Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1912-07-22

liz herald mas received more tHAfl
twenty communications from taxpay-
ers of moderate means in various
ten days, asking this paper to sus-
gest remedy for the gross inequali-
ties of taxation that have so long
existed in Chehalis county, and a plan
10 punish the tax dodgers and their
agents In office-and without the lat
ter the dodgers could not hope to do
business.
The only answer this paper has,
and it will do for all, is to organ
ize. Those who have to pay what
the dodgers escape outnumber the
latter hundreds to one, but disOrgan-
lied they are at the mercy of the
evaders and their official allies The
defeat of the Wilson investigation re-
solution by majority of the COM
missioners, after they had admitted
the fraudulent alteration of the tax
rolls in Section 21-21-7, gives notice
that no relief may be looked for
from that quarter
A well organized Taxpayers Lea
lutely necessary to secure a square
deal. The League has now fair or
ganization in Aberdeen and Hoquiam,
but the members have no knowledge
of valuations in other sections of the
county, a knowledge that is essen
tial for a comparison of assessments.
With such countrywide league, an
investigation such as asked for by
Commissioner Wilson could be had
regardless of the board, by demand
ing a grand jury and probing the tax
business of this county to the bot
TOM
Already the tax dodgers are show
ing alarm at the exposures in the
Herald and have began backfirng, a
sample of which was seen in a dis
patch, under a Montesano date line
in the Aberdeen World of Saturday
evening. According to this dispatch,
the fraudulent alteration of the tax
roll and field book of 1910, that re-
duced the assessment valuation of
Section 21-21-7, from $4,000 to 49,
900, was simply due to mistake
of the timber barons in imagin-
ing fire had burned off millions of
feet of timber which the cruisers
found still standing this year. The
excuse is flimsy, but it is the best
available and is pressed into service
Caught with the goods on, they must
allege something.
1t will not fool anyone who has
done business with the Weyerhaeu-
ser Timber Co. They know that this
company is fully aware of the amount
of timber on each tract they own,
and have full knowledge of the ex.
act amount of damage done by fire
in the summer or fall long before
tax lodging time the following spring.
The Herald selected Township 21-7
in making this exposure only because
the easily proved crooked alteration
Of the rolls happened to be in this
township, not because it had any idea
the dodging was confined to this To-
cality. The cruise, so successfully
opposed by this company for fifteen
years. has brought to light similar
practices in almost every timbered
township in the county. But, as to un-
dertake to cover them all in series
of newspaper articles would but con-
fuse the readers. and as the backfir-
ing defenders stick to this township,
We shall do likewise, and give it's
assessments a cursory review
In this township the Weyerhaeuser
Timber Co. owns, or is interested in
Sections: 1, 5, I. 8, 10, II, Is, II,
10, 21, %, q and 33. 13 sections in
all. Sections l and were not cruis-
ed, owing to their being suspected of
being the habitat of Tornow. and the
valuation OF each section has been
increased from SLIGO in 1901 to
$4,000 this year Sections 9, assess
ed at $7,O4O in 1910, II, assessed at
$4,000 and 10, assessed at $1,000,
have not yet been placed on the rolls
of 1912, being held up at the request
of the company, presumably while |
they have their cruisers test the ac-
curacy of the county report This |
leaves 10 tmbered sections with the
valuations of the two assessments for
the purpose of comparison, and ii |
presents some interesting figures. The |
10 sections We're valued in 1910, for /
taxation purposes, at $31 so. In 1912. !
after the cruise, the assessed valua-
ton of these sections totals S134,S52, |
showing a gain in taxable value OF
1882, or a tax lodging of more than !
100000 in one township alone-when
9, II and 19 are placed on the rolls |
Continuing the review of values in
21-7, ten sections of timbered lands
owned by the Simpson Logging Co.,
show worst condition of affairs than
the corresponding number of sections
belonging to the Weyerhaeuser CON-
pany. The Simpson Co. owns Sec