The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-06-10

hearings might be had at one time. In any event. if two hearings are had, each constitutes a trial and contemplates a doe<><ing of each individual case. Yet
 committee coolly urged the court in pthe face of this statute to refuse hearing which the law in mandatory terms re- quires to decline to docket or consider the causes, and to assume in the absence of all evidence that the additional assess ments the county tax commissioner had made were false and nnfounded, andsthat no undervaluations in fact existed. The find bill, but they have no discretion to refuse to hear the evidence offered by the solicitor to authorize the bill.
 Tt is fncomprehensible that the commit tee Of 150 citizens composed as these gen. tlenen assert, of the very best men in Jefferson county should appear before the board of revenue and ask them to do that which would violate their paths of of- flee.
 But 1t Is contended that the sections of the code quoted in my former state ment have no application to a proceeding by county tax commissioner, and that I have missed the law by 100 sections Every lawyer knows that these sections should be construed, as far as possible. in pari materia.
 Statute Not Susceptible II IS cldlffled tndt sections 2l4S and 2l49 of the code only have reference to ob- jeotions to an assessment made by the property owner. The statute Is not sus- ceptible of any such narrow construction. The hearing had on the second Monday of July is for the purpose of hearing ob- jections to the assessment as returned by the vounty tax assessor and correcting er- TOTS. If the purpose of the proceeding was only to hear objections made by the prop- 6rfW fn hfG aa,,t t1,l,x lao court given the power to raise or reduce the valuation of property and fix it at the sum which the evidence shows to be its real value? On the contrary. the lam guage of the statute is: Whenever obiec- ton is made the court must cause the case to be stated on docket. in the name of the state of Alabama. as plaintiff and the taxpayer as defendant. with note of the objection It does not say whenever ob- lection is made by the property owner or tax assessor but the broad language fs used Whenever objection is made with out naming the person by whom the ob- jeetion can be made. How, then, is this section to be construed? Shall the nar- row construction claimed be allowed by which the power to object is confined to the property owner or tax assessor, or shall 1t be liberally construed? As far as the language of the statute would in- dicate the objection could be made by the probate judge. any member of the board of revenue, the county tax assessor the county tax commissioner or even a private citizen.
 Section 2152 says, The power and au- thority conferred in this article Qnclud- ing sections PAS and 2149) shall be liberally construed'
 The purpose of the statute is not only to protect the taxpayer against errors in his assessment or an undervaluatlon, but to secure equalization by requiring every taxpayer to pay the amount of assess ment fixed by law.
 Mass Meeting
 ''The committee indignantly denies that the mass meeting held to protest against the proposed raise of $40, GOO O0O by the state tax commission was in the interest of or. inspired by the efforts of the represen- tatives of big business or corporate wealth, and denounce the charge as a slander
 Tt is conceded that the proposed raise of $40,000,000 was directed almost entirely against the larger corporations and wealthy property owners of Jefferson county, embracing in the list the larger majority of. the captains of industry and the representatives of big business.
 Yet, the committee would have the public believe that this mass meeting was conspicuous by the absence Of the very men who were affected by the proposed raises. In other words, that the public generally, men who were not concerned by the raises proposed, periodically took up the cudgels to protect the larger cor operations against the payment of the taxes they honestly owed the state of Alabama If the representatives of big business were not present at the mass meeting, will the gentlemen of the committee deny that these same representatives conceived. inspired and organized the mass meeting !? But sthe communication asserts that nor was any corporation as such represented In the meeting In other words, these gentlemen would have the public believe that when the representatives of corpora tions were cited they were in fact cited as corporations, but when they protested they protested as individuals.
 Charge Governor With Untruth
 Again, the statement says: The gover- nor must have known that his statement to the effect that the movement in this county was in the interest of big business was untrue Not that the governor was mistaken or misinformed-no such polite language was permissible when. dealing with the states highest official--but these gentlemen, proclaimed by their own press agent as the representatives of millions of dollars and the talent of Birmingham. het ffa ta afa,,,