The Mena weekly star., 1911-09-28
NORWOOD AND
 DONACHEY SPEAK
The Turner Jacobson Revenue Measure Is Subject of Discus sion-Norwood Takes Dona-
 ghey to Task for Acts.

hour last afternoon Attorney Gen. eral Norwood, who had been sched- uIed to deliver a speech here il opposition to the Turner-Jacobsor bill, and in support of his candi- dacy for governor, addressed large crowd at the courthouse. He toCB Governor Donaghey to task on the charge of making recommendations for large appropriations and then claiming credit for vetoiEg them after the legislature had followed his recommendations He also de- eared that he was surprised at the candidacy of Congressman Robin son for governor, under the cir eumstances, and rapped the Tur- ner-Jacobson tax bill severely.
 About the time Mir. Norwood was concluding it was announced that Governor Donaghey was in the city. The governor spoke after Mir. Norwood, and strongly supported the new revenue bill, declaring as in his Dardanelle speech, that it would be more equitable than pres ent laws.
 Governor Defends T.J. Bill.
 Governor Donaghey spent most of his time in dealing with the Turner-Jacobson bill, and urging it as a panacea for the present f. nancial troubles of the state. He insisted again that worrying over the states financial troubles had affected the mind of former Gov ernor Little, and declared that the state is now in debt $800,000 and that the debt will be Si,000,000 by the time the date for the next tax collection arrives.
 As to the T.-J. bill, he said:
 "I say that the Turner-Jacobson bill is the most equitable plan. That under it's provisions we would come nearer arriving at equality of tax atioR than by any other plan so far proposed. The opposition to the Turner-Jaeobson bill wants to make a straight raise. 1 don't want that done, because it would not be fair to the man who is now paying hls fair share of the taxes and because it would be an injustice to the small taxpayer. It would make him pay more than he is now paying. It would give the tax dodger chance to pay less. A straight raise would not provide for equalization; 1t would not put on the tax books property which is not now assessed at all it would not provide the proper machinery for reaching property which is now underas- sessed; it would give us no sliding scale by which the rate of taxation would be decreased as the total as- sessed valuation increased; it would not properly control the corpora tions. The Turner-Jacobson bill provides for all this without any raise whatever i'll the rate of tax ation. and under it enough money would be raised to pay the present indebtedness and provide for meet ing future bills. But if you let the opposition have their own way, what would be the result? They would increase the rate of taxation. Let's see how this would affect the honest taxpayer. Say, for the pur- pose of illustration, that an increase of one-half mill in the general rev enue rate would De, in round num- bers, equivalent to a 20 per cent increase in the assessed valuation of property.
 At present property in the state is only sought to be assessed at one-half of it's value. Suppose you live alongside of a neighbor that has the same amount of property that you have, and that you are each worth S2,0O0. You assess your property, according to the present 90 per cent basis, at Si LOGO. Your neighbor. who belongs to the tax lodging class, assess his S2,ooo worth of property at $500, or 25 per cent of it's value. Now then, II you increase the general revenue rate 20 per cent, which, as before stated, is equivalent Ia 20 per cent raise in assessment, your assessment on your 5000 worth of property Will be raised to exactly to 60 per cent of it's full value, while that of your tax lodging neighbor will be in- creased to only 30 per cent of It's full value. Now do you thlnk thls is right? Do you think 1t 1t just! True, it would raise money Tor the general revenue fund, but you who are new paying your fair share oi the expenses of this government would be the one to suffer, and the extra burden would fall heaviest on your shoulders. The Turner-JacoD- son bill seeks to remedy thls con dtion of affairs hy equalzlng as- sessments.n
 MT. Norwood commenced by stat ing that he did not know po5itivv'eesiiss who would be his opponents Ill the race for governor. That Tor sew eral months Congressman Robinson had been actively engaged III ms campaign for that office.
 T was surprised, however, salc MT. Norwood, when Mir. Robinson stated that he was a candidate 1ol governor, in view of the fact tha' as early as April, 1910, Mir. Robinson