St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.) 1890-1921, 1912-09-28
OPELOUsAs LA, SATURDAY. SEPTEMBER 28. 1912

Lewis must have known better
when ne allowed his campaign
committee to publish the Judges
letter in his paid advertisement
| in the Clarion.
Every attorney has a right to
choose the employment he will
undertake, and it is his duty to
decline such employment as he
considers against the public in
terest.
But when an attorney has for
years drawn a fair salary as coun-
sci for a railroad corporation, as
a rule his attitude on corporation
subjects becomes fixed by con-
.stant argument in tie behalf Of
his corporation employer, and he
eventually becomes honestly and
permanently of the opinion that
anti-corporation legislation is
dangerous, that the people are
going to socialistic extremes and
attempting to hold up and des-
trey the corporations, that legis-
lation to improve the conditions
and pay of corporation labor is
vicious, and that an unjust at
tempt is being made to make
them bear an unjust portion of
taxation.
AS an example, when Mr..
Pujo, a brilliant lawyer and pol
itician, had been for years retain
ed as the salaried attorney Of a.
corporation, he finally became so
imbued with this belief that it is
commonly reported that he con-
sented to represent one of these
great corporations controlling
the Calcasieut sulphur mines, in
an effort to defeat a just and
equitable attempt to make it bear
its just burden of taxation.
While the lands of poor farmers
were assessed at fully so per
cent of their real cash value, the
property Of this corporation was
assessed at nominal sum, the
merest fraction of its real valua-
ton. Yet, although every dollar
justly added to this corporation S
taxes meant that much less bur
den for the farmer and indiyidu-
ais of his home parish to bear,
or that much more benefits for
them to share in. this corpora
tion lawyer did not hesitate to
work against their interest in
the pay of this ofporation.
And when the Board Of Equal
ization awoke 10 the fact that
the great timber holding corpor-
ations owning millions Of acres
of valuable pine and other TIM
bers in this state and particularly
in Calcasieu and st. Landry and
other tirnbered portions of this
district, were being assessed on
average of SIS. 90 per acre on tim
Der having an actual cash value
of from $25. 90 to $50. 90 per acre,
while individuals and farmers
were assessed fully so per cent
of the value of their property;
when the Board realized this and
ordered this timber to be esti-
mated and assessed on the basis
of its real value, and this was
done, and when these great tim
Der holding corporations raised a
howl of unjust. discrimination,
where was Mr.. Lewis?
The Calcasieu Pine Company,
the CroWell & Spencer Lumber
Company. and the Bowman
Hicks Lumber Company hotly
contested the raise made in st. !
Landry and Evangeline, and our
plucky little Assessor, Darius M. |
Fontenot, bravely held firm and
insisted that the small individu-
ais owning timber lands had to-
pay on this increased basis, that
the increase was based on actual
values determined by careful
timber estimates, and that the
raise in the assessment of these
timber holding corporations was
a just one. The big timber COM
panies then, in June 1910, came
with their agents and attorneys
20 appear before the Board Of
Reviewers, in a hard fight to-
have Mr.. Fontenot's decision and
the advice Of its estimator over
ridden in their favor Where
was Mr.. Lewis then?
Did Mr.. Lewis stand by Mr..
Fontenot and the people and lend
his oratory to the unframed voice
of the brave little assessor, the.
officer of the people who stood
fighting almost alone against
these powerful corporations, in
an effort to make them share
equally with the people in the
burden of taxation? Did Mr..
Lewis declare then, as he does
n o W, that these corporations
must be taxed on the basis of
the real value Of their holdings.
Just like the individual taxpayer?
NO. That was the summer Of
1910, not the fall of 1912. II
tba Foil rf 1910 Mr. nuriG ham