The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1914-07-21

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that they have met the requirements
OF this ease and have thereby furn-
ished evidence to set aside the ex-
pressed will of the people, as to proper
freight rates in the State We have
two answers to make to them.
General Estimates Will Not DO.
First, in the language of the Min
nesota ease addressed TO another
phase of it. I'VE are Of opinion says
Justice Hughes. that on an issue OF
this character involving the constr
tutional validity of State action, gen.
eral estimate of the sort here sub
mitted with respect to a subject SO
intricate and important should not
be accepted as adequate proof to sus-
tain a finding of confiscation.' Our
second answer is in the language OF
the Supreme Court of our own State
in a case somewhat like this one,
Hamilton VS.. r. r.. $50. n. G.. 1913:
Defendant offered to snow by other
was assessed for taxation and to i'm
troduce the tax lists-all Of which
was excluded. Defendant excepted.
Under our revenue laws h owner
Of land does not, in listing it for tax
alton, fix any value upon it. h is
done by the assessors, "either from
actual view or from the best infor-
nation that they can practically OBJ
tain, according to its true valuation in
money" We cannot see, therefore,
how the fact that the witness listed
the land for taxation has any ten
dency to show it's value or his opinion
in that reSpect The is, as
said in Ridley VS.. Railroad, 124 N. G.
81, res inter altos acta- The objection
is not hat tax lists are not public
records, but in the valuation of the
l@-I 80 <o~nki1- Tho MN &c not nnp-
Sulted-he takes no part. The valua-
ton is but h opinion, upon oath, it
is true, of these assessors, for the
purpose Of taxation.
Railroad property in North Caro-
lima is not valued by local tax assess
ors, as are the lands Of provate in
~dividuals, but by the Corporation
Commission-and there IS no evil
dence as to what rule the Corporation
Commission (and not the local tax
a~ssessors) adopt in making thei val
uations. If we must make a guess at
such rule we wOuld say that the Cor
poration Commission does it's full
duty by assessing all railroad prop
erty at it's fair value. We are con-
firmed in this view because it APP
pears in evidence tina Bank Stocks,
over which matter said commission
has control, are valued at their real
value and not at 70 per cent Of the
| same. So we see that rs to the N. &
w. and the N. S., they have failed
to show what is the fair value Of
their property. devoted to intra state
business and have thus failed to show
that, as to them, the act is confisca-
tory.
The Southern r. RS. Dilemma.
We will now consider the Southern
as to this point. It put an expert
l ON On tho C%ooI - tnrf;fxy 90 T.,
the value of their property in North
Carolina. The Southern expert says
that in 1906 he and three other ex-
pertS went over the and made
separate valuations and compared
them Zach day, and h a the average
of all valuations, on a very conserva-
tive basis, exceeded $61,1 SIS, 600. This
was in 1906-eight years ago. Since
then Mr.. Lunn says that more thar
$4,000, 600 have been added to the
property. He adds up these figures
makes a total Of ,o00-and,
casting al anchor to windWard, OBJ
serves, as he leaves the witness stand,
that these properties could not be
reproduced at anything like these
figures" AS they are listed for $46,-
100000 and can't be reproduced at
anything like $71,155.0 600, they would
seem to be shy, on the tax books, OF
the traditional 70 per cent by about
Pf,VVV,VVV.
In his argument on behalf of the
N. & w. railroad, Mr.. Cooke, their
attorney, says hat Minnesota differs
from North Carolina because the peo-
pie Of Minnesota did not build their
railroads as they did in North Caro-
lima; that the North Carolina people
made great sacrifices in order to con
struct their railroads and that the>
are deeply interested in the same. The
more'S the pity. h money which
our North Carolina people have put in
these railroads has long since beer
lost-frozen out long ago. Take by
way of example the O. & C. railroad
which is about fifty $50 miles long
The people Of Oxford n Granville
county put into this enterprise NOR
than one hundred thousand C$1OO. coo
dollars. This money has long beer
lost. Yet when the Southern acquired
it, it paid for it in securities at the
rates of fifty three thousand Cs53.-
000. 00) ollar a mile. In Other
words they paid in stocks and bonds