Turner County herald. (Hurley, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-19??, 1914-02-26
THAT TAX ISSUE

etiG 1oSS st1oe
Ground Hog day is a matter of
history, for this season at least, our
friend j. L. comes out from hiding
and sees daylight once more in the
New Era of the 10Th inst, comes
forth with plenipotentiary strides,
and appears to be exceedingly
wrathy and sorely vexed, sarcasm
buhbling forth with an air of "Now
will you be good' tendency, repeti-.
tions being numerous, especially
along the line of sarcasm: charging
us with being a "salar,ed officer"
etc, etc.
Why: bless your heart, j L.. why
dispense so much ozone? Can it be
possible that we stepped upon corns
in the TAX Issue" of two weeks
ago? Did we land a solar plexus
when we called his (or herr little
game of bluff in reference to the
purported So % raise in state taxes
that ]. l.. so skillfully wishes to
charge up to the 1913 taxes on each
quarter section of land in Turner
County?
We were not aware that a "sal-
aried officer" had no voice in public
affairs, but j. L. seems to think that
it should be thus, and we infer that
he intends to muzzle us and prevent
us from discussing public questions.
Personally, we are of the opinion
that public officer has the same
right to express his views. rs has j..
L., on anything he sees fit to discuss,
and we might impress upon j. l..
that we happen to be a citizen of a
country where no distinction is
drawn between a salaiied man in
public office, and men in other voca-
tlons of life, when it comes to dis
cussing public questions. Get that?
Assuming that this has soaked in
with apologies to j, L.) let US
proceed:
Why doesn't j. L. come out in the
open and face the enemy? Whv
travel under cover of a icticious
combination of the alphabet, if it be
ficticious?
Now for the StaIwart arithmetic
L. L. so frequently makes use of.
In his article of February 10th, is
set forth an apparent" Deficit of
SAL, ,643. 70 in State Funds. To be-
gin with, we took issues with j. L.
upon state taxes in TURNER
COUNTY, in reference to the
alleged 1928 which he wishes under
stood ought to have been included in
the 1913 taxes; but j. L saw fit to
nimbIy sidestep and dodge that
part of the issue, and slipped over
into large figures pretaining to the
state at large with the above named
deficit, arriving at So % raise on
each and every quarter section of
land in Turner County. He did not
answer our inquiry in our former
article in reference to towns, cities,
villages, Railroad and telephone
taxes; hence we now repeat the in
quiry: Is it to be understood from
j LIS article that the SALT, SAB. .73
apparent deficit in state taxes
must be raised from FARM LANDS
alone? This is the main issue we
took with j. L., and ask him at this
time. Are the taxes upon Town
lots, Personal property, Telephone
and railroads to be exempted from
state tax? (This question applies tc
the state at large as we'll as Turner
County, If so, it would seem un.
just to burden the farm lands of the
state with all of this alleged deficit
and leave all other property out
For j. L s benefit we give the per
centage of taxes, in reference te
farm lands and other property ir
Turner Comfy, as spread upon the
1913 tax list in Turner County:
Lands .$l34 ,2l3. 4(
Lots. ... 90, ,3O6. u
Personal tax. 45, ,l64 q
Telephone tax... 962 81
Railroad tax. %. .542. z,
Total 1918 tax in county s238, l89. 81
From the above it will be seer
that farm lands pay sl34.2l3 40 ou1
of the total tax-s2a8, 1895 or,
Sc per cent of all taxes spreat
upon the tax list of Turner Count,
for the year 1918 represents farm
lands. This being true, what abou
the remaining AZ per cent? shoult