The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-02-26
NO EXTRA BURDEN
 UPON RAILROADS Taxation Upen Georgia Lines Will Remain Unchanged  GOVERNOR WANTS A RAISE Comptroller. Is Satisfied With Present VaIuation-covernor Smith Wants
 Higher Valuation, But Rail-
 roads Want Reduction.
GOVERNOR WANTS A RAISE

Atlanta, February 25.-(Special.)- railroads of Georgia can congratulate themselves upon at least one thing this year, if it can be called a subject of con graduation, and that is they will not be required to pay any more taxes than they paid in 1907.
 Speaking of this matter, Comptroller General w. A. Wright to whom all pub lie utility corporations are required to make their returns, said today:
 q have definitely decided to accept the returns of all railroad companies in the state this year at the same figures as were fixed by arbitration for 1907, unless, of course, there should be some controll- ing reason for change such, on the one hand as acquisition of new property, which would necessitate an increase, or, on the other, so great diminution of earning power as to demand some con- cession in the way of reduction.
 'The valuations of railroad property were gotten up in 1907 to what I regard a pretty fair figure. With small excep- tion this is true throughout the list. With no material change in the status of the property and gross earnings remaining about the same, I do not see, under pres ent conditions, why the state should ex- pect or demand any increase. Therefore, in general, I am prepared to accept this year returns from the railroads of Geor- gia at the same valuations as were fixed last year by the boards of arbitration. or by assessment agreed upon without arbi- tration.
 4I have not hesitated to say this to those representatives of railroad corpora tions who have asked me about the mat ter, and, on the other hand, I have been careful to inform them that l would in slst upon a rigid maintenance of those figures, unless there could be shown some controlling reason justifying a decrease.
 .I trust there will be no effort on the part of any of them to lower their returns this year, and if there is not we will get along harmoniously and probably without the necessity for any arbitrations."
 Just what Governor Smiths present views are on this subject is not known. but last summer, when the question was up and many of the railroad assessments were before boards of arbitration, he did not hesitate to say that while he possibly would not get the valuations up to what they ought to be, at that time, he would find some way of doing it this year.
 There is another interesting phase to the proposition, and that is prospective reduc- tions this year in their tax returns, by practically all the railroads in the state, below the figures fixed last year by the arbitration boards.
 The railroads claim that their business has materially diminished, that the mar ket value of their securities has largely fallen off, and that their property IS not worth as much as it was year or two ago. Under these circumstances they say they feel they will be justified in making the reductions.
 Under the law the returns of corpora tions must be in the hands of the comp troller general by May 1, but it is usually some time after that date before they are all in
 There is a possibility of some interest," ing disputes this year, but there is Q chance of an all around amicable agree ment
 Letter of Law Kills.
 A young Atlanta lawyer told Recorder Nash Broyles the other day:
 ''You are a prohibitonist and l am prohibitionist, but the construction you are putting on this law is paving the way for its death. Unless there is cessation of the technical application of 1t in all these trivial cases, you and l will soon see it pass into the oblivion of disuse.
 Whether it was that speech or not the attorney secured the dismissal of his client. young man in whose office the police had seized four quarts of whisky. Four young men sent joint order to Chattanooga, each for quart Of whisky. When it came one of them sent negro boy to the express office to get 1t. The Loy brought it to his office and the police saw him and made a case against the young man for keeping liquor in his place of business It was the evident intention of the owners of the whisky to take 1t home directly from that place. but the police did not give them an opportunity.
 The recorder has been consistently hold ing for violation of the law all parties in whose places of business there has been found liquor in any shape or quan- tity. regardless of their intentions It is believed he will exercise considerable dis cretion in these cases in the future It is pointed out that the severity of the appli- cation of the law is likely to do much to