The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-04-04

show you the same courtesy as we show to others"
 You might give us some comfort by way of introduction in telling us what you are going to do." said Mir Tunstall.
 The Governor declared that banks were assessed at almost their actual worth in the State
 The declared further that real property in the State was assessed at fro n 40 to 75 per cent of its actual value, although some of 1t was assess ed at 30 per cent of It's true value.
 The Tax Commission was created to equalize these taxes throughout the State." said Governor Conner. Now the Tax Commission and this Board, trust, will do nothing drastic I believe you have heard that word before. We are trying to be fair and we ask you to be fair, too"
 We are trying to be fair" ssid MT. Tunstall
 Hartman says he wants to be fair, too," said the Governor.
 The representatives of the railroads retired to the hall, where they discussed the time that would be re- quired to obtain the information that was wanted by the Board before it be- gan its definite work. It was gener- ally agreed that ten days and more would be needed. This fixing of the dates beginning with A il Is was a mere matter of agreement with the Board
 The smaller roads having announced that they were willing to take their charces with the Board on whatever Information they had at hand. the Board resolved itself into consideration Of the valuation of the property of these roads.
 M. J. and K. C. Taken Up.
 Joseph c Rich of Mobile. appearing for the Mobile Jackson & Kansas City. had his road first taken up for consfd- eration. The road runs through cor ner of Alabama. through Mississippi and a part of Tennessee. The road has a mileage of 27 1-4 miles in Alabama. The road has practically no market value. It's shares are not listed, but Mir Rich was of the opinion that they corld be bought for from s to $1o piece. if a man wanted to buy any.
 MT. Rich first brought up the ques- tion Of the Boards method of assessing railroad property. a method which was not however made clear at any time during the days proceedings. MT. Rich put forward the proposition that rail- road property should be assessed in proportion to it's earnings, but the Board was not willing to subscribe to this doctrine.
 The road he represented had been in operation eight years, but outside Of its terminals in Mobile. 1t had no sta- tion which amounted to anything so far as brfneing m returns to the road. or the total mileage in the State. sev- enteer miles paid nothing and all in all, the road had only earned $946 mile which, after the fixed charges had been paid, was not enough to ray the inter- est on the money borrowed to build the road.
 Aside from the terminal property in Mobile which was bought ten years ago for s10,O00, the road had no prop ertv of any value except its track.
 MT Rich was questioned by Govern or Conner to ascertain if he and the officials of the road did not expect that the road would continue to grow. and if the road did not earn money nits Alabama part for the entire line through it's interstate business
 Value of the Road.
 It developed from the questions that the officials desire to have. the track age of the road assessed at $2.500 mile. Mir. Rich incidentally alluded to the receivership proceedings in which the road figured few months ago. The floating indebtedness of the company. he informed the Board. in answer to a question, amounted to $1,600,000 on 400 miles.
 In response to a question from the Governor. MT. Rich replied that iE his opinion the road could be repro duced for $12.000 a mile.
 What will 1t sell for?'' asked Gov ernor Conner.
 q cannot tell. I do not know" said MT Rich. Tt has no market value"
 Name your price" said the Govern or 'Tll get you purchaser"
 Returning to his original position, MT Rich held that 1t would be unfair to fix any large assessment on road that had never paid dividend and what was more, ahd never paid all the interest on its indebtedness. He held further that the Board should fix taves according to the earnings of a road.
 That ought to be the rule,' said MT. Rich. You should not tax a road in its infancy. This road is in Its in- fancy
 MT. Rich alluded to the tax commits sion which was going over the State adjusting taxes and incidentally to the way in which other property was as- sessed in Alabama. In Mobile. he said the insurance comranies were carrying risks of from 30O00.000 to $40, 900, 900 on perishable property that