The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-09-15

We vour fellow citizens, of Jefferson f.o,,ptv who have beer dscriminated ooainst for many years in the matter of tax otion without your knowledge or consent, and whose rights of local sell government are now challenged and threatened, desire to make to you a full and candid statement o4 tho reasons which have constrained us to nnite ogaingt fragrant injustice and the in- yasion of our most sacred rights.
 Jefferson Raised First, Last and All the Time
 rafferson was the first county to have paoL Tay Commissioner created for it, and tbie Countv has been subject to the yisita- tions of the State Tax Commission ever since that body has been in existence AS a result tax assessments in this County nave been SO repeatedly revised and raised Tn mast vears that stable basis of vaiuatlon from which all future increases in tax yieios should be automatic, natural and sufficient, would have been established long ago if the methods of the State Tax Commission and the County Back Tax Commissioner had been sound and right.
 What We Have Been Forced to Believe
 Our long experience with these raises b,, the ,,omlnlssioners-eac successive raise being out Of all proportion to US pre- 5decessor or raises maae i'll any other county
 has forced us to believe that they nave been made arbitrarily, with little, If any, ei- fort to determine actual values, or to equal ize values In other words, these assess ments appear to us as decreed, foreorualned by the necessities of the State government and the County Back Tax Commissioner, ln- stead of results reached after patient, com petent investigation
 It is matter of common report that early
 kNrf fhn the State Tax Commission into this County, and, so far as known, before the Commission had made any investigation whatever of nroperty values in Jefferson County since tbeir last visit. our County Tax Assessor raceived letter from the Chairman of the State Tax Commission, to the effect that he (the chairman) expected an increase or one hundred million dollars in the tax assess ments of Jefferson County this year rms statement has been made repeatedly in pubic places and in the newspapers and has never been denied If true-and the assumption of it's truth is logical in tho absence of de- nial-it establishes the ''predestinatfon'' policy of the State Taxing Authorities as to Jefferson which we have deduced from their previous acts and justifies all the doubt and anxiety which this policy has given us.
 The Latest and Most stupendous Raise of All
 Whether this one hundred million dollar decree" alleged to have been made by the State Tax Commission was subsequently re- considered as being the last straw on the camels back, or the killing of the goose that laid the golden eggs, the State Tax Commission finally came and put on the screws. As the result our tax assessments were raised seventy-four millions of dollars -fortv-one millions by the State Tax Com mission itself; twenty-five millions by the County Back Tax Commissioner, and about eight millions by our County Tax Assessor. This is the high water mark for raises even in tax ridden Jefferson, and is an amount astounding to contemplate for che year even by those who think in millions.
 Faced by such a situation, the taxpayers of Jefferson County resolved to FIGHT for their rights. as all people will do when for bearance has been exhausted. As good citi-