The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-08-19


 decision. Neither the governor or the state tax commission have any power to suspend the taxing laws of the state
 The state government must De maintained notwithstanding depression which may eX- ist as the result of foreign wars and col lection of taxes cannot be suspended ex- cept by specific legislative action.
 "Whether the tax on solvent credits be popular or unpopular is not question for me to consider. In obedience to my sworn duty, as chief executive Of the state to see to it that the la~ws are faith fully executed, l shall use all the powers
 of my o:ice in sustaining the state tax commission and other state authorities m their efforts to perform their duty of eaualzing and collecting the revenues of the state
 "Teh efforts made in one of the largest | counties of the state TWO years ago by mass meetings and by popular appeals to stop the collection of the states reve-
 nues utterly failed, and it will be discov- cred now, as it was then, that no indi- vidual company, corporation, chamber of commerce or other organization, how ever powerful, can successfully resist or defeat the collection of the states reve- nue through it's approved system of tax atcn.
 The efforts being made by certain com
 missioners courts or boards of revenue to refuge to docket cases and delay pro- ceedings will prove ahortive, for the state tax commission will proceed in the or
 derly course of their duty where boards
 of revenue and county commissioners fail to act to make the proper assessments and to exercise fully she power vested in them by law to have and exercise gen 1 eral and complete supervision over the assessment and collection of taxes and the enforcement of the tax laws of the fto at..1 ftaX assessors, tax collectors, and county tax commissioners in the several counties of the state charged with the duties of as-
 sessing or collecting escaped delinquent,
 and back taxes and licenses in the sev- 1 eral counties of the state and over each
 and every state and county official
 charged with the duty of assessing, col
 lecting, enforcing the payment of l taxes, and licenses, to the state or to any county in the state to the end that all
 assessments on property, privileges, and 1 franchises in the state shall be made in 1 exact proportion to <he just and true value thereof in substantial compliance with the law.
 | Tn view of the msrepresentations and
 misunderstandings of the tax on solvent | credits, have deemed it my duty to make this plain and simple statement, and l
 earnestly trust that every patriotic tax payer of the state who has been so for-
 tunate as to acquire large properties and
 who owns solvent credits, to ignore selfish
 consideration and to aid the state authori- l ties in their earnest efforts to equalize taxes and collect the states revenues.
 Tt would be discouraging if those who
 are best able to pay taxes should at this particular juncture be the first to refuse
 to pay tax which our supreme court has
 dec.ared meets the letter and spirit of
 the constitution in its demands for equal | ity of the burdens of taxation.
 Those of the wealthier classes, whom fortune has blessed with the possession of solvent credits. and who may now seek
 to escape the payment of this equitable tax, would be the first to complain if 1 the state should default in the payment of it's obligations or cease to maintain :. and support it's public institutions. Tt is claimed that the tax on solvent credits will bear grievously on many who