The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-07-25
Rebellion fn Lee.

AsGDCahsOo 1o ASC
 Mobile Register.
 Lee county. a division of the State reputed to have been more friendly to Governor Conner. has been in rebellion against Governor Corners tax policy. and and practically sa has netied the eovsro ,S Governors friends are said to lead the movement and it Is very we'll known that they would not be in an bsd arpen them M
 The fact is that the tax policy has we'll nigh brought investment in this state to standstill. and threatens to make, it advisable for the banks to withdraw this money from the active market. Real values are affected everywhere and people in search of reason given being that there can be nothing done as long as the threat of a tax burden hangs so heavily over the owner of property. o. of the state tax commission. declares that all that the administration is seeking to do is to equalize assess ments; and that no person ought to object to paying on a fair assessment. The people. however. do not accept this as the sole object. They note :hat the state tax commission asks for & straight-away raise of assessment to 50 per cent. That does not appear to be Also. they observe that the adminlstra- tion is in pursuit of more than 60 per cent. assessment of moneyed tn- stitutions; and they find. in turn. that the moneyed institutions are taking the prudent course of drawing in their loans. The fact is there is something like panic in the public mind. caused by the fear that perhaps. with Cover nor Comers assistance, we have start ed down hill. after an era of unex- ampled prosperity.
 Judge Lloyd Robertson. the tax com. as Tax Commissioner H. M Friend, of Mobile county. has more recently Ione. notices telling the property owners what their assessment will be. pro- vided that the assessment could appear before the county commissioners for correction of assessment. and, if re- fused them, could appeal to the state tax comission and, as, last resort: to the courts. It has been calculated that the notices issued to Lee county property owners would have footed up an increase of assessment amounting to five hundred thousand dollars!
 The trouble began at once. A large number of influential citizens. some of them notable for their past enthuiasm for MT. Conner. appeared before the protested most earnestly that such assessment would inf1ict a great bur den, and also would be injurious to public interests.
  en up, the county commissioners dis missed them one after another, until at last the tax commission. seeing that the enterprise was failure. asked that the whole list be dismissed.
 Another account says that the com missioner withdrew his assessments before the county court acted upon them, but this Is not material to the issue.
 Humiliated by being placed in a eit- uation apparently so hostile to the in terests of his people and so opposed to the Judgment of the county com missioners, Judge Robertson thereup- on decided to withdraw from office. nd sent his resignation to Governor Conner. When asked by the Opelika News for his reason. he replied that he. had nothing to say, except that he had ten deNd his resignation. No reason is needed, however The reason Is ob- vious.
 Judge Mitchell has hastened to Opellka to assure the people of Lee that they are entirely mistaken as to the Governors object in putting into play the machinery of assessment; but it is as yet doubtful what effect his argument will have. On some of the recalcitrants 1t will have no effect. of course. They think the governor is riding the tax X-gathering hobby entire ly too rapidly and too rough-sh shod in Lee county. They refuse to approJa of