The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-04-26
ON The GRIDIRON.
Railroad Hen Tell Things to
Tax Assessors.
Mr.. HIghIeymAn Seems to Enjoy
the Experience.
III. *. & T. MAN UP.
Asked Embarrassing Questions
About Equipment.
Ordered to Make New Figures
for the Board.
III. X. s. T. MAN UP.

8 L. Highleyman, tax commissioner,
and Col ]. H Richards. general attor-
ney, both of the Missouri Pacific rail-
way, make a queer team They were
both before the state board Of railroad
assessors this morning.
Mr.. Highleyman takes a philosophical
view OF the situation, and likes to IN
bosom himself to the railroad board
when he thinks the board is next" any
way Col Richards. however. believes
that. when you are fighting man, you
ought to fight him at every step in the
road, and never give an inch unless you
are hit over the knuckles.
So when Col. Richards was giving tes-
timony he stood pat, or lodged, accord
ing to circumstances.
Mr. Hfghleyman, on the other hand,
was inclined to be confidential. He ad-
xz1Itted that the assessment reports made
by the railroad companies didn't rank
very high as monuments to accuracy,
and that il the board was smart enough
to find the holes, that was to their credit-
While Mr.. Highleyman was talking. MI.
Richards paced nervously back and
forth behind him. Whenever he feared
that Mr. Highleyman would go too far,
he would give Mr.. Highleyman's coat
tail a jerk as he went past
Once Mr. Highleynan started in to tell
how the Missouri Pacific got OF easy
in the state of Missouri
Mr. Richards slipped up behind him
and whispered in his ear, There's one
of those - reporters sitting back
there"
Mr.. Hfghleyman turned around. look
ed at the reporter. smiled, and went
right on with his declaration. He told
how the Missouri Pacific had $50 miles
of terminal tracks in St. Louis and Kan
sas City. all OF which is assessed in
Missouri as sfdetrack-
I'VE have" he said, "a strip OF land
right through the most valuable portion
of St Louis a strip from 200 to 1000
feet wide. filled with tracks. worth mil
lions Of dollars, and we are assessed just
on che line Of main track, at about ST.
500 a mile. 1 think"
Question of Rolling Stock
The proposition which is occupying
the attention of the board today is the
assessment of rolling stock
Mr.. Highleyman didn't like the idea
of the Kansas board assessing rolling
stock in Kansas on a mileage basis:
that is. assigning to Kansas the por-
ton OF the total rolling stock which
the Kansas mileage bears to the total
mileage.
IoIt7TEas admitted by Mr. RighIeyman
that this is the system used in Mis-
souri,. and that it was entirely salts
factory to the company, because in
Missouri there isn't much mileage. He
thought il would be better to assess
rolling stock In Kansas, however, on
wheelage basis. because the mileage in
Kansas is large.
of the board that Kansas, with so per
cent of the Missouri Pacific mileage,
is credited with only 20 per cent of
the Missouri Pacific rolling stock
katy Representatives Quizzed.
After finishing up with the Missouri
Do b. = Tra-z - z
win, tax commissioner of the Missouri
Kansas & Texas railway, and J. NJ
Gibbons, storekeeper for the same line
Mr.. Sherwin was first sworn.
There were surface groupings of
trouble, and the board. by a little de-
velopment work soon tapped the rich
vein for which they were looking They
took up the question Of the NJ. X &
T. line south from Kansas City.
through PaOla, Erie, Parsons and COf-
feyville, one of the richest and most
thickly settled portions OF the state.
Your report shows" said Lfeuten-
ant Governor Fitzgerald that YOU
have seven locomotives on that line
three passenger and four freight Now
do you mean that three passenger To-
comotives can handle all the business
on that line?
well, we have only three trains a
day each way. and each engine makes
a round trip"
and do you claim that four freight
locomotives handle all the the freight
trains on that line2''
That's what is reported to me-"
Don't You know, as a matter Of
fact that it is absurd to claim thar
three passenger and four freight loco
motives can handle the business of
that line -
The report may be defective. b,,.
simply reported as has been the c,1s-
tom for years. That's the only excuse
/ have to orSr.''N
Yet you swore to those figIres as
correct. and returned them as a basis
OH "nIcn THIS BOARD was supposed to
act How do you justify such fg-
ures7"
Il rendered report for all our