendthrifts may not destroy them. In @ way this is what the voters do in
 one form or another in all of the
 towns of the State; they come togeth-
 CT either openly or instinctively to
 keep from political power men who
 have not the well-being of the town
 intelligently at heart and who might
 and probably would if given the power
 to assess property and afford relief
 produce bankruptcy. The alm of every
 town or city is to give the best possi-
 ble protection to industries at the low
 est cost, hence it is that excessively taxed towns rarely grow
 The success of the charge which
 our correspondent brings against this unnamed town depends upon the facts in his possession that the town is so managed that the manu-
 facturers receive exclusive benefits in the way of tax relief in which other