Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1914-02-03


Bismarck, TueSday, February 3, 1914
Our "'NOn-P Partisan" Tax Commission
When a. man has become a. candidate for any
public Office the first question that the intelligent
voter asks is, is he qualified? ?" 1t is being more
and more recognized That ability to properly admin
lister the Office is the principal requirement Of any
candidate and that political afRliation Is, a secondary
consideration. In other words, the man who helps to
support the government that is, the taxpayer, wants
to, know whether or not the election of a candidate
to a particular office will mean the efficient admin
~istration of that Office. And, after a candidate has
been elected and has assumed the responsibilities OF
his office, the next question is: Is the Office efficient.
~ and honestly administered? A}
Let each citizen apply these requirements I'd the
administration Of L. B. Hanna as governor and to
Carl Jorgenson as state auditor. Anyone who is
honest and who is informed as to the facts must ad'
NIT that Governor Hanna has thus far given the state
an efficient administration. The business of the
state has been conducted in a businesslike manner.
We challenge anyone to adduce proof to the contrary.
Packard and Kositzky notwithstanding.
And how about Mr.. Jorgenson? Mr.. %Jorgenson
has been attacked in the most vitriolic and -vituper-
alive manner by that past master in the art of pre-
varication and assassination of character F. ". Pack
ard, member#of the state tax commission, and Ills
man Friday, the pugnacious political dynamiter; Carl
Kositzky. The former has insidiously disseminated
the report. by the nastiest kind Of yellow journalism,
that Mr.. %Jorgenson has not conducted his Office pr0pl-
erly. When the. papers would no longer publish
his %slanderous and scurrilous insinuations it is claim
ed ae decided to have his bullying Kositzky. at the
expense of the state, to visit each county and per-
onauy campaisna against sAT. Jorgenson. Ostensibly,
Kositzky has been ~senthout by the tax commission
as q ferret, to- nose out property that has escaped
taxation. If he confined his activities to this line of
work no criticism would be made, but reports have
come from every county he has visited that he makes
It a special point to attack Mr.. Jorgenson's admins
tration as state auditor.
The law creating the tax commission provides
that the members thereof shall be non.partisan. And
It is only proper that q commission of that nature
should be removed from the field of partisan politics.
II the members possessed q shred Of character they
would confne themselves to the work imposed on
them by the law and not display the partisanship
they are showing. Ever since the organization OF
the commission, it lis claimed, they have devoted
more time to politics than to the study Of the prob
lem of taxation. And why? Primarily, because Mr..
sJorgenson refused to pay their salaries until he was
certain that the law authorized him to do so. The
law was ambiguous The best. lawyers in the state
were not agreed as to its interpretation. Mr.$Jor.
genson.ssa as q matter Of selfprotection, could not
pay out state moneys until he was certain that the
law required him to do SO. -. -
Suppose Mr.. %Jorgenson had assumed that the tax
commission We're entitled to the amount they de-
%nanded. and had paid it without questioning his legal
authorization to make the payments; and suppose,
further, that, after making a number Of payments,
the court had declared the payments invalid; what
would have been Mr.. Jorgenson's position then? Sim
ply this: Mr.. Jorgenson would have been compelled
to restore the money he had illegally paid to the
state treasury, and to recover from the tax com.
mission as best he could. Even if the courts gave
Judgment in his favor, what could he recover from
the impecunious Packard?
These are. the facts. And in the light Of these
facts can any fair-minded person say that Carl Jor-
censor did not act inteligently,{ consistently, justly
and honestly. The efforts of the tax commission to
discredit him by sending out Kositzky at the expense
OF the state, to asperse his character as a public
Official is reprehensiole in the highest degree. And
IN view of the fact that the tax commission, which
the law intended to be non-partisan, is merely a polit-
zeal machine, maintained at the expense of. the state,
1t Is well that the taxpayers, whom the commission
Is supposed to especially benefit, should be informed
as to the true state Of affairs. Kositzky was not
made secretary of the commission because he was
qualified to perform the duties of that position. What
does kositzky know about the science Of taxation!
MOI At looks like he was appointed to that position
because she. was, glad and. willing to do the political
dirty work lmaplp,esdl. out for him by F. w. Packard. t1o
8is44.saH .tsaU 9ai Il --77E7 T--- asts ,s.
Steamship owners should not become too much
discouraged over MI. Wright's prediction that the
Atlantic will be crossed with an %aeroplane in twenty.
I'VE hours. Wait till Senator La Toilette writes a bil
regulating airships.
-E aEEaA#SN-H
Colonel Goethals has decided to become governor,
sof the Panama canal zone and let somebody else
assume the risk that is attached to the New York
police commissionership. The colonel has evidently
become convinced that discretion is the better part
Of valor.