Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1913-08-19
DiSintereSted Officers of the Law Must Be
Entitled to More Consideration Than an
Admittedly interested Witness
The ASSESSMENT IS REVOLUTIONARY
The Revenue Laws Are Admittedly Lame, But
No Construction of Them Can Excuse
Wi|fuI FdvOritiSm in Taxation

terest of the county have show, at
least, of reason in the objections rails
ed this year. The increase in that
class of property is revolutionary, yet
was to have been expected under our
revenue system. Old timers will re-
call that twenty-five years ago, tim
Der in this part of the country was
popularity supposed to not only have
no value, but to be detriment, some
thing to be removed at large cost to
make way for the plow Aberdeen
is the progressive city of $4,000 people
today by reason of the far-sighted-
ness of it's founder, Mr. Samuel Benn,
who, being one of the few in his day
who had dim glimmering of the
value of timber, made the city possi-
BILE by the donation of mills sites
to pioneer saw mills. Later residents
may recall the time when they donat-
ed money and land to induce mills
to locate here, and who will say their
judgment was misplaced.
Had it been possible under the law,
the writer feels safe in saying that
the county of Chehalis, in the late
'S0's would have offered immunity
from all taxes to saw mill or other
equally important industry for a per-
iod Of years to induce it's location.
The law, not so permitting, we drop
ped into the reprehensible habit of
absolving them largely from taxation
through the assessor-who, while dis
obeying statute law but obeyed that
higher law-public opinion. Every
body was content, and no kicks were
registered. Chehalis county was but
doing what the nation had pronounced
the proper policy-coddled an infant
industry.
Discretion Abused.
That this discretionary power
gratuituously bestowed upon the tax
ing authorities should be abused is
no more than was to be expected,
and the result is that today we find
men of undoubted honesty in the
business world strenously objecting to
any interference of this long permit
ted immunity from payment OF a
FAIR proportion of the expense Of
government. Long continued gracious
ness has become a vested right in
their minds.
The same with timber lands Eigh-
teen or fifteen ylears ago, one could
have purchased 100 acres of timber
for 1000 to $500 that today are
worth in the market more thousands
then they we're hundreds of dol
lars at that time. There is no
disposition that the Herald is
aware of to punish anybody, or to
detract from the legitimate profits
that we're made by early investments
in timber and it's manufacture, but,
in view of those profits, we are fore.
ed to the belief that the infant can
now get along without the bottle
and hustle for itself.
6ecIouoln0 the issue
The daily press seems to be wrong
ly impressed with the idea that the
meeting of the board of equalization
and protesting property owners is u
sort of game of chess, or little
battle on paper. This impression is
to be decried as not being cred
table to the good citizenship of eth
er the objectors or the board For
instance, the assessor is responsible
for his rolls, yet the other day, when
1t was proposed to put him on the
witness stand-to disprove a charge OF
ovevr valuation-the attorney for the
objectors would not permit him. Pub.
lie opinion is going to decide this
question, as said above, and this sort
of shyster quibbling is not calculated
to foster public opinion. In the case
in question, the objectors alleged GER
tain over valuations by the assessor,
and It is dead certainty that the
refusal to permit that officer to testi-
fy as to his valuations and how he
arrived at them does not appeal to
the public mind.
a.