The Randall County news. (Canyon City, Tex.) 1908-1926, 1908-12-18
MUST SWEAR SOME MORE.
Department Rules That County Judge, Asses.
sor and Commissioners Must Take
Additional Oath.

VI tllS SbdiC VI lCAdS llltU cNCl
officer shall take out commits
sion from the state before that
officer can draw from his county
or state any of the fees to which
he is entitled according to the
fee laws of the state.
When the officers who were
elected at the last November
election sent down their Sl.00
for this certificate with the re-
quest that the commission issue
to them respectfully, a rather
peculiar order was returned
to this county relative to the
County Judge, the Tax Assessor
and the County Commissioners.
The last Legislature passed a law
relative to the full rendition" in
which it was required of the tax
assessor that before" proceed
ing with the assessment of the
taxes for any year he and his
deputies must take Il certain
oath which was set forth in the
law by which the tax assessor
and his deputy must swear by
all that is good and holy and then
some more that they will assess
the true value of the property
rendered. There was also stipu-
lated that the County Judge and
| the commissioners "before' they
sat as a board of equalization
should likewise swear by the
great horned spoon and someth-
ing stronger that they would not
allow any property to be assess
ed at less than its actual value.
In neither of the provisions is it
stated that this oath shall be a
prerequisite to the issuance of
the commission as an officer but
it is provided that no tax list
shall be approved unless it is
clearly shown that all these of.
ticers have taken the required
oath before the tax list was APP
proved by them and sent to the
State department.
Now comes the powers that
be" and required the officers of
this county to take this oath be
fore the state will issue the com
mission. There is nothing in
the entire statutes which de
mandS or requires either of
these officers to take this oath
until before" entering upon
their respective work. 1t has
nothing to do with their other
duties than that Of tax assess
ment.
The operation of the full rendi-
ton law during the past year
has been a fake. - The various
officers in this county took the
oath and worked manfully upon
the proper rendition and it is a
matter of record that lands in
adjoining counties of the same
relative qualities and of practic-
ally the same distance from
markets have been rendered in
these other counties at from
$500 to $500 per acre than in
Randall county In fact there
| is one single section Of land
which lies in four counties, one
of which is Randall and upon
this section there are four sepa-
rate and distinct valuations run
ming from $500 to 1900 per acre
and the land is all alike.
1t appears that there is some
thing wrong in our method of
taxation. Take for instance in
this county. One man owning a
section along the line renders
his land at $1,000 per acre. His
neighbor just across the line rem
ders his at 500. The state rate
is the same in both counties
therefore the man who renders
his land in this county at $1,000
per acre pays about 13 per cent
more Of the state taxes than
does the adjoining county man.