The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1911-12-21
Opsnlns the Eyes Of tl,s reopae.

assessments In short, snappy gen-
fences In a two-coiumn box ON the
first page. / made It . communities
ton to the rank and fils Of the Re-
publican and Democratic parties OF
st. James, and wound up - follows:
do you. Mr.. Republican, propose
70 nominate for assessor the kind
Of man who does this sort Of
thing?
do you, Mr.. Democrat. propose to
nominate for assessor the kind Of
man who does this sort Of . thing?"
The next day I printed an odito-
rial on the subject OF tho two apart
ment houses. showing that Cushman
had the year before contributed In
taxes 1850 toward the public ex-
pense Of tho community. whiio Car
pcnter had contributed but t625.
Then I showed what could have been
done with the t1.165 that the city
had been cheated out of by the Third
ward boss / reduced II to school
books to IRE hose, to street lights,
to park benches, to square yards of
street cleaning, to band concerts and
to ash cans.
The apartment house articles drew
the attention Of the public sharply to
assessments and taxation, and thous-
ands Of people began asking them
selves and each other whether that
sort Of thing was right and whether
they should tolerate 1t. ! thought /
detected an awakening civic con-
science and I Immediately followed
the comparison Of the apartment
house assessments with comparisons
of assessm ents Of other properties.
Almost invariably where l. found .
piece Of property assessed at low
figure / found its owner moro or
of1icial, or with the circle Of business
men and politicians that dominated
the city hall. I printed the names
of these people and made whole
some lot Of enemies but had the
satisfaction Of Watching the circula-
ton of the paper climb up, and up.
and up, until by the first OF January
II had reached eighteen thousand.
On the first OF January Mills
Brothers Informed us that they had
decided not to renew their contract,
which expired on February frst.
Mills Brothers operated one OF the
three big department stores and had
used about six thousand dollars
worth Of space in the Sun during
the year. Ralph Mills. one OF the
partners, was q brother-in-iaw OF
Carpenter. the Third ward boss who
cheated the poor people OF the city
by getting q low assessment on his
apartment house. Carpenter had
reached Mills, ana tho Mills Broth
ery business went out OF OUT paper
for good. Mills didn't hesitate to tell
Austin why he wouldn't rerDew his
contract. 30 we were equally candid.
On February we used the old Mills
space to tell the people Of St James
the whole story.
A loss Of Ave hundred dollars a
month I'M tho revenue Of a newspa-
per with q circulation Of eighteen
thousand in y city of one hundred
thousand population hurts. but Aus
tin took tina blow with another grin.
! guess he was getting used to II
by this time. We redouhled our ef-
forts to hrtng shout the election
Of honest city of!ciAis who would
ynnk the graf out OK assessments BY
which the public funds we're pro-
vided. and the extravaganza out OF
the city administration through
which the public funds were ex-
pended.
found that the street raiiwa,
company wns Assessed at s2z5,ooo
although Il was capitalized at So
u3uyuUus AH0 VIVA p0y @ss6 -
ON tn securities, ard FeeiHeea en'
the necessity OF increasing It's value
on the assessors books. ! found the
factories and Wholesale houses az.
sessed at ridiculously low figures. and
/ presented the assessments Of TX
tie homes Of wage-earners In con-
trast. giving names and addresses &C
that the reader would identity the
property.
1t was right in the middle OF oui
assessment and taxation tight tna'
Iene turned up a story that wal
destined to exert far-reaching In
fuence on the future OF the sun, al
though It looked innocent enough OF
It's surface the day he walked ovci
and laid II on my desk. He had go
the story In police court 1t mere
~ recited the fact that an OLD wo'
man. MIRA. Mary Wilson. had peer
sent to the workhouse for sixty day.
for violation OF the plumbing regu
iationA A water pipe on her prem
ises leaked and she had failed &
have IL repaired, although she hat
twice been warned to do 10 BY TN
plumbing inspector.
This case had been tried when
got to court" said Lane as he turn
Cd in the story. but I've huncf
there's something behind II. and In
going out this afternoon TO run i
down."
Lane discovered that the hovel II